Over the last few years screenplay competitions have been popping up all over the place. Some are attached to established film festivals or sponsored by local filmmaking groups or even government agencies. Others are run as stand-alone events. Some of these competitions are free to enter, whereas others charge up to $50 or more for…
News that a certain beloved book is being adapted into a movie or even worse, a blockbuster, is concomitantly met with both joy and dismay by the same category of people – the fans. Simply put, with a few exceptions, a movie adaptation will almost always disappoint die-hard fans. This happens because some unspoken elements…
Aspiring screenwriters are often told that all their characters sound the same. The grandma sounds the same as the teenager. The professor sounds the same as the stripper, etc. The advice generally given to remedy this problem is to: “Give each character a unique voice, speech patterns, inflections, and vocab,” and / or, “Give each…
Screenplays are the all-important bedrock for any movie. Great filmmakers may be able to make improvements on the script during production, but it is difficult to overcome a weak foundation. Scripts, like all types of writing, are rarely, if ever, perfect on their first go, however. This is where rewrites come in. Ideally, scripts will emerge…
There is a long history of literary writers crossing over into screenwriting, whether it be to adapt their own work, create something new, or adapt the work of others. Some of them have made this transition with great success, and have been able to translate their written voice into a visual medium. Many others, however, this transition…
If there’s one thing everybody likes to do in Hollywood, it’s complain about remakes. One article after another voices disgust at the latest reboot. Remakes, they say, are absolute proof that Tinseltown has lost its imagination. But are remakes really a new phenomenon? Absolutely not. In fact, one of the greatest writers of Western literature…
Looking around the landscape of professional comedy writers, one will find that a major breeding ground is The Harvard Lampoon. Writers like Conan O’Brien and B.J. Novak got their start from the prestigious university paper, and the hooks up coming out of their tight circle are extraordinary. But, before you get discouraged, know there are many other avenues to…
From the outside looking in, a movie is just a collection of scenes that are tied together. So what separates the great films—the ones that are embedded in our collective consciousness—from the forgettable ones? Several things elevate a movie into being memorable: a great concept, a great cast, and ultimately, a great screenplay. As a writer, you…
As a screenwriter, the ability to craft dramatic suspense can turn your script from a basic, by the numbers story into something memorable, and the basis of a movie that people will remember. Film is a visceral art, and a thousand things have to go right in the execution of a story to make it…
As a screenwriter, there are a few ways to get your script sold and -possibly – made into a movie. Screenwriting contests have emerged as a way for unknown writers to get their name out there, but this requires either winning the contest or placing very high, and more than likely having to do it…
