Screenwriting books evangelize the importance of theme, without properly investigating thematic structure. They rightly identify that it’s the source of meaning in a story. It’s what separates great scripts from good ones. But the same books invariably call for a thematic sentence, then move on as quickly as possible to a new topic. Why? Because catchphrases have no relationship to structure. They are isolated from the rest of the writing process. Consider SICARIO. A screenwriting book might quote Alejandro and declare its theme to be: There is no war on drugs, only war. This is meaningless ..read more

Pacing is critical. Rush through the story, and viewers struggle to understand what is going on. Slow down too much, and they get bored. How do you manage the pacing and rhythm of a story? Can you fix it in post? https://youtu.be/PdZ76H7exZw Let’s go back a few decades. If you know me today, you’ll hardly believe that for a short time, I was the face of MTV’s pan-European movie show The Big Picture. It was the nineties. MTV was still a teen and hyper hip. I was neither, which may explain why I didn’t last. The brand had marked its territory worldwide with a fast-paced editing style, a trademar ..read more

In Variety’s Top 100 telecasts for 2021, Yellowstone features as the only cable show on the list. And while all other major scripted shows – NCIS and The Equalizer – are written by a sizeable writers’ room, Yellowstone springs from the MacBook of just 1 guy: Taylor Sheridan. Given that “Yellowstone” is technically in competition with the enduringly popular “Sunday Night Football” telecast, the fact that the show pulls in more than 7 million viewers in Nielsen’s time-adjusted Live + Same Day ratings — perhaps even appealing to many of the same viewers — is a tremendous feat ..read more

After seeing Sicario and sourcing the script, I instantly fell for the voice of this new writer. But Taylor Sheridan was not new. His script Comancheria hit the Blacklist a few years earlier, and would hit cinemas the next year under the title Hell Or High Water. Today, Taylor Sheridan is the most important screenwriter alive. What other writer is in equal measure popular, prolific, powerful, professional and political? I know none. Particularly that last element usually kills all the other qualities. Let’s look at the detail. POPULARITY – Taylor Sheridan is crazy popular. Taylor Sheridan has ..read more

Nothing appears more appealing to the beginning writer than to break rules. And nothing is more annoying than hearing “Do this; don’t do that!” Some will say that rules are essential, because without them there is only anarchy. But are there really any hard rules in screenwriting? And if there are, who sets them? And what is wrong with anarchy? Anarchy Ruled Screenwriting format grew out of the need for a standardised notation when film production became a repeatable process. It was never codified by law, so you won’t go to prison for writing in Comic Sans – even if we all agree you deserve to ..read more

A powerful tool in creating distinctive characters is their language, using accent, dialogue and even foreign language. In the real world, everyone speaks in a way that is slightly different from everyone else. In sociolinguistics, this is called an idiolect. (from Greek idiōma ‘private property, peculiar phraseology’, and idios ‘own, private’) A few years ago I had a student who kept repeating a word I had never heard before, until I realised he was concatenating two familiar words into something quite bizarre. I am aware that I do something similar, when I bunch together the phrases “yo ..read more

One of the most effective ways to learn about screenwriting is – wait for it – reading screenplays. Duh! Yet, I’ve read so many rants about the quality of scripts, that it warrants a clear view on what is out there, and what we can learn from them. When Django Unchained won Best Original Screenplay, I was dismayed. While I found the movie exhilarating, the script was a complete disaster. It was obvious that the voting Academy members had not bothered to read the screenplay. More recently, some people have questioned the quality of the script for Promising Young Woman, insinuating its succ ..read more

Isn’t it remarkable how a simple synopsis, a seemingly innocuous 1-page text, can give a writer a world of pain. If it’s such a drag, then why bother? Plain and simple: nobody wants to be bored reading 100 pages if we can bore them with only one. It makes sense to read 10 pages of a script, if the reader is out to find a writer. If your dream is to sell your script, there is no escaping the synopsis. 10 Pages Of Hell Of course you hate that you have to leave out all the gripping details, but remember, every other screenwriter is in the same boat with you – except perhaps the A-listers. The tit ..read more

In 2009, Aaron Sorkin almost made it to the top of the Black List, with The Social Network. You know who beat him? Christopher Weekes, an Australian 20 years Sorkin’s junior, who had penned a script titled The Muppet Man. It had an amazing ending. The only reason Chris topped every other promising screenwriter that year – and he knows it – was his gut-wrenching finale. Those last few pages of The Muppet Man even beat the image of Zuckerberg endlessly refreshing Erica’s profile. One of the web’s most ruthless script reviewers called it “the most emotional finale since a certain giant ship ..read more

In 2009, Aaron Sorkin almost made it to the top of the Black List, with The Social Network. You know who beat him? Christopher Weekes, an Australian 20 years Sorkin’s junior, who had penned a script titled The Muppet Man. It had an amazing ending. The only reason Chris topped every other promising screenwriter that year – and he knows it – was his gut-wrenching finale. Those last few pages of The Muppet Man even beat the image of Zuckerberg endlessly refreshing Erica’s profile. One of the web’s most ruthless script reviewers called it “the most emotional finale since a certain giant ship ..read more