Scott Myers

Interview: Stephany Folsom (2013 Black List) — Part 2

I’m a big Stanley Kubrick fan and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is my favorite satire of all time. So when I saw this script make the 2013 Black List — “1969: A Space Odyssey or: How Kubrick Learned to Stop Worrying

Ode to (21st Century) Cinematographers

Via Indiewire: Edited by Erick Lee, this roughly six-minute long video pays tribute to some the best cinematographers working today. In an attempt to maintain uniformity throughout the video as well as not wishing to crop any of the images, Lee culled shots from films with an aspect ratio

Movie Trailer: “On the Other Side of the Tracks”

Two mismatched cops team up to investigate the murder of a business mogul’s wife. IMDB Release Date: 4 April 2014 (USA)  Comment Archive

A Story Idea Each Day for a Month — Day 1

This is the fifth year in a row I’ve run this series in April. Why a story idea each day for the month? Several reasons which I’ll work my through during this series of posts. For today, the most basic one: If you have aspirations of becoming a

Screenwriting 101: Billy Wilder

“I find with young writers, and some of them with very good ideas, that they get lost in technical descriptions of which they know very little. Nobody will say, ‘This is a great screenwriter because he always has the camera angles.’ Just have good characters and good scenes and something

Daily Dialogue — April 1, 2014

“O dear God, thank you. You are such a good God to us. A kind and gentle and accommodating God. And we thank You O sweet, sweet Lord of hosts for the smörgåsbord You have so aptly lain at our table this day, and each day… by day. Day by

Reader Question: Do you have any suggestions to ‘warm up’ for writing?

Two suggestions to help you overcome the dreaded ‘how to get my ass into the chair and writing’ conundrum. Question from Brian Trichon: Loyal blog follower here, devout writer, and praiser of the Scott Myers scriptures :) I have a question about warming up, which I thought could be an interesting

Interview: Stephany Folsom (2013 Black List) — Part 1

I’m a big Stanley Kubrick fan and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb is my favorite satire of all time. So when I saw this script make the 2013 Black List — “1969: A Space Odyssey or: How Kubrick Learned to Stop Worrying

Movie Trailer: “Frankie & Alice”

Screenplay by Cheryl Edwards and Marko King & Mary King & Jonathan Watters and Joe Shrapnel & Anna Waterhouse, story by Oscar Janiger & Philip Goldberg and Cheryl Edwards A drama centered on a go-go dancer with multiple personality disorder who struggles to remain her true self and begins

Movies You Made: “FACTORY293”

March is Movies You Made month at Go Into The Story where we feature the work of some independent filmmakers. Today: FACTORY293. Production notes from writer-director Roderick MacKay: Long time fan of Gointothestory.com. Can honestly say you’ve taught me all I know about writing! FACTORY293 is a

On Writing

“The blank page is the greatest moment of writing a script… be happy that you have the privilege of facing it.” — Lorenzo Semple Jr.

Daily Dialogue — March 31, 2014

Schmidt: Hey, Korean Jesus… I don’t know if you only cater to Korean Christians or if you even exist …no offense… I just, uh… I’m really freaked out about going back to high school. It was just so fucking hard the first time. I know we haven’t

Go Into The Story Week In Review: March 24–30, 2014

Links to the week’s most notable posts: Black List partners with the Writers Guild of Great Britain Character Development Keys Crowd Sourcing: Character Questionnaires Daily Dialogue Theme for Next Week: Prayer Go Into The Story Interview: Stephanie Shannon (2013 Nicholl Fellowship, 2013 Black List) Great Character: Hit Girl (Kick-

Interview: Stephanie Shannon

Stephanie Shannon not only is one of five recipients of the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, she did it with her very first full-length screenplay: “Queen of Hearts.” Beyond that, the script landed on the 2013 Black List. Here are links to the six installments of the entire

Studying Aristotle’s “Poetics” — Part 26: Tragedy vs. Epic Poems

As I’ve been interviewing screenwriters, I typically ask what some of their influences are. One book title comes up over and over again: Aristotle’s “Poetics”. I confess I’ve never read the entire thing, only bits and pieces. So I thought, why not do a weekly series with

Screenwriting News (March 24-March 30, 2014)

Buzz Bissinger adopting sports memoir “Wherever I Wind Up” for TriStar Pictures. Keith Bunin sells untitled magic pitch to Walt Disney Pictures. Jay Chandrasekhar untitled Cheech and Chong stoner comedy for Broken Lizard Films. Michael Green rewriting Prometheus 2 for Twentieth Century Fox. Brad Ingelsby sells thriller spec script “A

Movies You Made: “Ashley”

March is Movies You Made month at Go Into The Story where we feature the work of some independent filmmakers. Today: Ashley. Production notes from writer-director Jeremy Lei Ontiveros: Ashley is a short film I funded as well as my first directorial debut. It was a film that myself

Interview [Video]: Lorenzo Semple Jr.

On this weekend in which we honor the great screenwriter and TV writer Lorenzo Semple Jr., who died on Friday, March 27th at the age of 91, here is a treat: An 80 minute interview sponsored by the outstanding organization, the Writers Guild Foundation. Semple’s writing credits include the

Daily Dialogue — March 30, 2014

“Do I have an original thought in my head? My bald head. Maybe if I were happier, my hair wouldn’t be falling out. Life is short. I need to make the most of it. Today is the first day of the rest of my life. I’m a walking

Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Prayer

We move from this week’s theme (Self-Deprecation), suggested by JasperLamarCrab to next week’s: Prayer. 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

Interview: Stephanie Shannon (2013 Nicholl Winner, 2013 Black List) — Part 6

Stephanie Shannon not only is one of five recipients of the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, she did it with her very first full-length screenplay: “Queen of Hearts.” Beyond that, the script landed on the 2013 Black List. Therefore I was pleased to have the opportunity to talk

Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 127th installment of Saturday Hot Links. Today: The We Remember Screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr. Edition (1923–2014). THR: Lorenzo Semple Jr., creator of TV’s “Batman,” dies at 91. Variety: Creator of TV’s ‘Batman’ Lorenzo Semple Jr. dies at 91. TheWrap: Lorenzo Semple Jr., creator of

Movies You Made: “What You Eat”

March is Movies You Made month at Go Into The Story where we feature the work of some independent filmmakers. Today: What You Eat. Production notes from writer-director Jennifer Liao: When I first read Ben Ehrenreich’s exceptional short story WHAT YOU EAT in the 2004 edition of “The

Interview [Written]: Lorenzo Semple Jr.

A 1983 Starlog interview with screenwriter and TV writer Lorenzo Semple Jr whose credits include Papillon, The Parallax View, Three Days of the Condor, King Kong, Flash Gordon and the TV series “Batman”. This interview focuses on Semple’s work on the remake of the James Bond movie Thunderball: Is

Daily Dialogue — March 29, 2014

RAMONA: I’m sorry. Dying probably sucks. SCOTT: You know what sucks? Getting killed by THAT guy. Why him? RAMONA: It’s complicated. SCOTT: Well, maybe now would be the time to get into it. Seeing as I’m about to die. RAMONA: Alright… the truth is, it was me