Daily Dialogue — January 18, 2012 Joe: What are you doing here, you’re supposed to be at Elton Johns. Billy: Well I was there for a minute or two, but then I had an epiphany Joe: Really? Come on, come up. So what was it all about Billy: It was about Christmas. Joe: You realized
BAFTA Nominations 2012 screenplay noms from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THE ARTIST Michel Hazanavicius BRIDESMAIDS | Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig THE GUARD | John Michael McDonagh THE IRON LADY | Abi Morgan MIDNIGHT IN PARIS | Woody Allen ADAPTED SCREENPLAY THE DESCENDANTS | Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash THE HELP
Reader Question: If my characters are taking over my first draft, should I rewrite Act One or keep going? From Michael M: Scott, I have a question about getting out the 1st draft and hope you can enlighten me. What do you do when you’re writing a 1st draft and the characters begin to take over — but in the process of taking over they also force you to
Download scripts of 2012 award contenders Great site with — apparently — a bunch of links for legal script downloads for this year’s award contenders: From Anonymous to Win Win. Go here. Remember: Read Scripts. Watch Movies. Write Pages. Comment Archive
Story Talismans I have written before about the value of story talismans — physical objects that take on an emotional meaning — as I did here analyzing the importance of the shilling in The King’s Speech. Story talismans are doubly valuable to a writer because they communicate something to the script reader in
Film School: To go or not to go? I’d say about once a week, I get asked about the value (or not) of films schools. Since I didn’t attend one, it puts me in an awkward position. So I thought I’d ask the GITS community to weigh in on the subject, especially those of you
The Katzenberg Memo, Part 7 In January 1991, Jeffrey Katzenberg, then the head of Disney’s motion picture divisions, wrote a memo that ended up being circulated throughout Hollywood. Even though it is 21 years old, it is remarkably relevant to the current movie business. For example, the United States was in a recession as
Screenwriting 101: Guinevere Turner “Everyone’s like, ‘Oh, you have a cushy life — you just sit around and write.’ I’m like, ‘No, it’s actually really hard.’ As I like to say, I wish my job was being a bricklayer — because I would lay the bricks, the wall would be built, and that
Daily Dialogue — January 17, 2012 Arthur chops the BLACK KNIGHT’s right arm off ARTHUR: Victory is mine! [kneeling] We thank thee Lord, that in thy merc — The Black Knight assaults Arthur. BLACK KNIGHT: Come on then. ARTHUR: What? BLACK KNIGHT: Have at you! ARTHUR: You are indeed brave, Sir knight, but the fight is
Dialogue: Finding your character’s voice In a movie, a character conveys their inner life in two ways: action and dialogue. As such, dialogue is critically important to the success of your screenplay. This 2-week online Core class teaches you key principles and practices for writing strong dialogue. You will learn ways to dig into
“Perfectly Happy, Even Without Happy Endings” [cont’d] Yesterday I posted this about film producer Lindsay Doran who has been working with the theories of Dr. Martin Seligman, a “catalyst of the positive-psychology movement” and his five essential elements of well-being: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment. Let me follow up with another aspect of
Writing Question: How do you know when it’s time to move on? Over the weekend, I posted the 8,000th on GITS. Crazy, right? Anyhow that caused me to browse through some of them and I found quite a few really intriguing ones which I thought might be worth revisiting. Here’s a provocative topic originally posted July 16, 2009: From the
The Katzenberg Memo [Part 6] In January 1991, Jeffrey Katzenberg, then the head of Disney’s motion picture divisions, wrote a memo that ended up being circulated throughout Hollywood. Even though it is 21 years old, it is remarkably relevant to the current movie business. For example, the United States was in a recession as
On Writing “Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Proceed with confidence, generating it, if necessary, by pure willpower. Writing is an act of ego and you might as well admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going.” — William Zinsser, excerpted from “Advice to Writers”
Daily Dialogue — January 16, 2012 REPORTER: Mr Ness! Any comment for the record? ‘The man who put Al Capone on the spot.’ NESS: I just happened to be there when the wheel went round. REPORTER: They say they’re going to repeal prohibition. What will you do then? NESS: I think I’ll have a
“Perfectly Happy, Even Without Happy Endings” Several people sent me a link to this NYT article and for good reason: It has some ideas screenwriters should definitely contemplate becoming part of their creative process. Excerpt: Ms. Doran is in the movie business, and her résumé runs from production executive on “This Is Spinal Tap” and “Ferris
“John Carter”: Disney’s $250M gamble For those of you who have been reading the Katzenberg memo posts — Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5 — it’s frankly shocking that of all the studios to bankroll a rumored $250M movie like John Carter it would be Disney. For those who haven’t
Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Celebrating victory! We had some great suggestions and as a result have the next three weeks lined up: 1/16–22: Celebrating victory [Franklin Leonard]. 1/23–1/29: Flashbacks [Alexander Gorelik]. 1/30–2/5: Break-ups [Teddy Pasternak]. So this week, it’s celebrating victory. http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.
Raymond Chandler’s letter to Alfred Hitchcock Another great post from the site Letters of Note, this one to Alfred Hitchcock from Raymond Chandler: Back in 1950, Alfred Hitchcock hired Oscar-nominated screenwriter Raymond Chandler to pen the script for his next project, Strangers on a Train — a thriller based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel of the
Daily Dialogue — January 15, 2012 TEDDY You must be kicking yourself for not walking out when you could. Bad judgment. But… don’t you worry, son. It will all be over soon. MIKE Okay… Check. TEDDY No check here. I tap you. MIKE I’m laying this down, Teddy. Top two pair. It’s a
Daily Dialogue theme for next week? We’ve had a week of card games, thanks to a suggestion by David Proenza. Now’s your chance to designate our DDT for next week. What would be a good theme for 7 days? Something that could help us in our ability to write dialogue? An interesting theme with
What lies ahead for Hollywood movies overseas in 2012? From THR: The year ahead will be a crucial test for the foreign box office, perhaps the last (and vast) growth area left for Hollywood. Observers worry about the brewing economic crisis in Europe as well as the impact of the European Football Championship (June 8 to July 1) and
Quentin Tarantino’s 2011 favorites As he’s done for the last several years, Quentin Tarantino goes public with his favorite films for 2011. Favorite 11 movies 1. Midnight In Paris 2. Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes 3. Moneyball 4. The Skin I Live In 5. X-Men: First Class 6. Young Adult
Spec Script Sale: “Coffee Town” CollegeHumor Media will finance and produce workplace comedy “Coffee Town” as its first theatrical release. Written and to be directed by Brad Copeland. Per THR: “Coffee Town” focuses on Will, played by [Glenn] Howerton [It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia], and his two thirty-something friends who band together when
Saturday Hot Links Back for another installment of Saturday Hot Links! Today: The Crazy Ending Of Football Games Edition! We begin with a high school game in Kentucky: Speaking of football, there are four movie studios who have plunked down millions to buy ad time in the Super Bowl. Can you guess which
