Are you trying to sell a script? Do you want to make the Black List? Then today’s article is for you! I’ll be going through each and every major genre and break down how likely it is to sell a script or make the Black List in that genre. This is not meant as an end-all be-all determination for what you should write. There is no 100% sure-fire formula for writing a script. But you do want to load the odds up in your favor. All genres will be rated on a scale of 1-10 in the two categories, 10 being the highest and 1 being the lowest. Spec sales are hard to come by so don’t expect any 9s or 10s in that category. But you can still sell a spec in the right genre. Let’s take a look…
Genre: Super-Hero
Script Sale: 1 out of 10
Black List: 1 out of 10
Comps: Black Panther, The Dark Knight, Avengers: Infinity War
Breakdown: There’s no point writing in this genre unless you’re adapting from something else that was successful in another medium. I suppose if you did an action-comedy type thing with it, like Will Smith’s “Hancock,” that could work. But generally speaking, the super-hero genre is strictly an IP zone. Screenwriters should steer clear of it at all costs.
Genre: Contained Thriller (Horror)
Script Sale: 8 out of 10
Black List: 5 out of 10
Comps: 10 Cloverfield Lane, Get Out, Saw
Breakdown: Welcome, my friends, to the most lucrative genre for spec screenwriters and filmmakers. Contained horror is cheap to produce. Horror audiences don’t require much from the genre other than to be scared. You’re not going to get a million dollar paycheck writing in this genre. But your chances of selling one of these is better than in any other genre on this list.
Genre: Contained Thriller (Sci-Fi)
Script Sale: 7 out of 10
Black List: 3 out of 10
Comps: Alien, Ex-Machina, Primer
Breakdown: These movies don’t do as well at the box office as horror, which is why their numbers are lower. They’re also more expensive to make than contained horror. Your best bet is probably to mix the two, like they did with the original Alien.
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Script Sale: 3 out of 10
Black List: 4 out of 10
Comps: How to be Single, Love Simon
Breakdown: This is how bad the romantic comedy has gotten. One of the biggest romantic comedies of 2016, “Why Him,” didn’t even focus on the romantic relationship. It focused on the hero and the romantic interest’s father. With that said, I think I saw a romantic comedy on last year’s Black List for the first time in a long time (Daddio?). So maybe there’s hope. Here’s my take on the romantic comedy. Someone needs to do with the rom-com what Christopher Nolan did with the super-hero movie when he made The Dark Knight. Cut out all this goofy wish- fulfillment nonsense and make it more realistic.
Genre: Action-Comedy
Script Sale: 7 out of 10
Black List: 2 out of 10
Comps: The Spy Who Dumped Me, Central Intelligence
Breakdown: I consider the Action-Comedy to be a hidden gem for spec sales. Hollywood has always loved making these movies. Unlike the straight comedy, which has fallen in recent years because it doesn’t travel well, any sort of action plays well to international audiences. So Hollywood has shifted their priorities over to this genre from the comedy, despite the fact that they cost more to make.
Genre: Western
Script Sale: 5 out of 10
Black List: 7 out of 10
Comps: Bone Tomahawk, Hostiles, The Homesman
Breakdown: This is a tricky genre. At first glance, it seems antiquated. Yet they continue to make 3-4 Westerns a year. I think the reason for this is that directors love to shoot them and actors love to be in them. There’s something inexorably cool about playing a gunslinger or getting that classic wide shot of the old country. You just can’t go crazy when you write these. Nobody’s making big budget Westerns anymore. The ideal setup would be something like “High Noon” where everything is localized (aka “cheap”).
Genre: Period (War)
Script Sale: 6 out of 10
Black List: 7 out of 10
Comps: Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, Dunkirk, Hacksaw Ridge
Breakdown: When I say “Period War,” I mean any war dating back 2000 years. From the 300 Spartans to the Iraq War. War always sells. There’s something visceral about it that speaks to audiences on multiple levels. But these days, your war film MUST BE BASED ON A TRUE STORY. Otherwise don’t bother. The only reason this gets a 6 on the “sale” rating instead of a “7” is because these movies are expensive to make. So studios have to think a little harder before pulling the trigger.
Genre: Zombie
Script Sale: 5 out of 10
Black List: 3 out of 10
Comps: Train to Busan, Maggie, 28 Days Later
Breakdown: Five years ago, the zombie genre would’ve been a good 2-3 points higher. But the genre is currently in an ice age. Luckily, ice ages only last five years in Hollywood, which means it’s only a matter of time before the zombie pic comes back to life! You like that? “Back to life?” Ah, I kill myself. Then I re-animate myself. Just remember to always ALWAYS try to reinvent this genre. If your zombie script is anything like what I’ve seen in the past, I’m throwing it in the trash. And so is every other reader in Hollywood.
Genre: Romance
Script Sale: 3 out of 10
Black List: 5 out of 10
Comps: Call Me By Your Name, The Notebook, Dear John
Breakdown: This is the least glorious of the genres. Nobody remembers who wrote or directed these movies. But there’s definitely a market for them. Unfortunately, for right now, that market is dominated by Nicholas Sparks, and, to a lesser extent, John Green. It’s not a spec-friendly genre, which means you should probably steer clear of it. Self-publish a novel instead.
Genre: Comedy
Script Sale: 5 out of 10
Black List: 3 out of 10
Comps: Father Figures, Daddy’s Home, Bad Moms
Breakdown: Like I said above, if you’re going to write a comedy, I’d suggest writing an action-comedy. But you can still sell a straight comedy. Right now, the trend for a sale has three branches. 1) Make it female-centric. 2) Go with an age old situation that has built-in conflict (a step-father being forced to co-parent with the real father). Or 3) Pick whatever the latest trendy tech thing is and write about that (those two Uber comedy spec sales from a couple of years ago are an example). The nice thing about this genre is that the big name comedy actors have cut their fees, so comedies can be made for cheap. That means there are still sales to be had!
Genre: Biopic
Script Sale: 8 out of 10
Black List: 10 out of 10
Comps: The Founder, Catch Me If You Can, The Imitation Game
Breakdown: This genre is right up there with Contained Horror as the most lucrative on the list. The reason being that this is the last outlet where movie stars can still be movie stars, as opposed to cogs in a machine. Also, as long as you can spell, your biopic will make The Black List.
Genre: Period
Script Sale: 1 out of 10
Black List: 5 out of 10
Comps: The Other Boleyn Girl, Victoria and Abdul, Love in the Time of Cholera, Tulip Fever, The Danish Girl
Breakdown: If you’re writing a period piece that isn’t associated with war, do so at your own risk. These movies make less than no money. Even the ones that get a boost from Oscar noms rarely do well. On the plus side, these movies do okay in the UK, on the Black List, and in the Nicholl Competition. So if you love these stories, there are outlets for you. But these are some of the toughest pitches in the business. You’ll get 1/1000 of the read requests than had you written a contained horror film. If I was a producer and someone pitched me a story set in the 17th century where an artist and his lover invested in the tulip business, I might just shoot myself right there.
Genre: Sci-Fi Fantasy
Script Sale: 0 out of 10
Black List: 1 out of 10
Comps: Star Wars, Jupiter Ascending, Avatar
Breakdown: This genre is a death-trap. It’s the most expensive genre to produce. The sprawling nature of these stories and their enormous character counts are the exact opposite of what screenplays do well. Don’t bother defending why the sci-fi fantasy script you’re working on is different. This is the one genre I can say, without knowing anything about your script, that if you’re working on one, STOP. You’re wasting your time.
Genre: Horror
Script Sale: 7 out of 10
Black List: 4 out of 10
Comps: It, The Conjuring
Breakdown: With the emergence of “It,” the straight horror film (not contained) is harder to gauge. Hollywood hates spending money on horror since the formula has proven for so long that you don’t need to. But 700 million worldwide is a quick way to change opinions. We also have to remember that these bigger budget horror flicks are based on IP. With that said, I think a good horror script, regardless of whether it’s contained or not, can sell. I also think big-budget horror is about to blow up. So better get on the trend early than late.
Genre: Action
Script Sale: 7 out of 10
Black List: 6 out of 10
Comps: John Wick, The Fast and the Furious, The Bourne Identity, Taken, Die Hard
Breakdown: Straight action plays EVERYWHERE. Everywhere, guys. Nobody needs subtitles for it. So studios are desperate to find that next great action property. They usually get it from books (fifth-tier versions of James Bond). But this is one of the few genres still open for spec screenwriters to create something on their own. They’re expensive to produce, so a sale isn’t guaranteed. But I don’t see this genre dying out… well… ever.
Genre: Drama
Script Sale: 3 out of 10
Black List: 7 out of 10
Comps: Three Billboards, Suburbicon, Room
Breakdown: This is a unique category because on the surface, you don’t want to mess with it. The genre requires more skill to pull off than any other genre. You have to rely strictly on great storytelling and strong character development, which most writers don’t master for a decade or more. A bad drama script is a script reader’s nightmare. Wrought with melodrama and cliched story beats, it’s the reading equivalent of Hell. With that said, these movies win studios Oscars. So studios are always going to be intrigued by them. It’s for this reason that if you write a drama, your aim should be to make The Black List and get the film made as opposed to secure that big flashy script sale.
Genre: Sci-Fi
Script Sale: 5 out of 10
Black List: 3 out of 10
Comps: The Matrix, Source Code, The Martian, Inception, Ready Player One
Breakdown: Straight sci-fi is fun but it’s such an expensive genre and it’s competing directly with such a juggernaut of a genre (Super-Hero) that it’s hard to get a studio to bite on non-IP material. The Black List doesn’t really like them either. If you like sci-fi, I’d write something in the time-travel or “time-travel adjacent” genre (like Source Code), where you can create a big premise for a smaller price tag.
Genre: Faith-Based
Script Sale: 6.5 out of 10
Black List: Negative 8 out of 10
Comps: Heaven is For Real, The Shack, I Can Only Imagine
Breakdown: I don’t know much about this genre. But I do know the faith-based market is coming of age. And if you’re a screenwriter looking to make a living, there’s no reason you shouldn’t take advantage of that. It seems like a lot of these movies are based on books, but as long as you convey a positive message in your script about doing the right thing, and wrap it inside a good idea, there’s no reason to think you can’t sell your screenplay. Also, if a writer can figure out how to subvert the overtly melodramatic tendencies of these scripts so that they can cross over, they’ll become extremely wealthy. Unfortunately, the Black List’s “No Conservatives Allowed” policy means you’ll have to wave goodbye to any Black List aspirations.
Genre: Fantasy
Script Sale: 1 out of 10
Black List: 5 out of 10
Comps: The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, The BFG
Breakdown: The only reason this genre isn’t at zero is that it’s a little more accessible than sci-fi fantasy. Still, this genre is built exclusively off of IP, usually books. I occasionally see fantasy scripts hit the Black List (A Monster Calls) but if you have a great fantasy idea, it’s highly advisable that you write a novel instead of a screenplay.
Genre: Action-Adventure
Script Sale: 4.5 out of 10
Black List: 2 out of 10
Comps: Indiana Jones, Jurassic World, Pirates of the Caribbean
Breakdown: This is a weird genre because it SHOULD be a great outlet for spec screenwriters. It seems to be open for new ideas. And the family-friendly aspect of the genre means that they’ll play to anybody. That’s the main reason a movie as average as Jurassic World can make 1.6 billion dollars. I suppose that when movies in a genre start making that much money, studios are more likely to look for previous success in other mediums than buy a spec. Still, something tells me that a writer who comes up with the next Indiana Jones could quickly find themselves on the front page of the trades.
Genre: Dark Comedy
Script Sale: 2 out of 10
Black List: 8 out of 10
Comps: Ingrid Goes West, Me Earl and The Dying Girl, Little Miss Sunshine, Fargo
Breakdown: There’s a lot of crossover with Drama here. Dark Comedy is a really tough genre to master. But, when done well, it could put you in the Oscar race. So it can’t be dismissed completely. With that said, these movies rarely make money. Even the good ones. There’s one every five years that becomes a mega-hit but other than that, there are hundreds of dark comedies that are never seen or heard from again. The good news is, the Black List looooooves dark comedies. It’s probably their favorite genre behind biopics. And if your script makes the list, there’s a 50/50 chance it’ll get made into a movie.
Genre: Straight Thriller
Script Sale: 6 out of 10
Black List: 3 out of 10
Comps: Gone Girl, Buried, The Girl on the Train, The Circle, The Gift
Breakdown: There’s some natural crossover between Thrillers and Action-Thrillers. So to distinguish the two, I see straight Thrillers as more real-world based and suspense-driven. In the past we may have called them Hithcockian Thrillers. These movies aren’t as lucrative as horror, but there’s a market for them for sure. If you’re going to write a thriller, try to have a really clever concept and one great twist. Those two things make these reads a lot more memorable, which increases the chance of a sale exponentially.
Genre: Family
Script Sale: 5 out of 10
Black List: 1 out of 10
Comps: Night at the Museum, Goosebumps, The Goonies
Breakdown: The reason this gets a slight nod on the script sale chart over the more mature Action-Adventure is because I know that Hollywood has been spending 25 years now looking for the next Goonies. Which means they’re willing to buy good family scripts. And let’s not forget that Night at the Museum was a spec sale as well. And that spawned a huge franchise.
Genre: Musicals
Script Sale: 2 out of 10
Black List: 6 out of 10
Comps: La La Land, The Greatest Showman, A Star is Born
Breakdown: The simple fact is that these movies tend to be either director driven (La La Land) or studio driven (The Greatest Showman). They rarely, if ever, are driven by a screenwriter. And the reason for that is simple: it’s hard to imagine songs on a page. With that said, the few times I’ve seen this work are when a writer tries something really zany. Like a zombie musical. Or a post-apocalyptic musical. So it can be done. It’s just rare.
There you have it. Now get to arguing in the comments!
Carson does feature screenplay consultations, TV Pilot Consultations, and logline consultations. Logline consultations go for $25 a piece or 5 for $75. You get a 1-10 rating, a 200-word evaluation, and a rewrite of the logline. I highly recommend not writing a script unless it gets a 7 or above. All logline consultations come with an 8 hour turnaround. If you’re interested in any sort of consultation package, e-mail Carsonreeves1@gmail.com with the subject line: CONSULTATION. Don’t start writing a script or sending a script out blind. Let Scriptshadow help you get it in shape first!
Genre: Mystery?
Premise: (from Black List) A writer struggling to crack her second novel starts to lose her sense of reality as the book bleeds into her life…and her life bleeds back.
About: This script made last year’s Black List just as writer Elaina Perpelitt’s career started to take off. She got a staff writing job on the Amazon show “Absentia” and wrote two episodes. That show is about a woman who goes missing and then ten years later, after her family has moved on, reappears inside a tank of water. It’s got a pretty good pilot episode so check it out. I’m guessing that this script was used as a sample to win her a job on that show. By the way, this is one of the best ways to get your career started as a writer. Write an original screenplay that’s not exactly marketable, but is a good indication of your voice. Lots of writers get staffed this way.
Writer: Elaina Perpelitt
Details: 115 pages
Is the curse true? Is writing about writing boring? I don’t know. The most successful writer of all time, Stephen King, seems to be doing okay with that setup, using it for, oh, I don’t know, every story he’s written! But a writer in a novel is different from a writer in a movie. In movies, things need to be visual. More movement is required (move-ment = move-ie). So it’s a trickier balancing act. Let’s see if Perpelitt pulled it off.
Winnie is a “genius” writer if we’re to believe her perfect husband, Jax. Then again, isn’t every writer a genius in the eyes of their other half? It’s a prerequisite for being in a relationship with a writer, yes? But in this case, it’s true. Winnie has already written a bestseller and she’s flying with Jax to Palm Springs to get away from it all and write her next one.
The 27 year-old Winnie is not the easiest person to be with. She’s on multiple anti-depressants and pain killers and she’s extremely moody. A single day with Winnie can result in the best AND worst moment of your year. But Jax is a loving understanding hubby who cares about one thing and one thing only – the well-being of his wife.
Once in Palm Springs, Winnie starts writing, and that’s when shit gets crazy. Her main character, Mara, is 16 years old. Mara used to be in a sexual relationship with her father when she was 12. Now she’s out there banging DJ’s who end up dead afterwards, as well as coupling with sugar daddies with terminal cancer. Yeah, you read all that correctly.
When Winnie is bored, she brings over her new best friend, the young hot-as-fuck neighbor, Sloan, and the two do coke together and talk about Winnie’s ex-boyfriend, RJ. RJ was dangerous and cool and crazy, everything Jax isn’t. And while Winnie hates to admit it, she thinks about him all the time. One night, when she gets black-out drunk, she invites RJ up to Palm Springs, and the next day, she watches in horror as a clueless Jax (who has no idea what RJ looks like, only that Winnie used to date someone with that name) opens the door to RJ.
Winnie does a nice job resisting that temptation, but the combination of drugs and exhaustion and depression send her deeper into the mind of her protagonist, Mara, and, at a certain point, we’re not clear if Mara is the real story or Winnie is. Don’t corner me at a party and ask me what happens next because I don’t know. Things get so unclear that you basically have to draw your own conclusions. But I’m pretty sure several people died. Just don’t quote me on that.
Every writer has to get one of these scripts out of their system – these “nothing is real, or is it?” screenplays. Typically, you write this script in that 24-28 age range, when you’re a few years into the “real world,” but still a low rung on the ladder and unsure why. This results in confusion and frustration. Luckily, you’re a writer. And all your writing teachers tell you to take that emotion and put it on the page! So you do that, hurling complex feelings onto a helpless keyboard like Jackson Pollock, and it feels so good. If feels like you’re examining yourself and saying something. Unfortunately, that experience is one-sided. To the rest of the world, the pages are directionless, an interesting experiment on a road to nowhere.
The problem occurs when you start favoring craziness over plot. The script becomes more about fucking around than answering questions. And that’s exactly what happened here. Midway through this script I wasn’t sure what it was about anymore. I think it was about an unsolved murder. But maybe it was about a girl going crazy? Or maybe it was more about this fictional character Mara trying to find herself? You get the idea. The script wants to be everything and nothing and if there’s any confusion, the burden is on you, the reader, to figure it out.
Perpelitt really stacks the deck against herself, too. This character, Winnie, is extremely unlikable. She’s got this perfect husband who does everything for her and she treats him like garbage, doesn’t appreciate him. She pines for her much more dangerous ex-boyfriend, the one she’s badmouthed to her husband, despite the fact that she’d drop him in a hot second if RJ would be with her. When you mix that in with a story we don’t understand, it’s nearly impossibly to make it work. I know. I’ve been there. Plenty of other writers have been there as well.
A script that did this story much better was Diablo Cody’s “Tully,” specifically because of Cody’s maturity as a writer. She knew that writing this “nothing and everything is real all at once” stuff is a suicide mission so she SIMPLIFIED the story down to one woman having one friendship (spoiler) and it wasn’t until the end that we learned it was all a dream. That setup works so much better, guys. Because that way we’re not so confused all the time and you can use the scenes to explore real conversations and real moments.
That’s not to say the script is a disaster by any means. There’s a clear voice here. The world of the novel is big, colorful, and interesting. And I liked Sloan. Actually, Sloan could’ve been the key to this script working. Had Winnie been a more likable wholesome character, the dark and evil Sloan would’ve contrasted against her more, making their dynamic more compelling. But as written, both of them are bitches. So there was some redundancy there (again, this is something Tully did way better).
Anyways, so yes. I DO think all of you should write one of these scripts to get it out of your system. But they’re minefields, man. Try to keep in mind that, at the end of the day, a script is not meant as a therapy session for yourself. It’s meant to entertain. So if you’re prioritizing the former over the latter, expect a less than excited response.
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] wasn’t for me
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: Another ALWAYS WORKS tip today. This one is the “person in the other room” scene. Here’s how this scenario works. You have three characters. Two characters share a secret or some knowledge that the third character doesn’t know. You then write a scene where that third character has to leave the room for a moment, and your first two characters have a limited amount of time to discuss that secret. It ALWAYS WORKS. And it works because of the ticking clock. We love conversations that have a sense of urgency to them. And this situation sets up the best version of that urgency. So that scene here in Innocent Monsters occurs when RJ shows up at the Palm Springs house. A clueless Jax welcomes him in. The three talk for a moment in the main room. Jax says he’s going to get something to drink, and now we have our scene. Winnie has to convince RJ to leave but now that RJ is here, he wants her. This is one of the best scenes in the script and the “person in the other room” scene is the reason why.
Genre: Drama
Premise: After a young man opens a burger joint, he gets into a war with a salesman who wants to steal his business.
About: “Dededoop dededoop.” Did you hear that? Listen again. “Dededoop dededoop.” Hear it that time? No?? Okay, try imagining a DeLorean. A DeLorean that prefers to go 88 miles per hour. Let’s go a third time: “Dededoop dededoop.” Hear it now? Yup! It’s the ubiquitous sound cue from Back to the Future. Why am I including sound cues from Back to the Future? Because today’s review is an unproduced screenplay from the co-writer of Back to the Future, Bob Gale! Ah, now I have your attention. Not much is known about Jimbo’s Stand other than it hung around for potential development for as long as it could before disappearing forever. Until now!
Writer: Bob Gale
Details: 117 pages (written some time in the 1980s)
This was one of the stranger reading experiences I’ve ever had. I started out thinking, “This probably didn’t get made because Bob Gale is the lesser of the two talents in the Back to the Future team-up and isn’t a very good writer on his own.” Then, 30 pages into the script, I was thinking, “This is one of the best scripts I’ve read all year!” It’s unique, it crackles, it’s full of heart. Then, 60 pages into the script, I realized this was a thinly veiled re-telling of the McDonald’s story. All of the originality went out the room and I was left with what was, essentially, a reverse version of The Founder. Instead of telling the story through Ray Croc’s point-of-view, however, we tell it through the point-of-view of the original creators (or, in this case, creator).
That makes this an interesting case study in that a compelling question can be asked: All else being equal, whose point-of-view makes for the better McDonald’s story? Ray Kroc’s or the original McDonald? The answer is the original McDonald. As we see here, he’s far and away the more sympathetic character. So why tell the story of Ray Kroc instead, as they did in The Founder? Because he’s more famous, of course. You don’t make a biopic about Genghis Khan’s masseuse. You make a biopic about Genghis Khan.
This is something all writers must consider when they come up with an idea. Whose point-of-view should I tell the story from? If you were to write about The Battle of Gettysburg, for example, the story would be drastically different depending on if you told it through the eyes of Union General George Meade or Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Or if you told the story through an individual soldier’s point-of-view. Or an individual nurse. Or a journalist. The options are unlimited and it’s your job as a writer to consider them all before breaking ground.
As for today’s script, it’s told through the eyes of Jimmy “Jimbo” Boatman who’s returning to Springfield after the Korean War. Jimbo already lost his future wife while away, as she’s run off with some salesman to California. But he’s also told that he no longer has his job as a short order cook at his local diner. That’s okay, though. Jimbo decides he’s going to travel west and find his own diner to flip burgers in.
Jimbo drives all the way to San Bernardino, California, where he convinces the owner of a tiny diner called “Eat,” to let him work there for a week. “If I don’t double your profits during that week. You don’t have to pay me a penny.” The owner can’t say no to that. And that’s when we see why Jimbo is so confident. He isn’t just a short order cook. He’s the Tom Cruise in Cocktail of short order cooks. He’ll not only serve you up the best burger you’ve ever tasted. He’ll entertain you in the process.
It isn’t long before the owner sells Jimbo the place and Jimbo turns that “Eat” sign into a “Jimbo’s.” The diner becomes the hottest food joint in town. And Jimbo’s never been happier. That is until Mike Burns shows up, a traveling salesman who’s on the lookout for the next big thing. When he sees Jimbo’s, he knows this is it. Oh, and Mike’s arrival comes with a twist. In the coincidence of all coincidences, this is the man who married Jimbo’s old girlfriend, Carol Anne! Of course, Mike doesn’t know that yet.
Mike offers Jimbo a deal he can’t refuse. He’s going to franchise “Jimbo’s” all across the country and all Jimbo has to do every month is collect a check. Jimbo tells him to fuck off, which infuriates Mike. So Mike does something unthinkable. He goes off and starts the franchise anyway! And he doesn’t stop there. He trademarks “Jimbo’s,” so that not only is it impossible for Jimbo to sue him. But, if he wants, Mike can sue Jimbo!
While Jimbo does win Carol Anne back, Mike’s growing company becomes a nightmare for Jimmy. When franchised “Jimbo’s” start sprouting up in San Bernardino, the two can’t avoid each other any longer. There’s going to be a showdown. That showdown will determine whether Mike or Jimbo will be the one flipping dollar bills for the rest of their lives.
Jimbo’s Stand reminded me that a “tiny” character goal still resonates as long as your hero is passionate about it. This is a movie about a guy who wants to be a short order cook. That’s it! He doesn’t want to win the heavyweight championship of the world. He doesn’t want to become the world’s greatest artist or be the first man on Mars. He wants to be a short order cook.
You’d think that in this day and age, that’d feel small. But Gale does an amazing job selling Jimbo’s zest for the profession. There are numerous scenes where we see how much he loves this job and that’s something a lot of younger writers wouldn’t have included. They’d have one scene to show how much the character loves cooking and that’s it. In Jimbo’s Stand, there isn’t any one scene. The character EMBODIES a cook. It’s who he is. Not what he does.
Gale also has a clear love for this subject matter. That’s another thing writers overlook. You can’t teach a writer to love something he doesn’t. And the difference is whenever you love the subject matter you’re writing about, you go the extra mile to give life to that world. I’ll give you an example.
When we first get to 1953 San Bernardino, a writer who’s writing this script as a job might describe it as, “It’s a desert city on the rise, the future of California.” Instead, here’s how Gale describes it:
And Bernardino in 1953 is a post-war boom town where the car is king… a prototype of suburban sprawl. It’s a town of car lots, gas stations, shopping centers and drive-is, all with ample parking lots. Rows of garish store signs compete for attention and dollars. And everywhere something is under construction.
Jimbo is fascinated. He’s never seen anything like it.
He passes a huge cleared area on the edge of an orange grove with a sign promising “Affordable Family Homes From $8999.”
Further along, a new freeway is under construction.
On another street, Jimbo passes “BOWL-A-RAMA, 32 LANES.” He smiles. He turns a corner, drives along a strip past a TG&Y, a Speed Queen Laundromat, a Car Lot, a Drug Store… Then he slams on his brakes.
You only write with that much detail because you love what you’re writing about. Bob Gale clearly wants to live in this time and place. You can’t fake that.
And that specificity extends to the characters as well. Check out how we detail Mike Burns’ introduction…
The Man is MIKE BURNS. His clothing, like his car, is a little loud and garish, but accomplishes a purpose: people who meet Mike Burns rarely forget him. And, he has a passion for cleanliness. His clothes are cleaned and he looks like he’s just stepped out of the shower.
If that’s not enough, we get even FURTHER clarification on who this character is via Mike’s first character action…
As Burns heads in, he circles wide to avoid passing close to a woman with a 5 YEAR OLD BOY. He reacts to the child with mild uneasiness.
These days writers might describe Mike Burns this way: “He’s a slick-suited hustler with an attitude.” I’m not saying a good short description doesn’t work if you can pull it off. But if it takes a little longer to describe someone perfectly, do it. Because in the end, all that matters is that the reader can imagine the character. If you’re too vague, you run the risk of the character feeling fuzzy, which is the case with 90% of the characters I read in amateur scripts.
Where Jimbo’s Stand goes wrong is in its final 40 pages. This was a script that was most comfortable when it was building Jimbo’s life up, not tearing it down. Once we get to the tear, the story starts feeling manufactured. Each page brings about a Mike with a longer mustache that can more easily be twirled. And the ending, which was clearly inspired by old Frank Capra movies, was so over-the-top it bordered on parody. Which was too bad, because this script really could’ve been great.
Having said that, I’m going to include a script link and encourage you to check it out. The writing itself is awesome. And the setup for the story is flawless. Those things alone are worth learning from. So enjoy!
Script Link: Jimbo’s Stand
[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[ ] wasn’t for me
[x] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius
What I learned: When your character’s goal in life is small compared to what we usually see in movies, you need to romanticize that goal for the audience so they can see it the way the character does. There are numerous scenes, such as Jimbo explaining to another character how he fell in love with the job, that romanticize what would otherwise seem like a tiny dream.
As the smooth-piping vocals of Michael Buble once uttered, “It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day. It’s a new Amateur Offerings!” And thank goodness. Cause there sure aren’t any movies worth leaving the house for this weekend. But we only have to wait so long. Soon we’ll have Ready Player One, Avengers Infinity War, Deadpool, Solo. This has the potential to be the biggest summer at the box office EVER. Can’t wait. But in the meantime, let’s help find the writer who’s going to be breaking box-office records in 2020!
If you’re new to Amateur Offerings, the rules are simple. Read as much as you can from each script and vote for your favorite in the comments section. The winner gets a review on the site next Friday.
If you believe you have a screenplay that will light the world on fire, submit it for a future Amateur Offerings! Send me a PDF of your script, along with the title, genre, logline, and why you think people should read it (your chance to pitch your story). All submissions should be sent to Carsonreeves3@gmail.com.
Title: BREAKING SILENCE
Genre: Murder Twistery
Logline: A personally conflicted London detective hunts a serial-killer targeting child-abusers.
Why You Should Read: Quite simply I think this is a thrilling thriller. It has a dark theme but it ain’t SLEEPERS. There is no on-screen abuse of children. The graphic torment is reserved for their abusers. It’s inspired by a real-life scandal in the UK. After a politician uncovered a pedophile ring with prominent members – his report was ‘lost’, his house broken into and he became silent on the subject. This film supposes someone breaks that silence. And it happens to use every one of Carson’s recently written Screenplay Hacks. — One last note: I’m here to answer any questions/comments so please do me the favor (or favour) of reading this – my second ever script. And if you didn’t realize (or realise); American English and English English sometimes differs. As this one is set in London, I used the latter. I would DIE if ANYONE mistook this for sloppy writing. Thanks!
Title: Real Girls
Genre: Comedy
Logline: An aspiring teenage artist unwittingly discovers the identity of a Banksy-esque artist, and blackmails them into giving her art lessons.
Why You Should Read: I’ve advanced in the Nicholl, Austin, and the Bluecat contests, so I feel (hope?) I’m heading in the right direction. It’s also only 99 pages and has brief descriptions, so if it sucks, it’ll be the screenwriting equivalent of an unsatisfying quickie. Lastly, I thought the idea of Banksy actually being a little woman who drinks/smokes too much and is terrified of her mother to be funny, so that’s why I wrote this. To be clear, the character isn’t Banksy. It’s just inspired by her :)
Title: On the Sparrow
Genre: Western
Logline: When his wife is murdered and baby taken, a young Preacher in 1880’s Colorado forsakes his calling to become a bounty hunter and get his son back.
Why You Should Read: This script is a cross between Taken and the Dark Knight but set in the old west. Authentic to its time period, it has a grittiness that is prevalent with this genre. Westerns are glorious to look at on the big screen, with sweeping panoramas and intimate close-ups. The stories are personal but feel larger than life. At its heart, On the Sparrow is a tale of two pathways. The story of a father desperate to get his baby boy back and fighting the darkness that descends on him and the villainous couple that ripped his family apart and seeks to settle down and live a good life resulting from the fruits of their wickedness. In the end the pathways must cross.
Title: The Chamberlain
Genre: Sci-fi/Post-apocalyptic
Logline: After most of the population has been eradicated, a steward android must fulfill the last order of his deceased owners and find a worthy human that can take care of the little girl they left behind.
Why You Should Read: If you ever wondered what Ex-Machina and Mad Max would look like together, then look no further. I love this site and have learned so much from it. Not only the articles, but the comments sections too. I’m hoping all you kind souls will share your wonderful notes and help me make this script amazing!
Title: LONG STORIES SHORT
Genre: Survival
Logline: A compilation of six short stories based on true accounts of survival from all corners of the globe.
Why You Should Read: I know how hard it is to write an anthology script. But after watching the amazing Argentinian movie WILD TALES, I couldn’t stop myself from rising to the challenge. It’s incredible the amount of hard-to-believe survival stories in our history and I can’t help but feel so inspired by all of them. I think it gives us hope we can endure the unimaginable. I’ve been frequenting this site for many years now and it would be an honor to be thrown into the mix. If I get picked, thank you in advance to anyone willing to give this crazy project a read.
I’m always on the lookout for the next big thing.
What’s coming around the corner that has the potential to be a new outlet for screenwriters?
Lots of people have been talking about virtual reality as the next big thing. I think that’s – pardon the language, but – bullshit. We’re 25 years out from those first rudimentary VR demonstrations and many of the same problems exist.
Here’s what I think the next potential REALISTIC avenue for screenwriters is: PODCASTS
I’m not talking about podcasts ABOUT screenwriting. I’m talking about using podcasts as a fictional storytelling medium. Because here’s the biggest problem facing screenwriters as I see it: IT’S HARD TO GET NOTICED. You somehow have to convince somebody that your words on a page – WORDS ON A PAGE! – are good enough to buy, to invest tens of millions of dollars in, to spend the next five years of your life with. This is why everyone chooses intellectual property over words on a page. Seeing that something has worked in a previous medium is a nice insurance package in a business which is, at its heart, a gamble.
This is why I tell screenwriters that if you’re at all interested in directing, direct your own script. It is, bar none, the fastest way to establish yourself in this business. You don’t have to wait for person after person to approve your script until it gets to the last guy on the chain, two years after you started sending it out in the first place, to get that, “Sure, yeah, okay.”
Instead, you become your own personal greenlight. No yeses required.
Unfortunately, the barrier for entry in filmmaking is high. It’s expensive as hell to make a film. Even if you wanted to direct your own stuff, you’d have to raise the money to do so. Seeing stories like this guy’s doesn’t exactly instill confidence in the process.
That’s what I like about this podcasting idea. The barrier for entry is INSANELY LOW. All you need is a script, a microphone, a few actors, and you’re in.
But what I really like about podcasting is that nobody has cracked the fiction space yet. There hasn’t been a “Serial.” And Serial should be great motivation. While everyone else in the podcast space was interviewing D-list celebrities, Serial came up with something that wasn’t just unique, it inspired an entire genre on the format. You can’t kick a stone these days without hitting a true crime podcast.
This means that whoever cracks fictional podcasting first? Becomes a sensation. You get all the press. All the adulation. Everyone loves the pioneer, the guy or gal who managed to open the pickle jar. And because of this, I guarantee. GUARANTEE. That whoever creates that first breakout hit, gets a movie deal out of it. That’s something to keep in mind. Everyone in Hollywood wants stuff based on IP.
Well, once you produce your podcast, you’ve got your IP.
Don’t get me wrong, there have been some attempts at fictional podcasts. High profile even. Believe it or not, there’s a fictional podcast out there with Oscar Isaac playing one of the leads. It’s called Homecoming. Unfortunately, it’s bad. And I’m not surprised. This is a new medium, which means there are going to have to be some stumbles before somebody learns how to sprint. But to show you how desperate people are for this medium to produce something, even that show managed to get an Amazon order for its next season.
The question then becomes, how do you write for a fictional podcast? Well, I think we can look at the failure of Homecoming to see how NOT to write one. Homecoming is billed as a “conspiracy thriller” and formats itself similar to a TV show you might find on AMC. And therein lies the problem. Podcasts are not TV. Whenever you’re writing for a medium, you have to ask, “What are the strengths and weaknesses of this medium?” In writing a play, for example, you have a limited number of characters and a limited number of locations. So a lot of emphasis is placed on dialogue. In film, however, which is a more visual medium, you try and convey things through what the audience can see as opposed to hear.
Since nobody’s written a great fictional podcast show yet, we don’t know the answer to what works and what doesn’t. But that’s the exciting part. You can be creative. You can try things. You can, for example, set up a “faux interview-type podcast” that, on the surface, feels like every other podcast out there, then spin it into a horror film when something goes wrong during a recording session. Ironically, your best bet may be to go back to the old radio days to find inspiration. Remember that one of the most famous figures in Hollywood history, Orson Welles, became famous for his radio telecast of the War of the Worlds. And that was just a guy talking.
By the way, I’m not saying you can’t tell a traditional story on a podcast. Good stories will work on any medium. I’m just thinking that to get that media buzz, the first breakthrough fictional podcast will need to be inventive in some way. Maybe each podcast is a series of interviews from old tapes found in a psychiatric ward. No context given. Each conversation gets progressively freakier. That’s off the top of my head and probably too obvious of an idea. But hopefully it gets the creative juices flowing.
My point is that you could have something WRITTEN and PRODUCED for the world to experience in… less than a week. That’s how low the barrier for entry is here. So, if this interests you, start kicking around some ideas in the comments section. Brainstorm. Maybe a few of you can work together to create something awesome. I’d rather it be a Scriptshadow reader who makes the big podcast breakthrough than some rando. Let’s get to it!
