What goes into writing a great movie script?

Primary characters must change polarities. Secondary characters can change less.

A scene should change valence from beginning to end. Up to down, down to up.

Don’t direct from the page. Everyone, from the director on down, wants to be part of the process of making movies. Let them do their work.

While on the surface of the moon, why isn’t the Apollo 11 spacesuit inflated like a balloon from the 3.7 psi internal pressure?

Learn to tell a story orally and not through writing. Try telling your story to a friend.

A critical function of storytelling is wish fulfillment. This is why video games are so popular. “That protagonist is JUST LIKE ME.”

All rules are made to be broken, but you damn well better know WHY you’re breaking them.

Did Muhammad Ali ask Dundee to cut his gloves off before Eddie Futch stopped the fight in Thrilla in Manila?

Audiences are smarter than you think. Something about turning down the house lights makes their IQs go up.

Write in reverse time. Major characters need to change polarity; minor characters may remain the same at the end.

Maintain a slush pile/idea file. When you are ready to write, choose the best seeds to plant.

In England, there's a small city called York which was named after New York. Why wasn't London, the largest city in England, named after New York? Why York?

People choose what to see based on the high concept. Make sure to deliver an ending consistent with the high concept -- it is what the audience paid for.

Conflict is your power source; without it you have no drama and hence no script.

Leave holes. Write and unwrite. Put it in, take it out.

Do you prefer wired headphones or wireless earbuds?

Use status to help drive conflict. King Lear/fool. Upstairs/downstairs.

Outline everything. Use story beats. Keep character’s mouths taped up, until they absolutely MUST speak. Write the script and the dialogue at the last minute, after you’ve revised the hell out of the outline.

Cut everything that is not a payoff, or a setup for a specific payoff. “Omit needless words.” Think about the sparseness of joke telling, or Grimm Brothers.

Why do I feel bad when I see white girls dating black guys, am I racist?

Actors give better feedback than writers do.

The DSM 5 is a wonderful character compendium.

What you leave unwritten is as important as what you write. SUBTEXT.

Why are white guys the top consumers of interracial porn? What's the rationale behind this phenomenon?

Research the facts and then throw away the research.

Get up there yourself. Be in a movie. Take some acting (not writing) classes. Learn how a trained actor approaches a text. Learn why actors take roles. They do as much if not more than the writer does.

Your primary job is to create situations. Modern actors will fuck up your dialogue, despite whatever your contract says.

David Goyer on Marvel Turning Down His ‘Blade’ Reboot Offer, Why ‘The Sandman’ Is Ending and Those Neil Gaiman Allegations: He ‘Wasn’t as Involved in Season 2’ - Variety

To develop a unique voice for each character, try interviewing your characters.

Only God gets it right the first time. Rewrite everything.

Make sure to pack enough explosives into the rocket.

Why do some people tell the girl I like that I don’t like her when I do like her?