Hollywood, like most industries, is risk-aversive. To improve your chances of selling a screenplay, look for ways to reduce Hollywood’s risk. During the last week of March 2010, the top ten movies in the theaters were: Alice in Wonderland Diary of a Wimpy Kid The Bounty Hunter Repo Men She’s Out of My League Green […]
“9” is a bizarre animation film from Tim Burton. It’s not bad, but it exhibits two fatal flaws that short0circuit the story and weaken the movie. By identifying these two flaws, you can avoid them in your own screenplays. The movie “9” came out with a unique marketing campaign, being released on September 9, 2009 […]
What makes a comedy successful is what makes any movie successful: making sympathetic characters that you want to win. The next time you’re in a public place such as an airport terminal, restaurant, or shopping mall, look for two people who are laughing. Chances are good that no matter how hard these two people are […]
Dialogue is too often a crutch. To learn different ways to use dialogue, study screenplays and stage plays. If you look in a library or used bookstore, you may be able to find a copy of National Public Radio’s scripts for a radio version of “Star Wars.” The writer, Brian Daley, expanded the original “Star […]
“How to Train Your Dragon” is a successful animation film from DreamWorks that finally brings DreamWorks’ stories up to the level as Pixar’s. The biggest problem with most DreamWorks animated films is that they rely on outside cultural references for jokes (think “Shrek 2” and “Madagascar”). While some of these outside cultural references are funny, […]