REVEALING SUBTEXT
A Program by Hal Croasmun

A great script operates on multiple levels and the "story beneath the story" is as least as real and powerful as the surface story. For many readers and producers, a script without depth gets a potentially career-ending "pass."

WHAT IS SUBTEXT?

Subtext shows up in internal conflicts, plots, misplaced emotions and schemes. But subtext goes much further in a great script. Instead of being petty, the subtext of a story can be the most important part of the story. The audience perceives the deeper levels of the story and that becomes their internal journey, the journey they came to the movie theater for.

Subtext can be shown through plot, character, relationships, scene design, symbols, action, and dialogue. It tells the "unspoken story" of a script or the "story beneath the story." Many times, it is what has us feel that a story is real.

THE PROBLEM?

When a script is void of subtext, it has no depth. It comes off as superficial. Lack of depth is one of the top complaints that Hollywood production companies make about scripts sent to them. But there is a solution.

THERE IS A SOLUTION. WOULD YOU LIKE...?

• Multiple layers of reality in your script?
• Characters that have depth ?
• A multi-layered plot that deeply engages the reader?
• Dialogue that delivers deeper meaning and sometimes multiple levels of meaning?
• To be able to discover and write subtext at will, instead of having subtext show up haphazardly in your script?

Revealing Subtext is designed to give you a complete understanding of subtext and how to apply it to your own script. It's not a theory class. It's a "write scripts with satisfying subtext from now on" class. And it is guaranteed.

As you read through the days of the program, imagine what your writing would be like if you were proficient at each of these essential subtext skills.

STRUCTURE OF EACH PROGRAM

For ten days, we'll focus on subtext. Each day, you'll receive a lesson via email, along with an assignment for that day. The lessons give concise explanations of an important component of the subtext puzzle along with examples from popular movies. The assignments give you a chance to put your new understanding into practice, transferring the techniques from information to experience.

For an excellent example of subtext, see the analysis of the first three pages of AS GOOD AS IT GETS

Enroll Now

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