Gordy Hoffman published an interesting article on the Bluecat Screenplay Competition website recently.
The thrust of the article is that every successful movie is successful because it taps into some key element of what the mass of people have on their mind at a point in time.
I'm not sure I agree with all the analysis, but this makes interesting reading nonetheless. The conclusions are all fresh reminders of what we, deep down, already know.
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Don’t be afraid to give the audience what they want.
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Have stakes that make the conflict in your story matter.
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Theme is an essential element to conveying an even tone throughout.
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Meet and exceed your audience’s expectations of what a movie can be.
What do the 10 Highest-Earning Original Screenplays have in common?
Of the top thirty-seven highest grossing films of all time (adjusted for inflation), only ten are original screenplays that aren’t sequels, prequels, or Fantasia. Read on to see what they have in common.
10. Independence Day (1996)
box office $564,541,300
What made it work?
Cultural zeitgeist.
Writers will forget sometimes that they products of their environment. With only four years until the new millennium, Independence Day was the doomsday movie that no one realized they wanted. Sure it’s hokey and the science is silly, but at the end of the day that’s how most of the world was in 1996. Don’t be afraid to give the audience what they want.
9. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969 )
box office $575,046,500
What made it work?
Likable Characters.
The characters of Butch and Sundance are altogether iconic, relatable, and nuanced. When you’re writing your characters, don’t neglect to give each the attention they deserve. Every character should feel like a real person.
8. Ghostbusters (1984)
box office $579,957,500
What made it work?
Genre transcendence.
On its surface, Ghostbusters could be an action movie. Or horror. Or comedy? Sci-fi? Instead Ghostbusters transcended genre completely, telling an original story with clever world building and amazing characters. Without Ghostbusters, who knows if we’d have films like Galaxy Quest or Shawn of The Dead.
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
box office $721,493,300
What made it work?
Reverence for the classics.
Raiders of the Lost Ark takes the best of classic films like Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and combines them with the pulp action of the 1930′s serials. The result is a film that is often lauded as the finest ever made. When writing your original spec, be prepared to borrow from the best.
6. The Sting (1973)
box office $726,514,300
What made it work?
Reveals that are surprising yet inevitable.
This is the second George Roy Hill directed film to make this list with Paul Newman and Robert Redford starring. The advice there is to stick with what works. Storywise, The Sting is best known for its complicated yet engaging plot. Following the exploits of two confidence men and their vendetta against a gangster played by Robert Shaw, every scene leaves the audience guessing and wanting more.
5. The Lion King (1994)
box office $726,543,300
What made it work?
Emotional range.
The Lion King would be a completely different movie if it was only a story of animals getting along and singing about the food chain. Thankfully the writers pushed a more ambitious story. With Mufasa’s death, Timon and Pumba’s antics, Nala and Simba’s love story, this little animated movie about lions touched upon very human emotions. Don’t be afraid to use a range of emotions to further your story.
4. Avatar (2009)
box office $792,630,400
What made it work?
A fully realized world the audience has never seen before.
Most great films are a classic story set in a wholly original world (Lord of The Rings). Others are original stories set in a classical world (The Artist). Other films are neither, pushing an incoherent mess (The Room), or a tired by-the-numbers formula (Home Alone 3). People go to movies to be entertained, and in the film making process the screenwriter is the first “at bat.”
3. Titanic (1997)
box office $1,104,116,900
What made it work?
High stakes.
All stories have conflict. What separates good storytelling from bad storytelling are the motivations of the characters. It’s one thing to write a movie about the sinking of the Titanic, it’s a far greater thing to write “Romeo and Juliet on the Titanic” as James Cameron once pitched his movie. Each of the movies on this list have stakes that make the conflict in their story matter. This is a good reason why poorly written action movies can feel boring. If there’s no reason to care about the characters’ wants/needs, what’s the point?
2.
E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
box office $1,156,112,800
What made it work?
Universal themes.
E.T. isn’t just a story about an alien trying to get home. It’s also about a boy coping with his parent’s divorce and the inherent loneliness of being a child. Nearly everyone can relate to the fear of being lost and alone as a child, and while many films have tried to emulate E.T., no film has done it better. Theme is an oft-overlooked element of screenwriting, yet essential to conveying an even tone throughout. The more universal your theme is, the more likely your screenplay will have mass appeal.
1. Star Wars (1977)
box office $1,451,674,700
What made it work?
Epic storytelling.
Everything about Star Wars is epic. From the costumes to the periphery characters, the movie makes no apologies for being larger than life. The same can be said for all the movies in this list. They met and exceeded their audience’s expectations of what a movie could be and as a result, became cultural phenomenons.
Gordy Hoffman is a screenwriter, the founder of the BlueCat Screenplay Competition, and the guy who wrote the script for Love Liza, which starred his brother, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
The BlueCat Screenplay Competition has been around for about fifteen years. It has seen the number of entries rise from 384, in 1999, to 3391, in 2013. At the same time, total prize money has risen from $2,000 to $43,000. Which is nice, but the big deal is that BlueCat provides written feedback on your screenplay, prepared by experienced professional readers. All for $25. That's hard to beat.
Gordy has agreed to share some of the many articles he's written over the years with Adelaide Screenwriter readers. Here's one that might help you improve your screenplay.
How to win BlueCat, by Gordy Hoffman
Are you preparing to send in your screenplay to the BlueCat Screenplay Competition before the deadline? What can you do before you enter to increase your chances of advancing, placing and perhaps winning BlueCat?
The first thing you should know is BlueCat is very hard to win. Our readers are incredibly tough on our submissions because I have handpicked them, and my standards are very high. We work very hard, and writers who work as hard as we do stand a chance in the competition.
Maybe you just want our notes on an early draft and have no expectations of winning anything. (You’d be surprised how many people have done very well with new screenplays!) Thank you for using our readers to help you develop your work. We welcome your submissions.
But what if you’ve been diligently working on your screenplay in hopes that you could take our top prize? Well, if you think you’ve gone over it a hundred times, and you’re ready to submit, here’s a list of a few things to consider:
Grocery List
Go through all your description and get rid of all the style and texture and loveliness that calls attention to your wonderful incredible abilities as a Writer. We don’t care what kind of writer you are. All I remember from the scripts that won is what the story was and how much they made me laugh or cry. You know what a grocery list looks like? Make everything simple, straightforward and clean. Grocery list your description. Clarity is the most overlooked element of screenwriting.
Benjamin Franklin
What if someone gave you a hundred dollar bill for every word you removed from your screenplay? I think some of you might be able to buy a house. Go through your screenplay and remove enough words to buy a nice car or boat. You cut words from your script and your chances with BlueCat improve, it’s that simple.
Read Your Writing
When’s the last time you read your script? I know you’ve been looking at it and looking at it, but when’s the last time you read it all the way through? Just read it and reestablish your intimacy with what you wrote. Don’t be a stranger, check everything out again, and watch how all the light bulbs go off again over what it can be. It’s a new day. If you’re going to spend money on a screenplay contest, actually read your screenplay, without stopping to play with it.
Take The Stand
Stop lying to yourself. When we write a screenplay, development is a process of resetting an honest awareness of what we have in front of us. Look for jokes that actually aren’t funny and dialogue that actually doesn’t sound real. For real. Listen to your gut and get honest about what you have in front of you. I often find I’ve left a placeholder piece of dialogue or comedy in there and it became a part of my screenplay. Remove the below average choices you made a long time ago and even if you don’t have something to put in their place, it’s better to cut it and move on. Bad dialogue and bad jokes end your run with BlueCat very quickly.
To the Bone
Even after you’ve taken out all your bad jokes, bad lines and extra words, cut 5 more pages. See if it’s possible. If your script is over 89 pages, it’s very possible. Do it.
Forgive Your People
Do you love your characters? Which ones don’t you have compassion for? If you don’t like some of your characters, they probably aren’t written very well, trust me. With all the extra space, write 10 beats to support your family of characters. I’m not talking about saving animals. I’m talking about adding new moments to your story that come directly from your own admiration and respect for the human dignity in everyone you write about. Think about it. You might hate some of your characters. Shakespeare never did.
Writer not Screenplay
Now stop and set your alarm clock for ten minutes from now and write for ten minutes about a completely different idea just to remind you that after BlueCat and after this screenplay, you are a writer who will write forever and that’s your life, not screenplay contests or one story you made up.
And write tomorrow. I’m gonna try.
Gordy Hoffman is a screenwriter, director, teacher and the founder of the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. Winner of the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the Sundance Film Festival for Love Liza (2002), Gordy made his feature directorial debut with his script A Coat of Snow (2005), which world premiered at the Locarno International Film Festival.
He has conducted screenwriting workshops all over North America, Poland and the UK, and has served as a panelist for the IFP Script to Screen Conference, Women in Film’s Script Conference, the George Eastman House Film Festival, as well as a judge for the McKnight Screenwriting Fellowships in Minnesota. He sits on the Professional Advisory Board of the Film and Media Studies Department at the University of Kansas.
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Where were you born, and where did you grow up?
I was born in Rochester, New York, and spent my childhood there.
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What kind of a family did you grow up with?
I am one of four children, and had wonderful friends in our neighborhood, where I spent my childhood running around outside.
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Where did you go to school?
I am a proud graduate of the University of Kansas. Rock Chalk, Jayhawk!
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When did you first take an interest in writing?
My first memory was a writing assignment when I was in second grade. I loved how you could make up anything you wanted when you wrote.
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What was your first paying job (in any field)?
Probably as a paper boy, but I was selling stuff to the kids in the neighborhood very early. I’m an entrepreneur!
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What was your first paying job as a screenwriter?
I got an option, I think for $600, and some Dodger tickets. Haha.
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I marvel at the fact that you were not a produced screenwriter when you started the BlueCat Screenwriting Competition. I don’t mean to be rude, but what were you thinking at the time?
I have no idea what I was thinking as I had only written Love Liza, but I’m so glad I did, because it’s been the best education any one could have.
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What one aspect of the BlueCat Competition has given you the greatest satisfaction?
Supporting the people who do not win with our feedback. They love it and when they write us expressing how grateful they are, I know we are doing something important.
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You wear multiple hats. Do you have a preference: would you rather be writing, directing or producing a movie?
I’m a filmmaker, and right now I simply want to direct what I write. That’s all I really have time for.
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Despite having a famous brother, you have followed your own path in life. The two of you went to different schools and got involved in entertainment in different capacities. And though you beefed up the mother role with the intent of attracting Kathy Bates, Love Liza wasn’t written with Philip in mind. How did it come about that you worked together on that film?
I let him read it and he wanted to play the lead. This was before he had shot Boogie Nights (1997), that’s how long ago it was. I’m so glad we made that movie, as many people love it.
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What are three things you wish someone had told you about making a living from screenwriting when you were starting out?
If you ultimately want to direct your own work, then you should not try to write for hire. Just make a film, then make the next one. That’s the shortest path.
Be humble with everyone you meet and don’t wait for others to follow up with them. You stay in touch and be polite.
If someone wants to hire you or buy your writing, make sure you get to join the WGA. Refuse to make the deal until they agree.
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If you had to suggest just one screenwriting book to a newbie writer in Adelaide, which one would it be?
Read anything on Kurosawa talking about screenwriting.
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What are your ten favorite (favorite, not ‘best’) movies of all time?
Animal House (1978)
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966)
La Dolce Vita (1960)
The Third Man (1949)
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Contempt (1963)
The Seven Samarai (1954)
Slap Shot (1977)
Baby Face (1933)
Rififi (1955)
These are off the top of my head!
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What’s next for Gordy Hoffman?
I’m writing a feature for Abigail Spencer and we plan to shoot in 2015.
