Screenplay Mistakes A Producer Will Immediately Identify - Stanley M. Brooks

In this Film Courage video interview, Filmmaker Stanley M. Brooks on Screenplay Mistakes A Producer Will Immediately Identify.

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#writing #screenwriting #screenplay

[ericrenquist]

I like this guy. It's refreshing to see someone like this who isn't jaded and bitter.

[jeravincer]

Great to hear from a guy who doesn’t only read the first page!!!

[dr.leonardo]

So refreshing to listen to someone in this position who is down to earth and giving the writer a break. Very professional but still interested in finding A story that peaks the imagination first and then evaluating his marketability. Obviously has the soul of an artist.

[violimo]

Young people don't realize what was sacrificed. Call it old school, but many things are still good. Reading a physical book, script, watching a movie in a cinema.

[hyronelilly]

I have written movie scripts for years. I have always used spiral notebook 3 subject and used 2 to 3 per script. A year or two ago, a friend asked me why haven't I taken my craft seriously and pursue in script writing. What I learned is that I have the talent, the knowledge on what others expect of me is different. So I researched and went on YouTube to follow their formats and, in my knowledge, did quite well. I just wish that I can learn before the process rather than during. It would make things a lot easier but I'm still grateful to go through this experience

[arthousefilms]

1:43 "Red flags" starts here

[AKNV]

I’m an arrogant SOB. I thought I was so smart; i made a choice to not learn how to write a screenplay but to just do it. To write my story without any outside influence. So I wrote a screenplay without knowing about format. It was awful; but I got it down on paper and showed some friends, who are in the biz.
They looked at my work like I was crazy. Then told me about formatting. I now use a script reading service haha.

[scorpionz]

"dont introduce the protagonist 30 pages in"
insert The Dark Knight script

[cinsationalcinema]

I love how he wants a printed script. Awesomeness

[jeffmcmahon]

So pleased to hear his views on hard copies, books, newspapers etc. It has been said that a book has geography, it's multidimensional, it has authority*, reflecting the elements of the story within. E-books, Kindle etc are merely pixels on a soul-less screen. That's why the cinema experience trumps any movie viewed on a 'device' - in an auditorium, amongst an audience, watching the Shaman tell the story from another world.
* The first line of dialogue delivered by the Rev Hale in Miller's 'The Crucible' - when Rev Parris offers to relieve him of his pile of books, commenting that they look very heavy - "They must be, they are weighted with authority." Don't think it has the same affect (nor effect) relieving someone of a kindle or i-Pad.

[MarianoRodriguez]

Unless we are talking about Psycho. A movie where the protagonist dies half hour into it and some random hotel dude takes over. But that´s a gimmick you can pull off only intentionally for shocking purposes. This guy obviously means simply sloppy writing.

[wyattnoel]

great interview! i like my protagonist to be visible from page one and present them with a confrontational event by page ten!

[thehulk]

Movie Directors reacting to reaction of their movies, is the kind of niche category of YouTube videos I'd be down for.

[johnnhoj]

Let's go back to basics. What is a storyteller trying to do early on as a minimum? Get the reader/viewer interested and keep them interested. The most usual way is to quickly introduce a protagonist and give them a goal which they then pursue for the rest of the story.
A famous example of not doing that is Psycho. SPOILERS FOLLOW. The person we think will be the protagonist has a goal but after about 45 minutes everything changes, they aren't the protagonist any more and their original goal becomes almost irrelevant. However we have been presented with what seems like the start of a conventional story structure and we have been kept interested by that story. By the time we get to the switch we are more than invested enough in the film to want to know what happens next.
In Alien, it isn't apparent for a while who will be the eventual protagonist. However, we have met her and the crew are all facing the same problem and apparently have the same goal. They are a kind of group protagonist.
Judging by the audience figures and the acclaim both films have received over decades their deviation from the norm doesn't appear to matter at all. They got the audience interested and kept them interested. That's what matters.
This isn't an argument for "anything goes" these films were not initially unusual enough in form to alienate an audience. For 45 minutes Psycho exactly followed the conventional form for a compelling film story - just a different story from what it eventually turned into. The only unusual thing about the beginning of Alien was that Ripley wasn't obviously the main protagonist.
If you are an unknown quantity as a writer then it makes sense to try to fulfill the usual expectations. If and when you become a known, established writer then readers will assume that you know what you are doing and give you a little more leeway.

[_Braised]

This video ends at 3:34, going completely off topic after that.

[thestray]

Kind of adorable how he discovered the existence of reaction videos. I would've never considered that writers would find or watch those.

[MariWakocha]

I can't even read my own scripts unless I print them. As soon as I have them in paper form I can make changes to them, but I'll never be able to track what's happening unless I do. I shot a 50 minute movie and we were making changes to the script as we shot because of budget issues. We weren't able to print the script all the time so I stopped rewriting it and kept the changes in my head. Worked better and at times I'd read the script and be like "this isn't right, is this an old copy?", but actually it was just because I'd made a change in my head and in my mind it was in script, so I didn't even remember that's not how it originally went.

[joelmacha]

"Writer talks about how he hates electronics for nine minutes, explains that amateur scripts are amateur."

[markwood]

He says he likes to read on a plane because no one bothers him. Apparently he's never sat next to me.

[jody-lynnreicher]

I can relate to what he says on how he reads the first pas of a script. When to bring ni the protagonist. He makes sense.