Advice — expert series

Raymond Chandler wrote his first screenplay at 56. He didn't even publish his first novel until he was 51. For the record, he wrote the original screenplays for 'Double Indemnity' and 'Strangers On A Train.' In 1939, after F. Scott Fitzgerald's career as a novelist had faltered, he needed money fast. He went to Hollywood and found work as a screenwriter. He was 43 years old. William Faulkner wrote his first screenplay at 48. Joseph Mankiewitz (who, incidentally, rewrote Fitzgerald) was well over 35 when he wrote 'All About Eve.' As for contemporary screenwriters: William Goldman is pushing 70; David...

There are many ways symbols that can be used in a movie. Today I will examine one of them.Alan Ball, the screenwriter of 'American Beauty,' makes riveting use of the color red throughout the film. The first time we see Annette Bening, she's cutting bright red roses.What does the color red mean in this movie?The way Ball uses it, it refers to a concept: the life force, which, by nature, tries to defy the suppressiveness of suburban life. That's why, the first time we meet Annette Bening, she's cutting red roses. She's cutting the life force. Shortly thereafter, we see...

Hopefully, you're not the same person you were when you were a teen. (If you're a teen, reading this, I realize the above sentence defies logic. But not to worry -- it's an illogical world, and you'll soon get used to it). Perhaps once you were shy, and now you're not. Perhaps once you felt unimportant, and now you understand your value to yourself and others. The point is, as we go on in life, most of us grow in different ways. The same thing happens in a movie script. Usually, at least one of the characters - and not...

There has been a lot of talk lately about the new spec formatting style. Throughout the 1990s, there has been a movement toward 'lean and clean' screenwriting: Shorter screenplays, shorter paragraphs, shorter speeches, more white space and the omission of technical instructions. It should come as no surprise that this gradual evolution continues to refine spec style. Let's take a quick look at where things stand at this moment in time.The Technical Stuff Let's start with what's forbidden. Do not write CONTINUED at the top and bottom of each page. Do not write 'continuing' as a parenthetical when a character...

One of the wonderful things about writing memoir is that there is so much life material to use when we allow ourselves to fully explore our pasts. Much of that material comes from character. This is beginning to sound easy, isn't it? Not so fast. Because the characters who make up our memoirs are part of our lives, and because we know them so well, it's easy to skimp on characterization as we write our stories. We may expect the reader to find the person interesting because he or she is interesting to us, yet we don't allow the reader...