Screenwriting 101: Baz Luhrmann “What you can scientifically look at is the world in which he [Shakespeare] wrote these plays, and the fact that he was an actor in a company that was basically going broke. So he had to pack the house, a sort of 3,000-foot theater, with everybody from the
Daily Dialogue — September 18, 2012 Jean: Not good enough. Colonel: What’d you say? Jean: I said they’re not good enough for him. EveryJane in the room… is giving him the thermometer, and he feels they’re just a waste of time. He’s returning to his book. He’s deeply immersed in it.
Reader Questions Haven’t done this for awhile. How about opening up the floor for your questions? You can check out the master list of Q&A’s here, over 200 of them. If you don’t see your topic listed, head to comments and ask away, anything screenwriting related. I’
Dispatch from The Quest: Scott Reynolds Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the first week of Prep. Today’s dispatch: Scott Reynolds makes a couple of confessions: Nine weeks, no pages. The first eight weeks of the Quest were core concepts. You saw us blog about them. Time. Character.
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
Movie Trailer: “Stand Up Guys” Yahoo! Video PlayerEdit descriptiond.yimg.com A pair of aging con men try to get the old gang back together for one last hurrah before one of the guys takes his last assignment — to kill his comrade. Written by Noah Haidle IMDB site Release Date: 11 January 2013 (USA)
The Theology of Screenwriting, Part 1: Sin As many of you may know, I have a background in the academic study of theology, a B.A. in religious studies from the University of Virginia and a Masters of Divinity degree from Yale. So it is only natural I bring that perspective to how I view and understand
On Writing “If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work, the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk lamp. The
Daily Dialogue — September 17, 2012 Kate: Oh, you’re that hockey player. Doug: How you doing? Nice to meet you. Anton: Is tryout. Is tryout. Kate: My God… Doug: What, my hand? Kate: Well, what do you do, soak them in battery acid? Doug: I know they’re a little rough but, you know, I’
Go On Your Own Quest, Week 9: 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 9: Prep. What are the key areas you focus on during the prep-writing phase? How many weeks do you spend prepping
Dispatches from The Quest: Time In Week 8, the Questers reflected on the Core content related to Time = Present. Brandon Cohen Jordan Earls Emma Millions Ben Odgren Rob Pilkington Scott Reynolds
Dispatches from The Quest: Theme In Week 7, the Questers reflected on the Core content related to Theme = Meaning. Brandon Cohen Jordan Earls Ben Odgren Rob Pilkington Scott Reynolds
Dispatches from The Quest: Scene In Week 6, the Questers reflected on the Core content related to Scene = Point. Brandon Cohen Jordan Earls Emma Millions Ben Odgren Rob Pilkington Scott Reynolds
Dispatches from The Quest: Dialogue In Week 5, the Questers reflected on the Core content related to Dialogue = Purpose. Brandon Cohen Jordan Earls Emma Millions Ben Odgren Rob Pilkington Scott Reynolds
Dispatches from The Quest: Style In Week 4, the Questers reflected on the Core content related to Style = Voice. Brandon Cohen Jordan Earls Emma Millions Ben Odgren Rob Pilkington Scott Reynolds
Dispatches from The Quest: Character In Week 3, the Questers reflected on the Core content related to Character = Function. Brandon Cohen Jordan Earls Emma Millions Ben Odgren Rob Pilkington Scott Reynolds
Dispatches From The Quest: Concept In Week 2, the Questers reflected on the Core content related to Concept = Hook. Emma Millions & Scott Reynolds Brandon Cohen & Jordan Earls Rob Pilkington & Ben Odgren
Dispatches from The Quest: Meet the Questers In Week 1, the Quest participants introduced themselves. Brandon Cohen Jordan Earls Emma Millions Ben Odgren Rob Pilkington Scott Reynolds
The Spirit of the Spec Creativity meets Productivity in the 5 stages of writing a spec script. I thought I should put this under Lists as a resource, a series of posts I did a little over a year ago about the ‘spirit of the spec.’ I intended it mostly for writers, but as this
Screenwriting News (September 10–16, 2012) Mara Brock Akil writing “Abandonment Issues” for Paramount. Simon Barrett rewriting “Dead Spy Running” for Warner Bros. Robert Connolly writing and directing drama thriller “The Shipkiller” for Valhalla. F. Scott Frazier lands OWA adapting science fiction novel “Metro 2033” for MGM David Guggenheim sells action thriller spec script “Black Box”
Daily Dialogue — September 16, 2012 ZAVITZ is on his computer, watching his conservation video. He overhears a news report and finds footage of something interesting. ZAVITZ: Fuck a duck. Holy shit! ZAVITZ picks up his phone and dials a number. The camera cuts between ZAVITZ and BLOOM. BLOOM: News desk! ZAVITZ: Lenny, you are not
Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Meet-Cute After a week’s worth of phone call revelations [courtesy of a suggestion by Debbie Moon], next week the theme is Meet-Cute, recommended by robfrappier. Per Wikipedia: A meet-cute is a situation in which a future romantic couple meets for the first time in a way that is
Whither Geoff Boucher and the “Hero Complex”? Way back on September 5, 2008, I posted this: “The Superman problem: Can he still fly in the 21st century?”. It was the first time I had stumbled across a new blog at the Los Angeles Times called “Hero Complex,” hosted by Geoff Boucher. Over the years, I posted numerous
Dispatch from The Quest: Scott Reynolds Last week as we did here on GITS, the Quest writers focused on the subject of Time. Today’s dispatch: Scott Reynolds ponders the connection between screenplay time and… carrot cakes: I feel like I just wrote about time. And the Rolling Stones, for some reason. But this week in
Movie: “The Trouble With The Truth” I’ve become aware of a new movie I wanted to share with the GITS community: The Trouble With The Truth, written and directed by Jim Hemphill. Here is the trailer: The plot summary: Musician and starving artist Robert reconsiders his own failed marriage to Emily after his daughter announces
