One of the big words you’ll hear bandied about in LA when talking about main characters is “likeability.” “I don’t like him enough.” “I can’t track him.” “We need a ‘save the cat’ moment here.” This problem was very well s[...]
Archive for the ‘Screenwriting’ Category
June 8th, 2011 - 5:43 pm § in Screenwriting
How To Rewrite
I finished two scripts this quarter and will be moving into some major rewriting this summer. My excellent screenwriting teacher gave us a lecture on it in our final screenwriting class that I found very valuable. I’ve found rewriting difficult because I often started by going through page one[...]
May 4th, 2011 - 7:31 pm § in Screenwriting
Practicing Your Writing Scales
Right now I’m in the middle of writing one screenplay and rewriting another. One is a dark comedy and the other is a World War 2 drama. They’re very different in tone and scope as you can imagine. I’ve been reading Twyla Tharpe’s excellent book “The Creative Habit”[...]
Mamet’s Three Questions
When I write, I have these three questions above my computer, which I initially found in David Mamet’s “Bambi Versus Godzilla.” He also kindly repeated these notes to his writing staff in his famous rant: QUESTION:WHAT IS DRAMA? DRAMA, AGAIN, IS THE QUEST OF THE HERO TO OVERCOME TH[...]
Student Film Archetypes: The Magical Stranger
I have seen a lot of student shorts in the last few years. After a while you begin to see recurring storylines, styles and characters. This is about one of those characters. The Magical Stranger narrative proceeds as follows: We are introduced to a protagonist (hopefully) with a problem; be it their[...]
10 Problems With Student Scripts
After my first year at film school I have spent a lot of time with short screenplays. I’ve written around 20 or so at this point, and have dealt with almost all of these difficulties in my own writing. In the last few years I’ve seen a lot of short films, and these are the [...][...]
May 1st, 2010 - 10:07 pm § in Filmmaking, Screenwriting
The Art of The Pitch
A pitch is somewhere between a joke and a campfire story. We recently had two pitching experts come in to speak to our class. They gave sage and candid advice about pitching screenplays. I also had the opportunity to get a pitch critiqued by them for my upcoming screenplay. I bombed and it was an [.[...]
April 16th, 2010 - 10:25 am § in Filmmaking, Screenwriting
Is It a Story or a Situation?
I received this from a professor the other day, it articulated something I have been thinking about for years: A situation is not a story. A story is a beginning middle and end about someone who wants something and goes after getting it. They can’t just want anything, though, they have to [...]
March 28th, 2010 - 8:11 pm § in Film School, Screenwriting
Spring Schedule
Spring quarter is upon us. As a 410, or first year MFA Directing Student, this is the first quarter where I have the opportunity to choose some electives. There are many opportunities within the directing, producing, and screenwriting programs. Our pre-selected courses for the spring are as follows:[...]
January 15th, 2010 - 1:45 pm § in Off Topic, Screenwriting
Salem and Jamestown
While watching There Will Be Blood this week I was reminded of the introduction to Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which I read in December. Miller discusses two conflicting impulses in early colonial America, represented by the cities of Jamestown and Salem. He describes this difference in one [...]