The 2nd edition of The Coffee Break Screenwriter just came out recently. Pilar Alessandra is the author and a script consultant who began her career as a script reader for Amblin Entertainment. She went on to provide story analysis for DreamWorks and Robert Zemeckis’s company ImageMovers.  Today she has her own screenwriting consulting company called On the Page. Her students have written for shows like The Walking Dead, Lost, and Grey’s Anatomy and have sold scripts to Disney, DreamWorks, and Warner Bros.

It might be perfectly well written, but it’s a movie character. It’s not your character.“ – Pilar Alessandra

Pilar came on The nsavides Podcast to discuss

• When it makes sense to use a script consultant
• Why writing elaborate backstories for characters can be a crutch
• The importance of setup and payoff and how it is used on Game of Thrones
• Some tired tropes in film and television shows that need to be retired
• A simple way to keep a writing habit going
• How filmmakers can give helpful feedback to writers
• How a small structural change could have made Star Wars into a different film

Listen to the Episode

Books, Films, and Shows Referenced

• Pilar’s book, The Coffee Break Screenwriter 2nd Edition
• Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport
• Modern Man: The Life of Le Corbusier, Architect of Tomorrow by Anthony Flint
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Game of Thrones
• Little Miss Sunshine, which has a useful writing-specific commentary track
• Mad Dogs
• Stranger Things 
• Star Wars
• Up in the Air