What goes into writing a great movie script?

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.

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.

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

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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.

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.

Why is Prince Harry being fired by BetterUp CEO Alexi Robichaux, and what role did Marc Benioff’s decision to pull sponsorship play in this?

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

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

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.

Have you ever met someone and something seemed so unusual about them but you couldn't put your finger on what it was?

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

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

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

How is the legalization of same-sex marriage impacting societal norms in the USA?

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

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

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

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

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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

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

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

We now told, by Senator Grassley, that on the FBI form about the Biden bribery story, there is a Burisma exec who says he has 17 tapes of his deal with the Biden. 15 of Hunter and 2 of Joe Biden? What would this do to Hunter/Joe Biden if released?

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

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

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

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