What goes into writing a great movie script?

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.

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

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

How did you know you weren't the narc?

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.

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

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

What do you think of Vance using a clip of an embarrassed teenager from almost 20 years ago in an attempt to bully Kamala Harris?

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

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

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

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

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

What makes cars from companies like Dacia or BYD appealing compared to Tesla, especially in Europe?

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

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

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

Why did Amazon initially deny leave of absence to Alexis Scott-Windham, the Amazon worker who survived the New Orleans terrorist attack?

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

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.

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

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.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

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

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

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

My son died seven months ago at the age of 24 how do I know if he’s in heaven and can he see me and hear me and why have I not gotten any signs yet from him or Mom just not seeing the signs how do I know if he’s OK how do I know if he’s happy?