Do you start scripts, but not finish them? Four questions for you: * Are you prone to starting scripts, but not finishing them? * Do you get lost when you are writing your script, then lose faith in it — and yourself? * Have you received feedback that your scripts have thin characters or weak plots? * Do you have a great concept
2014 Spec Script Deals: Analysis Analysis of all the spec script deals in 2014. Spec Script Deal List Genres Buyers Agents & Managers Top Sales First-Timers I have been keeping tabs of the spec script market since I launched the blog in 2008 and following it since I sold a spec script to break
Interview (Part 1): Eric Koenig First-timers. Tyro scribes. There are several ways Hollywood development people refer to writers who break into the business via a spec script, but the one writers want to have hung on us is this: Fresh Voice. One such writer is Eric Koenig. Matriarch — Eric Koenig (Paramount) — 11/12/14
Script Analysis: “Whiplash” — Part 1: Scene By Scene Breakdown Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major Plot Points Wednesday: Sequences Thursday: Psychological Journey Friday: Takeaways Today: Scene-By-
Movie Trailer: “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” Screenplay by Guy Ritchie & Lionel Wigram, story by Jeff Kleeman & David C. Wilson and Guy Ritchie & Lionel Wigram, TV characters created by Sam Rolfe In the early 1960s, CIA agent Napoleon Solo and KGB operative Illya Kuryakin participate in a joint mission against a mysterious criminal organization,
2015 Dialogue-Writing Challenge: Day 16 As noted in this post last month: What if in February, we put the spotlight on writing dialogue? A Dialogue-Writing Challenge! Here’s my idea: We crowdsource a bunch of dialogue-writing prompts. From that, we choose the 20 best ones. Then next month, Monday through Friday, much like
2015 Dialogue-Writing Challenge: Week 3 Here are all of Week 3’s prompts for this year’s Dialogue-Writing Challenge for which you can win one of my Craft classes — for free. Day 11 challenge: An argument with an inanimate object. Day 12 challenge: After receiving disturbing personal news, a character has to deal with
Daily Dialogue — February 23, 2015 “I don’t like it when people come up to me after my plays and say, ‘I really dug your message, man.’ Or, ‘I really dug your play, man, I cried.’ You know. I like it when people come up to me the next day, or a week later, and
2015 Academy Award companion! Some articles, trivia and background on the Academy Awards. All of the 2015 Academy Awards nominees. Who’s performing and who’s presenting [video]. 6 things you may not know about the Oscar’s envelope [video]. 15 award-winning facts about the Oscars [video]. How does a movie qualify for
Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis: Whiplash Starting tomorrow (Monday), we begin our next installment of the Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis series: Whiplash, nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Adapted Screenplay. You may download the script here: Whiplash. The schedule for the week’s discussion: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major
Interview: Kelly Marcel With the enormous opening weekend box office success of Fifty Shades of Grey, I thought it would be a good idea to reprise my December 2013 interview with that movie’s screenwriter Kelly Marcel. London-based writer Kelly Marcel wrote the 2011 Black List screenplay Saving Mr. Banks which was
Screenwriting News (February 16-February 22, 2015) Steve Conrad sells untitled driverless car pitch to Sony Pictures. Alexander Dinelaris Jr. writing sports drama “The Year of the Monarchs” for Mandalay Sports Media. Michael Finch and Alex Litvak set up “Medieval” at Sony Pictures, formerly at New Regency. Robert Ben Garant untitled family horror project with Blumhouse Productions.
Spec Script Deals Analysis 2014: First-Timers As we continue our analysis of spec script sales in 2014, today we check out the first-timers, writers who broke into the business via a spec script. Darkness — Francis Jay and C.B. Liffer (FlickBag and Turtle Bag Productions) — 1/9/14 When a woman with night blindness is
Academy Award Screenwriter Interview Special! From the always great resource DP/30: The Oral History of Hollywood, interviews with four of the screenwriters nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay: Interviews with some of the screenwriters nominated for Best Original Screenplay: Without writers, we have no stories. Without stories, we have no movies.
Daily Dialogue — February 22, 2015 Andy Dufresne: I just don’t understand what happened in there. Heywood: Old man’s crazy as a rat in a tin shithouse, is what. Red: Oh Heywood, that’s enough out of you! Ernie: I heard he had you shittin’ in your pants! Heywood: Fuck you! Red: Would you
Update: Award season screenplay downloads (2 new scripts!) It’s that time of year again when studios make available PDFs of movie scripts for award season. As in years past, we will be tracking them and posting links as they become available. If you want to get these scripts first, come here. No one posts them faster than
Download 2015 Academy Award nominated screenplays! Here’s your chance to download screenplays for movies nominated for the 2015 Academy Awards. Best of all, since these scripts have been made available by the studios and production companies as part of their For Your Consideration campaigns, they are both free and legal. To download PDFs, click on
Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Birthday The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Birthday. The usual drill: * Copy/paste dialogue from IMDb Quotes or some other transcript source. * Copy/paste the URL of an accompanying video from YouTube or some other video source. I’d also ask you to think about why the dialogue is notable.
Interview (Part 6): Kelly Marcel With the enormous opening weekend box office success of Fifty Shades of Grey, I thought it would be a good idea to reprise my December 2013 interview with that movie’s screenwriter Kelly Marcel. London-based writer Kelly Marcel wrote the 2011 Black List screenplay Saving Mr. Banks which was
Saturday Hot Links Time for the 174th installment of Saturday Hot Links. Today: The Academy Awards Kickin’ It Old School Edition. The entire list of 2015 WGA Award winners. Related: All of the video clips from the WGA Awards ceremony. SNL’s 40th anniversary: Watch the top 10 best clips [video]. Related: SNL
Great Scene: “The Breakfast Club” The classic John Hughes teen comedy The Breakfast Club was released 30 years ago this week. That’s right… you’re officially old! In honor of the movie, here is one of its many great scenes in which Bender attempts an escape, fails, and the others cover for the “ruckus”
Feature: Josh Cagan (“The DUFF”) A feature from the Hartford Courant on screenwriter Josh Cagan who wrote the screenplay adapation of The DUFF, based on a novel written by then 18 year-old Kody Keplinger. Excerpts: “Bianca [the story’s Protagonist] has a great voice. Bianca’s voice is Kody’s voice. She is this
Daily Dialogue — February 21, 2015 “You’re not taking me to the sanitarium! You’re not taking me to the sanitarium!” — Midnight Express (1978), screenplay by Oliver Stone, book by William Hayes and William Hoffer The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Prison. Trivia: Oliver Stone was a new, largely untested screenwriter at the time
Declare Your Independents — Vol. 50 GITS development assistant Wendy Cohen here, and welcome back to Declare Your Independents, our new series highlighting the latest developments in the world of independent film! This week… 50 Great Movies That Were Nominated For Zero Oscars This Romantic Short Film was Shot Entirely on an iPhone 6 Why ‘Boyhood’
