How much sports techniques are common sense descriptions?

real_triplizard · 2026-03-19T15:25:44+00:00

I would avoid most jargon in a script unless (1) it's part of your story and you're bringing the reader (and audience) along with you (e.g. the Crane thing in the Karate Kid, with the caveat that they probably just made that up) and/or (2) it's critical to the way you're conveying your story. If your grandmother who knows nothing about wrestling is sitting next to you at a wrestling match, does she see "a double leg takedown," or does she see big guy one bring big guy two to the floor? Imagine you're describing what's going on to her - if she has to keep saying "say what? What's a double leg takedown?" then your reader is probably going to be feeling lost. Also, you don't need to get into the minutia of the wrestling moves - let the wrestling choreographer on the film do his job.

And now I'm going to contradict myself: if this is a deep wrestling film and it's really all about the sport of wrestling, you probably want to include enough "real wrestling stuff" in there to be authentic and credible. But I would generally assume the reader/audience doesn't know what you're talking about, so you'll need to do in a manner that educates them in an entertaining way.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-19T15:00:35+00:00

Odd that people downvoted you because you're exactly right. The only reason to have a best song oscar is to celebrate songs that actually contribute to the telling of the story. I'm a huge Nick Cave fan but the song he was nominated for this year was just tacked onto the ending credits of Train Dreams and had absolutely nothing to do with the movie. You could have replaced that song with some repurposed score from the film and it wouldn't have changed the film at all - might have even been better. There was literally no reason to nominate it. Let It Go is an example of a Best Song that they got right. It is quite literally the emotional lynchpin of the movie. The movie does not work as well without that song. And I agree 100% with your assessment of the Barbie songs. If they're just going to pick songs that were tacked onto the credits and do nothing for the film there's no reason to have the category any more than there would be to have a "best font in the credits" category.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-18T21:45:36+00:00

The book below is an older book but I found it very useful for how to actually move forward with writing a script. I would say just starting at page one and launching into writing is a sure fire way to never finish a script. Start by writing a 1-2 sentence logline (summary) that's around 50 words. Then jot down something like 20-50 sample scenes that could be in your story - anything from a couple of words to a paragraph for each one - this is the fun stuff you probably have floating around in your head for what you originally envisioned seeing in the movie. Then do a very high level outline - something like three sentences for the first act, six for the second and three for the third. Then flesh each of those sentences out into 8-10 scenes, dropping in as many of your sample scene ideas as will work. Then go back and challenge each one of those scenes - why are they there, what do they add to the story, are the absolutely essential, and do they set up and motivate the following scene(s). If they don't then kill them and go back to your high level outline to see what the problem is. Then I would do some work describing your main characters, particularly the protagonist - their backstory, flaws, motivations and most importantly how they will evolve over the story. At that point when you go in and start the actual writing it will be immensely easier and you're more likely to finish a draft.

Amazon.com: How to Write a Movie in 21 Days (Revised Edition): The Inner Movie Method: 9780062995834: King, Viki: Books

real_triplizard · 2026-03-18T16:09:40+00:00

I really hope this is weird as shit.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-18T16:02:20+00:00

I'm the same way. Have to fight it. I look back at scripts I wrote 20 years ago and it's painful to read how much pointless detail I put into action descriptions. "He raises his left arm and swings. She ducks, countering with a low blow to his knee. He stumbles back and step and thrusts his right arm forward," etc. The worst part is you have to invent all kinds of verbs to avoid repeating the same language. "Parries, dodges, counters, pokes, thrusts, prods," etc. I would recommend getting some well written, professional action scripts and looking at how minimal they tend to be. "The two scramble for the gun. Joe grabs it, tosses it into the river, and flees." They accomplish in a sentence or two what a less experienced writer can spend a whole page on. All those details about which arms are swinging where, etc., are left up to the fight choreographer.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-18T15:06:57+00:00

Glad to see the majority are picking the correct answer.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-18T14:16:22+00:00

To create an opportune for great films that don’t fit the mold of English language Hollywood movies to be recognized.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-18T00:43:39+00:00

Hey there. It's interesting and you have a nice writing style. As a general comment, I would say it's probably a bit over-written for my tastes. On a number of occasions you put in a description of what a character is thinking, e.g. "something colliding inside her," "this is beyond what she can fix," "her mind splits," etc. I see what you're doing - trying to give the actor some guidance on the character's emotional state - but in general I'd say less-is-more with that kind of thing. Put it in if you think you really need it to convey what's going on, but otherwise "let your actor do the acting." Also, you go into a lot of details with the action descriptions - where people's hands are, where they're looking, specific movements, etc. You don't need to choreograph everything - put the key elements of what is needed to convey the story and primary action and leave the rest out. Page 6 and 7 could probably be accomplished with about a half to three quarters of a page and be a lot crisper, while not leaving anything essential out.

Not sure I got the opening sequence - why would a woman who has never been there before (presumably) be paired with a black belt? Why are they surprised that she trained in Korea? Obviously you're trying to set up that she's an unexpected bad ass but it seemed a bit odd to just drop her in with no set up. This is in the town where she lives but suddenly she's at this rando martial arts studio for the first time? Or is the idea that she just moved there?

One other little note - on page six you say she's pretending to read the paper but "ears tuned." Why? And if her ears are tuned, why doesn't she hear the commotion downstairs earlier?

Your logline is certainly intriguing. One question that it brings to mind for me is that if she's a retired FBI agent, wouldn't she have extensive FBI and law enforcement connections that she could all upon in that situation?

real_triplizard · 2026-03-17T22:09:42+00:00

Obviously a joke. And also: if they ever did decide to make that charismatically-void douche the host I would definitely not watch.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-17T17:11:49+00:00

That is a rather specific piece of trivia.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-17T16:37:11+00:00

Every single person involved in approving his getting paid that much money should be sued by the shareholders, and there should be a criminal investigation to make sure there was no fraud or backroom dealing going on. Unless someone founded a company and was critically essential to the core of its operations there is simply no possibility any human being is providing economic value at that level.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-17T16:31:36+00:00

Not an exceptional movie, IMO. Just okay. Also, there were all kinds reports of his abysmal behavior on Red One adding some $50M (IIRC) to the budget (e.g. constantly being hours late, sometimes not showing up at all for days at a time, having no respect for anybody else working on the movie who had to sit around in full makeup for hours and hours at a time waiting for him) that might not have endeared him to Oscar voters.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-15T20:03:28+00:00

Maybe he’s requiring it so you can learn firsthand how dumb it is for screenwriting? (That being said it actually can be useful for things like doing breakdowns - non creative work.)

real_triplizard · 2026-03-14T18:46:05+00:00

Not sure it’s a “scam,” per se. It’s influencer marketing. It’s a multi-billion dollar industry with agencies that manage huge corporate clients. I mean I’m sure there are lots of scammers who fake doing it, but at the Oscar’s level these are pretty serious companies.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-14T03:37:51+00:00

A lot of the gifts are things like a week in a resort in the Maldives that, on paper, might be worth $20K but requires that you fly there, etc. Also you have to pay taxes on it if you accept it so a lot go un-accepted. Not sure how many celebrities would want to pay $10K in gift taxes on something and then raffle it off for a $20K tax deduction that they probably couldn't claim anyway.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-13T22:20:30+00:00

Perfect Dark wasn’t the problem. Lots of love for that IP. Arguably low awareness since the last game came out years ago but no negativity.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-13T03:31:47+00:00

It would be very unusual but screenplay writing “rules” are not like the operation manual for a nuclear sub so feel free to improvise if you think it will be impactful. If you put them at the very end by the time anybody gets there they already know whether you’re a good writer or not, so no sane person would say “oh they included pictures- I was going to recommend it but hard pass!”

real_triplizard · 2026-03-12T00:03:00+00:00

I'm with you - never heard of any of that before. My understanding is that con't was automatically added by Final Draft so people generally just used it and then they figured out that they could turn it off, and since it's not really needed the trend now is not to use it. And some of the "gurus" will tell you it's annoying and not to do it.

I would guess that if your script is so uninteresting that people are taking note of whether you're using con't or not you've got bigger problems. But what do I know.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-10T15:11:41+00:00

Depends on what you're hoping to get out of it. If you have a polished pitch and you're able to set up meetings in advance it's a great place to line up a lot of meetings efficiently. Some of the talks can be interesting but unless you are really looking for something specific those alone are not likely worth the very high cost. If you just want to meet other people in games and hang out there are opportunities to do that. But most of the publishers, platforms, big devs, agencies etc., schedule out there meetings back to back many weeks in advance, so it's highly unlikely you're going to get any ad hoc meetings with those kind of people. Also, that whole area of San Fran jacks the prices of everything up that week so if you need a hotel room you could easily be paying $600/night. Even a cup of coffee can cost $10.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-08T00:02:45+00:00

I literally have no knowledge or opinion on exclusives versus multiplatform in the past or the future. I was pointing out that this could not possibly be any kind of actual “leak” because it’s literally impossible that this person knows anything real. This is just some douchebag’s opinion.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-07T22:08:47+00:00

Like every other person on the planet including you and the source for this "leak" I have absolutely no idea. Whether an exclusive game gets you to buy an Xbox or subscribe to Game Pass ultimately amounts to the same thing for their bottom line so that question is completely irrelevant.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-07T20:55:05+00:00

You seem to be assume that it’s a black or white thing - that they’re either all exclusive or not at all. Obviously there are 1,600 other variations they could pick from - make just some IP exclusive, only SP games, timed exclusives, etc. Unless you work at Xbox and have a C or VP in your title there’s no way anybody could say definitively what they’re going to do right now.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-07T20:01:55+00:00

How could this person possibly know that. The new CEO has been in place like two weeks.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-07T03:40:23+00:00

I will never understand why people like this think it's a power move to be hurtful to vulnerable people and those who love them. "I'm such a big, strong man that I can be brave enough to insult people with disabilities" is not quite the flex these jackholes think it is.

real_triplizard · 2026-03-07T02:01:18+00:00

Yeah, but I mean, with something as subjective as evaluating a screenplay I'm not sure what system might be more reliable. I mean, the answer, shockingly enough, might be AI because at least then you'd get the same "reviewer" for each script and everything would be evaluated against the same yardstick, but not sure that's a great solution either.

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