Lessons From The First Screenplay by Mark Harris
Film Courage: What did writing your first screenplay teach you about screenwriting?
Mark Harris, Filmmaker: Oh, gosh! So when I wrote my first screenplay…now this is the difference between writing a first screenplay and when I was directing.
When I wrote my first screenplay of course Syd Field is like…I don’t think you can really be a solid screenwriter if you haven’t studied Syd Field. I’ve read a lot of screenplays, tons of screenplays before I even started writing screenplays. I’ve read Syd Field’s book and I continue to read his books. But tons of screenplays.
When I wrote my first screenplay (and it never got produced of course) and I took it out and people read it, it was pretty decent but it wasn’t good.
It was only after writing at least 10 screenplays before I actually produced my own stuff. But it taught me a lot. That I didn’t play with at all because I knew that in order to sit down and write there had to be a particular structure. And that’s one of the things too is that, one of these things is very important as screenwriters and filmmakers is that when you’re pitching to producers you have to make sure that the screenplay is properly structured, use Final Draft and we have to really, really invest in ourselves and in our craft. Go out and get the Final Draft program, go out and read Syd Field’s book and know how to read screenplays.
And make sure that when you actually pitch to producers that it’s properly formatted. There is nothing worse than someone saying they have an idea and they pitch you an idea but they want you to write the idea. I have tons of screenplays of my own or screenwriters who want you to read their screenplays but it’s not properly formatted, I’ve had that.
Recently someone asked me to read their screenplay, they had…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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