Interview: Arash Amel — Part 4 Arash Amel is one of the bright new talents among Hollywood screenwriters, having penned the 2011 Black List script Grace of Monaco which has been produced starring Nicole Kidman and will be released later this year, as well as set up several high profile projects including “Seducing Ingrid Bergman” and
“Citizen Steve”: 40th birthday video tribute to Steven Spielberg For years, I have had in my possession a videocassette copy of this 23-minute film. I won’t go into detail about how I procured it, but I considered it to be a rare find considering it was produced to play at the big 40th birthday shindig for Steven
Movie Trailer: “Thanks for Sharing” Written by Stuart Blumberg, Matt Winston Three people undergo a 12-step treatment for sex addiction. IMDB Release Date: 20 September 2013 (USA)
Movie Story Type: Time Travel In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and sub-genres like Romantic Comedy or Mystery Thriller. Then there are Story Types, a shorthand way to describe a specific narrative conceit that is almost always tied directly to
The Business of Screenwriting: Selling Scripts and Shooting Scripts Here are two key stages in the life of a screenplay: There is the selling script and the shooting script. A selling script can be a beautiful thing to behold, every word precise, the balance of black ink to white space pleasing to the eye, the flow of dialogue to
Daily Dialogue — July 4, 2013 “That’s the problem, Mom, I’m not dead, I gotta live. I gotta live, I gotta roll around, I gotta remind ’em of Vietnam. And you don’t wanna know, you don’t wanna see us, you wanna hide us, ‘coz it is a can of shit. And I
Reader Question: What is the absolute limit on script page count? From a Tweet by @AshleyWills: Hi Scott. What is the v. absolute max for pg count? Can there be extenuating circumstances that throw the 1pg/1min rule out? Ashley, your tweet raises two different issues. First, re page count: There is no rule about an “absolute max” page count total.
Interview: Arash Amel — Part 3 Arash Amel is one of the bright new talents among Hollywood screenwriters, having penned the 2011 Black List script Grace of Monaco which has been produced starring Nicole Kidman and will be released later this year, as well as set up several high profile projects including “Seducing Ingrid Bergman” and
Hot Topics: The Black Board A weekly update from Shaula Evans about The Black Board: The Black Board The Official Online Community of the Black List and Go Into The Story Read. Write. Review. Discuss. Succeed. We’ve been a little geekier than usual at the Board lately (which is saying something!) so we’ve
Movie Trailer: “Pacific Rim” Screenplay by Travis Beacham & Guillermo del Toro, story by Travis Beacham When an alien attack threatens the Earth’s existence, giant robots piloted by humans are deployed to fight off the menace. IMDB Release Date: 12 July 2013 (USA)
Movie Story Type: Heist In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and sub-genres like Romantic Comedy or Mystery Thriller. Then there are story types, a shorthand way to describe a specific narrative conceit that is almost always tied directly to
Script To Screen: “The Last of the Mohicans” A critical scene toward the end of the 1992 movie The Last of the Mohicans, screenplay by Michael Mann and Christopher Crowe, novel by James Fenimore Cooper. Logline: Three trappers protect a British Colonel’s daughters in the midst of the French and Indian War. HAWKEYE exchanges a desperate look
Daily Dialogue — July 3, 2013 Lionel Logue: Vulgar, but fluent; you don’t stammer when you swear. King George VI: Oh, bugger orf! Lionel Logue: Is that the best you can do? King George VI: Well… bloody bugger to you, you beastly bastard. Lionel Logue: Oh, a public school prig could do better than that.
Screenwriting Tip: One way to deal with multiple time jumps Let’s say you are Aaron Sorkin and you are tasked with writing a screenplay for The Social Network. One problem you have is to craft a narrative that covers several years and multiple time jumps. Or you are Eric Roth and confronted with adapting a novel “Forrest Gump” that
Interview: Arash Amel — Part 2 Arash Amel is one of the bright new talents among Hollywood screenwriters, having penned the 2011 Black List script Grace of Monaco which has been produced starring Nicole Kidman and will be released later this year, as well as set up several high profile projects including “Seducing Ingrid Bergman” and
“Nobody knows anything”: Part Infinity I’m sure you’ve heard the saying attributed to screenwriter William Goldman in reference to the movie business: “Nobody knows anything.” Yet another example of this emerged last week. On June 24, TheWrap ran this article: Hollywood’s Zombie Overload: Why Flesh-Eater Pitches Are a Tough Sale Excerpts:
Movie Trailer: “Breathe In” Written by Drake Doremus and Ben York Jones When a foreign exchange student arrives in a small upstate New York town, she challenges the dynamics of her host family’s relationships and alters their lives forever. IMDB
Movie Story Type: Disaster In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and sub-genres like Romantic Comedy or Mystery Thriller. Then there are story types, a shorthand way to describe a specific narrative conceit that is almost always tied directly to
Screenwriting 101: Reid Carolin “There’s a magic to being present when you’re actually writing a character. There’s something about the act of giving yourself over and giving your brain over to just typing… If you feel like that character feels, just spit it out and then go back and edit it
Daily Dialogue — July 2, 2013 Harvey Keitel: (as himself) Fuck you, fuckball. — Get Shorty (1995), screenplay by Scott Frank, novel by Elmore Leonard The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is profanity, suggested by JasperLamarCrab. Today’s suggestion by Jeff Messerman. Trivia: MGM didn’t want to extensively use Elmore Leonard-inspired dialogue in the
Writing Question: What’s your best excuse NOT to write? It’s a question I’ve been asking screenwriters during the many interviews I’ve been conducting this year: What’s your best excuse NOT to write? The responses have been interesting to say the least. Here is a sampling: Reid Carolin (Magic Mike): “My single best excuse not to
Interview: Arash Amel — Part 1 Arash Amel is one of the bright new talents among Hollywood screenwriters, having penned the 2011 Black List script Grace of Monaco which has been produced starring Nicole Kidman and will be released later this year, as well as set up several high profile projects including “Seducing Ingrid Bergman” and
“The Heat” is a hit… now what? Last Friday, I pointed out something that — to my knowledge — nobody else commented on: Meanwhile we have an occurrence this weekend I can’t recall happening in the 25+ years I’ve been involved in the movie business: A pair of big blockbuster movies opening on the same day, both
Movie Trailer: “The Conjuring” Written by Chad Hayes and Carey Hayes Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren work to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in their farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most terrifying case of their lives. IMDB Release Date: 19 July
Movie Story Type: Buddy Picture In Hollywood movie circles, there are genres like Horror or Science Fiction, cross genres like Action-Thriller or Drama-Comedy, and sub-genres like Romantic Comedy or Mystery Thriller. Then there are story types, a shorthand way to describe a specific narrative conceit that is almost always tied directly to
