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/).

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

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.

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!

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/).

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

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.

In the theatre, they read plays aloud over and over in the process of script development, and one of the reasons they do this is to hear the dialogue. When I hear dialogue in my head, it might sound very good, but then when I hear a person actually speak it, I often have an impulse to jump in front of a bus. And over and over and over and over, when I read screenplay entries to BlueCat, I am immediately dismayed when the characters start speaking. Excellent everything else, awful dialogue. And I often wonder if the writer has actually heard the lines they have written for their characters out loud. Either read the whole thing aloud to yourself, or even better, get a group of your friends to read it. You do not need professional actors to evaluate dialogue. Just people excited to help. Videotape it. I have videotaped readings, and then sat down and worked out an entire rewrite off the tape, addressing every single line that bothered me. Which leads me to another thing.

Ha.

It’s hard to pass a screenplay on to industry contacts if an unfunny joke is sitting in the middle of page two. It’s highly difficult if there’s twelve by page five. You might have a payoff in your third act that would break my heart, but if your jokes are poor, the heart of your audience will be shot, probably resentful, and your work will be recycled. Please try your humor out. If your beats aren’t funny to some people, rewrite. Trust a truly hilarious bit is coming. Think of the patience you need to muster through this writing process as courage, because it is.If you find you are not funny, write a script that is not funny. Many, many great scripts are not funny, as we all know.

Mispellings.

Do you think the development people in Los Angeles, basically the smartest people in the film industry, will not be annoyed and continue to read your script when you have misspelled three words in the first five pages? Perhaps. How do you feel when you’re reading something and you find misspelled words? How does your attitude shift towards the author? Exactly. If you don’t think many scripts have this problem, start a screenwriting competition.

OKAY, WE GOT IT!

Try to limit your scene description. When a person opens your script, how many INCHES of action slug are they looking at on page one? Is there anyway you can convey what you want us to SEE with less words? I always go back and CUT CUT CUT to prevent my screenplay from fatiguing my reader with excess words as they try to listen for my story. Do we need to know what necklace someone is wearing? We all understand making motion pictures is collaborative. I strive to let the art department and the costumer and the prop master and so on DO THEIR JOB by not making their decisions in the screenplay, because I have little passion for it and don’t do it well. They will make their own choices, and most likely better ones, so why bother? Always use fewer words to say the same thing.

It’s not show and tell, it’s show not tell.

I constantly find myself being told something by the screenplay the viewer of the film will not be aware of. Screenplays are not literature. They are words assembled to describe what motion pictures will play out on the screen. Telling us a character is a jealous person is passive and dull. Showing a character in an act of jealousy is more effective and essentially cinematic. Let the words and actions of your characters carry your story. This is not easy. You want the actor or director to understand what you want and what you mean. Allow the description of physical actions and the recording of spoken words reveal the narrative to the filmmakers. The script will read faster and offers the reader a richer opportunity to imagine and discover.

The Joy of Making Things Up.

I really cherish the idea, that as a writer, I can make things up. If I want the guy to say something, all I have to do is type it. But I have to fight against creating characters and interactions amongst characters derived from movies I have watched and television I have seen. I often find myself writing a scene only to realize I’m not drawing from my imagination or my own life experience or my observations of people, I’m drawing from the millions of hours of observing actors play human beings on television and in movie theaters. And because I’m writing a “MOVIE,” it is even more difficult, because I’m fighting against a subconscious or unconscious observation that this is “how people act in movies.” Stop yourself and ask, would this happen on planet Earth? Do I know how people from Miami really speak? What would a person actually say if they had a gun in their face? Can you possibly imagine what could happen? This is your opportunity to be truly imaginative. Answer your own expectations of original work. A mature writer develops a strong capacity to recognize and reject the false.

Ouch.

Forced exposition. This is when a brother tells a sister on page two that he will be attending a school which dad wouldn’t pay for because he bought a farm that the whole family will be moving to tomorrow because he found that the city was a really bad place to live in after mom was really scared because of that mugging thing that happened after they came back from the sister’s graduation from high school. When characters engage in an unbelievable conversation about matters in which they would be familiar with, or when they proclaim something completely out of nowhere simply to inform the audience of key facts crucial to their understanding of the movie, you have a problem. This awkward exposition will not be seen as genuine human behavior and will detach your audience from the emotional current of your story. Exposition is necessary and difficult to execute. Be careful how you offer information crucial to your story at the start of your screenplay. This is a common problem in early drafts. Exposition needs to be seamless and graceful.

Format.

You know what? Go get a script and copy what you think it looks like and you’ll be fine. Trust me. Spec scripts are sitting on desks all over Hollywood and their format is not consistent at all. Getting crazy about format sells screenwriting software. I use two tab settings and copied stuff from a book and not one person in the film industry has ever said a thing to me in ten years. But if your script looks like a book, or a poem, or a magazine article, your screenplay format is wrong. Just make it look a little like a movie script, and if it kicks ass, guess what.

So do you.

Gordy Hoffman

Article URL address: www.bluecatscreenplay.com/About/advice.php

Copyright © 2006 BlueCat Screenplay CompetitionThe information on this page may not be reproduced, republished or mirrored on another webpage or website without the permission of the author. Please email info at bluecatscreenplay.com.

The obvious answer is, they have big agents who make sure they’re constantly working as writers. They’re the insiders. But even insiders like Paul Haggis, last year’s Oscar winner for both writing and directing CRASH started out as outsiders scrambling to break in.

It’s not about who has the most talent, though talent is important. Nor is about who has the most powerful agent, though again, having a strong agent can be a major asset. It’s about how you see and treat yourself as a professional. Let me tell you a story.

Once upon a time, there was a young man who very much wanted to be in show business, or more specifically, making movies. He attended one of the best film schools in the world, while there discovered the joys of writing and producing and everyone around him had high expectations about his career. Yet for more years than he cares to admit, that career was stalled.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that young man was me. And this article is for everyone who, like me, has visions of having their name up on the big screen as a writer. It’s all about the importance of getting a balance of what I call “macro training.”

Over the years, I’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars in classes, seminars, books and retreats all intended to teach me to be a better writer. Don’t get me wrong. Many of these classes were well worth the money when it came to teaching me about the CRAFT of screenwriting. I absolutely learned a lot. But talent and craft by themselves are not enough to make you a regularly working professional screenwriter.

I learned through painful experience that if you want to succeed as a professional artist in show business, whether it’s as a writer, actor, director or any other craft that’s employed by the networks and studios, you have to treat your career as a small business with yourself as the CEO. As countless people have said to me over the years, it’s called Show “Business” for a reason.

Eureka! This was the missing piece. When it finally registered with me the importance of treating my artistic endeavors like an entrepreneurial small business, I began to see things in an entirely different light. I call myself a writer and producer – and those are accurate titles – but the business I’m in is really manufacturing, sales and distribution. Huh?

Think about it. As a professional writer, you’re manufacturing a product – the things you write. In order to get paid for that product, you also have to have a sales, marketing and distribution mechanism in place so that the scripts you write can generate money for you.

Of course you have to have the talent and skills to consistently deliver quality scripts and do so on time. But talent and skill alone don’t hack it. If you want to be a successful, consistently and steadily working writer, you have to understand that you’re in the business of creating and selling products. Your products are your scripts.

Like any manufacturer, in addition to dedicating part of your business to developing and creating products, you also need to address the sales, marketing and distribution of those products (scripts) along with the business affairs aspect (contracts, accounting, etc.) of working with your customers (studios, production companies and/or networks). You don’t have to do it all by yourself, but you do need to make sure these aspects of your business as a professional writer are handled. Just by making that shift in the way you see yourself and your career, you’ll immediately transform from would-be writer to an entrepreneurial professional well on the road to success.

© Gordon Meyer, all rights reserved

Sometimes, I have to remind myself. It’s the only way to preserve my sanity.

See, I’m an independent film producer who’s been involved in the film industry since before I was a teenager (over 20 years now, eeesh!). And because I grew up in Los Angeles, the film industry was all around me.

It never even occurred to me that people might consider a career in film “impossible”.

So when I got to Australia and started looking for screenplays, I was genuinely surprised by how few people were doing it. At first, I saw it as a tremendous opportunity. Over time, I began to realize it was a tremendous obstacle.

Without many screenwriters in Australia, the screenwriting community remains small, which makes it a very lonely profession. (Writing’s always a lonely profession, but when no one around you even understands what you do, it gets downright desolate.)

As it turns out, many Australians who WOULD turn their ideas into screenplays DON’T… simply because they don’t think it’s feasible.

Well, I disagree.

If you can excel at screenwriting in Australia, you can get noticed. The local industry is continually crying out for quality material. Why shouldn’t it be you that writes it?

But Australia is not Hollywood. So the career path of a screenwriter here is not quite so obvious.

That’s why I’ve identified five different and clearly-marked paths that would-be Australian screenwriters can take. I don’t know if these are the ONLY paths, but they’re the five that I could identify without much thought.

If you’re looking to write a screenplay, pick a path and write FOR it, and your chances of seeing something in return for your efforts will multiply exponentially.

1) Write for the Government

It’s no secret that government funding dominates the Australian film industry. And many would-be screenwriters see government money as the only source of income. It’s not, but it’s the most obvious. To attract government funding, you’ll need to understand what those funding sources need to see in a screenplay (specifically, cultural relevance). In Australia, most of the competition is writing for this market, but it remains alive and well).

2) Write for local producers

Australian producers exist in a difficult environment. They typically have very little script development money, and can’t claim development expenses against their taxes unless the project goes into production. The result? Films get pushed into production prematurely. Australian producers aspire to make brilliant films just like everyone else does. To write for this market, research who’s who, who does what, and what they’re looking for. Craft something powerful that’s specifically designed for them, and you’ll get noticed very quickly.

3) Write to self-produce

Partly from a do-it-yourself attitude, and partly from the necessity of surviving in a small market, many writers aim to self-produce their work. If this includes you, you’ll need to learn the myriad other skills involved, which will necessarily limit the time and energy you can put into perfecting the screenwriting craft. Be sure to get objective feedback on your project before racing into production. Most writers misunderstand self-producing, assuming it’s the easiest (or at least most direct) route to a completed film. In fact, it’s about twenty times the work for half the reward. But it’s a viable avenue that can be legitimately considered.

4) Write for me (or someone like me)

Although I’m technically just one of the many producers who fall under category 2, I’m a little unique down here, in that I believe in applying “Hollywood” techniques to local stories. My philosophy is simple: If you make movies that make money, you get to make more movies — so let’s start making mainstream entertainment that can keep the quality industry alive. Many in the local industry reject that kind of American influence, arguing that Australian film should be pure and free of commercial considerations. It’s a valid point of view, and I absolutely respect it. But I want to reach out to the cineplexes, so I seek “High Concept” stories that can be easily marketed to a wide audience. There are several Australian producers with this philosophy, and we all fit into this category.

5) Write for Hollywood

Yes, believe it or not Aussie screenwriters, despite being this far away, writing for the Hollywood market is a legitimate and viable path. Ironically, many Australian writers have found it easier to “break in” to the Hollywood market than Americans. Largely the result of very few Australian films getting released in the US (and then, it’s only the good ones), Hollywood has a distorted perception of Australia, and makes assumptions in your favour. The challenge to this path is that, in the end, you’re competing with about 100 times as many writers, including the best in the world. Your skills had better be world-class, if you hope to compete.

So. Which path is best?

The simple answer is that there’s no answer to that question. It’s whichever is right for you, your project, your personality, and your goals. Don’t rule out — and don’t settle for — ANY of these, simply because they look easier or harder than the others.

The point is not which path to take.

The point is that there are at least five real, potential, viable career paths for Australian screenwriters.

So if you’ve got an idea for a screenplay, or you have any inkling that screenwriting might be something you’d like to do, I strongly encourage you to consider it seriously.

Australia needs quality screenwriters. We make 30-odd films per year, on average. If every one of them was amazing and powerful, or far-reaching and entertaining, the local culture would flourish.

Keep on writing!