Tennyson Stead's Reel

How do you know when an idea is the right idea to develop?

Most of my screenwriting commissions were written in a week. I'm not rushing. I've just built good habits and good structure.

Back in January 2024, Stage 32 published this article from Yours Truly... and I just wanted to have these words up on my YouTube Channel.

Let me be completely honest with you: I'm not sure what being "myself" on the internet looks like, exactly... but I figure it's got to start with letting you know where I came from! Here's the story of how I became a professional screenwriter.

Walking actors, cinematographers, and designers through the details of their work on the page is obviously bad form. Nobody likes being told how to do their job... but what if you're right?

Financing is the process of soliciting investment capital or loans, based on the premise of a return of investment... and now we're going to talk about how I understand that process when it comes to feature film production.

What's the deal in Hollywood, when it comes to business? What goes into the financing of a motion picture? Let's talk about it!

Some writers see short film as a medium that lets them off the structural hook. My advice is to look at it as a magnifying glass, showcasing the quality and strength of your fundamentals to the audience.

Is spectacle some weird magic that only shows up for certain movies, or is it just what you get for selling out your artistic integrity? No. In fact, spectacle is something you can create on command, to whatever artistic effect you like, using any materials you have on hand to work with.

Probably the favorite objection to the idea of an active dramatic structure is a writer's creative desire to build active characterization through catharsis. Let's not assume that a writer's ideas require a passive approach to the structure. Let's work out how to get there without asking the actor to sell a character to the audience.