Christopher Lockhart
William Morris Endeavor (WME)
Formerly, Executive Story Editor at International Creative Management (ICM)
As the Executive Story Editor at International Creative Management (ICM), I have read tens of thousands of scripts and have learned many things about the craft and business of screenwriting. However, the one lesson that I am reminded of on a daily basis is that writing a great screenplay is very difficult. Many scripts that I encounter are written by professional screenwriters but some are written by struggling scribes hoping to breakthrough. Regardless of the writer's credentials, the basic fact does not change: writing a great screenplay is very difficult. There can be many definitions of what "great" is, but, primarily, a great screenplay is one that creates an emotional experience for its audience. By the time the read is finished, the audience (story analyst, agent, manager, producer, actor, director, costume designer) has been moved into feeling a certain way - as intended by the writer.
It should be noted that screenplays are not movies. Screenplays are simply blueprint for movies. A movie has many additional elements to "move" the audience: a winning performance by a favorite actor, smart editing, a swelling musical score, for instance. By the very nature of its medium, a screenplay is more limited and can only use the influence of its story, characters and structure to move its audience, but when it is done with greatness the results are undeniably powerful. Despite all the high tech trimmings of a Hollywood movie, the emotional core is its screenplay.
When a reader starts a screenplay, he begins with a certain amount of equanimity, but the screenplay should move the reader, for example, to happiness or anger or horror or sadness or anxiousness or all and more. If the reader is unmoved by the end of the screenplay, the writer has failed. Most reading experiences result in apathy. Writers will often complain that the reader didn't "get it." But it is not the reader's job to "get it." It is the writer's job to "give it." Often, what moves the writer simply doesn't move anyone else. It is similar to telling a joke that no one - but the teller - finds funny. The joke, however, is a quick venture, and its failure is often humorous in of itself and forgotten about moments later. But a screenplay takes months of hard work to complete and, perhaps, months of effort to query the marketplace in the hopes of a read. And when (or if) that is achieved, someone gives two hours of his day to sit down and read the script. With this kind of investment, a writer must strive for a story with broad appeal. He cannot be as cavalier as that jokester. Unfortunately, if the screenplay fails to move the reader, the hard work will be easily dismissed and quickly forgotten.
Richard Michaels Stefanik has studied movies that have achieved the zenith of success at the box-office. He calls them the MEGAHIT MOVIES. In this book, he explores the commonalities of these screenplays. He examines the dramatic elements that move an audience, seducing them to return again and again to see the film - which is how a movie gains its MEGAHIT status. Writers often scoff at MEGAHIT movies. Backlash against TITANIC, for instance, is common. "Where is the artistic integrity in that screenplay?" asks the indignant scribe. The art of screenwriting is in the ability to move the audience. Since Hollywood movies are huge investments, stories need to move the biggest audience possible. The talent lies in crafting a screenplay that can move millions of people by finding the universalities within a unique story. There are identifiable narrative elements within the screenplay for TITANIC that brought audiences back to see it again and again. Some screenplays have the power to move reader after reader - straight on up to the executive with the clout to greenlight it. Other screenplays can hardly budge a part-time story analyst. These two examples are the difference between writing a screenplay and keeping a diary. This is not to suggest that the story that fails to move the Hollywood reader isn't worthy to be told. On the contrary, it may be a very worthy story. However, it may need to be told in another medium all together, like a novel. When a movie has the ability to attract crowds over and over - to the tune of a billion dollars worldwide - the story works.
Many new writers fall in love with the movies and sit down to write a screenplay without realizing there is craft involved. For instance, an audience cries at a particular scene because careful mechanics have been layered throughout the story to elicit that response at the appropriate time. It doesn't just simply happen. Why does an audience root for the hero? How does a writer weave a story in a way that creates tension, forcing the reader to stay with it through the end? And, most importantly, how does the writer create a story that audiences really care about? Writers must understand the constructs of the dramatic craft and the MEGAHIT MOVIES, which, in turn, could create a great screenplay that insures the reader an emotional experience.
It is a long, arduous journey from the first draft of a screenplay to opening weekend at the local multiplex. As a creative executive, I read each new script with the hope of finding a story that will move me and instill me with a sense of passion I clearly didn't possess at the beginning. It is a difficult challenge for the writer, but within these pages are the tools to empower the scribe on this journey to writing a great screenplay.
May all your screenplays be MEGAHIT MOVIES.
Christopher Lockhart
William Morris Endeavor (WME)
Beverly Hills, California
Copyright 2010 by Richard Michaels Stefanik
All Rights Reserved.