Heroic Hollywood: Thinking Inside the Box

Big Hollywood ^ | 7/6/2009 | Russ Dvonch

[Harpo Speaks]

Heroic Hollywood: Thinking Inside the Box by Russ Dvonch

In this post, I want to give some advice to beginning screenwriters who are having difficulty finishing — or even starting — their first screenplay. I’ve been mulling over what to say for several weeks now, trying to come up with some inspirational words of advice to motivate you into achieving your goal. After much thought and deep-dish contemplation, I’ve boiled my advice down to this:

If you want to write for Hollywood, think like a hack writer and stick to the Hollywood Formula.

How’s that for inspiring rhetoric?

Now, most “creative” types (that is, people who don’t actually have a job writing for Hollywood) will tell you that adhering to a formula is a bad thing because it stifles creativity.

But in the hands of a writer who knows what he is doing and why he is doing it, the standard Hollywood Formula allows the creation of inventive, daring and inspiring movies and the occasional masterpiece. Whether adhering to these principles results in hackwork or a classic movie depends entirely on the gifts of the writer doing the work and the skillfulness he brings to thinking inside the box of the Hollywood Formula.

[Harpo Speaks]

If you ever thought of writing for Hollywood, read this post!

[Tzimisce]

No wonder I can’t sell a script. :(

[Auntie Mame]

Really interesting article. Thanks for posting.