I watch these shows about how actors got their big breaks and in one episode, they interviewed Sean Connery.  About his Oscar Award-winning role in The Untouchables, Connery said it was the dialogue that appealed to him; it’s not often an actor gets great dialogue.  When you want to attract A-listers like Connery, you not [...]

Many new screenwriters are tempted to add sex, nudity and foul language to their script thinking it makes it edgy, controversial or more interesting.  These things will never make a script more interesting.  The best thing you can do for your script is to avoid these.  Here’s why. No filmmaker wants a rating over PG.  An [...]

Attracting A-list actors to your project requires several key components.  You need to consider most if not all of the following when writing your script: Active hero.  Is your lead the one who drives the story?  Is he a take-charge kind of guy?  Does he save the day?  Even if he isn’t necessarily a physically [...]

Yesterday, I talked mostly about humour that comes from pain; either pain in others or pain in self.  It also comes from truth.  The writers of Frasier (and Cheers) are brilliant at comedy so I’m mostly going to refer to it in examples.  Below are examples of verbal comedic devices used most often in this [...]

Screenwriting is not just about telling a story through people.  You have the ability to tell stories with one picture or sound as much as through people talking. Many writers seem to forget that they’re writing for the screen.  Their scripts become more like stage plays or outlines with actor instructions and lines of dialogue [...]