You can use ON SCREEN and BACK TO SCENE as ways to move from the scene to the screen. So for example: INT. LIVING ROOM – DAY Shirley watches the news. ON SCREEN An ANCHORWOMAN interviews an OLDER MAN. ANCHORWOMAN How long have you planned to wait out the storm? OLDER MAN We’ve got enough […]
What is sweepstakes pitching?
Sweepstakes pitching (also know as a “bake-off”) is when a studio or producer brings in many different screenwriters to pitch on the same project before deciding which one to hire (“the winner”). In most cases, sweepstakes pitching occurs when the studio owns a licensed property — such as a character or board game — for […]
What is the television writer/producer pecking order?
Television seasons are written by writing staffs, not a single writer. Individual episodes will have a credited writer — the person who actually penned that particular script — but the plot of that episode and the season as a whole are constructed by a room full of a staff of writers (known as the “writers […]
What is the hero’s journey?
The hero’s journey is the epic structure defined by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell argues that the great enduring myths from around the world all share an underlying structure he calls the “monomyth.” In the introduction to his book, Campbell breaks it down: >A hero ventures forth from the world […]
In television, what are “upfronts?”
Upfronts are presentations (and together, an event) where the major television networks preview their upcoming fall and midseason series for advertisers, the press, and the other networks. Recently, focus has shifted away from small meetings geared towards advertising sales and more towards large presentations, often featuring shows’ talent. The upfronts are held in New York […]
In dialogue, how do you express that one character is interrupting another?
As with all formatting advice, the idea is to clearly express your vision without interrupting the flow of the screenplay. One easy way to show one character interrupting another is to use double-dashes or an ellipsis to indicate the first character’s dialogue is being interrupted. SETH How about -- ERIN No. Both doble-dashes and ellipses […]