Now through Black Friday (November 27 2020) Max is offering a Black Friday special consults rate on December consults. This offer is good until November 27th 2020 or when Max’s December 2020 consults calendar is full — whichever comes first.
The trick? You have to read the newsletter to find out more about it.
You should be reading the newsletter anyway. Go on. Click that:
Maybe even subscribe.
Happy holidays!
November online screenwriting master classes Character Writing, Dialogue Writing, and Mastering Story Momentum are bumping to December. If you are registered for a November online screenwriting class you have email. If you are not registered for a November online screenwriting class, crazy person! What is wrong with you? Go register for a December class!
I really enjoy Mark Wildman’s clips and I’ve always believed this particular clip, about becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable, has a lot of carry over into writing.
Writing’s not easy. Not the kind of writing we’re doing at any rate, taking a great big story and condensing it into a feature script which is only about a hundred pages and giving it focus and nuance and a driving story engine and strong characters and a build to climax all the time being screen friendly so that it will really move on that screen and be an enjoyable viewing experience for someone watching the screen.
That’s hard. And no one leaps out of the womb ready and able to do it. It takes work and practice and corrections and repetition learning and getting stronger at new skills and just like any endeavor, say riding a bike, it’s not going to just happen the first time. The first time you get on a bike, it’s a given you’re going to fall off a few times.
November online AFW screenwriting classes Character Writing, Dialogue Writing, and Mastering Story Momentum are right around the corner. Classes are seating now and begin November 10. Reserve your seat now.
The September newsletter is about to go out. Did you sign up for the mailing list? Do you wanna?
September classes The First 30 Pages, High Concept Writing, and The Writer’s Reel begin September 8. You want those. You know you do. Go check them out:
There is an open seat in the 5150 online international screenwriting workshop.
:::5150 ONLINE SCREENWRITING WORKSHOP:::
There are two calendar slots available for September consults from yours truly, Max. These are being offered at a special September rate. For more info, hit that:
Grab those while they are available. There are only two calendar slots open and once they are gone, they are gone.
The March Newsletter is out. Did you sign up for the mailing list? Do you wanna?
Meanwhile, a few things on the horizon immediately expiring: It is last call for March applications to the 5150 online screenwriting workshop. We don’t accept new members mid-month if you are interested, hit it now or wait a month.
:::5150 ONLINE SCREENWRITING WORKSHOP:::
It is also last call for the April consults special. There are two April calendar spots left in April consults and those are $300 off for April.
It is the launch of the AFW On Demand Master Screenwriting Courses from yours truly. Yay!
I have been promising these a while now but it took a long while to get everything set in place to launch them and to outline and create them and then there is filming —
Talking heads is a term that, as I was told in the film school trenches, relates back to the early days of television when news was delivered by a solitary news announcer sitting behind a desk reading news reports to the camera off a sheet of paper.
A solitary individual sitting unmoving on screen talking delivering facts is not very cinematic or visually exciting and if you turn on a news program today, you’ll see all sorts of clips to more exciting footage and visuals playing out to make the news show more entertaining and engaging for viewers. News shows fight for viewers just like every other form of programming out there.
Fast forward to today and “talking heads” in film scripts.
MAX REVIEWS:
When a writer hires me to review material, it’s important to note, the writer is not paying for the read. I can read a script in an hour. Two hours if the script is too long.
(Too long means 150 pages. Um. Everybody hates you, 150 script pages people. Stop doing that.)
The point is, I’m not getting paid by the hour for the read. I’m getting paid for expertise responding to and analyzing the material. This is an important distinction.
If you just want to pay someone by the hour for the read, well, what’s minimum wage these days? About $12 per hour? Give the script to your mom and write her a check for $24. Done!
At the AEB one year anniversary bash I was a guest speaker at (thank you for inviting me AEB I had a great time) there was a question and answer session after the talk and one question stands out to me.
A woman said she got advice to write a lot of scripts. To have a trunk of scripts. Like, three romantic comedies if she was interested in writing romantic comedies and three scripts for drama if she was interested in writing drama and three –
I’m pretty sure that was headed for three scripts in any genre she ever had an interest in writing at all and I stopped her and said —
No.
You need ONE script.
One of the most injurious words in reviews is “but.”
The characters are wonderful, but –
The story is gripping, but –
The visuals are cinematic, but –
See, here is what the word “but” does in any sentence: It negates any positive statement coming before it. For example:
The original screenwriter’s uniform blog post appears to be lost in the interwebs somewhere (how does this happen?) but it keeps coming up in conversation. (Also, according to fashion experts, white sneakers are back! Whoah. Did not see that coming.)
One thing to keep in mind plotting a story is that there is a difference between a primary story goal and tasks protagonists undertake to achieve the primary story goal. For example, looking at the film The Blues Brothers, (1980 starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, written by Dan Aykroyd and John Landis, directed by John Landis), the protagonist goal is to save the orphanage the two leads Jake and Elwood grew up in.
Primary Goal: Save the orphanage.
Major Dramatic Question: Can Jake and Elwood save the orphanage?
To save the orphanage —
THE BAD NEWS: If you’re making these 5 mistakes writing screenplays, you’re not ready for prime time.
THE GOOD NEWS: Correcting these 5 mistakes will rocket your script quality up so fast NASA might ask to read your script.
One of my most consistent comments on scripts is, I have difficulty differentiating between characters because characters have similar names.
Listen. Character names have jobs.
A Martian Wouldn’t Say That ~ Leonard B. Stern
Adventures in the Screen Trade ~ William Goldman
Conversations With My Agent ~ Rob Long
I told a student last week if he really wanted to know how one specific movie broke down?
*Last updated September 12, 2019. We cannot update exact entry dates and fees. We’re sticking with broad parameters and a solid list. It’s up to you to double check exact entry dates and current entry fees.
ACADEMY NICHOLL FELLOWSHIPS IN SCREENWRITING
Type: Feature Film Script
Qualifications: Open to amateurs only: Screenwriters who have not earned more than $25,000 writing fiction for film or television. Entry scripts must be the original work of one writer or of two writers who have collaborated equally, and must be written originally in English. Adaptations and translated scripts are not eligible.
Entry Dates: Between early January and the final cut off date May 1.
This is a great presentation from South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker on plotting using the key words “but” and “therefore.” It’s brilliant. Watch it.
“The trick with talking head scripts is, people who know what they are don’t write them, and people who write them don’t know what they are.” ~ Max Adams