<![CDATA[Rainbows & Unicorns Entertainment LLC - From Beyond the Rainbow]]>Sun, 19 May 2013 22:48:05 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Five Tips to Prepare for a Pitchfest]]>Thu, 25 Apr 2013 01:25:05 GMThttp://runotentertained.com/1/post/2013/04/five-tips-to-prepare-for-a-pitchfest.htmlby Dave.

It's that time of year again, pitchfest season. Yay! Normally I wouldn't talk about events like this until we are much closer to them happening. Today is different though. I want to take a moment to help temper your expectations if you are planning on attending one of these events for the first time. Not in a hater type of way (I happen to really like pitchfests). I mean in a, "This is what you need to be thinking type of way". Because when it comes to pitchfests, an ounce of preparation really does go a long way.

Be Prepared: A lot of people are going to read this and think I'm talking about researching the companies you want to talk to. Yes, that is important. No, that is not what I am talking about. I am going to go even further back. You need to have your script done and ready to show. In a perfect world you should have at least two, but one is the bare minimum. You would be amazed how many people attend these events with just an idea and a dream. Do that and all it will be is a dream. If you have an exec ask to see your script, you have two weeks, MAX, to get the script to them. Anything after that and they have moved on and forgotten about you. You will not get your script done in that time, especially if you have never written one. Get your script done. It won't mean anything if you go before that, and there will be plenty of opportunities once you have completed it.

Be Yourself: Relax, take a deep breath, tell some jokes to other attendees, smile, hand out cards, learn from others, etc... That's what you're there to do. The last event Dustin and I went to was, well... it was an experience. People were nervous and strung out because they were so focused on the notion that they had to sell their script that day. It was like a compressed version of people packing up their hopes and dreams and letting them all ride on that one single event. Seriously, we saw people crying in the bathrooms. If desperation is a turnoff to execs then there were a lot of turned off execs that day. Take a breath. It will be OK.

Have a Realistic Goal: Dustin and I will be attending The Great American Pitchfest in a little over a month. I will tell you right now that we are not going to sell a screenplay there. We aren't even entertaining the dream of selling a screenplay there. Why? Because I know that no matter how brilliant our pitch, no exec is going to pull out a checkbook and say "That's genius. I'm going to get on the phone to Spielberg right away. How does a million dollars sound?" We are going to the pitchfest to meet people, make relationships, open up dialogues. Think of it as a first date (a speed date but still a date). Both sides are sitting across the table trying to decide if they want a second date.

Know How to Handle Objections: This goes back to having a realistic goal. When Dustin and I sat down with Benderspink, after our Industry Insider Contest win, our Story Specialist gave us the best advice we could ever get, "You are not going to sign tomorrow. That is not how this works. Your goal is to have them still interested in you when you walk out the door. A request to read another script is a win." Knowing that advice is what saved the meeting for us. If we had gone in with stars in our eyes and our special signing pen in our hand we would have been in way over our heads. Instead, we were able to handle all of their questions, steer the conversation at the right times and, in the end, they asked for another script. Win. Conversations are still on going as they have asked for us to send them our next finished script as well (That reminds me, there will be a blog post on Writer's Block coming soon). Remember, you are NOT going to sell your script there. You are answering questions in a way to keep them interested in you. You are not trying to get them to please, please, please buy your script.

Talk With the Other Attendees: There are two very good reasons for this. First, you are not in competition with each other. There is not a set number of people execs are allowed to be interested in. Just because the person next to me has a fantastic romantic comedy has no bearing what-so-ever on whether or not an exec will like my angry, revenge filled action/thriller. Hell, we probably aren't even going to talk to the same execs. So get to know them, have fun, learn something new, tell them good luck when their time to pitch comes. The second reason? Who knows who that person will become? You are not the only talented person there and everyone has to start somewhere. Who knows, maybe you are going to look up in five years and see that person being interviewed on TV and you're going to think, "That looks like the person I sat next to at pitchfest. I sure wished I had talked to them."

This all being said, please don't let this scare you. I am not trying to scare you. I'm just a rather blunt person. I am also a firm believer in pitch events. Here's why. I don't live in LA. I spent a good part of my post college life working Law Enforcement. When Dustin and I started our screenwriting venture we did not know a soul in the movie industry. The first time we sat down to send out query letters it was all foreign to us. It was like, "This guy sounds cool. Let's send it to him as well." Flash forward a couple of years. Last month I was getting ready for another round of queries. I opened up my exec directory and started flipping through. This time I was saying things like, "There's XXXX, we met him at the Screenwriter Conference last October, he's the one who wanted to know where we got our business cards. Or XXXX, that's the manager we had coffee with last August. Here's XXXX they requested our script when we pitched at XXXX, etc..." Know how we met all those people? Pitchfests and high contest placements. It is more than worth the time if you have the right mental state going in.

So, to sum it all up. Have a finished script before you try to sell that script. Take a breath and calm down. Don't be desperate to make it all happen at the table. Know that it won't all happen at the table so you can focus the conversation. Be nice to the other people. Don't cry in the bathroom.]]><![CDATA[Screenwriting and Bacon, Not as Different as You Think]]>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 01:25:41 GMThttp://runotentertained.com/1/post/2013/04/screenwriting-and-bacon-not-as-different-as-you-think.htmlby Dave

I recently had a fun conversation with our immensely knowledgeable nerd consultant, Mr. Cody Dobbs. We were talking about the opportunities that social media provides to small business marketing and how we could learn from that. At one point Cody joked that if we could turn ourselves into a meme or tie ourselves to bacon and cats then we would be on easy street. I wasn't sure we wanted to be the first and I had no idea how we related to the second. But, rather than be discouraged by that fact, I joked to Cody that I thought we could do it. So here we are. 

Before I get to that though, let's actually talk about screenwriting. I belong to a few screenwriting message boards. For the most part I find them to be very good tools. I have learned a lot from them and I have interacted with a lot of great professionals. That doesn't mean they don't provide endless sources of amusement and professional frustration. I'm talking about the posts I like to call, "What the (blank) were you thinking and please be quiet for your own sake." The latest example of one of these posts comes from a person who thinks they know a way to make a certain big name screenplay scouting service more fair and unbiased. When I'm talking fair and unbiased I mean that he took the time to come up with a multi-step process and mathematical computation to take all perceived bias out of script grading and reviewing. I'll let that take a moment to sink in as well as humbly suggest that maybe that time would have been better spent working on fixing his script that most obviously must not have received the best of reviews. The fatal flaw in his thinking is, of course, that writing is an art form. Just like any other art, a person's taste in writing is subjective. There is absolutely, positively, beyond a shadow of a doubt, no way that you can make judging them an unbiased and completely even science.

To prove this point, let me offer you an example... bacon. That's right, bacon. Bacon should be entirely non-subjective. It is a specific cut of meat from a specific animal. There should be no getting around it. Bacon is bacon. Ah, but how do you like your bacon? Do you like it baked, cooked on a skillet or breaded and deep fried? Do you like the strips or the fattier ends and pieces. Thick cut or regular cut? Maple bacon, pepper bacon or regular bacon? Do you even like bacon? What are your thoughts on turkey bacon? How well done do you like your bacon? Have you ever tried bacon on a doughnut? Do you like it charred and extra crisp or still greasy and barely cooked to just be able to call cooked? You can see where this is going. My mother-in-law and I disagree on this (shocker) every time we cook bacon for a family meal. She accuses me of liking it so under cooked that it still has botulism in it. I accuse her of cooking, nay burning it, to the point that it no longer has flavor. Are either of us right? Yes, we both are. We are also both wrong (her more than me). But bacon is not something you can take and say "It shall be cooked in medium sized, no extra flavoring strips on the skillet, turning twice, and only twice, until the internal temperature reaches 145 degrees." That won't make everyone happy. In fact, it will probably only make 6% of the people out there happy. 

It is the same with a script. If there was a fair and objective way to attack each script in order to make sure they are all judged fairly, that would mean that each script would be of the same genre with the same plot points, characters and endings. It's not that way (thank goodness). We all like different things. We like different genres and we hate different genres. I've had scripts get perfect scores in competitions and get trashed by a different judge in the same competition. We had one script get blown out of the water one year. The next year we threw it back into the same competition without even making a single change (We were feeling cheeky on the final deadline day and threw it in because, "Why not?"). It placed in the top 100 and received multiple read requests and manager meetings. Was the first judge wrong? Was the second judge drunk? No. They just liked different things. I'm not going to change their minds. I'm not even going to try. I'm just going to move down the road to the next person. All of those rejections don't mean a thing when the right person says "yes".


And to thank you for taking the time to read this whole article, here is a picture of a cat typing what we can only assume is a screenplay better than ours. Boom! Two for two, Cody.
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*Full disclosure: After seeing this picture multiple times over the internet we do not know the original source, nor do we pretend that this is our picture. If this is your picture please let us know. We would love to read your cat's screenplay.
]]><![CDATA[Let it Ride]]>Fri, 29 Mar 2013 19:16:11 GMThttp://runotentertained.com/1/post/2013/03/let-it-ride.htmlby Dave

I almost became a millionaire last week. I don't mean a paper millionaire because the house I can't sell is appraised for a lot of money. I mean a filthy, stinking, which private island should I buy, rich. The deal was all set. The paperwork had changed hands. All I needed was for those six Powerball numbers to fall my way. I was already picking my new house, new car (or two), a vacation house (or two), maybe even a suite at The Seahawks. And I tell you what, our next in-house film was going to be EPIC. I was thinking of a short called DAD LOVED THE FOURTH OF JULY. All it would be is six minutes of explosions. Not stock footage explosions. We were going to blow things up for six minutes. Epic. Then I checked the numbers and it all came crashing down in about three seconds. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. I think Al Pacino said it best in the film TWO FOR THE MONEY. Gambling is not about winning and losing. It's not about the risk vs reward. It's about that moment when the dice are on the table. The moment they are spinning and you have hope. You can see your win. You can feel it, and man it feels great. It is that split second of dreaming that gambling is about.

Pursuing a career in Hollywood in much the same. It's not about risk vs reward, because there is a ton of risk and very little reward. It's not about winning and losing because most of the things you write are never going to see the light of day. It's about that feeling you get when you finish your screenplay. The anticipation you have when you send that big query letter. The thought that "this one is it". It's the joy you feel when you see your finished movie, no matter how small, no matter how few people see it. Is Rainbows and Unicorns Entertainment ever going to be a major player with huge lavish offices and contacts all around the world? Are we going to have movie posters lining the halls for all of our films that won Academy Awards? Probably not. That doesn't mean we can't dream about it. It doesn't mean we can't envision that our next film is going to be the "big one". Because that's why we do it. That is the joy we chase and feel every time we start a new project.


]]><![CDATA[Writing Shorts to Improve Your Features]]>Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:37:52 GMThttp://runotentertained.com/1/post/2013/03/writing-shorts-to-improve-your-features.htmlby Dave

One of the hardest aspects of screenwriting, for any writer, is the constant struggle to keep your story on target. Each scene offers new and exciting opportunities to wander off track, explore tangents that don't need to be explored, lay down some of the most earth shattering and thoughtful dialogue ever experienced on screen... you get the point. The tricky thing is, most writers don't even know when they start to get off track. OK, all of us. You're tracking A plots, B and C plots, character growth, sub character growth, humanizing the antagonist and on and on and on. The next thing you know, you're posting questions in screenwriter forums about whether or not it is OK to submit a screenplay that is 152 pages long.

There are many tools a writer has to combating this problem. I'm going to highlight the most surprising method I have found. Start writing short films. They don't even have to be intending for shooting. Just start writing shorts. Why does this work? Well, let me relay my first experience in writing a short. Dustin came to me and said he had some people down in New Mexico he could use to film a short piece and he wanted me to write the script. I was like "No problem, I'll bang it out over the weekend". Why the confidence? My thinking was, "I write feature length, 100 to 120 page scripts. How hard can five pages be?" I'll take a moment to let the laughter die down as the veteran writers in the audience can see where this is going. I sat down that night and started to write my little side project. I wrote the opening and it was awesome. Characters were introduced, snappy banter was thrown around, laughs were had... and I took up three pages of our five page script. Problem. Apparently no matter how short the story, it must still have a beginning, a middle and an end. That's a heck of a lot harder to do in five pages than it is in 105 pages.

How did my little weekend project fare? It turned into a two week passion project. By passion I mean a passion to beat the *goshdarn* thing into submission and show it who the boss was (I'm a little competitive). In the end, I was a better writer for it. It was a very quick lesson in making your writing as lean as possible. In making your story as lean as possible. In making sure you are only saying what you need to say and not taking too long to say it. So if you want to improve your feature writing, I wholeheartedly suggest you write some shorts. ]]><![CDATA[Weapons on Set]]>Sun, 10 Mar 2013 07:22:07 GMThttp://runotentertained.com/1/post/2013/03/weapons-on-set.htmlby Dave

As we begin pre-production on our next film, I am nagged with one small, but constant fear. I really, really don't want our production to be delayed by a SWAT team raid. I know, probably not the most realistic fear, but I'm also the guy who doesn't like being the first one in the water, even in fresh water lakes. It's also not that far-fetched when you think about how many concerned citizens would totally ignore the film equipment and camera crew when they tunnel vision on the men in tactical gear carrying big guns and call the police. So, as a public service, I am going to share some of the steps we are taking to make sure we are not standing against a brick wall, hands behind our head, waiting for the police to sort everything out.
  • No Real Weapons: Having real weapons firing blanks brings a whole host of problems to your set that you will have to contend with. It will be highly recommended that you take out an insurance policy if you are bringing real weapons onto set. One need look no further than what happened on the set of "The Crow" to see why. You will also need to have a firearms safety officer present to insure safety at all times. Do NOT trust yourself to do this. even if you are intimately familiar with firearms, you will have too much else to think about to be hovering near the weapons all the time, and when it comes to firearms it only takes one mistake. And since we are concerned with appearance if the police are called to set, the last thing you want to be holding is a real firearm.
  • Airsoft: The next best thing is going to be gas blowback airsoft weapons. The gas blowback means that you will have a working slide action every time the trigger is pulled. This provides a visual cue for your actors to react to as well as helps the effects team know where to add muzzle flashes and sound effects. The more expensive models will also add an impressive amount of recoil. To see more of how they work, check out our weapons tests here.
  • The Orange Blaze: It is obviously going to have to come off for filming, but I advise you to leave it on as long as possible before you take it off. It doesn't need to come off for pre-production tests, so why take on extra risk? I must also caution that the orange blaze is restricted differently in each state. I strongly recommend you check the laws in your area before just stripping that orange off.
  • Call the Police: I call it controlling the conversation. What is better than self reporting? Find the number to your local department's public affairs office or call the NON-emergency dispatch number. Tell them what you are doing, when you are filming, the address you are filming at and stress that you have no real weapons on set. Will it head everything off? No, but it sure does help of they can match the address of any potential 911 calls and know the backstory.
  • Talk to the Neighbors: If possible, start knocking on doors and let people know what is going on. It's unlikely you will be able to get to everyone (our shoot is next to a huge condo complex as well as high rises) but every bit helps.
  • Post Signs: And I mean everywhere. We did a walk through last week and I had signs posted on every door on the building, even the ones far away from where we were shooting. You never know what door police will go to if they are called. For your convenience, I posted a copy at the bottom of the page (apologies for the "I think I got it but can't tell because it's sunny" cut off to the photo).
  • Invest in a Duffel Bag: What will look better? Walking into the building carrying three AR-15 Rifles over your shoulder, or carrying a nondescript duffel bag?

In the end, an ounce of preparation really does go a long way when it comes to safely shooting any scenes with weapons. Please do not take it lightly just because you are shooting with "toy guns".
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]]><![CDATA[Building Your Brand]]>Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:03:56 GMThttp://runotentertained.com/1/post/2013/02/building-your-brand.htmlby Dave

We're back. Sorry it has taken us so long between posts. After our first year in operation, we have been hastily teaching ourselves Quickbooks and studying the differences between why we can write off one meal, but not the next. Why this receipt goes in meals and entertainment but the next one goes in travel expenses. Basically, the glitz and glamor we imagined when we opened a production company. It is fair to say that I have a new found respect for my accountant wife (unfortunately not tax specialty). It is also fair to say that I don't want to change jobs with her.

But I digress. What I really want to talk about is a valuable lesson Dustin and I learned when we were in LA a couple weeks ago. That is the concept of building your brand as a screenwriter. We had a wonderful meeting with a well respected management company that had read our contest winning script, Bloodlines.  Bloodlines is an Epic Fantasy, so we knew we were up against it a little for an introductory script. Epic Fantasy was not our ideal choice to go out on the town with, but you do what you need to do to win a competition. We were still feeling confident though because we had two other highly rated scripts that had also done well in contests.

The meeting was going along just fine. We talked about Bloodlines. We pitched him our two other completed scripts. He even asked what we were planning on writing next. So we pitched him a high concept comedy, that has received favorable buzz. He liked the idea, laughed along with us and even started offering suggestions on where the story could go. Then we heard this:

I like your guys ideas, but here is the problem I have as a manager. You have too many different genres. You have an Epic Fantasy, an Action/Thriller, a zombie movie and now you're talking about a comedy. I cannot take an introductory script out on the market and have everyone think, "Wow, those guys write great action" and then follow up with a comedy. It confuses people. I know people don't like to be pigeon holed, but we have to to get you in the door.

The moment he said it, it made perfect sense to us. We always thought we were within brand because our scripts shared the same theme of brooding anti-hero with an impressive amount of action. We thought we were doubling our odds since we were knocking it out of the park in multiple genres. But it doesn't work that way. Someone who could be interested in your action script probably has no interest in a comedy. That is not what they do. So how are you supposed to build an on-going relationship with them? Think of it this way. What would you think if a manager came to you and said "I have a hot new script from the writer of Taken. It's a musical."? That could be the greatest musical ever written (and Robert Mark Kamen is a very talented writer) but how many people are going to jump out of their chairs for that? Now take away Robert Mark Kamen's pull and replace him with your, as of yet, unknown name. That's a tough road you have built for yourself.

I'll leave you with the question we were asked in the meeting. If you were able to write just one thing, one genre, and that would make you happy, which genre would it be? Answer that question, and you have your brand to build on.
]]><![CDATA[If There Were Rules...]]>Sat, 12 Jan 2013 02:24:54 GMThttp://runotentertained.com/1/post/2013/01/if-there-were-rules.htmlby Dave

In my last post, I talked about how there are no hard and fast "rules" to screenwriting if they keep you from writing the best story possible. However, if there were rules, these are some I would suggest. Or, to quote Captain Barbosa "...more of what you would call 'guidelines' than actual rules". So without further ado:
  • Thou shalt not use a song and dance routine to make characters realize they actually like each other: "I hate you and completely resent you coming into my life. Wait, what's that you say? You'll dance to "My Girl" with me? I love you."
  • Thous shalt not Montage: Please, resist the urge at all costs. Unless your movie is based around a character named Rocky and he is training to defend America against the evil communist cheaters, all set to the tune of 80's glam rock.
  • Thou shalt not use magical bullets: A bullet weighs around 3-4 grams. Can we stop believing that it can stop the forward motion of a 220 pound man and then throw him ten feet backwards through the air?
  • Thou shalt not use "The letter home" cliche in war movies: You might as well take that soldier and put him in a red Starfleet uniform. We all know he's going to die.
  • Thou shalt not start a movie with the character waking up: Unless it is absolutely vital to the story to start there, we will assume that your character wakes up and gets ready before going to work.
  • Thou shalt not use the magical computer: Oh, your character said they took some computer programming classes at the Community College? Perfect! Let's hack that government super computer from this remote terminal and then uplink it to the Alien spacecraft so we can override their flight controls and make it crash.
  • Thou shalt not say "No Service" with your cell phone: I think this link pretty much covers why not.
  • Thou shalt not write your hero into a corner where they have to do something really stupid to keep the movie going: "Hey Aragorn, we have this completely invincible ghost army. Should we go finish this thing?". "Nah, that's cool. Tell them to sit this one out while we march off to our our probable death, thereby dooming all of Middle Earth."
  • Though shalt not use stupid villains: "Sir, our super weapon is complete." "Did you put the really big, easy to see, self destruct button on it?" "Yes" "Did you label it so that anyone will know they just have to push that to end our plans?" "Yes". "Excellent, bring the hero in here, tie them up next to the superweapon, use only one rope and leave only one guard. But not until after I am done telling them my plans".
Just my suggestions, take them as you will. Please feel free to bring more up in the comment section.


]]><![CDATA[Rules?]]>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 01:45:15 GMThttp://runotentertained.com/1/post/2013/01/rules.htmlBy Dave

The rules of screenwriting, we've all heard of them.
  • Introduce your main characters in the first 10 pages.
  • Never write a scene longer than 2 1/2 pages
  • Your Inciting Incident should happen around page 15
  • Your Lock-In Point should happen at the end of Act 1, which should be around page 25-30
  • Thou Shall Not Montage! (Actually, that's a pretty good one)
You know what The Rules are good for? They are great for teaching a brand new writer the basics of how to write a screenplay. Basics being the key word. The 2 1/2 page rule teaches you to enter and exit your scenes in an efficient manner. The character introduction rule teaches you not to cheat and just start adding characters to tie up open plot points, etc... But what happens when you know the basics, or at least think you do? Well, here is my list of rules for that:


  • Write a fantastic screenplay
I can already hear protests starting to flare up in your mind, so to prove my point let's take a look at some examples. For this, I am going to use the last three James Bond movies, because each one of them broke a pretty major "rule".

  • Casino Royale: An argument can be made that the Lock-In point does not happen until after the action sequence at the Miami Airport, a good 45 - 50 minutes into the movie. Up until that point he is only on a surveillance mission and could walk away at any point. Only after he finds the plot is he locked into the poker game. But if that is not enough for you, time how long it takes for them to introduce Vesper Lynd, it's not within the first ten minutes.
  • Quantum of Solace: For Bond, the incident that started him down his path was the kidnapping of the mastermind behind Vesper's death. When did that happen? At the end of Casino Royale. So the argument can be made that the inciting incident was on page negative two.
  • Skyfall: Time how long it takes them to introduce the villain. By my watch, his first appearance on screen was one hour and ten minutes in.

Does this mean you can suddenly start writing 195 page scripts with 18 page scenes? I would strongly recommend against that. Then again, the opening scene to Inglorious Basterds spends fifteen minutes inside the house and the rendezvous in the bar is twenty four minutes long. So it can be done (by a select few). For the most part, the rules are good, they keep you honest. But if they prevent you from telling the best possible story, drop them like they're hot.]]><![CDATA[7 Tips to Cut Down Your Screenplay]]>Sat, 22 Dec 2012 20:23:25 GMThttp://runotentertained.com/1/post/2012/12/7-tips-to-cut-down-your-screenplay.htmlby Dave

You've just finished your first draft, congratulations. Take a moment to bask in the glow of victory and completion. All right, and.... the moment's over. You now have two options to choose from. You can decide that the screenplay is perfect and send it out (Don't do it, it's a trap). Or you can accept the fact that your first draft is bloated and some things are going to have to go (choose this one, choose this one). All first drafts are bloated... all of them. But cutting down your baby is easier said than done. It's not like you wrote stuff you didn't like and figured you would just take it out later. If it survived until the end there has to be some reason that you thought it belonged in there, but that doesn't change the fact that something has to give. To think any differently is nothing short of hubris. So... here are some suggestions to help you with the fun process we all love so well, editing and rewriting.
  1. Identify Neutral  Scenes: There are only two types of scenes that should be in movies, Positive and Negative Scenes. A Positive Scene is one that conveys "We're going to make it. We're going to win!" A Negative Scene conveys "Oh my God, we're going to die". If a scene does not convey either of those emotions it is a Neutral Scene. It is a scene that does nothing to propel your story forward to resolution, it just kind of sits out there... talking. All Neutral Scenes have to go. If there is important dialogue, or that joke you just can't lose, it needs to be moved to another scene. If you can't find another scene that it fits in, then it must not have been as important as you thought.
  2. Combine Redundant Scenes: As we push through our first draft, one of our main focuses is to just finish. Get it done and on the page. This makes it really easy to start repeating ourselves without knowing it, especially in the always fun second act. Many times we might justify it by thinking we are driving a point home. Or maybe we are trying to catch another character up to date (don't do this, it's an easy recipe for on the nose dialogue). Go through and identify those redundant areas. Either combine them or figure out which part is going to get cut.
  3. Read Dialogue Out Loud: Sure, it may sound great in your head, but that's because your mind is filling in what you think it should sound like. Read it out loud and things begin to change. You will find that that great speech in your head is a clunky mess out loud. Or maybe that quick comeback really doesn't fit when it's actually spoken. To paraphrase Mark Twain, if you have a choice between a simple word and a big flowery word, always choose the simple word. The same with if you can say something in three words instead of eight. Always choose the shorter.
  4. Entering a Scene: This is a great tip I learned from our Story Specialist, Kay Tuxford, during our Industry Insider Contest mentorship. Go through each of your scenes and cover up the first two or three lines of dialogue. If you can still understand the scene then you entered too early and those covered up lines can go.
  5. Combine Characters: Look through your script. Do you have a lot of characters popping up to say, or do, something for only a scene or two? Try to figure out a way to merge some, or maybe all, of them into one character who weaves through the story. That's for introductions out of the way and a lot less confusion for the reader.
  6. Check Your Backstory: How long does it take you to get to the meat of your story? I would be more than willing to wager you can do it quicker. Remember that the way most script programs auto formats carry over from page to page, a 1/4 page saved in the first ten can translate to a full page by the time it is done. I have actually taken one word out on page two before, and it ended up taking a 1/2 page out of the script.
  7. Show, Don't Tell:  Everyone has heard this in their career, show don't tell. We also all know that subtext is one of the hardest elements for a new writer to master. Editing is actually a surprisingly easy way to learn it. If you can figure out a way to say with a look, or singly charged sentence, what had taken a two or three line back and forth, you have cut down your script and added subtext. Yes, I know that subtext is more complicated than that, but it's a great start.
These are a few suggestions I thought of that have helped me. Hopefully they will help you as well. If you have any tricks of your own, please feel free to share.


]]><![CDATA[Pet Peeves, Embrace Them]]>Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:24:34 GMThttp://runotentertained.com/1/post/2012/12/pet-peeves-embrace-them.htmlby Dave

I'm going to admit something here, I know that I can be difficult sometimes. Some people would call me temperamental. My wife likes "grumpy". I prefer principled. For the sake of this article, let's just say that I have a few pet peeves that tend to get under my skin.  Let me list them, or at least an abridged version:
  • Being sung at: Christmas Carolers and Happy Birthday Restaurant Servers, I'm looking at you.
  • Slow Mergers: The people who go five under in the fast lane and then, once they get the hint, take so long to merge it's like they are straddling the middle line for two minutes.
  • Not waving when someone lets you merge: It's common courtesy people.
  • Not keeping Score in Kid's Sports: It really defeats the purpose of having them play sports... and teaching them math for that matter. Do you really think they don't know it's 15-2?
  • The Oklahoma City Thunder: I am from Seattle. Never mention this team in my presence... ever.
  • Speakerphone cellphone talkers: I assume that there is someone on the other end of the line, you don't have to prove it to me. If you can hold the phone up to your face when you talk, you can take the extra effort to get it to your ear.
  • Corporate Buzzwords: "Leverage", "Buy-In", "Stakeholders", "Out of Pocket", etc... Just run your fingers across a chalkboard and scream "I am overcompensating for my lack of business experience and really have no confidence in what I am doing"
  • Saying Clip instead of Magazine: I admit that this is small, but it is a word you have to get right in your movies. The bottom line is that if a gun is not a revolver it does not have a clip! It has a magazine!
  • Movies about Customs (Now CBP): Still haven't seen one get it right. Helpful hint, it hasn't been called Customs for nearly ten years now.
  • Talking in a movie theater: Seriously?
I'll cut it off there before my wife gets on a roll (she snorted when I first asked her if she knew of any of my pet peeves). Why do I bring this up you ask? It's because these pet peeves are what contribute to help make me who I am. I don't mind them, in fact I am pretty up front about them. It is the same for your characters, they need to have their own eccentricities to make them who they are and set them apart from other characters.

Pet peeves are also an excellent source of subtext for your scenes. Awhile back we were writing a spec script in which the main character, Mike, was a police officer relieved of his duties for what we'll call "anger management issues". In one particular scene he is talking to his friend, Jason, trying to convince him of his progress and ability to work again. The conversation ends with Jason asking "How's it going for you?" and Mike responding "I'm working on it". It's an okay scene, not too on the nose for the dialogue and not too much of a question and answer, but it also lacked sizzle and seemed sterile. So we decided to bring one of Mike's pet peeves to the forefront. In this case it is a Frat Boy talking on his cell phone in the booth behind him. The scene has the same dialogue and tone between Mike and Jason but every time the Frat Boy speaks Mike becomes more visually agitated as he tries not to lash out. Mike finally cannot hold back and turns to tell the Frat Boy that he can either hang up and eat his lunch or eat his phone, Mike doesn't care which. It is at this point that Jason asks Mike how it is all going and Mike says he is working on it. Now the scene had sizzle and it was all because Mike doesn't like people who talk on their cell phone in restaurants. So embrace your pet peeves, or at least make a list, your characters may need them.

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