Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Friendship The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Friendship. “I found out what the secret to life is — friends. Best friends.” Fried Green Tomatoes 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
Script Analysis: “Gravity” — Parts 1–5 This week, we analyzed the script for the movie Gravity. Here are links to the entire series: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major Plot Points Wednesday: Sequences Thursday: Psychological Journey Friday: Takeaways You may download the script for Gravity — free and legal — here. If you’d like a PDF
Saturday Hot Links Time for the 160th installment of Saturday Hot Links. Today: The Studio Ghibli Edition. Sad news: Hayao Miyazaki retires, Studio Ghibli to make no more movies. Disney Animation and Pixar chief John Lasseter honors Hayao Miyazaki at the 2014 Governors Awards [video]. What Interstellar gets right about fiction. Related: Contact
Great Scene: “Caddyshack” One weird golf course maintenance dude with one weirded out caddy. Carl Spackler: So I jump ship in Hong Kong and I make my way over to Tibet, and I get on as a looper at a course over in the Himalayas. Angie D’Annunzio: A looper? Carl Spackler: A
Interview [Written]: Max Frye and Dan Futterman (“Foxcatcher”) A WGA interview with Foxcatcher screenwriters Max Frye and Dan Futterman. Although they share writing credit, they did not write together, however as you will see in these comments below, their combined effort was very much in the spirit of teamwork. I know you two did not write together, but
Daily Dialogue — November 15, 2014 It’s 2:32am, and Mike decides to call Nikki, a girl he met just a few hours ago. Nikki’s machine picks up: Hi, this is Nikki. Leave a message. Mike: Hi, uh, Nikki, this is Mike. I met you at the, um, at the Dresden tonight. I just
“How Data Can Help You Write A Better Screenplay” The headline is a considerable stretch, however there are some good points in the article and what’s perhaps most important: The Black List made FiveThirtyEight.com. What makes a screenplay good? What makes it bad? Are writers in certain genres at an advantage or disadvantage when it comes to
Twitter Rant: Eric Heisserer on Rewriting Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Final Destination 5, The Thing, Hours, Story of Your Life) is probably the Hollywood screenwriter most willing to go online and provide a Twitter rant on a specific subject related to the craft. Last night was a good example as he tweeted extensively
Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis: Buried We’ve had a successful relaunch of the GITS Script Reading & Analysis series. I say relaunch because we have done this type of thing before. For the next month, I will be spotlighting previous movie scripts we have studied. Today: Buried (2010) Written by Chris Sparling IMDb plot summary:
Movie Trailer: “Into the Woods” Screenplay by James Lapine, musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine A witch conspires to teach important lessons to various characters of popular children’s stories including Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel. IMDb Release Date: 25 December 2014 (USA)
Script Analysis: “Gravity” — Part 5: Takeaways 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: Takeaways. This
Great Character: Bob Harris (“Lost in Translation”) The Great Character theme for the month: Bill Murray. Today: Bob Harris from Lost in Translation, written Sofia Coppola. Until Bill Murray took on the roll of the mid-life crisis actor Bob Harris in cutting-edge screenwriter/director Sofia Coppola’s Tokyo-based Lost in Translation, he had yet
Daily Dialogue — November 14, 2014 Pam Byrnes: I had no idea you could milk a cat! Greg Focker: Oh, you can milk just about anything with nipples. Jack Byrnes: [He reacts] I have nipples, Greg, could you milk me? — Meet the Parents (2000), screenplay by Jim Herzfeld and John Hamburg, story by Greg Glienna &
“In L.A., Unproduced Film Scripts Find New Life Onstage” Nice feature in the New York Times Magazine blog about Black List Live!, the staged reading initiative launched this year: For most films, the table read — an organized talk-through of the script — is a critical, if perilous, milestone. It can be a harrowing experience for everyone involved, as producers
Update: Award season screenplay downloads (NEW: How To Train Your Dragon 2) 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. Current total of 2014 scripts for download: 7. Newly added script in bold below: Get On
Interview: Darnell Hunt (Hollywood Diversity Report) — Part 4 One of the aspects about what the Black List does I resonate with most is the number of initiatives it sponsors to open doors for writers outside the Hollywood system. Initiatives like: Partnership with producer Cassian Elwes Partnership with producer Martin Katz I want to see a wider variety of
Spec Script Sale: “ARES” Paramount Pictures acquires action adventure science fiction spec script “ARES” written by Michael Starrbury. From THR: Plot details are being kept sealed shut, but the title is said to be in the vein of Indiana Jones and Men in Black in what the studio hopes will start a franchise. (ARES
Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis: Bridesmaids We’ve had a successful relaunch of the GITS Script Reading & Analysis series. I say relaunch because we have done this type of thing before. For the next month, I will be spotlighting previous movie scripts we have studied. Today: Bridesmaids (2011) Written by Kristen Wiig & Annie Mumolo
Movie Trailer: “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies” Screenplay by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson & Guillermo del Toro Bilbo and Company are forced to be embraced in a war against an armed flock of combatants and the terrifying Smaug from acquiring a kingdom of treasure and obliterating all of Middle-Earth. IMDb Release Date:
Script Analysis: “Gravity” — Part 4: Psychological Journey 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 (Metamorphosis) Friday: Takeaways Today: Psychological
Writing and the Creative Life: Why Your Brain Loves Good Storytelling (Part 2) “The intriguing thing here is that while we, as writers, are thinking about emotions and psychology, much of it apparently boils down to a chemical reaction in the brain.” In Part 1, we considered a Harvard Business Review article about the influence of stories on the brain. My thoughts on
Daily Dialogue — November 13, 2014 Bridget [V.O.]: Oh, well, here we go. Trying hard to fight off the vision of Mom and Auntie Una in fishnet tights. Seems unnatural, wrong even to get sixty year-olds to dress up as prostitutes and priests on a Sunday afternoon. She arrives at the party. The only
Interview (Video): Hayao Miyazaki The sad, long-rumored announcement finally came yesterday: Famed filmmaker and storyteller Hayao Miyazaki has officially moved into retirement. In addition, Studio Ghibli will no longer make movies. In honor of Miyazaki, here is a 90 minute interview with him at U.C. Berkeley in 2010. Here is a brief
Spec Script Sale: “Matriarch” Paramount acquires thriller spec script “Matriarch” written by Eric Koenig. From Deadline: The thriller follows two powerful female characters going head to head as a prison psychologist has 48 hours to convince a serial killer to disclose the location of her final victim before she is executed. This is the
Interview: Darnell Hunt (Hollywood Diversity Report) — Part 3 One of the aspects about what the Black List does I resonate with most is the number of initiatives it sponsors to open doors for writers outside the Hollywood system. Initiatives like: Partnership with The Hasty Pudding Institute Partnership with the NFL I want to see a wider variety of
