Book Review: THE STARTER SCREENPLAY by Adam Levenberg

I know what you're thinking already: Another screenwriting book!?   I've got a shelf full already.  Me, too.  

But here comes a new book unique from all the others currently on the market: THE STARTER SCREENPLAY by Adam Levenberg. 

Hollywood executive and consultant Adam Levenberg has a unique book out with great information.  THE STARTER SCREENPLAY is told from the POV of a creative exec that may be buying your material.  How to avoid the big, "No."

The value of this book comes from Adam's experience as a Hollywood executive who spent thousands of hours speaking with unrepresented screenwriters.   What do you need to learn to have a shot at success.   It's in the book!

An alternate title might be, WHAT SCREENPLAY NOT TO WRITE.  This is the first book to specifically identify types of movies that are difficult for new screenwriters to deliver.  For example, he suggests avoiding an ensemble drama like CRASH.  Why?  Because ensemble movies are exponentially harder to write than a "single hero" movie.

The chapter on "What Not To Write" is the most expansive resource out there on how the majority of amateur screenwriters are DOA at the concept level.  They start out on the wrong foot and never recover.  This wastes months, if not years, and prevents most amateurs from breaking into the pro ranks.

Adam is a huge fan of Blake Snyder's SAVE THE CAT and has created a companion piece from the executive's perspective.  New screenwriters often get hung up on describing their ideas as "this meets that."  Adam lays out exactly how to use existing movies as templates while incorporating your own creativity and ideas to create something original.  He calls this adding value to your story.

The book is a fast, easy read that delivers essential information on virtually every single page.  Overall, THE STARTER SCREENPLAY is groundbreaking because it delivers information you can't find in other screenwriting books.  If you feel you have advanced as a writer but are hitting a career brick wall, give this one a read.

Should You Get a MFA in Screenwriting?

(My guest blogger today is award-winning writer Steven Arvanites.  I met Steven at the Atlanta Screenwriting Competition workshop -- we both were winners last year.  Nice guy and a unique talent.)


If you have any aspirations to teach it's definitely of enormous benefit.  Also, it marks you as someone who is dedicated and serious about the craft.  Additionally, it opens professional doors through your teachers and mentors.  This is especially true for screenwriting programs at UCLA and USC, and Hollins too.  However, you can win an Academy award with only a G.E.D. high school diploma.  It's all about your passion and dedication to the screenwriting and the wacky business.  But if you are looking for a higher degree I definitely recommend Hollins.  It has much to offer.

In conclusion, I grew as a writer from by teaching, learning from my students and the plethora of guest speakers.  For you are constantly exposed to ideas, structure, dialogue and character development it eventually seeps into your own writing.  That was true for me. 

In the summer of 2009 I was invited by the Hollins Universityscreenwriting summer program director, Dr. Klaus Phillips, to teach two workshops.  My topics were: Reaching Your Creative Goals and How to Pitch.  Both were successful and the students enjoyed learning how to pitch their scripts.  Afterwards, Klaus took me to lunch and offered me a teaching job for the following summer's screenwriting program.  I immediately accepted.  This would be a great opportunity to expand myteaching credentials and to spend the summer on the bucolic campus of Hollins University in Roanoke Virginia.

After two delayed flights on United Airlines -- The Greyhound Bus of The Sky -- Klaus picked me up from the airport.   Before checking into my housing he took me to lunch.  Has anyone ever say no to free food?  In reflection, I think Hollins works so well because his leadership.  He's not only generous and magnanimous, but he knows exactly how to make students and faculty feel at home, and at ease to do their best work.  In other words, a Mensch!

I wandered the sprawling Hollins campus with its antebellum buildings coupled with their state-of-the-art Visual Arts Center and the magnificent $14 million Robinson Library. (It would become my "office" for the summer.) My housing was located across the Highway, but centrally air-conditioned, and had a brand-new TV/DVD player thanks to Klaus.

That evening I met the other members of the faculty.  It was serendipitous for we got along extremely well.  The other faculty was: Tim Albough, Christa Maeker, Joe Gilford, Stephen Prince and Seth M. Donsky (who will be teaching a workshop for NYC screenwriter in October).  All talented teachers; and great fun too!!

My class was intimate, only five students.  I had three women and two men.  The requirement for my advanced class was the first-year basic screenwriting course. Each student had their own unique voice and great stories to tell.  However, we got off to a slow start due to Logline Trauma.  It is amazing how difficult one sentence can be to create.  But after some rewrites the students quickly caught on and we flew for the rest of the term.   In the very first class, I laid down my Rules of Critiquing. In previous teaching situations writer comments were dismissive and non-constructive.   I determined it was not going to happen again. This class needed to be a "safe place" where students can make mistakes and not only learn from them, but flourish.  The first round of criticism must be entirely complementary.

What did you like about the writing?
What did you like about the characters?
Are there particular moments in the writing that delighted you?

Then we did our second round of critiquing -- the criticism. Criticism is not a dirty word.   It is vital to receive criticism in order to make you a better screenwriter.  Surprisingly, my class had a difficult time in praising and an easy time criticizing. But soon all balanced out and everyone's script was better for it.

Each student was required to write seven pages a week.  Next a short movie clip demonstrating "High-Concept". E.g. - Liar, Liar -- the lawyer's son makes a wish that his father must tell the truth for 24 hours.   Please click on my VLOG for an expanded definition.

Also, I was a worksheet monster.  Each session had at least one in-class worksheet and several informational take-home worksheets.  The three hours usually flew by and so did six weeks.

However, teaching only occupied a minority of my time.  With the help of my wonderful and talented friend Hillary Homzie (a professor on the children's literature side) I accepted a personal challenge and wrote a script in two weeks entitled, Mafia In A Dress. I needed new material for the CineStory Writers Retreat (co-sponsored by the Academy Awards) in September.  Location: Idyllwild, California.

I had written a High-Concept script, Mafia In A Dress, two years ago.  The concept was great.  My execution stank.  Not wanting to abandon such a good idea, I rewrote 97% of the original screenplay.  I trudged to the library every day (with the heat hovering at 100° it was a no-brainer) and to my favorite computer terminal and turned out the pages. It was the ultimate Butt In Chair Time.  In two weeks I was finished.  I'm ecstatic at the finished script, and eagerly anticipate my CineStory mentor's critique.

Another benefit of the Hollins M.F.A. screenwriting program are the informative workshops offered.  My lecture was: How To Make A Film for under $10,000 and Win At Two Film Festivals.  I'm officially in love with PowerPoint!

Among the other lecture guests was Scott Kosar the screenwriter of:  The Machinist, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Crazies. What a fascinating story on how, The Machinist got made via the connections he fostered through his UCLA masters degree.  Additionally, screenwriting guru Hal Ackerman spoke about his famous book and his newly published novel; and, finally, Peter Riegert of Animal House fame.  The cumulative experience was a 24/7 screenwriting paradise!

Remember, keep writing!

there is an accompanying VLOG @:

http://www.youtube.com/user/NYCscreenwriter

NYCscreenwriter.org

Ten Scripts and Ten Years

A pro writer told me he was at a conference and one of the panelists (working screenwriter) was asked if he had any advice to new writers.   "Quit."  After the laugh from the crowd subsided the writer explained, "It's damn hard work.  The odds are against you.  Spend time with your friends and family.  Exercise.  Do anything else if you can."

The average pro takes ten scripts and ten years to break into screenwriting. 

Saw Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot speak at the Nashville Conference (great event) in '09. They gave themselves ten years to break in. Wrote ten scripts they never showed to anyone before they had one they felt was ready. They broke in the business in five years -- well ahead of schedule -- and went on to write Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean. 



10,000 hours. 

The excellent book THE OUTLIERS by Malcolm Gladwell has a chapter discussing the early years of The Beatles.  Grinding it out hour after hour in seedy Hamburg clubs is where the developed into pros. Studies show it takes ten thousand hours to master something -- anything. 



So if you write 10-20 hours a week (assuming you have a day gig) that's ten years of consistent effort to hot those 10,000 hours. 

If you can go at it fulltime -- average working year is 2,000 hours -- you can get there in five years. 

Are you writing this many hours? 

If someone asks you, "How can I become a screenwriter?"... Now you know what to tell them. 



Ten years.  Ten scripts.  Ten thousand hours.  Or you could just tell them to quit...

Ten Tips to A Better Screenplay

 (Guest Blogger/Consultant Julia Bergeron provides these tips.  Good advice!)

1.     Make your protagonist active.  So easy to say, so important to do.  Passive protagonists who don’t have a goal and/or don’t pursue their goal are the downfall of potentially great dramas.  Don’t let that be the downfall of your script.  Let your hero act.

2.     Show don’t tell.  I know, I know. You’ve heard that before and plenty of times.  That’s because it’s so important.  Film is visual therefore creating strong images is a key to writing a solid screenplay.  Rather than use exposition to have a character tell us, “Cora is the world’s best sharpshooter,” show a scene where Cora makes an extraordinary shot.  Show.  Don’t tell.

3.     Write in the active present tense.  It’s, “Jericho kicks the door in.” and not “Jericho is kicking in the door.”  Screenplays unfold as we read them and the active present tense reinforces that impression.

4.     Spell check.  Format check.  Script writing software makes it easy to do it.  The other guy will.  You should too.

5.     Read your script out loud. There is no better way to develop an ear for on the nose dialogue than to hear your script out loud.   So, read it aloud.  Better yet have friends read it out loud while you sit silently and listen.  Oh, you’ll want to jump in, to correct them, to explain.  Don’t.  Don’t correct them, don’t interrupt, don’t defend your script.  Just listen to it.  If your readers make mistakes, the readers you submit your script to just might make the same errors.  Fix the errors; don’t blame “bad” readers.  In fact, thank them.  They are allowing you to hear your script’s weaknesses.  A decent actor can make bad dialogue sound reasonable.  But you aren’t writing your spec script for a “decent” actor, are you?  I’m writing mine for Penelope Cruz! And we are all writing for the reader. 

6.     Between the truth and the legend, tell the legend.  This means don’t overwhelm the story with factual, but boring, details.  Alfred Hitchcock said, “Drama is life with all the boring parts cut out of it.” Cut out the boring bits.  While it might be true that it takes a half hour to saddle up a horse, adjust the stirrups, put the bit in, etc., the fact is you are not writing a horse-care manual.  You are writing a screenplay. When it comes to it, just have the cowboy hop on the horse and go.

7.     No chitchat.  Films are expensive to make. The average cost to make a studio film in 2006 was $65 million (it’s more now) plus marketing.  That’s easily $500,000 per page.  It’s unlikely that a producer is going to pay that much money for “Hi, Bob, nice to meet you.”  And when it’s an independent film on a tight budget, there is even less money to spend on chitchat.  So eliminate it.  Enter as late as possible; leave as early as possible for each scene.  Words are money.  Make them count.

8.     Steer clear of  “talking heads” scenes.  What are those?  That’s when two characters sit around and talk.  Maybe they eat or drink but basically they aren’t doing much.  Usually they are just telling all about themselves.  You’ll often find these in the first draft of a “date scene.”  Remember: telling = dull.  Dull = no sale.  However… If you must include a “talking heads” scene, make it active.   The characters can be doing something totally unrelated to what they are talking about. And you can use that activity to reveal completely new and interesting information. For example, if it’s a date scene, rather than have the date happen in a restaurant, figure out a hobby or an interest that your character has.  Maybe tennis.  Or making sushi.  Or skeet shooting.  Every scene is another opportunity to create something visually interesting. Use every opportunity to put something visual on the page.

9.     Grab us emotionally.  In important moments, slow down and let the reader see and feel how those moments or events affect your character.  For example, if two characters kiss for the first time, don’t have them kiss and then immediately race on to the next plot point.  Show the reader how the characters feel about that experience. We want to know what happens, but we also want to how the characters feel about what happens.   Show us what they feel.

10. Last tip.  Have fun!  Love your characters.  Love the story that you’re telling. If you love it, the chances are much higher other people will too.  And if they don’t, well, you had fun writing it.  And now, if you’ll excuse me, I am off for some “fun” writing of my own!

To contact Julia email her:  thescriptconsultant@gmail.com

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