Learn How To Become A Professional Screenwriter - Brooks Elms [FULL INTERVIEW]

Brooks Elms is a screenwriter and independent filmmaker. His specialty is grounded personal characters and writing story tension so thick it knots up your stomach.
He's written 25+ screenplays, a dozen of them on assignment, and sold several scripts, including one this year with Brad Peyton as Executive Producer. Brooks was recently hired to rewrite a screenplay started by an Oscar-winning writer. Brooks began his career writing, directing, and producing two indie features (personal dramas) that he screened all over the world.
And Brooks also loves coaching fellow writers who have a burning ambition to deeply serve their audiences.
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#writing #screenwriting #film

[@AmateurBlonde]

This is wonderful. I’m so happy I watched this. I did real damage to happiness for years. I’ve sorta been searching for an articulation of this. You hear things like this being said everywhere (college football coaches, paul McCartney, CEOs, etc), but Elm really nails it’s for me.

[@vydkeryx5660]

No more parade raining. Shining bright is so beautiful - Hero Life!
& a special thank you to this video host and guest for POSITIVE sharing.
Rock On!

[@BrooksElms]

Awesome! So glad it was helpful. We really do have the power to focus on framing our life to experience more happiness.

[@AmateurBlonde]

@@BrooksElms now we’re are thanking each other! Haha. Rock on Brooks! I hope I can quickly adopt this philosophy without too many bumps. Blessings.

[@ByAnyDreamNecessary]

@@AmateurBlonde what’s the easiest route to it?? Bumps are fun too…!! But the easiest way feels the best 🙃

[@AmateurBlonde]

Thanks!

[@filmcourage]

Wow, thank you so much! We appreciate you supporting our work. Great to the impact that Brooks' teachings have had on you. Cheers!

[@AmateurBlonde]

@@filmcourage I wish I could get this ‘super thanks’ feature goin on my channel. It’s rough out here for musicians now. My donation to you was a paltry sum, but it means a lot to me that you keep on engaging us all with insightful guests. I know how hard it is to put these things together. I know it feels like lateral movement (away from the core creative pursuits). 👏

[@filmcourage]

Until you are able to utilize "super thanks" you can try Patreon and you can also consider affiliates. Those would be great alternatives to generating revenue on TH-cam before your channel becomes part of the partner program. Not that we have anything mastered by any means. We appreciate each dollar that comes into this channel.

[@AmateurBlonde]

@@filmcourage Thanks for the tip. More portals!!!!!

[@filmcourage]

There are some good thoughts and ideas here in this video - th-cam.com/video/4p2LgPXJR0o/w-d-xo.html

[@Andromeda2976]

The cool kid :D Thankyou, so inspirational!

[@Sketching4Sanity]

One Love ✊🏿

[@ferrarriohh]

This is so dense with lessons

[@nikkinewbie6014]

Hmmm. I’m conflicted. So much of what he was saying was striking a chord with me. Then he says to just stick with one genre - in today’s movie market??
He says this a few minutes after talking about Star Wars which is a movie that combines at least three genres possibly four!
Confession: I’ve been reading John Truby’s latest book about the 14 major genres. He is adamant that today’s screenwriter can no longer get away with just writing one genre.
In fact, he cites Jaws as one of the last blockbusters based in only one genre (horror). Right after that Star Wars came out combining multiple genres and Truby contends forever changed the game in Hollywood precisely because of that approach.
Truby says combining genres densifies the plot and gives the audience that narrative drive we now expect. Hollywood saw it as providing more bang in one movie. He cites Cameron as a master of combining genres. Given all his successful movies like ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’ I don’t see how anyone could deny that combining genres is the way to go.
Maybe this guy is talking about ratios? Maybe he purports that most movies are mainly one genre with maybe b stories that might contain aspects of other genres but that it’s not actually full on multiple genres being combined??
I’m at the beginning of my journey learning craft. The project I’m working toward is a novel, not a screenplay. But so much of what I see on this channel applies to Story in general. It’s a great resource. But I just hate it when I hear two 180 degree different viewpoints.
I thought this really was the prevalent trend in the market over the past twenty or so years. When I think of the biggest movies (box office) both those I’ve seen and those I haven’t , they all seem to be squarely rooted in more than one genre.
I would love clarification on this point - but it’s still going into my playlist as a resource.

[@WannabeWryter]

What's the best way to show off your writing styles for potential employers to see?
Posting stories/scripts on writing platforms like Wattpad and Fanfic or making some form of skit or comic video on youtube or social media.

[@BrooksElms]

The format doesn't matter - at all. What matters is eliciting real emotion in other people. Once you do that in format X, they will pay you to also do it in format Y. But ONLY if you're genuinely moving people.

[@qepdqepd5612]

After a man wins $500,000 on a game show, he decides he doesn’t need the money and chooses to give it away but struggles to find anyone in his life who deserves it. By chance, he stumbles across an old crush of his that he hadn’t seen in twenty years who is now a single mom and as they reconnect, he begins to consider that he’ll give the money to her.
A potential twist: When the game show airs, he sees that she was in the live studio audience of the show when he won the money. Their reconnection wasn’t by chance and she had set out to meet him so that she could get the money. He feels betrayed but through the bond he had built with her child feels guilty about not helping her out, wanting to support the kid’s future. Maybe he ultimately decides to give the money directly to the kid somehow, years down the line.

[@GenusMusic]

I like this idea. I always digged the lottery winner idea for a movie and felt underwhelmed by the ones I've seen, this is a novel and interesting idea

[@krokodilpil8335]

Need a guide how NOT to write a strong female lead in an action movie. Hollywood is really screwing this up lately with shallow, unlikable characters.