Scott Myers

Go On Your Own Quest — Week 14: Prep

The 2013 version of The Quest starts Week 14 today. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by because you can Go On Your Own Quest by following the structure of The Quest to dig into screenwriting theory [Core — 8 weeks], figure out your story [Prep — 6 weeks], and write

Movie Trailer: “The Fifth Estate”

Screenplay by Josh Singer, books by Daniel Domscheit-Berg and David Leigh and Luke Harding A dramatic thriller based on real events that reveals the quest to expose the deceptions and corruptions of power that turned an Internet upstart into the 21st century’s most fiercely debated organization. IMDB Release

Hidden Movie Gem: “Repo Man”

Today’s Hidden Movie Gem guest post comes from David Joyner. Movie Title: Repo Man Year: 1984 Writer: Alex Cox Lead Actors: Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez. Director: Alex Cox Plot Summary: Young punk Otto becomes a repo man after helping to steal a car, and stumbles into a

Screenwriting 101: Jeffrey Leiber

“If the end of the scene is obvious from the beginning of the scene, there’s no point to having the scene. If the beginning of the scene is we’re going to dig for treasure, at the end of the scene you find the treasure, you don’t have

Daily Dialogue — October 15, 2013

Ripper: Mandrake. Mandrake: Yes, Jack? Ripper: Have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water? Mandrake: Well, no I… I can’t say I have, Jack. Ripper: Vodka. That’s what they drink, isn’t it? Never water? Mandrake: Well I… I believe that’s what they drink,

How to write a great scene

Consider the airplane scene from the movie Almost Famous. Or the big standoff scene in Se7en. The beautiful ending scene from the movie Big Night, five minutes without one word of dialogue. The touching ice skating rink scene from Rocky. Or these scenes from The Dark Knight, Goodfellas, Jaws, or

Dispatch From The Quest: Miranda Sajdak

Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch to share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding

30 Essential Movies for Screenwriters to Watch

A bit of recent synchronicity in my life led to this idea for a blog series. Two parts to this tale, so please bear with me as I walk you through the process that led to this particular inspiration. My wife Rebecca (@bf4tbrainy) is not only founder of the popular

Go On Your Own Quest — Week 14: Prep

The 2013 version of The Quest starts Week 14 today. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by because you can Go On Your Own Quest by following the structure of The Quest to dig into screenwriting theory [Core — 8 weeks], figure out your story [Prep — 6 weeks], and write

Movie Trailer: “The Monuments Men”

Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov, book by Robert M. Edsel and Bret Witter In a race against time, a crew of art historians and museum curators unite to recover renowned works of art stolen by Nazis before Hitler destroys them. IMDB Release Date: 18 December 2013 (USA)

Hidden Movie Gem: “Eve’s Bayou”

Today’s Hidden Movie Gem guest post comes from Jace Serrano: Title: “Eve’s Bayou” Year: 1997 Writer: Kasi Lemmons Lead Actors: Samuel L. Jackson, Lynn Whitfield, Jurnee Smollett, Debbie Morgan Director: Kasi Lemmons Plot Summary: Ten-year-old Eve Batiste lives with her family in a well-to-do

On Writing

“Character is the very life of fiction. Setting exists so that the character has someplace to stand. Plot exists so the character can discover what he is really like, forcing the character to choice and action. And theme exists only to make the character stand up and be somebody.” — John

Daily Dialogue — October 14, 2013

HANS BECKERT: Who are you? All of you. Criminals. Probably proud of it, too… proud you can crack a safe or sneak into houses or cheat at cards. All of which it seems to me you could just as easily give up if you had learned something useful, or if

Go Into The Story Week In Review: October 7–13, 2013

Links to the week’s most notable posts: 2013 Academy Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship Finalists 32 Qualities of Better Film 9 Horror Films Under 9 Minutes Daily Dialogue Theme for Next Week: Psychotic Daily Routines of Creative Minds Declare Your Independents: Volume 13 Diablo Cody: The 7 Things No One Tells

Interview: Destin Daniel Cretton (2010 Nicholl Winner)

This week’s interview is with Destin Daniel Cretton, writer-director of the critically acclaimed independent movies I Am Not a Hipster and Short Term 12. Here are links to the six installments of the entire interview: Part 1: “The first time I caught the bug was when my grandma

Studying Aristotle’s “Poetics” — Part 11: Reversal, Recognition and Suffering

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 (October 7-October 13, 2013)

Frank Baldwin adapting John Grisham novel “The Racketeer” for Fox 2000. Aaron Berg sells spy drama thriller spec script “Section 6” to Universal for seven figures in a bidding war. Jamie Denbo sells comedy pitch “The Wedding Dance” to Universal. Andrew Dodge writing untitled R-rated comedy for Paramount with

Hidden Movie Gem: “Bread and Chocolate”

Today’s Hidden Movie Gems guest post comes courtesy of Mark Twain: Movie Title: Bread and Chocolate (Italian Pane E Cioccolata ) Year: Italy 1974 USA 1978 Writers: Franco Brusati, Nino Manfredi and Iaia Fiastri. Lead Actors: Nino Manfredi Johnny Dorelli Ana Karina Director: Franco Brusati Plot Summary: A earnestly sincere

Written Interview: Billy Ray (“Captain Phillips”)

Interview with Captain Phillips screenwriter Billy Ray: Q: What would you say the biggest challenge was with writing the film? Ray: I think the biggest challenge probably would be I wanted to do honor to the behavior of these men, these merchant mariners who had survived this thing that I

Daily Dialogue — October 13, 2013

“The job would have to be done by an outsider. The only question is by whom and how much.” — The Day of the Jackal (1973), screenplay by Kenneth Ross, book by Frederick Forsyth The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is assassination suggested by Aarthi Ramanathan. Trivia: The novel and

Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Psychotic

Now that we’ve just about killed off a week’s worth of assassination posts [thanks, Aarthi Ramanathan, for that theme]. Next week, the theme is psychotic, suggested by JasperLamarCrab: To make this really easy on you, you can go here and see a compilation of 250 flicks with “neurotic,

Dispatch From The Quest: Paul Wie

Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch to share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding

Interview: Destin Daniel Cretton — Part 6

One of my favorite movies of 2013 is Short Term 12, so I was understandably excited when its talented writer-director Destin Daniel Cretton agreed to an interview. Our hour-long conversation did not disappoint. Destin’s script “Short Term 12″ won a 2010 Nicholl Screenwriting Fellowship. He used that

Spec Script Sale: “Section 6”

Universal wins bidding war to acquire spy drama “Section 6” written by Aaron Berg. Via THR: Universal has come out on top in the bidding war for Section 6, the hot spec script by Aaron Berg that jolted the market this week. While all the studios were in the mix,

Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 109th installment of Saturday Hot Links! Today: The World Order Dance Videos Edition. Life after “Breaking Bad”: What’s next for the creators, the actors, the network and you. Relive 5 seasons of “Breaking Bad” in 7 minutes [video]. Jeffrey Katzenberg offered to pay $75M for three