You are the Box Office Smash: the Personal Screenplay
Author: Gordy HoffmanYou are the Box Office Smash: The Personal Screenplay
by Gordy Hoffman
Right this very second, in the heart of every struggling, undiscovered screenwriter, in the dark, hidden corner deep within, there is a voice, a clear whisper, saying one thing:
You're never gonna figure this out.
And this is not referring to the story with its gaping hole, the finale missing a payoff, the hit and miss humor, the flat title.
I'm talking about freedom. The freedom to work as a screenwriter. Compensation for a home for family and a life. The resources to wake up and ply your craft and pay the freight, without obstacle. The chance to see your writing made into pictures, to work with the industry's best, to fulfill this goal of professional screenwriter. Hollywood success.
Behind this voice is the idea that somehow, some way, you'll find the hero, or the hook, logline or pitch that will punch your golden ticket. If you could only figure out what the studio wants, if you can only get a solid bead to this game, you know you can write and execute. What is the script I should write to get an agent? What is the one that will sell? It's not that I don't know how to write, I know how to write screenplays, I just need to know what they want, even though I think I know what they want, but I don't think I have the idea that they want. Yeah.
I'm not gonna figure this out, whispers the voice.
Why this uneasiness? Does it originate within ourselves? I don’t think so. But where does it come from? The daily obsession with box office grosses? The news of the seven figure deals to newbies? The endless procession of boneheadedly conceived franchises-in-waiting arriving in the theatres every Friday? People winning Academy Awards for movies you would not be caught dead writing? Recognizing an idea you came up with years ago on your couch, produced with a $130 million budget drowning in CGI?
All these things are but a few of the possible reasons why this seeds unhealthy doubt and confusion in the modern screenwriter. Tracking these forces outside us and beyond our control in an effort to trudge the path to a successful screenwriting career will prove to most to be unproductive and corrosive. Basically, trying to figure out what Hollywood wants will land us in a resentment that makes "giving up" a sane response to the very challenge which used to inspire us. In short, we cannot chase a perceived trend and remember our dreams.
You cannot look at the marketplace and find your voice. You can find ideas, trends, and inspiration there, perhaps, but you can find these things driving in traffic as well. But listening to your voice is the key to creating original, compelling stories.
Your life is your own story. You have a completely unique thread of experience. By allowing yourself to express these emotional experiences, your screenplay, your story, will be different from any other and powerful, as original as your fingerprint.
Why is it powerful? When we have the courage to be specific about what we know about living, we create an authentic world an audience recognizes as the life they are living on planet Earth. This connects your audience to your story. This connection is the foundation of the phenomena o
Why does story mean so much to us? We recognize the triumphs and tragedies of our lives, with all the hilarity and tears. By seeing it, we are validated and it underscores meaning and purpose to living.
If we don't use what we've collected in life in our hearts and spirits, then our story loses its authenticity and the connection the audience should make fails. They do not see themselves, and when they leave the theater, they do not call their friends. When people do not call their friends after seeing a movie, the movie bombs.
When a writer opens their person to their work, when they allow themselves to be vulnerable, to risk exposure of the secrets of their life story, they take a huge step towards creating a screenplay of substantial value, a screenplay with a greater potential of a large number of tickets sold.
This is precisely why art and commerce have remained bedfellows for thousands of years. To look at the relationship between art and commerce as adversarial or incompatible is just plain foolish. Art happens when people invest their spirits in their work without fear, and story is artful when the writing is truthful and the writer is authentic.
And what do we have to be honest about? We can only lie about what we know, and we can only tell the truth about what we know. And that is what has happened to us, our life story. This is what we share.
This is not a pitch to write "what you know." This is not about writing stories about where you work or where you live. This is about writing about what you felt. You can imagine characters and worlds and actions and speech you've never personally experienced, but if you remember to infuse your choices with your emotional and spiritual struggles and victories as a human being, your screenplay will be different in the very best sense of the word.
The question you have to answer is not what does Hollywood want today. The question is how honest of a writer do you want to be. I guarantee you can write a blockbuster, you can write a box office hit. This will happen when you find an audience. And the correct path to this crowd of people is listening to yourself. If you practice, you will develop an inner ear for who you are and what you know and you will become masterful in loading your work with your fingerprints. Writing is personal work. You are the guitar. You are the box of paint. Give of that and your audience will remember why life is good and they will talk of you.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/screenplay-articles/you-are-the-box-office-smash-the-personal-screenplay-105714.html
About the Author:About the AuthorWinner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival for LOVE LIZA, Gordy Hoffman wrote and directed three short films for Fox Searchlight in 2002. He made his feature directorial debut with his script, A COAT OF SNOW, which world premiered at the 2005 Locarno Intl Film Festival. A COAT OF SNOW made its North American Premiere at the Arclight in Hollywood, going on to screen at the Milan Film Festival and the historic George Eastman House. Recently, the movie won the 2006 Domani Vision Award at VisionFest, held at the Tribeca Cinemas in NY. A professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, Gordy is the founder and judge of the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. In addition, Gordy acts as a script consultant for screenwriters, offering personalized feedback on their scripts through his consultation service, www.screenplaynotes.com.
You're an Idiot: Making Value from Reaction to your Screenwriting
If you're like me, if someone doesn't like something about my screenplay, my very first reaction is always the same.
You're not as smart as me. If you knew what I knew, you would understand what I wrote. And you don't understand what I wrote, because you don't know as much as I do. About everything, in general. In short, life. You know, people. Planet Earth.
If you really don't understand what I'm doing in my script, my first feeling is I don't respect you. I have contempt for you. I feel attacked personally, and with my feelings hurt, I want to denigrate your position, and while I won't call you an idiot, basically the foundation of my exchange with you in the wake of you reading my script is you are, in fact, some kind of idiot.
Someone once told me I can be right or I can be happy. Or you can be right, or you can get your screenplay produced into a motion picture. I have had this happen twice, and I can tell you if I had committed myself to being right about everything during the development of the screenplay, they would still be living as files in my hard drive. Any produced screenwriter will attest to this.
Whenever a reader doesn't get information from my screenplay, facts crucial to the function of the story, stuff I feel is so obvious that the only reason they could've missed it all is carelessness, I know I am responsible for the breakdown. Writers over and over complain about this, appalled that someone could miss something so blatant in the script. Two ways you can take this note. One, reader read poorly. Two, you have clarity problems. What is the constructive reaction? You have a clarity problem.
You might get a note saying they don't believe a character would do or say something, particularly dialogue or actions of a certain time period or profession, such as a cop, or a farmer from the 18th century in Russia. The writer defends the charge by citing historical facts, or stating they have seven relatives in law enforcement, or they grew up in Canada, and they do, indeed, talk like that. Well, it doesn't matter. If your audience is distracted by your authenticity rubbing them as cliche' or improbable, you need to revise. Screenwriting is compression and art. It's truth, not a transcription. Where do cliche's come from anyway?
I recently got a reaction from an audience member to a movie I wrote that I had never heard from anyone EVER. My first instinct was to say to myself, well, um, that's stupid, because EVERYBODY else thinks differently. This is another reaction I've run into quite a bit with writers. "Everybody else thinks it's funny or realistic or a perfect movie or." Who is your "everybody else"? Consider your sources, and keep your mind open. In the end, "everybody else" doesn't exist.
Notes on your screenplay are not a personal attack. They might feel like that. You have made an investment of self, and you love what you have created. It is you. But someone's reaction to your writing is not a reaction to you. It is a reaction of the person who read your screenplay. Same screenplay, different people, different reactions. So the reactions are personal to the readers. Detach from the notes to the degree to which you can improve your screenplay. Their reactions are formed primarily from their lives, not your words. Which leads me to this.
Do not embrace the extremes. Listen to the ends of the spectrum of opinions, but do not wallow there. If someone thinks your script is the worst attempt at screenwriting on record, take what you can, but do not stay with this, toss it off as something off and wild. If someone thinks your script is so awesomely perfect and beautiful that there's really nothing to be changed, take what you can, but do not stay with this, toss it off as something off and wild.
Let's say you've offended someone. They think your choices about language or characterization or action are patently offensive, maybe immoral, bigoted, racist, or sexist, disturbing to the point of quit. Do you need to change something? Perhaps. It's up to you. Know that you've offended someone. I have written disturbing material and I didn't change it. But I've learned to sincerely respect that reaction and allow it to help strengthen my creative positions.
Do not listen to hysterical advice about formatting, but if people say they found typos, that means you don't respect your movie and you need look at your attitude to your work on story.
Don't ever question the credentials of your reader. We can seek the experienced and the professional, but in the end, to discredit notes because the reader is "not a screenwriter" or "some punk in a mailroom" or "the assistant fresh out of blah blah", I put this to you. Where exactly do you think the studios come from? Do you know where the executives started? Do you know how Hollywood began? Who is sitting in the movie seats every Friday night across the planet? Screenplay consultants? No. Your audience.
Seek their reaction. They are the flashlight that works. You can gleam the most incredible insights from any one who reads your screenplay, if you put aside your fight and remember the goal of production. We can't wait for the "qualified" to tell us what's wrong. We don't have to.
I don't remember what the newspapers wrote about the movies I've written, but I do remember what the audiences said. The hell with right. I want to make movies, and I strive for that direction.Article source: ArticlePros.com
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How Do I Sell My New Screenplay?
Author: DMA/Donna Michelle Anderson
When new screenwriters finish their scripts, they often begin the search for a rep to submit the work around town. But is that the best way to do it? Well, sure! But it's not the ONLY way to do it.
As you prep to get your script sold, incorporate this info into your marketing strategy:
SEEK REPRESENTATION
But only if you have a bona fide "in" to their direct office line! It's very difficult to get a lit agent to read a script for representation without a personal introduction by a repped client of theirs. If you know a screenwriter or other industry member with an agent who actually is getting scripts read by real studios and funders, and you have TWO solid scripts (more on that later), ask for an introduction. Give your contact a substantial gift whether you are signed or not!
Of course, it's not necessary to have a lit agent to shop a script. Make getting an agent only one part of a broader shopping strategy.
EXPLORE LEGITIMATE SUBMISSION OUTLETS
The main places you're trying to get your script to. production companies, studios and even top-five actors' shingles, are sometimes more accessible than lit agents. If you're not already, make sure you join professional writers' groups like ScreenplayLab and Scriptwriters' Network, and attend every possible event to make those contacts. There's a list of organizations to get you started at Movie in a Box - Links.
Again, the way to shop a script in our industry is to know someone. It's tough to open a new professional relationship by asking for the considerable favor of an agent referral, so try a strategy where you're offering something they could use in exchange for the introduction (like Web site design, database entry, etc.). And expect them to request to read your script first - and listen to their notes without argument.
Another credible outlet for getting your script noticed is via some of the online sites. If you're not already, make sure you're active at Inktip, for example. And be sure to explore the hundreds of screenplay competitions, like Scriptapalooza - but check first to see what success stories you can verify from their sites.
WRITE AND QC MORE THAN ONE SCRIPT
"QC" stands for "Quality Control." Do not ever submit a script that is not structurally sound, no matter how ready you are to stop looking at it! This is neither a judgment, an assumption, an insult or a joke. It truly is a requirement. I was a reader at one of the biggest prod cos in Los Angeles, I've had scripts optioned, I run a filmmaking seminar, I've taught at UCLA Ext, I've written a very popular screenwriting book. Please trust me on this. There are no second chances for first impressions in our industry. And it's not just your rep on the line, but also the rep of whoever opens that door for your submission.
Why "more than one script"? That is because if someone reads work of yours and thinks you have promise, their next request (to confirm the initial impression) is very often, "Can you send me another spec?" If you can't, that is by no means a dealbreaker. But if you CAN, and the second script is equally hot, that could be a dealmaker! The second script needs to be structurally sound, as well.
Be sure that your screenplays are structurally solid (on a first submission, nothing else will do! Trust me!). Be sure that an experienced Hollywood reader has read the script and you've addressed the notes. As I always say, "if the story does not fit, you must not submit!" If you submit a flawless first spec, you will never have to live up these standards again, but you should. If you submit a flawed first spec, you will not get the chance to live up to higher standards at that company; you will be blocked from future submissions.
CONSIDER PRODUCING YOUR WORK YOURSELF
If you find you are getting great feedback on your work, but it's never quite the right fit, consider producing the film yourself. This is a great approach when you have a lower-budget indie project (think "Open Water") versus an effects-laden thriller! It is an enormous undertaking to produce a film, but there are many resources out there for people who have compelling scripts to develop. And just as you studied and trained to write well, be sure to research and train extensively before taking on a massive project like producing a movie. Your first stop should be a professional organization like Film Independent (FIND), which can connect with you with terrific partners and/or mentors, as well as vital resources. Look into comprehensive seminars like Movie in a Box, as well.
However you decide to get your screenplay sold, it should be clear by now that you don't do it alone - you need community support and resources - and no one else does it for you - even an agent! It is no one's responsibility to open a door for you to sell a screenplay. It is your responsibility to create a tight script, research appropriate buyers, and relentlessly seek submission opportunities until someone buys - or you decide to produce your work yourself!
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/screenplay-articles/how-do-i-sell-my-new-screenplay-118542.html
About the Author:Learn more about how to sell a screenplay from DMA's industry guide "The 1-3-5 Story Structure Made Simple System: The Nine Essential Elements of a Sellable Screenplay," or attend her one-day, comprehensive filmmaking seminar, "Movie In a Box." DMA is a former film story analyst who is now the executive producer of Tidal Wave TV, a new media and reality TV production company in Los Angeles.
For DMA's national speaking schedule and more insider resources for breaking into Hollywood, please visit Planet DMA. It is our goal to mentor you through your career in entertainment!
Discovering the Great Movie Idea for Your Next Screenplay
by Gordy Hoffman
I am lucky. I have no problems coming up with very good ideas for movies. If I never had another idea for the rest of my life, I would not make a sizable dent in the ones I already have. Screenwriters who struggle with coming up with an idea tend to be visibly annoyed when I tell them this. I think I'm comfortable sharing this with others because I know movie ideas really mean nothing and please nobody in and of themselves, so there's not much to brag about. I guess you can get lucky and sell an idea, but in terms of what's important, a motion picture screened in front of people, a great idea is simply a member of the orchestra that achieves that vision.
I'm not sure where all the ideas come from, but I can tell you where I was, and by telling you this, perhaps this will help you come up with your idea. First, you should know what you want to write. A feature? For the studios? For yourself to direct? Maybe a low budget script for someone else to direct. Will it be shot on film or digital video? Are you looking for an idea for a short film? Perhaps you have a particular genre in mind.
Parameters are excellent tools for creativity. The irony is restriction spawns wonderfully imaginative ideas. If you can write about anything or anybody, with absolutely no conditions, it becomes harder to settle and find that jewel of an idea. So determine your conditions, every one, and embrace them, because there you will find the frame of your idea. In other words, knowing your movie has to be shot on digital video in four weeks with two Asian women in their thirties at an antiques store will narrow your thinking and concentrate your imaginative power.
Is it necessary to have parameters before we come up with an idea? Of course not. You can always find a very special idea and that idea will determine it's own boundaries. But if you have needs for your screenplay, determine those needs, and it will help.
So after you have determined the conditions for your screenplay, or if you have not, now you can come up with your idea. What's a good place to start? The newspaper. Read a thick newspaper. Read through all sections. Read the obituaries. This is our world. Artists look at the world and become moved to express themselves. I read the newspaper anyway, but many times I find something, even one line, which is highly inspiring. By looking through the newspaper with fresh eyes, we become open again to what affects us. I also find the newspaper will confirm instincts I might already have about an idea.
And make sure you read the section you normally never read at breakfast. Trust me.
Okay, you're reading the newspaper, and you might find something interesting. Documentaries can also be great reservoirs for inspiration. Awesome documentaries abound these days and they often contain imagery, facts, and revelations that may provoke an idea out of left field. Now don't run out and rent 20 docs and lean into your DVD waiting for the logline to come out of the screen and hit you over the head. Just watch what is interesting and forget about what you need.
Walk where you would normally drive. Take the train to work if you don't. Get on a public bus, or go rent a car and drive. Spend the day at the airport. Take a different way to work each day for a week. Make a list of ten stores you would never for the life of you visit for any reason at all, go to all ten and browse for 20 minutes each. These disruptions in your environment will open your eyes. You'll be able to take in more of your world, and it will effect you and make you think.
We've run out of ideas because we are bored by what we see. You're shut down. You don't need to get on a plane or visit a foreign country to clear your head and help you focus. Your distant planet is down the street, walking distance.
Another inspiring action is to take the day and go to a series of garage sales. The homes, the neighborhoods, the people and the stuff they're trying to sell you will definitely make you think. There are a million stories in what people pick up and keep as belongings in their lives. Try an estate sale. I have left estate sales feeling as if I knew the personal habits and longings of the recently deceased, simply by the possessions they kept until their death. It's not difficult to find these sales, they happen every weekend and right close by.
Take up a new sport. Enroll in a language class. Sign up for a course at the Red Cross. I picked up a basketball one day and start playing after many years and I felt like I had a new movie in my head every time I stepped on the court. Getting an education in something new gets us humble and that humility keeps us open to new information and this makes us creative. If we feel like a master, we've run out of ideas. As students, we accept there's more out there, and that attitude will spawn discovery and fresh perspective.
Finally, when I don't know what I should write about, I ask myself what's troubling me. If you take a second to pause and get quiet with your heart, you will find you desperately what to say something very important. Let that something speak.
One more thing. Please don't write about you know, like they always say. Let somebody else do that, and you, you write what you want.
Article URL: http://www.bluecatscreenplay.com/About/advice.php
Copyright © 2006 BlueCat Screenplay Competition
Article source: ArticlePros.com
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Screenplay Structure in Four Easy Pieces
All plays, whether on the screen or on the stage, have a format more defining than any other form of literary expression. Screenplays are, perhaps, the toughest. They have a structure as steely and rigid as the support towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. They are more restrictive than the Japanese seventeen-syllable, set-in-concrete poem known as haiku. The best comparison is to picture a novel a vat of mushroom soup, and a screenplay as a stock cube, same intensity of flavor, but powerfully compressed. If writing a novel is swimming in the ocean, screenwriting is swimming in the bath.
Every story must have a beginning, must have a middle, and must have an end. And don't think you can write it until you know what that end is. These elements can also be called set-up, conflict and resolution. You can dance around this formula until you're blue in the face, but you're always going to come back to it. Set-up. Conflict. Resolution. That's the way it always has been. That's the way it always will be. And the key to screenplay structure is hitting the right page with the right beat.
Set up. Conflict. Resolution. Act I, Act II, Act III. Scripts are mathematical. Structuring them is a numeric problem. They are meticulously engineered; yet must disguise their geometric precision.
Act II is so long - 60 pages - it must be divided in half to create Act II A and Act II B, which leaves four Acts. Plain and simple. But the trick is to split Act II at the central turning point of the entire movie. This can sometimes be called the flip-the-script moment, or the mid-point, and it happens exactly halfway through all movies. This turning point in the drama must be established long before you begin writing. And it must take the audience from Act II A into Act II B.
Each Act should be 30 pages. Four of those make 120, the Hollywood length. Act I, II A, II B and III. But, unlike the theatre that has a curtain to divide Acts, or television dramas where they are consistent with commercials, how can you tell when an Act has changed in the cinema? Being able to spot this, and understanding why Acts change, and grasping what each Act must achieve is something you must master.
Act I
This introduces the main characters, establishes 'the rules of the world', and sets-up the hero's goal for the rest of the movie. But this can't be an arbitrary decision. In all great scripts, there lies within Act I the Inciting Incident. This is the event, usually found on page 10-15 that sparks the desire your hero needs in order to pursue his goal. When you study films, it can be identified easily. Watch out for the event that occurs in the hero's life that doesn't happen every day. This is the Inciting Incident.
Act I ends on page 25-30. Study opening scenes from films you know. Why have they chosen to start this way? How does this opening reveal character, introduce the hero or nemesis? The opening to a movie must be chosen carefully. The Incident that sparks the story, must, above all, be credible. Not some cockamamie idea that will cause everyone in the cinema to say, "Yeah, right!"
Act II A
The hero begins his journey. It must be filled with conflicts and obstacles that are constantly being thrown in his way. The trickiest part is inventing that turning point on page 60. It must change the course of the story, yet keep the hero pursuing the same goal. A great example is in Derailed. At the end of Act II A, Clive Owen suddenly realizes Jennifer Anniston is no longer the sweet blond with a bad marriage, but his real nemesis. You must come up with something that will literally turn the script around, making the audience gasp. This turning point is so critical you may want to structure the entire story around this one event. Watch films and identify this point. A History of Violence contains another great example.
Act II B
At the beginning of this Act, a ray of hope must shine upon the hero. With his original goal from Act I, and with the drama now aimed in a new direction, conflicts must start again, sliding towards the low-point, where the hero reaches an all-time low. This must happen on page 90. It marks the end of Act II. It's the now-or-never moment, and everything you write is aimed resolutely towards this point. You must keep telling yourself, "I've got to get my hero to the page 90 abyss in the next x amount of pages." You'll find it easier to work backwards. That will stop you over-shooting and ending up page 96, which makes Act II B too long, too long, too long. Then you've got to cut it, which is even more difficult than writing it.
Act III
This contains two parts. The final battle with the nemesis, where the hero achieves his goal against all odds, and then, the long awaited resolution - only a few pages long. The end of the script is the most important part. You must know where your hero is going before you write one word of the script. You write towards the end. This will allow you to plant and foreshadow the drama. You cannot operate until the end has been established. If you start writing without knowing the end, you will fail, probably catastrophically.
Mastering this information.
Once you know the basic story, spend the next five hours trying to work out the last two minutes of the movie. Then you can begin to establish the low-point, moving backwards to the much more tricky mid-point.
The easiest Act to write is the first, because it's an introduction and establishes the Goal. However, Act I requires diligent research and more detail than any other part of the script. Act II is very hard, and this is where almost every script fails, leading up to the turning-point. And if you feel this is going wrong, you might as well turn off your computer and start again.
Ultimately, you live and die between page 30 and page 60. It's a four Act structure, no ifs, ands or buts. Keep the reader or audience hooked, load in the surprises, and no goofing off cruising through three or four pages without much happening. You can't afford it in screenwriting.
Watch films with all these points in mind. Pay attention to Act breaks, (time them on your watch - about every half hour). Count the conflicts being hurled at the hero. Watch how the nemesis always seems more powerful. This is the making of a hero. He must overcome the seemingly insurmountable struggle to achieve his goal.
Thrillers, action films, Westerns and horrors are great genres to grasp these principles. High Noon, The Wizard of Oz and Star Wars all possess the geometric precision I have outlined. The watchword is structure. And it's as critical to your writing as those towers that hold up the Golden Gate Bridge.
Send questions or comments to Jengo Robinson.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/screenplay-articles/screenplay-structure-in-four-easy-pieces-124789.html
About the Author:Jengo Robinson has a BA in Creative Writing and Art History from the world-renowned University of East Anglia. He's written eight feature film scripts, and has a 1 yr diploma in screenwriting from the New York Film Academy. He works in London as a script consultant.
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