Scott Myers

Movie Trailer: “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”

screenplay by Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson & Guillermo del Toro, novel by J.R.R. Tolkien The Dwarves, Bilbo and Gandalf have successfully escaped the Misty Mountains, and Bilbo has gained the One Ring. They all continue their journey to get their gold back from the

30 Days of Screenplays, Day 12: “Toy Story”

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: Greg Russo

“Never stop learning. If every day I’m learning something new as a writer, If every day I’m getting a little bit better at this, that’s all I can ask for from myself. Never stop learning. It’s as simple as that.” — Greg Russo (GITS Interview, February 9,

Daily Dialogue — June 12, 2013

GEORGE: Mary! She looks up, surprised, but, not recognizing him, continues on. GEORGE: Mary! Mary starts to run away from him, and he follows, desperately. GEORGE: Mary! Mary! He catches up to her, grabs her by the arms, and keeps a tight grip on her. She struggles to free herself.

Free tickets to screenwriting event!

For any of you who will be in the vicinity of Los Angeles on Saturday, June 29th, there are five free tickets to this event: “Craft Your Future: Surviving and Thriving as a Screenwriter”. Sat, June 29, 2013 10:00 AM — 6:00 PM This year, we’re going all

Interview (Part 2): Ava DuVernay

In addition to making history as the first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at Sundance, DuVernay was honored with the 2013 John Cassavetes Spirit Award and the Tribeca Film Institute’s Affinity Award for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere. In 2010, she wrote, produced

Hot Topics: The Black Board

A weekly update from Shaula Evans, moderator of The Black Board: Over the past month, The Quest has dominated conversations at The Black Board and most of our focus has been on helping people with their Quest submissions in our Logline Workshop (which is still open and at your disposal)

Movie Trailer: “Short Term 12”

Written by Destin Cretton A 20-something supervising staff member of a foster care facility navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend. IMDB site Release Date: 23 August 2013 (USA)

30 Days of Screenplays, Day 11: “Memento”

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: Joel Coen

“Every movie ever made is an attempt to remake The Wizard of Oz.” — Joel Coen Comment Archive

Daily Dialogue — June 11, 2013

Aragorn: Let the Lord of the Black Land come forth! Let justice be done upon him! The Mouth of Sauron: My master, Sauron the Great, bids thee welcome. Is there any in this rout with authority to treat with me? Gandalf: We do not come to treat with Sauron, faithless

One habit all pro screenwriters share…

…They do a lot of prep-writing. Brainstorm. Research. Character development. Plotting. Outline. In the trade, it’s known as breaking your story, as in breaking a wild horse, taming that beast so you can ride it from FADE IN to FADE OUT. Consider these comments from interviews I conducted

Interview (Part 1): Ava DuVernay

In addition to making history as the first African-American woman to win the Best Director Prize at Sundance, DuVernay was honored with the 2013 John Cassavetes Spirit Award and the Tribeca Film Institute’s Affinity Award for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere. In 2010, she wrote, produced

Update: The Quest Initiative

Okay, so I guess you can all take a nice cleansing breath. Lots of creative energy and hard work expended on those loglines. And now that the submission period is officially closed, here are some totals: Number of entrants: 981 Number of loglines: 2,000 (?) Those numbers aren’t locked.

Movie Trailer: “Blue Jasmine”

Written by Woody Allen A woman whose comfortable life is uprooted after her husband is exposed as a criminal moves to San Francisco to be with her sister. IMDB site Release Date: 26 July 2013 (USA)

30 Days of Screenplays, Day 10: “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

“I’ve always said there are — to oversimplify it — two kinds of writers. There are architects and gardeners. The architects do blueprints before they drive the first nail, they design the entire house, where the pipes are running, and how many rooms there are going to be, how high the

Daily Dialogue — June 10, 2013

“Come on!” — Glory (1989), screenplay by Kevin Jarre, based on books by Lincoln Kirstein and Peter Burchard, letters by Robert Gould Shaw The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is all is lost, suggested by Turambar. Today’s suggestion by Barbara Thomas. Trivia: With the exception of Shaw, none of

The Quest Initiative: Day 19

The submission period for The Quest Initiative runs from May 22-June 9. Each day I will provide an update. Today: Marks the 19th and final day of submissions for The Quest Initiative. Number of entrants: 783. Number of loglines [estimated]: 1300–1400. Submission period closes tonight at midnight [Pacific]

Go Into The Story Week In Review: June 3-June 9, 2013

Some notable posts from this week: 30 Days of Screenplays — Day 3: American Beauty 30 Days of Screenplays — Day 4: Fargo 30 Days of Screenplays — Day 5: The Shawshank Redemption 30 Days of Screenplays — Day 6: Die Hard 30 Days of Screenplays — Day 7: Thelma & Louise 30 Days of

Interview: Dana Coen

I have the pleasure of working with Dana Coen as a colleague through the Writing for Screen and Stage program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a dramatic writing minor for which Dana is the director. Dana has an extensive background in television, penning episodes for “The

30 Days of Screenplays, Day 9: “The Matrix”

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 4: Poetry and the Development 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

Screenwriting News (June 2-June 9, 2013)

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa writing untitled “Archie” project for Warner Bros. Arash Amel writing drama romance “Seducing Ingrid Bergman” for YRF Entertainment. Ron Bass and Paco Arrango writing fantasy drama “Elven Percent” for YaYa! Films. Matthew Graham adapting sci-fi short “R’Ha” for IAM Entertainment and producer Rick McCallum. Jason

Video Interview: Danny Boyle, Ed Burns and Jason Reitman

From the Austin Film Festival, twenty minutes with Danny Boyle, Jason Reitman, and Ed Burns: HT to Shaula Evans for the link. Comment Archive