The Talent Thing
Anyone who is not creative to begin with, who thinks they can buy a book and learn how to write a script *without any creativity* in 21 days, isn't really part of the equation. I don't acknowledge them - they're the get-rich-quicks.
I assume you want to write, and that you are creative.
If you are just in it for the money and you buy a book and write a script in 21 days and it looks like cookie-cutter crap, it's not the book's fault. It's not a tragedy that that person wrote a bad script - their heart wasn't in it in the first place. If anything - it serves them right. Screw them.
So let's assume that you want to write and you are creative... now you need to know how to use the tools so that you can harvest your talent and put it on the page. Now that book or whatever can be helpful. Because you are creative and have a mind of your own, you are going to find inventive and creative ways to tell your story. The book or whatever will help you do that.
THE COMMERCIAL THING
Go over to boxofficemojo and look at the 50 most popular films of all time. Those are the movies that people probably paid to see more than once. If you start with the top 20, you'll see a pattern - you'll know what's commercial. What people want to see. The movies are all escapism, and almost all are fantasy or sci-fi (really fantasy - STAR WARS isn't really sci-fi). They all have larger than life stories, usually with normal protags at the center. The next 20 on the list are also mostly fantasy. with a few big comedies or big action flicks or big horror flicks thrown in. Almost every one of the 50 is "high concept" and has some weird element - GHOST is a love story/thriller about a dead guy. The movies that don't have the weird usually have HUGE spectacle - TITANIC and GONE WITH THE WIND are good examples of this. They are big stories that fill the screen. So that's what's commercial - stories that provide escape into a larger than life world (where the protag is someone just like you or me - but probably much better looking and probably not 30 pounds overweight).
Do you still need characters people care about? Sure - but it's nice if they are in a STORY that people want to see.
THE PRO FEEDBACK THING
I don't think it's feedback - most of the feedback I get is "This script sucks!" - I think practice is an element and so is figuring out that maybe if you really like fun movies you should be writing fun movies. I swear, that seems obvious but it often takes a long time to sink in. I was writing gritty 70s scripts well into the 80s - and I was no longer *watching* gritty 70s movies.
I think after you get the hang of writing and can take off the training wheels you start to think about the other elements of writing. I did some acting once, long ago, and the rule was you had to memorize your lines early so that you could concentrate on the ACTING part. I think the same is true with screenwriting - you have to learn how to do the writing part so that you can concentrate on what your writing is DOING to the audience. Once you get the story/charcters/dialogue stuff down, the REAL WORK begins. You have to put those skills to use making the reader feel something.
- Bill
Anyone who is not creative to begin with, who thinks they can buy a book and learn how to write a script *without any creativity* in 21 days, isn't really part of the equation. I don't acknowledge them - they're the get-rich-quicks.
I assume you want to write, and that you are creative.
If you are just in it for the money and you buy a book and write a script in 21 days and it looks like cookie-cutter crap, it's not the book's fault. It's not a tragedy that that person wrote a bad script - their heart wasn't in it in the first place. If anything - it serves them right. Screw them.
So let's assume that you want to write and you are creative... now you need to know how to use the tools so that you can harvest your talent and put it on the page. Now that book or whatever can be helpful. Because you are creative and have a mind of your own, you are going to find inventive and creative ways to tell your story. The book or whatever will help you do that.
THE COMMERCIAL THING
Go over to boxofficemojo and look at the 50 most popular films of all time. Those are the movies that people probably paid to see more than once. If you start with the top 20, you'll see a pattern - you'll know what's commercial. What people want to see. The movies are all escapism, and almost all are fantasy or sci-fi (really fantasy - STAR WARS isn't really sci-fi). They all have larger than life stories, usually with normal protags at the center. The next 20 on the list are also mostly fantasy. with a few big comedies or big action flicks or big horror flicks thrown in. Almost every one of the 50 is "high concept" and has some weird element - GHOST is a love story/thriller about a dead guy. The movies that don't have the weird usually have HUGE spectacle - TITANIC and GONE WITH THE WIND are good examples of this. They are big stories that fill the screen. So that's what's commercial - stories that provide escape into a larger than life world (where the protag is someone just like you or me - but probably much better looking and probably not 30 pounds overweight).
Do you still need characters people care about? Sure - but it's nice if they are in a STORY that people want to see.
THE PRO FEEDBACK THING
I don't think it's feedback - most of the feedback I get is "This script sucks!" - I think practice is an element and so is figuring out that maybe if you really like fun movies you should be writing fun movies. I swear, that seems obvious but it often takes a long time to sink in. I was writing gritty 70s scripts well into the 80s - and I was no longer *watching* gritty 70s movies.
I think after you get the hang of writing and can take off the training wheels you start to think about the other elements of writing. I did some acting once, long ago, and the rule was you had to memorize your lines early so that you could concentrate on the ACTING part. I think the same is true with screenwriting - you have to learn how to do the writing part so that you can concentrate on what your writing is DOING to the audience. Once you get the story/charcters/dialogue stuff down, the REAL WORK begins. You have to put those skills to use making the reader feel something.
- Bill
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