Recommended Screenwriters

Every week or so, another unproduced screenwriter breaks into this business and begins their career. After years of hard work and wondering if they'd ever make it, they have achieved a very big goal. I believe part of their success came from making "high- probability" decisions and taking actions based on those decisions. Last week,

See Part 1 of this Article here. So what's the problem with starting a script with a Voice Over? Two things. First, one out of two screenplays by a new screenwriter starts with a voice over and in most cases, they bore the reader to death telling them the story that should be shown on

I'm not a big fan of voice-overs. The majority of the ones I see in unproduced screenplays remind me of a Real Estate agent going from room to room saying "This is the kitchen… and this is the living room. And this is…" By the second sentence, I wish they would just shut the hell

How important is it to have your writing be fresh and surprising for a contest, agent or producer? Very important. It immediately identifies you as a writer with TALENT. It sets you apart from all the stale scripts that came in this week and means you are "someone to watch" at minimum. In this article,

How important is a title to your success? Sometimes, it can make a huge difference. If the first thing a producer hears is a great logline and that is followed by a great title, you will be seen as a professional. Once again, a great title means EASY MARKETING and that translates into potential box

In the first part of this Article series, we discussed different ways to surprise an audience or reader. In this one, we'll work with elevating the quality of the surprise. Remember, you aren't looking to do a Sixth Sense type of surprise every five pages. That would make your script so manic that no one

Often, I'll interview a producer in front of a group of screenwriters and ask why they choose to produce a certain movie. Beyond the obvious answers about marketability, there's a few others that stand out and one of them is… …"The script surprised me in many ways." At first, I didn't think that much of

One of the big differences between an amateur and a pro is the quality of their scenes. Much is said about the basic rules of a scene, but I haven't seen anyone cover this one thing: How do you elevate the interest level of every scene? This isn't about having more explosions or fights or

See Part 1 of this Article here. Imagine this: An assistant at a production company is on lunch break. On one side of him is a box with 150 query letters. One of them is yours. On the other side is a trash can. He does this routine twice a month. 150 letters in 30

See Part 1 of this Article here. Whether you are sending a query letter to an Agent, Manager, or Producer, there are three extremely important pieces of advice: Keep it SHORT. Hook them as soon as possible. Make sure the writing is great! Obvious, right? About 5% (that's right, five percent) of all query letters