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-One page per minute is the standard convention, so a feature screenplay should be between 90 and 120 pages.
-The tile is very important – it sets the tone of the film.
-Keep the budget low by avoiding large casts, lots of locations and special effects.
-Tell a good story well – this is the most important point.
-You can’t make a good film from a bad screenplay. Spend as much time as possible on the writing and don’t rush into production.
-The best writers are not those who can write, but those who can rewrite.
-Don’t jump on bandwagons. Don’t write a screenplay about gun-toting, hard-nosed gangsters or restless, witty, disillusioned artistic twentysomethings until you know you can do it better than anyone else has done it.
-Try and write about things you know.
-Make the story simple and the characters complicated.
-A story is made up of events. In these events things don’t just happen, they change. They go from one situation to another. The two categories of change are Discoveries and Decisions. E.g. Jim discovers that his wife is sleeping with someone else. Before this event he didn’t know, now he does. Next he “decides” to leave his wife. Before he was married, now he is separated.
-The key ingredient of a story is empathy – we need to be emotionally involved in the story.
-The most common mistakes when writing are –
:trying to avoid melodrama by creating a passive, static protagonist
:trying to be commercial with false, inflated, artificial conflict and emotion, and over-expressed action.
-Films are traditionally divided into three acts of 30,60,30 minutes/pages. Remember in school being told to make sure your stories had a beginning, a middle and an end. Each act finishes with a climax that sends the story towards the next series of events.
Act One sets the scene and provides the audience with the background information they need to understand the story. It contains, and often ends with the event that sets the story in motion.
Act Two is the main course where most of the action, drama and conflict takes place and ends with an event that triggers a resolution in the third act.
Act Three propels the story to a resolution and is frequently the shortest and most event-filled section. The pace of events tends to accelerate towards a crescendo.
You don’t have to use three acts. The popularity of this structure may lie in the fact that it’s a natural way of telling stories, but it’s not the only way. It’s popular because it works.
-Don’t just think of an “interesting” story and place “interesting” events along the way with a couple of climaxes between the acts. Build everything into the structure. The structure is not the foundations of the building; it is the building.
-Make sure you learn screenplay format. Make sure your script looks professional. People will not read an “original” looking screenplay.
-Recurring problems:
-Poor pacing
Those second acts can seem like they go on forever. Too much conversation and too little action (not just explosions and car chases, but drama) can lead to a lack of momentum. This often stems from several factors;
1) lack of character goals, leading to a lack of conflict.
2) the central idea of the film lacks drama.
3) the writer's inexperience and inability to write economical scenes. Good scenes are usually short, beginning as late as possible and ending as early as possible. Scenes need to convey a lot of information in a short time. Long conversations kill momentum unless they are dramatically charged.
-Lack of character development
What makes these charcters and their lives universal or remarkable? The basic requirements of drama are that the writer defines what the characters want and how they're going to get it. Indie films are usually driven by unusual characters or goals.
-Limitations
Limited resources or talent can let you down even when you've got a good idea. Get some reliable, honest opinions. Remember you don't have the huge budgets available to Hollywood filmmakers, so you can't share the same approach to filmmaking. Avoid big special effcts, centre the story on your characters, and keep the number of locations down. Watch as many student and independent films as possible, to learn from the successes and mistakes.
-Learn the art of self-objectivity. Dissecte your successes and failures to understand them. Use video to learn you craft before moving to film (if you do move to film). Produce shorts before features, work with other talented people.
-Create the kind of film you want to see, rather than trying to satisfy imaginary market desires. Write from the heart, work from the head.
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A Short History of Film
Pt. 1: Silent Cinema 1895-1927
Pt. 2: Studio System 1927-1945
Pt. 3: Post-War 1945-1959
Pt. 4: New Waves 1959-1975
Pt. 5: Blockbusters 1975-2002
