Screenwriting 101 by Film Crit Hulk! (Lowercase Version)

So You Want To Write A Screenplay? Before You Do, Know This: It Requires A Great Deal Of Effort And Dedication. A Lot O

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English Year 2013

Author / Uploaded
FILM CRIT HULK

Table of contents :
Part One – What Is A Story?

Part Two – Where To Find Inspiration

Part Three – 6 Things Hulk Wishes Hulk Knew A Decade Ago

1 – Get Your Learn On!
2 – No, Seriously. Get Your Learn On…
3 – What Your Experience Means For The State Of Your Own Work
4 – The Script Matters
5 – Why You Still Need To Be Able To Tell An Original Story
6 – But Remember, It’s Still Not About “Getting Things Made”

Part Four – How To Approach A Screenplay - Conceptually

7.1 – The Law Of Cause And Effect
7.2 – Empathy Is Your New Best Friend
8 – Beware The Lure Of Indulgence!
9 – Value The Consistency Of Character Motive
10 – Character Trees
11 – Don’t Base Your Characters On One Person; Combine Them
12 – How To Filter Your Real Life Into Storytelling
13 – Do Not Just Write The Story Of Your Life With The Lines You Wish You Said!
14 – Do Not Write “Yourself” As The Main Character
15 – The Biopic/Reality Complication
16 – Research!
17 – Drama vs. Story
18 – The JJ Abrams Question: Mystery? vs. Urgency!
19 – Don’t Over-Mythologize
20 – Everything You Write Is Inherently Saying Something
21 – Don’t Write Women Just In The Context Of Men
22 – The Value Of Preexisting Conflict
23 – The Ending Is The Conceit

Part Five – How To Tell The Story - Structurally

24 – Economy Is Your Second New Best Friend
25 – The Myth Of The 3 Act Structure
26 – Why We Have To Quit It With The Hero Journey Shit
X) Don’t Make People Heroes Simply Because They Are The Main Characters And They Are Getting Called To An Adventure! Or Something
XI) Don’t Have The Characters Refuse The Call For The Entire Duration Of The Movie
XII) Don’t Over-Rely On The Wise Old Crone
XIII) Don’t Mistake The Notion Of Trials As The Hero Fighting A Bunch Of Things
XIV) Don’t Just Fall Back On Meeting The Goddess / Woman As Temptress For Your Female Roles.
XV) Don’t Blatantly Use The Elixir Remedy / Deus Ex Machina
XVI) Don’t Think “The Return” Only Means That Characters Should Come Home At The End
XVII) Don’t Use “Cuz Destiny!”
XVIII) Wrapping It All Up

27 – The Sequential Approach
28 – Trey Parker + Matt Stone’s “Therefore / Buts” Not “Ands”
29 – Dan Harmon’s Circles
30 – Vladimir Proppisms!
31 – The Snowflake Method
32 – Individuality And Hulk’s “Multi-Act Flow Structure”
33 – M.A.F.S. Part 1 - Breaking Into Concurrent Arcs
34 – M.A.F.S. Part 2 - Merge Into Conflicting Arcs
35 – Learn Your Genre Conventions!
36 – “Page 17”
37 – If You Use Characters, They Should Likely Be Reused
38 – How To Actually Use Deus Ex Machina
39 – Beware The Opening Flash-Forward
40 – Don’t Try To Be “Cool”
41 – Don’t Fuck With The Audience Just To Fuck With The Audience
42 – The Modern Difficulty Of Relativism
43 – Adaptation
44 – Spec Scriptin’!
45 – How To Approach Plot-Holes And Movie Logic
A Plot-Hole Is Not...
I) A Blatant Movie-Stopper
II) Something That Only Seems Confusing In Retrospect
III) An Event That Simply Occurs Off-Screen
IV) A Loose End (Though It Can Be)
V) A Real-Life Inaccuracy

46 – Writing Is Re-Writing
47 – When & How To Disregard These Guidelines

Part Six – How To Write A Screenplay (Script-Specific Instruction!)

48 – You Need To Understand Grammar And Sentence Structure
49 – Screenplay Format Basics!
I) Header
II) Action Line
III) Character
IV) Dialogue
V) Character Parenthetical
VI) Dialogue Parenthetical
VII) Transition
VIII) Over Black
IX) Scene Numbers

50 – Submission Scripts Vs. Shooting Scripts (And How It Affects Absolutely Everything)
51 – Know It Is Being Read By Every Kind Of Person
52 – The Golden Rule Of Description
53 – Oh By The Way, You Are Not The Director
54 – The Poetic Art Of Action Lines
55 – Writing Action Scenes!
56 – Don’t Waste Opportunities To Say Something
57 – And If You Want To Be Colloquial…
58 – Voice-Over… Perhaps Try Not Using It…
59 – The Practical Art Of Dialogue
I) Eliminate The Following In Dialogue: “Ums,” “Likes,” And “You Knows”
II) You Want Characters’ Dialogue To Be More Clear And On Point Than You’d Assume
III) Your Characters Can’t All Talk The Same Way

60 – Read Your Entire Screenplay Out Loud… Many Times.
61 – Feedback – Get A Thick Skin And Expect Others To Have None
62 – Letting Go

Part Seven – Now Here Comes The Hard Part

Acknowledgments

Endnotes & Bibliography