A screenplay writer, scriptwriter or scenarist, is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
In a literary work, film, or other narrative, the plot is the sequence of events where each affects the next one through the principle of cause-and-effect. The causal events of a plot can be thought of as a series of events linked by the connector "and so". Plots can vary from the simple—such as in a traditional ballad—to forming complex interwoven structures, with each part sometimes referred to as a subplot or imbroglio.
Dramatic structure is the structure of a dramatic work such as a book, play, or film. There are different kinds of dramatic structures worldwide which have been hypothesized by critics, writers and scholars alike over time. This article covers the range of dramatic structures from around the world. How the acts are structured, what the center of the story is supposed to be about widely varies by region and time period.
Sydney Alvin Field was an American author and speaker who wrote several books on screenwriting, the first being Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting. He led workshops and seminars about producing salable screenplays. Hollywood film producers use Field's ideas on structure to measure the potential of screenplays.
Screenwriting or scriptwriting is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is often a freelance profession.
John August is an American screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is known for writing the films Go (1999), Charlie's Angels (2000), Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), Big Fish (2003), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Corpse Bride (2005), Frankenweenie (2012), the Disney live-action adaptation of Aladdin (2019), the novels Arlo Finch in the Valley of Fire (2018), Arlo Finch in the Lake of the Moon (2019) and Arlo Finch in the Kingdom of Shadows (2020).
Judd Mann Apatow is an American comedian, director, producer, and screenwriter, best known for his work in comedy and drama films. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, through which he produced and directed the films The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007), Funny People (2009), This Is 40 (2012), Trainwreck (2015), The King of Staten Island (2020), and The Bubble (2022).
In television and film, a plot point is any incident, episode, or event that "hooks" into the action and spins it around into another direction.
Eric Andrew Heisserer is an American screenwriter and comic book writer. His screenplay for the film Arrival earned him a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination at the 89th Academy Awards in 2016.
Adventures in the Screen Trade is a book about Hollywood written in 1983 by American novelist and screenwriter William Goldman. The title is a pun on Dylan Thomas's Adventures in the Skin Trade.
A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or studio.
Karen McCullah is an American screenwriter and novelist most known for co-writing comedies such as 10 Things I Hate About You, Legally Blonde, Ella Enchanted, The House Bunny, The Ugly Truth and She's the Man with her screenwriting partner Kirsten Smith. After graduating from James Madison University with a degree in marketing, McCullah worked various jobs before beginning to write. She is a faculty member at Syracuse University's Los Angeles Semester.
The three-act structure is a model used in narrative fiction that divides a story into three parts (acts), often called the Setup, the Confrontation, and the Resolution. It was popularized by Syd Field in his 1979 book Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting. It has been falsely attributed to Aristotle who in fact argued for 2-act and 16-act plays. Aristotle split the play into two acts: δέσις (desis) and λύσις (lysis), which roughly translates to binding and unbinding, although the contemporary translation is "complication" and "dénouement".
Blake Snyder was an American screenwriter, consultant, author and educator based in Los Angeles who, through his Save the Cat trilogy of books on screenwriting and story structures, became one of the most popular writing mentors in the film industry. Snyder led international seminars and workshops for writers in various disciplines, as well as consultation sessions for some of Hollywood's largest studios.
Osman Khalid Butt is a Pakistani film, television and theatre actor, writer and choreographer. He is best known for his role as Wali Sohaib Khan in Diyar-E-Dil, Faaz Ibrahim in Chupke Chupke and Malik Shahzain in Ehd-e-Wafa. He is the recipient of several accolades, including two Hum Awards and an ARY Film Award, and has been nominated for a Lux Style Award on two occasions.
Cinco Paul and Ken Daurio are American screenwriters. They are primarily known for writing screenplays for animated films, including Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who, Despicable Me, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Despicable Me 2, The Secret Life of Pets and Despicable Me 3. Paul is also the creator, executive producer and songwriter for the 2021 Apple TV+ musical comedy series Schmigadoon!.
Trainwreck is a 2015 American romantic comedy film directed by Judd Apatow and written by Amy Schumer. The film stars Schumer and Bill Hader along with an ensemble cast that includes Brie Larson, Colin Quinn, John Cena, Vanessa Bayer, Tilda Swinton, Ezra Miller, LeBron James, Mike Birbiglia, and Norman Lloyd in his final film before his death in 2021. The film is about a hard-drinking, promiscuous, free-spirited young magazine writer named Amy Townsend (Schumer) who has her first serious relationship with a prominent orthopedic surgeon named Aaron Conners (Hader). The film received positive reviews from critics, praising the performances of Schumer and Hader and the screenplay.
Kevin Patrick Mills is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and actor, whose feature film debut Guidance was released in 2015.
John Truby is an American screenwriter, director, screenwriting teacher and author. He has served as a consultant on over 1,000 film scripts over the past three decades, and is also known for the screenwriting software program Blockbuster. He is an author of Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller, a book about screenwriting skills.
Taylor Sheridan is an American filmmaker and actor. Sheridan first reached prominence for portraying David Hale in the FX television series Sons of Anarchy and Danny Boyd in Veronica Mars (2005–2007).
