Screenwriting 101: Steve Martin

“Screenplays are more scientific, they really do need a beginning, middle, and end; they really have to be concise. In terms of comic screenplays — for example Bowfinger — I visualized three or four funny scenes and I thought, I know what I want. I want three comic scenes in the movie that are funny because they have been set up, and I want one big comic scene at the end. And that’s the way I structured the screenplay.”

— Steve Martin, excerpted from Creative Screenwriting, September/October 2002