Scott Myers

Reader Question: What information should I include on my script title page?

Despite what you may have read or heard about some sort of ‘rule’ regarding title page format, there are all sorts of variations. Using the over 100 scripts available on the blog, download and check out these examples: Title and Name only: Hanna, Spring Breakers Title, Name, Date: Night Crawler,

Interview (Part 3): TJ Cimfel and David White (“Shut In”)

The horror movie Shut In has its world premiere this week at the Los Angeles Film Festival, screening on June 12 and June 17. Recently I had the opportunity to interview the film’s screenwriters TJ Cimfel and David White. It was a terrific conversation which I will be featuring

Movie Analysis: “Mad Max: Fury Road” — Characters

This week we launch a new bi-weekly series in which we will be analyzing 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

2015 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 8

For the third straight year, June is Scene-Writing Month here at Go Into The Story. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a scene-writing prompt. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. Upload your scene here in the comments section

Screenplays are stories, not formulas

William Goldman has famously written, “Screenplays are structure.” That is true in a tangible sense because at some point, a script becomes a blueprint for the production of a movie. And in a very real way, everything hangs on the structure of the narrative — how one scene flows to the

Daily Dialogue — June 10, 2015

“Watching John with the machine, it was suddenly so clear. The Terminator would never stop, it would never leave him, and it would never hurt him, never shout at him or get drunk and hit him, or say it was too busy to spend time with him. It would always

Reader Question: Is it worth submitting a first draft into a competition?

Reader Question from Twitter: Is it worth submitting a first draft into a competition? Short answer: No. Unless God Him/Her/Itself has reached down from on high and anointed your first draft words with final draft quality. Unless you prefer to live on Planet Delusion where somehow your first

Interview (Part 2): TJ Cimfel and David White (“Shut In”)

The horror movie Shut In has its world premiere this week at the Los Angeles Film Festival, screening on June 12 and June 17. Recently I had the opportunity to interview the film’s screenwriters TJ Cimfel and David White. It was a terrific conversation which I will be featuring

Movie Analysis: “Mad Max: Fury Road” — Plot

This week we launch a new bi-weekly series in which we will be analyzing 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

2015 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 7

For the third straight year, June is Scene-Writing Month here at Go Into The Story. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a scene-writing prompt. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. Upload your scene here in the comments section

Screenwriting 101: Roy Huggins

“A screenplay is a series of interesting scenes. Too often scenes are boring in order to head to an unusual ending. This defeats the purpose of what the writer is trying to to — keep the audience’s attention. The writer should work the story through, scene by scene, never jumping

Daily Dialogue — June 9, 2015

Robert McKee: [Audience applause] OK, thank-you, thank-you. We have a long three days ahead. Years from now you’ll be standing around in a posh cocktail party congratulating yourself on how you spent an entire weekend locked in a room with an asshole from Hollywood for your art.

Knock out that first draft!

As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one rule about a first draft and it’s this: “Get the damn thing done!” Easy to say. Hard to do. That’s why I created the Pages I: The First Draft writing workshop, a structured online environment — 10 weeks, 10

Interview (Part 1): TJ Cimfel and David White (“Shut In”)

The horror movie Shut In has its world premiere this week at the Los Angeles Film Festival, screening on June 12 and June 17. Recently I had the opportunity to interview the film’s screenwriters TJ Cimfel and David White. It was a terrific conversation which I will be featuring

Go Into The Story Movie Analysis Series

A series in which we break down and analyze movies currently playing in theaters or older favorites. Back to the Future [Adventure / Comedy] General Comments Plot Characters Themes Takeaways Entire Series Big Short, The [Drama / Comedy] General Comments Plot Characters Themes Dialogue Entire Series Casablanca [Drama] General Comments Plot Characters

Movie Analysis: “Mad Max: Fury Road”

Today we launch a new bi-weekly series in which we will be analyzing 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

2015 Scene-Writing Challenge: Day 6

For the third straight year, June is Scene-Writing Month here at Go Into The Story. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a scene-writing prompt. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. Upload your scene here in the comments section

On Writing

“I suppose half of writing is overcoming the revulsion you feel when you sit down to it.” — Flannery O’Connor

Daily Dialogue — June 8, 2015

Opening VO HICCUP: This…is Berk. It’s twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It’s located solidly on the meridian of misery. My village. In a word: sturdy. It’s been here for seven generations but every single building is new.

Go Into The Story Week In Review: June 1-June 7, 2015

Links to this week’s most notable posts: 2015 Scene-Writing Challenge: Days 1–5 Black List Live!: “The Shower” starring Chelsea Peretti, Gillian Jacobs and Kristen Schaal Classic 50s Movies: The Entire Series Congratulations to Wendy Jane Cohen! Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Voice-Over Narration Dispatch from

Dispatch from the Front Line: Eric Moyer

Occasionally I feature creatives in a series called Dispatches from the Front Line, observations from writers and filmmakers on the front edge of their careers. Today’s guest post comes from Eric Moyer who has done something pretty unique: How did I get here? Did you ever ask yourself that

Screenwriting News (June 1-June 7, 2015)

Michael Bronner adapting memoir “Guantanamo Diary” for Zero Gravity. Roger Christian writing-directing adaptation of his 1980 short film “Black Angel” for Carnaby International. Dean Georgaris rewriting adaptation of novel “Meg” for Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema. Medeni Griffiths and Julia Wehlan rewriting “The Oxford” for Screen Gems.

Twitter Recommendation: @goodonthepage

Screenwriter Mike Sweeney (@Courier12) has created a must-follow Twitter account: @goodonthepage. I started following it immediately upon seeing it pop up on my feed. I asked Mike to provide background on it: I was talking with some other writers on Twitter about how there are many websites and/or

Interview (Video): James L. Brooks

A 90 minute interview with James L. Brooks. He’s had a prolific writing and directing career, both in TV — “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (1970–1977), “Rhoda” (1974–1975), “Taxi” (1978–1980), and “Lou Grant” (1977–1982), all of which Brooks co-created — and movies including Terms of Endearment

Daily Dialogue — June 7, 2015

Mitchell Stephens: Well, enough rage and helplessness and your love turns to something else. Alison: What… does it turn to? Mitchell Stephens: It turns to steaming piss. — The Sweet Hereafter (1997), screenplay by Atom Egoyan, novel by Russell Banks The Daily Daily dialogue theme for the week: Grief. Trivia: Author