Your story is starting to move and you’re finally getting the hang of formatting; the last thing you want is to stall over a scene that just doesn’t gel. That’s why we asked Hal Ackerman—screenwriter, playwright, and Co-Chair of the UCLA Screenwriting Program—to share some indispensable advice on scene-writing from his book, Write Screenplays that Sell: The Ackerman Way. Take it away, Hal!

There is a one and only purpose for every scene that is placed in your script. Nope. It’s not the one you’re thinking of. No. Not that one either.

Your number one focus is to create a situation in which two characters each have an urgent, immediate need and those

Angela Paton is an actress with a resume spanning the worlds of theater (including San Francisco's ACT), television (Curb Your Enthusiasm, The X-Files), and film (Groundhog Day, The Wedding Singer).

We asked Angela to lay out the Top Five things that go into creating satisfying screenplay plots. Take it away, Angela!

1) The Hero. The Hero must have a dream or need that he is trying to fulfill, and his or her problem is trying to make that wish come true. He or she should be someone we like, so we want him or her to solve the problem of making that dream come true. Often there is also some lack in his character or life that he is unaware of, but that others might be aware of. In sad scripts, this is called a tragic flaw, sort of a troubling ghost getting in his way. In happy scripts, this

Even if you're blazing your own plot path, it never hurts to have a road map to fall back on. Which is why we asked screenwriter and filmmaker Nathan Marshall to break down the mythic three-act structure. Living and working in Hollywood, Nathan's most-recent script, Nowhereland, is currently in development at Raygun Productions. Take it away, Nathan!

You’ve heard of the one-act play. And if you’ve ever watched “Law and Order,” you’ve seen a five-act TV show. So what’s all this talk about a screenplay in three acts? Aren’t the number of acts ultimately up to the screenwriter?

Throughout the next two months, we'll be talking to screenwriters, playwrights, critics, and gurus, asking them to school us on all things script-related.

Today's guests are two of our favorite film commentators, Sam and Adam from WBEZ Chicago's "Filmspotting" (also an eponymous podcast). Adam and Sam have seen more films than is probably healthy, so we challenged them, on this opening day of our Cameo series, to come up with their top five character-defining opening scenes. Take it away, Sam and Adam!

Many great movies open with the main character doing something that cuts right to the heart of their personality and gives a clear sense of who the person is, while also telling the audience what sort of wild ride they're in for. Here are five of our character-defining favorites:

1)The Dude in The Big Lebowski
Written and directed by Joel & Ethan Coen

The Stranger: Sometimes, there's a man, well, he's the

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