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March 15, 2021

How do I make it as a Career Screenwriter?


I just finished my first screenplay, and I know it is really good. I just need a chance to get in front of someone to prove it. I’ve tried to contact agencies, but got no response. I don’t want to give up my dream of a Hollywood career!


Any advice?


–Jim S., New York


The stock answers to the career question tend to be variations on “you have to pay your dues” or “you have to know someone.” I’m not a fan of either piece of advice, so let’s start by reframing those two old bromides into solid pieces of career advice:

Instead of “paying your dues”, which implies years of suffering and sucking up, master the craft of screenwriting by building a strong portfolio.

New writers fall in love with their first finished scripts. Don’t, because unless you are the genius of the century, it’s not very good. And even if you ARE the genius of the century, your next screenplay will be better still. Screenwriting is like writing poetry– it needs to be elegant, expressive and written in a particular (and very odd) style. Your learning curve is HUGE. Plan on finishing 5 or 6 scripts before you start looking for work.

Even when you have one great script, you’ll want a couple more in your back pocket for when the agent or producer asks the inevitable question “What else have you got?” The correct answer to that question? Pull out your next great script.

To help with getting all that writing done, consider taking a class or two or six. I’m a fan of UCLA Extension, but there are other schools with good screenwriting teachers, and everything is on line these days. In class you’ll meet peers at your level. Trade scripts with them. Stay in touch. Share experiences. Learn and grow together.

You should also stop worrying about who you know, and instead learn how the business side of show business actually works.

Hollywood is desperate for great talent and great stories– that’s why big-time screenwriters get paid a fortune. At the same time, we are desperate to defend ourselves from people who think they have “something big” but have not done the work to prove it. For whatever reason, screenwriting seems easy to people, but think about what the NFL would say to you if you showed up at the Cowboys’ front office and said “I caught a pass in High School. I’m ready to play offense.” The ratio of inquiries established companies get is something like 95% wannabe to 5% actual talent. Naturally, their defenses are built up high. If they weren’t we’d waste 95% of every day on total crap– and trust me, there’s A LOT of it.

The answer to getting through the screeners is to learn more about the business so you know what the professional expectations are. That way when you take your 5 great scripts to an agency or management company, you’ll know enough about their business to have an intelligent conversation about yours. Learn by listening  to screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin on August’s podcast “Scriptnotes”,  a great source of both business and creative advice.  Read the trades (Deadline.com, Variety.com, etc.) Read screenplays (free all over the net) and books about screenwriting.

In real life, you show up at the NFL in perfect shape. With your game films from a whole bunch of games. With a coach that knows your work. Then you STILL have to prove yourself. But if you do all the hard work and have the chops, you’re in that top 5%. Same in entertainment. Everyone wants to work with professionals who know their stuff and can reliably tell a great story.

If you’re that person, you will have a career.

 

Steve Stockman

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Published on March 15, 2021 14:26

December 25, 2020

The Structural Reason You Were Disappointed in Wonder Woman 1984

[image error]**Spoilers here**


There are many reasons to be disappointed in Wonder Woman 1984:


The rules of the horrible wishing stone appear to change at will. Washington DC looks nothing like Washington DC. Starbucks-style coffee sleeves and full-color CRT monitors show up when none would actually have existed. The villain looks better in a suit of armor. The Hero does not. The day players acted in the style of day players in 1984—which feels as foreign to us today as the acting styles of the ‘50s did back then.


And perhaps worst of all, someone at DC watched “Cats” and thought “Perfect! We must put one in our next blockbuster!” All of these are good reasons to be disappointed—but none of these problems would have mattered nearly as much if the movie didn’t have a giant structural hole in exactly the wrong place.


In a well-told story, the Hero’s decisions make the story go. If John McClain (to stay in a Christmas motif) does not decide to climb the Nakatomi towers, there is no Die Hard. If Frodo decides to stay home and watch Netflix, there’s no Lord of the Rings.


The ride that we, the audience, sign up for is to watch how the hero gets themselves into trouble and then, through struggle, back out of trouble. We want to know how it turns out. Whether they screw up or succeed. Live or die. Because we can imagine ourselves in their position, the bigger the trouble and the harder they struggle, the more we care how they do. If they struggle and succeed, we feel great. If they struggle and fail, we are destroyed (in a very good way—that’s tragedy.)


But what if the struggle is taken away from them?  Then we don’t care, and feel like we wasted two and a half hours we’ll never get back watching the movie. Which is exactly how you will feel after watching Wonder Woman 1984.


As clunky as the film is, at its heart is a very compelling dilemma: what if your biggest, deepest, most heartfelt wish ever came true– and the only way to save the world was to undo it? Worse, what if undoing it meant the death of someone you loved? That’s a really huge question, built for struggle and angst, right? We very much care how our hero gets through this one.


But when we get to the point in the film where Wonder Woman realizes that the only way she can save the world will kill (again) the man she loves and wants to– no deserves to– be with, the writers whiff the ball. Faced with this wrenching dilemma, we want to see our hero take action. She needs to decide. But she doesn’t, as the writers commit the cardinal story sin of taking the ability to decide away from their hero.


In that big, emotional turning point of the film, Chris Pine’s not-the-title-character turns to Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and tells her he’s going. She whines. Then he tells her again. They kiss and she walks away. We don’t see her make the decision because she doesn’t. We don’t see her struggle. We don’t even see him die in this, what should be the most breathtaking, emotionally pitched moment of the film. She nods and walks away and he’s—presumably– gone.  And just like that all the air hisses out of this movie.


The filmmakers have taken a female icon, a SUPERhero, who in the first film single-handedly jumped out of a foxhole during a firefight, crossed no-man’s land and saved a French town—and let her boyfriend mansplain to her what she “has to do.” They take the hero’s task—deciding–  and give it to a secondary character. This disempowers the hero, makes the decision struggle-free and means we don’t care at all what happens next.


This isn’t the only film to undercut its female hero in the climactic scene. My favorite example before this was River Wild, in which Meryl Streep spends the film being tortured by Kevin Bacon, only to have David Straithairn pop up magically at the end to kill him for her.


It’s not even the only superhero movie to undercut it’s lead and weaken the film.


But this is a bad mistake. Not only a structural error, but a culturally deaf structural error. It takes what should be a merely mediocre movie and elevates it to one that is a stunning example of bad storytelling.


Steve Stockman




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Published on December 25, 2020 22:49

December 9, 2020

10 Tips for Great Holiday Video

Ah, Holiday memories.


Like the time you think your dad told a hilarious story– but you can’t hear him on the video.  Or the time young Sarah– or was it Matthew?– kept talking about “Santa Paws”.  Hard to tell which, because whoever’s face is too dark to see. And let’s not even talk about the video you shot of the lights and place settings and decorations and presents and…um…hardly any people at all.


Shouldn’t your Holiday video bring back memories… of the Holiday?   Of course it should.  And from now on it will.  Just follow these 10 tips for great holiday video:


1. Spare us the scenery: Holidays are about memories, and memories are about people. In ten years, nobody’s going to beg you to haul out “that great video—you know, the one with the fireplace and logs and stuff!”  But the one where Eric got Gretchen that sexy underwear and she poured eggnog over his head?  You’ll play that one a lot.  By all means shoot the lovely place settings, the tree, the outside of the house decked with menorahs—but remember that unless they’re really unusual this year, they’re each good for a maximum of 5 seconds of screen time.


2.  Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes: If our memories are about people, people are about their faces.  We don’t just talk with our faces, we show our complete personalities with what goes on in our eyes, our foreheads, those creases around our mouths. Remember the face, and you’ll remember the time. Another reason to focus on faces– your 4-year old daughter’s face will be completely different next year. And, sadly, so will yours.


3.  Zoom with your feet. Don’t shoot from across the room . Zoom lenses make your picture shaky, and the more zoomed your lens is the less light it sees. Instead, turn off the zoom and walk closer.  You’ll also get better sound—there’s no such thing as a zoom microphone.


4.  Change your angle: We tend to hold the camera at chest height all the time so we can see the monitor screen.  But that’s not always the best way to tell the story. Might you get a better view of the table full of relatives if you raise the camera over your head?  What if you get on the floor with the kids when they open presents?  Different angles make more interesting video.


5.  Ask questions:  And make them open-ended questions.  Not “Do you like the tree?” (answer: “Yes, Mom” then silence) but “Susie– tell me about where the tree came from” or “Grandpa, what was Hanukah like when you were little?” Don’t forget the interviews!


6.  Shoot first, yell later:  Which story are you more likely to tell—the time you had a perfect Christmas and everyone was very nice and polite, or the time your son “helped” the cat climb the tree and the whole thing fell over?  Misbehavior makes great video.  Unless someone needs first aid, make sure your camera doesn’t stop rolling until it’s over.


7.  Represent your kids: Your three-year old can’t tell you what to shoot.  But you’re a big part of his life—don’t forget to include yourself and your spouse in the video.  Then every once in a while think about what you wish you had video of from your childhood, and shoot that.  In 20 years your kids will be grateful for the memories you’ve preserved.


8.  Careful of tricky holiday lighting. Candlelight, strings of colored lights, crackling flames—all very lovely, but frequently insufficient for shooting. It’s fine to try the romantic firelight shot, but if it looks dark in the monitor it won’t get magically less dark later. Turn on the overheads, pull over a floor lamp or open a window shade—whatever it takes for you to see a sharp, clear picture on your viewfinder


9.  Use Ritual to your advantage:  What are the things your family always does?  Shoot at least a little of the annual trip to the tree farm, the out-of-control-latke party or family ice-skating debacle every year to make it easy to see how your family changes and grows over time.


10.  Don’t try to hide the camera: Kids (and many adults) may be camera-shy, but they’ll be much worse if they think you’re trying to trick them into being filmed.  Be obvious about shooting.  Soon they’ll get bored with you and start acting natural.


Last minute gift ideas:  Who couldn’t use a dozen copies of How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck?  Now available in audio version too!


Steve Stockman




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Published on December 09, 2020 11:00

October 31, 2020

September 20, 2020

How to make Screencasts Interesting

How can I make great screencasts?


I am an educational technology trainer and have to make videos for teachers to show them basics of online tools like Google Classroom. Most videos/tutorials out there are dry, a person with their face in the corner going through the site and explaining. This is great when someone is seeking quick directions, but boring for people who need to be convinced that this is the right tool for them.


Any ideas? Thinking in shots is hard to do when the only shot is a computer screen.


—Keri Haas


I’m with you on how boring screencasts are. But is it true that your only available shot is a computer screen? Just because your fellow screen casters are locked into that format, who says you have to be? If you literally think outside the box, it’s possible to make screencasts more interesting and informative. And shorter (which is almost always better.)


You do it by creating additional non-computer screen footage, and spending more time editing your finished product. The extra footage costs nothing to make, and using it lets you to accelerate the pace of your lesson, clarify points and make the video more watchable by cutting out the boring parts.


I’ll take you through it step by step, and you can see what I mean:


1) Prepare your screencast. But instead of thinking of it as the finished product, let’s think of the “person in a little box” part as your “master shot.” Your master will be the spine of your edit– the shot you’ll come back to to tell the story of this lesson to your viewers.


In this version of a screencast, we’re going to cut a lot. You don’t need to get everything live. Instead of preparing one long lecture, think in information chunks. What are the must-include pieces of information? What can you leave out? Try really hard to leave things out.


When you record this, plan on multiple takes. You can try to show things different ways, smooth out your performance, and pause to think knowing you’ll cut in the good stuff and drop the rest. Maybe you want to make a shot list of the important bits.


2) Shoot your Screencast. Instead of the usual setup, let’s go with two cameras this time. The first is your “normal” screencast. The second is shot with a second camera, simultaneously, of you in closeup. This full-screen cutaway of yourself allows you to talk right to camera, or re-explain points as you go.


The easiest way to do this if you have it, is the Quicktime app. You can record a movie at the same time you record your screencast using other software. Quicktime records only what the computer camera sees– no screen– giving you a closeup of yourself that you can cut to whenever you like.


If your setup doesn’t allow this, you can accomplish the same thing by recording with your phone. Just set it up to one side of the monitor as you screencast.


3) Create additional footage. Watch your master. Where does it drag? What’s unclear? Brainstorm fun ways to fix the problems. Since you’re in the biz, your ideas will be better than mine, but consider adding:


–“closeups” of the detail of a specific operation. Zoom your screen in and record typing into the search window, a mouse movement, a result.


–Ad footage from the tool you’re using to show where an advertised function lives


–Closeups shot with your phone of your hands doing things on the keyboard or mouse


–Quick intros and outros to your video shot on your front porch or as you drive down the highway.


4) Edit. Cut the boring stuff. Add fun shots. Tighten, tighten, tighten. You can add graphics, music and sound effects to your screencasts too– something I rarely see when I pull one up.


The result probably won’t do quite the box office of Spiderman:Far From Home, but you should end up with a tight, informative piece that makes viewers want to come back to you the next time they need a lesson.


Do you have a question? I bet you do! Ask it here.


Steve Stockman




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Published on September 20, 2020 11:58