July, 2022 - The 15 Minute Movie Method

Where’s the Character Development in “Nope”?

July 30, 2022

“Nope” is the much anticipated film from Jordan Peele. After the superb “Get Out” and the decent “Us” horror films, “Nope” got decent reviews about...

Keep a Screenplay Interesting with Cliffhangers Using Reversals and Revelations

July 25, 2022

At the end of every scene, you need to leave on a cliffhanger to entice the audience to keep following the story. A cliffhanger gets...

Introduce Exposition as a Weapon or Path to Attack or Help the Hero

July 21, 2022

Novices often do information dumps where a character vomits out information solely for the audience to understand the story. This often creates phony dialogue like...

Make the Setting a Character in a Scene

July 17, 2022

A good rule of thumb is that if the action and dialogue in a scene could take place in a submarine, in a field, or...

Make Every Character a Mirror of the Hero

July 13, 2022

Every story is about resolving a single problem. In “Soul,” that question is what is a soul’s purpose? In “Titanic,” that question is how do...

Stop Doing This! (It’s Never the Idea)

July 9, 2022

Here’s one trap that many novices fall into and never get themselves out. They focus on creating an idea and then believe that idea is...

The Red Flags of Rejection: You Only Have One Chance to Make a Good First Impression

July 5, 2022

Every year, people write thousands of screenplays. Out of those thousands, a very small percentage are actually any good. Out of that small percentage of...

How to Grab the Audience’s Attention with Meaningful Choices

July 1, 2022

Conflict is the heart of any story. If there’s no conflict, there’s no story because there’s nothing for the characters to do. However, there are...

The 15 Minute Movie Method

July 2022