by Tom | Feb 9, 2024 | Academy, News, Online sessions and screenwriting classes, Screenwriting Courses, WriteMovies Academy, WriteMovies News
Kick-start your next screenwriting journey with Part 1 of a 6-phase online course from WriteMovies Academy.
UPDATE – This course is now available on VOD, for more information please click here
Join us for the first of many online courses from WriteMovies Academy where you’ll learn to master professional screenwriting and pitching! In this online workshop, we’ll dive into the art of crafting compelling concepts for film and television. If you’re looking to master your screenwriting ability, this event is perfect for you. Click here to purchase tickets.
Event Details:
- Date: February 29th 2024
- Time: 11am PST, 2pm EST, 7pm GMT
- Location: Online via Zoom
- Cost: $30 per session or $150 for the full course.
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by John | Jun 7, 2021 | WriteMovies Academy
Thanks for your support for our contests, this year and always! Now our Spring Contest is closed, we’re focusing the rest of 2021 on adding new value for our entrants, winners and industry colleagues. That begins with a dynamic new series of online events, designed to help YOU stand out to the industry.
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by John | Jun 14, 2019 | Writing Insights
The fundamental thing that a script should do is tell a great story. Hopefully, that’s not a contentious point – we go to the movies or turn on the TV because we want to be entertained! Whether it’s an adventure, an emotional drama, or a horror, the story is what keeps people hooked. With that in mind, it’s easy to focus on the things that are always visible: plot points, characters, and dialogue.
But it’s important not to forget that the very best stories have layers. Underneath the surface, they have something more to say about life. If you ignore this second layer – if you ignore themes, and forget to include one (or more!) in your script, you’ll be doing yourself a disservice. They might not be visible or obvious, but they’re extremely important.
At the end of the day, it’s the theme that will most touch an audience and make them remember your film long after they’ve seen it. Anyone can string gunfights, explosions, arguments, and witty dialogue together, but if you can say something unique and profound that no-one else can say, it’ll really make you stand out.
It’s important to note that the theme is not the same as the concept of your script. Your concept or premise is the idea that drives your story; your theme is the message that it is trying to convey through that idea.
So for example, in David Lean’s classic film THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, the concept is that a rule-obsessed British colonel helps his Japanese captors to build a railway bridge, while being unaware of an Allied plan to blow it up. The themes, however, revolve around the absurdity of the idea that there can be rules in warfare and that honor can exist in such a situation.
These themes are never explicitly stated, but they’re clear from very early on, as soon as Colonel Nicholson (Alex Guinness) takes out his copy of the Geneva Conventions and attempts to show it to the uncaring commandant Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) to protest that his officers can’t be put to work because it would be in breach of law. And later on, Nicholson even forbids his men from trying to escape the POW camp because, having been ordered to surrender, escaping would be in breach of their orders!
This theme – of the absurdity of the rules of war – is difficult to express in a single, memorable sentence. It’s always there, though, in every scene of THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI. It leads us through the story from start to finish.
Knowing what your theme is before you start writing (or at the very least, during writing) is immensely helpful in this regard. If you don’t know what message you want to express, your story can end up wandering all over the place because it doesn’t have any guidance; a strong theme, on the other hand, can help to keep it on track.
So there are a lot of good reasons to make sure your screenplay’s themes are clear. It will help audiences to remember your work, making you stand out as a writer with something unique to say, and keep your story on track.
It will also help to keep us script analysts engaged. Make us use our brains rather than just dealing with things on a shallow level, and we’ll keep reading – and if you can get people to keep reading your script, page after page, then unsurprisingly you’ll achieve success in this industry!
Looking for more help on writing your script? Click here to take a look at more of our Writing Insights articles!
by John | Apr 26, 2019 | Writing Insights
In our latest Writing Insights article, Script Analyst Edward Smith shares his insights on the things you should think about before you start writing. Here’s our checklist before you start putting your ideas down on paper…
Suddenly it hits you – a new idea for a script! There’s nothing more exciting than this moment. Unable to contain yourself, you rush to your computer (or typewriter, if you prefer to do things the old-fashioned way) and start to type –
Wait a minute!
Yes, you heard us – wait. It can be a hard thing to do when all you want to do is sit down and write, but planning things out in advance, and making sure that you’ve got everything you need, can save you a lot of time further down the line. There’s nothing more frustrating than reaching the end and realizing you made a mistake right at the beginning – and it’s going to mess everything up.
So, here’s our checklist for when you’re writing a new script. Get things right before you start writing, and your job will become a whole lot easier…
- Is this concept really as unique as you think it is? Sometimes we’re inspired a bit too much by the stories we love the most. There’s nothing wrong with going with a proven formula, but make sure your work has a unique selling point too.
- Don’t just think about how you’re going to start your script – think about how you’re going to finish it as well! If you don’t know where the story ends, it’s easy to run into trouble by taking a wrong turn in the story before you even realize it. Figure out your destination before you take the first step to make sure you head off in the right direction.
- What’s the theme of your story? We read a lot of scripts that tell a strong story and are underpinned by great ideas, but without a theme they lack purpose. Don’t just thrill us; make us think as well. Give your script focus by giving it a theme!
- Make sure you know your characters. Their actions should dictate where the story goes, rather than the story dictating their actions; it’s frustrating when characters behave unnaturally just to move the plot forward. Head off this problem by building up a detailed knowledge of them before you start.
- Ultimately, the purpose of a screenplay is to be turned into a film – and that means producers need to see it as a sound investment. Take time to think about the commercial potential of your project – the audience who will go to see it and the costs involved in making it. If it doesn’t look like it’ll make a profit, it might be worth making some changes.
Once you’ve thought all this through, it’s time to start writing. But you know what? For the all the careful thought you’ve put in, there’s one other thing you shouldn’t forget…
Let the story take you where it needs to go! You’ll discover new and exciting ideas as you write, and you shouldn’t feel that you can’t explore them just because you’ve already planned everything out.
Be flexible with your writing. Be playful. Experiment.
Now get writing!
Found this useful? For more Writing Insights from WriteMovies, click here to see our full archive of articles!
by WriteMovies | Feb 8, 2019 | Highlights, Ian Kennedy, Writing Insights
Since it’s their results week too as we publish this, here’s a pic of Ian Kennedy, our Director of Worldwide Development, at BAFTA for a recent meeting with our founder Alex Ross!
Announcing results is the tough bit… especially at the Quarter-Final stage, where we have the most decisions to make, and the most people’s to disappoint about their writing submissions. At WriteMovies we make it our job to constantly open a door for writers and push their work to the next level, and take the ones that are ready into the international industry – but everyone is starting from a different place and whatever level a writer reaches they always have further steps to take to succeed and sustain themselves in the industry. To help you understand our logic and tips for how to make your work stand out to us, our Director Ian likes to write articles about “What Your Writing Has Been Telling Us” over this time. (more…)
by John | Sep 6, 2018 | Academy, Updates
We’re happy to announce here that our Phase 1 content is revealed!
This is the phase in which you discover the originality and depth that will make you stand out as you develop the main concept and themes for your script.
Just like creating anything of worth, a strong foundation is what will make your screenplay stand out from the rest of the crowd. If you really want to find your voice as a writer and come up with an amazing premise, then this is the right Phase of WriteMovies Academy for you.
Our industry experts, Mini-Masterclasses, and other tools and resources will help you develop your own style and give you new insights into your ideas.
Learn to identify yourself and your goals, find out what producers really want from writers, and figure out the target demographics of your project – who your script is actually for. We’ll keep adding more in-depth tools, advice, Mini-Masterclasses, and more, so keep watching this space!
Some of the feedback for Phase 1 we’ve had from users so far:
- “Nice bite sized, easily DIGESTIBLE, Nicely PACED”
- “I have some good tools for solving some sticking points in a couple of my exciting projects”
- “A very informative session”
Take a look at the main page for WriteMovies Academy – with Phases ranging from Project Selection to Production, The Wrap, and the Long Game, there’s something to be gained no matter what stage of your writing journey you’re at!
