The other day I attended a script reading that got me thinking about what was missing from his writing beyond the basic structural flaws, story issues, and underdeveloped characters.  The writer lacked one major thing: a basic understanding of the human condition. Sadly, a handful of people, writer included, couldn’t see that all the female characters were either bitches [...]

Working in the film and TV industry, you meet everyone who is writing a script and within five minutes of talking with them, you can determine who is serious, who is amateur, who will make a career of it and who is nuts.  The first question I ask is “where did you study screenwriting”?  If [...]

First of all, I have to apologize for losing this post.  So I return to rewrite this article as requested from an avid reader.  What is a HOOK? The hook is what literally hooks your audience’s attention.  Your hook must tell the audience what your show/feature is about; why would they watch it?  The hook is [...]

When creating your characters, they should each have a specific role and serve a purpose in telling your story.  There’s more to adding characters than giving them lines.  (See the article on Creating New Characters for further explanation.)  Every lead and supporting character should fall into one or more of these archetypal categories:  Archetypes Hero: admirable, likeable, lead to story [...]

I think the worst feedback you can get aside from “I liked it” is “Sure, there are some problems, but ‘it’s just a movie’”.  You should never excuse illogical or unrealistic scenarios simply because ‘it’s only a movie’. I recently watched several action movies and found I most enjoyed the films that were realistic or [...]