Resources

7 Must See Filmmaking Documentaries

7 Must See Filmmaking Documentaries

From a young age I always loved filmmaking documentaries. Initially it was the excitement of seeing behind the curtain of films I enjoyed, which I still do, but as I grew older and wanted to write and direct films they became a source of inspiration and education. Whilst there are plenty of ...
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3 Must See Screenwriting Documentaries

3 Must See Screenwriting Documentaries

Thinkers think, talkers talk, writers write! Paradoxically writers have a compulsion to write but are often gifted procrastinators when it comes to doing the writing. There’s nothing more poisonous to writing than procrastination but if you’re going to procrastinate at least make it productive whereby you can learn something in ...
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19 Screenwriting Quotes From The Masters

19 Screenwriting Quotes From The Masters

We all know that screenwriting can be a slog so here are 19 quotes from master screenwriters to motivate, inspire and learn from to keep you focused on writing your screenplays. 2D+1D-10% 2nd Draft = 1st Draft – 10%. Stephen King  Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. Robert McKee A story should have a ...
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The Iron Claw – 5 Tips For Adapting True Stories!

True stories have been fodder for screenplays for as long as films have been made, in fact the very first feature film The Story Of The Kelly Gang made in 1906 depicted the true life and crimes of notorious Australian bushranger Ned Kelly.   I recently saw The Iron Claw ...
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3 Tricks To Make Your Screenplay Jump Off The Page

3 Tricks To Make Your Screenplay Jump Off The Page

“That was an easy read!”  is the sentiment you want the reader to have when they conclude your screenplay. No matter how good your story is you want your screenplay to be that easy read where your visuals, emotions and characters jump off the page and engage the reader with an enjoyable ...
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Writing The Next Draft Of Your Screenplay

One of the most important skills to master and an integral part of the writing process is rewriting. The following tips are for rewriting early drafts, eg going from 1st to 2nd draft or 2nd draft to 3rd draft.   As your script nears production you are polishing rather than rewriting significant aspects which is a different ...
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Surrogate 3 act structure

Surrogate 3 Act Structure

In my last blog I detailed the Act 1 Story Architecture for Surrogate. I received several emails from you asking for a breakdown of the 3 Act Structure Plot Points in Surrogates screenplay as I have done for other films in the past. For an in-depth breakdown and explanation of ...
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Surrogate SPM article

The 3 Act Structure and my latest film ‘Surrogate’

I have written numerous blogs on the 3 Act Structure detailing Story Architecture – my Act By Act breakdown of the 45 elements your screenplay needs to fulfil the 3 Act Structure, be engaging, surprising, build coherently and express the complexity of your story and characters. In this blog I wanted to show ...
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Want to write a Better Screenplay: 5 more quick tips

After an extended Australian summer holiday and focusing on writing a new screenplay I am back now in full swing for the new year and have 5 more quick screenwriting tips. Tip 1: Your main character must face set backs in the pursuit of their goal for without set backs ...
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The Importance Of Varied Screen Time – What I learnt From Making The Surrogate #3

With the release of my feature film ‘Surrogate’ I am doing a series of blogs on what I learn’t or what my writing process reiterated to me. Your screenplay isn’t just about creativity, it’s a working document that will guide the practicalities of a film production so you need to ...
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Another 5 Quick Tips To Writing A Better Screenplay

I got such a great response to my article titled “5 quick tips to writing a better Screenplay” I thought I would write 5 more. Tip 1 : Keep it secret When you start writing your first screenplay, don’t tell anyone, keep it to yourself and secretly plug away at ...
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‘The 5 Page Rule’ – What I learnt From Making The Surrogate #2

With the release of my feature film ‘Surrogate’ in 2022 I am doing a series of blogs on what I learnt or what my writing process reiterated to me. As I detailed in my last blog ‘Length Matters – What I learnt From Making The Surrogate #1’, when Beth King ...
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David Willing

David Willing is a writer and director and founder of Screenplaymethod.com

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