Scott Myers

Movies You Made: “Things To Keep”

March is Movies You Made month at Go Into The Story where we feature the work of some independent filmmakers. Today: Things To Keep. Production notes from writer-director Jared M. Gordon: My short film, Things to Keep (11 min.) was an official selection in the Bare Bones Film and

On Writing

“Creation of character is, like much of fiction writing, a mixture of subjective feel and objective control.” — Julian Barnes

Daily Dialogue — March 17, 2014

Harry: I suppose you’ve got a gun up there. Ray: Yeah. Harry: What are we gonna do? We can’t stand here all night. Marie: Why don’t you both put your guns down and go home? Harry: Don’t be stupid. This is the shootout. Ray: Harry, I’

Go Into The Story Week In Review: March 10–16, 2014

Links to the week’s most notable posts: Character Introductions: A consistent challenge for screenwriters Daily Dialogue Theme for Next Week: Standoff Dispatch from the Front Lines: Nayan Padrai Great Character: Donnie Azoff (The Wolf of Wall Street) Great Scene: Apocalypse Now “How to write a screenplay” is NOT the

Movies You Made: “Yellow Sky”

March is Movies You Made month at Go Into The Story where we feature the work of some independent filmmakers. Today: Yellow Sky. Production notes from writer-director Hector Cortez: Yellow Sky is about a young woman who returns to her childhood home to retell of the destructive event that

Interview [Video]: John Gatins

A DP/30 interview with John Gatins, screenwriter of such movies as Real Steel and Flight. Comment Archive

Daily Dialogue — March 16, 2014

“It is an incredible scene here in Pittsburgh. A capacity crowd is on hand and they are viewing one of the most storied moments in sports. It is a sports happening. There is pandemonium all around me. Incredible, as the Pisces make their way from the sky!” — The Fish That

Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Standoff

This week’s theme: Sports Announcer, thanks to @dproII. Next week’s theme: Standoff. Two characters or more. A struggle looms. Perhaps guns involved. Or worse. Which ones jump out in your memory? Here’s one of the most famous: The usual drill: * Copy/paste dialogue from IMDB Quotes or

My Character Introductions class begins Monday!

The average screenplay features between 15–25 characters. Because you have been working with those characters for months, you may know how they sound and what they look like. But what about a script reader? Think about how hard it is for them to sort out, distinguish between and remember

Great Scene: “Apocalypse Now”

Protagonists often begin a movie in a state of what I call Disunity: At the very least, they are disconnected from some authentic part of their Self, something of their Core Of Being that needs to emerge into consciousness and practice. At worst, they are near a state of self-

Movies You Made: “Capps Crossing”

March is Movies You Made month at Go Into The Story where we feature the work of some independent filmmakers. Today: Capps Crossing. Production notes from writer-director Mike Stahl: Capps Crossing was shot over 8 days in the Tahoe National forest. The cast and crew put in extremely long

Interview [Written]: Lena Dunham

A WGA.org interview with writer-director-actor Lena Dunham (Tiny Furniture, “Girls”). You said in a recent interview that when you saw Les Misérables as a kid it was kind of life altering, that you adored Cosette and wanted to play her, but at the same time felt like

Daily Dialogue — March 15, 2014

“Stan Ross’ first week at bat was kinda like his first week out of the womb. A whole lot of just flailing around.” — Mr. 3000 (2004), screenplay by Eric Champnella & Keith Mitchell and Howard Michael Gould, story by Eric Champnella & Keith Mitchell The Daily Dialogue theme for the

Reader Question: What are keys to a sparse style of screenwriting?

Do all scripts have to feature a lean, spare approach to scene description? From Michael Traven. Part two of a two-part question: If I remember correctly, wasn’t Amini’s script for DRIVE only 60 pages? (It’s on IMSDB.com, but not as a PDF, so I can’

Spec Script Sale: “Hot Air”

Route One Films acquires drama spec script “Hot Air” written by Will Reichel. From Deadline: Written in the tone of About A Boy, Hot Air tells the story of a powerful right-wing talk-radio host who has the world on a string until the teenage niece he never knew

Spec Script Sale: “Aether”

FilmNation Entertainment acquires science fiction thriller “Aether” written by Krysty Wilson-Cairns. From Deadline: Plot details are currently being kept under wraps. — — Wilson-Cairns initially developed the script with her UK agent and then wrote on spec. Wilson-Cairns is repped by United Agents. By my count, this is the

Movie Trailer: “Get On Up”

Written by Steven Baigelman, Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth A chronicle of James Brown’s rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history. IMDB Release Date: 1 August 2014 (USA)  Comment Archive

Movies You Made: “Tentacle 8”

March is Movies You Made month at Go Into The Story where we feature the work of some independent filmmakers. Today: Tentacle 8. Production notes from writer-director John Chi: TENTACLE 8 is going to be released on DVD in March, with VOD/Digital to follow in April on most

Great Character: Donnie Azoff (“The Wolf of Wall Street”)

This month’s theme: Sidekick. Today: Guest poster Jason Cuthbert looks at Donnie Azoff from The Wolf of Wall Street. White picket fence teeth. Pastel pink, purple and turquoise wardrobe. Green-with-envy desire for money. Red-hot Crack, Coke and Quaalude habits. All of these distinctive hues paint Donny

Daily Dialogue — March 14, 2014

“And the loser gets nothing.” — Kingpin (1996), written by Barry Fanaro, Mort Nathan )\ The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Sports Announcer, suggested by @dproII. Trivia: As is the case with most of his films, Bill Murray ad-libbed virtually every line he spoke. He would read over the script,

What was the first script you wrote?

The other day, I was chatting with some screenwriters and the subject somehow turned to the first screenplay we had written. The more we talked about it, the more I realized, this is a great question to ask members of the GITS community. What is that saying: The journey of

Dispatch From The Front Lines: Nayan Padrai

In February, the WGAW announced their Feature Access Project honorees. One of them — Nayan Padrai — was generous enough to write up a first person dispatch on his experiences with his project Billion Dollar Raja: I remember it very clearly. It was the Summer of 2011. I was hibernating for three

Movie Trailer: “Cuban Fury”

) Written by Jon Brown A former salsa prodigy attempts a comeback years after his career was ruined. IMDB Release Date: 11 April 2014 (USA)  Comment Archive

Movies You Made: “Melting the Snowman”

March is Movies You Made month at Go Into The Story where we feature the work of some independent filmmakers. Today: Melting the Snowman. Production notes from writer-director Ora Yashar: The film is my MFA thesis from Chapman University and features Mekenna Melvin from “Chuck”. It was workshopped with

Writing and the Creative Life: 19 Daily Habits Of Artists…

I don’t usually go in for the numeric lists we see floating around social media with astounding — and sometimes annoying — frequency. You know… 9 Ways You Can Use Your Remote Control to Reinvigorate Your Sex Life 13 Illegal Things You Can Do With a Kumquat 21 Secrets to Making