A conversation about screenwriting with a Slamdance script reader
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- Опубліковано 19 тра 2024
- I sat down with one of my most talented friends, Joslyn Jensen. She's an accomplished actor, screenwriter, and script reader for festival competitions like Slamdance. By her account she reads over 200 scripts a year.
We get into what she's come across in all the scripts she's read: common red flags, what makes a script stand out, if screenplay competitions are worth it, what's she's learned for her own work, and how to write a good log line. As well as tons of other great advice for screenwriters of all levels of experience.
It was so much fun to pick her brain, it's a conversation that any screenwriter or filmmaker won't want to miss.
Check out Joslyn's site Script Eater: www.script-eater.com/
0:00 My friend Joslyn
0:54 Things she sees over and over
5:32 Screenplay competitions
7:08 Two things every screenwriter should do
13:04 Red flags in scripts
17:50 Are competitions worth it?
19:20 Giving yourself little treats
22:49 When a movie comes out that's similar to yours
23:52 Lessons she's learned for her own work
28:28 Switching to better audio
28:38 Tips for new screenwriters
30:19 Should screenwriters read other scripts?
33:11 Does formatting matter?
38:54 Play scripts vs. screenplays
41:35 How to tell if something should be a film or a series
44:27 How to write a great logline
49:23 Outro
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“Write it like it could be produced over and over.” Brilliant advice!
Yeah so interesting!
I hammered you in the comments for your Sundance episode. So it gives me great pleasure to compliment you on an awesome episode with an awesome guest. She was interesting, the questions were on point, and her perspective is of value to budding screenwriters and the information useful and worth noting.
I am probably a bit biased as she gave off strong "don't bore us, get to the chorus" vibes in her suggestions, which I appreciate.
Glad you found it informative
I got a lot from this conversation, thank you. Fantastic insights. I sift through so much unhelpful content and its gems like this that makes all that time worth it. Appreciate you both
I'm really glad I sat through this. It was a fine interview, but personally I'm familiar with what Joslyn was saying. Except her idea about what makes a series! That is a fantastic insight. Thank you.
Great video Dean. I've been enjoying your content but this video kicks things up a notch. Well done for getting Joslyn onboard as she has some great notes and as someone who is writing a feature right now, it helps to see this kind of content. Keep it up man!
Glad you enjoyed it!
What a fantastic conversation. I love how personal it is, and how it doesn't try to be 'ideal'.
This is really great. Fantastic interview and super insightful wisdom from her.
Really helpful conversation! Thanks so much.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Brilliant. So much great info to implement. Thank you for sharing.
In the last short I wrote for my blog, after a description I put ‘you know the look’ and I didn’t even know writers were speaking to the reader. I wrote that in instinctively for a hypothetical director to interpret it to direct the actor. Great info especially for someone like me trying to learn and get better
I really liked that! I hope you do a regular conversation series with her.
I think the thing she kept harping on - how there should be subtext in films, how she liked that script where a couple were having sex and then you discover later that they are married to different people - that Possum logline ------ all those things required the audience to connect two dots the writer set up, but which they did not join for the reader. But when the audience makes that connection themselves, they get a little jolt of dopamine.
I bet she likes puzzles too.
This was great to watch. Interesting, entertaining and educational.
It was funny when Joslyn complained about people being too on the nose in scripts, while putting her finger on her own nose.
Great interview!
This is great content; she seems very genuine rather than trying to sell you on something.
Keep up what you are doing, it's great and helpful in a practical way
Thanks for watching!
Neat! We need more of these. Cheers !!!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great convo! She’s super knowledgeable and passionate about the craft
Thanks for watching!
This was great, man. Thanks
Thanks for watching
I thought this was a Sara Dietschy video when I first saw the thumbnail… Did a double take when Dean popped up. 😂
Great convo though; excited to hear that this will be a series!
Haha
i giggled when u said the better audio starts now
Get ready!
She should have her own podcast.
I agree!
yea. CELEBRATIONS are huuuuuuuge. the dopamine system definitely needs to be trained to reward accomplishments. great point.
ooooo... and "court transcript"! that's gold!
Her reward idea is so good.
Pavlov likes this comment.
Great point about trailer spoilers. Personally I believe nothing from the second half of the flick should be in the trailer, UNLESS it’s a misrepresentation. Love letting the audience go “I know wat happens here” and then “wait what?”
Thank you..
Great video!
for future use, I'd use Adobe's Free Audio Cleanup tool to remove the echo and make everything sound fantastic!
Great interview marred by bad sound for half of it. Always monitor your recording.
Anything worth watching has a thesis, a question that must be answered, whether it's a feature or series. Most series pose the question, some can answer (e.g. True Detective) others don't bother (e.g Lost) -- mainly because they can't . The difference between a feature and a series is that a series needs an "engine".
Please have Joslyn back to live up to her word that she could talk about pitching for another hour. We would listen!
We'll do another one!
@@deanpeter2on I'll make it an appointment watch!
Thanks. It's good to know what readers are looking for. I mean, aside from the race and gender of the author. Obviously those are the most important things.
The bad thing about this conversation is that it ends. Even though the caracters are not exactly likable. lol. Thank you!
Thank you for fixing the audio lol
Definitely cool to hear from the perspective of someone who has read 1000s of scripts, but it would be nice to also consider the heavy production side of things a bit more. From the perspective of a cinematographer, formatting matters a great deal. Page ratios, unnecessary camera language, etc. are hugely impactful when we shoot movies. Ultimately, it’s dependent on the director, but I can’t tell you how many times a poorly formatted script has damaged production…
Totally, more people need to keep that in mind.
Ya’ll ever go to like a video twice
It does help Dean that she is an actor who already has representation by the way, with an agent thus allowing them to easily get into screenwriting. Now actors have a massive advantage over screenwriters who do not have representation.
I don't know if she does have representation!
I would say her hard work, networking, disciplined writing, actually completing projects, talent, intellectual curiosity and "putting herself out there" (e.g. reader for contests, for hire coverage, etc.) has a lot more to do with her success than whether or not she has représentation for selling her scripts or getting work helping with other people's scripts. If she has représentation it's probably because of all those other things I mentioned.
That said, an actor's agent isn't likely to be of much use when it comes to selling scripts. Even amongst actors, agents often specialize (TV, theatrical, stage, commercial).
@@patrickmurray9359 Representation helps whether
you agree or disagree its fact, especially in the UK!
You should take a look at her credits. She hasn't acted in anything remotely well known or critically lauded.
@@Filmmaker809 you don't get representation just because you ask for it is my point.
Sounds like these scripts have to please a wide variety of people to win.
Cool
For sure
@@deanpeter2on I plan on creating horror movie to get ahead of this year’s halloween
@@ryanhowell4492 that's a good idea!
@@deanpeter2on that's not going to be easy
6:26 nothing is equal to sneaky ninja cat!
🥷
Good info but it's little annoying that she loves reading Billy Wilder but hates when writers use camera work, given that Billy Wilder always used camera direction in his screenplays. Sure, he directed his scripts but so could some of us.
I think it's different when a writer is also going to direct the script.
There is a way to clean up the audio..worth using some ai tools for!
I did as much as I could, audio is not my forte clearly!
@@deanpeter2on ah fair enough! :)
what is that tattoo?
Not sure!
I despise the push for diversity in scripts. If it’s an all black cast, great (that’s not diversity) if it’s an all white cast or female cast or Asian or whatever, the gender, ethnicity, and whatever else should fit the story. What a horrible thing to do to creativity and other genders and races, shoehorn them in, cuz it’s trendy to do. Then they make you feel bad if you don’t. Reverse racism is still racism. No wonder most movies suck nowadays. No matter who it is, they shouldn’t be included as almost an afterthought, add them because they fit the story. The writers strike got them no jobs and scorn from the public. Well deserved. Pandering is disgraceful. Make this character black, cuz we don’t have enough diversity, this character no one cares about, I don’t think writers and those pushing this are doing the good thing they think they’re doing.
That's not how it works but okay!
It feels so good to be able to blame something!
@@hiplessboy lol I used to be further led than I am now, I started listening to both sides of the news and was horrified to see how much the left no media is lying. It all started there. If you don’t look outside the bubble, you’ll never be able to think anything different from them.
Why do you think young screenwriters are drawn to writing about parents dying and/or overcoming a parents death?
I don't know but I made a whole feature about it!
Because my Dad died.
I see you try a similar setup as Matt D'Avella for the interview. ;)
What setup does he use?
@@deanpeter2on ua-cam.com/video/qdSMbUi6Ct8/v-deo.htmlsi=xHVpFfKtRLMxdkyb
One of the best screenwriting interviews! I’ve written 30+ scripts, won awards and had two features made that were internationally distributed.
Still so much to learn and reenforce. Love what she said about subtext, as that’s one of the biggest falls in badly made movies and TV.
We speak in subtext constantly - every time we speak nicely to a boss we hate, every time our wife says I’M FINE!!! - and she’s not actually fine, every time we speak in one way, while hiding another emotion behind it.
And Joslyn’s gorgeous. Thanks for the eye candy.
I was vibing with this comment up until the last 2 sentences. What the fuck bro.
*Modern mainstream* movies *sukk* because:
1) hammy dialogue
2) crude and tackyness (foul language / Gore and violence)
3) wooden characters (with actors that would fit in perfectly at IKEA/ a furniture store)
Where's the subtlety?
Where's the finesse?
*Thankfully* - cause of *Internet* and _smartphones_ - *anyone* can tell and *anyone can make a story* and share.
Stay happy everyone:)
What’s a modern movie you like?
You have to wonder with this generation of ‘script readers’ would they understand the complexity of say a script like Network , One flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, Midnight Exoress ? Or have their brains been so white washed by life inexperiences with so much ‘JUNK’ that they can’t decipher the difference between a potential masterpiece & just another Barbie or Marvel hashtag. ✒️🎬🎥✒️
Some might argue that Barbie IS in fact a masterpiece.
It's hard to write a masterpiece like One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, it isn't hard to know you're reading a masterpiece like One Flew... Your examples, except Midnight Express, are brilliant films but they aren't complex plots. They are full of subtext and explore themes that may or may not resonate with a reader, but I wouldn't be so dismissive of the younger generation that you can't find readers who can pick up on those themes and whatever question(s) those films are trying to answer.
@darkknightwithanidea1845 You say life inexperiences, yet most songs you grew up listening to and loving were written by guys in their early 20's. Stephen King wrote Carrie, Salem's Lot, The Shining, Children of the Corn and several others all before 30. I needn't mention Shakespeare. I'm almost 40 now, but can attest that the emotional impact individual pieces of art had on me was much more powerful when I was younger. There's no correlation between age and talent; or taste. Bonus fact, Ken Kesey was 25 when he started writing Cuckoo's Nest (27 when it got published).
@@deanpeter2on Yep. I myself enjoyed it on at least three different levels.
Let me guess, only wrote scripts that are about feminist ideology and how masculinity is bad, etc?
"Content is the most important thing" This is the issue with most people these days. They care about content as opposed to form. Film is not a medium for storytelling.
"I don't care about stories. I never did. Every story is the same. We have no new stories. We're just repeating the same ones. I really don't think, when you do a movie that you have to think about the story. The film isn't the story. It's mostly picture, sound, a lot of emotions. The stories are just covering something." - Bella Tar
"Film is not a medium for storytelling" is a bold take!
You know it's amazing. Literally every word of that was wrong. I mean nothing you said was correct.
@@thereccher8746 Delightful, isn't it? -- I mean, this micro-second, I indulge in "Maybe he's got a point..." Then ok, nah... Earth's still round-ish. Ah, semant... I mean, syntax!
You look like the long lost brother of seth rogan
Thank you.
What’s funny is how much utterly unproducible stuff makes it to the later stages of competitions. The competitions tend to weigh very heavily towards DEI stuff. The more lgbt / oppressed women etc the more likely you’ll get into the final rounds. It’s really a joke how they don’t care for original shit. It’s just what fits the current paradigm of what’s good to be writing about. Never submitting to another contest again since I don’t write for the current political bend in vogue
Ok
Every era has its political agenda. Trends come and go. The foundational story and characters need to be great, and if they are the cream will rise to the top. Great films stand the test of time because they're simply great, no matter how they're dressed. The fluff coated in popular trappings become forgotten.
Not really. You can submit your material to many contests and if you’re in an industry full of people who generally all believe the same stuff and are grading the same ways then your story will not get beyond them. Practically every person I’ve spoken to with scripts that made it into latter rounds of selection fit the woke DEI messaging. who knows how many great scripts go unproduced because studios are more interested in checking boxes off than making original ideas. it might pass one day but damage is being done. Time wasted. Talent wasted.
most commonly used word - Like.
Sigh...... this is just a bunch of common sense BS. What a waste of a video.
good luck with your career!
Count how many times you use the word “like”, so distracting.
I am sorry
I apologise if I offended you, but the constant use of “like” makes you both sound adolescent.
@@tezzag818 Interesting feedback. And... that is important because...
Have you considered stopping counting? Maybe you would get the important bits. I am the Grammar Police myself in my group, but that was just rude, not fun or funny-which are the only ways to get away with that. That's basic etiquette; every adolescent knows. You're welcome.
@@deanpeter2on Don't be. That's ludicrous. I haven't even noticed. Now I probably will next time I see it.
Can you say the word “like” a few THOUSAND more times????!!!! C’mon!!!
I can listen no longer.
best just to leave