SOUNDBYTES

It’s easy to pass on sound bytes in passing. Most times, writers aren’t used to being recognized in public so when they are, it’s natural to want to pass on a gem here and there.

When a new writer meets a writing hero, they take what that hero says as gospel.

Imagine meeting David Mamet! Personally, I would be filled with 1000 questions and there are 100 conversations I’ve already had with him in my mind as a writer.

“Just one of those conversations in REAL LIFE would change me as a writer forever!”

But then the moment happens in line at a coffee shop and all you can muster is “How do you know when to end a scene?”

He replies on his way out the door “come in late, leave early.”

Congratulations! You’ve just had an encounter that did change your life as a writer! You’re going to spend the rest of your career thinking of the 23,456,872,503 interpretations of his off-the-cuff comment.

UNTIL

You realize what he meant.

STUDIOS

There is a reason so many people say that large, studio films are formulaic. Ready?

THEY ARE FORMULAIC.

And that’s ok.

A bureaucracy exists, by definition, to sustain itself.

And that’s also ok.

Almost all of the rules that indie writers work hard to try to learn and adhere to are the result of studios refining scripts for massive productions to create the most efficient money making machine they can because that’s the business of their business. This entire process was refined from battle tested methods in the indie community.

Read that again.

Now… what the indie community can learn from the specialized refinement of the process by the massive machine, is how to maximize the efficiency of the script you go out with your crew to make.

Your script is full of useless words. We can help you fix that.

TECHNICALITY

WRITING A SCREENPLAY IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE.

It is, however, an incredibly technical document.

Too many seasoned writers fail to pass this tidbit along and too many new writers are under the impression that it’s about writing a comprehensive story in 90 pages (which is true, but not in the way you might think).

The hard truth is that it is a balance of fitting a comprehensive story into 90 pages while providing an extremely technical roadmap for a film crew to follow in order to get your story committed to film.

So… in short… a successful screenplay is a document that investors, fans, friends, family and others who will read the script as though they are reading a book can take away a phenomenal reading experience.

More importantly, though, a successful screenplay MUST provide every single detail (or as many as a writer can think of) for all of the departments who will work on the film to be able to decode what they they need for each moment of each scene.

For most writers, new and seasoned, who have never had a ton of on-set experience, this can seem like an insurmountable challenge. After all… doesn't the cinematographer need to know that the “day was bright and sunny like the personality of the girl our hero once asked to the prom 40 years before our story takes place?”

No. No they don’t.

The cinematographer needs to know that it’s DAY. Period.

It is up to the director and the cinematographer to come up with a visual tone and style that will make the viewer be able to tell that it’s bight and sunny. It is up to an actor to flip a line like “Sunny. Reminds me of Betty Sue in 9th grade.”

We realize this type of thinking seems obvious and that most writers are more than capable of doing this.

BUT

Like anything worth doing, writing a screenplay is worth doing right. Otherwise, your story will NOT be made in a way that reflects what was in your mind.

Your script is full of useless words. We can help you fix that.

EFFICIENCY

SCREENWRITING IS ONE OF THE MOST EFFICIENT WRITING.

It is also one of the most challenging that will push your writing to new levels as you earn dominance over this craft and confidence in your new way of storytelling.

We writers, all, have been influenced by other writers.

Whether it’s Hemingway or that lady who wrote the 50 shades stuff, we all have influences. We also have things like creative goals, our own creative visions and stories to tell.

When you put all of this into a giant mixing bowl, we can begin to see where so many new writers not only become fascinated with their own abilities to describe things, but they also tend to fall in love with their own words.

THIS IS THE DEATH OF SCREENPLAYS.

Before I say more, I should pause here to say that:

YES! Writing IS art! Absolutely. Zero Question.

But art without an audience, a starving artist makes.

So if screenwriting is your bag… your jam… your muse…

You CANNOT write a screenplay, fall in love with it yourself and then walk around with an attitude when nobody wants to finance your screenplay to become a film.

As a producer, I can tell you that, personally, when I read a submitted script, at the very least I want to see some indicator that the author is at least self-aware enough to know that a script about, say, an epic war that takes place at the end of time between several alien races cannot… and should not be made for $1M USD.

Beyond that, I want to see that an author who is, at least, recently aware of things like writing for a budget is also capable of fitting enough movie into the pages.

At the end of the day, a screenplay may be the best story ever written in the history of stories.

However, if I have to find a writer to convert that story into a shootable script, I begin to ask myself if it’s worth it to the bottom line or if I should just keep looking for a better project.

Your script is full of useless words. We can help you fix that.