Go Into The Story

Movie Trailer: “K-11”

Written by Jules Stewart, Jared Kurt A music magnate imprisoned in the dangerous “K-11″ unit of an L.A. prison befriends a transexual who helps him survive the ordeal. IMDB site Release Date: 15 March 2013 (USA)  Comment Archive

Studies in voice-over narration: “American Beauty”

Part 4 of a five-part series on movies where voice-over narration works. I set this discussion into motion here and here. To wit: Hollywood conventional wisdom is that voice-over narration and flashbacks are a no-no, yet some of the greatest movies ever produced use these narrative

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything you wanted to know about specs [Part 3]

Part 3: Boom, Bust, and Back Again [1990–2013] Spec scripts, that is. I’m guessing that perhaps 90% of the people who follow this blog at some point in their lives will write a spec script. And the other 10% are involved in buying and selling them. In light

Daily Dialogue — February 28, 2013

Jenny: You can sit here if you’d like. Forrest (V.O.): I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life. She was like an angel. Jenny: Well, are you gonna sit down, or aren’t you? Forrest sits down beside Jenny. Jenny: What’s wrong with your legs.

“Oscars may pave way for more movies aimed at grown-ups”

Lovers of adult dramas, drama-comedies, smart genre pieces, feel free to read the headline of this LAT article multiple times: “Oscars may pave way for more movies aimed at grown-ups.” Ooh, I like the looks of that. “Oscars may pave way for more movies aimed at grown-ups.

Attention all L.A. based writers!

Occasionally I’ll ask the GITS community a really basic question: Where do you write? It’s always interesting to read the answers, especially to see how so many writers prefer to work in a public setting. Of course, you can simply scramble for a seat at the local java

Interview: Justin Kremer (2012 Black List) — Part 3

No matter what other good things happen to screenwriter Justin Kremer, he will always have this fact as part of his personal history: His script “McCarthy” was the first one to generate enough interest in the new Black List script-hosting site to land the ‘new’ writer representation — with CAA

“Silver Linings Playbook” featurette

Silver Linings Playbook Extended FeaturetteThe Weinstein Companycms.springboardplatform.com That’s one thing. The other thing is this. If we want to tell great stories, we need to feel some connection to them. Better yet, some passion for them. That’s when the magic occurs, when the words we type

Movie Trailer: “Holy Ghost People”

Written by Kevin Artigue & Joe Egender & Mitchell Altieri & Phil Flores A dramatic thriller set in the wild world of Appalachian snake handling churches. IMDB site Release Date: 10 March 2013 (USA) Comment Archive

Studies in voice-over narration: “Fight Club”

Studies in Voice-Over Narration: “Fight Club” Part 3 of a five-part series on movies where voice-over narration works. I set this discussion into motion here and here. To wit: Hollywood conventional wisdom is that voice-over narration and flashbacks are a no-no, yet some of the

Script To Screen: “Harold and Maude”

A scene from the 1971 comedy Harold and Maude, written by Colin Higgins. Setup: Young, rich, and obsessed with death, Harold finds himself changed forever when he meets lively septuagenarian Maude at a funeral. Here he goes on a… ‘date’. He takes one off the wall. HAROLD  (continuing)  This one

Daily Dialogue — February 27, 2013

YALE (Chuckling, to Ike) How are you? (To Tracy) Hi. IKE Okay, good. That’s so funny. We were talking about-you know, we’re-we’re all gonna go to that Shakespeare in the Park thing this weekend. See if we can go ahead and do that. YALE Oh,

90 Words for “looks”

Movies are primarily a visual medium. Therefore as screenwriters, we need to think visually… and write visually. Take the verb “looks”: He looks at the body. She looks at the rainbow. How about these instead: ogles, gapes, stares, gawks, squints, spies, inspects, surveys, peeks, peers. On and on and on,

Interview: Justin Kremer (2012 Black List) — Part 2

No matter what other good things happen to screenwriter Justin Kremer, he will always have this fact as part of his personal history: His script “McCarthy” was the first one to generate enough interest in the new Black List script-hosting site to land the ‘new’ writer representation — with CAA

2013 Best Picture Nominees by ROI

From TheWrap, a helpful chart to remind us of the importance of three little letters: ROI. Return. On. Investment. And sure, Beasts of the Southern Wild chalking up a total of $22M worldwide is a total on par with craft services for say… Marvel’s The Avengers. And yes, the

Movie Trailer: “The Lords of Salem”

Written by Rob Zombie Heidi, a radio DJ, is sent a box containing a record — a “gift from the Lords.” The sounds within the grooves trigger flashbacks of her town’s violent past. Is Heidi going mad, or are the Lords back to take revenge on Salem, Massachusetts? IMDB site

Studies in voice-over narration: “Double Indemnity”

Studies in Voice-Over Narration: “Double Indemnity” I set this discussion into motion here and here. To wit: Hollywood conventional wisdom is that voice-over narration and flashbacks are a no-no, yet some of the greatest movies ever produced use these narrative devices including Fight Club, Goodfellas, The Silence

Screenwriting 101: John Swetnam

“Story concept is like the foundation to a house. It has to be strong or everything else may come tumbling down. If you want to write ‘Hollywood’ movies, then the biggest question you have to ask yourself when you come up with an idea is, can you really see this

Daily Dialogue — February 26, 2013

INT. DRESSING ROOM. EVENING Sam moves down a dark corridor. Voices murmur. He pokes his head around a corner. A rack of choir robes and cassocks blocks his path. He slides two of them apart and looks through at: Five eleven-year-old girls in black leotards sitting on a

U. of Tennessee appearance: Friday, March 1, 2013

For any of you GITS readers who happen to live near Knoxville, Tennessee, I will be speaking there this Friday. If the Hero’s Journey can be said to be a universal structure for story, is there an associated structure of character types? By analyzing several movies, we will explore

Interview: Justin Kremer (2012 Black List) — Part 1

No matter what other good things happen to screenwriter Justin Kremer, he will always have this fact as part of his personal history: His script “McCarthy” was the first one to generate enough interest in the new Black List script-hosting site to land the ‘new’ writer representation — with CAA

Showrunner Rules from Jeffrey Lieber: Numbers 121–130

Jeff Lieber is a screenwriter and TV writer. His movie credits include Tuck Everlasting and he is currently an executive producer of the USA Network series “Necessary Roughness.” On Twitter (@JeffLieber), he has run a series of tweets called Showrunner Rules. For background on Jeff and this Twitter series, go

Movie Trailer: “The Sapphires”

Written by Tony Briggs, Keith Thompson It’s 1968, and four young, talented Australian Aboriginal girls learn about love, friendship and war when their all girl group The Sapphires entertain the US troops in Vietnam. IMDB site Release Date: 9 August 2012 (Australia)

Studies in voice-over narration: “The Shawshank Redemption”

Part 1 of a five-part series on movies where voice-over narration works. I set this discussion into motion here and here. To wit: Hollywood conventional wisdom is that voice-over narration and flashbacks are a no-no, yet some of the greatest movies ever produced use these narrative

On Writing

“For your born writer, nothing is so healing as the realization that he has come upon the right word.” — Catherine Drinker Bowen