Screenwriting 101: Jack Epps, Jr.

“Every project I’ve been on, I’ve done major rewrites. Multiple rewrites before we would send a draft to the producers or director. Rewriting is something that doesn’t get taught a lot. Everyone talks a lot about how to write a screenplay — the first draft. That’s nice, you’ve written a screenplay. Pat yourself on the back. What you have is basically a draft of something, but you don’t have a finished product. A lot of young writers think, “I’ve written a script. Let’s go make this. And don’t change a word!”

No — it’s not going to get made because it probably needs a lot of work. Scripts are complicated, complex and it’s hard to get everything right and focused on the first pass. There’s so many moving parts to a screenplay. Everything has to be perfectly aligned and working together. Each beat, each scene, each line of dialog, the relationships, the way that the structure is told, must enhance and focus on that main character’s story.”

— Jack Epps, Jr.

From Go Into The Story interview, October 2017

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