Screenwriting 101 Film Crit Hulk

Books on Film

Screenwriting 101

Film Crit Hulk

What kind of name is ‘Film Crit Hulk’?

Okay so, this always leads to an awkward introduction. This guy is easily my favourite person writing about movies right now. He works in the film industry but can’t reveal who he is so he writes anonymously under the guise of The Incredible Hulk. This includes writing in ALL CAPS and also kinda writing in ‘Hulk Speak’. He’s pretty eloquent though and at this point the hulk speak is pretty much just referring to himself in the third person. If you think being eloquent goes against the Hulk persona though, it doesn’t. Read up on the comics ;)

He also has a good reason for writing like that in that it effects how people actually take in what he’s saying. Without getting too much into it what ends up happening is that people pay more attention to the text (instead of just skimming) and they engage with the actual ideas more than how it’s written. Also, just the very idea of having a character known for being a giant rage monster advocate for sincerity and humanity and being nice and cuddly effects how people view things in terms of what’s on the surface and what’s underneath.

The writing can seem a bit much to take in at first (his articles are also super long) but I’ve been reading his stuff for years now and I can read his stuff so easily now I don’t even notice the style. I can easily read his stuff for hours at a time and often do just re-read a bunch of his articles in a row.

So anyway, what’s the book about?

It’s about screenwriting! It’s also very much about storytelling in general. A huge section of the book just deals with what most other screenwriting books don’t even bother with; what even is a story? Why do we tell them? How do you find a story to tell?

Other books, and screenwriting advice in general can also end up giving you a lot of ‘rules’. “Here’s the structure you need to follow. Here’s what you have to do. Here’s what you absolutely aren’t allowed to put in a script.” It’s all bullshit of course. Just look at any interview with a working screenwriter where any of these rules come up and they just laugh them off. Some people even try to claim they’re not telling you what rules to follow but giving you ‘principles’. “I’m not saying you *have* to do it like this, but all these successful films seem to follow this rule so…” They usually don’t give you a good reason for *why* to follow these principles except to point out a bunch of good movies that seem to follow them or to just shrug and say “hey, they just *work*”

Enter Hulk. He spends a good part of the book just tackling two of the most common things that screenwriters are told to follow ‘Three Act Structure’ and ‘The Heroes Journey’. He actually takes them apart, dealing with how they actually work and what effect they have on a story. His plan is take stuff that often end up becoming restrictive and instead make them freeing.

There’s a lot more too! It’s honestly the best thing about writing I’ve ever read and I’d call it essential reading for anyone interested in writing or filmmaking. I’d even recommend it to anyone that is just interested in movies in general. It really is great and I’ve read it 3 times since I picked it up just over a year ago (I even read it twice in the past 3 months!)

What a minute Paul, you’re not a working screenwriter! How can you know that this is better than any other book about writing? If something like ‘Save The Cat’ speaks just as confidently as this Hulk guy how can you know to recommend one over the other? Even if Hulk really does work in the industry how you know he knows what he’s talking about?

Well, I’ve been interested in writing and specifically screenwriting for years now and I’ve been paying attention to what kind of advice people have been giving about it for over 10 years now. If you pay attention that long and you specifically listen to the differences between what working writers say and what ‘script gurus’ say then you start seeing patterns. A lot of it comes down to aforementioned ‘rules’ and ‘principles’ and how they are talked about. Any ‘rule’ or ‘guideline’ should only exist to serve the story you are telling. It shouldn’t be just there because it ‘just works’ or whatever. You start learning the difference between actual advice and what’s essentially the writing version of snake oil buzzwords. Plus ‘Save The Cat’ is a fucking joke and any writer that’s talked about it has nothing good to say. If you can find a single good screenwriter that praises it I’ll buy you a house. (*)

Okay so I’m interested…

Great! Well, the great thing about this book is that it’s a pretty cheap ebook. It’s only £2.99 on Amazon. You can get it (here)

There’s more too! Since people people genuinely have issues with the All Caps stuff buying it means you get both an All Caps version and a regular text version. You don’t have to take all my praise at my word either, you can read a section from the book (here). In this excerpt he talks about Three Act Structure.
You can also check out a bunch of articles he’s written online (here). Enjoy!

(*) - not legally binding