THE STORY SPOT

A good question worth sharing was posted by writer/member Louise F. over at SheWrites: Screenwriters & Story Editors. Louise asks:

Since I caught the screenwriting bug about a year ago, I have been more sensitive to structure and tropes. Is the three-act frame out of date or overdone? I read in a screenwriting web site (from a supposed pro) that plenty of successful films buck the trend and are better for doing so. I read earlier that a 90-min. script should have this and that by this or that page – like 3 acts. My own script tries to get the rising action underway by page 80, but in the first 2 drafts, anyway, it didn’t quite work out that way. Comments?
– Louise F.

This is a multi-pronged topic that pops up regularly enough that we’re going to address it here in hopes of encouraging some well-thought-out rule-breaking.

Read on »

So you wanna write movies. I hear you. You’re new to the game; you’ve seen every film there ever was, including this one; and you’ve vowed not to rest until your better mousetrap is up on the silver screen. Fantastic and congratulations — you’ve just pledged yourself to some good, long hours spent with pad and paper, breaking down your favorite films.

What’s this, you ask? You can recite dialogue from His Girl Friday, Airplane, AND Solaris and still that’s not enough? Don’t try to weasel out of this. As your momma always said (or the momma in one of those dripping Southern dramas always says), “you gotta finish what you started, honey.” You want to write movies, watching and reading isn’t enough. You have to break them down.

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This visual jamboree CAN improve your stories –via UNK

Pop over to The Unknown Screenwriter for an impassioned plea to screenwriters to dig deep down and unearth their emotional cahones. UNK is p.o.’d at the state of filmmaking today and I say, “here, here!”

What are you afraid of? Maybe YOU don’t know how to feel. That would certainly explain why YOU don’t make me feel… Anything. You’re so caught up in creating some GAG that you forgot to make me feel anything about your story… Your characters. Your screenplay. [...] Did you FORGET? Did you get so caught up in creating some kind of WHAMMO every ten pages that you forgot to elicit some kind of emotion from me?

Read the rest at The Unknown Screenwriter then come back here to find out what to do about it.

“You Don’t Make Me Feel” at the Unknown Screenwriter
“Creating Emotion. There IS a Better Way” right here on The Story Spot.

What is it about scary stories? We, collectively, just can’t get enough. Whether creepy wet girl-child, voraciously sexy vampire, gangrenous undead, or senselessly psychotic scythe-wielder waiting to kill, we keep coming back for more. Horror consistently tops the bestselling and box office lists, whether presented as out-and-out gore or more seductively as true crime or psychological thrillers. Just what is the secret to keeping an audience on the edge of their seats when they know the bloodbath is coming?

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Lance Weiler, an American filmmaker, writer, and director, tells Ireland’s ScreenDaily.com about the ways story forms are adapting as audiences change. We don’t often cover “new media” here on THE STORY SPOT but, as always, old is new again…

The tools I use are no longer simply cameras ― they are mobile and feature real-time web apps. Storylines, characters or scenes now exist beyond one screen or format. My stories spill out into the real world and guide audiences from one experience to another.

While the human need to share experiences in an engaging way endures, the ways we do so continue to evolve with society. Reality television, alternate reality gaming, Twitter fiction and other new forms may all feel vastly different from telling tales around a campfire but remember that the heart of each form remains people sharing what it is to be human. The ways we do that well will never change.

Read “Why audiences are key to cross-media creation” at Screendaily.com
Visit Lance Weiler’s blog, “Culture Hacker“