What Makes A Character Memorable?
A white feather floats through the air, drifting high in the afternoon sky. As it drops, fluttering through clouds, “Paramount Pictures Presents” fades in with opening titles—“A Steve Tish/Wendy Finerman Production”—“A Robert Zemekis Film”—and the feather travels further on its journey, whisked away by the breeze, hovering over a busy Savannah, Georgia street. The feather […]
Applying Symbolism to Your Script
We previously discussed why symbols are used in screenwriting. In this follow-up article Creative Screenwriting Magazine contributor, Kevin Nelson discusses how to apply your knowledge of symbols to your screenplay. 1) Genre Genres rely on conventional narrative elements that invite certain story expectations and garner specific emotional responses. There are four major genres […]
The Truth Behind The Myth
Myths can conveniently be dismissed as apocryphal tales grounded anywhere from the absence of truth to the indisputable fact. They typically track a hero (real or imaginary) with a human element that helps us explore and more fully understand our roots, our evolution, our societal progress, and perhaps most importantly, our purpose in the world […]
Symbolism In Screenwriting
Everyone gets lost sometimes. In order to find our way back from our wanderings, we search for familiar markers, signs, or symbols to guide us where we need to go, whether in our lives or stories. So let’s not search blindly through the forest or gaze at the heavens for answers, but huddle our minds […]
How To Write A Contained Film
Contained films are restrained stories that have traditionally been limited to the horror/ thriller genre. They are characterized by having few characters (often three to five, sometimes as few as one), no more than one or two main locations such as a haunted house, and a skeleton crew. Most importantly, they are filmed on shoestring budgets. […]
