What goes into writing a great movie script?

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

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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.

Xbox finally reveals handheld console after decade of speculation - BBC

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

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

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

'King of the Hill' Reboot First Details: Hank, Peggy, Bobby, Dale - Variety

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.

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

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗ NEW WOMAN - analysis ˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

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

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

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

She was a Disney star with platinum records, but Bridgit Mendler gave it up to change the world - Ars Technica

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.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

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

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Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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.

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

Devin Harjes, ‘Boardwalk Empire,’ ‘Daredevil’ and ‘Gotham’ Actor, Dies at 41 - The Hollywood Reporter

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.

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

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.

Hello, I have a question about astral projection. I started to get interested in this a little while after my mum passed in april. I thought I may be able to see her and speak with her if I managed to achieve astral projection. Since this interest, every time i sleep on my back I go into sleep paralysis. However, I cant progress into astral projection because it is very scary for me as I feel like I'm suffocating when this happens. I panic and force myself to wake up. This only ever happened about once a year before this. It sometimes lasts a long time. This has happened about 3 times per week since my mum died, as mentioned on a previous post. I no longer try to go into it anymore(due to the suffocating feeling), but it still happens. I read that sleep paralysis is the pathway to astral projection. Why has this started to happen so frequently since simply taking an interest in it? Is this connected to the afterlife? I am concerned about it as I now cannot seem to stop this happening. Could it be my mum trying to communicate? Im asking due to more knowledge around this in this group.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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

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

Did Harry and Meghan really get what they wanted?