Story. Screenplay. Sale.
Mystery ManI saw Barefoot in the Park the other night. It was okay. But something interesting happened in the Third Act that might be worth sharing. We reach the point of the story where the characters have fully arc’d. Jane Fonda had felt that Robert Redford was “a stuffed shirt” who never allows himself to get drunk … Read more
First, let me be clear about one thing. All new, aspiring writers must master the three act structure first. That’s the most basic building block of screenwriting. . At every team practice, Michael Jordan always, always, always returned to the basics – the free throw. And that’s the three act structure for us screenwriters. It’s … Read more
I’ve been having some revolutionary thoughts lately. And these are beyond the ordinary musings of a screenwriter, such as, “I’d love to see a nuclear explosion wipe out these ego-maniacal fucks in Hollywood.” No, my thoughts have centered more around my long-promised, free, screenwriting book that I’ve been working on, which has been tentatively titled, … Read more
So, the question – what is the point and purpose of a flashback? A flashback is usually a revelation of character, is it not? It shows us something in the past that helps to explain a character’s current state. We see the character, we see a flashback, and then we feel differently about that character. … Read more
Let’s cut to the chase. If you have a scene that’s only about verbal exposition, in other words you have a character that’s just verbally explaining things, like the plot, and that scene is about explaining the plot and nothing else, generally speaking, you’re doing it wrong. Yes, my friends, I know. Exposition is a … Read more