Screenwriting Advice From The Past: Writing for the Censors [Part 1] If you are a screenwriter, you should know about Anita Loos. Loos was one of the most influential writers in the early stages of American cinema, associated with 136 film projects per IMDB. Married to writer John Emerson, the pair wrote one of the first books on screenwriting in 1920:
Screenwriting News (November 19-November 25, 2012) Andrew Baldwin’s action script “The Outsider” moves from Warner Bros. to Silver Pictures. Richard Bean writing family comedy “School for Santas” for Working Title. Peter Buchman rewriting political thriller “A Man Must Die” for Canana Films. Spenser Cohen sells action spec script “High Value Target” to Millennium Films. Noe
Daily Dialogue — November 25, 2012 Paul: Okay, we bet- what time is it? Peter: 8:40. Paul: That in, let’s say, 12 hours all three of you are gonna be kaput. Okay? Anna: What? Paul: You bet that you’ll be alive tomorrow at 9 o’clock and we bet that you’ll be
Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Giving birth As we wrap up a week’s worth of breaking the 4th wall dialogue [thanks, Shaula Evans, for the suggestion], it’s time to move onto next week theme: Giving birth [suggested by blknwite]. Oh, there are lots of great birth scenes in movies. I expect the GITS community to
Great Scene: “Braveheart” For an actor, there is nothing better than a great death scene — and in the annals of notable dying scenes in the last few decades, the execution of William Wallace (Mel Gibson) in Braveheart (1995) is one of the most memorable ones. Here is an excerpt of Wallace’s very
Saturday Hot Links Time for another installment of Saturday Hot Links! Today: The Rare Ernest Hemingway Interviews Edition! Why we eat what we eat on Thanksgiving. Seriously, you don’t want to know the average amount of calories in a Thanksgiving meal. Why does turkey make you tired. 7 overlooked Thanksgiving rituals. A
Written Interview: David Magee (“Life of Pi”) Script magazine interview with screenwriter David Magee who adapted Life of Pi. Here is an excerpt: SM What specific challenges did you face adapting it? DM So much of it takes place in the mind of Pi as he goes on this amazing journey. And the greatest challenges were finding
Daily Dialogue — November 24, 2012 Benjamin: Wayne! Listen, we need to have a talk about Vanderhoff. The fact is he’s the sponsor and you signed a contract guaranteeing him certain concessions, one of them being a spot on the show. Wayne Campbell: [holding a Pizza Hut box] Well that’s where I see things
“Part of Something Larger Than Ourselves” I’m sure some of you have seen this TED Talk with Eric Whitacre. If not, watch it. If so, watch it again. TED: Ideas worth spreadingTED.com, home of TED Talks, is a global initiative about ideas worth spreading via TEDx, the TED Prize, TED Books, TED…embed.ted.
“What is the beginning, middle and end of the scene?” Aristotle described a story as having three parts: “A whole [story] is that which has beginning, middle, and end. A beginning is that which is not itself necessarily after anything else, and which has naturally something else after it; an end is that which is naturally after something itself, either
Movie Trailer: “Epic” A teenager finds herself transported to a deep forest setting where a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil is taking place. She bands together with a rag-tag group characters in order to save their world — and ours. Written by Tom J. Astle, Matt Ember,
“How Writers Create Their Fiction”: Jeanne Birdsall I uncovered this month-long NPR series “How Writers Create Their Fiction”, originally run in November 2006. I found many of the ideas presented by the various writers to be informative and inspirational, so we’ll be featuring one writer per day for the next few weeks. Today’s writer
Great Character: Rod Tidwell (“Jerry Maguire”) This month’s Great Character theme: Sports figures. Today: Jason Cuthbert’s guest post features Rod Tidwell from the 1996 movie Jerry Maguire [written by Cameron Crowe]. After his break-dancing beginnings backing up the likes of superstar singers Paula Abdul as well as Lionel Ritchie during the 1984 Olympic
Daily Dialogue — November 23, 2012 “You know what? When I look back on my little life and the birds I’ve known, and think of all the things they’ve done for me and the little I’ve done for them, you’d think I’ve had the best of it along the line. But
Happy Thanksgiving “Alice’s Restaurant” style! It’s Thanksgiving here in the U.S. and what better way for cinephiles to celebrate than to remember the 1969 comedy Alice’s Restaurant, a movie based on the song “The Alice’s Restaurant Massacreee” by Arlo Guthrie. You can hear the entire original 18 minute version of the
Thanksgiving thoughts from Teddy Pasternak From comments to an earlier post today: Be thankful that you are part of a community that is positive, encouraging and believes that knowledge is something that should be shared. Be thankful that with a click of a button you can connect with thousands of like-minded individuals all across
“When should I enter / exit the scene?” Here’s another screenwriting mantra: “Enter the scene as late into the action as possible, and leave the scene as soon as you can.” If you don’t believe me, how about the dean of contemporary screenwriters William Goldman: “You always attack a movie scene as late as you possibly
Movie Trailer: “The Man Who Shook The Hand Of Vicente Fernández” Written by Elia Petridis IMDB site Release Date: 7 December 2012 [L.A.]
“How Writers Create Their Fiction”: Alice Hoffman I uncovered this month-long NPR series “How Writers Create Their Fiction”, originally run in November 2006. I found many of the ideas presented by the various writers to be informative and inspirational, so we’ll be featuring one writer per day for the next few weeks. Today’s writer
Writers, count your blessings! Thursday at 10AM is the weekly slot for The Business of Screenwriting series. However today is Thanksgiving here in the United States. I tried like hell to come up with an appropriate take that involved both business and thankfulness, but the faces of one dissipated, disaffected screenwriter after another kept
Daily Dialogue — November 22, 2012 “Top five things I miss about Laura. One: sense of humor. Very dry, but it can also be warm and forgiving. And she’s got one of the best all time laughs in the history of all time laughs, she laughs with her entire body. Two: she’s got character.
Is Disney taking a Pixar-like approach to “Star Wars”? Late yesterday, Mike Fleming at Deadline reported this: Here’s some tantalizing dish to chew on before the Thanksgiving turkey and trimmings. After hiring Michael Arndt to script the first installment of the relaunch of George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise, I’ve heard Disney has approached Lawrence Kasdan and Simon
Audience Identification: “People always think it’s about them” In the Sunday NYT feature on Judd Apatow and his upcoming movie This is 40, there is this quote: “People never walk out of the movie and think it’s about us,” Mr. Apatow said. “They always think it’s about them.” And this is a reminder of one of
Movie Trailer: “Broken” Follows three families whose lives intertwine when a young girl witnesses a violent crime. Screenplay by Mark O’Rowe, novel by Daniel Clay IMDB site
