Wait! They Forgot Gatsby and The Book Thief!

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Captain Phillips, Great Gatsby, Leonardo DiCaprio, The Book Thief, Wolf of Wall Street

I was finally reading the Golden Globe award noms last night and my boyfriend and I were shocked that neither the Great Gatsby nor the Book Thief were nominated for best picture and Gatsby for nothing? Did I read that correctly?Wow!

I told my boyfriend that Gatsby sadly had no chance since it came out in May and thus forgotten, but the Book Thief just came out in late fall. Both of those films were great.

This year our favorites were: The Great Gatsby, Captain Phillips, The Book Thief, and The Wolf of Wall Street. Any film that leaves you thinking about it for days and also disturbs you and your sleep is surely worth a nod, right?

Makes me sad that a high concept film like Gravity which was entertaining but didn’t have anything great to say and the story was just meh, gets noms and Gatsby one of the greatest stories ever written was dismissed? What is going on?

Sad.. well they get my vote! And Leonardo should have been nominated for both his performances in Gatsby and the Wolf of Wall Street. Sorry Leo-have no idea what is going on. Maybe Oscar? Here is hoping!

Wolf of Wall Street Amazing Film

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Jordan Belfort, Leonardo DiCaprio, scorsese, Wolf of Wall Street

Last night my boyfriend and I went to see Scorsese’s new film about the Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort portrayed brilliantly by Leonardo DiCaprio. The film was flawless and does NOT glorify the behavior of the main character, in fact, it’s disgusting. Just like Henry Hill in Goodfellas, it’s hard to like the main character-Jordan, except Leo is likeable-usually-but not in this. I don’t know Mr. Belfort personally, and I don’t know anyone who did what he did personally so I can’t really say more about his actual personality, but this is based on a true story. 

The film is great. It shows how these types of people act and treat others. It shows what greed can do and does to many. It shows the underbelly of a rich society in New York in the 1980s and 1990s especially, You all know it, we read about it all the time, this asshole or that asshole was arrested for fraud, insider trading or ponzi schemes… sigh.. it is what it is. 

I don’t support this type of behavior, but I did support this film. Go see it, it’s great. 

Things That Are Wrong with Your Screenplay

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character, Screenplay, Story

This is a link that was shared on social media, it has some great points on what can go wrong in your screenplay, but it is basically everything that is wrong with every story, even the ones that are made.

http://www.fastcocreate.com/3022129/all-the-things-that-are-wrong-with-your-screenplay-in-one-handy-infographic#1

My biggest issues when reading scripts are:

STORY There needs to be a story-period. It has to have a strong beginning, middle and end-period. No amount of special effects is going to help that no matter what Disney, Sony and other big studios show you. It’s one of my biggest pet peeves when people tell me they love a film and I ask them why and they say the 3D was awesome, or the FX were awesome. A screenplay needs to have a solid story.

Why are you telling this story?

What are you trying to say?

Why is this important to you?

Ask yourself these and more questions, and then you should have a good story.

And STOP reading every screenwriting book on how to tell a story, just tell a good story, get that done first, then you can go in and tweek for industry standards.

Second biggest mistake. CHARACTER. You have to have strong characters that have strong intentions, needs, wants, actions and dialogue. This is non negotiable-period. All your characters must have different voice and they must all have their own needs AND everything they do MUST move the story forward.

Don’t ever write anything because, “wouldn’t it be funny if” or “It would be cool if”.. No no no no.. don’t do it.

Female characters—this affects both men and woman.

MEN don’t put them in if they don’t move the story just to have your hero getting laid, it’s boring and overdone and contrary to why you went to films in high school, it does not sell tickets.Don’t put a female in just to please your girlfriend. Put her in because you NEED her to TELL THE STORY. See how it always goes back to story? If you do put in a female character, please make her realistic. Look around you, who are the women in your life? How would they act in a situation? Write that.

WOMEN stop writing female characters just because you think we need more. Ugh I am so sick of this too. I am sick to death of reading bad scripts with a woman lead that makes no sense. If you want to write a strong female, then write her, you are a female this shouldn’t be so hard and yet it seems to be that more and more scripts are written by women about women just to put a woman in a script. Sigh.

STRUCTURE didn’t I just say it didn’t matter? No I said it’s second to story, but it must be there. Read scripts tons of them and format correctly.

There are a million things that can go wrong with your script, or right with it, so just think before you submit about these things and things on that list, but don’t get so bogged down either that you never show your work to anyone.

GOOD LUCK!!