If you want to have a career as a screenwriter, there are two things you need to accomplish: You need to develop your voice, and you need to write a great script.
I know this sounds trite, but that’s really it. the rest will take care of itself. A great script will open the doors to networking, toward representation, and sustained success.
One writer I have been following since his debut on the Black List in 2010 is Brian Duffield. His spec scripts have a ton of voice, and his writing really pops off the page. When I was an assistant, I loved covering them because Brian always did something outside the box with them.
No, I’m not just talking about the story, but also the style of the page. He bolds words, creates images, and does things to make you really feel the story he’s telling.
Brian’s latest venture is a movie he also directed called No One Will Save You, and it’s on Hulu. It’s a really tense alien invasion movie delivered through the eyes of a woman with a secret past who’s trying to survive.
NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU is fun, fun, FUN. It is also smart and with great moments, staged in a classic, solid way. It avoids the pitfalls and maximizes its resources. I couldn’t think of a more perfect movie for your weekend. Fulfills all the promise of SPONTANEOUS.— Guillermo del Toro (@Guillermo del Toro)
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The movie went viral this weekend because Guillermo del Toro tweeted that he loved it. And because someone posted a page of the script on Reddit, which caused the hot takes to roll in.
Check out the page below.
The immediate reaction to the page was a world divided, with some people saying these kinds of pages distract or bump them, and others loving the idea that the script can engage with you in such an interesting and creative way.
While I have never tried anything like that before, I think it’s pretty awesome.
Producers read hundreds, if not thousands of screenplays a year. Finding a way to stand out and also connect is not easy.
While I would caution amateurs against overloading their documents with pages like this, I feel like this is a really exciting way to look at a story. If I was still an assistant, I would have thought this was pretty cool. But if the script I had been reading sucked, I would have hated it.
Yes, there are no “rules” when it comes to screenwriting. Well, maybe one rule: tell me a great story!
Screenplays are blueprints for movies, and whatever you can do to help the executives reading it see that, the better. The real moral of this page is that if a script is great, you can get away with doing anything.
Let me know what you think in the comments≥
Author: Jason Hellerman
This article comes from No Film School and can be read on the original site.
