Scott Myers

Daily Dialogue — September 4, 2013

“I’d do anything for my husband, Mr. Valiant. Anything.” — Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), screenplay by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman, novel by Gary K. Wolf The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is seduction, suggested by Despina. Today’s suggestion by Ellen Musikant. Trivia: Although the film’

“Up”: High concept or not?

I’m currently teaching Core II: Concept and one of the participants Debbie Moon, creator of the U.K. TV series “Wolfblood,” raised a question about whether the Pixar movie Up could be considered a high concept or not, her question arising from this fact: How do you craft a

Dispatch From The Quest: Sandy Leviton

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

Audio Q&A: Liz W. Garcia (“The Lifeguard”)

For two weeks in this time slot (Mon-Fri), I am featuring Q&A’s from L.A. based screenings recorded and edited by Wendy Cohen. It’s a fantastic resource for those of you who live outside Hollywood or in Southern California, but missed these events. Here is

Mysterious Hollywood round-up

If you are on Twitter and follow my feed (@GoIntoTheStory), you will have seen my weekly #FF Mysterious Hollywood tweets each Friday. It started out with one tweet, then as more mysterious Hwood types emerged, became two, and now sits at three. This is currently who I have aggregated in

Go On Your Own Quest — Week 8: Time

The 2013 version of The Quest has entered Week 8! 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: “A Single Shot”

Matthew F. Jones (novel), Matthew F. Jones (screenplay) The tragic death of a beautiful young girl starts a tense and atmospheric game of cat and mouse between hunter John Moon and the hardened backwater criminals out for his blood. IMDB Release Date: 20 September 2013 (USA)

September is Scene-Writing Month: Day 1

As noted in this post last week, September is Scene-Writing Month here at Go Into The Story. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a prompt for writing a script scene. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. If you really

Screenwriting 101: Liz W. Garcia

“Outlining is really tough work and it’s the necessary work that I loathe. It’s necessary so you don’t get lost while you’re writing the script. But, you have to have something left to discover during the writing process or you won’t be inspired. There won’

Daily Dialogue — September 3, 2013

Benjamin: Oh my God! Mrs. Robinson: Pardon? Benjamin: Oh no, Mrs. Robinson. Oh no. Mrs. Robinson: What’s wrong? Benjamin: Mrs. Robinson, you didn’t… I mean, you didn’t expect… Mrs. Robinson: What? Benjamin: I mean, you didn’t really think I’d do something like that. Mrs. Robinson:

Character = Function

In a screenplay, characters exist for a reason. Unlike a novel, a writer doesn’t have unlimited time to introduce characters willy nilly, rather the limitations of a script’s length compels us to handle characters with one eye always on how they connect to the plot. Moreover almost all

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

Audio Q&A: Rawson Marshall Thurber, Nick Offerman (“We’re the Millers”)

For two weeks in this time slot (Mon-Fri), I am featuring Q&A’s from L.A. based screenings recorded and edited by Wendy Cohen. It’s a fantastic resource for those of you who live outside Hollywood or in Southern California, but missed these events. Here is

Speedrun: “The Matrix” and “The Big Lebowski”

An outfit called 1A4 Studio has a clever series of 1-minute animated shorts for those of you who just don’t have time to watch a full-length movie. Here is The Matrix: Here is The Big Lebowski: Funny, right? And yet notice how they hit the major plot

Go On Your Own Quest — Week 8: Time

The 2013 version of The Quest starts Week 8 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: “Mary Queen of Scots”

Written by Thomas Imbach and Stefan Zweig & Andrea Staka and Eduard Habsburg A queen who lost three kingdoms. A wife who lost three husbands. A woman who lost her head. IMDB Comment Archive

September is scene-writing month at GITS

As noted in this post last week, I’ve dubbed September to be Scene-Writing Month. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a specific set of guidelines for writing a script scene. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. If you

On Writing

“You may be able to take a break from writing, but you won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.” — Stephen Leigh

Daily Dialogue — September 2, 2013

“It’s an art gallery, full of dark corners, for doing… dark deeds.” — Love Actually (2003), written by Richard Curtis The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is seduction, suggested by Despina. Today’s suggestion by Aarthi Ramanathan. Trivia: The word “actually” is spoken twenty-two times by various characters

Go Into The Story Week In Review: August 26-September 1, 2013

Links to the week’s most notable posts: Audio Q&A: Andrew Bujalski, Freddy Martinez and Peter Kappler (“Computer Chess”) Audio Q&A: David Gordon Green, Emile Hirsch (“Prince Avalanche”) Audio Q&A: David Lowery (“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”) Audio Q&A: Joshua Oppenheimer, Werner

“11 Creative Film Interpretations You Probably Hadn’t Considered”

This is a pretty fun list with some intriguing interpretations of movies including The Shining, Back to the Future, and Fight Club. My favorite is the take on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: Theorist: Jeff Roda, among many Plot: High school senior Ferris Bueller skips school and goes on an

Studying Aristotle’s “Poetics” — Part 8: Unity

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 (August 26-September 1, 2013)

Michael Aloyan’s drama script “Forget Me Not” moving forward for him to direct with Jake Abel and Nia Vardalos to star. Jace Anderson and Adam Gierasch sell thriller spec script “Split” to CBS Films. Peter Crabbe, Will Vinton, and Andrew Weise set up science fiction comedy “The Quest” at

Video Interview: Terry Gilliam

A DP/30 interview with writer-director Terry Gilliam: Here is a 50-minute documentary on Gilliam: Here is a 1968 animation from Gilliam:

Daily Dialogue — September 1, 2013

“He slimed me.” — Ghost Busters (1984), written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is less with more suggested by hobbs001. Trivia: According to Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis in the DVD Commentary, in Dan Aykroyd’s original rough draft of the movie, the