Isaac Ruth

Starting my post-Austin Film Fest week with good news
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As Austin Film Fest begins, remember to say “yes” to everything and save sleep for when you get back home, if I can do it then so can you.
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That feeling when you enter a 6-week screenwriting contest and the Blacklist review on your first draft is a 7. BAD GIRL tells the age old story of a troubled girl who wears the head of her murdered dog to dispatch members of a dogfighting ring one by one.
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More poster art from our horror feature ANNA’S HOME
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Been shooting a horror feature centered around postpartum and childhood trauma (always fun topics) bit by bit in between feedings and naps with our new baby, but the first act is almost entirely in the can before we take it out to seek funding for the rest.
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When you enter a 6-week feature writing contest and the end result has you highly emotional.
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The script that keeps on giving.
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“Let’s just start playing and you’ll figure it out.”
#boardgames #tabletop #rpg

Everything in moderation, for sure. I think I use “we see/hear” maybe once or twice a script, just want to make sure people aren’t viewing it either as something indicative of “bad writing” while also not being an overused crutch.

From the Screenwriting community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the Screenwriting community

10 Takeaways As A Reader For The Austin Film Fest 2025
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This was another great year of reading, take a look through to see if there's anything to help on your writing journey.
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Should’ve specified these weren’t multi cams, BUT good to consider that maybe someone saw those and thought they were universal formatting. All the more reason new writers should devote some solid time to reading other scripts to become more familiar with the format and techniques.

a man in a black vest stands in front of a group of people and says we don 't do that here ALT: a man in a black vest stands in front of a group of people and says we don 't do that here

Quick question for #screenwriters #scriptsky #screenwriting:
Who's teaching writers to use all caps for all action lines? This is the 4th AFF script I've come across using this technique and it's nearly impossible to follow what's going on.

Pt 3. When writing a pilot, imagine someone else telling a friend they should watch it. How would they describe it? What excites them about it? If you have a clear idea in your head about your audience's response, you'll have a much easier time knowing what you're writing.

Pt 2. Give us context. If someone's life has completely changed as she believes she's been contacted by aliens, and it totally upends everything in her life, we need some sense of what her life was like before this took place, otherwise we don't know what's at stake.

This week in script evals #scriptsky #screenwriting #screenwriter
Pt 1. Don't hide the wrong thing. Mystery is fine, but forcing the audience to guess about everything can be frustrating. Imagine if GHOSTS withheld that the people she's seeing are ghosts, that would make for a confusing watch.

4. If someone is has an internal thought expressed in voiceover or under their breath, that moment needs to only last as long as it could happen in real life. Someone can't be thinking several sentences while dancing with a partner when they're asked a question without looking like a psychopath.

3. You need evidence of what your characters are saying. If your character's upset at her non-existent romantic life, she can't be turning down guys left and right and otherwise flourishing. If your character is an award-winning stand up comedian, they better be objectively hilarious.

2. I've read 4 scripts this month about people who have an ultimatum tied to their inheritance. Clearly there's something culturally in the air here, but just a heads up in case you think you've come up with something we haven't read before.

This week in script evals: #scriptsky #screenwriting #screenwriter
1. "Why now?" Your plot can't begin because your protagonist decided it began, it should be something that happens organically that your protagonist is at odds with. That way they can choose to become part of the plot themselves.

There’s a fine line in screenwriting between over-communicating and giving us the context we need in order to know how we should feel about your scene. Regardless of the “she answer it” typo in your first paragraph, the reader needs to be confident that you’ll know HOW to tell a story effectively.

Second: it’s safe to assume most people would “look at the phone to see who it is,” that doesn’t really tell me anything since she is already walking into frame to answer the phone. She needs to react to it. Hesitant? Angry? Does she pick it up immediately because she knows who would be calling?

First: where are we? What is this apartment like? Where is the phone? Who is the protagonist?

Lessons from a script reader (character name changed for anonymity):

These are the first words on the first page of a script. What’s wrong here?
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The horrors persist but at least we have baby giggles
#babies #dogs

That's all for now, more to come!
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Pt 6 (cont)
... "she leans on her left arm with her elbow on the table and rests her head in her palm while she holds the phone with her right hand against her ear as she listens..." is way too much. Leave that for directing.

Pt 6
- Be smart about what's possible to film/animate. "His skin is also paper but doesn't reflect light" is already too difficult to imagine.
- Don't get too caught up on hyper-specific physical descriptions of actions. For example...

Pt 5
- Keep the parentheticals of a character intro brief, and generally stick to what we're seeing or feeling about a character. "She is the most popular girl in school but deep down she feels a little shy, especially since her dad left her mom and everyone knows" is a no-no.

Pt 4
- Don't get caught up in prose. Describing exactly how the sun is feeling on the skin of your protagonist should be rare.
- Unless it defines their character, or is important to the scene, leave the wardrobe descriptions out.