If you want to become a screenwriter you must study history. I mean the history of film. You need to watch all types of films which include the old and new, the good and bad. You need to see comedies, tragedies, dramas, kid flicks and chick flicks. This is the easiest homework you’ve ever been [...]

Location, location, location. It’s important in real estate, in a script’s budget and also in sparking creativity for a writer’s mind. But for me, location isn’t the only thing – it’s the combination of location, people, and inspiration that puts words on the page. Location Finding the best location to write is just as important [...]

There’s a debate raging now about whether or not the actors who play the superheroes in hit franchises are worth as much as the brand. Would we accept Chris Pine as Tony Stark or is Robert Downey, Jr. the only actor to pull off Iron Man? Mark Ruffalo was great as Bruce Banner in The [...]

The upcoming column in Script Magazine called Script Symbology is about the study and application of symbols and symbolism to scripts. While there are so-called movie symbologists (Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code comes to mind) to our knowledge there exists no ongoing research, discussion or study of the application of symbols and symbolism [...]

There’s no question, writing is rewriting. Quitting too early is the death of a script’s potential sale. Here are some tools I use to help me get my scripts to a polish as close to perfect as my imperfect self can accomplish: 1. Rewrite by Paul Chitlik If you’re writing a spec, you don’t want [...]

When you read scripts for a living as I do, you notice an interesting phenomenon: certain common elements tend to recur in a majority of the scripts that you read in a specific period of time. These common elements can be premises and story concepts (e.g. after never having read a single script about female [...]

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”  — John 8:32 “The truth will set you free. But first, it will piss you off.”– Gloria Steinhem When I was a student in film school, I joined a writing group where the members were committed to providing no-holds-barred, honest feedback to [...]

From years of working with aspiring screenwriters and helping them get their scripts produced, one glaring weakness has become clear to me – most beginning writers don’t pay enough attention to their narrative, the description of action and setting. This is usually the last thing a professional screenwriter learns on his way to commercial success.  [...]

If you’ve ever read one of the popular books on screenwriting, there’s a good chance you’re well on your way to planning your script. Depending on which book you’ve read, you’ve probably got a logline, an outline, pages and pages of character bios, half a trillion note cards thumb-tacked to your walls, a dozen journals [...]