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budget, comic book, graphic novel, intellectual property, IP, podcasting, short film, short story -

Creating Your Own Intellectual Property As A Screenwriter On A Budget

Creating Your Own Intellectual Property As A Screenwriter On A Budget

Creating your own intellectual property (IP) as a screenwriter is one of the most valuable things any writer can do. Hollywood is obsessed with IP beyond the point of reason. The majority of theatrical films released on a mass scale are now based on IP. For screenwriters, this can be frustrating. Shouldn’t the job just be writing a great original screenplay? That will always be valuable, but creating your own IP is just as valuable, and does not have to be debilitating or highly expensive to do. You can create your own IP on a budget. Creating a comic book...

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Disney+, Planning, revise, success, THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, THE MANDALORIAN, undeniable -

Planning For Ultimate Success As A Screenwriter

Planning For Ultimate Success As A Screenwriter

Planning for ultimate success as a screenwriter is not unlike planning a heist, or an escape from prison. It requires tremendous patience, attention to detail and careful plotting. In THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, Edmond Dantes spends fourteen years in prison. Eight of those years are with the Abbe Faria, learning language, culture, math, chemistry, medicine and science. Dantes emerges from the Chateau d’If armed with the tools he needs to enact his revenge. Planning for success in screenwriting is not dissimilar. It’s the long game, and this has never been truer than today, in the age of the coronavirus....

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A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, bold choices, Great openings, THE DEPARTED, THE SOCIAL NETWORK -

Master Screenwriting: Openings

Master Screenwriting: Openings

Great openings in scripts grab you by the throat. Master writers know this, and write accordingly. A consistent theme we see at ScriptArsenal in scripts from newer writers is a gradual warming up of conflict, where “the good stuff” tends to come later in the read. This is a dangerous place to position your writing, as industry readers are notoriously impatient and distracted by the next new thing. Don’t give them the chance to drift away. Grab them by the throat. Let’s consider some examples below: THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Oscar winner for Best Adapted Screenplay, by Aaron Sorkin). Arguably the...

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Ambiguity, INCEPTION, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, THE GODFATHER PART 2, THE THING -

Master Screenwriting: Ambiguity

Master Screenwriting: Ambiguity

Ambiguity is a consistent differentiator we see at ScriptArsenal between scripts by newer writers, up-and-coming writers, and established pros. Does ambiguity mean a confusing script? No, in fact the whole point of ambiguity is that it must be intentional and clear. Let’s consider some examples from masters of cinema (SPOILERS AHEAD). Christopher Nolan’s INCEPTION concludes with a spinning top. It is previously established in the narrative that the behavior of this spinning top is a telltale sign of the difference between reality and the dream world. The film ends ambiguously, cutting on the spinning top. The audience must live with...

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Master Screenwriting: Dialogue

Master Screenwriting: Dialogue

Master screenwriting dialogue might seem like it should be flashy, stylish, or colorful. But dialogue that is self-consciously so is rarely effective. In examining dialogue from masters in the field, some surprising commonalities emerge that may be useful to screenwriters. Here are five lines, picked at random, from acknowledged masters of screenwriting. Can you identify who the writers are? “So that was Mrs. Lundegaard on the floor in there. And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood chipper. And those three people in Brainerd. And for what? For a little bit of money. There’s more to life than...

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