What goes into writing a great movie script?

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

People choose what to see based on the high concept. Make sure to deliver an ending consistent with the high concept -- it is what the audience paid for.

Don’t direct from the page. Everyone, from the director on down, wants to be part of the process of making movies. Let them do their work.

Can the United States threaten the UK with destroying its economy to force it into anything, just like what happened in the Suez Crisis?

All rules are made to be broken, but you damn well better know WHY you’re breaking them.

To develop a unique voice for each character, try interviewing your characters.

Only God gets it right the first time. Rewrite everything.

This crab emits light from its forehead, and scientists have tried to figure out why. - Farmingdale Observer

Your primary job is to create situations. Modern actors will fuck up your dialogue, despite whatever your contract says.

Audiences are smarter than you think. Something about turning down the house lights makes their IQs go up.

Primary characters must change polarities. Secondary characters can change less.

What is the reason for The Acolyte (2024 series) having poor reception among Star Wars fans?

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

Outline everything. Use story beats. Keep character’s mouths taped up, until they absolutely MUST speak. Write the script and the dialogue at the last minute, after you’ve revised the hell out of the outline.

Cut everything that is not a payoff, or a setup for a specific payoff. “Omit needless words.” Think about the sparseness of joke telling, or Grimm Brothers.

Is TikTok becoming a platform for soft porn?

Maintain a slush pile/idea file. When you are ready to write, choose the best seeds to plant.

Leave holes. Write and unwrite. Put it in, take it out.

Get up there yourself. Be in a movie. Take some acting (not writing) classes. Learn how a trained actor approaches a text. Learn why actors take roles. They do as much if not more than the writer does.

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A critical function of storytelling is wish fulfillment. This is why video games are so popular. “That protagonist is JUST LIKE ME.”

Use status to help drive conflict. King Lear/fool. Upstairs/downstairs.

Write in reverse time. Major characters need to change polarity; minor characters may remain the same at the end.

The AI Backlash Keeps Growing Stronger - WIRED

What you leave unwritten is as important as what you write. SUBTEXT.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

Learn to tell a story orally and not through writing. Try telling your story to a friend.

Ryan Lochte’s wife Kayla reveals ‘painful’ divorce after seven years of marriage - New York Post

Conflict is your power source; without it you have no drama and hence no script.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

A scene should change valence from beginning to end. Up to down, down to up.

Why do men first look at a woman's chest instead of their face?