-
In the Spotlight
Sunday Picture Post 10 / Happy Mother’s Day
photo credit: utpal.
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!
Sunday Picture Post 9 / Tip: Fear
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: DON’T LET FEAR HOLD YOU BACK
There are many fears that can hold you back from completing your script: fear of success, fear of failure, fear of offending someone, fear of lost time, fear of someone stealing your idea (which I will talk more about soon), and fear of the unknown.
It is truly a very long road from the time of inception until the time your script unveils on the screen. During that time, many of your concerns will resolve themselves.
When fears start to take hold of you, just remember that none of them really matter at the current time. When you cross those roads where you might have to deal with success or failure or confrontations, you can deal with them at that time. Worrying in advance only absorbs your time unnecessarily. We all do it. Try not to do it.
Get your mind back where it needs to be: focus on making your script the best it can be.
Sunday Picture Post 8 / Tip: Eat & Sleep
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: EAT & SLEEP
This is going to be one of those “do as I say, not as I do” advice bits.
Exhausted and starving at the time of writing this post, having eaten a bowl of pea soup and a fruit shake today, I can only muster enough brain power to tell you to eat 3 healthy meals a day and to get at least 6 hours of sleep so you don’t get stuck reading the same sentence 50 times, like I am write now. (Oops, I mean, right now.) Lack of food and rest will give you a scuttle brain, resulting in loss of productivity and creativity.
Sunday Picture Post 7 / Tip: Value
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: VALUE
As they say, anything of great value does not come easy.
Imagine working three years to save up for something special that you want. Now imagine someone giving you that very same thing ten minutes after you had conjured the want. The same item would not have the same value to you. It matters how hard you work for it.
Think about dating, people always want the challenge or the person they can’t have.
Monumental structures are not built in a day, they cost enormous amounts of money and often, human life.
For your monumental career, you must have patience, deal with setbacks, and forge ahead to greatness.
When times get tough and you want to give up, just remember that once you succeed, the reward will be equivalent to how hard you have worked for it.
Sunday Picture Post 6 / Tip: Read Out Loud
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: READ OUT LOUD
What we hear in our heads as we write is different from how people actually talk. What flows naturally in words on the computer screen does not necessarily flow naturally in pictures and sound on the movie screen.
As mentioned by actress Azita Ghanizada in her interview, an easy and powerful way to improve your script is simply by reading it out loud. This is essential for dialog. It is also helpful to catch grammatical errors and flow issues with the action descriptions.
Reading out loud alone is good, but having someone else read out loud is even better. This way, you can listen and make changes as you go, as well as get a fresh perspective.
If you can arrange it, have a person who meets the description of your character (age, gender, race, social standing) read the dialog.
For major improvements, you could hire a real people cast for the day to do a reading of your script. If you don’t have the money to pay, you would be surprised to find out how many people would respond to a free Craigslist posting just to have something weird to do for the day and to meet new people.
For believable diverse voices, ask your readers to reword dialog in their own way; you will have far more real-sounding characters.
In a cafe, I overheard a screenwriter and a Rastafarian type guy working out dialog. It was fun for me to hear them and clearly very effective for their script. Alone, the young white male Californian screenwriter would have never been able to properly capture this Jamaican’s true voice. In this case, it seemed from what they were saying that it was the reverse situation, where the Rastafarian had hired the screenwriter. [As a screenwriter, if you are strong on story structure, for example, you might get hired for a job like this.]
Reading out loud is free, easy, and will help you to write a better script.
-
Subscribe
content rss