How to Come Up With Movie Scripts Ideas

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Jared Drake, and I'm going to talk to you about how to come up with movie script ideas. Now, if you're main intention is to take this story, this script, and just sell it straight to a production or a studio, what you should do is look in the trades to see what's hot and what's selling. Look in Variety or a Hollywood Reporter, any number of film trade papers, and just see what's selling. The other thing you can do is, basically, rip a movie off. Take Billy Madison and retell it in your own way, you know, take those main beats, that structure, and make it your own. Take Top Gun and set it on a soccer field, and it's about two soccer players, one of whom, one of 'em dies during a soccer practice...I don't know. But tell it in your own way. You know. And that's a way that you can learn how script structure works, as well. A lot of people do that. It's not very original, but a lot of times it works, so, you know, that's one option. But the best place to look for movie ideas, in my opinion, is from your own personal experiences. What are you in to? Have you....did you go to war? Did you fight in Iraq? You know, you should write a movie about your experiences. Did you....do you live in a small town? You should write a movie about a small town, and basically, pull from, you know, what's inside you. What drives you, what inspires you, what you're excited to talk about. What you want to share with people. And tell a story about that."