PRODUCT REVIEW: Chat GPT for the Screenwriter

AI is here and its mission is to help screenwriters and democratise movie making / decimate the screenwriting profession (delete as appropriate). There are a number of different writing AIs, also known as LLMs,—Large Language Models—but Chat GPT is the best known. As the head of Open AI, the parent company, is currently wooing Hollywood, […]

Shallow HAL

The Use of AI in Screenwriting Geisler: Ever act?Barton: …Huh? No, I’m—Geisler: We need Indians for a Norman Steele western.Barton: I’m a writer. Ted O—Geisler: Think about it, Fink. Writers come and go; we always need Indians. ‘Barton Fink’ screenplay Ethan & Joel Coen The film and TV industry is scared. Why?The Rise of the […]

No More Heroes Anymore

The Hero’s Journey: mythic or myth? ☛ Toby Litt recently wrote a fascinating article in which he argued that writing screenplays about climate issues has become difficult because movie screenwriters, and indeed audiences, have all got too use to the Hero’s Journey model of storytelling. His logic goes that tackling climate change requires collective action, […]

Not ‘How’ but ‘What’

There’s a question that’s on the lips of virtually no screenwriter. So how is that a good subject for a blog? Because, while they rarely ask it openly, it’s a question all writers will have asked themselves privately at some point in their career. And it is: What should I write? Whether you take that […]

The Root of Rootability

How to Make your Protagonist Engaging I don’t think I’m the only screenwriter to be frustrated when I’m given the note “Couldn’t the main character be… just a bit more likeable?” My frustration comes partly from the fact that a lot of my protagonists are intentionally not conventionally likeable, and partly from the note having […]

Writing Movies Within Your Means, pt. 2

Writing Lighting ☛ In my previous piece I discussed how decisions about the location of your screenplay can help bring the budget down. This time I’ll focus on how your general approach to story can save you money on camera and lighting. Time was that picture quality was the first thing that would tell […]

Looking After the Little Fella

A guide to writing walk-on roles for the screen

Rule of Thumbnail

Screenwriting tip #1: How to Introduce Characters in your Script For an unknown screenwriter it’s always a struggle getting a person of influence – an agent, a development executive, a producer – to read your script. There’s a reason for this. When these readers do turn the title page bearing an unfamiliar name, all too […]

The Art of Screen Dialogue

Working in layers ☛ A month or two back I wrote a piece about the nature of screen dialogue, focusing on naturalism and style; back then I suggested that there was more to say about the business of making your character talk. There is. Part of the challenge of writing really good dialogue lies in […]

Saving Your Breath

The Nature of Movie Dialogue ☛ For many years I’ve been puzzling over the nature of movie dialogue and how it works. Anyone who’s ever tried to write a screenplay will tell you that dialogue is deceptively difficult to get right. If they think it’s easy, they probably haven’t yet heard actors struggling through their […]