It’s Joseph Campbell’s birthday on Saturday and to honor this great thinker, I am reprising a five part series I posted back in 2012 to take us deeper into The Hero’s Journey. This is the fourth in a series of posts I’ve been writing this week

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 23. March 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. March 30 31: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. For background on how the Zero Draft Challenge came into

Yesterday we looked at 2015 spec script deals by genre. Today we break down the numbers per major studios, mini-majors, subsidiaries, production companies, and financiers to see which were the most and least active in the script acquisition market. The totals: 6 Universal 4 20th Century Fox Relativity Media

It’s Joseph Campbell’s birthday on Saturday and to honor this great thinker, I am reprising a five part series I posted back in 2012 to take us deeper into The Hero’s Journey. On Monday, I wrote the first in a series of posts this week on Joseph

The WGA has an annual honor called The Paddy Chayefsky Laurel Award. And even though it’s for writers who work in TV, where Chayefsky ruled during its so-called “Golden Age,” there is no piece of writing that displays Chayefsky’s brilliance than this famous monologue in the movie

ELLIE: You can do it. Push! (Diego groans and seems to be going through birth labor.) Push! DIEGO: I…can’t…do…it… ELLIE: Just one more big push. DIEGO: You have no idea what I’m going through. A change of perspective shows Diego barely holding a pair of

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 22. March 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. March 30 31: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. For background on how the Zero Draft Challenge came into

By my count, Hwood studios, production companies, and financiers acquired 55 spec scripts in 2015. During this week, I’ll be breaking down those numbers. Today we look at deals by genre. Some scripts are categorized as cross genres or sub-genres, so those are noted where relevant under their

“Don’t write what they want, they don’t know what they want, just make it GOOD.” — Nora Ephron

Mary: [about the Virgin Mary] I know this is wrong, but do you ever wonder if she just made the whole thing up? I mean, it’s a pretty good one. It’s not like anyone can ever use virgin birth as an excuse again. [pause] I don’t really

Analysis of all the spec script deals in 2015. Spec Script Deal List Genres Buyers Agents & Managers Top Sales First Timers

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 21. March 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. March 30 31: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. For background on how the Zero Draft Challenge came into

Every year since I launched the blog in 2008, I do a week-long analysis of the recent year in terms of spec script deals. This week, we look back at 2015. First, my usual caveat: Tracking spec script deals is not an exact science. To make the blog’s

A great opportunity for screenwriters: ApplicationApply here. Deadline: May 3, 2016DatesJune 25–30, 2016 (invitation only) & January 13–18, 2017 (open application)Size of Lab12 projects each labLocationSundance Mountain Resort, UtahEligibilityUS & International Filmmakers; The Screenwriters Lab supports writers and writer/directors developing their first or second narrative feature

“Don’t let the critic become bigger than the creator. Don’t let it strangle you. Write something down. Do something. Go ahead. And stay there. Stay there four hours. Three hours, four hours. And good things will happen.” — Randy Newman

Jefferson “Jake” Edward Briggs: [narrating] My inability to impregnate Kristy was blamed on tight shorts, having something to do with my body temperature. Seemed rather flimsy to me. To go through the hell of a fertility check and discover that my preference in undergarments was to blame seemed as silly

Zero Draft Thirty: Day 20. March 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. March 30 31: Type FADE OUT / The End. 30 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. First draft. Rewrite. Whatever. I’m doing it. You’re invited. For background on how the Zero Draft Challenge came into