The secret to success is passion
We each have an internal guidance system that points us in the direction of our own originality. That guidance system is our passion.
When you're passionate about something, you're drawn to it. You engage with it. You're fascinated by it. You explore it willingly, and you dig into it. You want to share it and celebrate it and spend your time with it.
Some writers are passionate about sci-fi. Others are passionate about horror and gore. Others are passionate about comedy.
You may be passionate about a theme — about ending domestic violence or improving race relations or saving the world from a dystopian future.
Your passion is like a natural arrow pointing you to your unique originality.
That's why FAST Screenplay starts by identifying your passion, and building your project organically out of it. Because if you pursue your passion, you will create original material. And if you do it in a way producers can actually use (and learn the skill of aligning directly to their needs), you become exactly what they're looking for.
A system for creating what no one else can
FAST Screenplay is many things — a system for creating compelling screenplays... a step by step path through the entire process... an experiential learning tool, and more. But at its heart, FAST Screenplay is this:
A system for turning your unique voice into something they can use.
When you write something no one else can write, you have no competition. All that's left is alignment.
We built this system for the 5% of writers who take action to achieve their goals. We built it in a way that would virtually guarantee results producers could actually use.
But most importantly of all, we built it to give you a step by step path to share your passion.
You are original; Share your imagination
The philosophy behind FAST Screenplay is simple: Every human perspective is fundamentally unique. You've lived a life no one else has ever seen... through eyes no one else will ever have... experiencing moments only you will ever witness... forming an imagination on you will ever know.
That makes your creativity unique. Your imagination is one-of-a-kind in all of history (and hte future). That gives you original stories to tell. And if you don't tell those stories, they will never be told — because no one else can see them.
FAST is built on the idea that
human beings exist to share what we see.
Human civilization has a long tradition of storytelling — a tradition that connects us, by sharing our ideas. We have the unique ability to imagine things that don't exist — or that don't exist in the present moment. We can imagine great fantasies and horrible scenarios (and everything in between). In our minds, we can zoom to the past, the present and the future, anywhere on Earth or throughout the cosmos. And by sharing our imagination, we expand the imagination of others.
We tell stories to communicate our ideas. Stories take our audience on a journey — an emotional ride through a visceral experience. Whether you're writing a horror film, a deeply personal family drama, a high-tech sci-fi adventure, a slapstick comedy, or a taut political thriller... the experience is designed to say something. You're sharing your ideas in story form.
And it all begins in your own imagination, with your own voice.
Forget the herd; tap into your originality
We believe great stories can't come from copying other people — no matter how great those stories were. Most approaches to screenwriting are based on reverse engineering. A scholar analyzes a successful film, breaks it down into its component parts, and then shows you how to replicate those components until you achieve the same result.
But true creativity imagines new ideas in new ways. We can (and should) use the principles of effective storytelling. FAST Screenplay is full of them. But the core principle that drives creativity shouldn't be copying a formula that works for someone else in their story — it should be tapping your own originality to tell your story in a fresh and creative way.
Compelling, original screenplays are as much about finding your unique voice as they are about the mechanics of storytelling. The simple fact is that in order to master the craft, you need to master both.
It’s what producers are looking for
The real challenge is finding your original voice — and then offering it in a way producers can actually use.
Producers need original material, and they always will. Ask any producer what they're looking for, and the answer is almost always the same: "A great story." Or, if you dig deeper, they'll add things like, "Something new" or "something original" or "not the same old thing".
But why do producers need original material? Just to be difficult? Of course not. It's for one simple reason:
Audiences want new experiences.
When a movie feels like a previous movie, the audience loses interest. They've seen it before. They've experienced this already. The human mind is always active, always engaged, always growing. "Old news" or "outdated information" doesn't push us forward. The audience wants new experiences because ideas spark ideas. If we rehash the same old ideas, it feels like we're stuck in the past.
Tomorrow's movies will be built on today's ideas. The cycle moves forward, always growing. One of the reasons FAST Screenplay is built on process rather than technique, is to give it the flexibility and adaptability to continually grow and evolve. As we discover new insights into the human mind, we will grow. As we do, your tools will expand. As they do, your storytelling will stay fresh, original, and creative.
Giving you the power to lead yourself
In order to acquire a truly original voice, you must develop the ability to be yourself. To be yourself, you need to lead yourself.
If you follow a guru, you'll tell the stories they want you to tell. If you're forever reliant on the opinions of other people, it won't really be your originality.
So one of the core goals for FAST Screenplay is to instill in you the skill, knowledge, strength and confidence to know when your work is effective and when it's ineffective — and what to do about it.
To achieve this, we can't just give you a list of multiple choice questions, or zip through some formulaic approach to storytelling.
We need to challenge you.
It is by finding solutions to your own unique challenges that you will develop the ability to solve any problem that comes your way. When you're sitting in a high-pressure story meeting with the head of a major studio, you need to have the confidence and skill to come up with creative original answers on the spur of the moment. You won't develop that skill if we your teacher spoon-feeds you all the answers.
In fact, for many questions, there are no "right answers". Creativity is subjective. What some people love, other people hate. Neither is "right" or "wrong" — they're opinions. Your goal as a screenwriter is to create powerful, original stories that are aligned to the producer for whom they're perfect (whether you adapt to them, or they adapt to you).
FAST is designed to navigate this challenge. As a production company seeking screenplays, we listed all the skills we need in the ideal professional screenwriter — and then we created a system that would instill in you those skills. And since we need original screenplays, we needed to empower you with consistent originality.
Now throw everything out and just have fun
So in the end, there's a lot built into the engine of FAST Screenplay. But the truth of the matter is that you don't have to worry about any of this stuff. We've made it automatic, and we've put it all "behind the scenes". All you have to do is create your story. Follow your passion. Do your thing. The steps take care of the rest.
Just remember this: It's not called a "screenWORK". It's called a "screenPLAY".
Creativity comes from following your passion. It comes from playing with possibilities. It comes from exploring your imagination.
Play. Have fun. Don't worry about results!
See where your imagination takes you. We'll help you get there step by step, and make sure you don't miss a thing.
As long as you have fun, your work will be spectacular.
