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Film Writing Inside Secrets Of Screenwriting Tips By The Writing Guru

By Dr Mark Yates

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 21Oct2009 Word count: 1468 Viewed: 717 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

In the current economic downturn, business owners are looking for an edge to help them survive and thrive. Frequently this edge materialises in the guise of a marketing idea or initiative.

Effective marketing should focus on delivering your core business message to as wide an audience as possible in the shortest time frame and at the cheapest cost.

Clearly free marketing is beneficial, and with the advent of the internet it is now possible, more than ever to deliver an effective free marketing campaign to a mass global audience.

Internet users have a very short attention span so business owners have to deliver their marketing message in a very quick and concise fashion.

Several businesses have capitalised on the global reach of a viral marketing campaign. One of the first business ventures to maximise their business via a viral marketing campaign, was actually a group of scriptwriters who wrote and produced a movie called The Blair Witch Project.

The writing guru advises this feature length film was promoted virally via a very clever online marketing campaign produced by screenplay writers who had no finances to promote their film. To say this marketing campaign was a massive success would be a gross understatement.

Although it is not taught as such, this is one of the real film writing inside secrets, screenwriting tips relevant to business owners.

Business people are learning the inside secrets of screenwriting tips to help their business marketing campaigns. The writing guru states several business owners attended his University MA screenplay writer programme.

Scriptwriters know that film writing cuts to the quick. Screenplay writers understand a magic screenwriter sells their product because their screenplay script message is clear & concise just like a marketing campaign has to be.

Scriptwriting offers business owners many business marketing parallels which when utilised, can effectively turbo charge your business growth.

Film Writing Inside Secrets Of Screenwriting Tips By The Writing Guru #1 Identify Your Audience

Scriptwriting is an art medium specifically designed to captivate a fee paying audience for a period of 90 minutes or longer. A screenplay writer audience is one of the toughest business audiences to satisfy, because every member of the audience is a self appointed critic.

To achieve success a screenplay script has to be produced into a visual art form that engrosses a cinematic audience. It has to deliver a core message and has to captivate the audience in the first 2 minutes of 90 minutes plus, or the audience will switch off and leave.

Scriptwriters have to work hard on every project and what the fee paying customers don't get to see is the endless amounts of research that has gone into the project before it is even handed over to a film producer and director.

In reality there is no such concept as a magic screenwriter as it is not uncommon for screenplay writers to spend many years perfecting their script before securing movie production rights.

One of the first lessons taught to University degree scriptwriting students is to identify your audience before you write a single word. This is especially relevant to any business owner working on a marketing campaign to grow their business.

Film Writing Inside Secrets Of Screenwriting Tips By The Writing Guru #2 Research Your Idea Before You Identify Your Title & Log Line

Just like an effective marketing campaign, the title and log line are generally the first impressions a fee paying audience has of your product or services. In film school screenplay writers are taught how to conduct extensive research into their anticipated project.

Scriptwriting mirrors business marketing,in so much as everything starts with an idea. In-depth research is the key to success and every screenplay writer knows that failure in the research of the screenplay script equals overall project failure.

Once research is complete, a scriptwriters next task is to identify a memorable title for the film script.

Ideally the title has to be short and punchy and ideally something relevant to the script and story. Think of the movies Jaws and Alien. Both titles were well researched and they both instantly conjure up a thought process when mentioned.

A log line is sometimes referred to in a business marketing campaign as a strap line. If there was a concept of a magic screenwriter then he or she would produce a log line of no more than 25 words. The log line is a positive reinforcement of the title.

Once again short and concise is best. The idea is to describe your product or service in as few words as possible. The movie 'Alien' was originally pitched to investors with a log line of 'Think Jaws In Space.'

In scriptwriting many scriptwriters deliver their log line as a kind of elevator pitch to movie producers, directors and investors. A listener or reader should be able to imagine the entire movie from your log line.

Many blockbuster movies have been commissioned on the basis of an effective log line delivered as an elevator pitch.

Film Writing Inside Secrets Of Screenwriting Tips By The Writing Guru #3 Write A Treatment

A screenplay writers treatment is a one to twenty page inside overview of a screenplay script. It is generally requested by movie producers, directors and/or investors. This provides a much more in-depth overview of the scriptwriting project.

It allows potential investors to identify with the product, the story, the characters and the back story. It is rare for any major feature film to be commissioned without sight of a detailed treatment.

In relation to a business marketing campaign, consider the screenplay writer treatment as your marketing project brief. I have heard of several business owners seeking a magic screenwriter to help with their marketing campaigns.

I know that several scriptwriters from my University screenplay writers programme are employed in conventional businesses.

Film Writing Inside Secrets Of Screenwriting Tips By The Writing Guru #4 Kill Your Babies

To kill your babies is a scriptwriting phrase used to describe actions taken after screenplay writers have written their second, third or further drafts of their screenplay script.

Because there is no such concept of a magic screenwriter most scriptwriters tend to over write, and are frequently not the best editors. A professional screenplay writer knows if their script is too long, or it is not captivating enough, that he or she has to kill their babies.

This means the writing guru may have to cut out one of their favourite characters in the script, or some of their favourite dialogue, because although the writer is happy with it, it is not propelling the overall project forwards towards success.

It is much the same with business marketing campaigns. Frequently ideas, concepts, dialogue, text and characters are often left in because the marketing account producer has become too attached to them.

They have become the marketing producer's babies. It often takes a strong willed business owner to state that the marketing producer has to kill his or her babies to enable the marketing campaign to achieve maximum success.

Film Writing Inside Secrets Of Screenwriting Tips By The Writing Guru #5 Write A Second Draft

Of the hundreds of thousands of scriptwriting, projects produced by tens of thousands of screenplay writers every year, I have yet to come across a screenplay script, that was produced after the screenplay writer submitted it as a first draft.

Most professional scriptwriters understand that producing a piece of art for fee paying customers requires several drafts. There does not appear to be a magic screenwriter formula. If there was, every writing guru would produce Hollywood Blockbuster successful movies.

I personally know of many screenplay writers who produce up to thirty drafts of their screenplay before they are comfortable enough to submit it to a film producer or director.

It is a similar process for business marketing campaigns. Any campaign you pay for that has only gone through one draft is highly likely to fail. I say highly likely, because there is bound to be the occasional exception to the rule.

In general though, any first draft of a marketing campaign can be likened to a first draft of a film script.

All screenplay writer students are taught that their first draft should just contain their ideas and thoughts. In fact they are taught to dump everything down on the pages without any thought to editing.

They are also taught not to get bogged down with the finer details of the script because that only begins in the second and third drafts when you have to kill your babies.

In business marketing campaigns like in my film scripts I personally find that three drafts offers me the best chance of success. Utilising the film writing inside secrets of screenwriting tips by the writing guru will help add a fresh perspective to your business marketing campaigns.

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