What goes into writing a great movie script?

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.

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

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

Why do some of those who believe in a god refuse to consider the possibility they could be wrong?

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.

All rules are made to be broken, but you damn well better know WHY you’re breaking them.

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

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

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

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

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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.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

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

I’m wondering about attachment and transference with the therapist and the idea of escape and fantasy? How much do you think your strong feelings, constant thoughts, desires to be with your therapist are a way to escape from your present life? I wonder if the transference serves another purpose than to show us our wounds and/or past experiences, but is a present coping strategy for managing what we don’t want to face (even if unconsciously) in the present—-current relationships, life circumstances, etc. Can anyone relate to this concept of escape in relation to their therapy relationship? How does this play out for you?

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

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

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

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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.

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

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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

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

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

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.

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