Quoted from coldbug A figure emerges out of the shadow.  It's Special Agent  TANYA KNIGHTBLADE in her tight black leather outfit.  28, sexy atheletic body, dark long flowing hair, brainy with know it all intelligence, luscious rosy lips that all men would want to kiss.

I was actually assuming this was a joke post...no?

IMO, there are many, many things wrong with it.  The first being, it's just way too long and detailed.  The last being the ridiculous last part about all men wanting to kiss her lips.  That's downright goofy.

I'm not saying anyone should go out there and try to be William Goldman, but I just love this:

Buttercup is in her late teens; doesn't care much about
clothes and she hates brushing her long hair, so she isn't
as attractive as she might be, but she's still probably the
most beautiful woman in the world.

While you could argue that those descriptions are unfilmable, I'd disagree.

It's a little long, but what's wrong with making an impression when introducing an important character? Give them a grand entrance if your story calls for it.

As much as I'm sick of people emulating great writers, I'm also sick of cold, stale, sparse writing that plagues scripts today.

Quoted from Felipe As much as I'm sick of people emulating great writers, I'm also sick of cold, stale, sparse writing that plagues scripts today.

I'm against cold, stale, sparse writing as well, but in terms of character description, my thoughts differ from yours, Felipe.  I'm all about the visuals in action and description, but IMO, character description can be as simple as an age and a physical descriptor that's important to the character.

In terms of female character's descriptions, just breast size matters.  

Quoted from Felipe It's a little long, but what's wrong with making an impression when introducing an important character? Give them a grand entrance if your story calls for it.

I can agree with this in theory but I think it has to be done extremely well. A lot of the intros I read in pro scripts (let's say 90%) just feel really intrusive and annoying to me. It's like a friend showing you one of their favorite movies for the first time and having them grab your shoulder and whisper shit like "You're gonna love this!" every time some supposedly great moment comes along. Maybe you would if they'd just STFU and let you take it all in at your own speed. In scripts, I hate having someone tell me how I'm supposed to react to something when the elements should really speak for themselves.

Consequently, I think The Princess Bride example is fairly decent.

I also recognize Bert brought that one up, I'm just bringing it back up because Coldbug's description made me think of it.

Quoted from Dreamscale I was actually assuming this was a joke post...no? IMO, there are many, many things wrong with it.  The first being, it's just way too long and detailed.  The last being the ridiculous last part about all men wanting to kiss her lips.  That's downright goofy.

lol..yea it is kind of goofy.  

Quoted from coldbug A figure emerges out of the shadow.  It's Special Agent  TANYA KNIGHTBLADE in her tight black leather outfit.  28, sexy atheletic body, dark long flowing hair, brainy with know it all intelligence, luscious rosy lips that all men would want to have wrapped around their dicks.

I like it.  

Quoted from Guest I like it.

LMAO!!
I was just trying to let the reader imagine how beautfiul (here we go again BEAUTIFUL) and sexy she is in their minds.  I think I finally got someone's attention..haha!

i think you rewrite it better

Quoted from Dreamscale People are more interested in attractive people than unattractive people.

Not sure if people are more interested in that or if that's just what Hollywood uses to get people to watch the movie.

Marty is an excellent script with not so attractive people. Network too, except of course Faye Dunaway which is kind of a given the woman is attractive. But that's the director's choice.

The Apartment. Double Indemnity. Anything by Sturges. Although, Joel McCrea is a handsome man I wouldn't consider him a pretty guy like Clooney, Pitt, or Farrell.

I see that most male screenwriters during the Classical Hollywood era wrote parts for beautiful women and handsome men. And while the men were tough and hard, and maybe not all of them were attractive especially by today's standards, they were real men. Not pretty boys.

Nowadays, my theory is anyway, Hollywood tries to appeal to both men and women and so they throw in attractive man X with attractive woman Y, have 'em talk for 90 to 120 minutes and make bank.

But the screenwriters with the most talent usually write about not so attractive characters, mainly the males because the writers are males. Same probably goes for the novelists. Just something I've noticed.

Quoted from Heretic Women in movies tend to need to be beautiful. Maybe that seeps unconsciously into the writing.

I agree. Women have always been depicted as beautiful in stories, even in the most ancient texts, Goddesses and such.

I use milf or milf-ish sometimes.

You don't have to always itemize your character's attributes in one action line/block.  Space it out.  Do it on the go.  This can apply to location descriptions as well.