A screenplay should show something new to the audience (a new word/different perspective).
Screenplays begin with moments and continue when these moments are connected. They are the most important element of screenplays as they are able to stand by themselves and are therefore what the audience remember most from their initial reaction to them.
The audience should be on a need to know basis which can be achieved be structuring moments like jokes:
Set-up Twist Punchline
To make moments more interesting it is also important to show, not tell and get into the scene late and come out early.
It is also important to know the ending so that when planning the destination is known therefore, the story can be tested and plot holes can be fixed before writing. This is the biggest moment of the entire screenplay and needs dramatic irony as this can make the audience feel stronger and find it more satisfying.
Characters should have:
Problems
Many sides to their personality (be detailed)
Be in dynamic tension, so they can be pulled in different directions but if they are pulled to hard, they collapse
Dramatic irony
Conflict, Contradiction, and Paradox
Dialogue should show something and should not just be there to give information but should show something to the audience. This helps to set the tone of the text as the way a character speaks can tell the audience a lot about them.
Some things that should be avoided:
Characters who are too grammatically correct or who sound the same
Using character's names too often
Making the dialogue too real (boring, repetitive)
Writing past the scene's punchline
Overusing the same words.
Every line should move the story forward or develop the character but should always stick to the three line rule.
Dialogue is better if something else is also going on at the same time.
Stage directions should be written as what the camera can see with not too many adverbs or adjectives. They should be broken up into short sentences and paragraphs containing actions.
The story is about the significance of what happens in the text, the therefore or but. The plot is the and this or then.
Stories should take risks as this grabs the audience's attention of how this will be able to follow through. Moments should be ambitious as this makes them closer to chaos and story puts some order into chaos.
Screenplays are made up of three main moments:
Beginning (inciting incident/Genesis)
Middle (twist)
End (significance)
Rewriting and cutting is important as this helps define the moments in the screenplay and gets rid of everything else that is not needed.
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