Reading Screenplays!
Geno Scala
Exec. Director of Academy Awards; "The Script Mentor"; "Ghostwriter to the Stars"; Creator of "The 20 Day Screenplay";
Screenwriting Myth: “Read all the scripts you can and learn what TO DO and NOT to do!”
One of the more celebrated platitudes (myths) disguised as “screenwriting advice” is the suggestion to “read all the scripts you can and learn what TO do and what NOT to do!”
I am not aware of a single script ever written that tells you HOW or HOW NOT to write a spec screenplay. The fact that a particular screenplay was successful, in and of itself, means nothing in the final analysis. There are just too many elements that go into creating a successful screenplay – including luck – that, to limit it to one rule or even a series of rules is folly.
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Undoubtedly, a fellow screenwriter who believes he or she knows more than the rest of us, or one of those dangerously self-proclaimed “gurus” will suggest something along the lines of the following:
“You want to learn how to write a screenplay? Read ‘Chinatown’ until your eyes bleed! THAT’S how you write a screenplay!”
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?“You write comedy? Read ‘The Hangover’. That’s the direction comedy is going these days.”
“You think you write horror? Better be like the ‘Saw’ franchise. Better yet, make it a found footage horror. They’re hot right now!”
?You’ve ALL been told the screenplays – Casablanca, The Godfather, Annie Hall, Network…the list goes on and on. Then, the untrained, uneducated, unlearned spec screenwriter takes all the little tricks and traits that make those screenplays among the best written and writes their masterpiece.
How could they go wrong?
How about by including the actor cue, “intense beat”?
Not only include it, but…here it comes… let’s put it in the “scene description”!
And, because you saw it in a Woody Allen script, why not include “camera ramp to close up of man’s crotch”?
It worked for him, why not me?
How about three full pages of script dedicated to the credit roll and subsequent background graphics, not to mention a song list and YouTube links of suggested dance numbers?
Sounds ridiculous? Silly?
I saw ALL of these in various screenplays just a few weeks ago.
?The point is that most of the scripts you’ll read from produced movies, written by extremely talented, professional, working screenwriters ARE, in fact, scripts of PRODUCED MOVIES, written by extremely talented, professional, WORKING screenwriters.
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If you’re reading this book, this probably doesn’t define YOU- at least, not where you are today. That’s just a fact, Jack; not an insult.
Those scripts are most likely final shooting scripts and do not at all resemble the format and appearance of a spec screenplay written by an as-of-yet undiscovered writer.
Learn the format rules as they apply to the spec screenplay. Read all the produced screenplays you want- of your favorite movies, or from your favorite screenwriter. I do. I just don’t use them as examples of how your script should look or how it should be written.
If you do, you’re shooting yourself in the foot before you even step on the dance floor. ?
Read screenplays for enjoyment.
Read them for inspiration.
Read them for ideas.
Read them for education.
Read them because you’re stuck on a plane on the tarmac.
Read them to pass the time in traffic court as you wait to plead “not guilty” to speeding.
Read them at Starbucks, pretending to be someone important.
Just don’t read them to learn how to write.
Instead, get a mentor.
Take a class.
Read the books.
Attend a seminar.
Sign up for a webinar.
Learn. The. Craft.
WRITER'S BIO: Mr. Scala spent 24-plus years in the Hollywood community and was the Executive Director for the?72nd Annual Academy Awards,?as well as The Soul Train Awards,?The Grammys,?The Blockbuster Video Awards Show?and?The Saturn Award Show.
He is writing the biopics of early rock pioneer Jimmie F. Rodgers,?Motown star Tammi Terrell and iconic folk singer and philanthropist Harry Chapin- all while continuing to mentor new writers and self-published authors.
Currently, he is working on a project scheduled to be filmed in the spring,?starring Liam Hemsworth and Samuel L. Jackson.
Geno has three produced feature films: "Assassin 33 A.D.",?"Black Easter"?and?"The Tombs". All are currently available on Amazon Prime and Tubi.
New York Times bestselling author and Screenwriter, Owner of Renegade Press
10 个月So very true!
Former Federal Agent and SWAT Sniper Turned Screenwriter
10 个月I agree with 90 percent of the above. Reading older movies, even classics, won't help you write a new classic, simply because the times and tastes have changed. One of my favorite movies is THE EXORCIST, but they don't even introduce the hero, Fr. Damien Karras, until halfway through the movie. You could never do that today. And, as Geno says, production scripts, especially older ones like CHINATOWN, including a lot of script elements that we don't use today, such as a list at the top of each scene of all the characters that will be in that scene, set notes, and such. My one area of disagreement is that I use modern action scripts (my genre) to pick up formatting tricks for complex scenes, such as quick INTERCUTS, text messaging, flashbacks, etc. Sometimes I'll watch a movie or TV show and see a particular scene or sequence and wonder how exactly the writer formatted it, so I'll try to track down that script and learn something from it. Scripts are shorter now than they used to be. Gone are the days when scripts were expected to be 120 pages. The new "norm" is 95-110, and even 110 is a bit long. So as an action writer I'm always trying to figure out formatting tricks to keep my scripts at 100 pages. Just my two cents.
Writer at Heart & Soul Theatre Company
10 个月What about my screenplay and my 2,000 you robbing bastard.