Why Silicon Valley Has It All

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character, Comedy, Film, screenwriting, screenwriting tips, silicon valley, storytelling, Television, TV writing, writers life, Writing, writing comedy, writing tips

This may be a few years late, but I want to talk about a show that has it all! 

SILICON VALLEY

*pulled from IMDB-Silicon Valley (2014–2019) … Follows the struggle of Richard Hendricks, a Silicon Valley engineer trying to build his own company called Pied Piper

Let’s break down seasons-1-3 (it starts getting a bit more serious at the midway point) 

It has 👇

✅ Great characters

✅ Comedy that comes from character (not joke, joke, joke)

✅ Diverse cast

✅ Heart-meaning, we CARE Let’s break it down. 

The characters

Richard Hendricks-our protagonist/Lovable Loser who is kind, smart, a bit nerdy, pretty much always chooses the wrong thing but we care and root for him. He’s real and authentic.Erlich Bachman-Materialistic One/womanizer – he’s brash, arrogant, causes a lot of trouble and we love to hate him, but mostly love him because he is helping our main protagonist and his group of creators—for his 10% thoughBertram Gilfoyle-Bastard always a jerk to everyone including Richard but especially Dinesh. We have all worked with guys/gals like this. They are smart and arrogant but we need them. Dinesh Chugtai – Logical Smart One – basically is the only one who is always thinking straight and is solid. He doesn’t freak out or anything, he is just steady. Nelson “Big Head” Bighetti-another Lovable Loser-seriously this guy does nothing, isn’t good at anything like the others but keeps getting moved up. His only real qualification is being Richard’s best friend. Donald “Jared” Dunn- another Logical Smart One. Honestly, I could take or leave this guy but in understanding this business, I know these types are always there. Monica-the love interest? Maybe, maybe not. She, like, Erlich, causes a lot of problems, but we like her because we believe she means well.  Then you have the non-main characters but the ones who support the mains. Peter Gregory – billionaire whose company was funding Pied Piper until he died suddenly in a freak accident while on safari (while in real life the actor passed away from cancer in 2013) Played by Christopher Evan Welch based on the co-founder of PayPalGalvin Belson-clearly based on the two founders of Google. He is just a rich businessman and our antagonist for Richard and his gang. He’s all business.Jian-Yang -one of the housemates living in Erlich’s free incubator home for startups.Russ Hanneman also a billionaire but a serious douchebag and it was hard to watch Richard get involved with him.  

Comedy

that comes from character and the situations they are in but it’s not a sitcom. This show has dark comedy and it’s almost hard to watch. Unlike shows like FRIENDS or SEINFELD, you come back to Silicon Valley or go to the next episode because we NEED to know what happens. It’s not laugh-out-loud funny, well…maybe sometimes it is, especially if you know any people who are like this, but it’s meant to be a smarter comedy that all the humor comes from character. It’s really well done. I suggest that you watch it and study it. There are NO JOKES. Also, get Steve Kaplan’s book on writing comedy. THE HIDDEN TOOLS OF COMEDY  Some of the things that happen seem absurd but they all come from character. One of the most pivotal moments for Richard was when he created something unique and he did it based on a stupid argument Dinesh and Bertram were having literally about jerking off people in the audience. They got so specific about it and spent hours making charts on a board to figure the math out and it gave Richard an idea. It seemed random but it wasn’t “wouldn’t it be funny if” (two nerds argued about jerking others off–which would have been low-brow humor) but it was used to illustrate their characters and move the story forward in a big way.  

Diverse cast

You seriously can’t have a show that takes place in Silicon Valley without doing this so well done to the creators for getting this spot on. They didn’t just toss in some other races besides white to be inclusive, which is happening a lot lately, they did it because it informed the story. It was also authentic and realistic.  

Heart

We care about the characters and if they succeed. I was thinking about the show on the way to work meetings, going to the dentist, when I was at work-most comedies don’t have that kind of power, but my heart was in it for Richard and his company. If you can’t stop thinking about a show and the characters like they are real people, then they are doing their job extremely well. Sometimes it was hard to watch as Richard keep choosing the wrong thing but this is also so real to startups in the area and over the years. It’s so well written and plotted out that we are sucked right into it.  These are the reasons I am writing about this show that aired 7 years ago because it’s really great and if you are writing characters for anything it’s worth studying. SILICON VALLEY is currently on HBO Max

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Romantic Comedy Character Archetypes & Who Needs To Be Included

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character, character archetypes, how to write romantic comedy, romantic comedy, screenwriting, storytelling, TV writing, Writing, writing novels, writing romantic comedy, writing tips

This week I’m talking about characters in comedy, specifically romantic comedies. What I am seeing in a lot of work that is coming in is the stereotypes of the snarky leading lady-who honestly, no one, not even our leading man, would like because she’s too awful, and the womanizer leading man-who again, why would anyone give him a chance? And then the other characters are throwaways. 

Please don’t do this with your secondary characters, they can be just as important if not more important than your leads!! 

The TV show FRIENDS, which came out in 1994 was originally called, Monica & Friends, meaning Monica was the leading lady soon it really became all about Ross and Rachel but in the beginning, it was Monica’s story. 

When the show opens we see Monica and her friends handing out in a coffee shop, establishing who they all are and soon a bride-to-be walks in crying (inciting incident)-Rachel. We see through he actions and dialogue that she is a spoiled rich girl from Long Island who went to high school with Monica. Monica’s world changes when Rachel moves in with her–(new world). The show was Monica’s story and soon became an equal ensemble cast due to the strong character types. 

Another great comedy is Modern Family. You could say it’s about Claire’s family? Or Jay’s? Probably Jay’s since he is the patriarch of the family, but all the archetypes are there and it works. 

Novels are different-or are they? 

Take Crazy Rich Asians–

The story opens with Rachel and Nick at their favorite coffee shop and he is asking her to go to meet his family where a wedding is to take place. Little does she know who she is with. 

Rachel-leading lady

Nick-love interest

Then we go to meet Eleanore -the mom

the story also has, the best friend, (for both of them), the side-kick, and a very strong B story running throughout. 

One more example. In Hallmark’s Christmas movie Let It Snow you have a main character/leading lady, a love interest, friends, and parents, and a boss (bad guy-who isn’t so bad, it’s Hallmark after all and he’s also her father-of course in comedy we keep them all connected). This is a simple plot where the main character hates snow and is trying to impress her father (issues with feeling accepted) so she tries to get a village’s snow valley lodge shut down but she meets her love interest and realizes that she has had it wrong all along. It’s simple but works. I know a few of you are writing light romantic comedies–and they are fine but the ones that work have these characters in there. 

You don’t need to have ALL of them but you should have a good combo-the archetypes are who the characters are, and you can have them in any role in your story. 

CHARACTER ARCHETYPES

1. Lovable Loser

2. Logical Smart One

3. Neurotic

4. Bitch/Bastard

5. The Dumb One

6. In Their Own Universe

7. Womanizer/Manizer

8. Materialistic One

I’ll use FRIENDS (available on HBO Max for streaming and also runs on cable every day)

1. Lovable Loser (Pheobe)

2. Logical Smart One (Ross)

3. Neurotic (Monica)

4. Bitch/Bastard

5. The Dumb One (Joey) 

6. In Their Own Universe (Chandler) 

7. Womanizer/Manizer

8. Materialistic One (Rachel) 

You could argue that some of them cross over. 

Okay, I’ll do  Legally Blonde to-they aren’t all in there.

1. Lovable Loser (Serena & Margarette)

2. Logical Smart One (Elle)

4. Bitch/Bastard (Vivian) 

6. In Their Own Universe (Paulette)

7. Womanizer/Manizer (Prof. Callahan) 

Now look at it in terms of WHO must be in a romantic comedy-they can be any of the archetypes from above but these people need to be in your story.

Leading Lady -Elle

Love interest- Emmett

Ex-lover/boyfriend/soon to be ex-Warner 

Villain/bitch-Vivian (all the smart students) and Prof Callahan 

Side-kick/friend-Paulette

In Steve Kaplan’s book, The Hidden Tools of Comedy he goes over the archetypes in COMMEDIA basically how it all started-which is great and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book.

Back to the beginning of this newsletter-using stereotypes-if you do, make sure that you do it in a unique way. Why would you want your leading lady to be snarky and bitchy? What is the point? 

In The Proposal-Margaret is bitchy but not snarky-and we find out why she is like that when she opens up to Andrew-there is always a reason for that behavior, or there needs to be. 

In The Devil Wears Prada-Andrea is the leading lady and is sweet, innocent, and a little naive (at least in the film version, in the book she is a little more jaded-or becomes jaded quickly) and Emily is the bitchy one. 

Make sure if you go there, you have a reason and you must make them likable in some way, or readers or viewers won’t care. 

I hope this was helpful!!

Happy writing! XO Stephanie

Grab my new workbook on the 5 tips to writing a romantic comedy HERE

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Tuesday Tips

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author, character, creating characters, fiction, Film, Novels, screenwriting, Television, TV writing, Writing, writing for teens, writing tips, YA fiction

You want to be a writer? Okay then, you need to write. It’s literally that simple.

People always ask me, “how do I become a writer?” I mean people I met on planes, at coffee shops, at the grocery store, while at malls/shopping centers, at events, dinner parties. “Oh, you’re a writer? Cool. I have an idea, how do I do that?”

WRITE, that’s how.

There is no other way to be a writer than to write.

The way you get good at it, write every day. You have to, there is no shortcut on this one. It takes time to learn your craft.

You also need to read-constantly. If you want to be a novelist, you have to read novels. It is best to read in your chosen genre. I met someone recently who said that she was writing YA and I asked her what she had read lately and she said, “Oh I hate books for teens.” I was so confused, why write YA then?

***don’t write to trends

If you want to be the next Cameron Crowe—watch a ton of films, study the characters, dialogue, story and to up this to the next level, get your hands on some shooting scripts. It’s important.

TV writers who don’t watch TV? What?? Yes, they exist. They often brag about how they don’t even own a TV and or waste their time, and then they are writing the next great sitcom or drama. That makes no sense to me.

You need to immerse yourself in whatever it is that you want to do. It’s important.

You can also get many TV scripts online. For TV writing it’s a bit more complicated because of formatting for cable, network, primetime, late night, half hour, single camera, multi-camera—-but first—get your characters and story down, then you will need to learn all the above to start submitting. Also in TV writing you must have spec scripts of existing shows—this is beyond important.

Okay, so what are you going to do today??? WRITE!!

If you don’t know how to start, how about at the beginning–get a blank sheet and just get some words down.

YOU CAN DO IT. I know you can!!!

www.judaniebean.com 

Story Concierge Signature Course launching this summer. Sign up for my VIP newsletter for a chance for a free spot as I will have scholarships available!

Dialogue Tips

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character, craft, creating characters, dialogue, dialogue course, Film, Novels, Television, Writing, writing tips

I’m bringing back my Who Said That? Dialogue course—hoping to have it ready by fall 2019. If you want to sign up to be a Judanie Bean (that’s my new company) VIP please head over to my website

MY WEBSITE

I will have a new site soon but for now, you can sign up via my old site.

Here is why you want to do this—are you ready?—-this is not a sales pitch—I’m going to be giving away 10 spots in this course —-yup FREEBIE—who doesn’t love freebies.

I’m doing this simply because I am building the course for writers so I really want to get feedback from YOU and roll out the best course I can in 2020, which will be full price but until then, I’m testing everything and that means FREEBIES for you!!

Hurry though because 10 goes like that * imagine I’m snapping.

Fifty Shades of Judgement

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character, Christian Grey, Dakota Johnson, Fifty Shades of Grey Film, Fiftyshadesofgrey, Jamie Dornan, Randolph the zebra

I posted this photo on FB yesterday just to be silly and promptly got deleted by a few people. Some even thought it was their right to tell me how to live my life and or let me know that I am going straight to hell without passing go, or collecting $200. All because I posted a photo? Of a movie poster?

That said, we saw the film last night. The bottom line, it wasn’t as racy as many other films despite the plot and storyline. It wasn’t great, but it wasn’t bad. What I did with those who scolded me with their good Christian lectures on how to be a better person? I took the high road from Elsa and let it go, but honestly people need to get over it.

No one is forced to see this film, or read the book. The story is what it is, a story about a man who had a “rough start in life” and can’t handle the intimacy of a real relationship, how he deals with it, is what happens in the story, but the story isn’t about that, or abuse, or control or anything, it’s actually quite sad if you think about Christian Grey.

As you know, I like my male leads and while technically this story is told from Anastasia Steele, I think it’s more about Christian. He is more interesting. He is sad, haunted, tortured, and ALONE, very, very, alone. He can’t have a normal relationship, it’s not in him because of abuse he suffered as a small child and then a teenager. It’s sad.

Badly written or not, it sold 100 (yes one hundred) MILLION copies, so I wouldn’t mind that happening, and she got a film deal out of it. LOL

In my humble opinion, had this not been “fan fiction” (Twilight) and she had worked with a STRONG editor, it would have been much better. It read like a first draft to me and maybe it was, I don’t know. I am not in the business of cutting others’ work down and or assuming to know how it happened. I got the book because everyone was reading and talking about it. I kinda wished that Christian was a vampire, but the story is set in reality and the reality is that Mr. Grey is truly messed up.

If people want to judge me, or others who see this film, that is on them. Like I said above, it was quite tame. Of course there were sex scenes in the film, but it wasn’t too much and it was done as tastefully as it could have been.

I don’t regret seeing it. I like Jamie Dornan since his days on Once Upon A Time and Dakota Johnson was fine too. It was just entertainment.

I hope that all those people getting all riled up, will just calm down and focus on something important like helping others, or anything but what they are doing.

If you saw it, or read it, I’d love to hear your take on the story, not the writing, the story. What do you think of Christian? Or Ana?

I have to note that I don’t know why feminists are upset at Ana, she stands up for herself in both the book and the film. She challenges Christian and I think she could be more interesting, but she certainly isn’t setting the women’s movement back 100 years like people are saying.

What? No Books On Dialogue? Well Great News!

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ABC, ABC Talent Development, character, Children's books, dialogue, Writers

Hey everyone, I recently came upon this awesome list of great tv writing resources via ABC Talent development and still no books on dialogue. http://www.disneyabctalentdevelopment.com/recommended-reading.html

A few years ago I was working as a reader for the studios and I noticed that dialogue was one of the biggest issues writers struggled with. Mostly they wrote every character to sound exactly the same. It didn’t matter if it was a spec script, or original pilot and or a screenplay. So I created an online workshop called Who Said That? And guess what? I am bringing it back.

I got busy with life, the passing of my father and such so I had to put it on hold, and recently I still notice that this is a problem.

I have been working on my YA and MG novels this past year and in all the groups I am in with other writes, dialogue is still an issue. Once writers get the story beats down and have a strong story, then they get stuck at stale, boring or flat dialogue.

I really want to help writers learn to write unique dialogue for your characters. VOICE means two things.

1. the writer’s voice-who he/she is as a writer.

2. the characters’ voices in the story.

It’s important, really important.

So I am launching a new course this Jan and I will have a new book out soon, I will probably have an e-book first as I want to keep the cost down for writers and I already do one on one work with writers on this.

Please swing by my new website

www.stepholivieri.com 

and sign up for my newsletter http://eepurl.com/4hGwL for freebies and special rates for VIP members. I am also having a PRE LAUNCH sale until Dec 31st on these and all my creative consulting services. I work with screenwriters, tv writers, children’s book writers, novelists and artists. I hope you will sign up and I hope you are having a great day writing.

Please make sure to check out the ABC list too-great books, all worth getting.

Thank you so much!

Parenthood Still One of the BEST Shows on Television

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character, Parenthood, Writing

Are you watching Parenthood? Doesn’t matter if you have kids or not. This show is consistently brilliant. It never delivers anything less than great. The characters are so real and the acting and writing is so good that it would be a shame to miss this. Especially if you are a writer. This is a great show to watch to study CHARACTER. I know I am always on and on and on about character, but this show delivers. I watched Thursday’s episode and was blown away by the dinner scene. Amber and Drew were so on point to how teenagers act when they are–well teenagers. The way all the characters had their own agendas during dinner. Adam being hurt that he was the second choice, or back up for Crosby and then really it was about Sarah’s comments about his parenting. Sarah’s reaction to Max, Zeek’s talking to Joel, it just never stopped being BRILLIANT. This is a short blog post, but really, do yourself a favor. Go watch PARENTHOOD. Thursday nights, NBC 10 pm/9 pm CST

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!!

Getting Past a Reader-Screenwriting Errors Will Get You Tossed

Tags

character, Getting past readers, Hollywood Readers, screenwriting, Screenwriting errors, Story

I just finished helping judge a screenwriting contest and the two biggest issues were:

Character-you must know your character and write in “their” voice not in yours. Yes you have to have a voice. Many great screenwriters have a voice, but every character is unique. Dialogue is such a huge part of character. I used to teach a class on it, I haven’t done it again, but can always go over dialogue with you for a discounted rate. It’s important, really important. 

Also in character, writers weren’t describing their characters. You NEED to describe them-what they are wearing, what they look like. Don’t tell us who they are, describe them or show us. 

Story-you must know what story you are telling. I read so many scripts with great premise but no story. Other issues were; bad first 10 pages-in reality a reader won’t go past page 5 if they don’t have to. Make those first pages count. Voice overs and flashbacks-get rid of them until you are established. Pacing-if you don’t know how to pace a story use Save the Cat or Contour to help you-I know it sounds weird, but when reading a lot of scripts, it is easy to get bored and want to move on-which will be a “pass”. Just thought I would share this insight, hope it helps. We all have these issues for sure.

Sadly you have to get past the reader. Readers are bored easily and since they have tons and tons of scripts to read, it is really easy to not get through a script that probably would make a great film. 

My advice is if you have the means, get your scripts covered. Join screenwriting groups and get your scripts reviewed by your peers, take classes and don’t be afraid to get rid of that genius scene if you need to. 

Don’t submit your first draft to contests. I am sad to say that even I did that in the past. It’s not a good idea.

Don’t ever write on the cover page or last page “million dollar award winning screenplay”. That’s like bragging about your I.Q. If it was true, you wouldn’t need to.

Use common sense people and you will get read, make these mistakes and I can pretty much promise that you will end up in the deleted emails, or waste basket by page 5.

Good luck and happy writing!

 

Character Character Character

Tags

character, screenwriting

Writers of the world, okay well let’s focus on screenwriters of the world today.

I have been reading tons of scripts lately and the biggest thing that I see is this.

You are not describing your characters in the right way. Saying things like, ‘he has little man’s complex” while funny does not tell me who he is. If you said something describing him by his height, his clothes, his car, his age, etc.. I will know that he has little man complex, and you should also be doing these things through the characters actions and dialogue.

A character’s speech and action tells us everything we need to know about them. You don’t need to make witty banter and or spend three paragraphs explaining what he/she is thinking, we should know that from what he/she says or does.

I have read some really great scripts lately for a contest and I know these could be on the big screen, but sadly they won’t make it because of the writing. I mean the stories are great, but the writers are novelists and not screenwriters. They are spending so much energy being good writers that they are forgetting that the audience can’t and will never see that carefully crafted wording of what your character thinks. This must happen through dialogue and actions.

If you would like me to read your script and give you notes on what I am talking about, I promise you it will help you get past people like me, readers, to the person who needs to see it. I have done classes on dialogue and will be working more on character with people this year. Please contact me at stepholivieri@hotmail.com for rates etc. I would love to help you.

As a screenwriter you have to remember that this is visual medium not a novel. Think about it this way, when you are writing your script, who are you seeing? Write that down. Short, fat, bald, untucked shirt, tight jeans, tall, tan, neatly combed hair, wavy messy hair, Polo shirt, mismatched colors, sneakers, old car, porsche.. etc.. The casting director has much more chance of getting it right if you put it down, as well the reader will know who your hero is right away.