Screenwriting with Steve Coombes
5 Golden Rules
In our first lecture with Steve we were taught about the Five Golden Rules:
-Show don't tell: Steve taught us that showing is believing, we watched an extract from the film 'Don't Touch my Records' where we analysed different moments where show don't tell was used, this was helpful as we saw the impact that showing a moment could have rather than just narrating it. It makes it have leave more of a mark on the audience rather than them being told what is happening.
-Intelligence principle: Make the first 5 minutes powerful, imagine you are impressing the president.
-Structure everything like a joke: Have a setup, then a misdirection, then the punchline. This is because distraction will surprise any audience. We watched a clip of the writers of the show Southpark talking about how to structure a screenplay and something they said was "never use 'and then' use 'therefore' and 'but' in order to add a punchline".
-Know your ending: If you know your ending you can make judgement about how to get there and how to go in the right direction. Defend you ending and don't change it.
-Count your moments: know your moments, don't cheat. They should stand out and be relatable for an audience. Make sure they happen at the right time and nothings been left out.
Final Draft workshop and tips:
Steve Coombes has worked with Final Draft for years so his tips during his workshop were very helpful. first of all he explained all the basic settings and options such as; action, character and transitions and in what scenarios we would use them. Something I struggled to understand at first was how to differentiate between an action and a parenthetical however with practice I understood and now know. A tip that he gave us was to come in late and leave early; not to over explain setups and endings but to let them be precise and not write past the ending. Steve said that I have a high concept story and something to improve on was deciding when moments would happen, for example when would Tracy and May first be seen together and how long would it be before the perspective flips from May to Tracy, these are definitely things I need to consider to get the "correct character ratio" as Steve described it.
Screenwriting feedback:
In our first lecture with Steve we were taught about the Five Golden Rules:
-Show don't tell: Steve taught us that showing is believing, we watched an extract from the film 'Don't Touch my Records' where we analysed different moments where show don't tell was used, this was helpful as we saw the impact that showing a moment could have rather than just narrating it. It makes it have leave more of a mark on the audience rather than them being told what is happening.
-Intelligence principle: Make the first 5 minutes powerful, imagine you are impressing the president.
-Structure everything like a joke: Have a setup, then a misdirection, then the punchline. This is because distraction will surprise any audience. We watched a clip of the writers of the show Southpark talking about how to structure a screenplay and something they said was "never use 'and then' use 'therefore' and 'but' in order to add a punchline".
-Know your ending: If you know your ending you can make judgement about how to get there and how to go in the right direction. Defend you ending and don't change it.
-Count your moments: know your moments, don't cheat. They should stand out and be relatable for an audience. Make sure they happen at the right time and nothings been left out.
Final Draft workshop and tips:
Steve Coombes has worked with Final Draft for years so his tips during his workshop were very helpful. first of all he explained all the basic settings and options such as; action, character and transitions and in what scenarios we would use them. Something I struggled to understand at first was how to differentiate between an action and a parenthetical however with practice I understood and now know. A tip that he gave us was to come in late and leave early; not to over explain setups and endings but to let them be precise and not write past the ending. Steve said that I have a high concept story and something to improve on was deciding when moments would happen, for example when would Tracy and May first be seen together and how long would it be before the perspective flips from May to Tracy, these are definitely things I need to consider to get the "correct character ratio" as Steve described it.
Screenwriting feedback:
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