Scott Myers

Daily Dialogue — November 29, 2012

Penelope (V.O.): My parents were born into the good life. Old money, blue-blooded society sweethearts. Reporter: Are you hoping for a boy or girl? Jessica Wilhern: We’ll be happy with whatever we have! Penelope (V.O.): Having played host to kings and queens and other powers that

How do you access spec scripts that have sold?

Earlier today, I hammered home the point about reading scripts, especially selling spec scripts. This leads to the obvious question: How does one go about accessing such scripts? One solution: Work in Hollywood. Problem solved! Okay, so assuming you don’t want to change careers and locales in order to

Dispatch from The Quest: Brandon Cohen

The Quest participants have been hard at work pounding out a first draft of their original screenplays, but Brandon has found the time to compose a dispatch for us. I’m back from the dead. I hope you’ve all been able to get by without me. I trust it’

“Each scene must be a drama in itself”

“Each scene must be a drama in itself. The whole picture must be made up of a series of small dramas. This makes the completed picture a mosaic of little ones. Scenes that have no dramatic value in them, or say nothing, must be eliminated. So the scenario writer must

Keys to the Craft: Read Scripts

Essential to read screenplays to study style, tone, feel, structure, pace… If you want to learn the craft of screenwriting, here are five practices you need to adopt: Think Concepts. Watch Movies. Read Scripts. Write Pages. Live Life. Monday, I wrote about Think Concepts. Yesterday: Watch Movies. Today: Read Scripts.

Script To Screen: “Election”

A critical plot point in this fantastic comedy. From the 1999 movie Election, screenplay by Alexander Payne & Jim Taylor, novel by Tom Perrotta. Setup: High school teacher Jim McCalister, caught up in a test of wills with student Tracy Flick, has a choice to make about Flick’s potential

Daily Dialogue — November 28, 2012

New Mother: Is it a boy or a girl? Obstretrician: I think it’s a bit early to start imposing roles on it, don’t you? — The Meaning of Life (1983), written by Graham Chapman & John Cleese & Terry Gilliam & Eric Idle & Terry Jones & Michael Palin

Writing Mantra: Set aside your attachments

When you consider yourself as a writer, what do you think about? When you ponder that story you are currently writing, where are your thoughts? Are you thinking about your story… or do other images drift into your mind? Does your mind drift from the actual writing of the story

Spec Script Sale: “Straight Edge”

Silver Pictures acquires action spec script “Straight Edge” written by Rich Wilkes. From THR: “Edge” is an Los Angeles-set actioner that revolves around a heist gone wrong and follows a slew of colorful characters, ranging from corrupt cops to Southland gang members. Those who have read the script describe

Dispatch from The Quest: Emma Millions

The Quest participants have been hard at work pounding out a first draft of their original screenplays, but Emma has found the time to compose a dispatch for us. So, nearly half way through the first draft. Way too long. Missing a subplot or two. Rough and raw. But the

“Every scene should advance the story”

“Every scene should advance the story.” Advice from screenwriter Philip Dunne who knew just a little something about the craft accumulating dozens of writing credits including such notable films as How Green Was My Valley, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Agony and the Ecstasy. Every scenes should advance the

Movie Trailer: “Dark Skies”

As the Barret family’s peaceful suburban life is rocked by an escalating series of disturbing events, they come to learn that a terrifying and deadly force is after them. Written by Scott Charles Stewart IMDB site Release Date: 22 February 2013 (USA)

Keys to the Craft: Watch Movies

Keys to the Screenwriting Craft: Watch Movies Movies must be in your lifeblood. The best way to do that is to watch them. If you want to learn the craft of screenwriting, here are five practices you need to adopt: Think Concepts. Watch Movies. Read Scripts. Write Pages. Live Life.

Screenwriting 101: David O. Russell

“I have to write down all the things about an idea that excite me and I have to have the whole menu at my disposal. Sometimes I have charts on the wall. Once I outline — and I outline and outline — I have to insist that I write eight pages a

Daily Dialogue — November 27, 2012

Robert Marmaduke Sangster Hightower: …little Robert… William Kearney: Robert William. Pedro “Pete’ Roca Fuerte: Robert William Pedro. — Hightower (John Wayne), Kearney (Harry Carey Jr.), Fuerte (Pedro Armendáriz), 3 Godfathers (1948), screenplay by Laurence Stallings and Frank S. Nugent, story by Peter B. Kyne The Daily Dialogue theme for the week

Screenplay Time

Time is a mystery and perhaps nowhere more than in stories. As writers, we can jump through decades with one scene transition. Conversely we can stretch out mere moments for many pages, slowing down, even stopping the clock. Indeed something so fundamental as the choice of past tense, typical of

“25 Tips to Punch Up Your Writing”

@BrooklynWeaver tweeted this yesterday, an article with 25 writing tips. Considering it is from Entrepreneur, I was surprised at how many of them actually apply to screenwriting. I’ve highlighted a few of the most relevant tips: 3. Read aloud. There’s no substitute for reading your words with your

“Bad movie dialogue speaks in complete sentences”

“Bad movie dialogue speaks in complete sentences without any overlapping or interruption, and avoids elliptical speech, which is truer to how people actually talk.” This from writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson. While dialogue is a major point of attention in the rewrite stage — really digging into each character and their

Movie Trailer: “Snitch”

A father goes undercover for the DEA in order to free his son who was imprisoned after being set up in drug deal. Written by Ric Roman Waugh, Justin Haythe IMDB site Release date: 22 February 2013 (USA) Comment Archive

Keys to the Craft: Think Concepts

Keys to the Screenwriting Craft: Think Concepts The foundation of a good script is a strong story concept. It started with this GITS post years ago: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. Long-time followers of my blog are familiar with this screenwriting mantra. In fact Annika Wood was kind

On Writing

“As for writing, most people secretly believe they themselves have a book in them, which they would write if they could only find the time. And there’s some truth to this notion. A lot of people do have a book in them — that is, they have had an experience

Daily Dialogue — November 26, 2012

Kee writhes in pain, SCREAMS. THEO: Now just lie there and let your body take over. Get in touch with your body like Miriam said, that thing about tension. KEE: I can’t! THEO: You can! Just breathe, breathe like Miriam taught you… relax, and when you feel like it,

THR remembers The Hollywood Blacklist

Fascinating Hollywood Reporter article about an event that began 65 years ago today. Here’s the start of the piece: Billy Wilkerson was nervous. It was July 1946, and The Hollywood Reporter owner, editor and publisher was preparing to embark on a landmark campaign that would expose communists working in

Go On Your Own Quest, Week 19: First Draft

Several readers emailed me about aggregating the entire series of posts we have been running in association with the Go On Your Own Quest initiative. Here is Week 19: First Draft. “What is the point of the scene?” “Why are these characters in this scene?” “What is the conflict in

History of Misheard Lyrics | Opus №13 [video]

Something fun for you this Sunday: What lyrics have you misheard?