BFI Network x Studio21 Drama Series Script Competition – Writing a TV Pilot Script
In this video, Script Angel founder Hayley McKenzie reveals what makes a tv pilot script stand out in the Studio21 Drama Series Script Competition. There are tips on crafting a great pilot script plus a Q&A with BFI Network SouthWest Hub executive Alix Taylor-Searle, with questions from the webinar attendees. The Studio21 Drama Series […]
How to Hook Your Audience in the First Ten Pages
Everyone knows that you need to hook your audience / reader in the first ten pages of your script. Whoever is reading your script, be it a gate-keeping script reader at a production company, a potential director or a Hollywood A-lister, they are making judgements and having an instant reaction to the material. A problem […]
Change in Every Scene
Change is the heart of every story ever told – screenplays or otherwise. To make sure your script is not just good, but compelling, it’s vital that there is change in every scene, engaging your audience and creating crucial forward momentum. Without change and progress your script will inevitably fall into the trap of repetition. […]
Turning Points in Screenwriting
Every script or screenplay is made up of a series of key moments; turning points that change the plot or significantly impact your characters. Larger or key turning points, also known as story tentpoles, include events such as the inciting incident or the climax of a story, and are elements to narrative structure that most […]
Escalating The Challenge
Obstacles or challenges to your protagonist are one of the most important elements to any story. Without a challenge to face, problem or mystery to solve, or issue to overcome, there is no story. But for obstacles to work well throughout your screenplay, you have to be escalating the challenge. The obstacles must, either relatively […]
Creating Conflict in Screenwriting
Creating conflict is the key to any story. As a script progresses, it is important to constantly test and challenge your characters, giving them hard decisions and tough paths to take. This conflict often manifests in the form of an external threat – the white walkers in ‘Game of Thrones’, for example. Yet there are […]
Book Review: Do Drama by Lucy Gannon
How to stop watching tv and start writing it. We share our book review of Lucy Gannon’s ‘Do Drama’. In this fantastically honest and accessible book screenwriter Lucy Gannon, who wrote her first script at the age of 39, takes you through the writing process, not as an instruction manual but as a conversation. Lucy […]
Active Protagonists
Our most enduring stories, myths, and legends are all about what people did. From quests to the hero’s journey, these frameworks, built around an active protagonist, have existed in storytelling throughout our history, and quest-based stories remain the dominant narrative drive in many modern genres such as action & adventure, fantasy and thriller. For screenplays […]
Writing A Killer TV Pilot Script and Series Pitch
In this webinar, Script Angel founder Hayley McKenzie chats with Filmarket Hub’s Rosalind De Aragues about how to write a killer tv pilot script and what to include in your series pitch or bible. With the explosion of high-end tv drama, with its big budgets and equally big creative ambition, many writers are now turning […]