A Contest Judge’s Report from the Front Lines: Big Break™ 2010
IRRELEVANT DETAILS
If you’re a woman, don’t write about what your characters are eating or wearing, unless they are eating scorpions or wearing a lampshade on their head. If you’re a man, don’t write about what make or model of car your character is driving unless your hero is racing in the Indy 500.
DON’T PREACH
Period. If you are writing a script to promote a cause, draw attention to a social problem or disease, or push a political point of view or an ethical issue, it had better be, first and foremost, a gripping drama. To Kill a Mockingbird is an example of how to write a great drama that also has something important to say. Most great scripts do have “something important to say.” In fact, a script doesn’t have to change the world, but it probably should add something of value to the human experience – even if it’s just making us laugh.
I’VE GOT A FEELING…
Great scripts make the reader — and the film-goer, once the movie is made — feel strong emotions. It’s an emotional roller-coaster ride, but you probably don’t feel sick at the end of it.
SCREENWRITERS WHO DON’T READ SCRIPTS?
My best advice to you if you want to write a great script? Read and study lots and lots of produced, successful Hollywood screenplays. Buy them in paperback, or visit a library of screenplays if you can (the Writers Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences both have libraries open to the public. Public, college, and university libraries—especially universities that have film schools—may also have a good collection of scripts). You can also buy screenplays, or find unpublished, free screenplays online. But beware of “free” scripts that are not actually in their proper “spec script” format. They may actually be shooting scripts or simply transcripts of movies. And keep in mind as well that “free” screenplays or ones sold on the black market do steal royalties from their authors.
After you read a screenplay from a successful, produced movie, then compare it to the movie that was made based on it. Do this with several scripts and movies. It’ll make you a better screenwriter. And maybe you’ll write that truly great script that will win the Big Break™ contest, next year.
3 Comments
Great article. As the character in “Shakespeare in Love” answers when pressed for an answer to how he knows all will work out for the best: “…it’s a mystery.” I believe all great art has that unknown elemment that can’t be expressed through words. It’s a “feeling”, and isn’t all great art intended to evoke that in the first place?
-Richard Todd Aguayo
http://rtafilmworks.com
Writing a screenplay was a driving force I had no control of since I had never planned to write until this story kept hitting me at everthing I read, saw, or dreamed until I sat down and just wrote it. After 300 pages and showing it to family and friends, I did research to reformat to Final Draft and got down to the story again. Still looking for an agent, a producer, someone who would make it into a film and not being in LA puts me out of the loop. I’ve been working on five other screenplays over the years and juggling family needs and finding time to write. I love to write; Murder Mysteries, Family, Animated, Women’s Struggles, Biographies, Children’s Stories, Lyrics, Poems, etc. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME???? Help! I need to find an agent!