Scott Myers

Daily Dialogue — September 25, 2012

“I’d like to tell you about a guy I know, a friend of mine. His name is Brian Piccolo. And he has the heart of a giant, and that rare form of courage that allows him to kid himself and his opponent, cancer. He has a mental attitude that

Announcing Go On Your Own Quest: The Forums!

When I first announced the The Quest initiative back in May, I had little idea it would evolve into the phenomenon it has become. The idea was simple: Invite anyone to submit a logline for consideration as one of four writers I would select to work with me in a

Dispatch from The Quest: Ben Odgren

Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the second week of Prep. Today’s dispatch: Ben Odgren ponders the “Oh no” of horror films: The script I’m writing for The Quest has some elements of horror to it, so I’ve been thinking

Go On Your Own Quest, Week 11: Prep

“The Quest” has entered Week 11! And so did Go On Your Own Quest, an opportunity for anyone to follow the structure of “The Quest” to dig into screenwriting theory [Core — 8 weeks], figure out your story [Prep — 6 weeks], and write a first draft [Pages — 10 weeks]. It’s

The Theology of Screenwriting, Part 6: Guilt

Last week and this, I am exploring theological themes in relation to screenwriting, considering them metaphorically because in my view, we see these themes in movies all the time. By understanding them, we can use these theological themes to enhance the meaning and depth of our stories. For background on

Movie Trailer: “Promised Land”

A salesman for a natural gas company experiences life-changing events after arriving in a small town, where his corporation wants to tap into the available resources. Screenplay by Matt Damon & John Krasinski, story by Dave Eggers IMDB site Release Date: 11 January 2013 (USA)

GITS Script Reading & Analysis: “Raiders of the Lost Ark”

Welcome to the GITS Script Reading & Analysis series, Volume 23. This week we will be analyzing the screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981 action-adventure movie [screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan, story by George Lucas & Philip Kaufman]. If the possibility of reading this script isn’t motivation

Emmy Awards for writing

From last night’s Emmy Awards, here are the winning writers: Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series: Glenn Weiss, The Tony Awards Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series: Alex Gansa, Howard Gordon & Gideon Raff, “Homeland” Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series: Louis CK, “Louie” Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries/

On Writing

“It’s what I do when I write, the main job when I rewrite… Adjectives, adverbs, and every word which is there just to make an effect. Every sentence which is there just for the sentence. You know, you have a beautiful sentence — cut it. Every time I find such

Daily Dialogue — September 24, 2012

“I’ve always believed in numbers. In the equations and logics that lead to reason. But after a lifetime of such pursuits, I ask, what truly is logic? Who decides reason? My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional and back. And I have made the

10,000th post contest!

GITS is currently on 9,966 posts. That means within a week or so, I will be publishing the 10,000th post. I thought we could have a bit of fun with this achievement by asking you this question: What should the 10,000th GITS post be? Let’s make

Dispatches from The Quest: Prep [Week 9]

In Week 9, the Questers reflected on the first stage of Prep. Brandon Cohen Jordan Earls Emma Millions Ben Odgren Rob Pilkington Scott Reynolds

Go On Your Own Quest, Week 10: Prep

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 10: Prep. How is brainstorming helpful to you as a writer? Do you interview your characters? If so, how? What tips do

Screenwriting News (September 17–23, 2012)

Keith Bunin’s 2011 Black List script “Ezekiel Moss” lands Philip Seymour Hoffman as director. John Gilstrap adapting non-fiction drama “Six Minutes to Freedom” for Sesso Entertainment Group. Peter Glanz sells drama adventure pitch “Race to the South Pole” to Warner Bros. Denison Hatch sells thriller spec script “Vanish

Video Interview: Brian De Palma (“Passion”)

30 minutes with writer-director Brian De Palma about his new movie Passion: HT to @webacion for the link. Here is a trailer for Passion:

Daily Dialogue — September 23, 2012

The Girl: You know, the nice thing about buying food for a man is that you don’t have to laugh at his jokes. Just think, if you were some big shot like a casting director or something, I’d be staring into your bridgework saying ‘Yes, Mr. Smearcase. No,

Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Acceptance Speech

After a week’s worth of meet-cutes [courtesy of a suggestion by robfrappier], next week the theme is acceptance speech, recommended by @TheBrokenCoco. This could be a challenge. I can think of political movies. Maybe valedictory addresses. But what other possibilities? Hm. Okay, DDT fans, it’s on you

Dispatch from The Quest: Jordan Earls

Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the first week of Prep. Today’s dispatch: Jordan Earls describes engaging her story’s Protagonist: Last week was the first of prep. After eight weeks of Core pumping me up like steroids to a gym rat,

Scene Description Spotlight: “The Sixth Sense”

After all these years, I can still remember reading this script the first time and how fantastic I thought it was. The Sixth Sense sold as a spec script in a bidding war for a reported $3M, so evidently I wasn’t alone in my appraisal of the story [written

Saturday Hot Links

Back with another installment of Saturday Hot Links! Today: The Lenny Bruce Stand-Up Edition! Mike De Luca: On The Slate. Inside Southern California’s high-speed driving schools. There’s a new player on the film funding scene. 7 ingenious hidden spy cameras. 10 celebrities who spied on the

Written Interview: Drew Goddard (“The Cabin in the Woods”)

Via Slashfilm an interview with Drew Goddard, co-writer and director of The Cabin in the Woods which came out this week on DVD: It must be nice to be able to talk about the film now, and also be at a point where people are seeing it for the

Daily Dialogue — September 22, 2012

MRS. WILSON: Yes? MICKEY: Delivery for Ed Wilson. MRS. WILSON:What on earth is it? MICKEY: It’s beef, lady, fifty pounds of beef. MRS WILSON: Well you wait right here. I have to have a word with my husband. MALLORY: Who’re you? MICKEY: Mickey. Who’re you? MALLORY:

Reader Question: Is it better to end a scene as dramatically or logically as possible?

From Brandon: I have two totally unrelated questions that I would love to get some insight on: 1. Is it better to end a scene/sequence as dramatically as possible or as logically as possible? Obviously both would be ideal, but what if you could only choose one of them,

Dispatch from The Quest: Ben Odgren

Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the first week of Prep. Today’s dispatch: Ben Odgren talks about balancing work and writing: I’m headed to work in a little bit. That will take up roughly eight hours of the day. Sure, I’

Go On Your Own Quest, Week 10: Prep

“The Quest” has entered Week 10! And so did Go On Your Own Quest, an opportunity for anyone to follow the structure of “The Quest” to dig into screenwriting theory [Core — 8 weeks], figure out your story [Prep — 6 weeks], and write a first draft [Pages — 10 weeks]. It’s