From the Scripped.com boards. Doesn't say which contest. Link below:
http://scripped.com/discussions/view/2601
http://scripped.com/discussions/view/2601
It's been quite a while since I've had the pleasure of stopping by this site, but believe me it was for a worthy cause. I was asked to be a judge for a film festival screenwriting contest, and three months and 200+ screenplays later, I am finally done with the competition and trying to get back into my old workflow.
Now I've been involved in film festivals and contests before, and while I won't name this one in case anyone here entered into it I will say it's the largest and most prestigious one I've had the honor of being involved in. It was a very fun and hugely educational experience to say the least, but what I found so shocking was that a lot of the issues that plagued scripts in the smaller contests I've worked with also plagued the scripts I was reading in this contest.
What I'd like to do is share a few things I've learned from being on the other side of a screenwriting competition in the hopes that some of the things I've learned might help with others' chances if they are sending a script to a film festival. Please remember that these are just my observations, not hard and fast rules, and the capitalizations are just for dramatic effect. Enjoy!
1. IT AIN'T EASY.
Being a judge for any writing competition is a daunting task in and of itself. There were 8,000 entries into this competition, all full-length feature scripts, and every single one of those had to be read. Most contests and film festivals are volunteer-staffed or are run by a small cartel of devout enthusiasts, and most are doing this on top of full-time jobs, families, and other responsibilities. I was personally responsible for reading 200 screenplays and re-reading another 100 from other judges. I can't imagine how people manage to organize contests for novelists!
Complicating matters is the fact that I'm a writer myself and I know what's at stake for every single script I read. Writing a screenplay takes a lot of effort. The writer's ego is impossible to separate from their work. I might be reading a script that is written by a young writer looking for their big break or an old writer looking for validation after years of rejections. This contest might be a make-or-break moment for someone out there. Knowing so many writers and knowing how much their scripts mean to them puts quite a bit of pressure on me, but in the end there can still be only one winner.
2. BE TRUE TO YOUR STORY, NOT THE TRUTH.
It didn't take long for the words "based on a true story- to become a warning sign for me. I picked up a least a dozen scripts based on actual historic events or real people that ended up being terrible because they tried to cram the entire history of a person or event into their script and ended up failing to tell a single, coherent story. Many of them were even about interesting places or people, but without a focused conflict the script felt disjointed and pointless.
History is a great source for ideas and stories, but a screenplay isn't a textbook. The Patriot was a story about a father, not the Revolutionary War, the same way that Titanic was a love story and not about a big boat. Use the larger setting as a means of pushing the story forward, but don't try to tell the whole story of the Cold War in 120 pages. Pick one story from the saga and focus.
3. YOU'RE A WRITER, NOT A DIRECTOR!
You'd think it'd be common knowledge that you're not supposed to put things like camera angles and special effects in a non-shooting script, particularly one that was heading to a competition, but I read plenty that tried to direct me through their story. The words "WE SEE- would start every single action line, and telling me how the low light obscures a character's face isn't telling me a story, it's directing.
This isn't a matter of what's "supposed- to be in a script or some kind of high-falootin' "rules- for screenplays. This is a matter of readability. Scripts that take me through a shot-by-shot breakdown of how they think their movie should be filmed are not easy and not fun to read. It is a HUGE distraction from the story itself and it is impossible to look past. Tell me a story, don't describe a storyboard.
4. DON'T DROWN YOUR STORY IN DIALOG!
Action is the name of the game. Action is your friend. Action should be the overwhelming bulk of what is in your screenplay, no matter the genre.
This contest taught me just how important it is to be conservative with your dialog. Long speeches and expositions get boring fast, but almost worse off were long conversations where two people would just stand and talk about a situation from beginning to end. Some of these conversations were six or seven pages long, with the only activity being the characters walking into or out of the scene!
Conversations are key in playwriting, but not on screen. The "show up late and leave early- rule applies to conversations as much as it does to situations. We don't need to hear the formalities. We don't need to hear the banal chatter about the weather, and we certainly don't need to hear a character explain what happened in a situation we'd already witnessed or heard explained before. Once it's been said, assume that all your characters know what's going on because your audience certainly does!
The same goes for parentheticals. They are to be used with extreme caution! The best scripts I read didn't use any at all!
5. I KNOW HOW TO MAKE TOAST!
You want to know a great way to get a script reader to lose interest? Take them trough a normal breakfast scene step by step. Explain in the action line that your character takes out a piece of toast, then puts it in the toaster, then takes the jam from the cabinet, gets a knife from the drawer, waits for the toast to pop up, removes the bread, places it on a plate, spreads the jam on the toast and then they eat it.
Did you read that last paragraph? Do you wish you hadn't? I know I do.
It amazed me how many people wrote scenes just like that, and usually all in one action block too. Not only is it a bad way to write a script because it doesn't pace the action well at all, but it has nothing to do with anything. If your character is eating eggs for breakfast and nothing happens until halfway through the meal, start the scene halfway through the meal. You don't need to show them making their breakfast from scratch.
A good way to judge if you need to write out a scene is to think of it like this: If someone was watching this movie at home and they fast-forwarded through this scene, would they miss anything? At what point would they have to push play to get the important information in a scene? If you have a scene or parts of a scene that don't move the plot or characters forward, consider cutting it or changing it.
Now I've been involved in film festivals and contests before, and while I won't name this one in case anyone here entered into it I will say it's the largest and most prestigious one I've had the honor of being involved in. It was a very fun and hugely educational experience to say the least, but what I found so shocking was that a lot of the issues that plagued scripts in the smaller contests I've worked with also plagued the scripts I was reading in this contest.
What I'd like to do is share a few things I've learned from being on the other side of a screenwriting competition in the hopes that some of the things I've learned might help with others' chances if they are sending a script to a film festival. Please remember that these are just my observations, not hard and fast rules, and the capitalizations are just for dramatic effect. Enjoy!
1. IT AIN'T EASY.
Being a judge for any writing competition is a daunting task in and of itself. There were 8,000 entries into this competition, all full-length feature scripts, and every single one of those had to be read. Most contests and film festivals are volunteer-staffed or are run by a small cartel of devout enthusiasts, and most are doing this on top of full-time jobs, families, and other responsibilities. I was personally responsible for reading 200 screenplays and re-reading another 100 from other judges. I can't imagine how people manage to organize contests for novelists!
Complicating matters is the fact that I'm a writer myself and I know what's at stake for every single script I read. Writing a screenplay takes a lot of effort. The writer's ego is impossible to separate from their work. I might be reading a script that is written by a young writer looking for their big break or an old writer looking for validation after years of rejections. This contest might be a make-or-break moment for someone out there. Knowing so many writers and knowing how much their scripts mean to them puts quite a bit of pressure on me, but in the end there can still be only one winner.
2. BE TRUE TO YOUR STORY, NOT THE TRUTH.
It didn't take long for the words "based on a true story- to become a warning sign for me. I picked up a least a dozen scripts based on actual historic events or real people that ended up being terrible because they tried to cram the entire history of a person or event into their script and ended up failing to tell a single, coherent story. Many of them were even about interesting places or people, but without a focused conflict the script felt disjointed and pointless.
History is a great source for ideas and stories, but a screenplay isn't a textbook. The Patriot was a story about a father, not the Revolutionary War, the same way that Titanic was a love story and not about a big boat. Use the larger setting as a means of pushing the story forward, but don't try to tell the whole story of the Cold War in 120 pages. Pick one story from the saga and focus.
3. YOU'RE A WRITER, NOT A DIRECTOR!
You'd think it'd be common knowledge that you're not supposed to put things like camera angles and special effects in a non-shooting script, particularly one that was heading to a competition, but I read plenty that tried to direct me through their story. The words "WE SEE- would start every single action line, and telling me how the low light obscures a character's face isn't telling me a story, it's directing.
This isn't a matter of what's "supposed- to be in a script or some kind of high-falootin' "rules- for screenplays. This is a matter of readability. Scripts that take me through a shot-by-shot breakdown of how they think their movie should be filmed are not easy and not fun to read. It is a HUGE distraction from the story itself and it is impossible to look past. Tell me a story, don't describe a storyboard.
4. DON'T DROWN YOUR STORY IN DIALOG!
Action is the name of the game. Action is your friend. Action should be the overwhelming bulk of what is in your screenplay, no matter the genre.
This contest taught me just how important it is to be conservative with your dialog. Long speeches and expositions get boring fast, but almost worse off were long conversations where two people would just stand and talk about a situation from beginning to end. Some of these conversations were six or seven pages long, with the only activity being the characters walking into or out of the scene!
Conversations are key in playwriting, but not on screen. The "show up late and leave early- rule applies to conversations as much as it does to situations. We don't need to hear the formalities. We don't need to hear the banal chatter about the weather, and we certainly don't need to hear a character explain what happened in a situation we'd already witnessed or heard explained before. Once it's been said, assume that all your characters know what's going on because your audience certainly does!
The same goes for parentheticals. They are to be used with extreme caution! The best scripts I read didn't use any at all!
5. I KNOW HOW TO MAKE TOAST!
You want to know a great way to get a script reader to lose interest? Take them trough a normal breakfast scene step by step. Explain in the action line that your character takes out a piece of toast, then puts it in the toaster, then takes the jam from the cabinet, gets a knife from the drawer, waits for the toast to pop up, removes the bread, places it on a plate, spreads the jam on the toast and then they eat it.
Did you read that last paragraph? Do you wish you hadn't? I know I do.
It amazed me how many people wrote scenes just like that, and usually all in one action block too. Not only is it a bad way to write a script because it doesn't pace the action well at all, but it has nothing to do with anything. If your character is eating eggs for breakfast and nothing happens until halfway through the meal, start the scene halfway through the meal. You don't need to show them making their breakfast from scratch.
A good way to judge if you need to write out a scene is to think of it like this: If someone was watching this movie at home and they fast-forwarded through this scene, would they miss anything? At what point would they have to push play to get the important information in a scene? If you have a scene or parts of a scene that don't move the plot or characters forward, consider cutting it or changing it.
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