Scott Myers

Update: Aspiring screenwriter suing CAA and WME

You probably remember this: Justin Samuels is suing Creative Artists Agency and William Morris Endeavor — two of Hollywood’s top talent agencies — for eight million dollars. The scribe says that he has been unable to obtain professional screenwriting work because of those agencies’ racially and sexually discriminatory practices. “Their extremely

Rod Serling: Would you inject your philosophy into a piece of work?

GITS reader David A sent me a link to an amazing set of videos, a sit-down conversation with TV and screenwriter Rod Serling. Most well-known for the long-running TV anthology series “The Twilight Zone” (148 episodes, 1959–1964), has over 70 writing credits including the screenplays for

Great Characters: Damiel (“Wings of Desire”)

I still remember the night I first saw Wings of Desire (written and directed by Wim Wenders). I was in Berkeley, California for a weekend getaway with my wife, summer of 1988. We were both so blown away by the film, we stayed up for hours talking about it and

Reader Question: What to do when you feel out of touch with your creative energy?

A question from Julian Edmund: Scott, I’ve been reading your blog. I’ve been feeling out of touch with my creative energy as of late. Tell me, does this happen to you at all? And how do you get through it? Julian, that is a great question and I’

GITS Weekly Script Analysis: Thriller

Here is a list of thriller scripts. I haven’t checked all of them as to their availability on myPDFscripts, but if they can be downloaded there, feel free to vote for the script of your choice for the GITS Weekly Script Analysis for the week of September 26-October

Rod Serling: “The Silence”

GITS reader David A sent me a link to an amazing set of videos, a sit-down conversation with TV and screenwriter Rod Serling. Most well-known for the long-running TV anthology series “The Twilight Zone” (148 episodes, 1959–1964), has over 70 writing credits including the screenplays for

The Business of Screenwriting: They will pigeonhole you (and why this can be a good thing)

The co-star of K-9 was a dog named Jerry Lee. A few years later, I landed an assignment in which the key characters were superhero mutant frogs. Not long after that, another assignment in which the hero was a pig. That’s right: Dogs. Frogs. Hogs. This did

Screenwriting Master Class: “Prep: Character Development”

Both Tom Benedek and I are fervent believers in the value of prep-writing. The time you spend digging into and developing your story before you type FADE IN is critical to the potential success of your scripted project. In our experience, most of the scripts we read that fall

Reader Question: Now that I’ve written it, how do I go about selling it?

A question from Peter: Looking for some information on spec submission methods for these different scenarios. Producer friend who is connected (and related) to some big names (company is a different genre though)… Submissions to agencies (always under the impression larger agencies go though thousands of specs so chance getting

GITS Weekly Script Analysis: Drama

Here is a list of drama scripts. I haven’t checked all of them as to their availability on myPDFscripts, but if they can be downloaded there, feel free to vote for the script of your choice for the GITS Weekly Script Analysis for the week of September 19–25:

“A raunchy summer”: R-rated movies are gRRRRRReat!

We started out with this: There have been very few surprise hits in this year of modest box office and relentless sequels. Topping the short list is “Bridesmaids,” which has stormed its way to nearly $160 million in domestic receipts. While not nearly the same sort of phenomenon, “Bad Teacher”

Rod Serling: Does espousing a cause lose character credibility

GITS reader David A sent me a link to an amazing set of videos, a sit-down conversation with TV and screenwriter Rod Serling. Most well-known for the long-running TV anthology series “The Twilight Zone” (148 episodes, 1959–1964), has over 70 writing credits including the screenplays for

Script to Screen: “Zombieland”

The very beginning of the movie Zombieland (2009), screenplay by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. We begin with a SONG: WOODY GUTHRIE’S ‘THIS LAND IS YOUR’ LAND.’ CATCHY. PATRIOTIC. WARM. Recorded in mono, played on a scratchy old phonograph… The following is shot gritty. Kinetic. Fast. Scary. Very ’28

Reader Question: How to actually sit down and do it?

I received this question via email: Thanks for you blog- I have found many useful screenwriting goodies on there. However, I spend too much time reading about writing instead of writing. I find writing my screenplay so painful. Its like pulling teeth and I have to force myself to sit

GITS Weekly Script Analysis: Comedy

Here is a list of comedy scripts. I haven’t checked all of them as to their availability on myPDFscripts, but if they can be downloaded there, feel free to vote for the script of your choice for the GITS Weekly Script Analysis for the week of September 12–18:

Rod Serling: Writing to please an audience

GITS reader David A sent me a link to an amazing set of videos, a sit-down conversation with TV and screenwriter Rod Serling. Most well-known for the long-running TV anthology series “The Twilight Zone” (148 episodes, 1959–1964), has over 70 writing credits including the screenplays for

Screenwriting 101: Robert Towne

“In rewriting what you have to be able to do is read a piece of material, say what’s wrong with it, know how to say what’s right with it, and then be able to do it yourself. That’s really what it comes down to. Some people say

Daily Dialogue — August 16, 2011

“Some people aren’t that lucky… like the one Brando played in “On the Waterfront,” a down-and-outer. Remember the scene in the car with his brother Charlie? It went like this. It wasn’t him, Charlie. It was you. Remember that night you said,”Kid, this ain’t

Reader Question: Do I continue with a 5th draft or start writing a new script?

Open forum question from Jerry: First time question asker, long time blog reader; What is your approach for rewriting scripts? Do you go from draft to draft immediately or do you take time between each draft? I ask because I’m in the middle of a 5th draft, but I

GITS Weekly Script Analysis: Action

Here is a list of action scripts. I haven’t checked all of them as to their availability on myPDFscripts, but if they can be downloaded there, feel free to vote for the script of your choice for our inaugural GITS Weekly Script Analysis for the week of September 5–

Thinking like a producer

Following up on the previous post re The Help, as I’ve noted before, studios think in terms of genres, story concepts, and target demos, which means they reduce your stories to that. Does it ever occur to you to think of your story in those terms? When you sort

Update: “The Help”

Following up on this post yesterday — “The Help”: Box Office Hit — in which we took a first crack at understanding how this ‘small’ ($25M production budget), period piece adult drama did so well its first week out ($35M B.O.), here is some helpful information via Vulture: The Apes real

Rod Serling: Where do ideas come from?

GITS reader David A sent me a link to an amazing set of videos, a sit-down conversation with TV and screenwriter Rod Serling. Most well-known for the long-running TV anthology series “The Twilight Zone” (148 episodes, 1959–1964), has over 70 writing credits including the screenplays for

On Writing

“I never had any doubts about my abilities. I knew I could write. I just had to figure out how to eat while doing this.”  — Cormac McCarthy HT to @Quotes4Writers

Dialogue theme for next week: Movie references!

Let’s go with dialogue referencing other movies, suggested by Todd Wallinger. You know the drill. To qualify for Groovy Status: * Please copy/paste dialogue from IMDB Quotes. * Please copy/paste URL for accompanying video clip from MovieClips or YouTube. It’s a week worth of movie dialogue referencing other