CONJURING UP A BAD SEQUEL WRITING A GOOD HORROR FILM

 

CONJURING UP A BAD SEQUEL

I am writing this after seeing an early screening of the third Conjuring film, The Devil Made Me Do it. There were two factors that had me worried before accepting my screening pass. The first one was that the writer/ director, James Wan, had not come back for the third film. There are only a handful of Hollywood filmmakers who should be allowed near the horror genre and he is one of them. He decided not be in command of this project and instead selected the director of La Llorona, a man who has never met a loud noise that he did not believe could be improved by raising the volume.

The second thing that worried me was the trailer. If you were to watch the trailers for the first two conjuring films and were able to shorten a few clips these two films could have appeared to be dramas about families in distress. While the only way that you could cut the trailer for the third film is as a horror film.

I know that you are not here for a movie review but screenwriting advice and I am going to give it to you. Now please allow to say before I do this that this third film in the series is going to make money. Nothing could stop that from happening and if this was a generic horror film I would say that there is nothing wrong with that. Actors got to eat and bad directors need to get rehired.

Now let us look at what is wrong with this film.

What?

What did you say?

You do not have that much time?

Calm down, I can sum it up with one word.

Reality.

This movie does not occupy the real world or what we call reality.

Scene after scene after scene could only exist in a horror film.

From the first minute of the film we are clearly in a horror movie and it never takes time away from the jump scares to establish reality. The art of the great horror film is to establish a world that we all recognize and feel comfortable in. To ground us in normal life and then to flip it on its head. To have something dark and unknown attack what is normal. The problem with most horror films is that those worlds and the people in them do not exist in our world. They react in ways that poorly written characters do. We can do better. We have to do better because the number one horror franchise is headed toward a sad end.

Okay, this is the lesson for today.

If there is going to be a demon, a ghost, a vampire or a killer doll, the audience will respect what you have done and reward you handsomely if you first ground your story in the real world.  The Conjuring showed us a glimpse into the lives of a real family. The second film a real working class British family. They have real life problems before the supernatural elements arrive. My ultimate advice is to write your screenplay. Write a complete screenplay about the characters who occupy this world that you have built but leave out the horror elements in the first draft. If that first draft reads like a quality psychological thriller then during the second draft feel free to layer in the supernatural elements. Add the evil spirit, add the killer doll, add the vampire, the curse, the demon, the supernatural element.

 

Now let us look at the trailers for each film starting with the first one. The trailer is more effective the entire third film. 

 

Now the second film. I believe that the movie is better than the trailer. The first thirty minutes of this film is the most effective that I have seen in a horror film since the Exorcist. 

 

Now let’s look at the trailer for the third film. This is truly another universe that we are visiting. 

 

 

Before I leave you I want to offer a video that explains how James Wan sets up a horror scene.

 

Thanks for visiting the blog. Check out my book on screenwriting. Available on Audible.

Start with a Horror Screenplay

 Every screenwriter knows it is notoriously difficult to break into Hollywood. However, there is a way that is proven worthwhile if it is done right. Low budget horror screenplays are a great way to break into the industry, and they don't have to be bad B-movie's either.

  Consider this: the wildly popular movie Unfriended brought in forty-eight million dollars in the box office, while only having a budget of one million dollars. Horror is a low risk genre with massive potential, because there is already a built in audience. If you stick to a well thought out script without the major computer graphic or special effects, it could be your way in.

  You should be of course concerned with the quality of your screenwriting. Think of originality. There are so many horror movies that viewers don't want to be bored with the same old plots and scares. Try to draw out your own fears because this can inspire you to create even greater plots. It can also make you think of scenes that haven't been done before. Try to stay as close to reality as possible. The fact that it can happen to you is more frightening. Finally, don't overdue it. That makes your screenplay seem more like a parody than something truly scary.

  Think about the movie Seven. It is based off of the seven deadly sins. They used an incredibly low budget with no special effects, but the plot made it so that you could really think it could happen to you. Also movies like It Follows and Get Out have been huge hits as compared to budget.
Offering a low budget movie as your first screenplay makes your script that much more attractive to potential producers. Not only that, it could be a huge hit. If this is your genre, you have a great window of opportunity. If you take advantage of it, you could really prosper.

 This has been a guest post. Thanks to the writer and I invite others to post on screenwriting topics of their choosing. 
 

If you would like a mini masterclass in the art of micro budget screen writing my book on the subject is now available in audio form. You can find it at audible and on Amazon.

 
 

YOU WANT TO BE A HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITER

YOU WANT TO BE A HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITER?

I understand the feeling that comes from the idea of being a successful Hollywood screenwriter. It is like getting a lifetime membership to the country club. Vision of wealth and fame fill the imagination. That is the reality for those who reach the tip top of the food chain. For the average screenwriter you are going to struggle. The hard work that you did to get there is going to double once you get a foot in the door. 

 

This is not the worst thing that can happen if you learn the basic rules of how to write a quality screenplay. If you are doing something that you know how to do and that you love to do then no amount of work will seem too much for you. I love to write once I sit down to do it. I am sure that most of you love the process as well. Here at this blog I hope to share a few lessons that I have learned along the way and to offer you advice that have been posted by others.

I know that some of you are wondering if I have ever sold a screenplay to a Hollywood producer. When I was younger I entered the contest and tried to network my way in, but the game was not for me. Thankfully I decided to walk away from that chase just when the indie micro budget film making revolution was getting started. I found people who could shoot movies for under twenty thousand dollars and since I enjoyed the work more than the idea of wealth I have had the time of my life for the last few years and who knows if I ever write a breakout hit I could get to continue to have fun and freedom doing what I love and make a lot of money too.

Here I an excerpt from my book On Low Budget Screenwriting. You can find it at audible and on Amazon, to do so click image of book cover below.

   


 

AUDIO BOOK ON SCREENWRITING

A few years ago I decided that the best way to tell all that I knew about low budget screenwriting was to write a book. Some of you have read it. Now any more of you can little to it if you have an audible.com account. Please take the time to visit this link and after you have listened to it you could maybe leave a review. 

Below I have decided to post two random chapters from my audio book On Writing a Low Budget Screenplay. 

 







Thank you for visiting my site, please take a moment to share by hitting the share link of the audio clip. 

Good luck with your screenwriting and have a great day.

LOW BUDGET HOLLYWOOD DREAMING

LOW BUDGET HOLLYWOOD DREAMING

Ten years ago the Hollywood idea of a low budget film was ten to twenty million dollars. Now they actually produce films in the million dollar range that turn a huge profit. These films (usually horror or thrillers or faith based) are produced independent of studio involvement. These films can sometimes fool the screenwriter into believing that because of box office success they are Hollywood films and come with the massive up front paydays we have read about.



  Understand that if you are writing a low budget film that you are going to be dealing with a indie director or producer and not a studio. The pay is small, but the opportunity is amazing. Write the next Get Out, War Room, The Witch or Paranormal Activity or It Follows and your future in the industry could be very bright. Just remember that the rules still apply when writing one of these films. Limit the cast, limit the locations and limit the effects that are required to tell the story and you have a low budget film script.

 Even though the M. Night films The Visit (5 million to produce) and Split (9 million) were made by a Hollywood film maker these films are the prototypes to follow as far as crafting the low budget screenplay. If you were to illuminate the High price director and talent both films could have been produced for a forth of those budgets. 







  This post is about Hollywood, but I want you to keep in mind that being able to write a low budget screenplay will be a skill that you will need no matter where you end up working in this industry. To learn more I have a great audio book that will soon be available soon. That you for your time and good luck.

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BOTH SCREENWRITER AND FILMMAKER

In a world where film has largely been replaced by digital the modern screenwriter needs to consider the idea of being both screenwriter and filmmaker. 

 For the first century of film making the writer hoped to be part of the film making process as a voice on set or to work their way up to directing someday. This was because movies costed so much to make. Millions of dollars meant that there was a system that allowed very little if any vertical movement. Now low budget films are shot for under a million dollars. The ultra low budget film can be done for less than one hundred thousand. The micro budget film can be done and done well for under ten thousand dollars.


 If you want to be the writer, the producer and the director you can now do this. You do not have to use your own money either. You can shoot a scene of a minute or two to prove your concept and then use it in a crowd funding campaign. You can now craft a no budget screenplay, shoot it and use it to market your skills as a writer or better yet the all in one filmmaker. Let's look at the no budget short film.


 

  Perhaps it is time to consider that the best way to become a successful screenwriter is first to become a film maker. 

If you wish to learn how to craft a micro budget screenplay I have written a great little book that you can check out. It is a paperback that soon will be for sale as an audiobook. What I have suggested here is one path to becoming a successful screenwriter. 

In the next post we will look at the Hollywood way. If you wish to learn more about micro budget film making I would suggest visiting my other blog on the subject. Click here to do so. 


Thanks and good luck with your screenplay.

The New World Of Screenwriting

The New World Of Screenwriting

The Dslr revolution amongst low and micro budget film makers has changed the way that screenwriters are looked at by film makers. 
 

   There are now two worlds. The Hollywood way of looking at screenwriters. The screenwriter is a tool that is to be used, abused and when it begins to make noise to be replaced with a younger and cheaper version. Hollywood believes in the need for quality screenplays, but not necessarily the need for writers. You can still get rich there, but you stand a better chance of hitting it big with a novel as you do with a dozen quality screenplays.

 The indie world of film making offers the screenwriter far less money up front. Face it most of us will be working of spec, but the script will get made and the power of the screenwriter in the micro budget world is like that of the writer in the world of network television. You matter more and if you want to be the film maker then all that is required is a great deal of hard work, a few dollars, a strong computer to edit on and a dlsr camera. Christopher Nolan wrote and directed his first film Following for a few thousand dollars with a bunch of friends. The film was shot over the span of a year of weekends.

 

 
 

  Look at it this way. In the Hollywood system you as the screenwriter is looked upon as a house elf who may serve long enough to earn your clothes. In the micro budget universe you at worst a high ranking resistance fighter and at best a long lost Jedi Knight.Your skills are viewed as important as those of the leading actor, the director or producer.

 


The thing that I wish to leaved you with today is a single piece of advice moving forward. Decide on what kind of screenwriter that you wish to be. A Hollywood writer or an indie writer. 

 Can’t I do both? 

Yes and no is my answer. 

A low budget writer who pens a film like Mad Max can write films like Thunderdome and Fury Road. A guy who writes the Evil Dead can do three Spiderman films scripts. While someone who did Star Wars films for twenty years cannot think in terms of less than thirty million dollars or once you have done big budget horror films such as the Village and the Happening you think that spending five million dollars to shoot The Visit (most indies could have done it shot for shot for less than a hundred thousand) cannot got micro budget. 

Decide which type of writer you are, not want to be, but are and you will be on your way. 

Thank you for visiting today and my final piece of advice is to study film making this cannot help but to make you a best writer of film.


 

Screenwriting Advice, From the Pros

Screenwriting Advice, From the Pros


 I know that it has been over six months since my last post. I have been busy writing a series of ebooks, two of which will be available by the middle of the month of November. Until then I thought that I would touch base with all of my blogs. I have had little to say about screenwriting due to the fact that I published a really good book on the subject last year and the fact that it comes easy to me these days. 

Part of writing about any given subject is the effort to find a better way to understand that subject. I write about film making at my other blog because there is a lifetime of lessons left to learn on that subject. Returning to this blog I can predict that I will approach future post more from the angle of a film maker rather than a screen writer. 

As a writer first, I thought only in terms of story. Now I look at the screenplay in a new light. I will explain what I mean by this in future post. Right now I would like to share a backlog of videos from a few accomplished screen writers.

 First up is Joe Eszterhas. 

 

Next up is Peter Russell.





 The last writer we are going to hear from is Thunder Levin. If you do not know him he wrote a certain shark/tornado movie. Okay, fine, I will say it. He wrote Sharknado and he seems to be proud of it. 

 


 Thank you for visiting my blog and if you would like a complete tutorial on how to write a micro budget screenplay you may want to check out my book pictured below. Good luck and please take a moment to share this post and to like it on stumbleupon. 

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The Low Budget Holiday Script

Another holiday season has arrived and we find movies in theatres and on television with holiday themes. This is nothing new. Holiday movies have been part of the film making landscape since the very early days. Simple stories about home and faith and family.

I say home and faith and family while leaving out Santa Claus because after watching two weeks non stop of these kinds of films I am going to suggest that we all take a step away from the I am Santa films.

I understand why many filmmakers pick the Santa film, it is a way of making a movie all inclusive and a way of avoiding questions of faith. I would ask those film makers the question “Is that what you really want to be?” The equivalent of oatmeal or canned tuna? The holiday film that embraces faith and family most of all is the most popular of them all, It’s A Wonderful Life. The second most popular are versions of A Christmas Carol. Even the story of Santa Claus is based upon the life of a Christian Saint.

To do something truly memorable and lasting you may need to embrace this part of the holiday theme.

Switch for a moment to the area of comedy I am not against in anyway films such as - Plains, Trains and Automobiles or the first two Home Alone films. Comedy has its place. Although those movies are not low budget. You should always try to find a place to include a little comedy in your film even if is a serious drama. A holiday film script that is too down beat can be a hard sell. I wish that good old fashion tear jerkers were still popular, but audience are not demanding them. A lead character with a strong sense of humor is a good thing. They may not tell the jokes, but they should be able to get the joke or have the ability to laugh at themselves. 

   

 The great thing about holiday films is that most of them are at their core very simple scripts to write. The plots usually come down to two subjects. Either going home or appreciating what you had at home. A nice twist on this theme is the Nicholas Cage film, The Family Man.

The going home plot can fit perfectly into the no budget screenplay world. You can set one of these stories inside of a car or on a bus. Keeping your characters on the move can keep your story fresh as you introduce new characters and situations every few pages.

A few words on watching your budget in the travel and home types of scripts. Do not constantly change mode of transportation. This works great in a large budget film like Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but will kill a micro budget film. If your character or characters are travelling by car you can change vehicles a few times without blowing up a budget. If it is by bus the same bus location can double for multiple buses locations. After all if you have seen the inside of one cross country bus then you have seen them all. Plane and train travel can be done on a low budget depending on area of the country and access to sets. If you or the person that will be shooting your script lives in LA. NY. or a Canadian film making center then this can be done without blowing up a budget.

Now a note on the faith based holiday film.

You can write for a larger cast and crew than a standard low budget film because the film maker will, if he or she is smart, partner with a church or community organization that will open the doors to many free locations such as churches and community centers along with many people who will be willing to offer their services for free. Just remember the trade off in this area is that you must present a G or PG rated story with no subject material that will be objected to. This will include Santa and elves, do not include them. In the faith based world Christmas is a high holy day. Christmas is the beginning of the love story between mankind and god. Although there are a few dozen new family and faith based films coming to television this year there is only one that will playing in theaters. The Christmas Candle, and it like almost every such film has been beaten up by critics. If you want to be loved by critics and to win awards you are not going to get them if you write in this niche. Critics did not care much for It’s A Wonderful Life so understand that you will have little to no hope of winning them over.
    

I may have suggested rules, but the truth is that there are no rules. You can tell your holiday story anyway that you wish if you are going to be the film maker. If you want to take your screenplay to market then you will have to consider some of the basic rules. Directors and producers seem to want the familiar. This is perhaps why there has been hundreds of variations of the Christmas Carol plot.

Last note on the subject, you can mine classic songs for material. By classic I mean those in public domain. If you want to use a modern song then go out and negotiate for permission to do so. One of the most popular Christmas films in recent years was the movie Christmas Shoes. I believe that most movies based upon songs are thinly plotted, but it can get you from start to finish and just finishing a script gets you ninety percent of the way to seeing it produced someday.

Now if you feel that I have left out the subject of horror and holiday films. I did this because I have seen all of the Silent Night Deadly Night films. A few about killer snow men and the legendarily bad Santa Slays. I do not want to aid you in writing a horror movie for the holidays.

Peace on earth and good will towards men.

Please take a moment to share this post, by Pinning it or stumbling it or posting in on your facebook.

Thank you for visiting and happy holidays. 

My Screen Writing Book

My Screen Writing Book

 I have just published a book on how to write a low budget screenplay. Hang in there for a moment this is not just going to be a shameless plug for my ebook  On Writing A Low Budget Screenplay, available now for the low price of 2.99 at iTunes, Barnes and Noble and Amazon. That was not totally shameless was it?

I thought that the book was needed when looking at all the other ones out there. No one really seems to get that this is becoming a digital - Dslr driven film industry yet and how to craft screenplays that can be made in that ten thousand dollar or less range. If you decide to invest in a copy of the book you will find that a third of it is made of post that have appeared on this blog. The rest consist of new content.

Okay today I would like to offer an excerpt from the book. A chapter about what I would like to call the SaberMetrics of Screenwriting. I hope that most of you have seen Moneyball and perhaps ever read the script. If you cut the on field stuff out and there is not much of that in the film, it could have easily been done on a low budget. Before we begin here is a clip from the film.

The Sabermetrics Of Screenwriting.

Many of you have seen the movie Moneyball. I think that I have seen it a dozen times largely due to the facts that I love baseball and I love the very idea that just because there is a way that things have been done, does not mean that there is a way that things will always be done or should be done.

If you are unfamiliar with the film and the concept of Sabermetrics. At the end of the day you can boil almost everything including baseball down to a single number. A mathematical equation that will make you a winner and or a loser. Despite the fact that this low cost concept worked there are many in baseball who believe to this day that it is all smoke and mirrors or dumb luck.

The micro budget film is sort of sabermetrics being played out in the film industry. Here comes another summer of bloated films that cost between one hundred million to two hundred and fifty million dollars. One of those films will win the yearly box office race. That is the top of the line number, but not the whole story. A super hero movie that cost two hundred million dollars makes one point two billion world wide and the studio heads go crazy. That is a 6 to 1 return on investment not counting in the two hundred million that was also spend to advertise it.

A low budget film like Paranormal Activity cost less than a hundred thousand to make. It gets two to four million in advertising. Most of it online. Let us say a total of five million invested in the release of a film that goes on to make over one hundred million in the US alone. The return on investment is 20 to 1.
The world that Hollywood has created will be rocked to its core when someone makes a comedy for thirty thousand dollars that makes a hundred million. This is going to happen and perhaps you will be the one to write it. The 1929 stock market crash moment for Hollywood studios will be one of us writes a super hero movie that is shoot for under a hundred grand and the thing makes a hundred million plus selling merchandise and spawning toys.

The goal of writing a micro budget film is not to create a movie that will generate a micro budget return. The goal is to write the best movie possible. To create a story that the whole world will embrace.

Your budget should be small, but your goals should never ever be small. The idea behind sabermetrics was that a small market team with a limited payroll could compete with the riches and most powerful teams on earth. They could beat them by paying attention to the little things that had gone totally ignored.

The script that you write can easily be better than the ones that will populate theaters this summer. Low to micro budget does not mean that your screenplay will not be fantastic.

You will be writing a small and compact story, but your aims should never be small.


     Okay that is it for this post. Please take a moment to share this post and to stumble it on stumbleupon. The idea of selling the book is a nice one, but the idea of screenwriters learning the proper way to not only write a low budget screenplay, but write a really good one is more important to me. I am not impressed so far by this summers big budget blockbusters and just as disappointed with many of the low and micro budget films I have seen. The weakness in most of these films begin and end with the screenplays. We can do better. We have to do better.

Thank you and good luck.

Screenwriting, A Learned Skill

Screenwriting, A Learned Skill


You need some talent to be a writer. Talent for the chosen field is a given, but just about everyone can tell a simple story. The art of the novel is 80 percent talent and twenty percent technique. The art of screen writing is twenty percent talent, forty percent technique and forty percent persistence.

The good news is that the technical aspect can largely be gotten through basic software programs. We have gone over them before and I can do a quick listing of some of the best no budget options for you.
 Celtx is great and is free to use. There is a upgraded version that cost about ten dollars. Unless you are going to be producing the movie as well the upgraded copy is not necessary. There is the great store and working on your screenplay online resource Scripped. This site s free to sign up at. Free to use. Free to store your screenplay there online. They have a screenplay registration service that is great if you do not use the writer’s guild or want to file for a copy write. There is also the free software known as Roughdraft. It has templates for stageplay screenplay and novel. It is great and very simple to use.

Next I can not teach you to have talent. Either you do or you do not. If you have little or no story telling talent that is okay. You can still find a way to craft a screenplay. You can adapt someone else’s story or a true story that you have read about or heard about. The talent to tell a great story is not needed if you can find a great story. Once the story is found all you have to do is to fall back on the technique of writing the screenplay. Identify the lead character. Figure out who or what are the protagonist and the antagonist. Learn all that you can about creating conflict. Conflict is what drives a narrative story forward. Opposing forces pushing against each other.

Next learn the basics of the three act structure. It is as simple as beginning middle and end. If you can understand that Act I is the beginning, Act II is the middle and Act III is how to script will reach an end.
Now since this blog is about low to no budget screen writing then I have to remind you that you must limit the size of your cast and the number of locations. To pick up and move a crew and actors cost money every time that you do it. To secure a location cost. To move equipment cost. Even if a production does not pay the actors they have to be fed and travel cost as well so keep those things in the back of your mind when writing your micro budget screenplay and in the front of your mind when rewriting it.

The last word has to be about persistence. You have to face that plank screen everyday. Write something everyday. Aim for a rough draft pace of five to six pages a day. That is between a thousand to fifteen hundred words. At this pace you can finish your first draft in about three weeks. It this pace is too much that is okay. One page a day, everyday, for a year is equal to four ninety page screenplays a year. That is a great
pace. What I am trying to tell you is that as long as you write something everyday you are doing better than ninety five percent of the writers out there. Write as often as possible. Writing is like lifting weights. You get stronger and it gets easier. Persistence pays off over time. Keep writing. Keep writing and did I mention that I think you should keep writing?

Okay that is it for today. Thank you for visiting and please take a moment to stumble us on stumbleupon and to share this post.

More About Dialogue

                More On Dialogue

    I am returning to dialogue for this reason. It sort of sounded earlier
that I was anti dialogue. I am not. I am against the over use and dependence upon dialogue to progress the script. Dialogue pages fly by, while action and description takes longer to write.
    Secondly my problem with dialogue is that people are just not as good at it as they use to be.
    Hold it.
    Wait a second.
    Drop that protest sign.
    I want you to go and look up what are considered the top fifty or so films of all time. Do the same for television. Do the same for songs. After you have done this review go back and look at the years these films, tv shows and songs were written. They will have something in common. Most if not all were written before the internet age, before the way we communicated changed. Instant messaging, texting, twitter has changed the way we talk to each other. Sentences do not always have begin middles and ends anymore. And of the modern day classics how many of them were written by older writers. People who started in the 80s or 90s?  How many? Just about all of them?
    You have two golden ages in filmmaking and screenwriting. The 1930's and the 1970's. The music was mostly bad, but the films were amazing.
    Examples from the 1930's, The Thin Man, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Destry Rides Again, Stage Coach, Public Enemy, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Dracula, The Lady Vanishes, Murder, The Bride of Frankenstein, Duck Soup, Grand Hotel and I could list a hundred more films. Can you list 10 films from the last 5 years.

The scene is from the 1931 movie Public Enemy. the perfect mix of dialogue and action to tell you everything that you need to know about these two characters and their relationship.

    Let’s jump to the 1970's. The Godfather and its Sequel. The French Connection, The Exorcist, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Shining, Vanishing Point, Halloween, Rocky, Scarface, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Superman the Motion Picture, Jaws, Star Wars, Patton, Taxi Driver, Frenzy, Straw Dogs American Graffiti, Alien and half a dozen Woody Allen movies. I am leaving out tons of international films, Grindhouse movies, and the golden age of Italian horror films.

    Watch movies from both decades and read scripts from both. You will see that in the 1930's they had to hint and suggest what was really meant at times while in the 1970's they were allowed to hit you with a sledge hammer. The 1930's were about writing with a quill pen and the 1970's were about writing with a hammer and chisel. And the cool thing is that both ways were equally as effective.
    Recognize this and understand that you can do it both ways depending upon the story.
    Really? I don’t believe that. No one can tells stories using both styles.
    You are almost right. Most of us will find our niche and stick to it, but I would like to say that Hitchcock managed to do it. As a matter of fact he managed to produce classic films in both of the decades listed. I am not saying be Hitchcock. That is like saying go hit home runs like Babe Ruth. What I am saying is that Dialogue is a tool. Learn to use it and if you have to visit past experts that is okay.

One great scene from the Godfather. Basic one on one dialogue at its finest. The actors and writer made this look too easy.

No Budget Screenplay Structure

            Building a Structure


    Let’s review the basics.

    We are telling a story.

    Your screenplay is a story and just about every single story have one thing in common. They all have a set structure. Someone tells you a story and it always boils down to this. The story will have a beginning, middle and an end. In screenwriting we call this Act I, Act II and Act III. If your script is one hundred and twenty pages then Act I will be about 30 pages, Act II will be around 60 to 70 pages and the final act should be 20 to 30 pages.

    I believe that the last act should be the shortest because of intensity if no other reason. The time for talk is all, but over and action on the page and on the screen is what we are looking for at the end on our screenplay. Look at one of my favorite movies, Taken.  Act I is over when the daughter is taken, Act II is over when our hero finds out from his former friend when his daughter will be auctioned. The final act is short and brutally sweet.

    From this point forward in the Blog I am going to try to offer as many video tutorials on the subject as possible. I do this to follow my own favorite rule about movies. Show and do not tell.

    Below is a video about structure.

    Good luck with your script.

Your No Budget Screenplay, Free Software

    Your No Budget Screenplay, Free Software

    There are any number of books that teach the basics of formatting a screenplay.  There are many very good software programs that will aid you.  If you can afford Final Draft then by all means buy it.  If you have absolutely no money to spend then I would like to offer you advice on three software programs that are free and will get the job done.
    The first of these three programs is a very good online service named Scripped.
Sign up for Scripped and you will be able to write, edit and save your script online at the Scripped site.  Later when your script is finished you can even register it there for a small yearly fee.  This site allows you to transfer the finished file to your computer and print it if you wish.  It’s a solid site and the screenwriting program itself is pretty solid.  Try Scripped especially if you are one of those people who are worried about losing your work.  It is saved online and I personally have partial scripts saved there for over a year. It does not work well with every browser, but I use Firefox and it has never crashed.
    The second program is called Celtx.  It has a full version that can be used for full film production.  The free version of Celtx has a great little screen writing program.  There is nothing fancy about it, but it will get you from beginning to end.  For about twenty dollars more you can upgrade the program.  (Note: At the moment there is a holiday sale on this program, you can get the full version for 9.99)
    The third program is named Roughdraft, if you have trouble finding it just google Roughdraft software.  It is a bare bones basic program.  Once I got the hang of it I have to admit that it is my favorite of the programs largely due to the fact that it is so basic.  This program never gets in the way of itself.
    There are many other free programs and templates available for word perfect.  You can get basic instructions on how to create a screenplay template at any number of sites if you do not wish to download a template or free software.  Your options are many and when it comes to creating your no budget screenplay I believe that the best place to start is with free software.

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Your No Budget Screenplay,No Money is Good

Your No Budget Screenplay, No Money is Good

    For the short term having no money to produce a big budget epic is a good thing.  If you had an unlimited budget to work with and access to all the actors and locations on this world and how ever many others that could be computer generated then you would not have to learn the basics and you could happily go off and produce your version of  Dune.
    If that is your goal then you do not need any help or advice, go forth and create your epic piece of what ever Dune was.  Do not get me wrong Dune is an entertaining film, but it is in that accidental kind of way.  Sort of like a Three Stooges kind of car wreck.  The sad thing is that we can not say that for 99 percent of the mega budget flops that hit theaters each year.  These movies are usually written and produced by those who never bothered to learn the basics.
    Are you familiar with the films Batman the Dark Knight and Inception? 
    Christopher Nolan did both films. Wrote, produced and directed.  This is a man who learned the basics while making low to no budget films. 
    Most people think that Nolan’s first film was Momento.  It is a film with a million dollar budget and that was not where this great writer/filmmaker began.  He started with a movie titled Following.  It was a 6,000 dollar little movie that he wrote and shot on weekends for almost a year.  It is the hard work and lessons learned while writing this screenplay is what helped to make him someone capable of creating a film as unique and massive as Inception over a decade later.

    When you have to be inventive to solve problems rather than throwing money at the problem you will actually be learning the fundamentals that will help you years down the road to create epics.
    Do not look at having to limit your locations, the scope and number of characters as a handicap.  These are the lessons that will make you a better writer.
    Keep in the back of your mind while doing the first draft the number of locations that you are using and the population of your screenplay.  Remind yourself that locations cost money and that actors cost money.  What about extras they work for free?  Hey in the ultra low budget world your stars will most likely work for little to no money, but they have to be fed.  Extras have to eat.  Even if it is pizza and pop tarts they have to be fed.  Food cost money, so extras cost money. 
    If you have a script that requires a cast of less than ten people then that cast can most likely be held together by the producer and or director for many weeks or months if the weekend way of shooting is required.

    Keep these things in mind and try to write something every day.  Even if you are just writing notes.

Your Screenplay, Your Location is King

The Movie Saw

    Your Screenplay, The Location is King




    The one thing that will determine the budget of your script more than almost
anything else is location.  It is not so much the location that you chose it is
moving from one location to another.
    Every time that your story changes locations you will have to move cast
and crew.  You will have to also set up again and then there could be electrical
concerns.  There could be new permits that have to be gotten.  How long will you
have access to the new location?  How to feed the cast and crew there?  When you
move locations you are moving everything.
    In the ultra low budget world if you have more than ten locations you are
no longer shooting a low budget movie.  Unless you own or have unrestricted
access to all the locations.  This is why so many low budget movies are in the
woods movies or on the road movies.  These locations are free.
    I am not telling you to set your script in a closet and it will only cost ten bucks
to make.  I am saying that you need to know your locations before you write.
    Saw has a central location, half the movie is spent there and this really saved
the producers a lot of money and surely cut down on the shooting schedule.    The movie
Saw is a good example.  You can have that central location.  Your main characters
spend most of their time there.  Most of the story is told there, but for the sake
of making it more cinematic the script takes us on short trips to other locations.
    Let’s look at easy to find locations.

From The Movie The Devil

    An apartment or a house.  A good sized house is better than an
apartment because it can double for multi locations while at the
same time not requiring the production to pick up stakes and
set up across town.  One bedroom could be in character’s A
house, while another could appear to belong to character B who
could live in another state or even country.  The kitchen
becomes a location, the living room, the basement, the
backyard and the garage if there is one.
    A car and or cars can become separate locations.  Whole movies have
been shot inside of cars.  The last half an hour of the Stephen King Film Cujo
is shot in and around a car. The great budget saving feature here is that the
car does not even have to be working.  It is better if it does not.  The production
saves on having to travel with the vehicle and spending money on gas.
    When you write a script do not let this be the first thing in your head.  The
story comes first, but when you re-write it consider location and budget.
    Parks and wooded area are great to save on money.  Parking garages are
cool too.
    Locations where there is just enough room for conflict, while the tightness
of the space also adds to the conflict are great as well.  The movie The Devil is
a good example, mostly shot in an elevator.  Even if you have to build the
elevator set this is okay.  It does not cost that much to build four walls and a ceiling
that can be moved depending upon the shot.
    About special effects, do not be afraid to include them.  Effects are
cheaper and easier to pull off with the available software today.  I am
not saying that you are free to write the Matrix or Inception, but write the
story and later decide where you may have to cut or alter.
    If you remind yourself that location is important then you will have less
trouble down the road with your script.  It will be far more appealing to a low
budget producer if they can tell early on that you understand the basic facts
of the business.
    This also applies to television movies as well.  Most of them have limited
locations and limited set up’s.  Look at the movies that Hallmark Channel and Lifetime
makes.  Most of these movies are limited locations and limited shooting time.  These
made for television movies are usually shot in eighteen - thirty days.  A low budget
film shoot could be and usually will be between five and twenty one days.
    Knowing the value of locations will help you create a script that will be
more attractive to producers and much more budget friendly if you decide to shoot
it yourself

Your Screenplay is a Circle

        Your Screenplay is a Circle


    You are having problems with your screenplay.  You know how it begins,
but the middle and the end have you at a loss.  I can tell you this much.  The
place that you start should be the place where you finish.
    A good script is a perfect circle and allow me to explain how and why.
    You story will most like begin with your characters living in their idea
world.  A perfectly calm existence is shattered and it is a never ending scramble to return to that perfect life.
    Sounds crazy?
    Remember the Godfather?
    The opening scenes?
    The family is happy and intact.  They are celebrating a wedding.  The
Godfather and is inner circle are in total control of a world that is going to be
attacked from both outside and within.  This world is destroyed.  The Godfather
is shot. Sonny, his oldest son is killed, his enforcer is killed and his youngest
son Michael is beaten.  From this point on there is a never ending quest by those
left standing to put their universe back into its proper order.
    The last scene of the film, after all the violence and bloodshed, is Michael
in his father’s place as Godfather conducting business as his father did when the
film began.  All is right with the world.  The natural order has been restored.
    You can look at a saga like Lord of The Rings and the same holds true.  Where
does that story begin?  Home, comfortable and safe.  After an endless quest
where does it end up.  Frodo and Sam back to where they started.  Missing
a finger here and a lot of bruises there they are back to the perfect world
that they had to flee.
    Some stories begin with that perfect world already shattered and through
flashbacks it is revealed through out the story.  The character is forever trying to
find away to or back to their idea world.  Some characters do not realize that their
world was great until they venture outside of their comfort zone and after having
all of their illusions shattered to they really appreciate what they had going for them.
A great example of this is in the minor UK classic Mona Lisa starring Bob Hoskins.
    Your characters do not travel along an arc if the story is going to be
great and memorable, they travel along a circle.  That circle traveled in the Wizard
of Oz.   Dorothy has to leave home to realize that there is no place like home.
    Send your characters on grand adventures, but always keep the end zone
in sight.  The place that they are headed looks a great deal like the place that they
have just left behind.    I am not suggesting that it should be a steady walk
toward the place that they just left.  Put obstacles in their way.
See if they can jump through an endless series of hoops, but at the
end of it all if they have proven themselves worthy let them come home.
They do not need a hero’s welcome, but they need to return to
the world where they feel most welcome.  There is a line in one of the greatest
of all westerns, Ride the High Country, where the lead say that all he wants at the
end of the day is to come home Justified.  He wants to go off into the world, do
what his code of honor will allow him to do and come back home knowing
that he could not have done things any other way.
    Look at Michael in the Godfather or Sam in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy both
of these characters did things their way.  Always guided by their own personal
code and in the end they make it back to a world where they belong.
    The greatest stories ever told are not straight lines.
    They are not rocky hills and valleys, but as Scarlett traveled in
Gone With the Wind, they are a full circle and the fuller the better.

The Ultra Low Budget Script

            The Ultra Low Budget Script

            Your Screenplay, Time to Write It

    1.
    As someone who has written a few of these things my advice for
the beginner is just to get it down on paper.  Beginning, middle and end
as fast as you possibly can for this reason, gravity will take over other
wise.  What I mean by Gravity is the pull of the other (dreaded better)
idea.  The story that you are trying to write will not seem nearly
as fresh or as interesting as the one you have just come up with.
Gravity is the weight of everyday life.  The normal doubts
about whether or not you can do this thing.  After all who do you
think that you are trying to write a screenplay.
    Other people write movies, but not me.
    They are so long and so complicated.
    These are the myths that will weight down.
    Allow me to kill these two myths.
    First screenplays are not that long.  90 pages and less than
20,000 words on average.
    What?
    90 pages sounds like a lot.
    Unless you are writing a silent movie over half of these pages will
be dialogue.  That is a lot of white space.
    I don’t know the format.
    Really?
    Really, I do not know the format.
    Fine, go online.  Google your favorite movie, search for the
script and read it.  It will not take long to read.  A good script is a
quick read.  The cool thing about doing this you will read where there
were changes made that are not even amongst the deleted dvd scenes.
Also the software that you pick may help you with the formatting. Last
bit of advice on this subject and it is the best writing advice I ever
got.  Get a notebook and a pen.  Sit down and hand copy 3 pages
of the favorite screenplay that you have read.  By doing this simple
exercise you will learn so many subtle details you missed by just
reading it.
    Secondly, it is not complicated.  Bad scripts are complicated.
Good ones are so simple that you wonder why there are not more
good movies.
    My girlfriend loves the Notebook.  As a guy it makes me
cringe.  As a writer it makes me smile.  On the surface it looks complicated.
Only because it bounces back and forth along the time-line to keep
you guessing.  The truth is that it is just a boy meets girl story.  Boy loses
girl, boy gets girl back, boy loses girl to illness and each day boy gets
girl back again.  Wow, that is so complicated.
    Need more examples?
    Fine.
    Lunatic tortures people to make them appreciate their lives more, Saw.
    Young couple falls in love on doomed ocean cruise, Titanic.
    Brain dead couple make all the wrong choices when dealing with a violent
supernatural entity, Paranormal Activity.
    Get the picture?
    Not that complicated at all.
    But my idea has twists and turns and surprises and is filled with deep
symbolic elements.
    Good grief who let M. Night in here?  Who told mister Happening,
mister The Village where we would be having our little chat?
    Fine, okay, I can deal with this.
    A group of strangers discover that they are trapped in an elevator with
the devil, The Devil.  Story by our good friend M. Night.
    Cut this nonsense out and make an entertain movie or all the studios
will stop answer your calls is a great motivator huh?
     Now you need software.
    Final draft is the best.  It cost a good amount.
    There is also Movie Magic screenwriter and Script Wizard.
    You could go for a free program.  There are 3 that I like.
    Scripped is a site where you write and save your screenplay at their
online site. You can even register it there.
    Celtx is a nice little free formatting software.  It also will help you
with the full production of your movie, but that is another article.
     I really like a freeware program called Roughdraft, it is bare bones
basic, but if you already know the elements of screen writing then it is a
solid program.
    Good luck with your screenplay and remember if you write just
3 pages a day for one month you have a screenplay.