Interview: Liz W. Garcia — Part 2 Liz W. Garcia is an American television producer and writer. As a writer, her credits include “Dawson’s Creek,” “Wonderfalls” and “Cold Case”. With her husband, actor Josh Harto, she created and produced the TNT series “Memphis Beat”. Most recently Liz wrote and directed the independent feature film The Lifeguard
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. Last week was a tumultuous one at The Black Board as we held our breath for the announcements of
Movie Trailer: “Drinking Buddies” Written by Joe Swanberg Luke and Kate are co-workers at a Chicago brewery, where they spend their days drinking and flirting. They’re perfect for each other, except that they’re both in relationships. Luke is in the midst of marriage talks with his girlfriend of six years, Kate
30 Days of Screenplays, Day 25: “The Silence of the Lambs” Why 30 screenplays in 30 days? Because whether you are a novice just starting to learn the craft of screenwriting or someone who has been writing for many years, you should be reading scripts. There is a certain type of knowledge and understanding about screenwriting you can only get from
Screenwriting 101: Nikole Beckwith “I think if you’re inviting people into a story, you should invite them into all parts of that story. I tried to inhabit each character as fully as I could.” — Nikole Beckwith [GITS interview, April 24, 2013]
Daily Dialogue — June 25, 2013 INT. LITTLE CONFERENCE ROOM — DAY Tracy is seated in a chair. JIM hovers above her, alternately leaning on a desk and pacing. JIM : I guess you know why you’re here TRACY : If it’s about the posters, I think it’s so awful. It’s a travesty. JIM : A
In Memory of Kurt Brown Last week, author, poet and good friend Kurt Brown died after a sudden illness. Every night this week at midnight Pacific, I am posting something to honor his memory including one of his poems each day. If you wish to read tonight’s reflection, hit More. In the fall of
Pound through that first draft! As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one rule about a first draft and it’s this: “Get the damn thing done!” Easy to say. Hard to do. That’s why Tom Benedek and I created the Pages I: The First Draft writing workshop, a structured online environment
Interview: Liz W. Garcia — Part 1 Liz W. Garcia is an American television producer and writer. As a writer, her credits include “Dawson’s Creek,” “Wonderfalls” and “Cold Case”. With her husband, actor Josh Harto, she created and produced the TNT series “Memphis Beat”. Most recently Liz wrote and directed the independent feature film The Lifeguard
Holy crap! The sky is falling! If you’ve been paying attention to any sort of media that covers the movie business, lately it’s all gloom and doom. The whole cycle of paranoia started with this comment from Steven Spielberg at a USC event featuring he and fellow blockbuster buddy George Lucas: “…there’s eventually
Movie Trailer: “Jobs” Written by Matt Whiteley The story of Steve Jobs’ ascension from college dropout into one of the most revered creative entrepreneurs of the 20th century. IMDB Release Date: 16 August 2013 (USA)
30 Days of Screenplays, Day 24: “The Social Network” Why 30 screenplays in 30 days? Because whether you are a novice just starting to learn the craft of screenwriting or someone who has been writing for many years, you should be reading scripts. There is a certain type of knowledge and understanding about screenwriting you can only get from
On Writing “Artistic temperament sometimes seems a battleground, a dark angel of destruction and a bright angel of creativity wrestling.” — Madeleine L’Engle
Daily Dialogue — June 24, 2013 “My name is Dalton Russell. Pay strict attention to what I say because I choose my words carefully and I never repeat myself. I’ve told you my name: that’s the Who. The Where could most readily be described as a prison cell. But there’s a vast difference
“Scott, all poems are about death” It was Father’s Day morning, just last week, when Laure-Anne called me. “Scott, I am so sorry to tell you this, but our dear, sweet Kurt has died.” This is going to be a long and personal post. If you care to read about the passing of Kurt
Go Into The Story Week In Review: June 17-June 23, 2013 Some notable posts from this week: 30 Days of Screenplays — Day 17: The Usual Suspects 30 Days of Screenplays — Day 18: North By Northwest 30 Days of Screenplays — Day 19: Broadcast News 30 Days of Screenplays — Day 20: Platoon 30 Days of Screenplays — Day 21: When Harry Met Sally 30
Interview: Daniel Kunka Screenwriter Daniel Kunka wrote the 2009 movie 12 Rounds and has sold two high profile spec scripts: Agent Ox and Bermuda Triangle. In addition, Daniel is working on the project “Crime of the Century” with Chris Morgan producing. Recently Daniel and I had an excellent conversation which I am happy
30 Days of Screenplays, Day 23: “Pan’s Labyrinth” Why 30 screenplays in 30 days? Because whether you are a novice just starting to learn the craft of screenwriting or someone who has been writing for many years, you should be reading scripts. There is a certain type of knowledge and understanding about screenwriting you can only get from
Studying Aristotle’s “Poetics” — Part 6(A): The 6 Parts of Tragedy 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
Exclusive photo from behind the scenes: “Draft Day” The #1 script on the 2012 Black List is “Draft Day,” written by Rajiv Joseph and Scott Rothman. It is currently shooting in Cleveland and what we have here is an exclusive behind the scenes photo courtesy of producer Ali Bell: That is director Ivan Reitman studying the script on
Screenwriting News (June 17-June 23, 2013) Dennis L. Baxter writing untitled George Jones biopic for 28 Entertainment. Douglas Carter Beane adapting musical comedy play “Lysistrata Jones” for Peck Entertainment with Andy Fickman directing. Douglas Cook and David Weisberg sell action spec script “Criminal” to Millennium Films. Adam Cooper and Bill Collage adapting Pulitzer Prize winning book
Video Interview: Jeff Nichols (“Mud”) DP/30 with yet another great interview: Screenwriter-director Jeff Nichols who has an indie hit on his hands with the movie Mud: The movie’s premise: Two teenage boys encounter a fugitive and form a pact to help him evade the bounty hunters on his trail and to reunite
Daily Dialogue — June 23, 2013 INT. THE APARTMENT — EVENING Buddy-boy is bending over a hot stove, preparing an Italian dinner. He takes a saucepan of spaghetti off the fire, and picking up the tennis racquet with the other hand, pours the spaghetti on top of the racquet strings. Then he turns on the faucet,
Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Interrogation As we wrap up a week’s worth of dinner scenes, thanks to a recommendation by Turambar, we move into solicitations for next week’s Daily Dialogue. That theme: Interrogation, suggested by Def Earz. “Where is she!” I can think of dozens of great interrogation scenes. How about you? Got
Writing the 60-minute spec pilot Tom Benedek has some thoughts for those of you interested in writing TV: The original TV pilot script vs. the spec feature. Spielberg just bought a one hour spec pilot that people in the business were flipping over. This used to only happen with feature scripts But now spec pilot
