Review: TRUE STORY

TRUE STORY: A lesson on subcharacters in screenwriting. #SpoilerAlert

​Every subcharacter should be helping or hindering the protagonist from reaching their goal. If a character is not doing the above, they will be the first on the chopping block during development.

In TRUE STORY, every single person comes full circle. The moment I saw the fan outside of the hospital, I knew he would have the body on film and become a complication. I didn't know how but I knew he wasn't just a fan for the eff of being a fan because celebrities have fans.
Similarly with the guy on the plane. We didn't spend minutes (long minutes in my opinion) talking to this guy just to take up space in the script. He should eventually alter our protagonist's life.
What do your characters bring to the proverbial table?
...
CRITIQUE:
- The pacing is slow in some places due to the amount
of dialogue.
- Though Kevin does well in this film, his tendency to
over adlib muddied the tone here and there.
- The last episode dragged on longer than necessary
and lessened the impact.
...
With that said, I knew how this would end from the pilot. Did you? I won't spoil it for those who haven't watched but I knew all along what really went down. This is why no one likes to watch things with me. 🥴

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AUTHOR

Shannan E. Johnson is a former creative executive at The Syfy Channel turned CEO + Head Consultant of The Professional Pen, a script consultancy that develops screenwriters from idea to pitch to become more confident storytellers ready for a professional screenwriting career, and consults with scripted development teams at entertainment companies to streamline their notes process to get to pre-production more efficiently.