What goes into writing a great movie script?

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Cut everything that is not a payoff, or a setup for a specific payoff. “Omit needless words.” Think about the sparseness of joke telling, or Grimm Brothers.

Leave holes. Write and unwrite. Put it in, take it out.

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Audiences are smarter than you think. Something about turning down the house lights makes their IQs go up.

Conflict is your power source; without it you have no drama and hence no script.

Use status to help drive conflict. King Lear/fool. Upstairs/downstairs.

Its year 2041, and president Hunter Biden has ordered every republican who sweared at him to be arrested and shot. I am on my way to the death row listening to the cheer of the Liberal mob chanting death death death. How can I escape?

A scene should change valence from beginning to end. Up to down, down to up.

Maintain a slush pile/idea file. When you are ready to write, choose the best seeds to plant.

Don’t direct from the page. Everyone, from the director on down, wants to be part of the process of making movies. Let them do their work.

Hello, I have a question about astral projection. I started to get interested in this a little while after my mum passed in april. I thought I may be able to see her and speak with her if I managed to achieve astral projection. Since this interest, every time i sleep on my back I go into sleep paralysis. However, I cant progress into astral projection because it is very scary for me as I feel like I'm suffocating when this happens. I panic and force myself to wake up. This only ever happened about once a year before this. It sometimes lasts a long time. This has happened about 3 times per week since my mum died, as mentioned on a previous post. I no longer try to go into it anymore(due to the suffocating feeling), but it still happens. I read that sleep paralysis is the pathway to astral projection. Why has this started to happen so frequently since simply taking an interest in it? Is this connected to the afterlife? I am concerned about it as I now cannot seem to stop this happening. Could it be my mum trying to communicate? Im asking due to more knowledge around this in this group.

Learn to tell a story orally and not through writing. Try telling your story to a friend.

To develop a unique voice for each character, try interviewing your characters.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

Have you ever had a bad gut feeling about someone and it was right?

What you leave unwritten is as important as what you write. SUBTEXT.

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

All rules are made to be broken, but you damn well better know WHY you’re breaking them.

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People choose what to see based on the high concept. Make sure to deliver an ending consistent with the high concept -- it is what the audience paid for.

Only God gets it right the first time. Rewrite everything.

Primary characters must change polarities. Secondary characters can change less.

Why would the United States need a fleet of the F-47 fighter jet fielded in the 2030s?

Outline everything. Use story beats. Keep character’s mouths taped up, until they absolutely MUST speak. Write the script and the dialogue at the last minute, after you’ve revised the hell out of the outline.

Get up there yourself. Be in a movie. Take some acting (not writing) classes. Learn how a trained actor approaches a text. Learn why actors take roles. They do as much if not more than the writer does.

Your primary job is to create situations. Modern actors will fuck up your dialogue, despite whatever your contract says.

Why do you think there is growing support for far-right parties in Europe?

Write in reverse time. Major characters need to change polarity; minor characters may remain the same at the end.

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

A critical function of storytelling is wish fulfillment. This is why video games are so popular. “That protagonist is JUST LIKE ME.”

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