education

Past You would be really impressed

Maximum Z craft, development, dialogue, draft, education, experience, exposition, feedback, notes, rewriting, scenes, screenplay, screenwriting, script, skill, writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ask any screenwriter how their most recent draft compares to, say, their very first one, by which I mean THEIR ABSOLUTE VERY FIRST ONE, it’s probably a sure thing they’ll say something along the lines of “It was awful!” or “An absolute mess!”, or maybe even “I don’t even want to think about it it was so bad.”

Taking a look at some of my first attempts, I can say the exact same thing. Scenes that drag on. Flat action lines, or ones that were way overwritten. Big chunks of text on the page. On-the-nose dialogue that’s pure exposition. Spoonfeeding story details to the reader to make sure they understand what’s going on.

Nothing to be ashamed of. There are vomit drafts, and “looks like my printer vomited words all over the pages” drafts. You gotta start somewhere, and the important part is YOU GOT IT WRITTEN.

Nowhere to go but up, right?

So you start working on getting better. You get feedback. You start to understand why things aren’t working and what you can do to fix them. You learn, and all this new knowledge helps shape the next draft to better than the one that came before it.

You put in the time and the effort and it becomes more noticeable how your writing is getting better. All of those newbie mistakes are a thing of the past. Your script seems more polished. There’s still room to improve, but it doesn’t seem as daunting now, does it?

Multiple drafts and seemingly neverending rewrites are par for the course. It happens to even the most experienced screenwriters. The hardest part is getting that first draft written. Accomplish that and you’re already ahead of the game.

There will most likely be a ridiculous amount of rewriting in your future, and the end result may be totally different from what you started with, but think about how far you’ve come. You probably had no idea when you were just starting out that you’d be so willing to put yourself through all of this, over and over again.

And that might even be for just one script.

Sure, you might be a little embarrassed when you look at your earliest scripts, but look at your most recent draft or the pages you wrote last weekend. As if they’d been written by two entirely different writers. Because that’s exactly what they are.

Past You was just starting out and made a lot of mistakes. Present You knows what’s needed and does it.

And just imagine the skills that Future You is going to have.

The “Business” part of “Show…”

Maximum Z development, directing, education, pitching, producer, professionalism, screenplay, screenwriting, script, television, writing , , , , , , , , , ,

A lot of screenwriters just starting out often think “All I need to do is write an amazing script, and the rest will fall into place.”

Not really. Having an amazing script helps, but that’s just the beginning.

Learning how to write a script, let alone an amazing one, is one thing. What to do when the script is done is a whole other topic.

Do you know how to pitch? What about dealing with contracts? How are your negotiating skills? These and many other business-oriented topics are vital. And if you’re thinking “Why should I care? My reps can handle all of that,” think again.

A rep can only do so much. A lot of the time you’ll most likely be doing a lot of the work yourself, so it’s smart and practical to know what’s expected.

If you want to further develop your business savvy, here’s a special offer you should seriously consider.

Seasoned writer/development executive Kaia Alexander runs the Entertainment Business League, which features a specially designed virtual course to help you prepare for working in the industry.

The Entertainment Business School Winter session is a 9-week course starting on January 29 running until March 29.

Among the many topics covered:

-If and when you need to create your own production company

-How studios and streamers make buying decisions

-How attachments work and how to get them

-How to pitch to buyers and reps

-How to network and build your community 

-How to get producers for your projects

-The way the pandemic has changed the industry

-How to negotiate like a pro and not leave money on the table

-Film financing and where to find investors, and how to vet them

-The roles of managers, agents, entertainment attorneys, publicists, producers, and development execs

-Entertainment business etiquette do’s and don’ts

-How to think about budgets

Also included are live coaching sessions, mixers, and industry guests.

You also get access to an impressive online portal with a library of business and finance documents including screenplays, pitch decks, show bibles, streamer/network pitch preferences, financial literacy downloads, legal documents, just to name a few.

Don’t live in Los Angeles? No problem. The class is done virtually, and each session is recorded and available afterward, along with email access to Kaia during the work week.

The early bird window for signing up is Jan 8-13, which includes a $50 discount using the code WOLFPACK50.

Space is limited, so don’t wait too long before signing up.

There’s gold in them thar dumpster fires!

Maximum Z characters, craft, editing, education, film, movies, rewrite, screenplay, screenwriting, script, story, structure, writing, writing process , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Saw a great quote the other day that was along the lines of “Being a writer is like having homework for the rest of your life.”

From a certain perspective, that definitely has a negative connotation. Emphasizing the ‘work’ part of the word indicates drudgery and toil. Like, strictly dullsville, man.

The obvious solution is to make it a positive experience.

I know. Easier said than done, but bear with me.

(Writing should never seem like work anyway, but that’s another post.)

To be a better screenwriter, you need to read scripts and watch movies. You can see how the pros did it and figure out how that could potentially influence your work.

While watching your favorites and the classics can definitely help, I also suggest watching really shitty movies as well.

Hard as this might be to accept, there’s something be gained from it.

What was it that made them bad?

The possibilities are numerous, but a good percentage of the time – it’s the script.

As a writer, you can use that to your advantage.

Painful an experience as it might be, watch that bad movie from a writer’s perspective. Is it the writing that sucks? The story? The characters (and not the actors)? Is there a coherent sense of structure? Is there any structure at all? Does the story flow naturally, or do things happen because it seems like the story needs them to?

Maybe it feels like the writer didn’t take any chances, or worse, went for the very easy and cliched (i.e. expected) solution. Does anything in your script feel that way? If so, think about what changes you could make that would produce the same results, but get you there in a totally different way.

It may be 90-110 minutes of your life you’ll never get back, but at the very least you’ll get a better idea of what NOT to do when it comes to developing your script.

And that is a worthwhile lesson for any screenwriter.

The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1

Maximum Z adventure, characters, dialogue, education, film, movies, rewriting, science fiction, screenplay, screenwriting, script, Star Wars, story, storytelling, subplot, writing, writing process , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

During a recent break from the writing, I saw a few posts on social media celebrating the 43rd(!) anniversary of the release of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

I was around for that. Proudly so.

I decided to give it another watch, mostly for nostalgia’s sake.

Even though I’ve seen it numerous times, this time felt a little different. I found myself watching it from a writer’s point of view.*

It made for a very different experience, involving continuously making mental notes and asking questions.

“How did this look on the page?”

“Wow, that dialogue gets right to the point without being on-the-nose”

“What an incredibly tight scene”

“Pay attention to how the characters are shown changing over the course of the story”

Just seeing how smooth the story flows, how tight the whole thing is, and how all the subplots are laid out really struck a chord for me.

THIS is how I want my scripts to come across.

I’ve already said that this current draft of my sci-fi adventure is all about getting pages written and holding off on editing/revising until it’s complete. That still applies.

But when I do get to that point, I’m already anticipating looking at each scene and trying to figure out what changes could be made to achieve that same level of tightness, structure, and efficiency.

And it’s just a coincidence about my script being a similar genre; this approach would help no matter what I was working on.

This is all just further proof that a writer’s education never truly stops, watching well-written films can benefit your own writing process, and that there’s always an opportunity to learn how to improve your writing.

*Full acknowledgment to credited writers Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas*

Bye-bye, red envelopes

Maximum Z education, film, genre, movies, Netflix, research, screenwriting, writing , , , , , , ,

A sad day for cinephiles is on the horizon, and will be here before we know it.

Netflix has announced they’re ending their DVD service as of the end of September. I still subscribe to it, and deeply regret that it will no longer be an option.

More than a few friends would be surprised about my still getting discs in the mail. “How come, especially when there’s so much stuff streaming?” they would ask.

Simple – there are so many titles on DVD that aren’t available anywhere on streaming.

It’s easy to catch the latest box office smash, but what if you want an obscure C-grade horror film from 1973, or the Oscar winner for Best Documentary from 2002 (Murder on a Sunday Morning), or something from early in the career of a legendary Japanese director?

Without access to an extensive library of DVDs, you’re pretty much out of luck.

As screenwriters, movies are just part of our genetic makeup. We live for them and love to watch them – as many and as often as possible. It’s a no-frills film school.

Those of us of a certain age remember the thrill of going to the local video store with its wide variety of selections across multiple genres. (Blockbuster doesn’t count.). First it was VHS tapes, then DVDs, but the concept remained the same.

And if you were lucky, it had staff members who actually knew something about the films and could make suggestions and recommendations.

Another soon-to-be-lamented loss was that a lot of the films I’d get through Netflix had trailers for other films I’d never heard of but piqued my interest enough to add it to the queue. The cycle of “watch, add to the queue, watch, add to the queue” seemed neverending.

Until now.

So as we enjoy these last few months of DVD options, attention shall be redirected to the streamers. There are options, although not as many choices. Some of the streamers are part of some major studios with vast and expansive libraries of material, but only make available a fraction of what they have.

(Lookin’ at you, HBO Max with access to Warner Brothers.)

I know money and licensing rights play a big factor in this, but the opportunity to just sit down and watch a film I’ve never seen before will soon become a lot less possible.

And that’s a real shame.