The writer Bruce Vilanch once said something in one of my classes that resonated. When you describe your lead character, imagine someone of star magnitude, A-list, reading it. The description is the first exposure to their character. You don’t get a second chance to make a good impression. Protagonist/antagonist descriptions should be nailed down. How […]
Here are some screenwriting links that concentrate on a well-worn theme here at Script Gods–trying to find a way to make your damn script HAPPEN! I know, you’re seriously tired of my ad nauseam speeches on the virtues of micro-budget. I don’t mean to proselytize, but honestly, what other option is there? To go the […]
What is an action line? New screenwriters are taught to write action lines as: Who is in the shot and what is happening, now. What is the camera seeing, now. But when you study the pros you’ll find they do more than this. Pros cheat. They do it all the time. How do they do […]
Bet that title got your attention…beats freakin’ Plot Points! Today we’re gonna continue our script/clips series for Great Scenes with, YES!, the scene where mom (Joan Allen) masturbates for the first time. I’ll show the script here and you can go down to the YouTube video below (and thanks to Cyrille from France for preserving […]
So I’ve talked a bit about character introductions and arcs, but what happens when a character isn’t even a person? What about when the living characters are defined by their environment and the locations themselves become a character in the movie? I want to show how this is handled in some well known, and not-so […]
