What goes into writing a great movie script?

Cut everything that is not a payoff, or a setup for a specific payoff. “Omit needless words.” Think about the sparseness of joke telling, or Grimm Brothers.

Outline everything. Use story beats. Keep character’s mouths taped up, until they absolutely MUST speak. Write the script and the dialogue at the last minute, after you’ve revised the hell out of the outline.

Don’t direct from the page. Everyone, from the director on down, wants to be part of the process of making movies. Let them do their work.

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Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

Learn to tell a story orally and not through writing. Try telling your story to a friend.

Leave holes. Write and unwrite. Put it in, take it out.

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Maintain a slush pile/idea file. When you are ready to write, choose the best seeds to plant.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

Get up there yourself. Be in a movie. Take some acting (not writing) classes. Learn how a trained actor approaches a text. Learn why actors take roles. They do as much if not more than the writer does.

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Research the facts and then throw away the research.

Audiences are smarter than you think. Something about turning down the house lights makes their IQs go up.

What you leave unwritten is as important as what you write. SUBTEXT.

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A scene should change valence from beginning to end. Up to down, down to up.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

People choose what to see based on the high concept. Make sure to deliver an ending consistent with the high concept -- it is what the audience paid for.

In your humble opinion, why does the narcissist mistake kindness for weakness in some people?

Conflict is your power source; without it you have no drama and hence no script.

All rules are made to be broken, but you damn well better know WHY you’re breaking them.

Use status to help drive conflict. King Lear/fool. Upstairs/downstairs.

Why are Christians quick to say that there are a lot the gay Christians that exist NOW and use that to pretend that Christianity is just loving to gays when the last 40 years of my life they been horrible?

Write in reverse time. Major characters need to change polarity; minor characters may remain the same at the end.

A critical function of storytelling is wish fulfillment. This is why video games are so popular. “That protagonist is JUST LIKE ME.”

Primary characters must change polarities. Secondary characters can change less.

From an axiology/value theory point of view, how can one say that a diverse society is better than a uniform one, especially given the negative effects of diversity (racism, sectarian conflict, problems arising from extreme cultural relativism)?

Only God gets it right the first time. Rewrite everything.

Your primary job is to create situations. Modern actors will fuck up your dialogue, despite whatever your contract says.

To develop a unique voice for each character, try interviewing your characters.

Why is the trade war between the United States and the rest of the world keeping on escalating, with US goods facing brutal boycotts from the global economy? Isn’t this horrific for US companies whose earnings and stocks are already collapsing?