A conversation about screenwriting with a Slamdance script reader

When you push mom down the stairs, she should come to rest at the second daughter's feet. The first daughter says, "she called me a bitch". All caught up.

You said “like” 1,712 times combined. I counted.

Love this and love the cats popping up in the background lols

say "like" one more time

They talk about "Prelab"? Is that how it is spelled? What does the word mean, in general?

Diversity is such a stupid way to determine a winner. Its a contest. Its a meritocracy by definition

the mics weren't working?

She is brilliant and mature. I ve known less mature novel readers..

It’s hard to listen to you when you say “like” so much.

the audio was 100% a non-issue. great video

Thank you very much for sharing, Dean and Joslyn! Great conversation!

2024... poor sound ...

amazing! Joslyn hits on so many gems in this video

Prelap - she gave the wrong way round. A pre lap means inserting dialogue from the next scene at the end of the current scene so that we flow into the FOLLOWING seamlessly

What a usefull video ^^ Thank you !

I liked this very much. Thank you to the both of you!

Great discussion, insights, tech. Thanks for doing this!!

To be able to sit down with someone that experienced and pick their brain…gosh I wish. I’d kill for a mentor

Hi, Dean! I can fix your audio!

Super cool discussion! But also where can I find Joslyn’s glasses?!

People be like: oh she read 1000 scripts, Ill watch the video and learn what shes learnt....no, you mor(o)n, the actual learning comes from the reading itself, so stop the video and start reading yourself....

I didn't realize my setups were cliched before this video! Thanks so much, I learned a lot from this video

“Screnwriting with Joslyn Jensen“ ??

Attention to detail is key in any writing, including screenwriting.

If like, it's sort of like, you know, like, like, like, right, you know, right sort of like it is, and if those two nice people are sort of like the intellectuals of the trade who, rightfully, criticize the sort of like awful quality of like screenplay submissions, then, sort of, you know, like, definitely, like, like, I like sort of like kind of am not sort of like surprised or something that like I mean Hollywood churns out, like, kind of, I think like all these, like 1000s of hours of kind of shallow, like bird brain like bullshit all the time. What maybe NOT so much an annoying sort of like complete like waste of like time listening to you guys it like might be if you COULD speak. Like, right, kind of?

This is a great insight. I wrote my second screenplay "A Little Trouble in Hollywood" and was shopping it around Hollywood 3years back only to see the release of "Fall Guy" an almost carbon copy of my script. I was gutted. You have to let go of your good ideas for great ones. Amazing interview.

A movie's potential merit should not be decided like this.
It's a VERY flawed process that is responsible for thousands of boring movies and kills cinema.

I’m interested in screenwriting having never attempted it seriously, I learned more from this video than I have in 7 years.

Loved this! She made me want to submit to Slamdance! If all the other readers care half as much as she does, it must be an excellent resource for quality feedback.

Total fart-sniffers

I do have a question. When she mentioned transitions like match cuts, I was always under the impression that transitions like that are directorial/editorial domain and are often looked down upon if done in scripts for that reason. Did she mean to like plant a match cut idea/imply a match cut, or to actually have “match cut” in the script?

Maybe screenplays are obsolete.

Good to hear this, though while I agree that a script should be well-paced and the scenes have good transitions, to me a match cut or some such transitional device, like an insert or an establishing shot is the purview of the director, just like shot other choices. Anyway, it’s of secondary importance to pacing and story as a whole.

Great talk. Congrats you two 😍

"When it really comes down to it, we pick a script written by a non-white person" Very cool.

This is chock-full of great information, thanks! For anyone interested, the film "Remains Of The Day" is a masterclass on subtext.

High value video. The guest was awesome. Ty.

Shes so beautiful wow.

Scripts are terrible these days so I wouldn't take contemporary advice.

Joslyn Jensen brings an insane amount of knowledge, experience, and passion to bear in this conversation. I found myself taking notes! Thanks for uploading this!

The transitions insight was something I’ve always seen and liked when it’s done well, so to hear it being used as a tool with intention is amazing! Film truly is its own medium with unique features to it. And it’s cool to see what I can use for my writing and see how others implement in their work.

Great Stuff dude thanks for this]!

Thanks for this! That was an excellent conversation and she gave lots of food for thought.

As far as series go, Sopranos did have an answer at the end. It was so satisfying that Tony Soprano did have an end.

I always thought a "pre-lap" was the other way around: audio from the next scene enters before the end of the previous scene. She's describing some sort of carry-over thing, and i don't remember ever knowing what that would be called..... Post-lap? Oh, well—Reddit doesn't have the answer, so it must not exist.....

I always wonder how well readers do with their own material. Like, what's the qualification for becoming the arbiter/gatekeeper? I'm sure i'm just bitter after my one paid reader gave me 'notes' that were... bad. Answers to the few questions he had were clearly presented in the script; some comments represented that he didn't understand the simplest, most obvious elements or intentions; it was obvious that the reader brought strong personal biases and dismissed elements that are common in some of my favorite (and also widely-acclaimed) films.

I think that the screenplay format is imperfect. And it never will be perfect because there is no one standard reader or standard purpose for the screenplay across the industry. I rarely played around doing exceptions or breaking the rules. I generally stuck with the basics. But it is not a perfect format in part because people wanted more editorial from me and they didn't get it... Now, I'm writing for a director that I know really well - and he wants more information in there -- and it won't go through any industry readings. So, now I'm writing it with some narration.

the best prelap was jon snow from baby to king

Writing coming from a hive of people who are not the same page is how you destroy good scripts and turn them in 'The Rings of Power' or some other shite like that. Singular voices with a singular vision retains the creativity and doesn't dilute the story with DEI crap.

Shane Black, imo started the whole talking to the reader. All his scripts did it.