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Here’s a list of films I have liked. Alphabetically ordered so that you, yes you, may decide where they belong. Oh, if there is a recent version of the film, well, just assume this list always refers to the originals, unless otherwise noted.

I know I’ll catch flack for what I have included and the obvious holes, but it isn’t like this is all I do, this "list thing", this is, hell, this is a service, something extra. An effort, perhaps albeit a small one, but an effort will be made to add some editorializing, some mention of quality. But not today. Today, you get the stinking list and a harsh "be off" ‘else it’s the back of me hand!

12 Angry Men
12 Monkeys
2001: A Space Odessy

About A Boy
Adaptation
Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, The
Affair to Remember, An
After Life
Afterhours
Alien
Aliens
All The President's Men
Altered States
Amelie
American Beauty
American Graffiti
Americanization of Emily, The
Amores Perros
An American Werewolf in London
...And Justice For All
Annie Hall
Any Given Sunday
Apocalypse Now

Babe
Back to the Future
Barefoot in the Park
Being John Malkovich
Being There
Best in Show
Better Off Dead
Big Chill, The
Big Sleep, The
Billy Elliot
Birdy
Blade Runner
Blue Velvet
Bonnie and Clyde
Bound
Brazil
Bridge Over the River Kwai, The
Broadcast News
Brother from another planet
Buffalo 66
Bullit
Buloxie Blues
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Butcher Boy

Candidate, The
Casablanca
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Catpeople
Charade
Charly
Children of a Lesser God
Chinatown
Cinema Paradisio (with reservations)
Citizen Kane
Clockwork Orange
Close Encounters
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Conversation, The
Coolhand Luke
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Cruel Intentions
Cruising
Crying Game

Dark Star (forgive me!)
Dave
Day the Earth Stood Still, The
Dead Alive
Deadzone
Deer Hunter, The
Deliverance
Die Hard
Dirty Hairy
Dog Day Afternoon
Double Indemnity
Dr.Strangelove
Driving Miss Daisy

Ed Wood
Election
Elephant Man
English Patient
ET
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Exorcist, The

Failsafe
Fandango
Fantastic Journey
Fargo
Father Goose
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Field of Dreams
Fight Club
Finding Nemo
Fish Called Wanda
Forgiven
Frankenstein
Freaks
French Connection
From Beyond
From Here to Eternity
From Russia With Love
Fugitive, The

Glengarry Glenn Ross
Go
Gods and Monsters
Goldfinger
Goodbye MrChips
Graduate, The
Great Dictator
Great Escape, The
Groundhog Day

Hairspray
Halloween
Harold and Maude
Harvey
Heart and Souls
Heathers
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Hidden, The (hasn't aged well)
High Fidelity
His Girl Friday
Hud
Hudsucker Proxy, The
Hustler, The

Incredibles, The
Incredible Shrinking Man
Indiscrete
Iron Giant
It Happened One Night
It's A Wonderful Life

James Bonds with Sean Connery
Jaws
Jeremiah Johnson

Kelly's Heroes
King Kong (original)
Kiss of the Spiderwoman

Ladykillers, The (1955)
LA Confidential
Last Emperor, The
Last Tango in Paris
Lavender Hill Mob, The (1951)
Lawrence of Arabia
Le Femme Nikitta
Lemon Drop Kid
Lilies
Limelight
Longest Yard
Longtime Companion
Looking for Mr Goodbar

Mad Max
Magnificent Seven
Maltese Falcon, The
Man in the White Suit, The (1951)
Man With Two Brains
Manchurian Candidate
Marathon Man
Mary Poppins
M*A*S*H
Matrix
Memento
Men In Black
Miami Blues
Midnight Cowboy
Midnight Express
Midnight Run
Miracle on 34th Street
Misery
Moderns, The
Monty Python's Holy Grail
Monty Python's Meaning of Life
Ms.Firecracker
Muppet Movie

Natural, The
Network
Nightmare Before Christmas
North by Northwest
Notorious

Ocean's Eleven
Omen, The
On Golden Pond
On the Waterfront
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
Only Eagles Dare
Operation Petticoat
Ordinary People

Paper chase
Papillion
Philidelphia Story
Pink Panther
Place in the Sun, A
Planet of the Apes
Platoon
Player, The
Poseidon Adventure
Princess Bride
Priscella, Queen of the Desert
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Punch-Drunk Love
Purple Rose of Cairo

Quizshow

Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raising Arizona
Rear Window
Reds
Reservoir Dogs
Risky Business
Robocop (hmmm, am I serious about this?)
Rocky
Roman Holiday

Sabrina
Scarface
Schindler's List
Seconds
Secrets & Lies
Serial Mom
Serpico
Seven
Seven Samari
Sex, Lies, and Videotape
Shawshank Redemption
Shining, The
Silence of the Lambs
Silverado
Sixth Sense
Sleuth
Some Like It Hot (1959)
South Park: the Movie
Stalag 13
Stand By Me
Star is Born, A
Star Trek: Wrath of Kahn
Star Wars
Sting, The
Streetcar Named Desire
Sunset Boulevard

Taxi Driver
Terminator
Terms of Endearment
Texas Chainsaw
Thin Man, The
Third Man, The
Three Days of the Condor
Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
Time Bandits (1981)
To Catch a Thief
To Kill A Mockingbird
Tootsie (1982)
Torch Song Trilogy
Toy Story
Trainspotting
Tremors
Trial at Nurenberg
Trip to Bountiful
Trouble With Harry, The (1955)
True Grit (only for the line "fill your hands you son-of-a-bitch")
Tucker

Untouchables
Usual Suspects

Verdict, The

Wait Until Dark
War of the Worlds (so campy, but those sounds, those ships!)
Way We Were, The
Wedding Banquet
Welcome To the Dollhouse
Westworld
Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf
Wings of Desire
Witness
Witness For the Prosecution, The
Wizard of Oz
World According to Garp

X-men

Young Lions, The

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Animation and the Shorts

Balance
Brothers Quay, nearly anything except their features

Joe
Jump

Mr.Resistor

Snit, the

Tango

Go to the Screenplay & Storyboard Templates, in addition to an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of these storyboard templates there’s a Microsoft Word script template you may download (free, gratis, of course) and helpful links to more scripts

download blank story boards (Adobe Acrobat: blank_storyboards.pdf) (81 KB)

Save this to your computer, Firefox users: Right-click, save image as…

Screenplay Template | Blank Storyboards

Helpful Sites on Writing for the Screen

Screenplay Format | Screenplay Example | Miscellaneous Notes

Screenplay Template

Download: blank_script_0-01b.zip (6 KB)

Download this zipped Microsoft Word document, instead. I’ve defined the standard screenplay elements as Word Styles. Just apply the style of your choosing to the appropriate paragraph and you’re done. This is also configured to automatically choose the appropriate next style for you as you type: that is, Action follows Scene Heading, that is followed by Character, and then Dialog, etc. Someone did say this wasn’t working for their version of Word, but I was unable to reproduce their problem. Worse case do it by hand. (see Format notes below)

Is this faster or more convenient than Final Draft? No. It is, however, cheaper and nearly as good for many folks.

The style names are proceeded with a number, these, for those who have used FinalDraft, are those same shortcuts FD employs. Set your own hot-keys (Tools » Customize, then click the Keyboard button). In older versions of Word this was quite easy to do. Too bad.

This is a movie script format, not television format or stage play. Never had need for those myself, so you’re on your own.

You will need a 12 point Courier font installed. Why 12pt? Hmmm, if you’re asking you should read up a bit more about writing for the screen before taking your treatment in for the pitch. On the other hand, someone has made a dandy, heavy, typewriter-esque font just for screenplays: Courier 10 Pitch BT. Available Free here

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Blank Storyboards

Download: blank_storyboards.pdf (81 KB)
  FREE Acrobat Reader from Adobe
  Help and tips for downloading Acrobat files

By request, GIF versions of these templates

OK, even if you are only as talented as an eight year old with a crayon, a stack of blank storyboard pages is indispensable for even stick figure artists. Plus, blocking is more easily worked out if you have diagrams. Really. Doing this will save you time and money. (shown at right is one of the six different storyboard page layouts included in the Acrobat file, or get individual GIF/images here)

I’ve setup several sizes of blank templates for your storyboarding pleasure: various aspect ratios (DV, HD, NTSC broadcast, title-safe, 720×480,1280×720) and some of these include camera staging areas. Also have various formats to choose from: 2 on a page to 6 little, bitty ones per page. Whatever works for you, your level of detail. Download and print what you need.

A few folks have asked "what’s that storyboard with the camera diagram space?" Sure, easy.

The top rectangle is for diagramming a bird’s eye view of the shot, showing placement of any objects complicating the shot or that are in motion. For example, camera tracking, actors walking, efx, complicated lighting setup, etc. The box below this is just a space for the key, such as "red dot is Jim", or "X = Jenny", or "triangles are lights".

It’s a handy place to show movement, the camera’s range of view, marks, etc.

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Helpful Sites on Writing for the Screen

Reading scripts, best way to appreciate that you have no talent, but neither does the guy that wrote Lethal Weapon 4. On the other hand, reading Chinatown or Network will make you weep with envy. So it goes. Here are a few sites that have script downloads:

• AwesomeFilm.com
• DailyScript.com

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Standard Screenplay Format

Below are the parts of a screenplay laid out in purty HTML (note: cheated the style sheet (CSS) a bit so that the script-snippet/example would fit nicely within this web page’s formatting).

Even if you’re doing a two minute Flash animation or an office skit for National Sexual Harassment Day, use this teleplay format; it’s time-tested and works, and is actor-friendly. One Page = One Minute. Really.

It’s a simple stylistic system with 7 parts (listed below in their FinalDraft order) of which you’ll probably only need 5 (parentheticals and camera direction are discouraged):

1. slug-line (or Scene Heading) left-margin of 1.7" and a right-margin of 1.1", preceded by two blank lines. All-caps.
2. action (or Stage Direction), margins: left: 1.7", right: 1.1"
3. character, simply a character’s name preceding that character’s dialog, always in all-caps, with a left-margin of 4.1".
4. parenthetical (or Dialog Direction) — use this sparingly, if at all, because the writer is not suppose to direct from the script page. This is used to tell the actor what to do, i.e. direction, and really ticks-off directors and actors. So unless you’re Charlie Kaufman or your last name rhymes with "cohen" you should rarely employ this. Left-margin of 3.4", right-margin of 3.1".
5. dialog has left-margin of 2.7" and right-margin of 2.4".
6. transition left-margin of 6.0". All-caps
7. shot (or Camera Direction) all-caps and margins of left: 1.7", right: 1.1". Same caveat here: use sparingly, you as a writer should not attempt staging or blocking shots (William Goldman famously ignores this and directs from the page — an eccentricity purchased on the backs of a mere Oscar or two)

Ahhh, man! I just typed all of that from some old notes — and then found simplyscripts.com has all this margins-crud (and lots more) described quite nicely here: Standard Script Format.

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Script Example

Mouse-over the "?" for explanation of the style, in theory. Oh, Internet Explorer doesn’t show the highlighting properly. For shame.

? FADE IN:

INT. OFFICE – DAY ?

?Frustrated WRITER sits before a 1937 Smith Corona typewriter, CLACKING KEYS ECHO across the room.

WRITER ?

(to his CAT) ?

? God, I’m never going to finish this screenplay.

CHARACTER TWO (O.S.) ?

? Wow, this is so simple.

? CUT TO:

EXT. STREET – DAY ?

? A bright midday sun illuminates a gleaming silver rocket ship. Steam pours out of various valves near its tail. Enormous fins hold it well above a CLUSTER of scurrying men.

ANOTHER ANGLE ?

? Two space-suited figures step into a cramped elevator. The rocket explodes with a DEAFENING BOOM.

? FADE TO BLACK.

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Miscellaneous Screenplay Format Notes

Uses for all caps

(MORE): when a character's dialogue carries onto next page
CHARACTER NAME (CONT'D): when dialogue resumes from prior
page
AD LIB: when the actors fill in the dialogue with
incidental lines
VOICE OVER (V.O.): when we hear narration over the action
OFFSCREEN (O.S.): when we hear the character speak but he
is offscreen, such as calling out from the other room
BEGIN TITLES: when the main credits start
END TITLES: when the main credits finish
FREEZE FRAME: which is at the left margin and punctuated
with a period.
TITLES OF SONGS AND BOOKS

Sounds in Action are capitalized, this alerts foley that
a sound effect is called for.

The first time a character or a group of characters appears
in the script their name is capitalized.

Standard Scene Headings

INT
EXT
I/E
DAY
NIGHT
SUNRISE
MAGIC
CONT
INTER

Standard Transitions

CUT TO
FADE IN
FADE OUT
FADE TO
DISSLOVE TO
BACK TO
MATCH CUT
JUMP CUT
FADE TO BLACK

Standard Shot Headings

ANGLE ON
BACK TO SCENE
CLOSE SHOT
CLOSEUP (C.U.)
EXTREME CLOSEUP
EXTREME LONG SHOT
FREEZE FRAME
LONG SHOT
MEDIUM SHOT
MONTAGE
MOVING or MOVING SHOT
P.O.V.
REVERSE P.O.V.
TWO SHOT
WIDE SHOT
ZOOM IN / ZOOM OUT

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