Scott Myers

The Black List Wants You to Host a Screenwriters Happy Hour in Your Town

Via No Film School: Since 2014, The Black List has hosted happy hours on the first Wednesday of every month at Melrose Umbrella Company in Los Angeles, where hundreds of screenwriters come, meet fellow writers, hang out, and talk shop over a few drinks. But we don’t all live

Re-Write-O-Rama: Day 14

Re-Write-O-Rama: Day 14. January 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. January 31: Type FADE OUT / The End. 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. Whatever. Goal: Rewrite an existing draft. I’m doing it with a Zero Draft I knocked out in November. You’re invited

The Toughest Scene I Wrote: “The Danish Girl”

Once again, Vulture does screenwriters a solid: Vulture is speaking to the screenwriters behind 2015’s most acclaimed movies about the scenes they found most difficult to crack. In an article about the movie The Danish Girl, screenwriter Lucinda Coxon discusses the challenge of revealing backstory about the married couple

Movie Analysis: “Creed” — Themes

Another in our bi-weekly series in which we analyze movies currently in release. Why? To quote the writing mantra I coined over 5 years ago: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. You will note which one comes first. Here are my reflections from that post about the importance of

2016 Academy Award Screenplay Nominations

Bridge of Spies, written by Matt Charman and Ethan Coen & Joel Coen Ex Machina, written by Alex Garland Inside Out, screenplay by Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Josh Cooley; Original story by Pete Docter, Ronnie del Carmen Spotlight, written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy Straight Outta Compton, screenplay by

Writing and the Creative Life: One key to creativity… naps?

I was doing my usual thing yesterday, working my way through a virtual pile of emails, organizing my daily To Do list, and generally being a productive busy bee when I saw this tweet from fellow screenwriter Arash Amel: Writing tip for the day: sometimes when you don’t feel

Daily Dialogue — January 14, 2016

“I know who you are. I know who you are. I know who you are. I know who you are.” — The Machinist (2004), written by Scott Kosar The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Surprise. Trivia: Brad Anderson and his screenwriter Scott Kosar were turned down by virtually every American

Reader Question: Are screenplay contests any good or not?

With literally hundreds of script competitions, this is an important question. Nicholas, I re-framed the question to get at what I suspect is the heart of your inquiry. I tend to have a pretty jaundiced view of most screenplay contests. In my view, there are really only a handful

Re-Write-O-Rama: Day 13

Re-Write-O-Rama: Day 13. January 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. January 31: Type FADE OUT / The End. 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. Whatever. Goal: Rewrite an existing draft. I’m doing it with a Zero Draft I knocked out in November. You’re invited

The Toughest Scene I Wrote: “Concussion”

Once again, Vulture does screenwriters a solid: Vulture is speaking to the screenwriters behind 2015’s most acclaimed movies about the scenes they found most difficult to crack. In an article about the movie Concussion, screenwriter Peter Landesman shares background on a key courtroom scene: Will Smith’s character, Dr.

Movie Analysis: “Creed” — Characters

Another in our bi-weekly series in which we analyze movies currently in release. Why? To quote the writing mantra I coined over 5 years ago: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. You will note which one comes first. Here are my reflections from that post about the importance of

Great Scene: “Dog Day Afternoon”

The stand-off. One of the most popular, recurring beats in cinematic history. And why not? There’s typically tension galore — guns waving, people screaming, threats being made. Perhaps the most memorable stand-off in recent movie history is this great scene from Dog Day Afternoon (1975). Written by award-

Daily Dialogue — January 13, 2016

SCARABUS: Do you want to come in? Well, I believe it does. Well, then, come on. (The raven flies into the room.) Who sent you to me? Are you some dark-winged messenger from beyond? Answer me, monster, tell me truly. Shall I ever hold again that radiant maiden whom

Show Bible: Constructing a Show’s “Gospel” in Two Pages

A guest post from Tom Benedek, screenwriter (Cocoon), teacher, and co-founder of Screenwriting Master Class: Building out the outline for a TV series means thinking in a few different dimensions. There is the pilot script itself as a stand alone — an enticing teaser, engaging main character, grounding in a

Re-Write-O-Rama: Day 12

Re-Write-O-Rama: Day 12. January 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. January 31: Type FADE OUT / The End. 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. Whatever. Goal: Rewrite an existing draft. I’m doing it with a Zero Draft I knocked out in November. You’re invited

The Toughest Scene I Wrote: “Sicario”

Once again, Vulture does screenwriters a solid: Vulture is speaking to the screenwriters behind 2015’s most acclaimed movies about the scenes they found most difficult to crack. In this article about the movie Sicario, screenwriter Taylor Sheridan explains the challenges inherent in a key sex scene, and how he

Movie Analysis: “Creed” — Plot

Another in our bi-weekly series in which we analyze movies currently in release. Why? To quote the writing mantra I coined over 5 years ago: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. You will note which one comes first. Here are my reflections from that post about the importance of

Screenwriting 101: Robert Towne

“A movie is really only four or five moments between two people; the rest of it exists to give those moments their impact and resonance. The script exists for that.” — Robert Towne HT to Pj Woodside Comment Archive

Daily Dialogue — January 12, 2016

JANET (now PAULA): C’mon, everybody, I want you to meet Mr. Big Stuff. I was showing Nikos property in Florida; he goes, if I’m going invest 16 million bucks, I wanna do it someplace new. I say, like where? He goes, how about Australia? And then it hits

Brie Larson on the importance of stories

One of the better moments in last night’s Golden Globe Awards was when Brie Larson won Best Actress for her role in the movie Room. I’ve been a fan since her work in Short Term 12 and in reading up on Larson, it’s clear she has a

Re-Write-O-Rama: Day 11

Re-Write-O-Rama: Day 11. January 1: Type FADE IN / The Beginning. January 31: Type FADE OUT / The End. 31 days. 1 script. Movie script. TV script. Whatever. Goal: Rewrite an existing draft. I’m doing it with a Zero Draft I knocked out in November. You’re invited

The Toughest Scene I Wrote: “Spotlight”

Once again, Vulture does screenwriters a solid: Vulture is speaking to the screenwriters behind 2015’s most acclaimed movies about the scenes they found most difficult to crack. In the article, co-writer Josh Singer talks about the challenge of writing a scene which introduces a key character: Before the

Movie Analysis: “Creed”

Another in our bi-weekly series in which we analyze movies currently in release. Why? To quote the writing mantra I coined over 5 years ago: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. You will note which one comes first. Here are my reflections from that post about the importance of

On Writing

“Every single day, I get emails from aspiring writers asking my advice about how to become a writer, and here is the only advice I can give: Don’t make stuff because you want to make money — it will never make you enough money. And don’t make stuff because

Daily Dialogue — January 11, 2016

DRUNK: Hey, where you going, Big Nose? CD: (Pauses, turns) Pardon me? DRUNK: You heard me…Big Nose. CD: That it? DRUNK: Yeah. CD: Well, you really got me on that one, didn’t ya? (Starts to walk away) Oh, wait a second. What a waste of an opportunity. DRUNK: