odocoileus

2010-05-31T16:25:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of PDF transcripts from the first season of Community, the breakout NBC single camera sitcom. Formatted with time code, scene and act breaks.

Community, "Introduction to Film" S01E03

Community, "The Science of Illusion" S01E20

2009-12-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

FILM FESTIVAL SURVIVAL

Don't just survive Sundance, make the most of it with the help of this excellent guide from independent stalwart Jacques Thelmaque: Tip Sheet for Sundance Filmmakers.

Most of the tips apply to any major film festival. Let's not forget that film festivals can be a great place to make connections, and find representation.

2009-03-21T23:50:00.000-07:00

INSPIRATION, DETERMINATION, PERSPIRATION

Horror novelist and veteran scribe, Alex Sokoloff, reminds us to always finish what we start. Even though it sucks. At first. The more work we put into it, the less it will suck, until the day we can read it all the way through without cringing.

Also check out her primer on screenwriting, a fine series of articles linked in the sidebar. Structure, character, high concept, agents, and just about everything else. Nothing on dialog yet, but I bet there's something on the way.

2009-01-02T15:55:00.000-08:00

BACK IN THE DAY

E. W. Sargent's The Technique of the Photoplay, an early classic of the screenwriting instruction genre circa 1913, is available as a googlebook and downloadable PDF. Apparently film storytelling works pretty much the way it did a century ago. Thanks to Alex Epstein for the tip.

2008-12-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

ANOTHER GREBANIER FAN

I discovered Bernard Grebanier's Playwriting in the best possible way, at a thriftshop. Just two quarters bought me an introduction to some great insights on dramatic writing.

The Grumpy Old Bookman digs Grebanier too, and he gives us a nice thumbnail history of dramatic writing gurus. McKee ain't the first one, not by a long shot.

If you're looking to write killer loglines, and pitch perfectly, Grebanier's Proposition is worth studying at length.

2008-12-18T20:57:00.001-08:00

John August talks money management for screenwriters. Really smart stuff. Just what you'd expect from a graduate of USC's Peter Stark Producing Program.

In short, keep your day job.

2008-11-19T19:50:00.001-08:00

BREAKING IN AS A TV WRITER - THE FIRST FEW RUNGS OF THE CAREER LADDER

Great post over at Chad Gervich's Script Notes on the job progression for entry level TV writers.

I know there are other ways in besides the ones that Chad describes. Fellowships like Disney. Workshops like WB. Playwriting. Comics. Gaming. Crossovers from features.

Still, every working TV writer I've met has broken in via the PA - writer's assistant route. It's tried and true, but it's tougher than ever in these lean times.

It's been years since I've worked in production, and the prospect of living in a closet sized apartment isn't nearly as appealing as it was in my twenties. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age, but I do sort of like living someplace without regular gun play and rampant vermin.

I'm keeping the day job. Not just that, I'm thrilled to have a half way decent job with halfway decent pay and halfway decent benefits and half way decent working conditions when so many people are losing theirs.

I'll just have to figure out what I can do to network nights and weekends. That and working the phones. Maybe Shonda Rhimes needs a pool boy.

2008-06-24T22:10:00.000-07:00

Commenting guidelines over at The Rouge Wave.

What I would have posted, had it not violated these guidelines:

HEY!

I READ YOUR BLOG SOMETIMES.

WHAT ARE YOU WEARING AND HOW MUCH DO YOU WEIGH? DID YOU EVER THINK ABOUT HAVING SEX WITH YOUR CAT?!

YOU'RE COMPLETELY FUCKIN' WRONG ABOUT SCRIPT LENGTH. YOU POOPY HEAD! I WROTE A HUNDRED FIFTY PAGE SCRIPT AND IT'S GREAT!

YOU CAN READ IT, BUT ONLY IF YOU GIVE ME MONEY. (I SPENT ALL MY PAYCHECK ON REDBULL. FUCK!)

PPS

WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO RAPEBEAR?! THAT DUDE WAS FUNNY! FUCK!

2007-10-23T19:24:00.000-07:00

UPDATE

So it's been a year and a day since I last posted.

I took Chris Lockhart's class at L.A. Valley College, and Peter Russell's Story Analysis class at UCLA Extension. Good experiences.

I read Ellen Sandler's The TV Writer's Workbook and Alex Epstein's Crafty TV Writing: Thinking Inside the Box. The Sandler technique has been particularly useful for sitcom specs.

The good folks at Write Brothers finally came out with an updated version of Movie Magic. I bought MM6 a couple of months after it came out, and it's worked like a dream.

The work that I've done this year has brought my skills up to the level where I may actually be employable. This is satisfying and frightening all at once.

The pre-strike slowdown has made agents unwilling to take on new clients. No one knows for sure if a strike can be averted. The smart thing for the producers would be to make a deal with small but significant concessions.

I don't think the issue is strictly money. The real issue is control. As one experienced observer noted, there really is enough money for everybody. Given a choice between making more money and getting more power, multinational corporations will typically choose power. The producers want the writers to knuckle under, to fall into line like good little workers.

The producers have the weight to ultimately triumph no matter what. A long, ugly fight will leave everyone bloody, and that works against the producers' long term interests. I'm not hopeful that the producers will have the wisdom and strength of character to make the necessary concessions.

On the off chance that the producers will show some uncharacteristic judgment, I'm forging ahead with new specs, and researching agents with an eye towards staffing season.

2006-10-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

MY SCENE CHECKLIST

I call it the Yellow Sheet, because the original is purple ink on one sheet of yellow paper. I check it over and over again during a writing session, to keep the essential elements of the scene uppermost in my mind.

Get in as late as possible, get out as early as possible. No ramp.

Motivate all entrances and exits w/in the logic of the story.

Immediately follow each scene header w/ an action line. The dp must know what image is to be shot. Actors, crew etc. must know who's in the scene.

What can you do without?

Watch for on the nose dialogue and overexplaining.

Avoid repetition, eliminate redundancy.

People talk to get what they want. What does each person want in the scene?

What makes each character unique - the combo of dialogue and action that clearly delineates each character?

Each scene is a ministory with a begin, middle, and end. Think of each scene as a 2 pg short story.

Have each scene build to an emotional peak.

Know what each person is thinking and feeling at each moment in a scene.

Each character in a scene is the hero of his or her own drama.

Begin each scene in the middle of a confrontation involving a main character.

2006-10-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

Fine post from The Film Diva on pleasing our best friend and worst enemy, the reader:

http://filmdiva.blogspot.com/2006/10/coverage-tips.html

2006-10-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

Shawna over at Shouting into the Wind gives a rundwon on the best TV shows to spec, that is, to write sample scripts as audition pieces to get jobs on other TV shows. She covers the territory exceptionally well. I do disagree about the viability of CSI vegas specs. People are sick of reading them.

And she loves us. All of us.

Shouting into the Wind: Hot Specs

2006-10-18T19:29:00.000-07:00

Have your doubts about screenwriting gurus? Try before you buy. Michael Farrand's Magic Star of Dramatic Writing is a short guide to several of the gurus advice on concept, character, story, dialogue, and action. Also see his sections on Screenwriting and Story Dynamics.

http://www.empirecontact.com/magicstar/concept.html

http://www.empirecontact.com/magicstar/character.html

http://www.empirecontact.com/magicstar/story.html

http://www.empirecontact.com/magicstar/dialogue.html

http://www.empirecontact.com/magicstar/action.html

2006-10-17T20:29:00.000-07:00

John Rogers and assorted readers with tricks for getting past doubt and hesitation to "FADE OUT". The tricks can get you through a slow writing session in the same way that a knuckleball can get a pitcher through an inning.

"Based on a quick discussion among writers -- what's your knuckleball? The little trick you use that seems to have made life easier, smoothes your process, but as far as you know isn't widespread."

http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2006/10/writing-knuckleball.html

2006-10-16T13:45:00.000-07:00

Fine post from an underappreciated blogger, Charles Deemer. Playwright, screenwriter, college instructor, Deemer offers an antidote to the boosterism and feel good rhetoric favored by screenwriting gurus and the false encouragement industry.

http://cdeemer.blogspot.com/2006/10/beginning-screenwriters-in-buyers.html

Also, spec script style in a nutshell:
http://www.ibiblio.org/cdeemer/specscript.htm

2006-07-31T19:17:00.000-07:00

SCREENWRITING AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Every once in a while, a question comes up. Something along the lines of, "I am having English very little. I write screenplay for superfantastic amazing movie to take Hollywood by storm. I can sell this where could you please information me?"

Never mind that Hollywood screenwriting is probably the most competitive writing marketplace on the planet. Never mind that brilliant native English speakers, with degrees from the best colleges, flock here by the thousands every year, and most of them struggle for years before they break in. If they break in.

So the short answer to the question is, "No. You can't sell this. You can't write. You need to master colloquial American English before you will be allowed to sell lattes at Coffee Bean, much less take a meeting."

If you really are a good writer, if you really do have that superfantastic, amazing story that would take Smogtown by the balls, then write it in your native language. You know, the one you already have, the one in which you are not tone deaf. Sell it to your native film and television industry. You know, the one that's smaller and less competitive than the Hollywood variety. The one where you have a chance of meeting people and making connections. The one where possibly a schoolmate or a relative already has a job and can get you in the door.

But you've got your heart set on Hollywood. You're too much of a freak to settle for anything less than the world's biggest sideshow. If that's the case, Lord help you. And read on.

I'm assuming that you've already studied the hell out of your basic English grammar and vocab books. If not, then do that. Know it cold. Memorize that shit.

Proceed to the books I mentioned in the previous post. The Elements of Style. Eats, Shoots, Leaves. Figures of Speech.

Tired yet? Better not be. You're just getting started.

Book learnin' ain't enough. You've got to work your eardrums. You have to know how Yanks talk, in real time. The local argot, the particular Stateside turn of phrase. The best place to pick this up is talk radio. Morning humor shows with several regular cast members are best, because they allow you to hear the interplay between individuals. You can get a feel for the timing, and for the voice that makes each radio personality unique.

If your internet connection will allow it, check out radio shows like Don and Mike, Frosty Heidi and Frank, Ron and Fez, The Sports Junkies ( for advanced students only - the Tidewater accent can be incomprehensible to outsiders), Big Boy, Steve Harvey, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and the Michael Feldman Show. If they have callers, listen closely to them as well. Start by taping an hour of your chosen show, and writing down every single bit of dialogue. From the personalities, the callers, even the commercials. Type up the dialogue in script format. Do this every night, two or three hours a night.

TV talk shows are okay, but not as good, because the conversation is less freewheeling, and there is more emphasis on visuals. Radio is just what you hear. The words have to carry everything.

Approach it the way that you would a masters degree, because that's the kind of fluency you're going to need for the big H.

Another great source for the American idiom is the National Enquirer. Its language is dumbed down for maximum impact. USA Today reads like Le Monde compared to this brightly colored toilet paper. Not just that, but the bizarre, tasteless stories are the stuff of which blockbuster movies are made. Even more important is the non stop celebrity coverage. Get a good long look at the pictures. If you make it, these are the lunatics you'll be working for.

2006-07-30T11:26:00.000-07:00

A good infantryman should be able to disassembe and reassemble his rifle blindfolded. His life depends on the mastery of his primary tool.

A good writer should be able to disassemble and reassemble a good sentence. Her life as a writer depends on the mastery of her primary tool.

To that end, some resources:

http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/cnt_gram.asp . A concise guide to the most common errors.

Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. Memorization, while not required, is recommended. The Ten Commandments of usage.

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
Popular and useful. (Note that this blog doesn't necessarily follow the book's prescriptions. Consistency and hobgoblins and all that...)

Quinn's Figures of Speech: 60 Ways to Turn a Phrase. An underappreciated gem. Quinn takes us through all of the most important rhetorical techniques of the English language, using examples of great writing from King James to James Joyce.

Watt's An American Rhetoric. Quite rare. Highly recommended. John Gardner's favorite.

These books are particularly useful to anyone who attempts screenwriting as a second language. (Too many non-Anglophones start English language scripts without first mastering English. More on this later.)

2006-07-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

From David Ball's Backwards and Forwards,

"A scripted character is comprised of remarkably little - because the nature of any stage character is heavily determined by the actor in the part...

The playwright cannot give much, because the more that is given, the harder it is to cast the part. The playwright must leave most of the character blank to accomodate the nature of the actor...

Scripts contain bones, not people.

Good playwrights limit their choice of bones to those which make the character unique. Onto this uniqueness, the actor hangs the rest of the human being."

2006-07-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

Maybe you should give up screenwriting.

Not me, you.

After all, the real money is in screenwriting instruction. Write a manual, lead a seminar. It's more lucrative and easier than selling a script.

Are manuals bad?

Not exactly. Manuals can't teach you how to write a good script, but they can show you how good scripts work, so you have at least a fighting chance of writing your own good script.

Field, McKee, Seger, Truby, Snyder. They all have their strong points and their weak points. Read all or none or some number in between. Won't hurt, but no manual is a substitute for breaking down films and scripts scene by scene and figuring out how they do what they do.

My favorite screenwriting manuals aren't written about screenwriting.

John Gardner's two books on writing literary fiction, On Becoming a Novelist, and The Art of Fiction, have excellent advice on how to learn to write, how stories work, exercises for the writer to sharpen the skills, and the writer's training and education.

It's up to you to translate Gardner's advice on writing literary fiction into the world of screenwriting. In order to do that, you need to have a broad knowledge of feature films, their history and theory, and ideally, some experience making films and videos. Theater experience and a knowledge of acting are also quite valuable.

My other favorite is David Ball's Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays This slim little book isn't a screenwriting manual, but it can teach you most of what you need to know about analyzing the scripts you read. It's intended for the theater, but it works for movies too.

Ball reminds us that at any given time, a big chunk of the audience is dying to take a piss. It isn't easy to make them stay in their seats, but a good script can do it.

2006-07-25T15:22:00.000-07:00

More about format. As in, "Could you tell me how to format it when I have one guy doing this and the other guy does that but it's really all a dream but it happens on the telephone at two locations at once while the TV is on?"

I could tell you how I'd format it, but I'm way too lazy. And you don't want me to format it for you anyway. What are you gonna say? "I did it this way 'cause some guy on the 'net said I should"? Come on.

What you want is to figure it out yourself. Go through the format guides and the books mentioned below. Read a bunch of scripts from movies that have the same kind of scene, and find a way to do it that doesn't confuse the reader, doesn't take up too much space, and reads easily.

"These 'scripts' you talk about, where do I find them?"

Here: www.simplyscripts.com. Pay attention to the difference between scripts and transcripts. Only read scripts.

And BAS v1,v2,v3 mentioned below.

There are also some really cool examples of screenwriting in TV script collections.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer the Script Book, several seasons, several volumes, lots of action like feature scripts, humor too.

The West Wing the Shooting Scripts, Seasons 1 & 2, Seasons 3 & 4, the incomparable Aaron Sorkin.

The Sopranos: Selected Scripts from Three Seasons State of the freakin' art. It don't get no better than this.

I use these books as example 'cause they're usually available at libraries and remainder bins. Sometimes on half.com for a few bucks.

So, check 'em out.

2006-07-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

Need to know about screenplay format?

Use these guides:

http://www.screenwriting.info/

http://www.scriptwritingsecrets.com/contents.htm

http://www.oscars.org/nicholl/format.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/formats.shtml

These are the best books:

The Hollywood Standard, Riley - the most up to date guide, by the former head of the WB script processing dept.

The Screenwriter's Bible, Trottier - good and widely used, choose the latest edition.

The Complete Guide to Standard Script Formats, Cole and Haag - the format rulebook of old Hollywood, useful, but dated.

Do you have to buy formatting software? If you're sure this is what you want to do, and you can easily afford two hundred bucks, go ahead and buy Final Draft or Movie Magic. FD and MM are the industry standards. FD rules in TV work, MM has a lot of users in the feature world.

If you're not sure, or your budget's tight, try these freeware solutions:

http://www.celtx.com/download.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/scriptsmart_Gold.shtml

http://www.windwardreports.com/page2stage.htm

Work your way through all of the format guides using the software. Then, get ahold of these cheap paperbacks:

Film Scenes for Actors, Karton

Film Scenes for Actors Vol. II, Karton

99 Film Scenes for Actors, Nicholas

Type up every scene with your formatting software. For extra credit, do the same with the first ten or so pages of each script in these three books:

Best American Screenplays, Vols I, II, and III.

Format is one of the foundations of screenwriting. Format, as in standard screenplay format, is needed because feature films are made by big groups of people working together. Everyone has to understand what everyone else is doing. The basic information that crew and cast members need to do their jobs is in the screenplay. Who is in the story, what happens, how, where, and when.

Because the format is standard, the same type of information is always in the same place. The filmmakers can then use the script as a basis for planning, scheduling, and budgeting. The moneymakers can use the script as a basis for comparing one potential movie to another to see which one might make the most money. Or lose the least.

2006-07-23T16:28:00.000-07:00

"Mastery is not something that strikes in an instant, like a thunderbolt, but a gathering power that moves steadily through time, like weather."

John Gardner, The Art of Fiction