Transcripts
1. Intro to Screenwriting: Let's do this. Hi, I'm Jordan and I'm a screenwriter who
has been living Los Angeles for 12 years. I've written dozens
of feature films and I didn't have a word
25 produced credits. I've sold option that ghost
written in several movies. And I want to help you out
the best way possible. Not just a script that's
gonna sit on a shelf, but a movie they'll
get produced and sold. In this class, I'm going to teach you how to write a movie using examples from critically acclaimed a commercially
successful films. Each lesson will help guide
you to fire your story. Writing a movie isn't easy, but it is a lot of fun. And it doesn't matter
if you're writing a comedy, action drama, Western, romantic,
musical, Space Odyssey. Your movie needs structure
in great characters to keep the reader's attention and get them to be produced. Welcome to my class on
feature film screenwriting. Let's get started.
2. Write a Movie This Summer For Courses: Have a movie idea you've
been sitting on for years. This summer, let's finally turn it into a screenplay
from scratch. I'm Jordan D Mola, an award winning screenwriter with
many produced movies, TV shows, and a lot more. I'm also the host of
the popular podcast Screenwriters Talk
Screenwriting, and I've created a 12
week group course to help you write your entire
screenplay this summer. This course is for beginners or anyone who started the
script and got stuck. All you need is a movie idea. I'll guide you from
page one to the end. You'll get weekly
live Zoom sessions, ten page deadlines to
keep you on track, and a community of
writers just like you. People finish scripts they
never thought they could. This course keeps
you accountable, motivated, and supported
the entire way through. To join, just go to my website at www.jordanmola.com and SignU. Spots are limited, and the earlier you sign up,
the more you save. Make 2025 the year you write
and finish your screenplay. Sign up now and write
your movie this summer. You'll be glad you did. Roll. Again, go to www.jordanmla.com.
3. Killer Opening Scene: Now why did I just show
a building blowing up? Because I'm trying to
grab your attention. A good first seen hooks in the audience and
never lets them go. Your first scene not only has set the tone for
the rest of the film, but it has pique the
interest of the audience, so they're along for the ride. One of my favorite
examples is Iron Man. The first scene, ac-dc
back in black is playing. Tony Stark is having fun and an army truck drink and taken
photos with Army soldiers. When boom, the army
truck in front of him gets blown up and
they are under attack. Within the first four
minutes of this movie, tony Stark is kidnapped and we are ready for a kick-ass belt. Another classic example is jaws. In the first scene,
Chrissy walk-ins, a teenager goes skinny dipping when she gets eaten
alive by the shark. And it's the first of
several shark attacks. Steven Spielberg knows how
to hook in the audience. Raiders of the Lost
Ark has an epoch first seen as Indiana Jones and it's had a cave
trying to get a lost art. In effect, he avoids
poison darts and a giant boulder that
almost runs his *** over. John Carpenter, Oscar has a classic first scene and
the 1979 original Halloween, we see Michael Meyers
and a six-year-old kid, it explicitly stabbing his
teenage sister to death. The tone is set right away. Great movies have
create openings. Sometimes movies like a
hangover and we'll even start with the olives loss moment
and then unfold the story. But your first
scene needs a hook. The audience, since we're
onboard where the story. Before moving on, jot
down ideas for a killer foreseen that introduces
your main character or your main antagonist, and find ways to draw
the audience in.
4. Set It Up: The first ten pages of any
screenplays, the setup, and these are the
most important pages because a producer will often only read the first ten pages if they're not hooked
up for ten pages, though, throw the script out. After a killer first scene, you want to set up your main character is
an interesting way. But whenever possible,
show don't tell. Let's look again at Iron Man. And the second scene we are
told 20 stocks history, but it's also shown with
pictures and magazine covers. We find out Tony, his
dad was a tightening of the weapons industry
and Tony is a genius, but it's presented very
quickly in an award ceremony. You need to be
entertaining and setup your main character's problems. Show us what they don't have or what they're
missing in their life. And Home Alone. Kevin is constantly fighting with his family
wishes they would just go away as soon as
switch will come true. In general, a good guideline
for setup is you want to meet all your main characters
who will forward the story, the first ten pages
and meet the parents. We meet Greg, his
girlfriend Pam, and her parents Jack and Dina will meet the rest
of Ham's family later. But for now we know the four
most important characters, Ben, Stiller, and opportunity, are the most essential
to the story. In the hangover, we meet all the guys who are
about to go to Vegas, and they all have
distinct introductions. This is very important too. You want to get each
main character a strong introduction and
make them distinct. You want to make sure
no character sound the same and each one has
a specific attitude. And dodgeball. After we meet our main
character Peter play, but I've been spawn, we see him interact one-by-one with his friends and
the average Joes Jin, including Gordon who raise
obscures sports quarterly. Justin who wants to be a
high-school cheerleader. And Steve, the part who
acts like a pirate. To set up this class more or
less like about page count. For every page you write, that's going to equal
one-minute on screen. So if you're at 90 pages,
that's an hour-and-a-half. If you write 120 pages, that's two-hour long movie. If you write 400
pages, do not do that. And it's way too
long of a movie, maybe it's your first
draft and you cut a bunch out that do not write a
movie, movie that long. General, I like to keep
my page count around 108 is I'll be using
throughout the class. If you're looking for writing software as a ton out there, including Celtics, final draft, and my favorite writer do wet. You can find that
at writer duet.com. If you really get
into screenwriting, you want to learn more
tips and tricks and lingo. I recommend two books. Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, writing movies for
fun and profit by Robert Ben Garrett
and thomas Lennon. Think about your main
characters and how to set them up into
distinct ways. Make sure they have
specific attitudes and a strong introduction. And I'll meet you
in the next class.
5. Inciting Incident: After you set up
your main characters around ten to 15
minutes into your film, your protagonist's will
experience an inciting incident, also known as a
catalyst or a call to action that will forever
change their lives. At home alone, a storm causes
all the electricity to go out at the McAllister home and the whole family is running
late to the airport. They leave the house and forget the Kevin is still in the attic. Kevin's mom doesn't
realize he's not with them until they're on the plane to
Paris and she yells cation. Most superhero movies, the inciting incident is the
thing that will give them their powers or make them use their powers
to save the world. And Spider-Man, Peter Parker gets bit by a
radioactive spider. Wonder Woman is Steve truck crashes in the water
of the mascara, aka period is Ireland and Diana dive in the
water to save him. This will forever
change her world and the rest of her life. In Die Hard is the arrival
of Hans Gruber and his crew. They've taken over
NACA told me plaza. And they've taken
everyone hostage except our hero John McLain. Your main character doesn't
necessarily know that this small thing will
forever rock their world. But it will think about that one incident that
will make her here. I'll change and then move
forward to the next lesson.
6. Get Ready 4 a Big Change: This is the section
of the screenplay. We are here, gets ready for a big change in Blake centers excellent
book, say the cat. He called this the
debate section because the hero we're often debate to stick with the old
world or enter a new one. Wonder Woman, we find out what's going on
outside the island. Steve, Trevor is wrapped
in the lasso of truth and talks about the
horrors of World War II. This triggers Diana to leave
the island, saved the world. Diana's mom doesn't want
her to leave the island, but Diana knows she must because it's the
right thing to do. In Spider-Man. Peter Parker has a lot of fun
testing odd powers, shooting spider
webs, and trying to swing between buildings
for the first time. He's not Spider-Man yet,
but he's getting there. Heroes are still latching
onto their old world, even though the
inciting incident is pushing them
in any direction. The 40-year-old virgin,
and he played by secret, doesn't want help
from his co-workers, even though they all
know he's a virgin. He's too embarrassed except their help and wishes
they never found out in jaws even after
two shark attacks, the mayor of Amity Island doesn't want to close
the beach down yet, even though our hero
chef Brody does the mayor insist the 4th of July weekend is
too big of a deal? In Die Hard, John McCain
is trying to get help. He finds a way to
pull a fire alarm to get the cops to show up. He hasn't taken things
into his own hands yet. Write down ways. Your protagonist is debating
for 100 page screenplay. This is on pages 1225.
7. Entering a New World: Welcome to act to buy About
page 25 in your screenplay, your hero is not entered
a new world many times, literally at home alone
to loss in New York. This is when Kevin
gets to New York. Wonder Woman, Diana
has left her home for the first time her life and is ready to face World War II. Die Hard gentlemen claim
decides the only way to kill some bad guys
is to do it himself. The original
Superman, Clark Kent leaves Smallville after
his adopted father dies. And he goes to the
Fortress of Solitude and then metropolis to
become superman. The hangover, all the
characters are hung over. Their new world is
trying to figure out what the ****
happened last night. And where's their friend Doug? This section is where a lot
of these stories take place. And the Beast story is
often the love story. In Spider-Man, Peter Parker has a heart-to-heart
conversation with mary jane, bridesmaids, and he
played by Christian wig, gets pulled over
by Officer roads. Wonder Woman, Stephen, Diana flirt and has
some funny banter, as I said, sale in the ocean. Your BI story doesn't
have to be a love story, but it usually involves
another character and gives us a break
from the story. And if you have
several characters, you can have a c story,
the story, story, etc. But don't let the a story
get lost with the story. Be focused and strong. But right now,
think about what is your protagonist's New World? And then let's have some fun.
8. Have Some Fun!!!: About pages 25 to 55 of most screenplays is
where the fun is, where you'll find
most of your trailer moments if you're
running a comedy, this is where your
best jokes were. Land. In the hangover. The guys discovered Mike
Tyson's tiger in the bathroom. Let's do is missing a tooth. And there's a baby in the
closet in bridesmaids. And it takes all
the girls out to Brazilian Rashad before
trying on dresses, which makes my art Rudolph
take a crap in the street. Home Alone. Kevin realizes
now that his family is gone. He can do whatever he wants. He eats a ton of ice cream, watches rated R movies, goes through bizarre stuff and start to do
things for himself. You want a lot of
conflict, but it's fun. Conflict in Die Hard. John Maclean's starts
killing bad guys. And Hans Gruber realizes
someone else's in the building. This is where the meat
of your story is. If you're running
a slasher film, then this is where multiple
killings take place. In Friday the 13th, after we meet all
the camp counselors, we see them gets stopped
and killed one-by-one. Meet the parents. Everything Greg tries
to do to impress pans parents just goes wrong. Greg talks about how east
of milk is sister's cat. His lines are just small
little fins right now. Write down all the fun things
you've seen in your movie. This is a great time
to just brainstorm a bunch and see
what sticks later.
9. Midpoint: The midpoint is incredibly important and it's where
all the stakes are raised. Your main character
was having fun before, but here's something big happens with a bad guys.
Get the upper hand. Midpoint is going to
happen a halfway through the script and just a
little bit afterwards, an alien, the mid point was
when the alien bursts out of Keynes chest and now
he's somewhere on the ship. They can't contain the alien. And his killing spree is
just begun in Jurassic Park. It's when the transfer is Rex escapes the gates and attacks. In Psycho, It's the famous
shower scene with it. Hey, hey, hey, music. In Gone Girl. We find
out the Gone Girl isn't really God and die hired. Hans Gruber finds out john
Maclean's real name and job. And the new Godzilla
versus Kong. The midpoint is the
revealing of Mecca Godzilla. There were two
gigantic monitors, but now there's three
gigantic monsters. Midpoints have to be big and they often tire a story
and be starting gather. Midpoints also sometimes provide
false hope for the hero, but know that it's false.
It meet the parents. Greg has finally won over
Jack and Pam is family when he finds Jack's missing
cat jinx at the pet shelter. But the audience and Greg
both know that he just spray paint the tail of another cat to make them look like jinx. It's false hope. Greg is just trying to buy
time and be redeemable. After your midpoint,
the hero has to plan how to overcome
the situation. And this takes her raised a lot. There's often a ticking
clock involved in the story will speed up jaws. The midpoint is when the
shark attacks the beach, when the beach is more full
of people than ever before. Our main character achievable. It's Martin Brody almost
loses his son to the shark. Everyone sees jaws kilo swimmer who is trying to help Martensen. Now something has to be done. They decided Martin coincide and Matt are killing the shark. The midpoint is the point
of no turning back, write down what is the big
thing that happens halfway through your script that makes a huge impact on your story. And then I'll meet you
in the next lesson.
10. SkillShare Superpeer Coaching Promo: Hey, if you're interested in one on one coaching sessions, I'd love to help you during your creative process to make sure your project gets finished. You're interested, you
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story and project. Contact me to book your
first session now. Thank you, and now back to your regularly
scheduled course. H.
11. Amp Up the Stakes: From the midpoint, it's about three-quarters
interior film, roughly pages 50 to 75. You want to amp up the stakes. This is where your
antagonist gains momentum. In the dark night. This is where the Joker kidnaps
Harvey, Dent and Rachel. Now Batman only has time to
save one of them and you must choose as you watch the
other one gets blown up. Meet the parents, the
truth is revealed. Everything grid line about
to impress parameter family comes out when Jack knows his real cat is
the neighbor's house. Jack tells everyone that he knows Greg spray
painted the tail. What are the cat to
make them look like? Gmc. The family. Thanks.
Greg lied about everything including
his MCAT scores. And Pam has humiliated and sad. Greg will never be in the
burn circle of trust. In Iron Man. The audience finds out
the real villain is Tony, his business partner
and longtime friend, Obadiah stain, play
by Dr. Bridges. He's been 20 midtone to keep Stark industries and
the weapon business. Stain is also trying to
build his own Iron Man suit. If you're writing a horror, your team or the main characters are getting smaller and smaller. In alien, the alien is not fully grown and kills
crew members one-by-one, including the
captain of the ship. They tried to go
after the alien, but nothing seems to work. The alien is getting
more powerful. Write down all the ways your antagonists
can start winning. And if you're having
trouble, think about the ols loss moment,
which we'll cover next.
12. All is Lost: The olives loss moment is about three-quarters
into your film, generally pages 75 to 80. It's when you hear it was worse off than when the movie started. If you're writing a horror,
this is when there's only one survivor
left in nightmare on Elm Street and he's locked in our house when
her mom puts bars on the windows preventing
her from senior and boyfriend play
my Johnny Depp. She knows Freddy Krueger
is going after Gianni. She's screams with Johnny
is asleep. Let me watch. Johnny Depp gets
sucked into bed and then blown up in a
geyser blood and guts. This movie started with 14
years having nightmares. And now there's only one left. In the hangover. The wolf pack is $182
thousand and ships, they could rescue Doug
who was kidnapped by tau. But when they meet
Chow in the desert to exchange the chips were dug. They find out that
it's the wrong Doug, with only five hours
left to Doug's wedding, they still don't know where he is and they have to
call Doug's financing and tell her he's missing.
Wonder woman dying. It Thanks, General Eric London, raphe is area is the god of war. It pursues him for
most of the movie. But when she kills
London and off she finds out it's not him. The war is still
going on in areas, is still out there
and meet the parents. Greg started off the movie with a girlfriend he wanted to marry, but now it looks like
it's over between them. He leaves Pam's parents house, ashamed, embarrassed, and alone. He then has a breakdown
on a plane and gets arrested for
saying the word bomb. Many times in an all is
awesome moment during a movie, a character will die, especially at best friend
or a parent or a mentor. In Happy go more
happy loses jobs. And Star Wars, Luke loses
Obi-Wan in Dodgeball, coach patches or Houlihan
who taught the average Joes. The 5D is a dodgeball. Dodge duct dives, dive in. Dodge is now dead. He dies right after
the game that got them into the championship. After this, Peter, Ben's mom, wants to quit and Steve, the part disappears and Justin goes a cheerleading
Championship. The average joe's
team doesn't have enough players to play in
the dodgeball championship. Write down what is the
lowest point for your hero, even worse off than
when we started? And then I'll see you
in the next lesson.
13. Where There's a Will, There's a Way: By now your hero has
been being down. Everything that could go
wrong has gone wrong. But a great hero
doesn't give up. They usually have one last
thing up their sleeve where they get help from a
friend who will save them. This is about three-quarters
near film until your finale. This section should make
your audience want to get up off their feet and
cheer for your hero. In alien guarding, Weaver starts to self-destruct
this spaceship. There's no way she's letting
the alien gets it earth. She'll fly out an escape pod
and let the alien blow up in the space ship behind
meet the parents, jack realizes he
was too hard and Greg and Greg didn't lie
about his MCAT scores. Greg only lied about
other things to impress Jack and
the burns family. Jack sees Pam
crying her bedroom, and he knows Pam has never loved anyone as much as
she loves Greg. If Jack wants his
daughter to be happy, he must get Greg back
before you fly that what we survey in Iron Man, the all is lost is one staying
takes the reactor out of Tony's chest to power up
the evil Iron Man suit, and he leaves Tony betrayed
and left alone to die. This is the part when
Tony struggles to get to the basement to get his
original reactor for his chest. And once he does,
he's going after staying and saving his
company and his reputation. In general, this scene or set of scenes is between three
to ten pages long. If your hero is getting
ready for a fight, this is where they
prepare an action movies. This is where they
get all the big guns. Jot down ideas and
think about what are the preparation steps they
have before the finale.
14. Finale: Welcome to act three, where your hero and
villain, glad it head to head for one final showdown. There's usually one final
surprise to an alien. Ripley is blown up
the old spaceship and everything inside it. It's just her in the
cat and the escape pod. But surprise, she's not alone. The alien is sleeping and the escape pod and
meet the parents. Jack and Greg have a heart
to heart wonder woman, Diana fights the
real areas in Rocky. Rocky does the
impossible and goes the distance with heavyweight
champion of the world, Apollo Creed, heroes half the fight, the
antagonist one-on-one. It's what makes them
the hero and it makes your whole
story more powerful. In jaws, there are three
crew members on the boat. One got eaten by a shark. One we think is
done under water. And Sheriff Brody, our hero, has to face off the shark
one-on-one as the boat is sinking and he's
desperately running out of ammo and die-hard. We see hands and John
McCain face off on the roof until one of them false and the building
to their death. In dodgeball, after Ben Stiller thinks he wanted the game, the referee calls a penalty after you saw him
step over the line. Now Ben Stiller and been spawned do Sudden
Death dodgeball. They each get one dodge ball to throw and no other team
can help them out. They are the only two left
and the entire tournament. And everything is on the line. If Vince loses this,
he loses everything. In Star Wars. A new hope. Luke and the other pilots
go to the Death Star, but Luke is the one
who blows it up. Right? Or think about your epic finale and make sure your hero
does the most work. And Wednesday for the team.
15. Killer Final Scene: Like your first scene,
your final scene has to be memorable. Again, you want to leave
the audience hooked. So if this movie's
in a movie theater, the audience walks
out satisfied. Usually most movies
have happy endings, but again, stick with your tone. If you're reading a horror film, then you want to give
us one final scare. My favorite example of this is the original Friday the 13th. This surprise twist in the finale is the
killer wasn't Jason. In the final scene, we see Jason jumped
from the water. If you're writing a comedy, give us one final funny
scene and meet the parents. It's a scene of Jack
watching Greg and security video with
Greg mocking him. Can you deal with that? In Iron Man, Tony Stark has a press conference and everyone tells him
to hide the truth. But Tony has an amazing
last line where he says, I am Iron Man. And the hangover. The guys discover photos from
the epic night. They can't remember it knowing what they know now
from their adventure, the photos are hilarious. I remember laughing so
hard in the theater. If you're looking for
another comedy classic, took out the ending to
something like an hot. It often helps to
think about how to circle back to the first scene. In Alien. We start the first scene with a crew
waking up from a deep sleep. And we end the movie
with really going back into a deep sleep
on her way home. The last scene of dodgeball is a commercial for
average Joes Jim, that Ben Stiller who's watching, circling back to the
first scene when we saw a global junk commercial that
Ben's mom was watching. Once you're at the final scene, then boom, you're done
with the first draft. Reward yourself, and then do some rewrites to
get the script in the best shape possible so you can make money
and get it produced. Good luck and
celebrate the writing.
16. How to Format a Screenplay (add to courses): If you're brand new
to screenwriting, then this quick video
lesson will show you the basics of how
to format a screenplay. There are many
screenwriting softwares out there to choose from. For the first decade
of my career, I used final draft, which was considered the
industry standard at the time. But then in 2016, I discovered my favorite
screen warning software, writer Duet, and I've been
using writer Duet ever since. I'll be using writer Duet
for this demonstration, and you can sign up and use writer Duet for free
at writer duet.com. There you can write your
first three scripts for free. For this quick demo,
I'm going to rewrite the first page of my feature
film screenplay, Leap Day. It's an ensemble comedy about
the craziness, confusion, and chaos that can only happen on that extra day we
get every four years. These are the basics, and this will get your
story going. All right. So the first thing you do for
any screenplay is fade in. You're only going
to fade in once at the very beginning
of the screenplay, and at the end, the last
thing you do is fade out. So open a document. You'll see this. When you press Enter, you'll see
all these choices. What I want to do is transition. So transition and then fade in. With a lot of
screenwriting software, they make it super easy. All you have to do is press
enter and you'll get choices, and you can just
keep moving forward. Back in the day people
had use a typewriter, but now it's super easy, and anyone can do
this from anywhere. So after you fade in, then you'll start every scene
with a scene heading, which is also known
as a slug line. For leap day, it starts
off in a hockey arena. I put interior hockey arena. You're always going
to use INT for interior and EXT for exterior. Always remember, interior means inside, exterior means outside. If this scene was
outside a hockey arena, I would put EXT
period hockey arena. But since it's inside, I'll use INT period
hockey arena, which means interior
hockey arena. All right after that, then you start writing the
action description. For this, I'm going to
put, it's a packed house. In the third row, Lucy,
who's my main character. She's 29, usually put the
age after the character, and then you describe them. She wears punk rock wardrobe. I could say that
word. She's frazzled because she's about to do something she's
never done before. And she's with her
sister right now. So talks with her sister, Jade, 31 business casual tire. She's way more professional
than her sister. She's cool calm,
cool, and collective. Now you'll notice, I capital
put this in All Capitals. Her name, Lucy, and I put
Jade in All Capitals. You only do this when you first introduce
a new character. This is how the
reader is going to know this character
is brand new. But from this point on, I'm only going to have
the first initial of Lucy's name be capitalized and the first initial of Jade's
name be capitalized. After that, I'll
do some dialogue. I just press enter and tab, and then I'm going
to type in Lucy. Now from now on, you'll see this in all screen
noting software. It's going to keep this name. It's going to be easier for me to write and I'll just pop up, and I'll show you
that in a second. I can't believe I'm
going to do this. Then again, enter,
and then I press tab, bring dialogue again,
I'll type in Jade. You and Tommy have
been together. It's okay to misspell things.
I do it all the time. It's about time you got engaged. If you're figuring this out now, Lucy's about to ask her
boyfriend to marry her. So I'll put Lucy hold a ring and looks at the empty
seat. Next to her. Then I press enter again, tab because I'm
going to go back to dialogue and you see
SCR pops up Lucy. I got to use press
L and then boom. It gives me that press
L and then enter, and it fills in the
rest of the name. I don't just keep typing in Lucy every time I
put in dialogue. I'll put in L and
it'll find it for me. I don't know about this. And then I'll again enter tab. There's J. J just pops up. If there's only two characters,
you screen software, we read like who's
going to be next. I'll put women, propose
to men all the time. Especially on Leap Day. It's a Leap Day tradition. It is. I've done a bunch
of research on Leap Day, and this actually is
a huge tradition. Take a leap. Then, I
just pressed tab again. And then I'll write down Lucy. I'll go, Okay.
Okay. I'm leaping. And then I'm going to
introduce Lucy's boyfriend. I'll start typing an
action description again. They look behind them. As Lucy's boyfriend,
enters the aisle. I'm going to describe
him. He's a blond. You always describe
the character, especially main characters. You don't need to describe
minor characters. L say, you just have a
random I know waiter. You don't need to
describe that person, but any time as a
main character, you want to give them
a little description. The reader knows this person is important and they're
forwarding the story. He's a blond, tatted up 29. You year old musician.
Named Rocket. Again I'm going to
capitalize. Just for now I'm going to
capitalize his name in all caps because this is
a brand new character. This makes it easier
for the reader to know, this is a brand new character. Rocket launcher Tommy. As you can see, the screen
software doesn't know, I have a new character
in the dialogue, but it will from this point on. I put a Rocket Tommy, and then I do his dialogue. I'm not going to do
all caps anymore. Hey, sweetie, here. I
got us all more beers. Anything else you need
before the third period. Again, as you can see, it has all the characters now
that I've written so far. As I add more characters,
they'll just show up. All I got to do is just type in the first initial and it'll
just pop up automatically. All screen learning software
does this pretty much. I'll just have type in L.
Lose using it pops up, press Enter, and then that's it. No, honey, that's all. That's that's the basics. This scene goes on for
another four pages, but I don't want
to waste your time and keep showing you
things I just shown you. That's pretty much
all you got to know. This scene a Jade leaves, and then Lucy gets down on one knee and there's a big announcement
in the hockey arena. Then the camera goes on Lucy
and rocket Launcher Tommy. By the way, Rocket
launch Tommy, yes, it's a parody of what's his
name, Machine Gun Kelly. But anyway, Lucy proposes to Rocket Launcher Tommy and
rocket Launcher Tommy says, No and breaks up with her in front of thousands of people. This is the first scene of
my screenplay leap day. But that's it. If
after this scene, again, this isn't
a full scene yet. But the scenes four pages
long, but after the scene, when you want to
start a new scene, again, you just go
to a new scene. If I wanted to do a new scene, say I want to do a coffee shop. I could do INT period again, which means interior
and then coffee shop. Again, the screening software will remember the
different locations. If ever wanted to go back to the hockey arena,
it'll remember it. I'll just put day.
As you can see, there's day, night, continuous later moments later in morning. The two you use the
most are day and night. You can use the other
ones, continuous, especially use if you're going from inside a
building to outside a building and it's a It's
continuous within the scene. You use that every again, but really the basics
are day and night. Those are the ones
you'll use the most, and you can use these
other ones if you like. But day and night are the
ones you'll see the most. I'll just put into your coffee
shop and then keep going. Whatever next scene is. Lucy drinks coffee. Blah, blah, blah. If you're like me and you make spelling
and grammar mistakes, you can go back and
fix them later. I always tell my clients progress is more important
than perfection. The first screenplay I
ever sold had a bunch of misspellings when I looked
back at it years later. But the reason it sold is
because the story was great. And if you have
an amazing story, people don't notice
those mistakes because they're so
into the story. If you like to see the
first ten pages of Leap Day or other
script examples, you can find these
on my website at WWW Jordan emola.com
slash Examples.
17. Screenwriting Tips and Tricks: Thank you for watching my
class on writing a movie. Here's one last lesson with some screenwriting and
tips and tricks I've learned throughout the
years, have an outline. This will help you
when you get stuck. My outlines are
usually ten pages or longer and it makes sure to
have all the structure down. As you write, you'll discover more about your
character and you can place all your thoughts and an outline and help you
keep them in order. Aim for 40 scenes. On average, most movies
are about 40 scenes long and the average
2.5 minutes. Some scenes are longer, some scenes are shorter, but that's a good
guideline to keep in mind. Have an emotional
shift in each scene. If you're having trouble
finding conflict in the scene, try to think about how you
can start the scene on a positive note and ended
on a negative note, or started on a negative note
and ended on a positive. You want to make
an emotional shift to keep things interesting. Keep moving forward. You have to make decisions. A scene can go a lot of ways, but you have to decide which
direction is right for the story and finish
the first draft. I know so many
writers who only have a first activist screenplay and keep reworking it until
they think it's perfect. But the thing is, you won't know what really works until you finish Z2 and Z3 and you
have a first draft done. Be disciplined
about your writing. I'm a big fan of the
five minutes a day rule. Before you go to bed each night, make sure you wrote at
least five minutes. And five minutes. Isn't asking too
much of yourself. Many times five
minutes will become a lot longer if you
become inspired. And if it doesn't, after vitamins, just try
it again tomorrow. Set specific deadlines
and stick to them. For the first draft, the most important thing
is to get it done. You can figure out
more problems in the second, third drafts app. It'll cause the first
shot them vomit pass because you're just vomiting up the story to figure it out. Years ago, I read the first draft of the
four-year-old virgin, and it wasn't that funny, but after several drafts
and great casting, the film is very funny. Treat the creative
process like a muscle. Muscles have muscle memory, work that muscle every day. This will keep it in
your subconscious. If you write and
then wait a week, you'll spend half the time thinking about what
you did last week. Instead of moving
the story forward, pretend you're in
jail and just write. If you were in jail, you
wouldn't have internet or email or social
media or kids, but you can write if you
want to do other things, then give yourself a page count. Tell yourself you'd do
five pages every day, and then you can do all
those other things. Rewriting and getting notes
have important stakes. Everything works better if
there are important stakes, if you're having trouble
moving your story forward, thinking about how do I
give this more stakes? Kill your darlings. In screenwriting, you're
often hear the term kill your darlings,
kill your baby's. This means killing ideas
that no longer work. If you keep working
on the script, you'll think of better ideas. Make your character's flawed. Everyone is flawed, so we want to see flawed
characters on screen. Cast your table reads carefully. Table reads, or when you get
a group of friends or actors together and you assign them roles and you read
the entire script. This helps immensely to see the dialogue is
working and the pace. Before you send your
script out to producers, do several table reads of it. I've done over a 100 table
raids and sometimes it's joke just doesn't work
because the actors persona, it doesn't jive with the
persona of the character. Create a mega document for alternative scenes and
Alternative Dialogue. Have an extra
script document for everything you cut as
you do more drafts. Trust your instincts. This idea came from you own it. You'll get a lot of
notes from your friends, but they didn't
write the script. You did. So trust your gut.
Here everyone, but listen to yourself. When it's ready. Have a killer logline. A logline is a very
short synopsis, usually no longer than 30 words, and it's usually one
sentence, maybe two. The shorter the
logline, the better. The first film I ever sold. The logline was a
feel-good comedy about a boy trying
to kill himself. That's 11 words long. And it made producers intrigued. Some even laughed. If it's comedy and you can make someone laugh
at the logline, that's a good sign. You also don't want to reveal
too much in the logline. Let producers get curious
and want to read the script. If you don't have representation that's not query letters. Career ladders are
usually a 150 words or less and make
sure they're fun. A query letter is usually
an email to producer or manager and agent that makes them want to
read the script. It helps them if you
make it personal to options usually come
first before selling. An option is equal to
10% of the sale price. And I just want to
production company buys the rights to the film for
a limited amount of time. Most of my options are
about a year-and-a-half. I would advise never
optional script for free. Some money is better
than no money. And when they invest
money into the film, they want to produce it more. Join a writing group. I run a comedy
writing group every Wednesday called
deadline junkies, where every Wednesday
night we have new pages do and do table
read through the actors. This helps me make sure I
have writing on the brain. Celebrate your accomplishments. When you finish a script, take yourself out
to a nice meal. And when you option
ourselves script, take yourself out to
a really nice meal. Making money from writing a script makes the food
tastes even better. Thank you again, I plan to
teach more classes soon. If you enjoyed this one, you can find out more
on our website at www dot Jordan
hemiola.com. Now right on. And best of luck in
your screenplay.
18. Inspirational Advice: All right, So every
month my two friends and I interview and learn from
other successful writers. And I wanted to share some of my favorite inspirational advice from professional screenwriters. Your latest film, chip and dale rescue rangers
comes out in a few days. How did you both end up
writing on that project? We want to take a little
of this data and then you go for it just to take you behind the
curtain a little bit. You know, we have
been we have been working for a little while. He had been on How
I Met Your Mother. We were taking meetings and you get then you get to a place sometimes if you're
lucky enough to get to talk about open
reading assignments. So that's one of them
just happened to be the rescue rangers at Disney. We had a meeting and initially actually Dan
and I were not interested in meeting on it because we are loved the rescue
rangers logic growing up, but we were like, why, why would we, what would be the, what would we be saying
is different about it? And to Disney's credit
and to Mandeville, the company that produced it, Todd Lieberman and out young. They were like, just pitch
us any anything you want. And let's just see like
and here's a little. Dad and I, months before had gone in on a different
open writing assignment and we worked our ***** off on breaking an entire movie
for the party boys. We didn't get the job. And so this is out
there to let people know that there's no no
work is for nothing. So then we were talking about
and we're like, you know, there's parts of that
pitch that could fit quite nicely into rescue rangers and they're telling us to
bring us whatever you want. And so we made a pitch around some of the temples that we've come up for
the Hardy Boys. And then built a different story and pitched it and they
liked it and they, they paid us to write it. And that's how we got our
that's how it came about. It was it was very unexpected. We couldn't believe they kept in a business where you
usually hear no. They kind of kept saying do it, go for it because it was kind of a property
that had been dead Really? Yeah. I mean, look, I don't
know where you got. I was I'm a I'm an old millennial and I loved the
rescue rangers growing up and the proper trans geriatric millennial.
That's offensive. I I, it's quite accurate,
but it's offensive. I just, I just
learned about this. I'm very excited
by new knowledge. Don't, don't, don't
don't perpetuate that. This is not we're not
going to make that a thing to cripple enable. Yeah. It was I was a fan of this
like very much growing up. I loved going to the parks, hug and chip and dale. But the real of it is as adult, I imagine you guys probably, maybe had this reaction the
first time you heard about this movie was
like really light. Like there's not, there's not like an inherent need to
make this a movie today. And that was the first thing we reacted to when we heard
that they wanted to do this. We're like, okay. But we took that
sort of feeling, that energy into our thought process about how to
come up with a movie. And the movie really
is like based almost from the
launching pad of like, does anyone need
a rescue rangers reboot the original
title of the movie was the chip indels rescue rangers reboot.
No one asked for. Can you talk about like
personal deadlines? Deadlines every day or do you have the counties had
deadlines for yourself? It's hard because I have four kids that
are all under four. So I don't get a ton of writing done during the day, if S ever. So really I usually my
kids are all in bed by eight and then I want to
spend some time with my wife. If Jessica will watch TV or
talked for like eight to ten and then she'll go
to bed at ten and then I'll work like tend to midnight. So it's hard to set a
deadline because I'm always so tired and not
wanting to do anything. And then always like
two nights of the week, I'm like somebody sent a script
that they wanna notes on or I have to read
something for staffing. It's just so it's very rare
that I'm just getting like all these colors
allocated working. So I always, I've always worked
with my deadline is just, it's crippling panic that
I'm gonna lose my house. I'm going to fail my family. So whenever I have
a chance to work, I just get as much
done as I can and I'll just go full throttle
the whole time. I, for me crippling panic
is the best motivator. I think if, if you're not working from a place
of crippling panic, you have no business
being out here. You're never gonna be
successful if you already have money and you don't
really care if you're working? I texted my agent every day. Why don't I have a job yet? I have sure. It's not happening yet. So I'm texting her every day
for different jobs. And that's how you
can be successful out here by crippling,
crippling panic. So no, I don't have deadlines. I just worry that my family
is going to die poor, and that's what I
have to deal with. Does that answer the question? I feel like I answered
the question. If you have any favorite
writing advice or books? Yes, I do. My favorite book
about writing is Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, which I don't
know if you guys have read, it's actually about
novel writing, so interesting when you ask
them out in different forms. But the subtitle
for Bird by Bird is advice on writing and life, which I just love
that to six subtitle. And Bird by Bird is
an interesting title, but she explains
why in the book. And I just, it's a book that
I've read many times and I highly recommend it no matter what form of writing
your writing, it's an incredible resource. If you're writing a
novel, certainly, but even TV writing
feature ending, It's just general advice. And sometimes I find like if I'm writing something,
I might get stuck. I'll just start reading
Bird by Bird like I'll just jump back in and I'll
read, reread it again. And then inevitably, I usually don't make
it all the way to the edge by the time
I'm halfway through, I'm like, Okay, now
I'm regenerate. So I highly recommend
that book as a place of a place to go to. And one adage that she says in the book which I have
highly adopted her hold, her whole strategy
can basically be boiled down to
****** first drafts, releasing you from having
to be good right away. Because I think that
that's something that keeps people from writing, like a fully written anything is better than a half
written anything. Period. So I think that
that's hard to learn. Even if you're on a deadline, even if you have somebody
waiting for your draft, It's not as perfect on
the pages that wasn't your head and so that can
stymie your whole process. So I literally like I was
just working on something. I just finished a new spec pilot that I'm really excited about. That set in 1999 and the music industry and
it's something that would work you on
for a long time. And it's a musical elements
and I'm so excited. But I was trying I
needed to finish it because people are
waiting on it. I literally had to write
down on a piece of paper and it just said I wrote, I just wrote, it doesn't
have to be perfect. It just has to be written. And it was just like that's it. And every time I
would get frustrated, I would just look at it. So I'm, you know, that's a lot I think into my brain about like how I write. And probably the other piece of advice I would add to that is, there are certainly
some writers, especially novelists,
that they write. However many thousand
words a day are there. They write for this
many hours and I'm just I'm not
that kind of writer. I'm more of an ebb and
flow kind of writer, which is why I like freelancing. I like working on
different projects. There are some times
where I will write 16 hours a day for a week, then I won't write for a month. It's just like
there's times where I'm on a deadline and I
have to finish and I do. And then I like, sometimes
it's not a writing mode. So I think that's important too. I think sometimes some
of my friends beat themselves up because
it didn't write today. And I think as a professional, you have to learn the difference
between just being in a bad mood and being in a mood where you're not going to write
because you have to, you know, we all have to
work through our bad moods, but I do think there's a time
where it's just it's not a reading day and that's okay. Every day I does not
have to be arriving day. So you always have for me you always have to be
working on something. I've, you know, while I was working on Cobra
Kai season four, I was also finishing up a pilot that my managers
were sending around. And so that's
something that could be getting me the next job. And even now, we're on hey, just at the moment I'm
working on other stuff, so yeah, you do always have
to be thinking about it, but there's also a lot of things that are just
out of your control. I'm lucky I have
really great reps who are sending me around
to a lot of places and also lucky to be coming
off of a show that is quite popular and that a
lot of people really like. So that's very helpful as well. You can really do is just write the best things that
you can write and try to put them
out into the world and hope that it works out. How did you get ripped? My manager is actually
she was my first boss. I worked I was her
assistant at CIA and then she when she
loved to be a manager. And after I got my promotion of staff
writer, I called her. And so I think that's the,
that's the tough part, is that a lot of new writers
start looking for reps. And if you don't already
have a writing credit, like a manager agent isn't going to be able to do
anything for you anyway. Nobody wants to give
someone their first job. The only way to get
your first writing job really is to either be extremely lucky or to have some sort of connection
to the show runners. So I was lucky enough to have gotten the writer's
assistant job and to have gotten my stuff
ready job that way. And as soon as you
have that credit, especially on a hit show, managers or managers are
happy to take your call. You do have any
routines or like, what do you do to make
yourself a stronger writer? I read a lot, I read
a lot of novels. I've been reading in quarantine, just a ton of mystery novels. And because I've
been trying to work on a mystery show,
a murder mystery. I want to say I have
a routine really, I don't do writing exercises
or anything like that. I do try to write every day
and I do just tried to read all the time and to watch all the new stuff
that's coming out. Yeah. I don't have a set. Like I'm not one of those. I sit down at my desk at nine AM and I write for two hours
and then I eat lunch. I don't do that. Yeah.
Unless I'm on a deadline. I'm more, you know, I tried to write every day, but it's not always
at the same time. As long as it gets done, the routine doesn't quite
matter as much to me. My next question is,
if you guys have an amazing cast and
here stellar cast. Did you know already going into the script,
who was in a cast? Or did you like how
the castle of your like someone actually
be the character like, were you inspired by anyone? And the kids have cast
already after the script? Yeah, I mean, that
was the really cool process of working. The cool aspect of working
with Marvel is that I've always tried to picture a cast and my
mind while I'm writing, like it just really helps
me see the movie more. Because really like to me, like I was an editor
for many, many years. And so that's really where
I learned storytelling. And while you're,
when you're editing, There's so often like you'd get into a spot where
you're like, Man, if I just had this
little piece of movie or something or mobile wish they would have
said this instead. But you can't, you can't do anything about it when
you're Editor button, you're a writer, you can't. You're making a movie
inside your head. So to me, I'm just really making a movie inside
my head and then just simply describing what
I see on the page. And so it really helps me to see actors and helps to
capture their voice. Sometimes it's just,
it is like actors that are, that we can cast. And sometimes I'm just
like, it's really, it's gotta be Gene Hackman
from the French Connection. That's what I'm
picturing. That's just the way it helps me see it. So anyway, with more, but
before writing scripts, you picture these actors
and you don t know, like how am I going to ever,
when you have no agent? No way, no n's and Hollywood, how am I going ever get
to them with marble? It was like we would
see an actor in our heads that we
would make our tastes. And then it's like two
weeks later they're like, Oh yeah, it's almost
in the movie now. Like they had the power to basically make all
these things happen. And so it's just
really exciting, especially when Chloe
came on to start to see all these people just kinda like coming in one
after another. And, and, and the movie just kept getting more and more
special with every, with every, with every
gasoline choice. It's very difficult
to write something better than the best thing
you can possibly imagine. The more. So like having a good sense of taste that is
like what you want. It sort of ultimately, it might make you
feel like you're not achieving it in the moment, but it's ultimately
the thing that's going to drag your
progress forward. Assuming you keep writing, which would be my
general advice, which is make sure
you're actually writing. I feel like when I when
I first moved to LA, I was like very convinced
that I was writing a lot. And then I went on some I think it was like the
writing pad or something. I went to look for classes. I was like I should
take a class. Deadlines are
helpful, as I assume, the people who hosts the
deadline junkie podcast. Thank you for promoting us. The end, I was looking on their website
and there was some part of where you're
supposed to sign up and it was like who should
be taking these classes? And there was some thing
that was like If you're not writing ten hours a week, you're not a real writer, which I'm not saying it
has to be that at all. But in that moment I was like
writing ten hours a week. And then I started
actually tracking it. And I would write
like a little bit before I went to work or like a little bit on an evening when my wife was like
out with friends. And I did like three or four weeks in a row and
they all came out to like 4.54 hours of writing. And I was like, Oh ****, ten hours is a lot of
writing this query. And so that really helped me re-frame my own
commitment to it. Not not just like I shouldn't
be writing ten hours, but like like sit down, actually put words on the page, on some kind of page, whether it's a notebook or a
computer screen or whatever, because it's so easy to
like read an article about writing or like research
the topic of your story, or pace around coming
up with ideas. And at the end of the day, I think I realized
as I say this, I'm just backing into Alex's advice switches like just right and then
don't worry about it. Our boss likes to, our old boss on
Dexter used to say, What was it per perfection
is the death of progress. And I think that's so true and I think we can be super
hard on ourselves. And I think the
minute that you just sort of let go is when
you figure it out.
19. More Screenwriting Advice: Alright, so this
is a bonus lesson to review the whole class, do some takeaways and
some extra bonus tips that I forgot to mention
in the last lesson. Here's a breakdown
of all the structure points that we talked about. Killer opening scene. Find a way to hook the audience
and right off the bat. Set it up. Remember
to show don't tell exposition and give each
character a strong introduction. Show your main character's
problems and try to meet all your main characters
who will afford the story. Inciting incident. What is the call to
action that will change the life of
your protagonist? Get ready for a big change. Your protagonist will debate
the stain their old world, or enter a new world and move
forward with their journey. Entering a new world. Your heroes ready to change. Also, your BI story starts
around here. Have some fun. This is where we get the most
trailer moments and we see the promise of the
premise. Mid point. Something big happens here. That raises all the stakes. Conflict, just increased. Amp up the stakes, show how the antagonist
is starting to win. All is lost. Your hero is at the
lowest point possible. Even worse, when
the hero started off, where there's a will, there's a way your protagonist has nothing left to
lose and goes all out. They get ready for
the final fight. And they will find that
one surprising thing. They'll beat the antagonist. Finale had the protagonist and antagonist fight one-on-one. This is the final
fight. Make it epoch. Killer. Final scene. Your hero has one, we see they have changed. Remember that somehow circle
back to the opening scene. Determine what your hero wants. Put your protagonist
and antagonist wants against each other. In Iron Man, after Tony
escapes his kidnapping, he wants to change
the direction of his company and to
stop making weapons. The villain, Obadiah stain, wants to keep the
company the way it is, and keeps developing weapons. Their wants are
completely opposite. Do character questionnaires. This is a list of questions that will really help to explore your character to get a
free document for this, you can visit my website at www dot Jordan ME
ola.com slash character. Some character
questions include, what is their current
occupation and past jobs? What are their hobbies? Who or what does
the character love? Who or what does
the character fear? What is the character's
fatal flaw? What is the character's
goal in the story? Who or what prevents the character from
achieving their goal? What is the first image
of the character? And what does this
tell us about them? Sometimes you can get stuck with how your
character would react. But if you know them in and out, you'll know how the act outline to know
where you're going, but follow your
heart when writing. Every writer and every script is different when it
comes to outlines. Many times you do
an outline there, scriptural change
as you write it. And that's totally okay. Your characters will take
shape in your dialogue, will come up more naturally
as you write the script. Pitch to your friends
who would watch it. If you feel stuck, it's good
to talk it out with someone, but talk with
someone who gets it. Someone who'd pay to
watch your movie. If you're writing a comedy, It's probably not the
best idea to pitch someone who only
watched his dramas. You probably have
several friends with your best friend may not
be the right person. Talk it out with the person who excites you to talk about it. Enjoy yourself. Writers create their best work when they're
enjoying themselves. Sometimes it takes some time to just sit there and force
yourself to write. But eventually you'll find your groove and write
something you really like. Don't write cliches. Anything you've seen in a
movie before is a cliche. If you find yourself
writing a cliche, think about how to change the way it is and
make it unique. And counties jokes are
often setups that are cliches with payoffs that
are surprising, right? In the present tense. I see the mistake of writing in the past tense all the time
by amateur screenwriters. And it's easy to do the right. Something like Diana is
sitting across from Steve. But this should be Diana
sits across from Steve. Making it present tense, uses less words and letters, making the script a faster
rate for the reader. Screenplays are written
in the present tense. Titles are okay to
have past tense words, but action lines need to
be in the present tense. Show. Don't tell if you ever find your main character telling something the audience
needs to know. See if you can find
a way to show it. We talked about this with Tony
Stark in the third lesson. Movies constantly show how the heroes become who they are. And Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles, the original 1990 movie, splintered, tells Abraham how the turtles got their
powers from the ooze. But it's shown to the audience
at the exact same time. He's telling her, find the
ritual that helps you write. Shonda Ryan's uses headphones. Tony Montana wakes up at 530 in the morning
and rights free hand. I'd like to go to the same copy shop and make sure
I don't look at my email or phone until I spend
at least an hour writing. Keep the script open
on your computer. Make it the last thing you
look at on your computer and the first thing you will look
at when you open it, right? Every day. Some people take
ten years to write one screenplay because they
say they never have the time. But all your excuses are not
going to move you forward. You need to make the time, the more you keep
it in your mind and drag yourself to do it, the sooner you'll get it done. It won't just be an idea, it'll be a real thing. Just finished the first draft. Don't make the first draft
perfect, just get it done. First drafts, it should
be just for you. And rewriting is so much
easier than writing. You can figure out how to solve more problems
in the second, third drafts, but get
the first draft done. Other side of that, know
when the script is cooked, this is advice I got
from Shonda rhymes. Sometimes you'll
reach a point after rewriting and rewriting and
rewriting that you know, if you keep touching the
script, you might ruin it. I remember if my last produce
movie love at first bite, we had several territories
with different actors. But the second last table rate was funnier than the
last table array. And we had to backtrack
and figure out what new stuff we
added that wasn't working and how we messed
it up. Hope this all helps. I'm working on another
screenwriting class right now there'll be
a follow-up to this. It'll be titled
advanced screenwriting. Writing a screenplay in 14 days. It'll be a deep dive even
more than this class. And I'll show you
how to write a movie in 14 days and show you my journey
from brainstorming to finishing the first draft. You can check out my website, www dot Jordan ME ola.com for more things
related to screenwriting. Also, I host a podcast with
my two finding friends, ran and Kirsten called the deadline junkies
screenwriting podcast, where we interviewed TV writers, show runners, and super
successful screenwriters. It's tractable advice
and inspiration. You can find the video
version of the deadline Jackie's screenwriting
podcast on YouTube. Just search in the YouTube, the deadline junkies
screenwriting podcast. Now, get that movie
done and happy writing.
20. Thank You + Summer Course Promo: Thank you so much for watching this course. I really
appreciate it. If you're interested in one
on one coaching sessions, I'd love to help you during your creative process to make sure your project gets finished. These sessions are
$45 for 45 minutes. If you're interested,
you can e mail me at Jordan period
emola@gmail.com. These coaching sessions can be weekly or bi weekly,
whichever you prefer. I offer coaching sessions on
writing movies, TV shows, web series, producing
your own film or series, and much more. I can coach you over Zoom once
a week or every two weeks, to make sure you stay
on track and create the accountability you need to finish your
story and project. Contact me to book your
first session now. Also, this summer, I'm hosting a summer screenplay course
where I'll be teaching students how to write
a movie in one season. I've spent many summers over the past 17 years writing
summer screenplays, where I write the
first draft of a movie during the summer season
where I am in America. Starting June 20
to September 19, I'll be teaching and hosting 60 minute teaching sessions with groups of students on Zoom, teaching several students
how to write a screenplay. You'll be responsible for
writing about ten pages a week, and I'll guide you to keep
your story moving forward. This course costs $395. And by September 19, you'll have a finished draft of a feature film screenplay. Once a week we'll meet, and I'll be giving instructions
on story structure. And we'll be
interacting with each other to see where our
stories are going. Talking out your story and
your writing helps immensely. And having a group of writers who are along the journey with you creates amazing
accountability and discipline. Again, you can e mail me at
JORDAN period mla@gmail.com. I'd love to help you write
a screenplay this summer. Also, my website
offers services like script coverage and links to my podcast and other courses. Thank you again and
write on. Okay.
Jordan Imiola, Screenwriter
