In 1999, I won USC’s School of Cinematic Arts Peter Stark Producing Program’s “Short Film Special Project” by writing a 12 page short, with a director and producer attached, and it was the quality of my script that snagged a $20,000 grant and a Columbia TriStar relationship. Unfortunately, due to creative conflicts with the director, the project died. But the script was always fresh and original, and years later I decided to direct it myself. However, after we completed the 11-page budget report – a staggering $114,468 – it was impossible to deny my fatal mistake was…

The writer is the first director of the script. That is to say that the writer has already seen the movie in his or her mind’s eye, scene by scene, shot by shot. But because the writer has seen the film so vividly, down to the smallest of details, one of the pitfalls the novice screenwriter often falls prey to is the assumption that he or she needs to write in the camera instructions so the director, cinematographer, editor, and others can see how the movie should be filmed.