Scott Myers

Black List writers on the craft: Characters (5 Part Series)

Over the years, I have interviewed over 40 Black List screenwriters. This month, I will run a series featuring one topic per week related to the craft of writing. This week: How do you develop your characters? Black List writers on the craft: Characters (Part 1) — Real people Black List

Interview (Written): Donald Margulies

A WGA.org interview with Donald Margulies, screenwriter of The End of the Tour, starring Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg, directed by James Ponsoldt. The author David Foster Wallace was widely considered “one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years,” as the Los Angeles Times

Daily Dialogue — August 22, 2015

“To infinity and beyond.” — Toy Story (1995), screenplay by Joss Whedon and Andrew Stanton and Joel Cohen & Alec Sokolow, original story by John Lasseter and Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton and Joe Ranft The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Callback. Trivia: Jeffrey Katzenberg often gave notes that he

Farewell Friday: @MysteryExec

By now, most of you have probably heard the news: @MysteryExec is no more. Arguably the dean of the whole Mystery Hollywood thing, I enjoyed his Twitter feed since way back in 2011. Almost two years ago to the day, I posted this: @MysteryExec calls out screenwriters: I have no

Interview (Part 5): John Gary

There are several reasons I have wanted to interview John Gary for some time. First and foremost, he’s a talented screenwriter. Second, he has a unique vantage point about the craft as it exists in today’s Hollywood. John has been outside the system, worked inside it, achieved some

Movie Analysis: “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” — Takeaways

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

Black List writers on the craft: Characters (Part 5)

Over the years, I have interviewed over 40 Black List screenwriters. This month, I will run a series featuring one topic per week related to the craft of writing. This week: How do you develop your characters? Reading through all of the responses was a fascinating exercise. Once again, this

Great Character: Bree Daniels (“Klute”)

It’s perhaps the best performance in Jane Fonda’s acting career, one for which she won an Oscar for Best Actress: Bree Daniels in the 1971 mystery-thriller Klute. The IMDb plot summary: A small-town detective searching for a missing man has only one lead — a connection with

Daily Dialogue — August 21, 2015

“Want to know how I got these scars?” — The Dark Knight (2008), screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer, characters by Bob Kane The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Callback. Trivia: Unlike his counterpart in both the comics and Batman (1989)

Spec Script Deal: “Untitled Gary Deal” aka “Sarah”

Lionsgate announces it has acquired an untitled science fiction thriller spec script (aka “Sarah”) written by John Gary. From Deadline: Lionsgate’s Summit Entertaintment label just acquired an untitled spec script from screenwriter John Gary, described as a “grounded” sci-fi thriller which is a character-driven property in the

Interview (Part 4): John Gary

There are several reasons I have wanted to interview John Gary for some time. First and foremost, he’s a talented screenwriter. Second, he has a unique vantage point about the craft as it exists in today’s Hollywood. John has been outside the system, worked inside it, achieved some

Movie Analysis: “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” — 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

Black List writers on the craft: Characters (Part 4)

Over the years, I have interviewed over 40 Black List screenwriters. This month, I will run a series featuring one topic per week related to the craft of writing. This week: How do you develop your characters? Reading through all of the responses was a fascinating exercise. Once again, this

Writing and the Creative Life: The Curse of Shiny Object Syndrome

Ever had this happen? You discover a great story idea. You leap into it, both barrels of your creativity blazing. Research! Brainstorming! Characters! OMG, this is so incredible, a sure fire spec script sale in the making! One month later: You’re still into it, but the prep work has

Daily Dialogue — August 20, 2015

“I don’t know. It’s a mystery.” — Shakespeare in Love (1998), written by Marc Norman, Tom Stoppard The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Callback. Trivia: Writer Marc Norman got the idea for the film when his son Zachary called him from Boston University and suggested doing something on

Update: September — Classic 40s Movie Month

Update: Great response per usual from the GITS community. 15 people have already volunteered. Looks like we can go for a full month of posts. Let’s see if we can cover 15 more classic 40s movies! Every several months since 2013, we’ve had a Classic Movie Month in

Interview (Part 3): John Gary

There are several reasons I have wanted to interview John Gary for some time. First and foremost, he’s a talented screenwriter. Second, he has a unique vantage point about the craft as it exists in today’s Hollywood. John has been outside the system, worked inside it, achieved some

Movie Analysis: “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” — 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

Black List writers on the craft: Characters (Part 3)

Over the years, I have interviewed over 40 Black List screenwriters. This month, I will run a series featuring one topic per week related to the craft of writing. This week: How do you develop your characters? Reading through all of the responses was a fascinating exercise. Once again, this

Keys to Low-Budget Filmmaking

If you write a script that costs $100M or more to produce, there are basically six buyers who can afford to make that movie. If you a write a script that costs $5–20M to produce, there are over a hundred buyers who can afford to make that movie. It

Daily Dialogue — August 19, 2015

First, the set up: DELUISE: Ooh, ooh! You! You with the banjo. Can you help me? I have lost my sense of direction. KERMIT: Have you tried Hare Krishna? DELUISE: Ha, ha — no. And the payoff: FOZZIE: Wakka, wakka, wakka. Here I am, Fozzie Bear, to tell you jokes both

Interview (Part 2): John Gary

There are several reasons I have wanted to interview John Gary for some time. First and foremost, he’s a talented screenwriter. Second, he has a unique vantage point about the craft as it exists in today’s Hollywood. John has been outside the system, worked inside it, achieved some

Movie Analysis: “Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation” — 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: Frank Pierson

“Frank Daniel, who started AFI and was the head of Sundance, said a very interesting thing — we can have 10 or 15 very different advisors, people who do radically different kinds of pictures, but we all see the same problems in a script. He remarked that that insight is enormously

Daily Dialogue — August 18, 2015

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” — Star Wars: Episodes I-VI The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Callback. Trivia: The following characters “have a bad feeling about this”: Obi Wan (Episode I), Anakin (Episode II), Obi Wan (Episode III), Luke (Episode IV), Han (Episode IV), Leia (Episode