28 Days Later... Day 19: Adrian Poynton
Monday 17th March 2014
So I'm going to give you what I believe to be the best piece of advice for any script (comedy or drama). And it doesn't even come from me, it's from Matt Stone and Trey Parker (of South Park fame). It's simple but it's gold, it needs to be known and it will change everything for you. Strap in, here it comes.
Replace 'Ands' with 'But's' and 'Therefore's'.
To spell that out, if you're looking at your script and the scenes can be linked by the word AND... you're screwed.
"Blah blah happens, and then blah blah happens and then this happens..." This is bad.
It shows a complete lack of connection between the scenes and because of that the script has nothing driving it or moving it forward. What we want to see is BUT or THEREFORE.
"Blah blah happens therefore blah blah happens. But Blah blah happens, therefore blah blah happens."
This is reactive and it means all our scenes are linked and exist for a reason. It you can't link them with those two words, you should be questioning why that scene is even in the script in the first place. And I'm sorry 'Because it's funny" just isn't a good enough answer.
Adrian Poynton is a stand-up comedian and sitcom writer. His TV credits include Trollied and White Van Man.