Screenwriting Tips

BIPOC, feature, pilot, pitch deck, series, series bible, showrunner, world building - July 14, 2021

Pilot or Feature?

I get this question all the time from new writers, and often find that new writers pick the wrong format for the kind of story they are telling. More than that though, from a selling standpoint, they haven’t considered pros and cons of trying to sell a feature versus a pilot. In this article, I want to break down those two questions and offer advice on how to handle. To start, whether your story (or idea) should be made into a feature or a pilot essentially revolves around one key question: is your story contained or does it (can it)...

Your Comedy needs Drama

I recently watched the 2009 buddy comedy THE HANGOVER, and I felt the need to write an article about it. If you haven’t seen the movie, some of this might be lost on you, but the core of what I want to talk about is the engine that keeps the movie running – and how masterfully it was executed – which does not require you to have watched it. Let’s dive in! Well, first – a recap of the plot: Three buddies wake up from a bachelor party in Las Vegas, with no memory of the previous night and the...

Style

When it comes to the elite writer/directors, there is a level of style and flavor that all the greats have about their film(s). Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, The Coen Brothers, Guy Ritchie, Greta Gerwig, Wes Anderson, Chloe Zhao, Taika Watiti, Ridley Scott… each of these directors’ films feel completely different than the others on the list. Why is that? In this article I want to talk about style, also commonly referred to as voice, or brand, and hopefully get you to consider what your brand as a writer is; and identify what makes it unique different – and ultimately able...

A Main Character to Remember

In this article I want to discuss what it takes to create a great main character. One that sticks with us for our entire life after seeing them on the small or big screen. Characters like: Forest Gump, Arya, Andy Dufresne, Katniss Everdeen, Ellen Ripley, Luke Skywalker, Rey, Neo, Walter White, Jon Snow… Wow, I could go on for days, but I’ll stop… You get it. There are characters that live on forever in infamy, because we gravitate towards them, we love them, we are inspired by them, we empathize with them – we remember them!!! What makes that happen?...

The Saga

My wife and I recently went back and watched the Lord of The Rings movies, and on my own I went back and watched The Hobbit(s) once we had finished the original trilogy (remember Hobbit was made after LOTR). It made me hyper aware of the epic scope that all Saga’s embody, and how powerful the world-building in those stories are. Other examples include: The Matrix, The Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, The Godfather, Harry Potter, Narnia, Indiana Jones, and Pirates of the Caribbean… In this article, I want to breakdown what those movies have in common, what...

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Pilot or Feature?

Your Comedy needs Drama

Style

A Main Character to Remember

The Saga

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