Question: What makes a great scene?

Open forum question from Manwhit:

i was wondering if you could tell me what makes a great scene. in other words, ideally what should every scene have in it? conflict, argument, visual ques, etc? is there a checklist that you can create so that one could go through their screenplay scene by scene and make sure that all the components were there? and should individual scenes have sort of a mini structure within them- like crisis, conflict, climax, resolution?

An interesting question following on the heels of yesterday's topic. And gives me the opportunity to note that I teach a 1-week online course called "Screenwriting as Scene-Writing." Here's the course description:

If you figure that the average scene is two pages long and the average script is 120 pages, that means most scripts will have at least 60 scenes. Looked at this way, it's fair to say that the most basic act of screenwriting is scene-writing. This course presents several guidelines over the course of one week to help students develop a deeper understanding of scenes -- what they are, how they function, how each scene touches on plot, character, and style, and most importantly, how to write them.

Per that course, which I'll be teaching again in May 2010, one basic premise is this: You can't write a great scene unless you know how to craft a good one. To that end, here are some questions a writer can ask to help steer how they prep a scene:

* What type of scene is it (e.g., interaction, action, exposition, revelation, etc)?
* What is the point of the scene?
* What characters should be in the scene / why are they there?
* What is the central conflict of the scene?
* What is the scene's Beginning, Middle, and End?
* What are the key themes in the scene?
* When I should I enter / exit the scene?

That's just to get a handle on the 'guts' of a scene. I'm sure there are many variations on these types of lists. A good one I stumbled on recently is here.

But here's the thing: It's possible to nail all of these guidelines and still not have a great scene. The scene might be a solid scene, it might advance the plot, it might do a dozen things right, but if it's not entertaining, then it's probably not a great scene.

So as with almost all aspects of the writing process, we're called upon to use both our left and right brains. And while it's important to know the fundamentals of crafting a scene, it's critical that we get in touch with our intuitive self, our aesthetic self, our cinematic self, and breathe some soul into a scene. Brainstorm possibilities and ask, What would make this scene fascinating?

And here we come smashing up against that screenwriting mantra: "See. Read. Write." That is See Movies. Read Scripts. Write Pages. The first two are critical, not only in gaining a Gestalt sense of scene structure, but also to feed our creativity. If it's true that every great story has already been told, then I suppose it's also true that every great scene has already been written. So by ingesting movies and screenplays in vast quantities, our intuitive self can churn through all that 'stuff' and (hopefully) come up with an interesting variation.

Of course, one thing you can do to feed that process is go through each of the Great Scenes that are posted on this website. Every Friday at 10AM EST / 7AM PST (United States), I post a Great Scene. At last count, there are nearly 60 on the list which you can access here.

Let me end by saying that if you go through that list of Great Scenes, one thing you'll invariably notice is that each scene involves some compelling event in the life of the story's characters. And that right there could be as good as any description of what comprises a great scene: A scene in which one (or more) of the story's main characters has a compelling experience.

How about you? What do you think makes a great scene? Any words of wisdom you care to share, please post in comments.

Hollywood Roaster: "Final Draft unveils special ‘Remake Edition’"

New satire from The Hollywood Roaster:

In an effort to stay relevant in today’s marketplace, Final Draft has released a special edition of its famous scriptwriting software that focuses on remakes, sequels and adaptations.

“We’ve compiled the original scripts from classic movies, cheesy TV shows and high-concept books,” said a Final Draft representative. “Users can just click on a script, tweak a few character names – and voila! They’ve got themselves a remake.”

Next up? "A 3D edition focusing on toy properties in early 2010." Brilliant!

UPDATE: Stop with the emails! Again, as noted up top, this is a piece of satire! There is no such thing as a Final Draft remake software.

"Here's Proof Originality Doesn't Pay in Hollyw'd"

Okay, I think we've all been feeling entirely too happy around here, so time to bum you out with this: "Here's Proof Originality Doesn't Pay in Hollywood":

Some enterprising Wikipedia contributor decided to pull together a list of the 50 films with the highest worldwide gross of this decade so far.

Here's the thing: One has to go all the way down to No. 15 on the list, Disney/Pixar's "Finding Nemo," before finding one created from original material -- in other words, not a sequel, remake or adaptation of existing material or characters (such as Batman or Harry Potter).

Hey, don't blame me, blame the anonymous Wikipedia dude or dudette who figured it out. Here's the list with the original movies in bold letters:

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (New Line; 2003) $1,119,110,941

2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Disney; 2006) $1,066,179,725

3. The Dark Knight (Warner Bros.; 2008) $1,001,921,825

4. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Warner Bros.; 2001) $974,733,550

5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Disney; 2007) $960,996,492

6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Warner Bros.; 2007) $938,212,738

7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Warner Bros.; 2009) $929,022,922

8. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (New Line; 2002) $925,282,504

9. Shrek 2 (DreamWorks; 2004) $919,838,758

10. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros.; 2005) $895,921,036

11. Spider-Man 3 (Columbia; 2007) $890,871,626

12. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Warner Bros.; 2002) $878,643,482

13. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (20th Century Fox; 2009) $878,615,229

14. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (New Line; 2001) $870,761,744

15. Finding Nemo (Disney/Pixar; 2003) $864,625,978

16. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (20th Century Fox; 2005) $848,754,768

17. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Paramount; 2009) $833,229,011

18. Spider-Man (Columbia; 2002) $821,708,551

19. Shrek the Third (DreamWorks; 2007) $798,958,162

20. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Warner Bros.; 2004) $795,634,069

21. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Paramount; 2008) $786,636,033

22. Spider-Man 2 (Columbia; 2004) $783,766,341

23. The Da Vinci Code (Sony/Columbia; 2006) $758,239,851

24. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Disney; 2005) $745,011,272

25. The Matrix Reloaded (Warner Bros.; 2003) $742,128,461

26. Transformers *DreamWorks/Paramount; 2007) $709,709,780

27. Ice Age: The Meltdown (20th Century Fox; 2006) $655,388,158

28. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Disney; 2003) $654,264,015

29. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (20th Century Fox; 2002) $649,398,328

30. Kung Fu Panda (DreamWorks; 2008) $631,736,484

31. The Incredibles (Disney/Pixar; 2004) $631,442,092

32. Hancock (Columbia; 2008) $624,386,746

33. Ratatouille (Disney/Pixar; 2007) $623,707,397

34. The Passion of the Christ (Newmarket; 2004) $611,899,420

35. Mamma Mia! (Universal; 2008) $609,841,637

36. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (DreamWorks; 2008) $603,900,344

37. Casino Royale (MGM/Columbia; 2006) $594,239,066

38. War of the Worlds (DreamWorks/Paramount; 2005) $591,745,540

39. Quantum of Solace (MGM/Columbia; 2008) $586,090,727

40. I Am Legend (Warner Bros.; 2007) $585,349,010

41. Iron Man (Paramount; 2008) $585,133,287

42. Night at the Museum (20th Century Fox; 2006) $574,480,450

43. King Kong (Universal; 2005) $550,517,357

44. Mission: Impossible II (Paramount; 2000) $546,388,105

45. The Day After Tomorrow (20th Century Fox; 2004) $544,272,402

46. Madagascar (DreamWorks; 2005) $532,680,671

47. The Simpsons Movie (20th Century Fox; 2007) $527,071,022

48. Monsters, Inc. (Disney/Pixar; 2001) $525,366,597

49. WALL-E (Disney/Pixar; 2008) $521,268,237

50. Meet the Fockers (Universal; 2004) $516,642,939

Wow, a lot of non-bold letters! So what are you waiting for? Go write that killer original spec script that will get a big fat green light.

UPDATE: Okay, enough with the depression! Here is list: "10 Movies You Should Have Invested In", basically the lowest budget to highest profit movies of all time. They are:

10. Rocky (1976)
Production Budget: $1,000,000
Box Office Revenue: $225,000,000
Budget/Revenue Ratio: 1:225

9. Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Budget: $114,000
Box Office Revenue: $30,000,000
Budget/Revenue Ratio: 1:263

8. El mariachi (1992)
Budget: $7,000
Box Office Revenue: £2,040,920
Budget/Revenue Ratio: 1:292

7. The Brothers MacMullen (1995)
Budget: $25,000
Box Office Revenue: $10,426,506 (US domestic gross only)
Budget/Revenue Ratio: 1:417

6. Super Size Me (2004)
Budget: $65,000
Box Office Revenue: $29,529,368
Budget/Revenue Ratio: 1:454

5. Mad Max (1980)
Budget: $200,000
Box Office Revenue: $99,750,000
Budget/Revenue Ratio: 1:499

4. The Road to Ruin (1928)
Budget: $2,500
Box Office Revenue: $2,500,000
Budget/Revenue Ratio: 1:1000

3. Deep Throat (1972)
Budget: $22,500
Box Office Revenue: $45,000,000 (US domestic gross only)
Budget/Revenue Ratio: 1:2000

2. Tarnation (2004)
Budget: $218.32
Box Office Revenue: $1,162,014
Budget/Revenue Ratio: 1:5323

1.The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Budget: $35,000
Box Office Revenue: $248,300,000
Budget/Revenue Ratio: 1:7094

Have to add to that Paranormal Experience, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Sex, Lies & Videotape, Clerks. So most of the most profitable movies (ratio of budget to revenue) are original stories.

Studies in good scene description

Over the past year and a half, we've discussed scene description several times:

Scene description as poetry

Screenwriting and the present tense

American Beauty and The Sixth Sense: Good 'poetic' writing

Capitalization in scene description

Butch Cassidy: One way to write an action scene

Screenwriters confront a challenge with scene description. On the one hand, movies are primarily a visual medium and it is scene description that conveys a script's visuals and action. On the other hand, script readers will, if pressed, scan scene description and focus on dialogue. Why? Dialogue has narrower margins and, thus, can be read faster - a big deal if you're a reader under a deadline to turn in coverage and/or you've got several scripts in your to-read stack. And you can pretty much track what's going on just by reading dialogue.

So a conundrum: Scene description is critical in conveying a movie's visuals and action, yet a script reader will often carry a conscious (or unconscious) prejudice against paying close attention to it.

Which results in a few principles re writing scene description:

* No more than 5 lines per paragraph of scene description [better yet, 3 lines]
* Think of scene description more like poetry than prose
* You do not need to use complete sentences in scene description
* Use visual descriptors
* Use strong verbs
* Aim to create a visceral sense of place, mood, and feel

Here's a mantra that pretty much sums it up: "Minimum words, maximum impact".

In that spirit, check out this scene description:

Pete cruised in slow. He wore the sap. He held his automatic. He saw:

Dirt streets. Dirt yards. Dirt lots. Shack chateaus abundant.

Tar-paper pads with cinder-block siding. Beaucoup churches/one mosque.
ALLAH IS LORD! signs. Allah signs revised to JESUS!

Lots of street activity. Jigs cooking bar-b-que in fifty-gallon drums.

Shouts overlapped--more rebop/more jive. Pete yelled. Pete displayed
charisma. Pete restored calm.

Visual. Lean. Punchy. Conveys a sense of place, mood, feel. And easy to read.

Good scene description, right? Except it's from a novel: "The Cold Six Thousand" by James Ellroy.

In this most recent 14 Days of Screenplays challenge, I was struck by how good the scene description was, especially in the more contemporary scripts: The Crying Game, (500) Days of Summer, Wall-E, Aliens, Little Miss Sunshine. Since screenwriting boils down to scene-writing, and scenes are almost always dominated by scene description, I thought it would be interesting to keep an eye out for good examples of scene description over the next few weeks.

So as you read screenplays, novels, short stories, even poems, make a note of particularly good scene description. Once a week or so, I'll start a thread inviting everyone to post those examples in comments - to help inspire us to write strong, compelling, and vivid scene description, the best way to keep a reader engaged in the visual aspect of the scripts we write.

Feel free to start in comments here with any of your favorite screenplay scene description.

On writing

"If you write a story today, and you get up tomorrow and start another story, all the expertise that you put into the first story doesn't transfer over automatically to the second story. You're always starting at the bottom of the mountain. So you're always becoming a writer. You're never really arriving."

-- Edward P. Jones

Daily Dialogue -- November 30, 2009

"Shoot straight, you bastards - don't make a mess of it."

-- Lt. Harry 'Breaker' Morant (Edward Woodward), Breaker Morant (1980), screenplay by Jonathan Hardy and David Stevens and Bruce Beresford

"'Call of Duty' breaks $3 billion sales mark"

Check this out from THR:

Activision Blizzard Inc. said its "Call of Duty" video game franchise has pushed past the $3 billion mark in global retail sales.

Overall, the "Call of Duty" series has sold more than 55 million units since its launch in 2003, Activision said Friday, citing data compiled by NPD Group, Charttrack, GfK and internal company estimates.

Just to put things in perspective, the #1 movie per domestic and international B.O. this year is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen which has grossed $833M. Um, that would be $2.2B less than the gross total for "Call of Duty" - and the videogame has only been available to the public for less than a month! Which provides the frame for this dude's comment from the THR article:

"If you consider the number of hours our audiences are engaged in playing 'Call of Duty' games, it is likely to be one of the most viewed of all entertainment experiences in modern history," Activision chief executive Bobby Kotick said.

And there you go: "entertainment experiences." Does that description get at a major distinction between movies and videogames? Movies are simply "entertainment"; videogames are "entertainment experiences." That instead of entering into a story passively through the Protagonist (movie), the viewer becomes a user by entering into a story actively through a videogame Protagonist (e.g., 1st person shooter).

UPDATE: I stand corrected by my savvy readers. $5B for the entire COD series, not just this one vid-release.

Reader Question: What are the keys to a great opening scene?

Open forum question from Keith:

What are some principles you use for opening scenes? What makes an opening scene really hook the reader, and get behind our "hero" for the long haul?

This is a great subject because as we have discussed before, an opening scene can be hugely important to a script.

For starters, much of how you approach an opening scene is influenced by the story's genre. For instance, if you're writing an action or action-adventure movie, you'll most likely want to begin the story with a bang, a 'hard' opening sequence that generates a high level of energy (as opposed to a 'soft' character-based opening). Good examples that come to mind: The bank robbery in The Dark Knight, Agent Smith and his guys trying to capture Trinity in The Matrix, the escape from the prison chain gang in 48 Hrs.

If your story is more character-driven, then you look for an entertaining way to introduce your main characters and set the plot into motion. Some good examples:

* Juno, where the opening scene introduces the story's Protagonist Juno, staring at an abandoned living room set ("It started with a chair"), a snippet of a flashback where Juno drops her drawers and straddles a naked Paulie Bleeker (who is seated in the aforementioned chair) - obviously initiating intercourse - followed by an abrupt transition back to the present by a barking dog, and ending with Juno swigging down the contents of a big jug of Sunny Delight. That is an effective opening because it creates so many questions in the mind of the reader, immediately creating curiosity which compels us into the story to find out the answers.

* Little Miss Sunshine which in 5 pages provides one 'snapshot' after another of all the story's key characters, beginning with Olive who studies with rapt attention a videotape of a beauty contest. This approach not only creates curiosity, it also gives the reader an immediate sense of the characters' and their respective core essence.

* How about the opening scene of Sideways:

The rapping at the door, at first tentative and polite, grows insistent.
Then we hear someone get out of bed.

MILES (O.S.)
...the fuck...

The door is opened, and the black gives way to BLINDING WHITE
LIGHT, the way experiences the first of day amid, say,
a hangover.

A WORKER is there.

MILES (O.S.)
Yeah?

WORKER
Hi, Miles. Can you move your car,
please.

MILES (O.S.)
Why?

WORKER
The painters got to put the truck
in, and you didn't park too good.

MILES (O.S.)
(a sigh, then --)
Yeah, hold on.

He closes the door with a SLAM.

It's a 'soft' opening, not much in the way of action, but it's funny and provides immediate insight into Miles' character - the hangover reference in SD and the line "you didn't park too good" strongly suggesting that Miles has issues with alcohol. Again we're curious. Again we get a key insight into the character. Plus we establish a theme: The world (the white light) intruding on Miles' life (darkness), a foreshadowing of his journey to come.

If you're writing a comedy, it is important to write an opening scene that will elicit some laughs from the reader and establish the tone of your story's humor. A great example of that is the recent horror-comedy hit Zombieland which uses misdirection for comedic purposes --moving from a shot of an American flag accompanied by the song "This Land is Your Land" to post-apocalyptic images -- then introduces a zombie, who zeroes in on the cameraman shooting the footage, a brief chase, which the cameraman loses:

The camera FALLS to the ground, askew, shooting nothing but
treetops and sky. Offscreen, the CAMERAMAN SCREAMS and
SCREAMS and SCREAMS, accompanied by ripping, cracking,
CRUNCHING.

Something just God-awful is happening to this guy. Then he
gacks and falls SILENT.

We hear munching.

The scene ends with a zombie belch. So it not only establishes the story's genre, the tone of the humor (dark comedy), and the central conceit - it's a zombie movie - it also creates some laughs.

For thrillers, you go for something that creates suspense. A good example of that is the script Basic Instinct which describes - in detail - a sex scene that turns violent:

He is inside her... his head arches back... his throat
white.

She arches her back... her hips grind... her breasts are
high...

Her back arches... back... her head tilts back... she
extends her arms... the right arm comes down suddenly...
the steel flashes... his throat is white...

He bucks, writhes, bucks, convulses...

It flashes up... it flashes down... up... and down...
and up... and...

Here the screenwriter Joe Eszterhas titillates the reader, establishes the story's genre, and gets the story off to a kick-ass start -- all in 3/4 of a page.

So what are the keys to a great opening scene? Here are some of them:

* Get the story off to a strong start
* Establish genre and tone of the story
* Introduce basic story premise in a compelling way
* Set the Plotline into motion
* Play to your genre (i.e., if it's a comedy, make the scene funny, if it's a thriller, create suspense)
* Provide an indication of your key character's core essence (typically your Protagonist)
* Make the scene a quick one (1-2 pages)

Bottom line: You want the opening scene to pull the reader into the story straight-away.

How about you? What do you think are the keys to a great opening scene?

And what are some of your favorite opening scenes?

2010 Hollywood movie release schedule -- Not Scheduled (M-Z)

If you're serious about selling a spec script to a Hwood movie studio, you're well advised to keep up with what stories they're buying and what movies they're releasing. For the former, GITS posts every spec script and original pitch that sells as they occur. Re the latter, over the next four days, I'll post the 2010 movie release schedule, one quarter per day.

Movie Release Schedule

2010 – Not Scheduled (M-Z)

The Matarese Circle (MGM): Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington

Action, Thriller

Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, the book revolves around two bitter enemy spies — one American, one Soviet — who, after spending two decades trying to kill one another, must cooperate in order to foil a sinister plot to topple the world’s governments.

Mother and Child (Sony Classics): Annette Bening, Naomi Watts

Drama

A drama centered around three women: A 50-year-old woman, the daughter she gave up for adoption 35 years ago, and an African American woman looking to adopt a child of her own.

My Year Without Sex (Strand): Sacha Horler, Matt Day

Comedy, Drama

A couple are forced to abstain from sex because of the woman's medical condition.

Sanctum (Rogue): Alister Grierson

Drama

A deep-sea diving team experiences a life-threatening crises in the ocean's uncharted depths.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Animation

The retelling of L Frank Baum's story of Dorothy's adventures in Oz drawn from Baum's original material.

The Three Stooges (MGM): Jim Carrey, Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin

Comedy

The Tree of Life (Apparition): Brad Pitt, Sean Penn

Drama

In a mystical world of folklore, several individuals embrace in a race to find the Tree of Life, said to give immortality, fertility, and other supernatural powers.

Unthinkable (Senate): Morgan Freeman, Michael Sheen

Drama, Thriller

Two investigators push the limits of interrogation of a man who is suspected of knowing the location of three nuclear weapons, set to detonate in the United States.

All information from Film-Releases.

See any interesting trends?

"USC professor creates an entire alien language for 'Avatar'"

Imagine being an academic and getting a call to do this:

This modern era of moviemaking has plenty of peculiar challenges for actors -- on green-screen sets, for instance, they have to watch a ping-pong ball hanging from a string and convince the camera that they actually staring down some magical beastie -- but for the actors auditioning for "Avatar" the biggest challenge may have been reading a sheet of paper with words invented by a USC professor named Paul R. Frommer.

Create a language basically from scratch. Very cool.

Frommer has spent four years laboring on the language of the Na'vi tribe and his work will not end on the day of the film's release. He plans to keep expanding the language until he's, well, blue in the face.

"I'm still working and I hope that the language will have a life of its own," the professor said. "For one thing, I'm hoping there will be prequels and sequels to the film, which means more language will be needed."

Academic talking prequels and sequels. Sounds like a certifiable Hwood producer! But how'd he do the hard work of creating the language:

Then came the heavy lifting -- nailing down the sound system, word construction, the rule of syntax -- and Frommer immersed himself in the thousands of decisions required, many of them deciding what goes in and what goes out. The Na'vi language, for instance, does not have the sounds buh, duh, guh, chu, shu, and by restricting the sounds, Frommer said, a characteristic shape of the language begins to distinguish itself.

"If you allow everything and the kitchen sink, you get a mishmash, it sounds like gibberish," Frommer said. "An analogy is cooking and deciding how you are going to spice up a certain dish. If you put everything you have on the shelf, you get a mess. If you are judicious you get something good. In language, sometimes things are defined by the absences."

Yet another thing to look for in the movie Avatar. And just in case you're one of the two people in the universe who hasn't seen the trailer for the movie, check it out:

Video interview: Aaron Sorkin

Today's video interview is with screenwriter-TV writer Aaron Sorkin. Sorkin's movie credits include A Few Good Men (1992), Malice (1993), The American President (1995), and Charlie Wilson's War (2007). His TV credits include "Sports Night" (45 episodes, 1998-2000), "The West Wing" (155 episodes, 1999-2006), and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" (22 episodes, 2006-2007).

In this interview at the excellent website MakingOf, Sorkin discusses:

* How writing a TV show is more akin to the process of doing a play, whereas making a movie is more like doing an album.

* How he got into writing political shows and why he chose the White House as a venue for two projects (American President and "The West Wing").

* What factors determine if he choose to write a project or not.

* Production polishes.

* His writing process (he prefers to write early in the morning).

* "I'm less interested in the difference between good and evil than I am between good and great."

* The most difficult aspect of the writing process: Cracking the story. The backbone of the story: "What the intention is, what the obstacle is."

* Writing dialogue: "Make it sound like music."

Here's the full video interview:

Daily Dialogue -- November 29, 2009

"Ain't it a shame how some of God's children have it so easy, while others have it so hard?"

-- Mrs. Edson (Pauline Myers), Lady Sings the Blues (1972), screenplay by Chris Clark and Suzanne De Passe and Terence McCloy

"The Wire" - 50% off

GITS reader Jeff emailed me this link: The entire HBO series "The Wire" currently half-off at Amazon.

Thanks, Jeff, for the heads-up!

Question: Bolded sluglines -- yes or no?

Open forum question from The Douche Guide:

bolded sluglines

thoughts?

Let me back into the subject by talking first about transitions -- CUT TO, DISSOLVE TO, SMASH CUT TO, etc. My sense of style trends is that they are being used less and less. Why? I suspect because they can prove unnecessary. Worse they essentially eat up two lines of space. Two words for two entire lines of space? What a waste! If you insert a transition between each scene and your script has 60 scenes, that means you have over 2 pages of wasted space, pages you could have used to enhance your story or lower your pages count (thereby winning the gratitude of weary script readers everywhere).

And here's the thing: If you're consistent with how you use primary sluglines -- you only use them when making a transition from one scene to the next -- you can 'train' the reader to make the transition without using CUT TO, DISSOLVE TO, etc.

The singular advantage of using a transition is that it creates a literal break in the text that clearly communicates to a reader the story is moving from one scene to the next. For instance, here is an excerpt from Aliens that uses CUT TO to signify the transition from one scene to the next:

  Ripley turns sharply away, trembling with frustration
 and anger.  Dallas looks back at her from the video
 screen, his eyes burning from the photograph, as we:

                                                 CUT TO:

 INT. CORRIDOR                                      

 Ripley kicks the wall next to Burke who is getting coffee
 and donuts at a vending machine.

All that white space to the left of CUT TO: creates a gap that signifies to a reader there is a scene transition. However that's also wasted space. So what if you did this instead:

  Ripley turns sharply away, trembling with frustration
 and anger.  Dallas looks back at her from the video
 screen, his eyes burning from the photograph, as we:

  INT. CORRIDOR - DAY                                             

 Ripley kicks the wall next to Burke who is getting coffee
 and donuts at a vending machine.

What if you bolded the primary slugline? Isn't that equally effective in underscoring the scene transition -- without the aid of CUT TO, enabling the writer to save two lines of space?

Are there screenwriters who do this? Yes. For example, Alan Ball. In his screenplay for American Beauty, Ball not only bolds primary sluglines, he underlines them, too:

         Lester watches her through a WINDOW on the first floor,
        peeping out through the drapes.

                              LESTER (V.O.)
                  That's my wife Carolyn. See the way
                  the handle on those pruning shears
                  matches her gardening clogs? That's
                  not an accident.

        EXT. JIMS' HOUSE - CONTINUOUS

        In the fenced front yard of the house next door, a dog BARKS
        repeatedly. A MAN in a conservative suit (JIM #1) chastises
        the barking dog.

The bottom line for me is making the script as readable as possible, while avoiding wasteful screenplay elements like transitions and parentheticals. And to my knowledge, there's no Golden Rule prohibiting bolding sluglines. So if it tickles your stylistic fancy, I say why not.

UPDATE: Responding to comments, let me underscore the point: You may use bold for sluglines, however that is purely a stylistic choice on your part, not my personal recommendation. Again if you are consistent in using primary sluglines to signify the beginning of a new scene, that alone should be enough to convey the transition to the reader - ergo you don't need bold or underline. But like Alan Ball, an Academy Award and Emmy winning writer, you may choose to do it because it suits your style.

2010 Hollywood movie release schedule -- Not Scheduled (A-L)

If you're serious about selling a spec script to a Hwood movie studio, you're well advised to keep up with what stories they're buying and what movies they're releasing. For the former, GITS posts every spec script and original pitch that sells as they occur. Re the latter, over the next four days, I'll post the 2010 movie release schedule, one quarter per day.

Movie Release Schedule

2010 – Not Scheduled (A-L)

127 Hours (Fox Searchlight): Ryan Gosling

Drama, True Story

The story of mountaineer Aron Ralston, whose right forearm got pinned for nearly five days under a boulder during a climb in Utah in May 2003. He used a dull knife to amputate the limb, then scaled a 65-foot sheer wall and hiked out before running into a family that gave him water and food.

Agora (Newmarket): Rachel Weisz, Oscar Issac

Drama, Historical

A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hopes of pursuing freedom while also falling in love with his master, the famous female philosophy professor and atheist Hypatia of Alexandria.

Bluebeard (Strand): Daphne Baiwir, Lola Creton

Fantasy, Fairy Tale

An adaptation of the classic tale of a wealthy aristocrat with a blue beard.

Conan (Lionsgate)

Action, Adventure

Cracks (IFC): Eva Green, Juno Template

Drama

A look at the lives and relationships among girls at an elite British boarding school.

The Fighter (Paramount): Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale

Drama, Bio, Sports

Boxer "Irish" Micky Ward's unlikely road to the world light welterweight title. His Rocky-like rise was shepherded by half-brother Dicky, a boxer-turned-trainer who rebounded in life after nearly being KO'd by drugs and crime.

For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf (Lionsgate): Tyler Perry

Drama

A drama about existence from the perspective of 20 nameless black females.

The Good Heart (Magnolia Pictures): Dagur Kari

Drama

A bartender takes a young homeless man in under his wing.

Happy Tears (Roadside Attractions): Demi Moore, Parker Posey

Drama

Two sisters, Jayne (Posey) and Laura (Moore), return home to deal with their ailing father Joe (Torn), only to face some surprising situations.

The King’s Speech (Weinstein Co.): Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush

Drama, Bio

A young king -- father of Queen Elizabeth II -- reluctantly assumes the throne after his brother, Edward, abdicates. Considered unfit to rule and cursed with a nervous stammer, the unprepared monarch turns to an unorthodox speech therapist, Lionel Logue. The two men form an unlikely friendship as King George finds his voice and leads the country into war against the Germans.

Let Me In (Overture): Richard Jenkins, Chloe Moretz

Horror, Thriller

The film is about the relationship between a preteen boy and a girl who just moved to the neighborhood and happens to be a vampire.

All information from Film-Releases.

See any interesting trends?

"Three Less Orthodox Story Structures"

Lee Mathias at his screenwriting blog The Last Reveal offers up his latest post: "Three Less Orthodox Story Structures". They are:

1) The Sonata Musical Form

2) Five-Act Structure

3) Nine-Act Structure with Two Goals and a Reversal

Per the first one, Mathias notes:

Scott Myers, at his blog, Go Into The Story, did a post on the sonata musical form and its resemblance to the three act structure of many screenplays. He pointed out:

“There are striking similarities, if you think of:

“Melodies as Characters

“Transitions from one key to the next as major plot points

“Exposition-Development-Recapitulation as Act I-Act II-Act III.”

“Music is another means of storytelling, and the fact that master composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms, and many more used sonata form, that it ruled orchestral music for 150 years, that pieces based upon sonata form are still performed and enjoyed by millions to this day is yet another example of why structural theories about screenplays work – because they reflect a three act/movement pattern which seems to underlie the basics of all stories, all forms of storytelling, all manner of story-crafting.”

Lee one-ups me re sonata form with a more comprehensive analysis that takes the subject beyond my comparison of it to 3-Act Structure (his post is well worth reading).

In a recent email exchange with Lee, going through various approaches to story structure, I wrote this:

I just don't believe there's any one 'right' way to approach writing a screenplay. Every writer is different, every story is different. If I had to offer the best approach to learning the craft, it would be a combination of reading everything, writing a bunch of screenplays for 10 years, then at that point, the writer should have an informed intuitive sense of what they're doing -- then just go with your gut.

What's your take? One universal approach to screenplay structure? Or is 'story' so organic and malleable that there must by necessity be numerous structural paradigms?

Interview: Joe Penhall (The Road)

Today's interview is from MovieFill.com with British playwright and screenwriter Joe Penhall, who adapted the Cormac McCarthy novel "The Road" for its screen treatment. Here is an excerpt from the interview:

Q: Can you talk about your first reactions reading the book and some of the challenges of bringing it to a visual medium?

Penhall: I read the book very late at night, in a hurry, and uh … the last kind of twenty pages really sort of moved me to um … to tears cause it wasn’t long after my own dad had died, weirdly in a very similar way. Not in a post-apocalypse landscape but of a lung condition. So … some of the things that were said in that final exchange were uncannily similar, and the rest of the book I just thought was extraordinarily adventurous in its … proposition. You know, when the end comes, it’s going to be very convincing so I was hooked immediately, and then when I wrote it a similar thing happened: I found it very exciting to write, because some of those propositions are just mind blowing, and, embarrassingly, when I wrote the last fifteen pages I was again quite teary and it was the same when I watched what Viggo was doing with it. So it was a great thing to do, it felt very pure, and was from the heart as well as being intellectually challenging and exciting, which is always what you want when you are doing the work, something that genuinely stretches you.

We've talked previously about the importance of a writer having some sort of emotional connection to the story they want to write. Clearly Penhall had one with The Road. Here is the trailer for the movie:



The Road opens this weekend. If you've seen the movie, please weigh in with your thoughts about it in comments.

Daily Dialogue -- November 28, 2009

"So like, right now for example. The Haitians need to come to America. But some people are all, "What about the strain on our resources?" Well it's like when I had this garden party for my father's birthday, right? I put R.S.V.P. 'cause it was a sit-down dinner. But some people came that like did not R.S.V.P. I was like totally buggin'. I had to haul ass to the kitchen, redistribute the food, and squish in extra place settings. But by the end of the day it was, like, the more the merrier. And so if the government could just get to the kitchen, rearrange some things, we could certainly party with the Haitians. And in conclusion may I please remind you it does not say R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty. Thank you very much."

-- Cher Horowitz (Alicia Silverstone), Clueless (1995), written and directed by Amy Heckerling

Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Dying words

So this week's Daily Dialogue featured movies written by women. And per the recent contest, I thought this suggestion would make for a fun theme:

* A character's final dying words (suggested by Peter Dwight)

So please post your favorite dialogue of a character's dying words in comments. Let's see if we can put together 7 great sides, one for each day next week.

Question: What is the best way to read a script?

Open forum question from Frank Buckley:

I have a question about the reading of scripts. I have often read that it is most beneficial to read a screenplay in one sitting, in order to truly learn from the experience.

I can see the wisdom of this as you are better able to pick up on rhythm and pace. Real life, however, has a way of intruding on said study periods; so my question is this: Is there value in reading a script in pieces? Or do you lose out on it's overall structure and theme?

Now, reading of any kind is beneficial, but what are your thoughts on the "One Sitting" mind-set?

In general, it makes sense to read a script straight through in one sitting, otherwise you run the risk of losing a sense of the story's pace. Plus it's hard to get a coherent feel for the script's emotions if you drop in and out of the read. However, as you note, life has a "way of intruding," and it's easy to use the "I don't have ninety minutes" excuse to avoid reading a script.

So if you only have time to read a script over the course of several sittings, here are a few ways you can transform that circumstance into a real learning opportunity re the script's structure:

* Scene-by-scene breakdown: During your stints reading a script, create a scene by scene breakdown ala this example of Shakespeare in Love. The value of doing script breakdowns is it forces you deeper into the story's structure. BTW, I recently spotlighted Beat Sheet Central, a website where you can upload and download breakdowns / beat sheets of movies.

* Screenplay paradigm: Whether you use Syd Field's original paradigm, the sequence approach, or some other screenwriting guru's take, you can dig even deeper into the story's structure by creating a 'map' of the script's major plot points, sequences, and acts / act breaks. You can go here and see my structural take on the million dollar spec script "Medieval."

* Subplots: Another good exercise per structure is to note each of the story's subplots, then sort the scenes for every one of the subplots to see how they track from beginning through the middle and to their ending.

The important thing is to read screenplays. They and movies are what might be called a screenwriter's primary source material and while reading books about screenwriting can be valuable, there is a special kind of learning that takes place when a writer engages with a story directly. Best to read a screenplay in one sitting in order to enter into its narrative flow, get a sense of its pace, and give a chance for the story's emotional elements to impact you. But if you can only read a script in different sittings, try some of the exercises above to burrow into the story's underlying structure.

2010 Hollywood movie release schedule (4th quarter)

If you're serious about selling a spec script to a Hwood movie studio, you're well advised to keep up with what stories they're buying and what movies they're releasing. For the former, GITS posts every spec script and original pitch that sells as they occur. Re the latter, over the last four days, I've been posting the 2010 movie release schedule, one quarter per day.

Movie Release Schedule

2010 (4th Quarter)

October 1

Alpha and Omega (Lionsgate): Hayden Panettiere, Christina Ricci

Family, Comedy, Animation

Two mismatched young wolves thrown are together by circumstance.

Priest (Screen Gems): Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet

Horror, Action, Western

A priest disobeys church law to track down the vampires who kidnapped his niece.

Your Highness (Universal): Danny McBride, Natalie Portman

Comedy, Adventure

When an evil wizard casts a spell on their father and kidnaps the older prince's fiance, two spoiled and princes are forced to go on a quest to save their family and the kingdom (medieval fantasy setting)

October 8

Going the Distance (Warner Bros.): Justin Long, Drew Barrymore

Romance, Comedy

A couple trying to maintain a long-distance relationship while one lives in Chicago and the other in Los Angeles.

Secretariat (Disney): Diane Lane, John Malkovich

Drama

The life story of Penny Chenery, owner of the racehorse Secretariat, who won the Triple Crown in 1973.

The Zookeeper (MGM): Kevin James, Rosaio Dawson

Comedy, Romance

A lonely zookeeper decides to leave his job because he can't meet a girl, leading to intervention by the zoo's animals.

October 15

Faster (CBS Films): Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton

Action, Drama

An ex-con is out to avenge his brother's death after they were double-crossed during a heist years before.

October 22

Prisoners (Warner Bros.): Russell Crowe

Thriller

A small-town carpenter man turns vigilante after his daughter and her best friend are kidnapped.

Saw VII (Lionsgate): Tobin Bell, Tanedra Howard

Horror, Thriller

November 5

Due Date (Warner Bros.): Robert Downey Jr., Jamie Foxx

Comedy

An expectant dad and his unlikely travel companion race cross-country in hopes of making it home for the birth of his first child.

Oobermind (Dreamworks Animation): Brad Pitt, Will Ferrell

Animation, Comedy, Family

A satirical take on superhero movies, in which a notorious villain loses his oomph after he accidentally kills his nemesis.

November 12

Unstoppable (20^th Century Fox): Denzel Washington, Rosario Dawson

Action, Drama, Thriller

An unmanned runaway train is carrying a cargo of toxic chemicals. An engineer and his conductor find themselves in a race against time.

November 19

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Warner Bros.): Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson

Fantasy, Action

Voldemort's power is growing stronger. He now has control over the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione decide to finish Dumbledore's work and find the rest of the Horcruxes to defeat the Dark Lord. But little hope remains for them, so everything they do must go as planned.

Red (Summit): Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis

Action, Thriller

A former black-ops agent has gone into retirement but is forced back into action when a high-tech assassin comes shows up to threaten him and his girlfriend.

November 24, 2009

Burlesque (Screen Gems): Christine Aguilera, Cher

Musical, Drama

An ambitious smalltown girl with a big voice finds love, family and success in a Los Angeles neo-burlesque club.

Love and Other Drugs (20^th Century Fox): Anne Hathaway, Jake Gyllenhaal

Drama

A salesman competes in the cutthroat world of pharmaceuticals to hawk a male performance enhancement drug and enters into a relationship with a woman with Parkinson's disease.

Rapunzel (Disney): Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi

Animation, Comedy, Musical

The long-haired Princess Rapunzel has spent her entire life in a tower, but when she falls in love with a bandit who was passing by she must venture into the outside world for the first time to find him.

Red Dawn (MGM): Chris Hemsworth, Josh Peck

Action

A group of teenagers form an impromptu insurgency when their town is invaded by Chinese and Russian soldiers.

December 10

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (20^th Century Fox): Ben Barnes, George Henley

Fantasy, Adventure

In the enchanted land of Narnia, Edmund and Lucy join King Caspian on a sworn mission to find the seven lost Lords of Narnia. So begins a perilous new quest that takes them to the farthest edge of the Eastern world on board the mighty Dawn Treader. Sailing uncharted seas, the old friends must survive a terrible storm, encounters with sea serpents, dragons and invisible enemies to reach lands where magicians weave mysterious spells and nightmares come true. They need every ounce of courage and the help of the great lion Aslan to triumph in their most hazardous adventure of all.

December 17

How Do You Know? (Columbia): Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson

Romance, Comedy

Life As We Know It (Warner Bros.): Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel

Romance, Comedy, Drama

Two unattached adults see their worlds turned upside down when their mutual best friends die in an accident and name them as caregivers of their orphaned daughter.

Tron Legacy (Disney): Jeff Bridges

Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

A virtual-world worker looks to take down the Master Control Program.

Yogi Bear (Warner Bros.): Dan Aykroyd, Justin Timberlake

Animation, Comedy, Family

In Jellystone Park, Yogi Bear and his sidekick Boo Boo get into some good-natured fun, much to the chagrin of Ranger Smith.

December 22

The Green Hornet (Columbia): Seth Rogen, Cameron Diaz

Action, Superhero

By night, debonair newspaper publisher Britt Reid fights crime as a masked superhero known as The Green Hornet. At his side is martial arts expert Kato.

Gulliver’s Travels (20^th Century Fox): Jack Black, Emily Blunt

Adventure, Comedy

Lemuel Gulliver, a free-spirited travel writer on an assignment to the Bermuda Triangle, suddenly finds himself a giant among men when he washes ashore on the hidden island of Lilliput, home to a population of industrious, yet tiny, people.

All information from Film-Releases.

See any interesting trend?

Tomorrow a bunch of movies with no release dates, but in theory to come out in 2010.