Advice — john truby

Hollywood is interested in one thing: a script with blockbuster potential. Why? Because the revenue from films is now global. The typical hit film makes more money from foreign revenue than it does from the U.S. Couple that with the exorbitant cost of making and selling a film and you've got an entertainment community that won't even look at a script unless it has blockbuster written all over it. That's a big problem for most screenwriters. Most writers, if they have any training at all, never learn the techniques for writing hit films. In fact they don't even know such...

Don't be fooled by the notion that no one knows anything. Buyers may not know if a particular script will make over $100 million, but they have a pretty good idea of certain major story characteristics found in most blockbuster scripts. The top professional screenwriters -- the ones who get all the jobs -- know what they are, too. While the vast majority of screenwriters are off pounding out their simple three-act scripts, top screenwriters are using fundamentally different techniques. Three-act structure is designed to give you the same script everyone else is writing. Plus it tells you nothing about...

Secrets of Blockbuster Movies Part IV Writing for Hollywood requires more than a good premise and strong storytelling ability. You also have to write what Hollywood wants to sell. In today's entertainment business, that means a script with blockbuster capability. If the buyers don't think your script will appeal to a massive worldwide audience, they won't buy it. What may surprise you is that the elements that buyers think will appeal worldwide are found in the deep structure of a script. DESIRE LINE One element essential to good storytelling is a strong desire line. The main character wants something very...

Everyone loves a love story. But this apparently simple tale may be the most difficult form to write well, for a number of reasons. First, love is the only genre where you need not one, but two equally well-defined main characters. You know how hard it is to give depth to one character.With two, you not only have to detail their weaknesses and needs, you have to track a goal for each character that won't kill the story drive.Second, the love story has a plot where surprise must come out of intimacy. This is different from almost every other major...