Ep29: Kat Montagu, Screenwriter & Instructor

Today my guest is Kat Montagu, a Screenwriter and Instructor. In this episode we find out more about the precise, nuanced territory of screenplays, or more specifically, screenplay formatting that is designed to ensure that a screenplay not only tells an engaging story but also communicates the more technical details used in film and television productions. Kat provides insights into some of the industry-informed processes of creative writing, including the specialist tasks of a script analyst and a story editor. Kat talks us through “The Dreaded Curse: Screenplay Formatting for Film & Television” an educational book that began life as a humble, yet purposeful class handout. With a creative and playful approach pitched specifically at a film-student audience, the book follows a “show, not tell” approach as its self-referencing ghosts and witches tackle their silly mistakes and find ways to improve their own emerging screenplay. In our conversation, we find out how to follow some of the fundamental rules of formatting a screenplay, for example, using particular grammar, punctuation, and fonts. Just for laughs, we reverse-engineer a typical sitcom script, discover the value of script structure and cliffhangers, and explore a few different ways to format dialog in a scripted phone conversation. Kat offers a range of useful insights, tips, advice and practical writing activities to guide and support emerging screen writers on the art of telling a delightful story. Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kat-montagu/ https://www.threeoceanpress.com/all-titles/the-dreaded-curse https://vfs.edu/programs/writing https://twitter.com/kmontagu