In the 2004 teen film, Mean Girls, we meet the titular mean high school girl clique unfavorably known as the Plastics. They are given this insulting nickname because they are totally fake. And being fake is completely lame. What does this have to do with screenwriting? Well, you do not want to have this sort Read more about DON’T BE PLASTIC![…]
The Hunger Games sets its tone as a pretty dark and gloomy film adaptation about a dystopian future America where kids are forced to fight to the death in government sponsored games run by The Capitol, an evil totalitarian regime. The protagonist, Katniss Everdeen, is a tough as nails sixteen year old who does not have much of a Read more about IT’S NOT ALL FUN AND GAMES[…]
The 2015 Pixar movie, Inside Out, does an outstanding job striking an emotional chord amongst their audience. And from the premise and the themes that were explored in this film, I would say that the target audience for Inside Out is definitely not young kids. The story is framed around our protagonist, Riley, an 11-year Read more about KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE INSIDE OUT[…]
The Princess and the Frog, in my humble opinion, is one of the best animated films that I have seen (a close runner up, for me, is Frozen). The animation, characters, music, and storyline were simply brilliant in this 2009 Disney movie. This movie is the basic readapted Cinderella story where a princess that Read more about KISS THE FROG![…]
Over the years, I have received a lot of questions from aspiring young screenwriters wanting to know the difference between story and plot. The easiest way to explain this distinction is to say that PLOT is WHAT happens and STORY is HOW it all happens. So what exactly does that mean? Well, I am glad Read more about PLOT, PLOT, PLOT…STORY![…]
The theme in a movie is its underlying message, or central idea of the story. The theme is typically shaped around a strong belief about life or people that the writer wants to convey in the writing to their audience. When writing your screenplay, it is very important to have something interesting to say. Your story needs to have an Read more about WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?[…]
The characters that you create for your screenplay are just as important as the actual story that you want to tell through them. Your characters will make or break your story. If your characters are boring, one dimensional and unidentifiable then your overall story suffers. You get people to care about your story through the Read more about WHAT A CHARACTER![…]
You do not have a very interesting story without a good amount of CONFLICT. When writing your story, you have to first establish a goal that your main character wants to achieve. Then you have to throw in some major conflict that prevents your main character from reaching their goal. In the very hilarious 2005 movie, Read more about TOTALLY CONFLICTED![…]
Not only is this the movie title of the film I’d like to discuss, but this is a very important question every screenwriter should have in mind when plotting their story. You will need to have an interesting “What if” scenario that will keep your audience riveted to your movie until the very end. In Read more about WHAT IF???[…]