by Trevor Mayes | Nov 1, 2009 | Miscellaneous |
Have you ever watched a movie and thought, “Wow, I wish there were some way I could find out what kind of gun that is”? Come on… be honest. No, me either. But for those who have, there’s the Internet Movie Firearms Database. The cool kids call...
by Trevor Mayes | Oct 31, 2009 | Characters |
One of the most common problems I encounter in scripts is the passive protagonist. If you’re writing a mainstream Hollywood movie, you need to make sure your protagonist is active. What does it mean to have an “active” protagonist? Robert McKee...
by Trevor Mayes | Oct 30, 2009 | Dialogue, Scenes, Style |
Like exercising, screenwriting takes discipline. Before you sell your script, there’s no one there to police your scenes but you. As such, one of the most common mistakes writers make is they allow their scenes to binge on the Vegas-sized buffets of their...
by Trevor Mayes | Oct 29, 2009 | Style |
“I’m your density.” – George McFly Are you still writing dense paragraphs of description in your script? You know what I mean. Those paragraphs that keep going and going like the Energizer Bunny. If so, it may be working against you. How long...
by Trevor Mayes | Oct 27, 2009 | Style |
As brevity in screenwriting is so crucial, it’s extremely important to pick verbs that do more than just describe the action. In the rush to get that first draft of our script finished, we often plug in action words that we use every day in conversation or that...
