Napoleon stands at his tent, generals at his side.īehind him, the Battle of Waterloo rages. There's an old screenwriting joke that illustrates the failure of too little detail in the narrative of a script. In walks CECILIA, 20s or 30s, blonde hair, blue eyes, green eyeshadow, purple fingernails, five foot four with a pronounced limp in her right knee from a bad spill she took jumping out of a swing in her backyard when she was seven. It would be fair to discourage you from writing: In walks CECILIA, early thirties, a waif with a switchblade soul.

When you introduce a character, you might include a bit about age or a certain quality. THE SODA MACHINE, DOWN THE HALL FROM THE BROOM CLOSET, THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE HIGGENBOTTOM BUILDING - JUST BEFORE DUSK You don't get a long string of location directions, like: Wrong format slug lines (scene descriptions).Here is a summary of those disasters waiting to happen, regardless of the type of film. There are simple mistakes that will say to potential investors, agents, producers, distributors, directors and others that you are not quite ready to enter the world of feature filmmaking. As a young screenwriter hoping to open doors with a script or your first film based on that script, you can metaphorically shoot yourself in the foot. Having been the director of development for TV/film director Jonathan Kaplan ( Unlawful Entry, The Accused, NBC's E.R.), I had the unique and special opportunity to read screenplays, as well as fiction and non-fiction books and articles, to see if there was anything which might interest him as a directorial assignment.Īnyway, it's funny (funny-pathetic, not funny-funny) how you can notice certain simple, common failures after reading one or two thousand screenplays.Īpplicable to drama or comedy, these obvious faults aren't any laughing matter.

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