Screenwriting "rules" are often cited as gospel. It is important to educate yourself on screenwriting standards and know what the rules are. But some of them are more like guidelines, and once you know which boundaries to push, you can get adventurous. We'll tell you which rules you can bend or break, but first, one caveat—formatting absolutely does matter. Formatting standards exist because entire teams need to be able to read them easily. If you leave off locations and change character names every other page, that’s only going to cause confusion.Sure, you can have occasional fun—maybe you want a single word on one page for dramatic effect (like in Travis Braun's One Night Only). Maybe you want really simplified language and no punctuation (like in Chris Thomas Devlin's Cobweb). Maybe you throw in different fonts (Dan Gilroy does this sometimes).But remember that you don't want to confuse; you want people to keep reading and understand your story. So, get comfy with your formatting.Now onto the rules you can break. Pulp Fiction Credit: Miramax You Don't Need Three ActsThe three-act structure isn't mandatory. Sure, it's a solid framework that functions for many stories, but it's not the only way to organize a narrative. Some of the most compelling films use four acts, five acts, or even circular structures. The five-act structure has become my go-to.You also don't have to be linear. Pulp Fiction famously jumps around in time. Memento moves backwards. What you do need is a beginning, middle, and end....
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Thursday, 4 September