You know Basil Exposition from the AUSTIN
POWERS movies who jumps in to tell Austin and the audience what
happened, or explain how something works, or what Doctor Evil is
up to? Well, Basil has a cousin named Prompter.
The first rule of screenwriting is SHOW DON'T TELL, create
situations so that the audience can *experience* the story through
actions, rather than have someone tell you what happened. Create
a situation so that we can *experience* emotions, rather than have
a character tell you how he feels. Use dramatic conversation (built around a conflict) rather than
a big steamimg pile of exposition. Create choices that
demonstrate a character's thought process rather than have a
character tell you what he's thinking. A dialogue scene where we experience the emotions
rather than a speech about what a character is feeling or thinking. We want our film to be an experience, not a lecture.
V FOR VENDETTA seems to be a love it or hate it movie. Some critics think it's brilliant,
others think it's awful. On a message board someone theorized that the folks who dislike the
film may be conservatives who don't like the film's revolutionary message. Well, I disliked it
for completely different reasons - I thought it was exposition heavy. And that's what most of
the negative reviews say (The L.A. Times complained about the "lengthy speeches", The New Yorker
noted that "There’s a big drop in excitement every time V and little Evey discuss life and art in
the shadow gallery", Newsweek said "Extremely talky. The Wachowskis' presence is felt not just in
the movie's imagery, in the slow-mo shot of raindrops and in the vapor trails that follow V's
ching-chinging knives, but in the endless scenes in which people sit around *explaining* stuff",
the Washington Post called it "D For Disappointing", the Chicago Tribune said it "grinds on, growing
increasingly flabby and yakky", and the Dallas Morning News said "V for Vendetta engages in lots of
speechifying about the importance of ideas and the freedom to question them. Ironically, though,
the movie doesn't really seem to have any ideas of its own.") - not much about politics but a whole
lot about the endless exposition.
I saw the movie with three friends on opening night, and none of us liked it. All of us thought the same thing
(which is unusual, by the way - we never agree on anything) - way too much non-dramatic expositional speeches.
"Let me tell you what happened to me..." And then we get five minutes of talk instead of allowing us to
actually *experience* the scene. And I have no idea why we got about a ten minute grade school-to-death
story about a character who really has nothing to do with this story. Sure, she's oppressed, but she's
also dead when the film begins. In scene after scene, characters explain what is happening as if this is
the frozen panel of a graphic novel instead of a moving picture.
When we have two cops sitting there talking to each other about the case instead of a scene where the
cops actually discover information through investigation, you know we're in trouble. The detective in this
film (Stephen Rea) never moves - he's frozen in a comic book panel, too - he just stands there and explains
what happened at the crime scene to his underling (whose only purpose is to stand there and listen to his boss). In
most of the scenes that two detectives are sitting in a room talking about the case - not moving, and
certainly not doing anything to solve or investigate the case. I wanted to yell at the screen - "It won't
solve itself! You have to *do something*!"
As for the film's point - they talk about it endlessly... yet managed to sum it up one line: governments
should be afraid of their people, making the rest of the endless gabfest redundant. I don't need to be
sledgehammered with the point in one talk scene after another... Actually, I'd rather figure out the point
on my own based on what the characters actually *do*. Actions speak louder than words.
I read a review that said the film started great and fell apart at the end - I think the opposite is true.
The film started out crappy (V goes on and on with alliteration until I want to kill him... and it's a completely
static scene. Evey just sits there and listens for five minutes... do you know *anyone* who just listens to someone
rattling on-and-on? We get that's he clever after a handful of words, so let's get going!) and continued to be
an exposition-fest until Act 3 where we suddenly get something happening... the masks are delivered and the
rioting begins... and then we have a fantastic end with the crowd wearing masks at the end fireworks display
(and the underground scene - all of it pretty good dramatic and cinematic stuff). I thought the end was good
enough to make me forget to ask where he got all of those masks and capes made and how he got them all delivered
on the same day in a world where the government regularly listens in to what normal people say at the dinner table.
In THE INCREDIBLES, the sure-fire way to get the upper-hand on a comic book villain is to get them "monologuing"
- but in V FOR VENDETTA all of the characters are monologuing. Maybe those long speeches work in a graphic novel
where characters are locked into panels and have no choice, but in a movie we need to find ways to express the story
through MOVEMENT. Actions. Doing things. Exposition is the real enemy....
A few years ago at the Raindance Film Festival one of the films went to new lengths to have
characters TELL the audience information...
ORPHAN was about a Boston hitman who becomes
guardian angel to the daughter of one of his victims. After
murdering her father, he takes it upon himself to buy her gifts,
set up a college fund, and even name a star after her. For at
least 75% of the script they have no scenes together - each
living in their own little world. Since the two main character
aren't in any scenes together for most of the film and can't have
a relationship, let alone a conversation, the script used good
old Prompter Exposition. He's the character who is always asking
questions like "And then what happened?" and "How did that make
you feel?" and "I thought you two were friends?" All this guy
does is ask leading questions! Instead of having a
conversation with the hero, he's only there to set up
exposition.
ORPHAN has the hitman-hero calling his favorite operator at
the Psychic Hotline constantly so that she can ask him leading
questions that result in pages of exposition. We end up with a
rambling internal monologue thinly disguised as telephone
conversation... and a dozen static scenes of a man talking on a
phone. Though you might believe a hitman might confess all of
these things to a total stranger through the anonymity of the
psychic hotline, it still rings false. Nobody actually tells
anyone what they're thinking, what their most private feelings
are. So even if it didn't bring the film to a grinding halt,
these long confessional scenes don't work. The obvious answer is
to take these characters out of their separate worlds and have
them interact - to have a relationship between the two lead
characters, so that they can talk to each other... instead of
each having alternating confession scenes (he with his psychic,
she with her boyfriend who only exists to ask those leading
questions). The writer seemed to be afraid of getting these two
characters together, afraid of creating an actual dramatic
situation! So we end up with dueling monologues.
One of the interesting things that would have happend had the two characters been in the same
story, in the same scenes; is that would have built both suspense and emotions. The Hitman could have pretended to meet the
Daughter Of His Victim, become a surrogate father figure to her - and as their relationship built (emotional for both), so would the
audience's dread that she would discover who he really was... and destroy the emotional bond that was bringing both out of
their shells... creating a better existence for both characters. This is one of the reasons you want to avoid things like phone calls
and computers and texting and anything else that keeps your characters apart instead of bringing them together in face to face
conversation (which can be dramatic). But the idea of each character being in a completely separate story where instead of
having an emotional relationship with each other - having them just dump a bunch of exposition on another character.
A few years ago I was at the Temecula Film Festival, and saw two other
films from Massachusetts with the exact same problem. WE'VE GOT JOHNNY is a short about a TV reporter doing a piece on the town where Johnny Appleseed was born - and is 100% exposition! Not only does everyone drone on and on about Johnny Appleseed, the reporter does rambling monologues, one sided phone conversations, and talks to the camera constantly. It's all telling, not a single bit of showing.
The feature DISCHORD is about a pop-star violinist who realizes her music is being treated as a product rather than as art, and quits the biz. She and her composer husband move to a beach house... where the role of Prompter Exposition is played by an old beachcomber who is always asking her "How do you feel?" so that she can do a 5 page monologue about the commercialization of art. She also talks directly to the camera for no reason, and there's a retired police detective who handles the plot exposition by either talking outloud or phoning his wife or the police station to make a monologue-report. Instead of dramatizing the story, the characters tell us what they are feeling or thinking or what happened when they were kids.
The big problem is that they are telling us what has already happened instead of just showing us what happened while it was happening. We end up with a past tense movie where the drama has already happened (offscreen) and we are left with one character telling another what happened. No drama there - the conflict is already dead. The reason why screenplays are written in present tense is that it's about what is happening *right now* - as we watch. Not what happened earlier. Not a character telling you what he will do in the future. Movies are about *what's happening now* - as we watch! So don't have characters talk about what they've done, show them actually doing it!
Our job as screenwriters is to find a way to demonstrate
thoughts and feelings through actions (something we can see) - and to
DRAMATIZE scenes like so that the audience participates in
the emotions. Instead of one character telling another about an argument (that's telling), *show* us the argument as it happens.
Having someone tell us how they feel has no effect
on the audience, we need to create a scene where the AUDIENCE
shares those feelings. Our job is to give the audience an
emotional experience.
And no "speechifying"!
Beware of shrinks, friends, lawyers, phone conversations,
police interrogations, people who talk to themselves, court room
scenes, voice over, priests in confessionals, dictating into a
tape recorder, and any other situation where Prompter Exposition
might pop up to ask a leading question. Movies tell stories in
pictures, through the actions of characters and dramatic dialogue (with a conflict)... can you skip the
dialogue in your script and still understand the character? Do you have any scenes where characters talk about what happened earlier (if so, get rid of them)? Is your dialogue actually *dialogue* (two or more people talking)?
Don't tell us what happened, show us while it is happening.
Does this gun fire 6 shots or only 5? In all of the excitement of writing your action scene, you might not have done the research... and your hero could be out of ammo! Whether you are writing a novel or screenplay, you can save your hero, and your story, by doing a little research first! This book looks at Why you should research, Whether you should research First or Later, PLUS the importance of World Building in Science Fiction, Fantasy... and the worlds you explore in every other genre. Movies like JOHN WICK and THE GODFATHER take place in their own unique worlds... and writers must create them! YOU are the technical advisor on your Screenplay or Novel.
Using movie examples like TOP GUN, HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER, BLUE CRUSH, ADVENTURE LAND, several of my produced films, JOHN WICK, the novels of Donald E. Westlake and Thomas B. Dewey, SPY KIDS, the LORD OF THE RINGS movies, SOYLENT GREEN (which takes place in the far off future of 2022), and many others we will look at researching stories and creating worlds. The 8 Types Of Research, the 10 Types Of Information To Look For, 12 Important Elements Of World Building. Plus chapters on How To Rob A Bank and Commit Murder And Get Away With It for those of you interested in crime fiction, and Researching The Future for those writing science fiction, and Levels Of Reality if you are writing about a version of the real world.
No matter what you are writing, this book will help you find the facts... or make them up in a convincing way!
Thinking about writing a big Disaster Movie? An Historical Epic? An Epic Adventure Film? Or maybe you like Gladiator Movies? This book looks at writing Blockbusters and those Big Fat Beach Read novels - anything epic! Usng movies like JAWS, POSEIDON ADVENTURE, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, THE GUNS OF NAVARONE, and those MARVEL and FAST & FURIOUS flicks as examples. What *is* a Blockbuster? 107 years of Blockbuster history! Blockbuster Characters. Blockbuster Story Types! Why modern Blockbusters are soap operas! Social Issues in Blcokbusters? Big Emotions! Keeping All Of Those Characters Distinctive! How to avoid the Big problems found in Big Movies and books! More! If you are writing a Big Event Movie or a Big Fat Novel, there are tips and techniques to help you!
"The Presidential Suite of the Hollywood Hoover Hotel looked like a bloody battlefield: bodies everywhere, furniture broken, red liquid dripping from the walls, dead soldiers littering the elegant Berber rug as clouds of smoke overhead bounced between two air conditioning vents.
Mitch Robertson stepped over the body of an ex-child star turned sex tape star turned pop star and entered the room, spotted a gun on the floor and picked it up... careful not to spill his coffee with three pumps of mocha syrup from Penny’s Coffee Shop. That coffee was gold, the only thing keeping him going in this dazed state of wakefulness. The gun felt light. Holding it, he saw the silhouette of an 80s action star sitting sideways on a tipped over chair. Motionless. Was he dead? Mitch was still hung over from the Awards Party the night before, and wondered whether this was all some sort of crazy nightmare that he would wake up from... but when he tripped over the brown legs of a bottomless Superhero, flaccid junk encased in a condom but still wearing his mask, and hit the edge of the sofa, gun skittering and coffee spilling, he realized that it was all very real. What the hell had happened here?"
When You Finish Your Screenplay Or Novel... The Rewrites Begin!
The end is just the beginning! You’ve finished your story, but now the rewriting begins! This 405 page book shows you how to rewrite your screenplay or novel to perfection. Everything from Character Consistency to Shoeboxing to How To Give And Receive Notes to 15 Solutions If Your Script’s Too Long! and 15 Solutions If Your Script’s Too Short! to Finding The Cause Of A Story Problem to Good Notes Vs. Bad Notes to Finding Beta Readers to Avoiding Predictability to Learning To Be Objective About Your Work to Script Killer Notes and Notes From Idiots to Production Rewrites and What The Page Colors Mean? and a Complete Rewrite Checklist! The complete book on Rewriting Your Story!
*** HITCHCOCK: MASTERING SUSPENSE *** - For Kindle!
Alfred Hitchcock, who directed 52 movies, was known as the *Master Of Suspense*; but what exactly is suspense and how can *we* master it? How does suspense work? How can *we* create “Hitchcockian” suspense scenes in our screenplays, novels, stories and films?
This book uses seventeen of Hitchcock’s films to show the difference between suspense and surprise, how to use “focus objects” to create suspense, the 20 iconic suspense scenes and situations, how plot twists work, using secrets for suspense, how to use Dread (the cousin of suspense) in horror stories, and dozens of other amazing storytelling lessons. From classics like “Strangers On A Train” and “The Birds” and “Vertigo” and “To Catch A Thief” to older films from the British period like “The 39 Steps” and “The Man Who Knew Too Much” to his hits from the silent era like “The Lodger” (about Jack The Ripper), we’ll look at all of the techniques to create suspense!
Contained Thrillers like "Buried"? Serial Protagonists like "Place Beyond The Pines"? Multiple Connecting Stories like "Pulp Fiction"? Same Story Multiple Times like "Run, Lola, Run"?
HITCHCOCK DID IT FIRST!
This book focuses on 18 of Hitchcock's 52 films with wild cinema and story experiments which paved the way for modern films. Almost one hundred different experiments that you may think are recent cinema or story inventions... but some date back to Hitchcock's *silent* films! We'll examine these experiments and how they work. Great for film makers, screenwriters, film fans, producers and directors.
Why pay $510 for a used version of the 240 page 2000 version that used to retail for $21.95? (check it out!) when
you can get the NEW EXPANDED VERSION - over 500 pages - for just $9.99? New chapters, New examples, New techniques!
"SECRETS OF ACTION SCREENWRITING is the
best book on the practical nuts-and-bolts mechanics of writing a screenplay I've ever read."
- Ted Elliott, co-writer of MASK OF ZORRO, SHREK, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and the sequels (with Terry Rossio). (ie; 4 of the top 20 Box Office Hits Of ALL TIME.)
All Six Movies analyzed! All of the mission tapes, all of the “that’s impossible!” set pieces and stunts, the cons and capers - and how these scenes work, the twists and double crosses, the tension and suspense (and how to generate it), the concept of each film as a stand alone with a different director calling the shots (broken in the sixth film), the gadgets, the masks, the stories, the co-stars and team members (one team member has been in every film), the stunts Tom Cruise actually did (and the ones he didn’t), and so much more! Over 120,000 words of fun info!
THE MISSION IMPOSSIBLE MOVIES - 347 Pages - Only $3.99 !
All five "Bourne" movies (including "Legacy" and it's potential sequels) - what are the techniques used to keep the characters and scenes exciting and involving? Reinventing the thriller genre...
or following the "formula"? Five films - each with an interesting experiment! A detailed analysis of each
of the films, the way these thrillers work... as well as a complete list of box office and critical
statistics for each film. This book is great for writers, directors, and just fans of the series.
He's back! The release of "Terminator: Dark Fate" is set to begin a new trilogy in
the Terminator story... 35 years after the first film was released. What draws us to these films about
a cybernetic organism from the future sent back in time? Why is there a new proposed trilogy every few
years? This book looks at all five Terminator movies from a story standpoint - what makes them work
(or not)? What are the techniques used to keep the characters and scenes exciting and involving? How
about those secret story details you may not have noticed? Containing a detailed analysis of each of
the five films so far, this book delves into the way these stories work... as well as a complete list of
box office and critical statistics for each film. This book is great for writers, directors, and just
fans of the series.
Screenwriting books have been around as long as films have. This series reprints vintage screenwriting books with a new introduction and history, plus new articles which look at how these lessons from almost 100 years ago apply to today’s screenplays. Anita Loos book is filled with information which still applies.
In addition to the full text of the original book, you get the full screenplay to Miss Loos' hit THE LOVE EXPERT, plus several new articles on the time period and women in Hollywood.
Expanded version with more ways to find great ideas! Your screenplay is going to begin with an idea. There are good ideas and bad ideas and commercial ideas and personal ideas. But where do you find ideas in the first place? This handbook explores different methods for finding or generating ideas, and combining those ideas into concepts that sell. The Idea Bank, Fifteen Places To Find Ideas, Good Ideas And Bad Ideas, Ideas From Locations And Elements, Keeping Track Of Your Ideas, Idea Theft - What Can You Do? Weird Ways To Connect Ideas, Combing Ideas To Create Concepts, High Concepts - What Are They? Creating The Killer Concept, Substitution - Lion Tamers & Hitmen, Creating Blockbuster Concepts, Magnification And The Matrix, Conflict Within Concept, Concepts With Visual Conflict, Avoiding Episodic Concepts, much more! Print version is 48 pages, Kindle version is over 175 pages!
ARE YOUR SCENES IN THE RIGHT ORDER? AND ARE THEY THE RIGHT SCENES?
Your story is like a road trip... but where are you going? What's the best route to get there? What are the best sights to see along the way? Just as you plan a vacation instead of just jump in the car and start driving, it's a good idea to plan your story. An artist does sketches before breaking out the oils, so why shouldn't a writer do the same? This Blue Book looks at various outlining methods used by professional screenwriters like Wesley Strick, Paul Schrader, John August, and others... as well as a guest chapter on novel outlines. Plus a whole section on the Thematic Method of generating scenes and characters and other elements that will be part of your outline. The three stages of writing are: Pre-writing, Writing, and Rewriting... this book looks at that first stage and how to use it to improve your screenplays and novels.
William Goldman says the most important single element of any screenplay is structure. It’s the skeleton under the flesh and blood of your story. Without it, you have a spineless, formless, mess... a slug! How do you make sure your structure is strong enough to support your story? How do you prevent your story from becoming a slug? This Blue Book explores different types of popular structures from the basic three act structure to more obscure methods like leap-frogging. We also look at structure as a verb as well as a noun, and techniques for structuring your story for maximum emotional impact. Most of the other books just look at *structure* and ignore the art of *structuring* your story. Techniques to make your story a page turner... instead of a slug!
This book takes you step-by-step through the construction of a story... and how to tell a story well, why Story always starts with character... but ISN'T character, Breaking Your Story, Irony, Planting Information, Evolving Story, Leaving No Dramatic Stone Unturned, The Three Greek Unities, The Importance Of Stakes, The Thematic Method, and how to create personal stories with blockbuster potential. Ready to tell a story?
Print version was 48 pages, Kindle version is over 85,000 words - 251 pages!
Your story doesn't get a second chance to make a great first impression, and this book shows you a
bunch of techniques on how to do that. From the 12 Basic Ways To Begin Your Story, to the 3 Stars Of
Your First Scene (at least one must be present) to World Building, Title Crawls, Backstory, Starting
Late, Teasers and Pre Title Sequences, Establishing Theme & Motifs (using GODFATHER PART 2), Five Critical
Elements, Setting Up The Rest Of The Story (with GODFATHER), and much more! With hundreds of examples
ranging from Oscar winners to classic films like CASABLANCA to some of my produced films (because
I know exactly why I wrote the scripts that way). Biggest Blue Book yet!
Print version was 48 pages, Kindle version is over 100,000 words - 312 pages!
Expanded version with more ways to create interesting protagonists! A step-by-step guide to creating "take charge" protagonists. Screenplays are about characters in conflict... characters in emotional turmoil... Strong three dimensional protagonists who can find solutions to their problems in 110 pages. But how do you create characters like this? How do you turn words into flesh and blood? Character issues, Knowing Who Is The Boss, Tapping into YOUR fears, The Naked Character, Pulp Friction, Man With A Plan, Character Arcs, Avoiding Cliche People, Deep Characterization, Problem Protagonists, 12 Ways To Create Likable Protagonists (even if they are criminals), Active vs. Reactive, The Third Dimension In Character, Relationships, Ensemble Scripts, and much, much more. Print version is 48 pages, Kindle version is once again around 205 pages!
Show Don't Tell - but *how* do you do that? Here are techniques to tell stories visually! Using Oscar Winning Films and Oscar Nominated Films as our primary examples: from the first Best Picture Winner "Sunrise" (1927) to the Oscar Nominated "The Artist" (which takes place in 1927) with stops along the way Pixar's "Up" and Best Original Screenplay Winner "Breaking Away" (a small indie style drama - told visually) as well as "Witness" and other Oscar Winners as examples... plus RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES. Print version is 48 pages, Kindle version is over 200 pages!
Most screenplays are about a 50/50 split between dialogue and description - which means your description is just as important as your dialogue. It just gets less press because the audience never sees it, the same reason why screenwriters get less press than movie stars. But your story will never get to the audience until readers and development executives read your script... so it is a very important factor. Until the movie is made the screenplay is the movie and must be just as exciting as the movie. So how do you make your screenplay exciting to read? Description is important in a novel as well, and the “audience” does read it... how do we write riveting description?
Expanded version with more ways to create interesting dialogue! How to remove bad dialogue (and what *is* bad dialogue), First Hand Dialogue, Awful Exposition, Realism, 50 Professional Dialogue Techniques you can use *today*, Subtext, Subtitles, Humor, Sizzling Banter, *Anti-Dialogue*, Speeches, and more. Tools you can use to make your dialogue sizzle! Special sections that use dialogue examples from movies as diverse as "Bringing Up Baby", "Psycho", "Double Indemnity", "Notorious", the Oscar nominated "You Can Count On Me", "His Girl Friday", and many more! Print version is 48 pages, Kindle version is over 175 pages!
What is a scene and how many you will need? The difference between scenes and sluglines. Put your scenes on trial for their lives! Using "Jaws" we'll look at beats within a scene. Scene DNA. Creating set pieces and high concept scenes. A famous director talks about creating memorable scenes. 12 ways to create new scenes. Creating unexpected scenes. Use dramatic tension to supercharge your scenes. Plants and payoffs in scenes. Plus transitions and buttons and the all important "flow"... and more! Over 65,000 words! Print version was 48 pages, Kindle version is around 210 pages!
Expanded version with more techniques to flesh out your Supporting Characters and make them individuals. Using the hit movie BRIDESMAIDS as well as other comedies like THE HANGOVER and TED and HIGH FIDELITY and
40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN and many other examples we look at ways to make your Supporting Characters come alive on the page.
Print version was 48 pages, Kindle version is around 170 pages!
Expanded version with more techniques to help you through the desert of Act Two! Subjects Include: What Is Act Two? Inside Moves, The 2 Ps: Purpose & Pacing, The 4Ds: Dilemma, Denial, Drama and Decision, Momentum, the Two Act Twos, Subplot Prisms, Deadlines, Drive, Levels Of Conflict, Escalation, When Act Two Begins and When Act Two Ends, Scene Order, Bite Sized Pieces, Common Act Two Issues, Plot Devices For Act Two, and dozens of others. Over 67,000 words (that’s well over 200 pages) of tools and techniques to get you through the desert of Act Two alive!
Print version was 48 pages, Kindle version is well over 200 pages!
The First Ten Pages Of Your Screenplay Are Critical, But What About The Last 10 Pages?
Creating the perfect ending to your story! This 100,000 word book shows you how to end your story with a bang, rather than a whimper. Everything from Resolution Order to Act Three Tools to Happy or Sad Endings? to How The Beginning Of Your Story Has Clues To The Ending (in case you were having trouble figuring out how the story should end) to Falling Action to How To Avoid Bad Endings to Writing The Perfect Twist Ending to Setting Up Sequels & Series to Emotional Resolutions to How To Write Post Credit Sequences to Avoiding Deus Ex Machinas, to 20 Different Types Of Ends (and how to write them) and much more! Everything about endings for your screenplay or novel!
Loglines, Treatments, Pitching, Look Books, Pitch Decks, One Pagers, Rip-O-Matics?
You have written a brilliant 110 page screenplay, but how do you get anyone to read it? You need to distill it down into some form of verbal moonshine or story rocket fuel that will ignite that bored development executive or manager or agent and get them to request your screenplay. But how do you shrink those 110 pages into a 25 word logline or a 2 minute elevator pitch or a one page synopsis or a short paragraph? This 100,000 word book shows you how! Everything you need to know! From common logline mistakes (and how to solve them) to how your pitch can reveal story problems to the 4 types of pitches!
Should really be called the BUSINESS BLUE BOOK because it covers almost everything you will need to
know for your screenwriting career: from thinking like a producer and learning to speak their language,
to query letters and finding a manager or agent, to making connections (at home and in Hollywood) and
networking, to the different kinds of meetings you are will have at Studios, to the difference between
a producer and a studio, to landing an assignment at that meeting and what is required of you when you
are working under contract, to contracts and options and lawyers and... when to run from a deal!
Information you can use *now* to move your career forward! It's all here in the Biggest Blue Book yet!
Print version was 48 pages, Kindle version is over 400 pages!
Use your creative energy to focus on the content; let Final Draft take care of the style. Final Draft is the number-one selling application specifically designed for writing movie scripts, television episodics and stage plays. Its ease-of-use and time-saving features have attracted writers for almost two decades positioning Final Draft as the Professional Screenwriters Choice. Final Draft power users include Academy, Emmy and BAFTA award winning writers like Oliver Stone, Tom Hanks, Alan Ball, J.J. Abrams, James Cameron and more.
* * * Buy It!
IT'S BACK! SECRETS OF ACTION SCREENWRITING
Over 460 pages packed with tips and techniques.
How to
write a plot twist,
the four kinds of suspense (and how to create it), reversals, ten ways to invent new action scenes, secrets and lies,
creating the ultimate
villain, five kinds of love interests, MORE!CLICK HERE!
CLASSES ON MP3
CLASSES ON MP3! Take a class on MP3! GUERRILLA MARKETING - NO AGENT? NO PROBLEM! and WRITING THRILLERS (2 MP3s). Full length classes on MP3. Now Available: IDEAS & CREATIVITY, WRITING HORROR, WRITING INDIE FILMS, more!
Take classes on MP3!
MY OTHER SITES
B MOVIE WORLD Cult Films, Exploitation, Bikers & Women In Prison, Monster Movies.
E BOOKS: New Blue Books and Novelettes!
I am expanding all of the Blue Books from around 44 pages of
text to around 200 pages! Some are over 250 pages! See what is availabale and what is coming soon!Also, I've been writing Novelletes and there
will soon be novels. E BOOKS: BLUE BOOKS & NOVELLETES
BOOKLETS & PRODUCTS
FIRST STRIKE BLUE BOOKS
Each Blue Book is 48
pages and focuses on a different aspect of screenwriting. Dialogue. Visual Storytelling. Your First Ten Pages. Act 2 Booster. Protagonists. Great Endings. Seventeen Blue Books now available!
