Like any craft, movie script writing can be learned, and there are many online resources available for the budding screenplay writer. However, as every unsuccessful script submitter knows, it just isn’t enough to write the perfect script with everything in the right industry format. The audience needs specific things from watching a movie, certain ingredients that make it all worthwhile. If these special ingredients are not there, the film is bound to be a flop.
So what are these secret attributes of a blockbuster movie?
1. Make your main characters really likable. Think of your favorite movie – it’s always a character you relate to that comes to mind. You like them, you care about what happens to them and want them to win.
2. If people want to see the movie more than once, it’s a winner. Re-watch value has a huge influence on success.
3. Surprise your audience constantly. Make sure you include one in every scene.
4. Give your audience questions for them to wonder about. Their minds will become engaged and stick with the story, hoping to find out the answers.
5. People don’t come to the movies to be bored! If all the actors agree with each other, there is no conflict and therefore no tension. Conflict is essential for a great movie experience.
6. Try to make each and every scene unforgettable. What can you do to make a scene exciting, frightening, emotional or deeply satisfying?
7. Each member of the audience has a fantasy and came to see the movie because it relates to that fantasy in some way. Expand on their fantasies, and they will be glued to their seats.
8. Great films have a hero or heroine that go on a journey to win something, overcoming difficult challenges along the way. People want to feel as though they have been on an adventure with the hero, when they leave the cinema.
Movies and novels present stories we want to become immersed in. We give the actors permission to suspend our belief and accept the false-reality we see or read, so that we can understand the overall message the writer is trying to convey.
This only works if the author crafts his story using the time-tested techniques handed down from Aristotle and adapted by countless writers up to the present day.
When you cover all the basics of movie script writing formatting, create a solid storyline and include all of the above elements, you will have a wonderful movie script to on your hands.