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Screenplay Openings:
Most Beginnings are Overwritten

This article follows up on Screenplay: The Importance of the First Five Pages.

In the last batch of scripts I read for one of the screenwriting competitions, I would say about 30% of the screenplays had beginnings that were overwritten. It’s not uncommon. In several cases, the real story didn’t start to pick up until [...]

July 28th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: Beat Sheet, Character, Formatting, Genre, Location, Logical World, Process, Screenwriting Competitions, Story, Subject Matter, Theme, Tone, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Screenplay: The Importance
of the First Five Pages

The opening five pages of your screenplay give me a ton of information about the breadth and scope of your project. As with the opening of a novel or any other literary work, the opening of your screenplay should be a microcosm of the world of your script. It’s the first taste – but as [...]

July 20th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: Beat Sheet, Character, Formatting, Genre, Location, Logical World, Process, Screenwriting Competitions, Story, Subject Matter, Theme, Tone, Uncategorized | One comment

What Happened to the Inciting Incident?

You’d be surprised – I have been – but a very high number of scripts I’m reading don’t have inciting incidents. I am getting to page 15, page 20, page 30, and there’s really no defined story. I would say that this is in about 25% of the scripts I’m reading. Obviously, these scripts are [...]

July 19th, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: Beat Sheet, Formatting, Genre, Process, Story, Uncategorized | Leave a comment