Useful for execs, useless for geniuses. See it with a notebook and a grain of salt.
And yet, it is dead.
If you’ve ever doom-scrolled through screenwriting TikTok or lurked in a film school subreddit, you’ve met them: The 7 Movie Rules. They are whispered like commandments: Thou shalt have a protagonist with a flaw. Thou shalt raise the stakes every ten pages. Thou shalt never, ever use voiceover unless it is Goodfellas . 7 movie rules rules
If you are writing your first script, laminate these rules to your desk. They will stop you from writing a 90-minute scene where two people talk about the weather. They are the training wheels. Useful for execs, useless for geniuses
But if you want to make art? Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like a king. The moment you feel the "rising action" sagging, put in a ten-minute scene of a man just cooking an omelet. That is the movie I want to watch. Thou shalt never, ever use voiceover unless it is Goodfellas