What goes into writing a great movie script?

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

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

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.

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

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

Why did Cartman love Heidi purely with heart, her being the first one he ever did, but then one day Butters tells him that all women are manipulative and then he began to believe that she was a bad person and pretended to be a victim?

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

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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

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

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.

How did AI have a role in John Lennon's vocal performance on last year's Beatles song Now and Then, produced by Paul McCartney?

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

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

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

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

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

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.

What’s the craziest thing you’ve heard pretending to be asleep?

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.

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

What would you change in Rings of Power?

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.

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

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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