Travis Seppala, Screenwriter/Author: Tip #2…
Film Courage: Okay…so Tip #2 - There are only two screenwriting rules?
Travis: Yes, so I’ve got in my book here [365: A Year Of Screenwriting Tips] I’ve
even got them labeled for you - Rule #1 is “Write a script that looks like a script.”
Which I’ve already talked about, right?
So if it looks like a novel, it’s not a script.
It’s going in the garbage.
So if it looks like a script you’ve at least gotten past the first game because there are
a lot of scripts that come in that don’t look like scripts.
When I was doing reading for a producer I was sent the script to read that was three
hundred and twelve pages.
I’m not reading a three hundred and twelve page script!
It’s not happening!
It doesn’t look like a script right off the bat.
So as long as it looks like a script even the formatting you can have little tweaks
here and there as long as it still looks like a script.
And #2 “Write a script that feels like a movie.
Preferably a good movie.”
If you’re obviously writing TV then it would be right to have it feel like a TV episode
if you are writing this big lengthy thing that feels like it should be a novel you’re
getting into the character’s mind (all this other stuff).
It’s not a movie anymore.
If you’re telling me something where it’s just us sitting here having a conversation,
this is great for a YouTube video.
I’m not going to watch a whole movie of me sitting here talking to you.
Even documentaries they are cutting away to other stuff, right?
Other things are happening than just two people talking to each other.
It needs to look like a script and it needs to feel like a movie.
Bonus points if it’s a good movie.
Film Courage: I like that.
So don’t write War And Peace and submit it.
Travis: Oh yeah.
Film Courage: Don’t have an eight-part series…
Travis: Yes because if it’s a short.
So I’ve been asked the question from people on Facebook and stuff where they’ve DM’d
me and asked me how can I tell if it’s a short or a feature or a show?
If you can tell the entire story in like 20 minutes or less and be done with it, it’s
a short.
If it’s going to take at least a half an hour to tell it and you can have it done in
like three hours and then that’s it, we never have to see these characters again,
like it’s a feature.
But if it’s too short, flesh it out to feature to get there.
If it’s three hours, try to pull back a little bit to make it a feature.
But it’s a feature if you can tell it in a couple of hours.
But if it’s something that could go on and on forever, it’s probably a television series.
If I’m doing a comic book, if I’m doing the Flash TV series versus the Flash movie
that may or may not even happen now with Ezra Miller, those are going to be two very different
Flash stories because in one they are going to be telling the story between like an hour
and a half or two and a half hours.
The other one we are already like what, six seasons in and it’s still going?
We can have episodic and keep going.
They are going to be two very different stories to tell sort of thing.
So that is the thing with it being cinematic is figuring out where does it fall in line?
Is it a short?
Is it a feature?
Is it a TV show?
Is it a book?
Is it a comic book series?
Is it a poem?
All of these things have different worlds and guidelines to them but it needs to go
around the story you want to tell.
So if the story you want to tell if you could keep telling it over and over with different
things, it’s probably a TV series.
If you’re going to tell me this succinct little story that’s cool and has a couple
of different plots (A plot, C plot) but it’s only going to take you a few hours to tell
it, it’s a feature.
Keeping those in mind is a way to figure out where your story lies among all of the medium
that there is to create in.
It might be a painting.
I don’t know?
Film Courage: (Reading another part from Travis’s book) “You cannot trash talk the field you
want to be a part of.”
Travis: Yes, this is one of the things…so a big reason I wrote this book to begin with
was because of seeing people on the Facebook screenwriting groups asking the same questions
over and over.
This particular tip was seen as a huge faux pas that a lot of writers do where they are
like “I am writing this because there is NOTHING good in Hollywood!
There are no good movies anymore.”
If you’re announcing that to the world why do you want to make movies if there is nothing
good?
What is the point of you going into a field where you think everything out there is garbage?
Why do you want to be part of this?
And why are you going to tell people that you think it’s all garbage to begin with?
So don’t trash…if this is the field you want to be in don’t start trash-talking
other people’s work, don’t trash-talk other people who are working in the industry
that you may or may not ever work with because this is a small town and that gets around.
Film Courage: So save it for politics?