Product Description
Sharing his success from a long career, Richard Wolfe explains how to get started in the business of writing comedy and explains the different techniques required for TV, radio, stage, and film scripts.  This essential volume is packed with advice from such top scriptwriters as Carla Lane, Jack Rosenthal, Barry Cryer, and Alan Plater. Experience and advice are also provided by Beryl Vertue, executive producer of Men Behaving Badly and Coupling. Crammed with example… More >>
Writing Comedy: A Guide to Scriptwriting for TV, Radio, Film and Stage

By The Intellectual Property Association

http://www.intellectualpropertyassociation.com

Every year thousands of screenplays are written and only a handful are bought. If you are an aspiring screenwriter who has not yet been able to sell material to Hollywood then your problem may be your screenplay’s storyline. A marketable story needs to offer the audience strong characters, a unique storyline, a format that fits the requirements of a particular genre, and it needs to be developed fully.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 1: Select a Genre

Most of the screenwriting literature available on the market today recommends that novice screenwriters focus their writing on a single genre. This does not mean that you have to only write screenplays in a single genre. What it does mean, however, is that each screenplay that you write should easily fit into one genre category. As your writing gains acceptance in Hollywood, you will be able to mix things up and create multi-genre scripts, but for your first sell, try to keep your story focused on a single genre.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 2: Watch Recent Releases

Staying on top of what is being produced is important to your story’s development. You want to incorporate popular story trends into your screenplay without duplicating what has already been produced or optioned. The Hollywood Reporter and Variety are two trade publications that can help you stay in touch with what is selling.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 3: Gather Ideas

There are a lot of places that you can get story ideas from. Newspaper headlines, listening to people talk, your dreams, and your personal experiences are all great sources. To find a story idea that can be developed you may need to play around with notes that you have made about your observations. When you look at a possible story idea think about how that story idea can be developed to create a completely unique story that will attract people to the movie theaters.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 4: Organize Your Ideas

Now that you have several story leads your next step is to start developing a single storyline. To do this you may have to develop several storylines before you find one that will work for your screenplay. Brainstorm possible connections the story idea could have to current events, to potential characters, or to other story ideas. If you hit a stumbling block during the story’s development then you may want to put it aside and work on another storyline.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 5: Develop the Main Characters

Once you have a story idea you next need to develop your main characters. These characters should be memorable, they should have a specific function in the story, and they should be tied to the main theme of the story. The characters that you will need to develop during this stage of your screenplay’s design include the protagonist, the antagonist, and a couple of the supporting characters.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 6: Outline Your Idea

In this step you will want to start outlining the key events of your story idea. This will help you determine if your story idea has legs to stand on its own or if you need to scrap it and try a different angle. During this step you will want to make sure that you plan for the key components of your selected genre. If you don’t know what those components are then you will want to read up on that genre, watch films in that genre, and develop your understanding of your genre’s story expectations before you proceed any further.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 7: Have a Conversation With Yourself

The final step is to talk to yourself about your story idea. Ask yourself questions about the structure and flow of the story. For example ask yourself if there is a better way to set up the action in the story, and ask yourself about the set up and execution of the plot points in the story. By talking your way through your story line you will be able to engage your mind into actively participating in the development of your story. This is also a great way to identify story weaknesses.

——————————————————————————————————————–

The Intellectual Property Association (http://www.intellectualpropertyassociation.com) is dedicated

to assisting writers protect and promote their creative works. Contact the Intellectual Property

Association for a Consultation (http://www.intellectualpropertyassociation.com/contact-us/).

——————————————————————————————————————–

Starting a screenplay can sometimes be as hard as finishing one. Impatient to pull up to the front door of a classic motion picture, I want to get everything right so quickly. This impatience challenges my trust in the work, the creative process of screenwriting. What exactly does trust mean? If I don’t trust my writing, then what am I? Frightened. This is the battle. If I’m scared that everything I’m typing is worthless, then what? My hands find something else to do. So trust is good and important and essential to beginning this journey, alone, a trip that will eventually take what comes out of you into millions of people. But its just you now. And your trust.Now, does trusting your writing mean sitting down with no ideas, opening a new document, and starting to type? Of course. And no. What I need to do is make a decision and execute. And this decision often comes back to whether I should write an outline or treatment before I start writing my screenplay, or, with a rough idea, a shadowy shadow of something calling from my brain, start writing?I have done both in the past. When I wrote the first draft of LOVE LIZA, I really had very little idea of where the story was going. I had a few things to start off with, and somewhere I wanted to end up down the road, but that was it. It was terrifying and difficult to remain seated. But the most original characteristics of the screenplay came out of the immediacy of trying to come up with whats next, with my fingers resting on the keyboard. I became sold on this process. Outlines killed creativity, because writing an outline is not actual screenwriting. Its outlining.But then I came to Hollywood and tried to tell executives the little ideas I had. I would very proudly announce an image, a picture in my head, that I knew contained the fire of an entire epic. I was shocked when they asked, Then what happens? I didn’t have an answer. Why? Well. BECAUSE I HADNT WRITTEN IT YET. It seemed like a completely stupid question. What happens? What happens?? Did I say I had a complete screenplay to show you?!You know the rest. No phone calls and bewilderment and then I found myself in the city of pitches, and starting to flesh out things into 14 page screenplay treatments. I did so, convinced that it could never be that good, that it was forced, and staged, and predictable. I was shocked to find out that it did not destroy my creativity. I was still able to come up with interesting, original things. But deep down I knew. This was still not screenwriting. This was not the art of screenwriting. And I’m right.So now what was I going to do? What was better? If I was to sit down and spec something out, how was I supposed to go about it? First off, I’m lazy, so having a treatment or an outline sitting next to my laptop to walk me through the first draft is very appealing, despite knowing that the inspiration driving a treatment is different than the juice that comes when writing the screenplay blindly. And I have sat down and written 90 pages, trying to find the story, only to simply start over. This is a lot of work, but I’ve come to recognize that this work is not lost. This is the path. It hurts, it kills, it bludgeons, it fatigues, it flattens, but its the road. Believe me.But what about a heist movie, or a mystery? A thriller with twists? Aren’t movies sometimes puzzles? Can we find this stuff without a plan? Don’t you have to figure this stuff out? Yes and no. Flying by the seat of your pants often produces jaw-dropping turns the audience will never see coming. Why? The writer didn’t. This is the largest reason why studio movies are predictable—-the fabric of the script is shot through with the knowledge of the ending of the story.If we are to plot out the map of our movie with a treatment, beat sheet or outline, we better be damn sure its the real thing. Putting our best foot forward with a very strong outline is only the start of what will end up as a screenplay. Despite putting that golden outline next to our keyboard, we will find that turning it into a screenplay is still, I’m awfully sorry, a lot of work. Scenes that we imagined to be amazing will suddenly be impossible to write. And why does that upset us? Why does that frustrate the writer?Well, we thought we had a short cut. We thought we were going to sneak into the back of a classic movie. My journey as a writer has been marked by the learning and relearning that all that wood has to be cut out there in the back yard, whether I like it or not. If I wanna do this, I have to swing the axe.But we know, if we trust our gift, that something beautiful is coming, regardless if we have an outline or not. Perhaps the writers who work from outlines should throw them out. Perhaps the writers who write like the house is on fire, with nary a note within miles, should sit down and write a treatment. Treatments are fun, too.I do both, switching back and forth when I need to. When I’m writing and I start to feel blindfolded, I turn to jot down a few notes, sketch a few ideas, track a character arc, reorder an act. But when I think I’m caught up in pitches and notes and beat sheets and the safety of plans, I chuck it all and write like I did when I was a kid.Did we use notes when we were kids?

Article URL: http://www.bluecatscreenplay.com/About/how_to_start_a_screenplay.phpCopyright © 2006 BlueCat Screenplay Competition

Winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival for LOVE LIZA , Gordy Hoffman has written and directed three digital shorts for Fox Searchlight. He made his feature directorial debut with his script, A COAT OF SNOW, which world premiered at the 2005 Locarno International Film Festival. He is also the founder of the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. Dedicated to develop and celebrate the undiscovered screenwriter, BlueCat provides written screenplay analysis on every script entered. In addition, Gordy acts as a script consultant for screenwriters, offering personalized feedback on their scripts through his consultation service, www.screenplaynotes.com. For more articles by Gordy on screenwriting, visit www.bluecatscreenplay.com.

When I was a frustrated, struggling writer, I used to believe there was something wrong with the system. How was anyone with talent supposed to break in, if the people within the system made it virtually impossible to get noticed?

Take this ridiculous idea of LOGLINES.

Am I really supposed to be able to encapsulate my entire kick-ass, finely-detailed, one-hundred-page screenplay in TWO SENTENCES?! That’s got to be the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard. Impossible. Stupid. Narrow-minded. No matter WHAT I came up with, it could never truly reflect the richness of my words. Those producers are closing their minds to the more complex and valuable material, I assumed.

And then I started looking for screenplays to produce.

Being the enlightened one, I accepted any and all unsolicited screenplays through the Embryo films website. But a funny thing happened.

We got inundated.

And when I say inundated, I don’t mean we were swamped with hundreds of thousands of screenplays. No. There just aren’t that many people in Australia writing screenplays. We were inundated with about a hundred and fifty.

But, being a writer myself (and knowing how much effort you put into it), I didn’t want to just reject screenplays out of hand. So I made a policy of reading everything that came in — or at least of giving it a genuinely “fair go”.

After about a month, I was so hopelessly behind, that I would never catch up. They were coming in faster than I could keep up. Within six months, I was sure I was being voodoo cursed by a couple hundred writers out there.

See, it takes about an hour and a half to properly read a correctly-formatted screenplay. And even if you’ve got a lot of time on your hands (which I didn’t), you still can’t read more than, say, 10 or 20 scripts in a week. Not if you’re trying to seriously consider them for production. And as soon as you have ANYTHING going on in your life, you’re lucky to get through 5 or 6 of them.

Eventually, I was consumed with guilt. Not getting back to writers who had submitted their screenplays made me just as wicked and evil as every other producer that had never gotten back to me. Skimming scripts to “get a feel for it” was going against what I claimed made me different. The mountain of scripts (okay, call it a “stack”, but emotionally, it was a mountain) became overwhelming.

There had to be a better way.

Ironically, I found it. It’s called a LOGLINE.

Turns out, there’s a reason things are done the way they’ve been done for decades. (Funny that.)

A compelling logline does several things at the same time, and as a writer, you need to understand these points:

1) IT SAVES THE PRODUCER’S TIME.

And let’s face it, if I spend all my time reading screenplays, I don’t spend much time producing. If I make the decision about what to READ merely by looking at the logline, I can spend the time reading only those projects that fit the parameters of what I’m looking for. If you’ve written an amazing fantasy drama, and I’m really looking for a comedy, I helps us quickly determine we’re not a match on this particular project. (It’s a time-management thing, not a judgment on your writing.)

2) IT DEMONSTRATES THE MARKETING ANGLE.

A perpetual problem producers face is that they need to find money in order to make their films. If I can’t imagine how I would sell the film, I’m not going to be very confident when approaching investors or distributors. By sending me a compelling logline, you’re helping make my life easier, which in turns makes me want to work with you.

3) IT PULLS THEM IN.

Let’s face it, which script would YOU rather read — one whose concept is vague, generic, and run-of-the-mill (something you’ve seen a thousand times)? Or one that, upon reading it for the very first time, gets your mind racing, imagining possibilities, and excited about what that film could become? Well, I’m no different. I want life to be as exciting as possible, too.

4) IT LETS THEM KNOW YOU’RE A PROFESSIONAL.

Now this one I didn’t realize until I’d seen enough proof of it. But I discovered something a few years ago — that a professional screenwriter (or at least someone capable of writing professional caliber material) is GOOD WITH WORDS. Seems obvious, doesn’t it? Well, it’s not. As anyone who’s read more than 30 or 40 unproduced screenplays can tell you, you pretty much know by the end of page 5 whether or not the writer knows what they’re doing. What I’ve discovered is that you REALLY know after just the logline. If you can’t grab me in two sentences, why should I believe you’ll grab me in a few thousand?

So, in short, loglines are NOT the enemy.

In fact, crafting a powerful logline will help you exercise the very same skills that will help you craft a powerful screenplay.

And when you send off that logline, you should KNOW what reaction I’m going to have when I read it. When you can do that, you won’t find every producer requesting your screenplay. But you WILL find the right ones.

Keep on writing!

By The Intellectual Property Association

http://www.intellectualpropertyassociation.com

Every year thousands of screenplays are written and only a handful are bought. If you are an aspiring screenwriter who has not yet been able to sell material to Hollywood then your problem may be your screenplay’s storyline. A marketable story needs to offer the audience strong characters, a unique storyline, a format that fits the requirements of a particular genre, and it needs to be developed fully.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 1: Select a Genre

Most of the screenwriting literature available on the market today recommends that novice screenwriters focus their writing on a single genre. This does not mean that you have to only write screenplays in a single genre. What it does mean, however, is that each screenplay that you write should easily fit into one genre category. As your writing gains acceptance in Hollywood, you will be able to mix things up and create multi-genre scripts, but for your first sell, try to keep your story focused on a single genre.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 2: Watch Recent Releases

Staying on top of what is being produced is important to your story’s development. You want to incorporate popular story trends into your screenplay without duplicating what has already been produced or optioned. The Hollywood Reporter and Variety are two trade publications that can help you stay in touch with what is selling.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 3: Gather Ideas

There are a lot of places that you can get story ideas from. Newspaper headlines, listening to people talk, your dreams, and your personal experiences are all great sources. To find a story idea that can be developed you may need to play around with notes that you have made about your observations. When you look at a possible story idea think about how that story idea can be developed to create a completely unique story that will attract people to the movie theaters.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 4: Organize Your Ideas

Now that you have several story leads your next step is to start developing a single storyline. To do this you may have to develop several storylines before you find one that will work for your screenplay. Brainstorm possible connections the story idea could have to current events, to potential characters, or to other story ideas. If you hit a stumbling block during the story’s development then you may want to put it aside and work on another storyline.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 5: Develop the Main Characters

Once you have a story idea you next need to develop your main characters. These characters should be memorable, they should have a specific function in the story, and they should be tied to the main theme of the story. The characters that you will need to develop during this stage of your screenplay’s design include the protagonist, the antagonist, and a couple of the supporting characters.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 6: Outline Your Idea

In this step you will want to start outlining the key events of your story idea. This will help you determine if your story idea has legs to stand on its own or if you need to scrap it and try a different angle. During this step you will want to make sure that you plan for the key components of your selected genre. If you don’t know what those components are then you will want to read up on that genre, watch films in that genre, and develop your understanding of your genre’s story expectations before you proceed any further.

Generating a Winning Idea Step 7: Have a Conversation With Yourself

The final step is to talk to yourself about your story idea. Ask yourself questions about the structure and flow of the story. For example ask yourself if there is a better way to set up the action in the story, and ask yourself about the set up and execution of the plot points in the story. By talking your way through your story line you will be able to engage your mind into actively participating in the development of your story. This is also a great way to identify story weaknesses.

——————————————————————————————————————–

The Intellectual Property Association (http://www.intellectualpropertyassociation.com) is dedicated

to assisting writers protect and promote their creative works. Contact the Intellectual Property

Association for a Consultation (http://www.intellectualpropertyassociation.com/contact-us/).

——————————————————————————————————————–