What Do You See?

What Do You See?

What do you see?
This is an important question.
Why?
Because what you see is what the audience will see one day. Movies at the end of the day are visual. I would say go back to silent films and watch them, but the truth is a silent film is doing very well for itself right now, (The Artist). When writing a script dialog tents to take over. I understand why. It is easier to write. To eats up a lot of pages. It progresses the story in a way. On the page it looks great and there is all that clear white space around it. While description and action is usually that ugly block text that look like paragraphs in a text book.

On the screen that block text flows quickly while those lovely pages of dialog drag along. More than 90 seconds on screen of uninterrupted talk is like watching paint dry unless you are named Tarantino. What we see is more important than what we hear or in other words show do not tell. If you can show that characters do not like each other rather than telling us then do it. If they love each other love is what they do with and to each other rather than going on and one about who loves who. Save that stuff for soap operas. We are going to talk about dialog soon, but this is about the visual and what we see comes first second and third.
Does genre matter?
Same rule for all.
I do not care if it is Action, Horror, Comedy, Drama or Found Footage show me do not tell me.
But in comedy they tell jokes.
Really?
Take Dumb and Dumber, it is the stupid things that they do and not what they say that makes it a comic classic.
Action is obvious. The Road Warrior is all most a silent film for the first twenty minutes.
How many times have you heard when will they shut up and when will something happen in this movie?
I am going over some familiar ground here, but hey this point has not gotten through to some of you. Show them at all cost and then resort to telling them. With low to no budget film screenplays sometimes we have to tell rather than show. We can tell about an alien invasion or a murder spree rather than showing it because we can not afford to show it, but when or where ever possible we must show them.

Your No Budget Screenplay, Cutting Scenes

            Your No Budget Screenplay, Cutting Scenes

    You have finished your entire no budget screenplay or at least an act of it and you are at a point where you wish to do some editing.  I would like you to review every single scene and list what you believe to be the 5 worst scene.  These scene will feel forced or they just do not seem to connect well with the joining scenes or maybe they are much too long or too short.  For what ever reason they do not seem to work.
    Isolate the absolute worst of them and cut it.
    I said cut it.

    Do not edit it or try to redo it or move it around.  Just take this scene and if you have a paper copy tear it out.  If it is on the computer delete it from the script.  Yes I really know that this scene has its place in your screenplay.  It is really necessary and conveys an important bit of information or character development.
    Here is my response to that heart felt and sincere argument.
    CUT IT.
    It is better to get rid of this really bad scene rather than have it stinking up all the scenes around it.  I do not care if this scene tells who did it or where the body is buried or who stole that piece of cake or if Jessica Alba is nude in it, cut it.
    “Did I really just say that last thing?”
    Okay keep the Jessica Alba scene and cut the rest.
    I am just trying to make your screenplay stronger and after you cut and edited you will find that it is stronger. After you cut that worst scene and cut as much as possible of the second scene, edit down the third worst scene and rewrite the forth and fifth worst scenes.  Make your script better and better.  It will be painful to do this, but you know what the military say about pain.
    Pain is just weakness leaving the body and in this case pain is just the weakest elements leaving your script.
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