26 Screenplays

We are proud to announce our sponsorship of the Filmspotting podcast for a few shows. If you don’t listen to Filmspotting, it is the best film review podcast available.

We are proud to announce that, once a month, we will be donating a copy of the book for educational purposes. If you are instructing a class and would like a sample book, simply visit the Educational Donation page of the web site, and complete the form. You will be submitted in our monthly drawing for a free book. All you have to do is complete the application form once, and you will be entry will carry over to the next drawing if you do not win.

The form asks your position, how many students you plan on having in your class, and how you plan on using the book in a classroom setting.

‘26 Short Screenplays for Independent Filmmakers‘ is an ideal workbook for a film or drama class. If you are an instructor who wants to incorporate the book into your classroom, please apply for a donation. We will even feature the resulting films on the 26 Screenplays when your class concludes.

This week’s episode of This American Life devoted the first quarter of the show to elevator pitches.

Part of the art of filmmaking is film funding. You may have the greatest idea for a movie ever, but no one will pay you to make it unless you can convince them you are worth the investment. What makes it more difficult is that the creative mind and the business mind seem to speak in completely different languages.

The secret is the elevator pitch. The elevator pitch is the idea that you are stuck on an elevator with a potential source of funds. You have a brief period of time to convince that person that he or she should fund your project. And this is where being a filmmaker works for you more than being a business person. Filmmakers know how drama works. Filmmakers know how to hook an audience and take them for a wild ride. Filmmakers know how to keep people interested.

So practice your elevator pitch. You never know when it might come in handy.

I was recently asked to come up with a list of the Top Ten things I look for in a movie. My #1 and #2 items were Story and Storytelling. This, of course, led to the question, “Aren’t those the same thing?”

No. They are not.

Story is plot, and storytelling is script, and no, plot and script aren’t the same thing, either.

Story is what is being told, but storytelling is the way that it is told. An example I use for this is the film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. For those of you who haven’t seen this film – the story is about a man who is paralyzed by a stroke. He can only communicate through the blinking of his eye, and by blinking his eye, he writes his autobiography.

That is the story. The storytelling comes from the fact that first quarter of the movie is told from the man’s point of view. The screen is hazy and fixed; when the man blinks or closes his eyes, the screen goes dark. Many of the opening scenes involve doctors and nurses peering out of the camera at the audience. This unusual and innovative way of presenting the information gets the audience emotionally involved with the inner life of the main character. He is disoriented and confused, just like the audience.

The choice to tell the story this way shows the strength of the storytelling.

As a filmmaker is it important not only to think about the story, but also the storytelling. How are you going to engage your audience and get them hooked into your story? Great filmmakers have a distinctive style and way of telling a story. Even if the filmmaker is doing a remake of another film, the storytelling style is so distinctive that the film will be interesting.

Feel free to participate with other members of the 26 Screenplays project, by joining our Facebook group here.

Sometimes there is a lull in the blog. This is because I was elected again to the board of the Dallas Screenwriter’s Association and am involved in their many film-related activities.

If you are in the North Texas area and are interested in screenwriting and film production, feel free to attend a monthly meeting and/or a monthly scene reading workshop where actors read pages of script. Many of the scripts in the book 26 Short Screenplays for Independent Filmmakers went through the DSA’s scene reading process.

There is also a Dallas Screenwriters Association Facebook group that I manage, so you can join and say hi.

Don’t forget that there is also a 26 Screenplays Facebook group as well. If for whatever reason the blog is not active, these other areas probably are. Thanks!

We here at 26 Screenplays are huge fans of the Creative Commons initiative. The screenplays in the book are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license and exist to have derivative works created from them.

Creative Commons offers a Catalyst grant, and we have applied for it. To see our application page, go here. You will see what 26 Screenplays has planned for the upcoming year as well as how this project aligns with the larger goal of Creative Commons.

If you believe in the Creative Commons initiative and would like to contribute towards future grants, I strongly encourage you to make a donation. The easiest way to donate is to go here and contribute until your heart is content.

We will certainly keep everyone posted, and if we get the grant, you will see a lot more activity here and on the website.