By Nick Blake

We received a survey from a college student looking for more information about what a screenplay writing career looks like (see below). My response is posted below.

I’m interested in what other writers out there have to say. Tell me, what’s been your experience of a screenplay writing career?

Survey starts:

1) Are there any specific training, certification, or licensing requirements for this profession?

2) What does the career ladder look like? Is there a stratification in employment opportunities or is it a very self-motivated profession? What does the salary range look like?

3) What personal skills, attributes, attitudes that individuals in this

occupation find important/useful?

4) What changes to the occupation over the last 10-15 years have occurred? – downsizing, multiple roles, paradigm shifts, etc. What changes are anticipated in the next 5-10 years?

My response:

There are lots of routes to take to be a successful screenplay writer. You could move to LA and cover scripts for a major studio, move to New York City and work on a TV show (fetching coffee for producers is a good way to start) and slowly work your way up the ladder, or go to school to learn the craft. There is no right or wrong way to do it.

No matter how you tackle it, however, you’ve got to be self-motivated and have incredibly thick skin. And, most importantly, you’ve got to write. Constantly. Say goodbye to friends, the sun, your social life … when you’re not working on script treatments for a client you’ll be staring into space waiting for inspiration to strike as you struggle through a script of your own. You can go to school to learn how to do it, or have written dramatic works since you were a kid, or stumble into the field mid-life. Creativity is what this field is all about. If you got it, you’ll thrive. If you don’t, you’ll starve regardless how many diplomas you hang on the wall.

As for career advancement and reward, that all depends on skill, networking and luck. The first two you can manage if you try your hardest. The last is less certain. The monetary reward isn’t always what I’d like, but the satisfaction of digging into characters and psyche is hard to beat.

Based on all my research and experience, this has not changed since the industry was born. But I could be wrong. I also can’t speak for our Indian counterparts.

All my best,

Nick

Here is Pinaki’s Response:

1) Are there any specific training, certification, or licensing requirements for this profession?

If you are a screenwriter, you are a professional. You need to have the usual trade license required for professionals to practice. It varies from country to country. Besides, in USA there is the WGA (Writers’ Guild of America)… you may or may not be their member. Members get some benefits from the association but must maintain a minimum rate set by the association to prevent unhealthy undercutting of rates. We have a similar association called Film Writers’ Association in India, for Bollywood/Indian screenwriters.

Most film schools offer training of screenwriting, but you can also be a screenwriter without a formal training. There are good books available in the market; you can read those; you can read scripts and you should watch good movies. Ultimately if you are not passionate about screenwriting, a formal training will not help you much. On the other hand if you are very passionate and enthusiastic, a formal training may not be necessary.

2) What does the career ladder look like?  Is there a stratification in employment opportunities or is it a very self-motivated profession?  What does the salary range look like?

A large number of screenwriters try to come to this profession passion driven, but since opportunities are limited, many of them later divert to other mainstream professions, getting no success. For those who stick to it and see success, the earning graph is very unevenly distributed. In the beginning some even write for free to get an opportunity with a big house. Some write for as low as $1,500 a script. The rate shoots up considerably once there is one produced movie in your credit. In India it can be around $15,000 when you have one produced movie. It shoots up many times and becomes a gigantic, enviable figure once you give a hit. It can cross $50.000 for a single movie. American rates are more.

3) What personal skills, attributes, attitudes that individuals in this occupation find important/useful?

Those who are passionate about cinema, watch good movies by the best directors, have participated in creative writing as students, are likely to be good screenwriters.

4) What changes to the occupation over the last 10-15 years have occurred? – downsizing, multiple roles, paradigm shifts, etc. What changes are anticipated in the next 5-10 years?

In the last 15 years the screenplay writers’ playground has become a lot more international. Due to the internet and popularity of mixed cultural movies, the screenwriter does not only serve the local market. We have Indian writers writing American movies (I have done so); American writers writing Indian Bollywood movies (US screenwriter duo Joshua and Briyan wrote the Bollywood movie Blue; US writer David Benullo wrote the Bollywood sci fi movie Ra 1, etc.)

I did not see any downsizing, but I am not writing screenplays for 15 years; so I may not be the right person to answer this.

In the next 15 years, screenplay writers will have to update themselves technically and adapt to rapidly changing new technologies.

PLEASE ADD TO THIS LIST IN THE COMMENTS SECTION. IF YOU LIKE THIS, WE’LL COME UP WITH A SIMILAR LIST ABOUT BOLLYWOOD MOVIES SOON.

During all police investigations, it will be necessary to visit a strip club at least once.

All beds have special L-shaped sheets which reach up to the armpit level on a woman, but only to waist level on the man lying beside her.

All grocery shopping bags contain at least one loaf of French bread or bunch of celery that sticks out the top of a full bag.

It’s easy for anyone to land a plane, providing there is someone in the control tower to talk you down.

Once applied, lipstick will never rub off, even while scuba diving.

The ventilation system of any building is the perfect hiding place. No one will ever think of looking for you in there, and you can travel to any other part of the building without difficulty.

If you need to reload your gun, you will always have more ammunition, even if you weren’t carrying any before now.

You’re very likely to survive any battle in any war, unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.

Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German officer, it will not be necessary to speak the language – a German accent will do.

If your town is threatened by an imminent natural disaster or killer beast, the mayor’s first concern will be the tourist trade or his forthcoming art exhibition.

The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris. The Taj Mahal from any window in India. The Howrah Bridge from any window in Calcutta.

A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating, but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.

If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be thrown through it before long.

Most dogs are immortal.

If being chased through town, you can usually take cover in a passing St. Patrick’s Day parade – at any time of the year.

When paying for a taxi, don’t look at your wallet as you take out a bill – just grab one at random and hand it over. It will always be the exact fare.

Interbreeding is genetically possible with creatures from anywhere in the universe.

Kitchens don’t have light switches. When entering a kitchen at night, you should open the fridge door and use that light instead.

Word processors never display a cursor on screen, but will always say: ENTER PASSWORD NOW.

Mothers routinely cook eggs, bacon and waffles for their families every morning, even though their husbands and children never have time to eat.

Cars which crash will almost always burst into flames.

The Chief of Police will always suspend his star detective – or give him 48 hours to finish the job.

A single match will be sufficient to light up a room the size of the Astrodome.

Medieval peasants had perfect teeth.

Although in the 20th century it is possible to fire weapons at an object out of our visual range, people of the 23rd century will have lost this technology.

Any person waking from a nightmare will sit bolt upright and pant.

It is not necessary to say hello or goodbye when beginning or ending phone conversations.

Even when driving down a perfectly straight road, it is necessary to turn the steering wheel vigorously from left to right every few moments.

All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they’re going to go off.

It is always possible to park directly outside the building you’re visiting.

If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you bump into will know all the steps.

Most laptop computers are powerful enough to override the communication systems of any alien civilization.

When a person is knocked unconscious by a blow to the head, they will never suffer a concussion or brain damage, and nobody involved in a car chase, hijacking, explosion, volcanic eruption or alien invasion will ever go into shock.

Any lock can be picked by a credit card or a paper clip in seconds – unless it’s the door to a burning building with a child trapped inside.

Police Departments give their officers personality tests to make sure they are deliberately assigned a partner who is their total opposite.

When they’re alone, all foreigners prefer to speak English among themselves.

You can always find a chain saw when you need one.

An electric fence which is powerful enough to kill a dinosaur will cause no lasting damage to an eight-year-old child.

Television news bulletins usually contain a story that affects you personally at that precise moment, and it’s never necessary to listen to the complete bulletin.

It doesn’t matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts – your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one. They’ll dance around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.

Cartoon courtesy: John Crowther

By Pinaki Ghosh

TheScreenplayWriters.com opens yet another chapter. From today we start yet another new service. We have set up our state-of-the-art storyboard artist studio. You can hire storyboard artists from us at the best rates anywhere in the industry.  $50 per frame for B/W storyboard, and $100 per frame for color.

Using storyboard artists for your screenplay is one of the best ways you can visualize your movie much before the movie is actually made. It can be best described as hand drawn art (nowadays digital art is also seen) that look like comic strips or graphic novels. Frame by frame, they depict the screenplay. At a glance a screenplay storyboard may book like a comicbook.

The filmmaker wants to take a look at the screenplay as it will look from the lens of the camera. As such the role of storyboard artists is enormous. Sometimes, due to budget constraints, only some select scenes are made into storyboards.  Especially the more expensive, outdoor and ‘visual’ scenes.

Not only visualizing; storyboards have helped filmmakers locate potential problems with scenes before they are actually shot, and correct them.

That should not give you the impression that storyboard artists are used only for big budget movies.  In fact at $50 or $100 a frame it is really dirt cheap, considering the benefit.

It is also a fun way of making a film.

By Pinaki Ghosh

Oops! No blog posts since 27 Sept is an unpardonable sign that we neglected our blog. On the other hand it also speaks about how busy we were at www.TheScreenplayWriters.com during this period. An average of two new screenplay writing projects seem to land up every week and if a week passes without any new project getting confirmed, we start thinking something is wrong and Nick starts testing our contact form and calling up our webmaster Anindya to make sure the contact form is working.

During this apparent hibernating period, we have also strengthened our screenwriters’ teams considerably. We now have 5 solid city based teams in New York, Los Angeles, London, Mumbai and Kolkata. While my friend Nick (Blake) was working on building our USA teams, I was working on strengthening our 2 Indian teams: Mumbai and Kolkata. Nick will probably write about his team building experience soon.

We realized within days of launching our screenwriting service, that there was a steady need of Hindi screenplay writers. From day 1 our team had Rajan, the extremely experienced Hindi screenwriter and assistant writer of films like Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Phir Hera Pheri and No Entry. Later Shivani, the Hindi screenplay writer of ‘Dus Kahaniya’ (Ten Stories) became a part of our team. In the recent weeks I have befriended what I feel are extremely talented Hindi screenplay writers, Antara (3 National Award winner!), Sumit, Indranil and Anirban.

I need to explain here how we normally develop a Hindi screenplay. Our system has evolved in a creative way and is probably quite a unique way of handling a Hindi script writing assignment. Whenever there is a Hindi screenplay project, we first allow our American screenplay writers to handle the basic job. Our American team expands the treatment into a basic screenplay. Nick polishes the first draft and passes it to me. We then allow one of our Hindi screenwriters to work on the first draft. Dialogs are changed to Hindi; new scenes and sequences are added. Some are omitted. Modifications are made. After the Hindi screenplay writer has completed his or her work, it comes to me and I polish it once again.

What this means is an emerging trend of Hindi screenplays made in America. I am quite sure this is an emerging trend and we have consciously set our working system in accordance with this emerging trend, to cater the demands of our clients who are not against this trend.

Shah Rukh Khan has hired American screenplay writer David Benullo (who is also in friendly terms with us) to write the screenplay of his science fiction Hindi film ‘Ra 1’. American screenwriter duo Joshua and Brian (who can be hired through us) have written the screenplay of the blockbuster Hindi movie ‘Blue’ (2009).

The opposite trend is also true. I’ll write about that some other day.

By Pinaki Ghosh

Till date most of my blog posts have been aimed at screenplay writers only. However the visitors of our site TheScreenplayWriters.com include both screenwriters and filmmakers, producers, directors, studios who are looking for screenwriters. Now here is something which is aimed at both screenwriters and clients who are looking for screenwriters.

What is the format of a screenwriter contract? What legal points should be covered in a screenwriter agreement that fairly represents both the parties – the screenwriter and the client?

Given below  is a compact screenwriter agreement format which you can confidently use, whether you are a screenwriter, or a client looking for a screenwriter.  You have to simply change the phrases in ALL CAPS with relevant information.

Agreement Over Writing A Screenplay For A Film

By this memorandum of understanding, signed this DATE; both the parties described herein under as, represented by CLIENT’S NAME of CLIENT’S ADDRESS, phone number CLIENT’S PHONE NUMBER, also described as the ‘client’; and SCREENPLAY WRITER’S NAME, SCREENWRITER’S ADDRESS, phone number SCREENWRITER’S PHONE NUMBER, also described as ‘screenplay writer, do hereby agree to all the terms described and given below:

1. CLIENT’S NAME is commissioning screenwriter SCREENPLAY WRITER’S NAME to begin the project of writing the screenplay of a (approx) NO. OF MINUTES minutes long feature film.

2. The tentative working title of the film shall be ‘NAME OF MOVIE. This title is subject to change.

3. The deadline for completion of this screenplay is NUMBER OF DAYS days after the signing of this agreement.

4. CLIENT’S NAME  agrees to pay SCREENPLAY WRITER’S NAME a consolidated sum of TOTAL FEE AMOUNT  for the project that will include the following:

a. Writing the screenplay on the story/treatment laid down by CLIENT’S NAME .

b. Editing it thoroughly before submission., so that the final version is free from errors like spelling and grammar errors, and typos.

5. The fees of the screenplay writer will be paid as follows:

a. 1/3 as advance to get the project started.

b. 1/3 after 40% work submission.

c. The remaining 1/3 fees will be paid on 80% work submission and approval.

6. SCREENPLAY WRITER’S NAME is subject to NO royalty or commission on the sale or business from the screenplay. He is only entitled to the one time project fees of TOTAL FEE AMOUNT.

7. SCREENPLAY WRITER’S NAME (screenplay writer) will maintain full confidentiality and secrecy about this project. At no point during the project will he reveal any idea or concept of the film, to anyone, in any form; even if this contract gets terminated at any point during the project.

8. If SCREENPLAY WRITER’S NAME is unable to complete the project for some reason, he will convey that in writing as email as soon as possible. In that case he will be entitled to a payment which is proportionate to the amount of work he has completed; subject to approval from the client.

9. The screenplay will be 100 – 120 pages in length.

10. The screenplay writer will get credit for his/her contribution to the film.

11. SCREENPLAY WRITER’S NAME agrees that he will not take the help of any plagiarism, meaning he will avoid using borrowed material in this screenplay exactly as they are found elsewhere.

12. SCREENPLAY WRITER’S NAME agrees to do necessary coordination with the director or any other person or persons referred by the client, for proper shaping up of the project if necessary.

13. CLIENT’S NAME will own all copyrights for this screenplay.

14. CLIENT’S NAME will have full freedom to deal with any filmmaker, producer or agent. SCREENPLAY WRITER’S NAME will have no say on these matters.

15. CLIENT’S NAME can request SCREENPLAY WRITER’S NAME to make a reasonable number of changes and edits during the period of production of this screenplay and within 1 month of completion and submission of the screenplay.

16. Any disputes arising between the parties related to this contract and project will be settled by courts in NAME OF YOUR CITY.

Both the parties do hereby agree to the terms laid and set above.

Signature

CLIENT’S NAME  (client)

Signature

SCREENPLAY WRITER’S NAME (screenplay writer)

Date:  _______________

By Pinaki Ghosh

Good news is that we at TheScreenplayWriters.com have been writing a number of animation films this month and a few more are in the pipeline. Somehow the word went around that we have specialist animation screenwriters.

But how different is animation screenwriting from usual screenwriting for live action movies? Let’s check out.

1. First, if you are writing the screenplay of an animation movie, in other words, if you are an animation screenwriter, you should be ideally someone who has grown up reading comicbooks and graphic novels. Writers who have vast knowledge of comicbooks and graphic novels will be better animation screenwriters than the ones who have never really loved reading comicbooks and graphic novels.

2. The animation screenwriting format is usual. Exactly similar to live action movies. You can write it using Microsoft Word, Open Office Word, Final Draft or Movie Magic Screenwriter in the usual screenplay format.

3. Keep the dialogs brief and interesting. Ideally single sentences. Long, boring dialogs are usually unusual in animation screenplays.  Keep that in mind as an animation screenwriter.

4. However, keep your action descriptions vivid. That is one way animation screenplays are different from normal screenplays. The animation artists should be able to understand the actions and depict them exactly. As such the animation screenwriter must pay attention in clearly describing each action. You cannot afford to cut it short here, as your vision may not reach the animation artists if your action description is too brief.

5. Maintain a fast pace. Two talking heads covering 7 minutes in one location is not what animation viewers are prepared to watch. As an animation screenwriter, keep changing scenes frequently and avoid stagnation.

6. Avoid overcrowding of characters in one scene unless you are specifically told to do so. Try to keep two to three characters in a majority of scenes. Only a few scenes should have a large number of characters. It is difficult and expensive to put up a scene with a large number of animated characters.

7. It is a good idea to watch a number of good animation films for a week before starting to write your animation screenplay. Not to pick up ideas, but to tune your mind. It is said what we write has 10% experience and 90% inspiration in it. Good works inspire us. The one week will be a good investment to boost your inspiration.

By Pinaki Ghosh

Last Saturday I watched ‘Mamma Mia‘ on HBO. While it was like a little vacation for the mind, it set me thinking, are Hollywood and Bollywood films influencing each other? In other words, are Hollywood movies becoming more Bollywoodish, and Bollywood movies more Hollywoodish? Are our films set to prove ‘the world is flat’?

Several recently successful Hollywood movies like ‘Mamma Mia’, ‘High School Musical’, ‘High School Musical 2′, ‘The Love Guru’, ‘The 40 year Old Virgin’ and ‘The Cheetah Girls: One World’, show clear Bollywood influence. On the other hand scores of Bollywood movies are strongly influenced by Hollywood. The very popular Bollywood movie ‘Ghajini’ was influenced by ‘Memento’ so much that it could not avoid the critics’ scorn. ‘Dhoom’, shows influences of ‘The Fast and the Furious’. The Bollywood movie ‘Blue’ looks very Hollywoodish.

These influences have become more obvious and exposed ever since the Bollywood styled movie ‘The Slumdog Millionaire’ won 8 Academy Awards this year. But even before that Bollywood and Hollywood were slowly and discreetly influencing each other. Director Baz Luhrmann has openly agreed that he is influenced by Bollywood. His smash hit movie ‘Moulin Rouge!’ has strong Bollywood influence and also uses Bollywood songs. That was back in 2001. According to Baz, Bollywood movies are much like Shakespeare’s plays; a package of everything entertaining.

This influence and trend has resulted in an increasing demand of offshore screenplay writers and directors. American filmmakers are looking for Indian screenwriters more often than ever before. On the other hand Bollywood movie makers are hiring American screenwriters for every major project. Joshua and Brian, the American screenwriter duo (and an important part of our team) were hired to write the story and screenplay of the Bollywood movie ‘Blue’ (2009). Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan has hired American (Hollywood) screenwriter David Benullo to write his science fiction Bollywood blockbuster ‘Ra 1’.

No wonder TheScreenplayWriters.com (premier screenwriter service with a team of Hollywood and Bollywood screenplay writers) is flooded with requests and offers ever since launch, from both the continents.

Writing a movie script – 10 things you should do to get your screenplay rejected

By Pinaki Ghosh

Writing a movie script? Want to know the 13 secrets to get your screenplay rejected for sure? Read on.

1. Offer camera directions in your screenplay

Don’t trust the intelligence of the director or cinematographer and offer camera directions in your script like, ‘pan’, ‘zoom’, ‘dolly’, ‘trolley shot’ or ‘low angle shot’. That will make your script look like one from history and is a definite way of getting it rejected.

2. Offer editing directions in your screenplay

Similarly, go ahead… show a complete disregard to the editor’s intelligence and write editing instructions like ‘cut to’, ‘dissolve’, etc. and your screenplay will look like a thing of the past. In modern day screenplays editing directions are no longer in vogue. Only ‘fade in’ and ‘fade out’ are used twice or thrice in an entire screenplay.

3. Do not capitalize character names

Do not capitalize the character names while writing a movie script. Leave them in lowercase text and your screenplay will be rejected for sure. Similarly, leave words that denote sound, like WHOOSH, or CLANG in lowercase, to show how little you know.

4. Make your screenplay shorter than 90 pages or longer than 130 pages

While writing a movie script, you should definitely make it longer than 130 pages, or shorter than 90 pages to make sure your screenplay goes straight into the trash bin, because normal screenplays are 90 pages to 130 pages in length.

5. Write very lengthy dialogs

Writing a movie script? Love writing interesting dialogs? Then go ahead and make them lengthy. Make each dialog lengthier than 5 lines and that will ensure your screenplay is ripped and made into paper airplanes.

6. Write very lengthy scenes

While writing a movie script, make sure your scenes are lengthy enough to get the screenplay rejected. While normally scenes are less than a page in length to maximum three pages, with 5 page scenes being an exception; you should concentrate in making your scenes more than 5 pages in length… to join the rejected screenplay writers’ club.

7. Write lengthy descriptions

While the normal length of writing a scene description is 1 to 4 lines, you should break the rule and write at least 10 line scene descriptions to be a part of the frustrated screenwriters’ league.

8. Use character names that sound and spell similar

Make your character names sound confusingly similar. Or make them start with the same letter, so that the viewers are thoroughly confused.

9. Use character names for very minor characters

Give character names to even minor characters that appear just once and have one line dialogs, to prove you want to get your screenplay rejected. While the rule is, you should use the professions to identify minor characters, rather than names, a violation of the rule is recommended if you want to do the opposite of normal.

Eg. POLICE OFFICER

Show me your driving license. God save you if you don’t have one.

The above is normal, if this POLICE OFFICER appears only once in the entire movie. In a good screenplay, a name like ‘HARRY’ or ‘TOM’ or ‘DICK’ would have been inappropriate for this role.

10. Use wired slug lines.

Scenes start with slug lines like:

INT. COFFEE HOUSE – NIGHT

Or

EXT. BEACH – DAY

While normal screenplay writers use only ‘day’ or ‘night’, you can be a rebel and use wired slug lines like DUSK, DAWN, SUNSET TIME, SUNRISE TIME, to stay ahead in the race of getting your screenplay rejected.

11. Make a mess of the alignment

And finally, make a mess of the alignment. While the rule is, scene slug lines and action descriptions should be extreme left aligned, character names should be center aligned and dialogs should be left aligned, but an inch towards the right.

Eg. Correct format:

EXT. ROAD – DAY

POLICE OFFICER

Show me your driving license. God save you if you don’t have one.

Sees the license

POLICE OFFICER (CONT’D)

This license has expired three months ago. Please come out of the car mister.

He opens the door and COLLIN walks out of the car.

Wrong format:

EXT. ROAD – DAY

POLICE OFFICER

Show me your driving license. God save you if you don’t have one.

Sees the license

POLICE OFFICER (CONT’D)

This license has expired three months ago. Please come out of the car mister.

He opens the door and COLLIN walks out of the car.

12. Use plenty of mood descriptions throughout the screenplay

Use of phrases in brackets like (smiles), (looks worried), (laughs out loud) with every possible dialog to prove yourself to be a complete novice. Experienced screenwriters avoid using such phrases as far as possible because these are for the director to decide. Three such uses in a complete good screenplay are allowed.

13. Do not visualize

While writing a movie script, write it just for the sake of writing it. Do not visualize anything in your mind’s eye. Do not bother if your scenes will be picturesque or boring.

By  Nick Blake

My wife Laura has an expression for my various creative concepts.

“I don’t know about you,” she’ll say whenever I run an idea by her. “When you try something out you either miss badly or you hit it out of the park.” As a result she’s a reliable sounding-board. She doesn’t get overly excited by abstractions (as I tend to do), nor does she balk. Instead she waits until she sees results.

Laura has largely withheld judgment on TheScreenplayWriters.com despite the project’s initial success. After only a month Pinaki and I have assembled some top screenwriter talents, and our client base is steadily growing. Our instincts were correct: there is a growing market for global media, and we are positioning ourselves correctly to meet demand.

After a trip to the movies last night, however, my wife finally voiced her support. We went out with my mother to see “Julie and Julia,” a movie that was honest and fun and, best of all, featured incredible food. Several previews ran before the movie, most of them off-target thrillers (they could have used a top screenwriter or two to straighten them out!).

A non-thriller stood out from the shocking tedium. It was an epic drama about Amelia Earhart. The preview felt correct: the story was rich, the characters were understandable, the drama was heartfelt (not just heart-racing). You had the feeling that it was a movie full of life.

And then the name of the director splashed across the screen: Mira Nair. Maker of “Salaam Bombay,” “Monsoon Wedding,” “Vanity Fair,” and “The Namesake,” Ms. Nair has risen through the ranks of Indian cinema with an incredible zest for storytelling. With “The Namesake” and “Amelia” it seems that her passion for stories is leading her to the shores of America. Where “The Namesake” introduces America to the Indian diaspora living within her borders (and vice-versa), “Amelia” is full-blown Americana heartland.

Both Laura’s and my eyes widened in the darkness of the theater. It was like we could see the world growing closer before us, and the possibilities of TheScreenplayWriters.com stretched with Amelia’s wings beyond a limitless horizon. Laura leaned into my ear and whispered, “Wow. You are absolutely correct.”

I smiled, knowing I had just hit it out of the park.