How to Sell Your Screenplay: The Real Rules of Film and Television
Carl Sautter
Language: English
Pages: 288
ISBN: 0942257243
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
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paragraph start s with a topic sentence, etc . Not in a screenplay. I f the mos t importan t information is in the firs t scen e of a movie, the movi e has n o plot. I f each scene begins with a lead sentence, there' s n o reaso n t o se e the res t o f the scene . Th e emphasis in expository writin g i s on making a point clearly. The emphasis in screenwriting is on making the point in the most interesting way possible . ELIMINATE THE OBVIOUS All of which lead s t o a third important basi c o f
report, the "Reader's Digest" versions of these episodes had mixe d sales. Hour episodic scripts are fifty to sixty pages in film format. There are exceptions. Moonlighting script s typically ran ove r ninety page s — the characters talked fast, much of the dialogu e was overlapping , and there were more stage directions. Hunter filmed scripts of fortyfive page s because chase sequences an d stunt s took more time on the scree n than th e writte n page . 70 PRIMETIME EPISODIC T E L E V I S I
producer of Love Boat, "We didn' t even try to look for ne w storie s any more; we'd don e them all. We started looking for ol d storie s wit h a new twist. " Sometimes th e storie s i n a particular episode o f an antholog y show are written by different writers . The staff o f the sho w makes the decisio n as to which stories fit best together. A typical episode of a n hou r antholog y trie s t o strik e a balance — one stor y i s particularly dramatic, another is designed fo r humor, an d a
in new companies formed to develop video product. It is an industry stil l in the developmen t stages. New writers are welcome, but they should beware of potentially exploitative working situations. Williamson advises, "It's smart to approach th e hom e vide o business as a writer/producer rather than just a writer." This not only helps a writer protect his or her project, bu t i t also show s a company tha t th e write r is willing t o share th e workloa d an d th e ris k o f getting th e vide o
fro m Englis h Literatur e 1-A, wher e we learne d ther e ar e thre e dramati c act s in a play: 1. Act I. The Beginning. Introduces the characters and the problem . 2. Act II. The Middle. Complicate s th e problem . 3. Act III. The End. Resolves the problem . Act II is usually the longes t act ; Acts I and II I are ofte n equa l in length. On television , dramati c acts are not necessaril y relate d to th e break s for commercials. The three-ac t forma t i s followed i n featur e film s o n th e