Screenwriting : Tired of hearing when it comes to writing scripts by Joe Compton

I go weary of listening to folk who have no idea what they're talking about and I'm getting tired of trying to teach those know - nothings who only want to argue about that which they know nothing. When writing an action scene - go in late, hit the button and get out early. That's all I got to say 'bout that.

Every story that I love starts at the exact perfect moment. I’m rewatching one of my favorite action films right now, Aliens, and the buildup of tension to the first encounter is almost an hour in. That’s almost unheard of now. What I’m learning is everything I need to know about the platoon, foreshadowing Ripley’s talents and the stakes involved.

Unless your name is Hollywood, you have no idea what Hollywood wants.

You cannot regurgitate a formula from a book that you have read and spent a year learning as fact.

I am also sick of hearing (not so much here) how much weight give coverage scores. They are opinions of people that have no impact on your ability to write or sell your work.

Since we are talking about starting as late as possible. If people can lean back and wait for something to happen, they are not engaged.

Craig storms across the room and slams a pistol down on the table in front of Joe. Joe looks up.

A gun slams down in front of Joe. He looks up, it is Craig.

Start late is better for everything I believe. Leaves more room for more story.

The average movie costs $107m by the time it reaches the screen. That's not blockbusters, they cost $250m.

So the average film is around $1 million a page.

You don't want to waste any pages or even part of a page. Screenwriting is like poetry - you want the most information in the fewest and most evocative words. Instead of three of four scenes that introduce your character, you need to find the one scene that does everything. That's more difficult. Requires more skill and talent.

"Why can't I succeed"???....there are reasons, believe me...

Never write for trends. They are always over before you've even begun. Write a few movies based on your own theme, and start your own trend.

I'm tired of hearing the "you're not freaking Tarantino" piece of advice from consultants.

Tarantino is a first class example of someone who stuck by his artistic vision and doubled down on his voice. His refusal to dull his edge in a bid to conform, even when it meant getting rejected by readers over and over for years, is a huge factor in his success.

Study your heroes and model your approach based on the journey of winners, not losers.

If I would seriously consider and utilize all the suggestions given by readers of my script of how my characters should react, speak, behave or what they should be doing, it would no longer be my script. As they say "A camel is a horse designed by a committee". These suggestions should be taken with a grain of salt. Unless the reader has some exceptional insight for your storyline and character development. Which I would imagine is rare

I'm not going to burn my hands here. But what I do want to say is why waste time and build pipe when the average adult attention span is less than that of a Goldfish. Ever checked a Goldfish's attention span Rutger?.... blub-blub-blub.

On Blacklist one of the associates did an evolutionary outline on what is considered an acceptable reading/ description length for action sequences. He gave examples of excerpts from scripts written in the 1950' s and progressing in 20 year intervals to present day. Then and now. Obviously, the scene detail was far greater back then than would be considered acceptable to write nowadays to test the patience of a producer or agent.. As a critical thinker/scientist I can't help but see some correlation here that relates to the development of information technology and communication through social media. I think this is no mistake. Jeez just ask some people to write a complete grammatically correct sentence

I am very-very far from a scientist, just try to use the little common sense I have. I read an article about what you are saying here Hanna, Just after the WO2 the average Dutch man/woman had a vocabulary of 25.000 words, now that is around 10.000; the article concluded this was due to -- as you say -- "the development of information technology and communication through social media." Me doing :) is part of the problem. You can't ask people to keep focussing and interpret words 'on screen' if they have no idea what those words mean anymore (so keep it simple, I guess). Also, us being able to look everything up without any effort, not HAVING to use our brain(s) anymore, makes us humans more and more - lets put this kindly - "lazy brains"; not able to have our own (grey) opinions about anything, just babbling, repeating somebody else phrases we like most, but probably not even understand.

Thank you everybody for responding.

I second CJ comments. I wrote an entire blog on why I am Tarantino.

Including some physical similarities.

probably the most misunderstood concept is, "write what you know."

Joe, I'm tired- EFFING TIRED- of being told not to use music in scripts.

I get that songs have to be cleared with all kinds of folks before those songs can be used in movies and on TV shows. And I understand that the use of tunes made famous by these or those performers can get expensive.

Doggone it, if this or that song helps a story out, I'm going to use it in a script I'm writing.

And if a screenplay of mine EVER gets greenlighted for production, and the powers that are don't like the song(s) I've chosen, the producers and others can always swap my choice(s) out for something else.

Still, the judges in the We Screenplay Diverse Voices competition couldn't help but flag me down for the jam session toward the end of the script I sent in, "Pixie Dust:" "Be wary (of the use of songs in a script)..."

If George Lucas tried to break into screenwriting today, I've got the feeling that those same judges would've squelched the script he, Gloria Katz, and Willard Huyck would've tried to submit.

That's right: "American Graffiti."

Oh, well...

Thank you for posting, Joe, and this chance to get on the soapbox. All the VERY BEST to you!

I'm tired of everything I hear so I tend to ignore everything I hear.

I'm sick and tired of people saying that screenwriters should write according to the latest trends in film, specifically when they tell you to do what everyone else is doing. I mean yeah, you can make money by doing what everyone else is doing. But standing out and doing your own thing, in the long run, is what separates the great from the mediocre. There were gangster films before "The Godfather", horror movies before "Jaws" and sci-fi films before "The Matrix".

Strive to be different should be the advice.

I'm so tired of hearing/seeing 'I have this wonderful, ready to market screenplay' from amateur writers in the peanut galley.

Do whatever you want... but know that it might not work, and it was your choice to do that. You may have sabotaged yourself.

Terry Nation and Douglas Adams were the masters of witty dialogue (their scripts for Blake's 7 and Doctor Who are prime examples of this, as well as Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Dirk Gently" series of novels) long before QT even put his hand on a camera in my opinion (I suppose I should add Robert Holmes to that list, too - he wrote extensively for the original series of DW and B7).

To answer the question: I'm sick of being told to cut down on the details and specifics of what characters do in a scene (and the order in which they perform certain actions) - "that's up to the director". Guess what - it's MY story, not theirs... and I won't be discarded like used toilet paper. If a script of mine gets filmed, then there's going to have to be some compromise and collaboration between me and him/her (largely because at least three of my scripts are based on my own novel, which I own the rights to, making me nearly impossible to get rid of).

I'm also a little tired of people complaining about my tendency to have characters speak their native languages in certain scenes (although with good reason - my method of highlighting the text in different colours to denote different languages doesn't exactly bode well for the colour-deficient, such as red/green), but what's wrong with being multilingual? If anything, it's being monolingual (in my opinion) that isn't all that great. As long as people can read the subtitles (don't tell me I have to take into account illiterates, too!), then it should be no biggie.

Marty, I’ve been told it by numerous people for many reasons. Soon as you put forward an original POV people invariably say “you can do that when you’re Tarantino. You’re not so stick to the rules”.

Everyone emulate others. Even if it is unintentionally. We have a shared human experience over thousands of years.

The Tarantino comments is normal a “you can do that (be original) once you’re famous”. To which I answer “idiot”.

Marty Howe, once again you are tragically wrong and woefully ignorant on an issue. The only saving grace here being that you've inadvertently proven my entire point.

Go read Shooting From the Hip, Backlot Rebels, and Down and Dirty Pictures. Go educate yourself on the subject of Tarantino's early years and his battles breaking in and becoming accepted.

Also perhaps not wise to tell two people who are actually getting films made that they are failing.

I literally owe my career to adopting a Tarantino Mindset (which isn't about copying his work but rather his attitude) and not falling prey to the cowardice that surrounds writing for execs rather than the audience.

I think this is a matter of opinion. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in essence you said "no matter how long it takes to get to plot point 1 a slow-burn that covers the essentials before the starting-pistol goes off", right? Some that have commented thus far have written (in essence) "you have to earn that right" and "how dare you say this to those that have scripts in production right now".

I believe that you can't satisfy everyone. Sometimes we (the audience) are dropped right into the action with no context of what's going on, BUT the reasons (which are typically slow) unfold later. You have those films that feel like they drag you around then BANG something comes in from the blind-side that ties it all together (this is a 50/50, some people like it, others complain about how long it took), lastly some movies don't have a major reveal, what should've been was dull and nothing engaging.

SO as a write you have to be honest with yourself. Yes you're writing the screenplay, you what certain things to play out, BUT once that screenplay transitions over the people on the Production side may take things out due to any number of reasons. BUT if something is really-REALLY good and that "slow burn" is an essential part than people are more than willing to take that risk.

Here's somewhat of an example. I recently watched The Snyder Cut of Justice League, I was really trying not to because I hated the first (i.e. the disjointed & odd Joss Whedon version) and the run time was insane! I finally had some free-time so I decided to take-the-ride. I was watching on my phone while working on my own screenplay for my animation, which has tripled in size (which worries me because it will be 300+ pages by the time I am done, and I had to break it up into three parts). The vast improvements in the Snyder Cut were so good that I stopped writing and watched the whole four-hour mini-series; I enjoyed every second of it.

So it got me to thinking, what happened in the first? It could not have been all of Joss's fault, he was behind Fire Fly, the first The Avengers movie? They (WB) handed Joss someone else's masterpiece in the making and said "here, finish this", which is a major risk; two different visions that definitely didn't see eye-to-eye.

Think you have a "Mona Lisa" of a screenplay on your hands? Keep writing, don't worry about this and that, you can always go in and reduce things if need be. I have gone back into my own screenplay and removed or rewrote something because it was either unnecessary or too descriptive (this is my first script). Besides if someone likes yours but feels that things could be told better and shorter they'd let you know, then you'll be tasked with making the changes.

Could I have written all of this in a few sentences, certainly, did I? No. I just started writing. If this were a project I'd dissect this and deduce everything down to the necessities. Rem. Your script is like a cake, you baked it but are you the only one eating it? Do you side with the unoriginal favorite (chocolate) or the neutral (vanilla)? OR do you make something very uncommon and see what happens? Your taste plays a part, but the favor of your target audience matters most.