Save the Cat

Just before we dropped that script in the mail or surrendered it to the messenger, Colby and I would say: “It is what it is.” That phrase means that certain artistic projects, when combined with the need for those projects to make a profit, are penned in by demands that you must meet. If you meet them satisfactorily, if you’ve done your job, if you

The place to stick that question is up front, loud and clear. It is frequently spoken by a minor character to the hero in the form of a question early on, like on page 5,

Another booster rocket character is the manicurist in Legally Blonde.

You must find a life within the confines of “It is what it is.”

And in a good movie, information doesn’t come out in dialogue, it comes out in the verve and forward motion of the story.

The basis of the “Turn, Turn, Turn” rule is: The plot doesn’t just move ahead, it spins and intensifies as it goes. It is the difference between velocity (a constant speed) and acceleration (an increasing speed). And the rule is: It’s not enough for the plot to go forward, it must go forward faster, and with more complexity, to the climax.

Zegna-suited slicksters.

It’s a truism that the easiest people to sell are salesmen.

“Show, Don’t Tell,” another of the most frequent mistakes found in newbie screenplays. You can say more about a relationship in trouble by seeing a husband eye a pretty young thing as he and his wife are walking down the street than by three pages of dialogue about how their marriage counseling sessions are going. Movies are stories told in picture