What makes for a successful screenplay?
If you are reading this, odds are, like us, you have a healthy obsession with this question. As you would imagine, we’ve been studying it for years. We’ve seen what works from successes in attracting studios and networks and helping get projects produced. And more painfully, we’ve learned even more from screenplays with potential that were poorly executed and never gained traction.
What’s crazy is that the more we examine the question of what makes a powerful story, the more we are reminded that the question is not a new one. Fortunately, there are principles that when applied, were proven to be successful over 2,000 years ago. And those time tested principles are just as true for screenplays written today for Hollywood.
In 350 B.C., the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, was asking a similar question about rhetorical speeches: What makes for effective speeches that persuade audiences?
His answer for what makes a speech persuasive: Ethos (ethical appeal by the source of information being credible), Pathos (emotional appeal), and Logos (logical appeal by use of reasoning).
The way he saw it, audiences reacted best to an ethical appeal (credible source), an emotional appeal, and a logical appeal.
Applying Aristotle’s lessons to Screenplay:
Ethos (Credibility): An Ethical Appeal
As we have all experienced, we tend to base our reactions to information (including works of art) based on who the arthur/creator is. Aristotle knew this as well. People tend to believe or give the benefit of the doubt to people they respect. And that is exactly what Aristotle meant by Ethos…
Being read as a writer with credibility is important, but as you can quickly see, there is a catch 22 involved with becoming a credible writer.
Say you are a writer new to Hollywood and found a way to “get lunch” with an agent. After a few glasses of wine in them, you ask the agent, “What makes a screenplay credible?” They respond, “I know a script is credible when a star actor, director, or producer is attached. Come back when you’ve got an actor, director, or producer attached, kid.” But here’s the thing… you generally need the agent to look legitimate enough to attach those elements to a screenplay.
For most writers that leaves them frustrated. And we agree.
That’s why we created Think Hollywood, to work with unrepresented writers, and to give them the best access and guidance we could offer from our experience to help them better develop their screenplays to professional levels to attract the kind of attachments (directors, actors, and producers) that make their projects credible.
And for newer writers, the best way to become credible is to write at professional standards that immediately engage the reader. That is why we at Think Hollywood connect writers with producers and development executives who specialize in story development in order to help the writer hook the reader from page one.
Pathos: An Emotional Appeal
But how do we help readers to get hooked by the story from page one?
Aristotle still gets it right. The answer is we must make our readers care.
But… how do we help a reader care?
As humans, we are drawn towards characters we identify with. We care about characters that find themselves in difficult situations: situations we can imagine ourselves in. And when we imagine ourselves in the situation, unable to resolve the dilemma, we invest and look to see how the character navigates that difficult situation.
That uncertainty for the character about a fix for one of life’s many dilemmas keeps the reader emotionally invested in the story.
Logos: A Logical Appeal
And after the reader continues to care about the character after page one, what earns your screenplay that “RECOMMEND” stamp of approval that catapults your screenplay into production so you are paid, get your movie made, and audiences around the world see your vision?
The story must have a payoff.
The dilemma must be credibly resolved, in spite of circumstances that seemed impossible.
And they must be resolved in ways that are not only logical, but that continue to move you emotionally.
And if you are like any writer in Hollywood, it will take a team to help you get there.
And we are here to be on your TEAM: a team with the knowledge to help you write to professional standards, the best known way to heighten your chance of success in Hollywood.
