Elevate Your Script With Theme (Part 2)
TV Themes No, not the great music that introduces the shows, but the actual thematic overlays that follow entire runs of seasons. Billions speaks of greed and power. Axe has some memorable lines that illuminate this, “You Were Wrong. I’m not human. I am a machine. I’m a f****** terminator.” Axe to Chuck: “What […]
Elevate Your Script With Theme (Part 1)
If you’re watching a film and your heart soars or breaks, you’re watching a great film written and executed properly. Chances are you’re also watching a film that has its theme(s) firmly in place. Nothing moves the needle quite as strongly as a universal theme that makes us an intimate part of the storyline. But […]
Why Are Screenplays So Hard To Write? (Part 2)
No one Likes To Read – Anything William Goldman’s seminal book, Adventures In The Screen Trade, still completely valid even forty years later, made famous the line, “Nobody knows anything” to describe the business of making movies. Today’s insane up and down box office is proof of that. Hits that weren’t expected and superfilms […]
Why Are Screenplays So Hard To Write? (Part 1)
If you’ve found the magic rubric that makes writing a film or TV script easy then I applaud your good luck and request a copy of your findings. Because after 25 years, 150 TV/movie scripts, a book or two on scriptwriting, and decades of teaching I’m still struggling. Now, of course, my work is much […]
Writing Effective Found Family Films (Part 2)
It’s A Disaster Nothing forces people to form a family faster than a disaster – a plane crash, shipwreck, or a natural disaster such as an earthquake, tidal wave, or tornado. Yellowjackets tells the story of a girls soccer team whose plane crashes in the wilderness during a flight to Seattle for a national […]
