Jason Dolan is a WGA screenwriter whose credits including the supernatural indie Enter Nowhere and The Vanishing of Sidney Hall which premiered at Sundance in 2017 and sold to A24. He is currently prepping his directorial debut. You can follow him on Twitter @jdolan74.
Look, Major League Baseball Superstar Mike Trout didn't just wake up one day and become one of the best hitters in baseball. He had to train. He had to practice. He had to watch tape and study other hitters. He had to watch tape and study the pitchers he was going to face. He had to work with coaches. He had to work with teammates. If you're a screenwriter, so are you.
It's nearly impossible to arrange financing for an independent feature film if you don't have (m)any credits. To get financing, it helps to have a "proof of concept" that shows why an investor or company should give you money to execute your vision. It is also MUCH easier to finance a short film. But where do you begin?
Not every movie is told the same way. I thought I'd talk about five basic film structures, and give a few examples for each different structure. When you are thinking about how best to tell your story, you might consider trying one or two, or even all five of these methods.
The most important thing I tell any writer who is embarking on writing their screenplay is to just plow through and get that first draft done. Here's the rub though. Finishing that first draft is only the beginning of the journey for you as a writer.
As a young writer, it is important to understand how franchise writing works. But where do you start? How do you know what kind of movies Lucasfilm will want to make in the years to come? That’s where my investigative work comes into play.