I once heard that if you read five books on any topic, you’ll know more about that topic than the vast majority of the public. Since it’s not always possible to learn directly from someone more advanced than you, the next best option is to read books. At the very least, books can reinforce what […]
All great stories have an emotional appeal. While action thrillers like “Die Hard” or “Terminator 2” might seem to be all about action, the real purpose of that action was to achieve an emotional goal. In “Die Hard,” the hero just wanted to get back with his wife. In “Terminator 2,” the hero (the good […]
During the pandemic, Hollywood was looking at contained stories where the story takes place in a single or handful of locations. The purpose of this was to minimize the need to travel to different locations. A related way to minimize locations is to reuse those locations over and over again. This often occurs in time […]
A screenplay consists of multiple parts. The plot and dialogue might be the most obvious, but there’s more to a screenplay than just writing dialogue and describing action. For every scene, you need to define the location and tone. Defining the location might seem easy, but you should give it much thought. For example, suppose […]
Browse through Rotten Tomatoes and you’ll always find a great movie that some critic hated. Then browse through low-scoring movies and you’ll often find one critic liked it. That tells you critics cannot be relied upon because they judge a movie based on subjective feelings rather than objective values. “Paddington 2” and “Citizen Kane” recently […]
Rotten tomatoes is a great way to judge a movie. If a movie’s Rotten Tomatoes score is under 60%, the movie’s probably not worth watching unless you want to study its mistakes. Any movie scoring above 90% in Rotten Tomatoes is usually worth watching. However, there are exceptions. Two notable exceptions are “Miss Congeniality” (44%) […]
The midpoint of most screenplays occurs when the hero seemingly appears to have succeeded. In “Star Wars,” this midpoint success occurs when Luke finally blasts off his planet in the Millennium Falcon. In “Die Hard,” this midpoint success occurs when John McClane finally alerts the police to the terrorists in the skyscraper. Immediately after this […]
Hollywood often believes if they spend enough money on a movie, hire enough A-list actors, hire a “hot” director, and pour a lot of money into marketing, they can make a great film. The truth is that nothing matters if the screenplay sucks. Even the best actor can’t make a horrible screenplay work. So before […]