I've benefited from a multi-aspect approach.
When reading screenplays of produced films make sure you're reading a actual pre-production screenplay rather than an almost useless transcript.
A fairly decent resource:
http://www.imsdb.com/latest/
Next, watch all the DVD/BR director/actor/producer/writer/editor commentaries you possibly can.
Listen for and note the frequency of elements they divulge as being changed from the screenplay to what was actually shown in theaters.
Comments like "We really stuck to the script" do not reconcile with "we ad libbed a lot".
Listen for what the editor changed. The producer or studio changed. The MPAA changed.
When you watch the deleted scenes consider A someone wrote that, B several people approved that, C Many people shot that, D someone paid likely tens-of-thousands of dollars a minute to produce that, E the editor still put it together, F then it was cut from the release due to any number of reasons, the most often cited are continuity and pacing.
Some of the best DVD/BR director/actor/producer/writer/editor commentaries I've seen (in no particular order)
- Fight Club (probably the best, actually)
- Salt (Read the wikipedia on this release and consider the screenwriter's job from front to back)
- Cabin Fever (Roth really gives it up for this one)
- Open Water
- Green Zone (Divide the production budget by the screen minutes to render a release cost/minute. Watch the deleted scenes and calculate how much was spent for scenes never included. Then listen to Damon remark to Greengrass "I think this is the first time I ever read any of the screenplay of any of our films" for a single scene).
Understand that whatever you write as an original screenplay is going to be changed.
Begin with an original screenplay.
That'll go through several rewrites in pre-production before a studio/producer "locked" script is stamped approved.
Then once on set, the approved "locked" script will get butchered by everyone.
- Director's going to change it out of personal interpretation.
- Producer or studio is going to change it because of budgeting.
- The settings located are going to change it.
- The actors are going to think of eight different ways to deliver each and every GD line of both dialog and action.
- The editor is going to take the best take of two to fifty-two takes, then monkey with the audio to suit.
- This process renders a "fat cut", often plumping out over four hours from a hundred to three hundred hours of recorded material. Your 90 to 110 page original screenplay is in there somewhere - in some form or fashion.
- The fat cut gets edited down to 90 to 120 minutes. Maybe most of what you wrote is in there. I bet 20% of it is stuff you never wrote.
- Then it gets re-edited for gilding-the-lily timing, pace, and continuity.
- Then the producer/studio makes more editing suggestions.
- Then the MPAA has a few remarks to make to suit the distributor's demands.
Bones.
Fabricate nice "bones" to a story, because that's all that's going to remain on screen.
The third step is to join a screenwriting forum, read a lot of what others say about each other's works, write a ten page or so short yourself, take your peer beatings, repeat about couple-dozen times.
Then... start making your own writer/director films.
GL & GB!
Ray
EDIT:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/...it?authkey=CJXH2tEH&hl=en_US&authkey=CJXH2tEH