30 Days of Screenplays

Here’s what I propose for next month’s noon series: 30 Days of Screenplays. Longtime GITS readers will remember that at various times in this blog’s existence, we have done several of these: 7 Days, 14 Days, even a previous 30 Days of Screenplays series which I have archived here.

The idea is simple: Encourage folks to read one movie script per day for an extended period of time. Why?

First, reading scripts is an essential part of learning the craft. In my experience, this is the one aspect of my mantra — Read Scripts. Watch Movies. Write Pages. — that aspiring writers most often neglect. 30 Days of Screenplays is a blast across writers’ bow, hopefully compelling people to jump-start reading scripts as an active and ongoing part of their learning process.

Second, while a writer may benefit from reading an individual script, there is something special about taking in a bunch of scripts in a compressed time frame, a sort of Gestalt understanding. You start to intuit things like pace, scene construction, transitions, style and so on, knowledge you can carry with you as feel your way through your own writing process.

For previous series of this type, I’ve always had a little yellow flag waving in the corner of my consciousness because I would have to link to other sites for readers to download PDF versions of scripts, all of which is technically illegal because the studios own the copyrights to those scripts. I would do it, always noting in each post this is for educational purposes only. Still when 20th Century Fox sued a writer for $12M for making public some of the studio’s scripts, a suit subsequently dropped, that did give me pause — and frankly, this series as well.

However with the emergence of FYC (For Your Consideration) sites over the last few years, I have determined since studios and production companies are making some of their movie scripts available for download, the online screenwriting community should be able to use those screenplays precisely for educational opportunities like 30 Days of Screenplays.

So here is what I propose: I am looking for 30 volunteers, each of whom will commit to read just one script and write up a brief overview and analysis of that screenplay to be published here on the blog.

You may choose your script from the download resources we have available through GITS here. This way, other readers will be able to download the script for their own review and analysis, and join in the discussion.

Here is the template to use for the script overview and analysis:

Title:
Year: (Year the movie was released)
Writing Credits: (Refer to IMDB for these)
IMDB rating:
IMDB plot summary:
Tagline: (IMDB will have these)
Awards: (If the script won or was nominated for Academy Award or WGA Award / IMDB will have this information)
Analysis: (Your chance to weigh in with your reactions to the script. Anything from plot analysis to structural breakdown to character archetype assessment to style.
Most Memorable Dialogue:
Most Memorable Moments:
What Did I Learn About Screenwriting From Reading This Script:

As a reference for the Analysis component, go here to check out any of the posts from the previous 30 Days of Screenplays series.

30 volunteers, 30 scripts, 30 days. And an open invitation to everyone to read as many of these scripts as possible during June. Check out some of the possible scripts we have available to us:

12 Years a Slave, All Is Lost, American Hustle, Argo, Before Midnight, Dallas Buyers Club, Enough Said, Flight, Frozen, Fruitvale Station, Gravity, Hanna, Lincoln, Lone Survivor, Looper, Milk, Monsters University, Moonrise Kingdom, Mud, Nebraska, ParaNorman, Philomena, Prisoners, Saving Mr. Banks, Short Term 12, Smashed, Somewhere, The American, The Artist, The Great Gatsby, The Iron Lady, The Kids Are All Right, The Social Network, The Spectacular Now, The Way Way Back, The Wolf of Wall Street, Wreck-It Ralph.

Here is your chance to read the script from one of your favorite movies from the last several years and by doing so, not only advance your understanding of the craft, also help to create another resource to inspire writers to embrace this critical part of the learning process.

Will you volunteer? All you are committing to do is read one screenplay, then provide an overview and some analysis of it.

There’s more creative juju for participants!

If you’re interested, click on Reply, then in comments, ‘claim’ your script. I will start a list of participants which I will update as volunteers step up to the plate.

Thanks in advance for your commitment to the 30 Days of Screenplays series!

UPDATE: Already several volunteers claiming their scripts. Here they are:

A Serious Man — Jon Raymond

American Hustle — Daveo

Amour — hoernsch

Argo — Oleguer Homs Vilà

Before Midnight — CollCostello

Beginners — zeldahallman

Dallas Buyers Club — Claudia Blanton

Flight — Luther Floyd

Fruitvale Station — Dunstan Wallace

Gravity — Sarah Grimes

Greenberg — Sabina Giado

Hanna — Stephan

Jane Eyre — Femme Mal

Looper — Dan Mulhall

Monsters University — The Quiet Act

Moonrise Kingdom — Maxine

Mud — Rob Grundel

Nebraska — Greg Scharpf

Prisoners — Chris Brenna

Short Term 12 — kellisays

Spring Breakers — dakrocker

The American — Michael Egan

The Artist — April

The Kids Are All Right — rumblefish

The Queen — pgronk

The Social Network — Jason Park

The Spectacular Now — Stuart Schrader

The Way Way Back — Roger Market

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy — Pedro Santos

Wreck-It Ralph — ctw31

Okay, now have 30. If there are others of you who want to read a script, happy to add as special bonuses to the series. Again thanks, everyone!

Comment Archive