Screenwriting Tips

Adam Sandler, Character, Concept, Conflict, screenwriting, Tension, The Safdie brothers, UNCUT GEMS - February 06, 2020

Screenwriting in UNCUT GEMS

The screenwriting in UNCUT GEMS is easy to take for granted. The film uses a documentary/realist style that almost makes it feel like a story the filmmakers just happened to film, vs. a carefully-scripted production. But it was carefully scripted. In a recent podcast, “The Big Picture”, the Safdie brothers, the writer/directors of the film, revealed the script went through 160 drafts, over many years, and was re-shaped repeatedly for different actors. Here’s where we must get into SPOILERS. If you have not seen UNCUT GEMS, don’t keep reading. This is your SPOILER WARNING. The magic of the film, from...

When To Let A Script Die

Letting a script die is probably the single hardest thing for a screenwriter to do. You’ve spent months, maybe years working on this material. The dream of what this script could be has fueled that process. But some scripts are in trouble from the point of conception, because their inherent nature makes them an uphill battle. This has become especially true in the feature realm, in a post-Marvel age. The overwhelming majority of big-budget films are based on pre-existing intellectual property. For writers with a big-budget spec script, this presents a significant problem. What it means, practically-speaking, is that a...

Do Scripts Really Still Sell? A Case Study

Do screenplays still sell? Is it actually possible to simply write a script, turn around, and sell it at a high level? With the decline in the feature spec market from its high point in the 1990s, it can sometimes feel like nothing sells, and specs exist primarily as a writing sample. To illustrate how this isn’t the case, we’re going to look at Aaron W. Sala’s script THE BEAST as an example. Per Deadline, in a preemptive mid-six figure deal, The H. Collective acquired Aaron W. Sala’s horror thriller spec THE BEAST. That’s a high-level sale. It’s also the...

The Myth of the TV Pilot: It’s Not Easier, It’s Harder

The myth of the television pilot in 2019 is that there are so many buyers that it has become easy to sell a pilot. 2019 continues the insane gold rush of scripted television. Ryan Murphy has a 300-million-dollar overall deal with Netflix. Shonda Rhimes has a 150-million-dollar deal. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have a 250-million-dollar deal. The number of scripted series is likely to top 500 this year, per The Hollywood Reporter. What this has done, for writers, is create a myth of the TV pilot being “easier” than the feature to sell. A common piece of advice for...

Receiving Notes Doesn’t Have to Suck: The Buddhism of Screenwriting

Receiving notes on your screenplay sucks. No screenwriter likes getting them. Or does it suck? Defining Buddhism is perhaps beyond the purview of this article, but the two-second definition of Buddhism is that the path to enlightenment is to cease craving impermanent things. This is also, coincidentally, the path to enlightenment in receiving notes on your screenwriting. Screenwriting is inherently egotistical. Any good screenwriter has a healthy ego, or perhaps a too-healthy ego. It takes a certain level of hubris to say, “My writing needs to be out there in the world.” Because of this, receiving notes is painful. Because...

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Screenwriting Tips RSS

Screenwriting in UNCUT GEMS

When To Let A Script Die

Do Scripts Really Still Sell? A Case Study

The Myth of the TV Pilot: It’s Not Easier, It’s Harder

Receiving Notes Doesn’t Have to Suck: The Buddhism of Screenwriting

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