What Must Happen In The First 10 Pages Of Every Screenplay by Michael Hauge & Mark W. Travis Video Lecture | Screenwriting: From Beginner to a Pro - Career Development

the must-haves for the first 10 pages
any have to meet the hero have to show
the hero living his or her everyday life
before anything extraordinary occurs
that's going to move the story forward
you can have something extraordinary if
it's part of that characters everyday
life but it can't be the thing that is
going to get the hero moving toward the
climax yet it's static in a certain way
it's the everyday life and the other
must-have is you must create empathy
with that character we've got to connect
with that character psychologically now
to me the key ways a writer would do
that is you either get us to feel sorry
for the character make the make the
character the victim of some undeserved
misfortune so an avatar at the beginning
we find out that he's been crippled in
the war and he's just lost his brother
who was killed and that's why he's there
taking his place so all of that is
designed to immediately get us to
sympathize with this character and that
creates this empathy or psychological
connection another way is to create
jeopardy for the character put their
life in danger if it's an action movie
put their job or their love life in
danger anything that's of importance to
them because we identify with characters
we worry about and the third way is you
make them a nice person good-hearted
generous kind show them as well-liked by
other characters so you have to have at
least one or two of those as you
introduce the hero so that your audience
or your reader will actually become that
character psychologically I mean that's
what you're going for to me movies are
participatory they aren't something we
observe there's something we step into
so in Titanic were the ones on the
sinking ship we're the ones falling in
love with Leo DiCaprio or whatever
because you establish this empathy those
to me are the essentials it's good
you