Great Scene: “Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back” Luke confronts a phantasm of Darth Vader… and his own Shadow.
Screenwriting 101: John Logan “Every morning, I get up and write great scenes for actors which is my only goal. My goal is not to explore great themes. My goal is not to…
Go Into The Story Interview: T.J. Newman My exclusive in-depth conversation with the author of her debut novel Falling. The book sold to Simon and Schuster in a seven-figure two…
Werner Herzog calls three-act structure “brainless.” Is it? The famous writer-director is teaching an online filmmaking class and his comments about three-act structure are noteworthy.
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek” Wisdom on creativity from Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung.
On Writing “I think ‘writer’s block’ is a natural part of the creative process for almost all writers. There are times when one is bursting with ideas…
Sundays with Stephen King’s “On Writing” A series featuring reflections on writing from the famed author’s memoir.
The Theology of Cinema: Baptism Plunged beneath the water as the trial. Rising up reborn as a New Person.
Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis: “The White Tiger” The entire 6-part series on the acclaimed Oscar-nominated movie screenplay.
A spec script will not sell unless it has a strong story concept If you write a spec script based upon the first story idea that comes into your mind, that script likely won’t sell.
Script Analysis: “The White Tiger” — Part 6: Takeaways A week-long analysis of this Oscar-nominated screenplay. Download. Read. Discuss.
Scene Description Spotlight: “Some Like It Hot” Many older screenplays from the 40s and 50s are written in a style that makes them hard to read — loaded with directing notes, lots of…
Spec Script Deal: “The Tradition” Netflix acquires romantic comedy spec script “The Tradition” written by Nico Godinez Miller and Grant Mellon. Via Deadline:
I want to focus on the story's central theme (trapped) and several sides of dialogue which refer to… The greatest thing to come out of this country in its 10,000-year history... the rooster coop. They can see and smell the blood. They know…
In my view, the central theme of the movie is this: Trapped. The relationship he willingly enters into with Ashok is one of master-servant. This lifts him out of one trap (poverty) into another trap…
Story Type: Buddy Picture In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and…
Screenwriting “Hats” Sometimes when a writer is writing a screenplay, we have to wear other “hats”: Director, Actor, Editor, Producer.
Script Analysis: “The White Tiger” — Part 5: Dialogue A week-long analysis of this Oscar-nominated screenplay. Download. Read. Discuss.
Writing and the Creative Life: Is the key to creativity “unlearning”? What if everything we have learned in our lives has actually diminished our creativity?
Page One: “Mulan” (1998) Screenplay by Rita Hsiao & Chris Sanders & Philip LaZebnik & Raymond Singer & Eugenia Bostwick-Singer, based on a story by Robert D. San…
