What goes into writing a great movie script?

Your primary job is to create situations. Modern actors will fuck up your dialogue, despite whatever your contract says.

A scene should change valence from beginning to end. Up to down, down to up.

Get up there yourself. Be in a movie. Take some acting (not writing) classes. Learn how a trained actor approaches a text. Learn why actors take roles. They do as much if not more than the writer does.

Main distributor to Amazon’s Whole Foods hit by cyber attack - ft.com

Cut everything that is not a payoff, or a setup for a specific payoff. “Omit needless words.” Think about the sparseness of joke telling, or Grimm Brothers.

Leave holes. Write and unwrite. Put it in, take it out.

Only God gets it right the first time. Rewrite everything.

How Many Burgers Are Too Many Burgers? Here's What Health Experts Advise. - HuffPost

Use status to help drive conflict. King Lear/fool. Upstairs/downstairs.

All rules are made to be broken, but you damn well better know WHY you’re breaking them.

Don’t direct from the page. Everyone, from the director on down, wants to be part of the process of making movies. Let them do their work.

Yes, You Can Change Outfits In Nightreign , But Not At First - Kotaku

A critical function of storytelling is wish fulfillment. This is why video games are so popular. “That protagonist is JUST LIKE ME.”

Audiences are smarter than you think. Something about turning down the house lights makes their IQs go up.

Learn to tell a story orally and not through writing. Try telling your story to a friend.

What are the common formulas for improvising ornaments in bel canto singing?

Write in reverse time. Major characters need to change polarity; minor characters may remain the same at the end.

Outline everything. Use story beats. Keep character’s mouths taped up, until they absolutely MUST speak. Write the script and the dialogue at the last minute, after you’ve revised the hell out of the outline.

People choose what to see based on the high concept. Make sure to deliver an ending consistent with the high concept -- it is what the audience paid for.

What is the top-rated beach resort in Bali, Indonesia according to TripAdvisor reviews?

To develop a unique voice for each character, try interviewing your characters.

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

Where did cosmic rays come from? Astrophysicists are closer to finding out - Phys.org

Primary characters must change polarities. Secondary characters can change less.

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

How is ice climbing a different or similar experience from rock climbing?

Maintain a slush pile/idea file. When you are ready to write, choose the best seeds to plant.

Conflict is your power source; without it you have no drama and hence no script.

What you leave unwritten is as important as what you write. SUBTEXT.