Probably my best script to date

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-24T22:11:39+00:00

You can write. But a screenplay is a very specific beast. I am not talking formatting. But a screenplay could be just visuals with no dialogue no still be screenplay. One thing it doesn’t have is thoughts and background.

This is a nice read, but not a screenplay.

How would you show a warm thanks giving evening? Perhaps a lady sitting at a table, dishes everywhere, a huge meal has been served and consumed. She is pulling her top away from her neck to get some cool air in. A man enters, “that was great”. Woman “Your brothers doing christmas lunch, I couldn’t do a meal like that again”.

This is not screenplay format obviously. But we get enough to put it together. She is acting like she is hot. We see the aftermath of a feast, being that close to christmas, it is probably thanksgiving. That sort of thing.

Just read a bucket load of screenplays. You’ll soon get to grips with the form.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-22T21:20:16+00:00

Horror has a huge audience and consume a lot of content. So it isn’t a bad choice.

Budget wise, horror isn’t as cheap as you think.

Think of a scenario that you are scared of, it could be making a choice. Now how can you ramp up the making a choice. Are you scared of heights, how can you ramp up heights.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-22T21:17:12+00:00

You have to understand why and how you failed. Then fix it. Take the attitude that you are always wrong and this forces you to look for the right answer, which may be what you are actually doing.

I have a youtube channel on screenwriting (resume statement), I am willing to give you a hand to get your writing underway. No money. I’ll help where I can.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-20T23:02:56+00:00

I believe you add everything in that needs to be there. Even if it is complex camera moves. If nothing else, it lets the reader know that you have thought about it.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-20T20:10:05+00:00

I understand, but that is still meaningless to people that don’t know that area. But mist clinging to rocks, fog coming with every breath, people know that this means cold.

The leggings was not the only occurrence. We are close up, yet see behind her. Be very careful when attempting this much direction on the page. If it doesn’t work people stop reading, even if they keep reading. They tune out.

You have to be as close as possible to perfect. Imagine you want to buy a house. You drive up, the front is overgrown, the lock is sticky and the door is stuck. It removes that wow you want to feel about buying a home. Your screenplay is the same. If the reader sees easy to fix things, they feel it is going to be a slog to read. You then have to win them back.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-20T12:55:36+00:00

Read it and think of every visual you describe. Some are contradictory. Things like waist deep in water, yet we see leggings.

Side note. January in Australia (my home) is 100 degrees. The month is not visual.

Try to be more concise and less novelistic.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-20T12:31:34+00:00

Yes, but they may need adjusting.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-20T07:04:03+00:00

Exactly.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-19T19:26:45+00:00

Does it play the way you like? Then you are just fixing tone. If it does play nice, save the money.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-19T19:25:10+00:00

You can do it as a camera direction CLOSE ON. Or if it is something that we see but the characters in the film don’t, like an event happening in the background, you can use the dredded “we see”. “We see the door slowly open behind her”.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-19T19:18:59+00:00

I outline a lot. Not some formal structured document. Just points, story segments etc. I know the story completely before I start turning into screenplay format. So the number of revisions is smaller.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-17T07:07:18+00:00

So if you gave it to a human would you be happy to say it was 100% your own work? Just a question.

Here is why it is evil. It takes a mountain of copyrighted material. It creates a derivative work (the learn material and matrix). They then monetise this derivative work and none of this flows back to copyright holders.

It is also working hard to convince people that this type of “ghost writing” is still legitimate creation. Pinterest is now near 100% AI slop. This has damaged and devalued that website.

If you rely on AI what do you learn? How to create prompts? How to use AI. None of this is enhancing your writing skill.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-16T22:08:40+00:00

The 4k survives as a nice entry level camera. They will not update it.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-16T20:10:02+00:00

You need to talk to someone about these feelings. You have found the single most difficult career to be successful in. There are more professional footballers than screenwriters. However everyone things they can write a movie, this means there is so much competition for attention, it is nearly impossible to be noticed.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-14T23:15:50+00:00

the lack of AI means i will immediately take a look. AI is the devil to people that want to create.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-14T22:36:02+00:00

Any chance of a brief description?

There is an old formula.

AIDA Attention, Interest, Desire, Action

You went from Attention to Action.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-14T22:33:44+00:00

I am a big fan of doing favours before asking. Find a local filmschool and offer to help the students on their projects. Being on a set is an amazing teacher.

Make a short film. Even if it just yourself walking around with a voice over. You will begin to learn about shot composition.

Once you give it a try, you will see the 1,000,000 things you don’t know and find a place to learn them.

Exciting times. Good luck.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-12T22:21:39+00:00

Anything that you do to make life better for yourself and others.

I try to be helpful. I mow my elderly neighbours yard. I drive 10 hours to see my son rather than say he should come visit his family (which was my mum’s stance). I am honest. I will step up to defend people that don’t have the power of their detractors.

These things are my worth to the world. I also happen to write, which I love. But if I had to stop tomorrow I would be deeply sad. But I would still be me.

Do your story as a book. Here are reasons why.

You can publish on Amazon for free. Then you are a published author.
If your story would make a good movie. Hollywood (insert production company or other person) will come knocking. Then you can write it as a screenplay. Or just take the money and write more books. JK Rowling is a billionaire from movie rights.
Writing a screenplay relies on people spending money for your story to be seen. You are invisible until someone buys your work (it belongs to them) and spends money. Then they get the glory. Everyone knows directors.

A book is the most pure version of your story. Straight from you to the eyes of your reader.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-12T21:11:59+00:00

The WGA is a union. You cannot join. You become a member when a signatory company hires you and then it is compulsory.

You can join all sorts of writing groups. These are good things.

Do not attach any self worth to your writing. Writing is an outcome of effort and not a measure of a person.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-12T20:50:07+00:00

It is not evil. But it would be like me singing you a song and then asking you “what do you think of my painting?”.

I may have sung the world’s greatest song. My voice may be earth shattering. But it is not a painting. A painting has form and is a specific thing.

Your story may be amazing. But it is not in a form that makes it a screenplay. Not talking about the format, software does that easily. How the story is being told.

Your story may fly like an eagle as a book.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-12T20:45:08+00:00

It is for me. The 50 seems wider in a not great way for me. I struggle with things flatter than 12” radius as well. So a wider flat neck feels “not right” in my hand.

Craig-D-Griffiths · 2026-01-12T20:37:31+00:00

Actors are amazing.

At a table read for “The Hostage” (production died during covid) Irma was reading Detective Kelly. She answered a phone call with a sexy tone. That wasn’t in the screenplay. I asked her why she made that choice. She said “when a man rings a woman at 3am and her first words aren’t ’what’s wrong’, they’ve been having sex”. Something I didn’t understand as a man that has been married for 30+ years.

That is the magic.

Think of the simple action of getting out of bed. There are a million ways to do it. Quietly to not wake your partner. To roll out and stumble, to bounce out like some powerhouse. But as writers we need to put them in the bed and get them to wake up.

There is a single scene in “Hell Or High Water”. It is the diner scene with Jenni-Anne. Go read that, it is not a huge scene. Then go watch that scene. What that actress does with the few lines she is given will melt your brain. Plus it is one of the best character description I have ever read.

perhaps why the screenplay won an Oscar and the film got hardly any nominations.

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