Written Interview: Shane Salerno This week I had the pleasure of chatting with screenwriter-director Shane Salerno. Turns out he’s a GITS fan. We talked about the documentary Salinger that Shane has spent 5 years making. I posted on it here back in January when Deadline Hollywood broke the news of the doc’
Daily Dialogue — April 3, 2010 “After that it got pretty late, and we both had to go, but it was great seeing Annie again. I… I realized what a terrific person she was, and… and how much fun it was just knowing her; and I… I, I thought of that old joke, y’know, the,
“A new paradigm for indie films?” IndieWire.com has been working through the issue of digital distribution / marketing / finance per indie films pretty much since the collapse of the studios’ specialty divisions. In this article, they focus on an indie film that is opening today: Breaking Upwards: New York, NY, March 29, 2009 — A few hundred
Rob’s Finds Rob is back with plenty of lists this week. First there’s “100 Best Movie Soundtracks”. Here are a few: The Empire Strikes Back John Williams, 1980 For the first Star Wars sequel, the Wagnerian bombast of Williams’s music for the original was supplemented by melancholy romantic motifs and
Ira Glass on storytelling: Part 4 Here is Ira Glass (“This American Life”) talking about storytelling. Today Part 4 (note: slightly distorted audio): Glass talks about a common pitfall for newbies: Trying to talk like people they see on TV or hear on the radio. “Of course, everything is going to be more compelling if you
A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 2 Another reason for you to be generating story ideas: The only way to find a great story idea is to work your way through a bunch of crap ideas. Ira Glass (“This American Life”), arguably one of the most knowledgeable people around today re storytelling, said this: “You have to
“20 Treacherous Movie Judases” Seeing as it’s Good Friday on the Christian calendar, here’s an interesting list from TotalFilm.com: 20 Treacherous Movie Judases. Here are five of them: Carter Burke in Aliens (1986) The Judas: Weyland-Yutani representative Carter Burke is all about being humanitarian. His work for the company has
Daily Dialogue — April 2, 2010 “Because he’s the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now. So we’ll hunt him because he can take it. Because he’s not our hero. He’s a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A dark knight.” — James Gordon (Gary Oldman), The Dark Knight (2008)
“Big Films Coming in 2010” I’m a little late in posting this, but Roger Ebert put together 25 ‘big’ films coming out in 2010 in Sun Times feature. They are: Iron Man 2 Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps The Rum Diary Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 Green Zone Inception Date
How to become a script reader As we’ve discussed before, script readers play a pivotal role in the script acquisition and development process. On the front end (acquisition), they act as surrogate ‘gatekeepers,’ their coverage often a big role in determining if a script goes immediately into the recycle bin or moves up the food
Ira Glass on storytelling: Part 3 Here is Ira Glass (“This American Life”) talking about storytelling. Today Part 3 (note: slightly distorted audio): Some quotes: “The thing I’d like to say to you with all my heart is that most everybody I know who does interesting creative work went through a phase of years where
A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 1 Why a story idea each day for the month of April? Several reasons which I’ll work my through during this series of posts. For today, the most basic one: If you have any aspirations of becoming a professional screenwriter, you must be in the habit of generating story concepts.
Scene Description Spotlight: “Chinatown” The screenplay for the 1974 movie Chinatown is considered one of the best scripts ever written. Its writer Robert Towne received an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the script ranks #3 on the WGA 101 List of top screenplays of all time. Whether you consider the movie film
Daily Dialogue — April 1, 2010 “Ernest Hemingway once wrote, ‘The world is a fine place, and worth fighting for.’ I agree with the second part.” — Detective Lt. William Somerset, Se7en (1995), written by Andrew Kevin Walker The Daily Dialogue theme this week is notable last lines, suggested by Martin, who also suggested Se7en. Comment Archive
Reader Question: Is any exposition scene a “crock of sh*t”? Responding to a 2005 David Mamet memo. A reader question via email from Lee Gabel: I have a question about exposition in regards to the David Mamet note. “ANY TIME ANY CHARACTER IS SAYING TO ANOTHER “AS YOU KNOW”, THAT IS, TELLING ANOTHER CHARACTER WHAT YOU, THE WRITER, NEED THE
“160 Greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes” Just uploaded 2 days ago: Still hard to beat “I’ll be back.” UPDATE: Just got an email from hh1edits, our friend in the UK who edited: “The Wire — 100 Greatest Quotes” The Wire — (Other) 100 Greatest Quotes” “Cinema’s Top Human Villains Turns out hh1edits is the person behind
R.I.P.: David Mills (1961–2010) This is tragic: An HBO spokesman says David Mills, a veteran television writer who worked on “ER” and “The Wire,” has died in New Orleans. HBO spokesman Diego Aldana says Mills died Tuesday night but didn’t know the cause of death. Mills also wrote for “The Corner” and “Homicide:
Ira Glass on storytelling: Part 2 Here is Ira Glass (“This American Life”) talking about storytelling. Today Part 2 (note: slightly distorted audio): Some choice quotes: “You have to set aside just as much time looking for stories as you do producing them.” Screenwriting takeaway: The time you spend generating story concepts is equally as important
Screenwriting 101: Marshal Herskovitz “If I have a criticism of many screenwriters, it’s that they are too wedded to the words. When I say ‘the words,’ I mean the words the characters speak. [Speaking is] is the last thing that people do. They have the thought, they have the fear, they have another
Daily Dialogue — March 31, 2010 J.W. Grant: You bastard. Rico: Yes, Sir. In my case an accident of birth. But you, Sir, you’re a self-made man. — Henry ‘Rico’ Fardin (Lee Marvin) and Joe Grant (Ralph Bellamy), The Professionals (1966), written and directed by Richard Brooks, based on a novel by Frank O’
Reader Question: How to raise the stakes in the plot? One suggestion: Focus on and elevate the Protagonist’s psychological stakes. Question from Greg Colburn: Just got some feedback on two scripts (a horror actioner & a R-rated comedy) I submitted to Blue Cat… lots of positive feedback on concept, characters and plot, but I got gigged on both
Francis Ford Coppola video re “The Godfather” This is quite cool: Francis Ford Coppola showing off the actual journal he used to prep for “The Godfather”: Look how thick that journal is! Now that’s what I call prep-writing. Comment Archive
Wanted: Your writing advice Toward the end of the Guardian series we’ve been running “10 Rules for Writing Fiction,” jeff & posted this comment: Here’s what catches my eye. A lot of these writer’s rules revolve around not having a day job. More than a fair point. So I thought what
Ira Glass on storytelling: Part 1 Here is Ira Glass (“This American Life”) talking about storytelling. Today Part 1 (note: slightly distorted audio): Glass talks about two concepts key to telling a story: (1) Anecdote — by which he means the sequence of events. (2) Moment of revelation — where the story conveys what it means. Screenwriting takeaway:
Hollywood Tales “The pictures I made with [producer Jerry] Bruckheimer… are not the pinnacle of taste, but they’re well-crafted action pictures. And I think they’re a cut above a lot of the dogshit that is currently coming out of the studios.” — Jonathan Hensleigh (Die Hard with a Vengeance, Armageddon,
