It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s another helpful as all hell article from TVWriter™’s buds at Script Reader Pro. Sit back and enjoy:
While you’ve probably heard a lot about how the first page of your story is the most important when it comes to first impressions—it’s not. It’s actually the title.
Screenplay titles matter. A lot.
It’s show of hands time. How many of you reading this know what the act structure of a screenplay is? How many know what info goes into the usual first act? How many know when it ends?
Oh well. Maybe this will help:
In April of this year, the WGAW Board of Directors and WGAE Council approved a set of revisions to the Screen Credits Manual and directed staff to conduct an online member ratification vote in the Fall. The referendum process has been underway since August 23, when the proposed amendments were first posted on the WGAW and WGAE websites.
As part of the referendum process, two groups of WGA members submitted statements urging a “no” vote. The focus of these con statements was a procedural issue pertaining to the deadline for filing participating writer statements in a credit arbitration. Similar concerns were expressed by members attending an informational meeting that took place at WGAW headquarters on October 2.
Find out more about them tonight!
EDITOR’S NOTE: This meeting is for Writers Guild of America members – but even non-Guild signatory companies tend to use WGA rules as patterns for their own behavior:
William Martell – AKA Bill – is one of our favorite people here at TVWriter™, as well as a mighty fine writer and teacher. One of the things we like most about Bill is his absolute refusal to give his web posts, including videos, clickbait titles.
In this case, though, we kind of wish he had. Because these just plain old ways to get started, they’re well thought out scenarios that this TVWriter™ minion has seen work…time and time again.
Take it away, Maestro Martell: