Advice

Reader Alexa Adams from Milford, CT asks My scene count is making my screenplay too long, but I can't see cutting any of the scenes I've written. What should I do? Expert Martha Alderson replies. The job of a good writer is to know which scenes to cut and which ones to keep. You, as a writer, needed to write each and every one of those scenes to better understand the characters. A movie-goer or reader needs only scenes that work on a multitude of levels at once. Tips: 1) Write your project all the way through each draft. If...

A real gem on the craft of screenwriting, the third edition of Syd Field's preeminent book, Screenplay, provides easily understood guidelines on writing a script from concept to finished product. Syd sits down to talk to the Writers Store about the next generation of screenwriting. What led you to write Screenplay in 1979? At that time, there were only a few books on the market that dealt with the art and craft of screenwriting. I was teaching screenwriting at Sherwood Oaks Experimental College in Hollywood, where hundreds of people flowed through my courses, and asked me to present what I...

I was at a screening of Cinderella Man when it happened. In an early scene in that film, Russell Crowe, who portrays '30s prizefighter Jim Braddock, gives his daughter his only slice of bologna. "I had a dream last night where I ate a big steak," he explains to the little girl. "I'm stuffed. Can you help me out?" We are in the middle of the Depression. The little girl is starving. And Russell shows he is man enough to forego his own breakfast for the sake of his child. It's a touching moment; many in the theater are tearing...

Reader Gail McCall of Toluca Lake asks What attributes do directors believe writers need to have for good collaboration to take place on the set? Expert Jack Rothman replies For my book, Hollywood in Wide Angle: How Directors View Filmmaking, I interviewed a cross-section of 32 feature film directors. In our talks, they gave their take on qualities of writers that make for good collaboration on the set. I'll spell out their responses briefly. Directors like working with writers who see the director as the decision maker in the situation, the person truly in charge of the process and outcome....

Before a film or television script can fulfill its destiny in front of cameras and on screens around the world, it must first succeed as a piece of literature, a document that captivates the reader before it delights the viewer. Since film and television are collaborative media, the first job of a script is to attract collaborators: producers, agents, executives, directors, actors. These readers are a script's primary audience. How to captivate them? A fresh story driven by compelling characters doesn't hurt. But neither does a style of screenwriting that gets itself out of the way and allows the story...