1. Thou shalt cut to the chase.

2. Thou shalt write castable leads for the superstars of the heavens

3. Thou shalt remember your audience is half your age.

4. Thou shalt sacrifice all to advance the story, whether it be beloved schtick, clever banter or thy first born male child.

5. Thou shalt never say what thou can show; life is short, the medium visual, talky scenes interminable, and thy characters should be as silent and fleet of foot as the beasts of the field.

6. Be not like the Fool who cryeth out from the lobby of the revival theater, saying, O Lord, when can a small, personal film be made? and the Lord spaketh saying, When the prime interest rate goes back down to 5 percent. But the Fool did not hee d the Lord and rusheth home to work on his western, a character study about an aging rodeo star.

7. Honor thy genre and keep it holy; but if thou writeth other than a comedy or a special effects film, thou shalt not enter the Kingdom of Heaven or the Meetings of Preproduction.

8. Thou shalt edit without mercy thy script until it flies along like the birds of the air; then taketh out ten more pages.

9. Pitcheth thy story in only 60 seconds and make it sound as if from heaven, for if thou taketh 20 minutes to explain thy movie, the bored moneylenders of the temple shall begin taking calls.

10. Thou must bring on a likeable main character, establish thy tone and set thy plot hook by pageth 10 or thou must dwell forever in the Land of the Day Job.

Amen