The Comedy Brainstorm Session

When producers read a comedy screenplay, they are looking for one thing — DO THEY LAUGH? And then, how often do they laugh? You could also make them smile, chuckle, smirk, etc. But the one thing that you absolutely have to do is cause them to laugh out loud. And if you really want to

After spending a year writing and rewriting his fourth script, a writer finally got it in the hands of three producers who all responded to his query letter. Every day, he waited for a call or letter, but nothing happened. Finally, to end the suspense, he called one of the producers. Writer: Hi, I’m the

Some of the greatest writers use irony to create more interesting characters, scenes, and even plots.  In some writing circles, it is considered to be one of the marks of a genius. Let’s take a look at a scene that did a great job of using irony and see what we can learn. First a

  When screenplay dialogue is flat or bland, the whole script suffers. On the other hand, great dialogue can elevate a mediocre script and cause people to see the writer as "someone with serious potential," even if there are other glaring errors in the screenplay. Among other things, great dialogue produces these results: – Delivers

  When you read a well written script, you may not even notice the subtext. You are simply experiencing the story and the characters. You are traveling with them on their journey…and it is delightful. That is the result of good subtext. But when you write a scene of that quality, it takes thinking. The

M. Night Shyamalan said that he was stumped on his tenth draft of SIXTH SENSE.  He had a good story about a psychologist who helps a kid that sees dead people. Ten drafts had produced a good story.  But Shyamalan wanted a great story.  He wanted something that would put him on the Hollywood map

  For success selling a screenplay, you need two things — a great screenplay and a solid marketing campaign. Most people just assume they’ll get an agent and the marketing will be done.   That only happens for the top writers in the business. Everyone else must market themselves — including thousands of writers with

If you are writing a screenplay, don’t make these 5 mistakes.  They have cost more screenwriters their careers than any others. The really beautiful thing is that you can also learn from the mistakes of other screenwriters, without having to go through all the pain. Below is my assessment of the top five problems that

I recently conducted an astounding interview with Marc Zicree, who is a master at creating career strategy to navigate your way through the entertainment business. If you ever wondered how to get into the door of a studio or get an A-list actor to take you seriously, Marc has some intriguing strategies. Marc and Elaine

In the first five pages of your screenplay, we should see an extremely interesting lead character. Great lead characters make great screenplays. People are always asking me how you know when a script is ready and it is an important question.  In reality, I have a series of tests that tell me that a script