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Try to keep your page count between 90 and 120 pages. That's all you need to worry about as a beginning writer. The most important thing is that it's just long enough to tell your story well, and not a page longer. Chances are you aren't a Soderbergh who can get a 6 hour biopic on Che Guevara...

INT. COURTHOUSE MEZZANINE - DAY LIEUTENANT PAGLIACCI strolls up to OFFICER GARCIA. Attached to his wrist is a pair of frilly pink handcuffs. Attached to the other end, a broken bed post. LIEUTENANT PAGLIACCI Don’t even fucking ask. So, what the hell happened, Garcia? Where’s the suspect...

Well, you either show it or you don't. If you can't for budget reasons, then your only option is to work around it, no matter what your friends or anybody else thinks. If you can show it, what's the problem?

Are you sure that if he moved quickly he couldn't escape from the middle of the city? If the shooting and escape from the courtroom happened quickly it's not unreasonable to assume it will take the police a while to respond and organize a dragnet. They do have to finish their Dunkin' Donuts...

Oh, I'm sure the studio had someone watching his ass every minute to make sure he wasn't blowing their money. It grossed $672MM. And thus the career of Mr. Shyamalan was launched. It was all downhill from there, however. LOL. And no, I wouldn't recommend this to anyone as a way to get into...

Screenwriting! M. Night Shyamalan had no directing experience whatsoever, and he wrote a script (The Sixth Sense) that Hollywood wanted so badly, they agreed to let him direct it as part of the purchasing bargain.

Your film narrative will probably be linear but, as you suggest, writing doesn't have to be. What works to motivate me is to choose a few juicy, super cool scenes I know you have in your head and can't wait to write, and write those first. Now you've got a goal: catching up to that scene with...

I have to agree with trueindie. At a time when almost anyone can get access to a Red One or, at the very least, a high-end DSLR, it's almost always poor sound and the amateur quality of the acting that give away a cheap production. My advice? Get with your screenwriter and cut back on the...

Does your funding come primarily from the Canadian government? I know the whole film-funding structure is significantly different in Canada. I see lots of ads on screenwriting forums requesting writers who have to be a Canadian resident.

Hi, Richy! Thanks for the advice and I agree. Our Skype meeting on Saturday will be a chance to get all our concerns out in the open. We're treating it like any other business deal and don't intend to be dazzled. We'll ask plenty of questions and won't jump into anything until we've run it...

Email received.

Here's a video he directed recently for the Grammy-award-winning singer, Lila Downs. Our script is a lyrical, surreal biopic of the Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca. We think his work fits nicely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beuRgIqxTnY

Good point. It could be he's thinking of producing a nd directing. We'll definitely get things clarified Saturday.

He has four features under his belt. He's mostly known for music videos, though, including working with people like Shakira, Johnny Cash, Ricky Martin, AlIison Krauss, and Gloria Estefan, to name just a few. His style is surreal and lyrical, which is perfect, again, for the subject matter. He...

Thanks, Joseph. We (my co-writer Jonathan and I) have a Skype meeting with the director in question Saturday (he's in L.A. and I'm in Michigan). He's indicated that he has 5 or 6 solid financing contacts and is interested in discussing optioning the script. So that's a good thing, right? The...

The good news: you have a beginning, a middle, and an end. You also have a theme, a conflict and a resolution. The bad news: your dialogue is on the nose. By "on the nose," I mean like a sledge-hammer on the nose. It doesn't work, it's not natural, people don't talk to each other like that...

Édith Piaf fan? I see you've posted this on several screenplay and film forums, word for word. Before I answer, I'd like you to verify that you're not on the payroll of Industrial Scripts and trying to slip an ad into a non-commercial forum on this site. Heh.

I think I need to be clearer. Will an industry reader look at your page count when they see the break into act 2? Yes. Will it matter? Probably not if the STORY works. But you never know. Most readers are film school students, or creative writing students, or professional screenwriters...

Well, it's been plugging along pretty good for a few thousand years. I doubt its death is imminent. Page counts for act breaks aren't that important, in my opinion, nor for any other story beats. The guidelines you read about are there because they're a distillation and analysis of thousands...

Good advice from Senor Alcove. Also, note that you're doing an adaptation, a "based on" as a writer for hire. That means the contract will likely give the producer not only copyright to your work, but "authorship," as well. You'll probably be "writer" under the terms of the contract. That...