What makes good screenplay exposition? I compare some exposition in the Raiders of the Lost Ark screenplay with a user-submitted script.
Screenplay Page Count – How to Write a Script Under 120 Pages
“I loved the movie Django Unchained, but the script was too long…” “The Dark Knight made us millions, but the script was 167 pages, so let’s not do that ever again…” …Said no one ever. Yet, if you’re lucky enough … Read More
Screenplay Scene Blocking – How to be clear in your action description
Make sure each element you’re conveying is absolutely mandatory. Favor readability, entertainment, brevity, and audience clarity over making sure the reader and audience fully grasp the historical accuracy and detail you’ve obviously taken great effort to present.
5 Quick Ways to Get a Script Reader to Love Your Script
As Sun Tzu once said, “There are good screenwriters, and there are bad screenwriters.” And while much of the difference between the two can only be measured with abstract criteria (such as “talent,” and “chutzpah,” and “originality,”) the fact is, there are several key criteria good … Read More
Writing an “audience draft” to kick your script in the pants
Is your screenplay about the audience? Or is it all about you? My company has read a lot of scripts. Thousands. Hundreds of thousands! (Okay, well, not hundreds of thousands.) Good scripts, bad scripts, mediocre scripts. And they’ve all had their … Read More
How to tell you’re reading a terrible screenplay
Sometimes, we script readers get lucky. That is, when we dig into a screenplay to give script notes or provide script coverage, sometimes we know right away that the script we’re reading is gonna be a painful read.
Most times, that takes us a few pages. But sometimes, right off the bat, we get some really great clues that let us know “Hey, this screenwriter isn’t professional.”
How script readers can spot an amateur screenwriter
Your script has a lot of working parts — character, dialogue, conflict, action, theme, beats, acts… It’s a heady brew of elements. And that heady brew boils down into an awful lot of specific criteria that anyone reading your script will judge it by, whether you’ve sent it in to a script contest, or a script coverage company, or an agent, or studio, or a name actor.
Free Script Feedback: When CUT TO isn’t needed in action text
The script has texture and realism. Now it just needs presentability. There’s a good conflict being set up. I’m aboard. Honestly, I like the story so far. Now I want to trust the writer more though. The pages can’t be such a chore do digest. Fix the typos which means less typos, more professional presentation. Don’t give them an excuse to put it down.
Top 9 Most Common Script Formatting Mistakes
Straight up: Your awesome script might be the next Oscar sweeper, but if it smells like the work of an amateur, you’re hosed, because it’s likely not getting past the first few people who read it. My company Screenplay Readers … Read More
Script Page Count – Why the 120 page limit is a good thing
We’ve all heard it time and again about script page count, whether in film school, or just as an anecdotal whisper on the screenwriter wind: “A screenplay should be no more than 120 pages.” 120 pages? Maximum? Isn’t that just a bit … Read More
