Besting Your Own Best

    About a year ago, we started having a curious thing happen in our more advanced classes.  People started asking me this question: “This is the best script I’ve ever written.  How can I possibly improve the best I’ve ever done?” My normal thought on this is to learn more skills and then apply

For winners of the big contests, Hollywood doors open magically and suddenly, your work is considered, read, and sometimes even bought. It can be a dream come true. Even the medium sized or smaller contests offer some industry exposure and bragging rights. But with 500 – 5,000 entries, the competition is fierce. Before we discuss

One of the most satisfying things to write is a great character- driven story. When you delve deep into the psyches of characters and watch them make the tough decisions, it can be absolutely fascinating… But is it marketable? Can you sell it? Producers say they want great character pieces. Actors talk about how they chose

In Part 1 of this Article, I analyzed half of a scene from the movie OUT OF SIGHT, written by Scott Frank to determine what skills he used to make that script a page-turner. Now, we’ll look at the second half of that scene to see even more of what keeps a reader’s attention and

Scripts that are labeled “a page-turner” almost always have more success.  They move up in contests, get more recommendations, and quickly gain a reputation in Hollywood. A real “page-turner” causes the reader to wonder what will happen next.  Each page is somehow connected to the future.   In fact, each page creates a possible future.

In Part 1, I gave some examples of unique situations in movies we’ve all seen.  In Part 2, we’ll use the process below to create some new situations.  If you haven’t read Part 1, you can read it here. Before we do that, let me clarify something. Situation = Entertainment Value. When you put your

Imagine these two scenarios: A. A production company reader picks up your script.  It is the 25th script they’ve read this week.  They have been bored to tears by some of the other ones and now, it is your turn. But the opening scene is so fresh and unique that they feel hope that your

Probably the most tempting thing to do in a script is create a scene where two characters banter back and forth.  It just seems so easy. You set up some kind of conflict and let them talk. But does that entertain readers and audiences? Most of the time, "talking heads" scenes don't deliver anything close

  Have you ever noticed that even though a great story has big moments, it is also filled with many small emotional moments? Yesterday, as I watched “FOR LOVE OF THE GAME,“ there was a small emotional moment in the story that surprised me. In the eighth inning, an outfielder catches a ball that would

  You’re writing a scene and you want it to be funny. What do you do? First, you can look for what might naturally be funny about it.  Maybe you throw in a twist or two.  Create a comedic surprise.  Write some humorous lines of dialogue.  All good ideas. Let me present another possibility —