Writing The Next Academy Award Winner

Have you ever thought to yourself after seeing the latest Academy Award winning film that you could write something better than that? You probably could, today anyone has a chance at writing an award winning film, and it’s a game that’s strictly for studios anymore. Just look at Diablo Cody who wrote the Oscar winning film Juno, she was a stripper and blogger before getting her film made.

Writing a movie script isn’t that hard once you have an idea that is sure to be a winner. There are a few basic steps to follow to get your idea onto paper and, lucky for us, there is now a lot of help available online to help you get your script critiqued and seen by Hollywood professionals.

All plots consist of three simple things, a beginning, middle and end. The beginning is the expository part of the plot, it serves to introduce the major characters, to set the time and place of the film and define the problem which is the heart of any drama or love story.

In a movie script there is usually one main hero, the man or woman who the story will revolve around. The hero serves to be the focal point of the film and the audience should find this character interesting and be able to sympathize with his problem, be it finding love or saving the world from ruthless invaders.

The time and place where a movie takes place sets the mood and tempo of the film. A modern urban setting means that if it’s an action film, the pace will be fast and the technology will be modern. In a love story, the time and place of a film can be a long-ago romantic drama or an upbeat urban comedy. For scriptwriters, description can be left to a minimum because once the film goes into production; the descriptive elements will be fleshed out by the director and art director.

The middle of the script is where the drama happens, this is where the problem faced by the hero climaxes and becomes seemingly insurmountable. A scriptwriter wants to take the characters he’s created and be cruel to them, make their dreams and goals seem impossible. The audience will have connected with the characters by them and this will serve to draw them into the story and pull for the hero to win.

The end of the story is where the hero either wins or loses; usually wins because audiences like happy endings. This is where the hero proves himself to the world and saves the day and wins the love of the girl of his dreams. In this portion of the script, the writer must tie up all the loose ends to create a satisfactory ending which answers all the questions and solves all the problems that have been brought up in the plot.

Once you have a rough draft plotted out that contains the three main story plot sections, it’s now a good time to have your work looked over by fresh eyes, this is where the internet can come in handy.

There are websites that let you post your rough draft online, with all rights protected, to allow other writers, producers and agents look over your work and give you feedback based on their firsthand experience in film production.

Once you have the feedback, it’s time to go back and fine tune your script. Remember that writing works in stages; nobody sits down and writes a full length film from start to finish. Get your original idea on paper, set up the basic plot, submit your work for critique, and go back and finish it. It takes a whole crew to film a picture and it takes more than one person to write the script.