ANATOMY OF A SCREENPLAY THIRD EDITION Quotes

“Plot is a by-product of Character.”
― Dan Joseph Decker, ANATOMY OF A SCREENPLAY THIRD EDITION

“The symptoms of a writer who hasn’t found their way clear of the needs of Self yet are easy to spot. I should say the symptoms are easy for everyone else to spot, that is, and not so easy for the writer themself to see. You’ll see a writer who does not trust the characters to speak and move on their own, but has to puppeteer them; a writer who does not trust the reader to understand what’s written. One who must insert parentheticals in various forms to explain the work to the reader; flashbacks to explain; big black blocks of text on the page to explain; question-and-answer dialog between characters who aren’t in a courtroom; walk-and-talk characters with their mouths full of dialog of what the story is about; too many stage directions that make the script read like a novel…”
― Dan Joseph Decker, ANATOMY OF A SCREENPLAY THIRD EDITION

“A movie: tells the story; of a person(s); in the pursuit of an Objective(s); in the face of Opposition(s); with someone to talk to; with an underlying theme, in a clearly defined genre; with an emotionally satisfying resolution. Does yours?”
― Dan Joseph Decker, ANATOMY OF A SCREENPLAY THIRD EDITION

“If every minute of time elapsed on the screen equals in length of time every other minute, and obviously it does, and if time on the screen equals importance to the audience, that is, one minute of screen time gives equal weight to the emotional, dramatic, narrative, and every other aspect of experiencing a movie as every other minute, and it does, then we know something important we need to know about screenplays.”
― Dan Joseph Decker, ANATOMY OF A SCREENPLAY THIRD EDITION

“In a movie, people only talk when they want something. If your characters are not pursuing their needs in the scene, they are invariably talking about the movie they are in.”
― Dan Joseph Decker, ANATOMY OF A SCREENPLAY THIRD EDITION