The Game Plan

Streaming services are absolutely starving for content right now. It's a gold rush. Around 10,000 films get made worldwide every year, with Nigeria, India, and the U.S. leading the charge.

In the States, 50,000 scripts get registered every year. Only 2,000 get bought, and maybe 200 get made. That means you can't treat this like a casual hobby. You gotta serve three masters if you want to win:

• The Money (usually a studio)
• The Talent (stars)
• The Public (the crowd)

With all the sequels and board game movies out there, a unique idea has to be proper amazing to stand out. It has to satisfy those three masters and promise a return on investment.

There’s one other master you have to get past: the Coverage Reader. The Gatekeeper. They can't greenlight your movie, but they can kill it stone dead before anyone else sees it. Only about 10% of scripts survive them. We teach you how to swerve them.

If you want to be a pro, discipline is everything. 95% of this industry is rejection. You need a thick skin and a deep understanding of the craft.

• Harsh truth: No one wants to read your script.
• It's commerce first, art second.
• Find your unique voice.
• Learn from the rejection. It's part of the graft.

Story logic comes from character, not just random plot points. Your characters' actions drive the bus. Compelling characters are the whole point.

Conflict is the basis for ALL narrative. No conflict, no movie.

Here is the six-word secret sauce: Define the need, create the obstacle. You need three things to make this work:

• Stakes and Consequences
• Dramatic Tension
• Emotional Investment

That equation means you gotta have:

• A protagonist who wants something bad.
• An antagonist or obstacle blocking them.
• Stakes that keep the story moving.
• Consequences for failure (this ramps up the tension).
• The audience rooting for the hero to win.
• A transformative journey (the arc).

Your mindset while writing should be:

• What is your character really chasing?
• What hooks us in?
• What's underneath the goal?
• What motivates them to hustle for it?

Remember, storytelling is emotional. You can take any film and reframe it emotionally. Try doing that with every idea you have.

Struggling for a banger idea? Don't stress. Ideas rarely show up fully formed. Don't pressure yourself to find the whole story at once. Look for a "narrative springboard"—that spark.

• A notion
• An arena (setting)
• A character
• A location

Figuring out your story is a process. What are you looking for? An interesting basis for conflict. Open yourself up to the world:

• Observe
• Listen
• Read

You can’t copyright an idea, mate. But execution is everything.

Public Domain: Anything published in the US before 1923 is fair game. Use it.

Facts and history can't be copyrighted. Parody and satire are protected too—so go hard if you want to mock something. Satire is its own beast, holding up society's flaws to ridicule.

When you finally land on that magic idea, ask yourself:

• Am I buzzing about this? If you don't care, no one else will.
• How do I make the audience care? Emotional investment is key.
• Do I see where this is going? If the ending is too easy for you, the audience will guess it in five seconds.

Here’s how Pixar pitches the three-act structure. It's simple, but it works:

Act One:

• Once upon a time...
• And every day...
• Until one day...

Act Two:

• And because of that...
• And because of that...
• Until finally...

Act Three:

• And ever since that day...
• And the moral of the story is...

Some writers wing it, but Ron Osborn doesn’t type a word until he knows these five things:

• Starting Point
• First Act Break (Where the conflict kicks in)
• Mid-Point
• Second Act Break (The "All is Lost" moment)
• The Ending

Coverage readers expect you to grab them by page 10. By page 17, your main character better make a big decision that pulls them down the path for the rest of the movie. A standard script is about 100 pages: 20 for Act One, 60 for Act Two, and the last 20 for Act Three.

Theme is the most misunderstood tool in the box. What is your story actually serving? What is the central idea uniting the plot? Theme is the dominant idea underneath it all. It's the human connection.

• War is hell.
• All men should be brothers.
• Love conquers all.

Why you need to know your theme: It informs every scene. It tells you what makes your characters tick. If you know your theme, it acts as a compass, keeping your story on track. Find your theme and it points to true north. It will even suggest scenes to write. No one sits down to write a theme first. Write the story, and the theme will reveal itself. Theme is the vibe humans relate to.

Moments are what the audience craves. A scene is a chunk of story in one place and time. It should end with a “but” or “therefore” that launches the story forward. A scene:

• Has a beginning, middle, and end.
• Always has an objective (even if the audience doesn't know it yet).
• Illuminates character or story.
• Sets something up for later.
• Pays something off from earlier.
• Transitions time or location.
• Advances or blocks a character's goal.
• ALWAYS moves the story forward.

A scene ends when it's done its job advancing the plot.

A sequence is just a bunch of scenes connected by a single idea. It should also end with a “but” or “therefore” to keep the momentum going.

Give Your Protagonist a Defining Entrance

Give your character an intro that sticks. Establish something distinctive immediately. First impressions last forever, bruv. Never miss the chance to give them a killer entrance.

Before You Start Writing

Put in the graft on your protagonist. Delve into their history, trauma, and the building blocks that made them. How does that affect their worldview, quirks, and habits? Know them inside out.

Lajos Egri’s Character Breakdown:

• Physiology: Gender, Age, Height, Hair, Eyes, Skin, Posture, Appearance, Health, Birthmarks, Genetics.
• Psychology: Sex life, Morals, Ambitions, Frustrations, Temperament, Attitude, Complexes, Superstitions, Imagination.
• Sociology: Class, Job, Education, Home Life, Upbringing, Parents, Siblings, Religion, Politics, Hobbies.

Find the building blocks that made them who they are. What you think of a person for years comes only after that first impression.

This lesson digs into how characters speak via text and subtext. Writing good dialogue is the hardest skill to master. Dialogue comes from character. Define your character by their goal. That goal determines their behaviour.

Subtext is the meaning beneath the words. It's inferred through action or even silence. It's what they mean, not what they say.

Exposition is the nuts-and-bolts info the audience needs to follow the plot. Exposition is the enemy of good drama, but you need it. It’s not plot, but it pushes the plot. The trick is to hide it. Avoid having characters say stuff everyone already knows. Trick: Bring in a character to ask the questions the audience is thinking.

Listen to how real people talk. They talk over each other, use incomplete sentences, use clichés. Read your dialogue aloud. Don't be afraid of silence.

Whose eyes are we seeing this through? P.O.V. is crucial. It changes the entire vibe of your story. Ask yourself: How is the plot best revealed? Who knows what, and when?

Factors determining your P.O.V. choice:

• First: Story needs. How do we best unfold the info?
• Second: Emotion. All storytelling is emotional. Choose the P.O.V. that connects best with the audience.

Types of P.O.V.

• Omniscient – All-seeing, like God.
• 3rd person Limited Omniscient – Only the thoughts of a main character are revealed.
• Epistolary – Story told through letters, notes, diaries.

P.O.V. changes the attitude of your story.

You don't need a funny premise to write comedy. Most successful comedies don't have one. In fact, the worst scenarios often spark the biggest laughs.

Aphorism: Comedy is Tragedy plus Time.

The Narrative Needs are the Same: Drama, comedy—same needs. Deconstruct them, and you'll see no core difference.

Serious Subject Matter as Comedy: The more serious the subject, the bigger the potential for laughs.

What is Taboo? Pretty much nothing. We aren't laughing at the tragedy, we're laughing at the human condition it reveals. We are flawed, and our flaws are funny. Don't be afraid to take chances.

Comedy of the Absurd? Ground It: To be funny, absurdity needs to be grounded in reality—or emotional reality. Keep one foot on the ground.

Character is Comedy: Design characters with a well-defined quirk or flaw. Then the humour isn't a joke—it's a perspective.

Enter Laughing: Give them a funny, revealing intro.

Not Every Protagonist is Funny: Use a grounded protagonist as the straight man to a crazy world.

Romantic Comedy: Why is it dead? No real obstacles. The bigger the obstacle, the better the comedy.

Structure is Your Friend: Use Act Breaks as signposts for humour.

Don’t be afraid to suck. Just write. Be bold.

Genre – A category with specific conventions, styles, and characters that triggers a specific emotional response.

High-Concept – A subset of genre. It’s an idea you can pitch in one sentence. It has an automatic hook.

Genre: The Evergreen. E.g., Horror. Death is the threat. Shadows are key. You want to be scared.

Other genres: Musical, Western, Action, Adventure, Romance, Comedy.

These legends started in horror/sci-fi:

• Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, James Cameron, Joel Coen, Kathryn Bigelow, Sam Raimi, Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg.

Genres are Good for Business: They have a built-in audience. They are highly promotable. The concept IS the star. Low budget, big hook, no stars needed. But it's not easy. Your idea needs to be special to sell. You have to satisfy the genre expectations while delivering something fresh. Balance the familiar with the new.

It hurts, but I'll say it again: No one wants to read your script. That's why format is vital. Poor formatting and typos scream "amateur." Every time someone passes your script up the ladder, they risk their reputation. Give that Gatekeeper every reason to say "yes." No one gets fired for saying "no." Saying "yes" is a risk. Don't give them a reason to bin it. Write visually. Externalize emotion. Make the scenes flow. Cut the excess.

Writing isn't easy. If it was, everyone would do it. It gets easier with practice. Discipline, routine, and rewriting are key. This course gives you a huge leg up on the competition. If you've done the graft, you're ready for the next step: realising that idea, getting a first draft done, and working with a mentor.