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“If you’re working on something you’re not really into, you’re not gonna do it very well.”
-David S. Ward (The Sting, Sleepless In Seattle)My name is Ted Shuttleworth and in 15 years as a story analyst for Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and others, I’ve seen first-hand the extraordinary lengths Hollywood’s best producers go to in search of fresh and exciting new material. While vast piles of generic spec scripts clutter development offices all across town, it is the screenwriter with a distinctive voice and unique vision that these filmmakers truly take notice of and hunger to work with. So why, as a spec writer, would you waste your time following dull trends and formulas in the slim hope of a sale? Why not challenge yourself to write something original and inspired, a movie you’d love to see, which might have a real chance to stand out from the pack?
In our sessions together, I encourage my clients — both established professionals and talented newcomers — to set aside banal step methods and trite formulas and instead tell the story they are dying to tell and write the movie they love. We focus on traditional three-act structure and other widely accepted foundational elements of the craft only where it will help and not hinder the storytelling. The emphasis is always to maximize the screenplay’s uniqueness — and the clarity, originality, inventiveness and emotional impact of the work.
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