What Was the WHAT IF for You That Caused You to Write This Script

CRITICAL QUESTIONS TEMPLATE

What was the WHAT IF for you that caused you to write this script?
What is so compelling about the way the main character goes about resolving their problem that made you care so much?
What do you hope an audience will gain from watching your movie?
What lesson will the audience learn as a result of watching your main character endure what they endure?
Why should an audience care about the symbolic meaning of your movie?
Why do you care about the symbolic meaning of your movie?
What do you hope will change in the world as a result of having your movie viewed by a large number of people in the population?
Sum up the three main principles in your substructure in three bulletpoints (sentences)
Sum up the three main principles in your plot structure in three bulletpoints
What’s the copy on the one-sheet-if you had to make a poster of it?
What’s the picture on the one sheet-if you had to put it together?
What’s the log line?
Have you polished your script to the best of your capability? Have you received FEEDBACK from people you can trust to give you an HONEST OPINION?
Can you speak to the motivation of each of your characters when called upon to do so?
Do you believe in the message you are projecting in your story?
Are you prepared to endure rejection and negative comments about your story? Have you revisited the part of the story where your faith in it is a little shaky and gotten it to a point that renews and supports your faith?
Who is the audience member you want to connect with the most? Have you determined what demographic that audience member is from and how this demographic will be attracted to your movie and why and are you prepared to explain and defend it?
Have you come up with a good defense against “No one is buying that type of script anymore”/
What’s the opening image?
Is the Theme stated by page 5 or 6? What is it?
Has the SET UP been accomplished by page 10? What is it?
Has the CATALYST been established by page 12? What is it?
Has the DEBATE occurred between pages 12 to 25? What is it?
Has the BREAK INTO TWO happened by or before page 25? What is it?
Has the B STORY been introduced by page 30? What is it?
Have the FUN AND GAMES occurred between pages 30 to 55? What is it?
Has the MIDPOINT been achieved by page 55? What is it?
Have the bad Guys closed in between pages 55 to 75? How does it happen?
Has the ALL IS LOST moment occurred by page 75? How does it happen?
Has the Dark Night of the Soul happened between pages 75 to 85? How does it happen?
Has the BREAK INTO THREE occurred by page 85? How does it happen?
Has the finale happened between pages 85 to 110? How does it happen?
Do you establish your FINAL IMAGE on page 110? What is it?
Does your script commit any of the IMMUTABLE LAWS OF SCREENPLAY PHYSICS in a bad way? If it does list them below.
List how you are going to fix your problems in your screenplay or what’s been suggested to you to fix them.
Identify the “Pope in the Pool” dynamic in your screenplay and write an explanation as to why it’s necessary in your story.
Identify the “Covenant of the Arc” transition that happens for your main protagonist in your screenplay
Identify the “Covenant of the Arc” transition that happens for your supporting protagonist in your screenplay (1st one)
Identify the “Covenant of the Arc” transition that happens for your supporting protagonist in your screenplay (2nd one)
Identify the “Covenant of the Arc” transition that happens for your supporting protagonist in your screenplay (3rd one)
Have you FIXED all the things that might be wrong with your script? Review the “IS IT BROKEN” Checklist below:
Does your hero lead the action (proactive at every stage of the game and fired up by a desire or a goal)? If not how are you going to fix it?
Do your characters “Talk the plot”-are you saying things a novelist would say through your characters instead of letting it be seen in the action of your screenplay? If so how are you going to fix it?
Is the bad guy bad enough and does he offer the hero the right kind of challenge AND do they both belong in this movie? If you haven’t achieved this how are you going to fix your script so that you do achieve this?
Does your script move faster and grow more intense after the midpoint and is more revealed about the hero and the bad guy as we come into the Act Three Finale? If not how are you going to fix it?
Is your script ‘one-note’ emotionally-all drama, all comedy, all sadness, all frustration-and does it feel like it needs but does not offer emotional breaks? If not how are you going to fix it?
If your dialogue flat after doing the “Bad Dialogue Test”? If so how are you going to fix it?
Do your minor characters stand out from each other and are they easy to differentiate by how they look in the mind’s eye and is each unique in speech, look and manner? If not how are you going to fix them?
Does your hero’s journey start as far back as it can go without laying too much pipe and is the reader/audience member being exposed to the entire length of emotional growth of the hero in the story? If not how are you going to fix it?
Is the primal drive of the story line defined and are your characters at their core reaching out for a primal desire? If not how are you going to fix this?

Critical Questions TEMPLATE

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