Let's talk about screenwriting. Screenwriting is all about learning to write in a visual form. After all that's what movies are all about, it's what sets them apart from novels or plays; they are highly, highly visual. It's all about the visual element. Sometimes it can be difficult to change your style of writing; I find it tough sometimes myself. If you're writing to sell a script you also have to learn to dumb things down...a lot, perhaps. If a producer doesn't understand what's happening in your script, then it's going to end up in the garbage can. Don't be too eloquent in your writing. If BOB walks over there, then say: BOB walks over there. Don't get too technical or poetic, unless it's absolutely necessary. Your script could also end up in the can if it's in a completely incorrect format. The screenplay format changes quite frequently, it's important to stay on top of how things are organized. I'll talk about format later.

The visualization of ideas, as opposed to the cerebral translation of ideas to words, seems to be the most difficult challenge for beginning screenwriters. Before you start to write, find a picture, a photo, a work of art or any pictorial which communicates to you an emotional point of view. An emotional point of view is a place that motivates you to want to tell a story based on the picture. This is a great technique for getting started. We must train ourselves to use PICTURES to tell the story, not words. Collect pictures, lots of them.

Every time you see a picture that catches your eye, cut it out and save it. The more you watch a picture the more the picture wants to tell you a story. The more you concentrate on the form and style of the picture, the more the pictures begins to take on a life of its own. Words only get in the way. Pictures will stimulate the world inside your screenplay. Pictures are the key to universal communication. And that's what you're striving for in your writing, universal communication. It is a way for everyone to come to a common ground when they're reading your script, when they're picturing your story. Fiddling with human perception is the greatest tool of a screenwriter.

When I began my screenplay on the Battle of Thermopylae I started off with great visuals. If the opening of your screenplay doesn't convey something spectacular visually, then you better have some damn good dialogue. Two good examples? "Drugs," an independent film by Chad Peter, great visuals in the beginning, we see Shayna's character getting ready to leave, getting on the plane, flying to her destination, getting off the plane, waiting for her ride. I said it all in a sentence, but Chad showed it over a few minutes using great visuals. "Pulp Fiction," begins with the discussion between Pumpkin and Honey Bunny, not very interesting visually. But the thing that captures the audience is the dialogue, great dialogue, you really want to listen and know what's going on. Opening scenes is something we'll discuss later.

If you're going to write a screenplay then you need one very important thing: a story idea. But where is this story going to come from? You may already have an idea, but for some people finding a story is the hardest part. There are lots of places to find good ideas, story sources. 1) The Bible 2) comic books 3) novels 4) existing movies 5) TV 6) newspapers & magazines 7) history 8) personal experiences. Any where you look there is a story to be found. Find your story and develop it. It's all about telling exciting stories about exciting people in an exciting way. A good story is usually about somebody with whom we have some empathy. This person wants or desires something badly. This something, whatever, is difficult, but not impossible to get, do or achieve. The story should be told in such a way that it includes audience participation. Like I said before, it's all about fiddling with human perception. And the story must come to some kind of a satisfactory ending, not necessarily happy. It sounds pretty simple right? Well it's not that easy.

Before you start writing and developing your story, there's lots of things to do. You have to KNOW your story first. Take your story idea and describe it in about one type written page. Now take that page and condense it to two paragraphs. Now describe your basic story in no more than two sentences! You should be able to do this, otherwise there's a problem.

Stories, especially screen written stories, revolve around problems and solutions. Watch any movie and count the number of individual problems and solutions. You'll find a lot of them, and you'll discover that the story usually revolves around them. Write about 10 problems and solutions for your story. They can be simple, just sentence or two. Problem A and Solution A. Problem B and Solution B. Bob can't find his shoes. Bob looks around and finds them underneath his bed. The boy doesn't have any friends. The boy discovers an injured bird and finally has a companion. As the Greek army nears Thermopylae the thoughts of many men turn to escape. Leonidas halts the march and sends all available messengers on horseback to call for more aid.

Once you've got 10, take a break. Write 10 more the next day, the next week. Make sure these problems and solutions span your entire story, beginning, middle and end. In fact, I'd write them chronologically in respect to your story. Spend your time DEVELOPING these problems/solutions. These will comprise the backbone of your story. These will be your outline.

Creating a story idea may be an easy part, for some of you. But plotting it is quite another issue. A plot is basically a sequence of events that keep your story focused and on track. It is the plot that moves the TEMPO of the film. Tempo is the most important concept in developing a plot. The tempo of a film keeps the audience glued to what you are communicating. The basic difference between European films and American films is this concept of tempo. We normally think that European films are slow and require too much patience in order to get to the heart of the story. On the other hand the Europeans think that we rush things too much so that there is no time to think and stay with a story.

Anyhow, plots should be rooted in the visual aspect of your script, just like the story must be. Plots should be interesting enough to keep the viewer's attention but not so complicated that the viewer has a hard time following it. You don't want your audience to lose attention or interest, that'll kill your script. Especially when a producer reads it, ha! When a writer creates a plot from a story idea it's always a great idea to start at the end and work backwards. Why? This will keep your plot focused and clear. A plot can become winding and repetitive if you are not clear how your story ends. And this may seem obvious, but the plot should always follow in form...the story. Don't get so involved in your plot that you lose your story.

Characters are the people that take us through your story. So it's important that they are developed and that the audience gets a feeling of who they are. If the audience doesn't care about your characters, then they won't want to follow them through your story. Writing a feature length screenplay reminds me much of the process of how a bill becomes a law. Yeah, it's a stretch, but you remember school house rock, right? Okay so just follow me. The bill is introduced to a senate committee that holds hearings about the bill. At this point it could be stricken down, killed, or it could be sent to another hearing (a 2nd reading), and then 3rd reading, then to the House committee and more and more readings, then to the president, and possibly back to the senate or house! There are so many hurdles to jump and any where along the way it can be killed! A screenplay is similar, if one of your elements is missing it can kill your story, kill your screenplay. Sorry, kind of got of track there, I hope I didn't lose you!

It's important to make sure your characters are engaging and interesting. And you want to avoid writing YOURSELF as every character. Sometimes that can be hard, and you may not even realize you're doing it. That's why your characters should have backgrounds; they need to be well rounded and developed people even before you write their first line of dialogue! There are several things you can fiddle with to create a unique character. 1) Idiosyncratic behavior, QUIRKS. Watch the show MONK? If so you know what kind of idiosyncratic behavior Monk has. Your characters quirks don't have to be as strong or noticeable as Monk's, but stuff like that makes characters interesting. 2) Personality 3) Vice 4) Temper 5) Value System (what do your characters care about) 6) Nationality/Ethnicity (do they have an accent) 7). Humor 8) Romantic nature/sex drive 9) religion 10) Weaknesses. All these things and more are great things to use to make each of your characters different and interesting. Here's a good exercise. Take a character you've created or are thinking about and describe ten characteristics about them. Make sure the characteristics that you choose either help tell the story, move the plot, or are so interesting that it will make your audience just want to know MORE! Also keep in mind that not all your characters should speak alike. That moves us into dialogue.

Writing dialogue can be the hardest technique to master for beginning writers. The problem with most dialogue is that it doesn't reveal character nor does it communicate differences between characters. Keep in mind that everyone speaks in a different rhythm. So if you write dialogue that doesn't distinguish between character voice-rhythms then the dialogue all sounds as if it is coming from one person. Everyone speaks differently! Dialogue in screenwriting is always designed to develop character and not to tell the VISUAL STORY. Pictures will do that. Pictures tell your story. Words don't, we've been through this before. Words lie. Use your dialogue to reveal how characters can be deceiving, exaggerated, warm, engaging, loving, etc. But don't use words that could substitute for pictures. In screenwriting it's better to SHOW something than to say it, showing something with pictures will make it a lot more dramatic. If you have to resort to telling something in dialogue, try not to use the usual cliché methods of talking. For example, a character asks a leading question which results in somebody spilling his guts about everything. That's bad, very bad. Dialogue equals Time. Time is your enemy in a film, so don't waste valuable time with pointless dialogue if you don't have to. Better yet, if you have something to say with dialogue, support it with visuals so that the essence of the film is made more intense.

Take "Silence of the Lambs." The frightening villain has some very interesting things to say but all of what he has to say if only a ploy so that he can scare, intimidate and motivate the people whom he perceives as his enemies. Remember his last lines in the film? Now that's dialogue!

Making an opening scene really exciting is absolutely important if you want your film read and passed on to another reader higher up in the production company. An opening scene should give the audience some sort of visual impact. It should suggest the beginning of your story. The plot during this time should move pretty fast in order to hook the audience. There's time for explanation later. You ought to introduce at least one very significant character in your film in a very theatrical manner. The opening scene usually shouldn't be filled with lots of dialogue, unless it's interesting and engaging, something we want to hear more about. It's important that the opening scene should relate in some way to the ending scene. In other words, the opening should suggest that by the time you get to the end of the film....the audience will be in for a good time. An opening scene should take advantage of the fact that the reader wants to be entertained so don't use the philosophy "we will progress from the opening to the middle of the film."

Yeah, my advice about beginning a screenplay isn't well organized...kind of just splattered all over the place. Maybe I should learn better organization myself! But there's a lot of good stuff I think. A lot that can get you on your way to writing your first feature length screenplay, just like I'm doing write now.

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