We're Just Ordinary People...

Hello Mortals

You Suck at Screenwriting” so let’s waste some of my precious time to try and fix it.

So First Off, I suck at keeping up with this Blog. With that said, I really do not think I have that many readers to begin with just yet, but I got the gut feeling that they are going to be coming in sooner than later or it could just be the sensation of thousands of fury fists punching at my stomach after I tell them how much they suck at screenwriting. And you thought I was going to say what I had to eat today, which happened to be a Turkey Sandwich.

Any who…

I have been reading a couple of scripts here and there from the site “TriggerStreet” and have been noticing the same problems with all of them. They don’t really have either one or two things and those things would happen to be Dilemma and Subtext.

Let’s Begin with Dilemma…

There is an incredible book by Jeff Kitchen called “Writing a Great Movie”, he goes through the movies Training Day, Minority Report so on and so forth and he tells you when it is a good time to let the Dilemma occur, right around the Crisis point of the story where the protagonist has to make a decision and lunge toward it. I on the other hand will give two examples for free.

In the movie “Broadcast News”, Jane Craig played by Holly Hunter must make the decision to go on the plane with Tom Grunick (William Hurt) or not and whatever she chooses, she eventually will lose something.

In the movie “Ordinary People”, Calvin Jarret played by Donald Sutherland who finds out that his wife hates his son, and again he has to make a very tough choice he is going to have to lose something no matter what he does.

These are the certain jobs we have as Screenwriters to provide for our characters so we can find out who they are when they are under pressure.

Subtext

It’s not what you say, but how you say it.

I see a lot of screenwriters that say everything that is on their mind right than and there. I am not sure about everyone else, but I never say everything that is on my mind and I know for damn sure that girls never say what’s on their mind. I’m not fluent to Girl Talk but I can pick up on things here and there. There was a certain thing that Billy Ray said that I liked which went along the lines of…

I want you to say to me, “I’m really glad you’re home” and when you say it, mean I love you…the actor said it.

Now say it and mean I hate you …the actor again said the line and he said it totally differently.

Now say it and mean I’m really glad you’re home because you’re my drug dealer and I’ve been Jones … and than they would say it that way.

Dialogue never changes, but what’s in the wryly (parenthesis) as so; makes all the difference. Which also gives room for an actor to act and it really is the thing that marks bad dialogue from good dialogue with the absence of Subtext.

When I read Subtext and Dilemma I thoroughly enjoy reading the material and am at the end of my seat, as I would be if I see it on a big screen. So try to focus on those two things to improve on your screenwriting, but until you do so…

“You Suck at Screenwriting”.

JuJubes and Babies...

Hello Mortals...

"You Suck at Screenwriting" you know it but it's okay, you are here to learn -- as am I.

So, what is the first thing you need to establish before anything else? If you guessed "The Opening Shot" you have just won the prize behind door Number 3, which happens to be a step closer to being a good screenwriter.

The Opening Shot, The Hook, The First Impression, The Attention Grabber...whatever you want to call it, you need it and you need it right away. It's the very thing that will have your audience glued to their chairs to escape their world and enter yours. Unless of course the opening sucks and they throw popcorn, Jujubes and babies at the screen...but lets try to avoid that.

Now this doesn't necessarily mean the Inciting Incident (and or Catalyst) which I will get to in later blogs *wink*. I speak of the atmosphere, the location and last but not least the "genre"... say it with me genre. I remember when I was younger I would say genner, but that ended when I picked up my French, which happened to be one of my friends who called me an Idiot and told me how to say it. But let's take an example shall we...

In the movie "Se7en", William Somerset played by Morgan Freeman is up for his daily routine, he is putting on his tie and meticulously grabbing his badge, pen and pocket knife and than the next scene takes us to a crime scene. But through that opening shot, I discovered the mood, the genre and it gave me a bit of info on the character and the beauty of it was, that it is very simple...but the simplicity of it grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in.

It is the opening shot that makes your script the page turner...so begin your script with that in mind and congratulate yourself by patting your back for you are one step closer in being a great screenwriter, but until then...

..."You Suck at Screenwriting".