“How Writers Create Their Fiction”: Curtis Sittenfeld 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
Script To Screen: “Grosse Pointe Blank” From the 1997 movie Grosse Pointe Blank, screenplay by Tom Jankiewicz and D.V. DeVincentis & Steve Pink & John Cusack, story by Tom Jankiewicz. Setup: Martin Blank [John Cusack] is a professional assassin. He is sent on a mission to a small Detroit suburb, Grosse Pointe, and, by coincidence,
Daily Dialogue — November 21, 2012 Colonel Sandurz: Try here. Stop. Dark Helmet: What the hell am I looking at? When does this happen in the movie? Colonel Sandurz: Now. You’re looking at now, sir. Everything that happens now, is happening now. Dark Helmet: What happened to then? Colonel Sandurz: We passed then. Dark Helmet:
Reader Question: When writing a historical piece, how important is dialect? Question from AC_is_On: When writing a historical piece, in regards to dialogue, how important is dialect? There are no rules about this and — obviously — much depends upon the story’s genre and the writers approach to tone, feel and historical accuracy. I think it pretty much boils down
Dispatch from The Quest: Scott Reynolds The Quest participants have been hard at work pounding out a first draft of their original screenplays, but Scott Reynolds has found the time to compose a dispatch for us. In 12 years of state-mandated school I never wrote a single rough draft. Not one. It was a problem,
THR: 2012 Actresses Roundtable From THR: Perseverance emerged as a theme of The Hollywood Reporter’s Actress Roundtable, held Oct. 22 at Siren Studios in Hollywood. Awards contenders Naomi Watts, 44 (The Impossible); Helen Hunt, 49 (The Sessions); Anne Hathaway, 30 (Les Miserables); Amy Adams, 38 (The Master, Trouble With the Curve); Rachel Weisz,
“Why are these characters in this scene?” Another crucial question to ask when writing a scene: “Why are these characters in this scene?” Who’s in the scene? Or more aptly, what characters should be in the scene? And why? Likewise who should not be in the scene? These are questions many writers don’t ask — at
Movie Trailer: “Any Day Now” In the 1970s, a gay couple fights a biased legal system to keep custody of the abandoned mentally handicapped teenager that comes to live under their roof. Written by Travis Fine, George Arthur Bloom IMDB Site Comment Archive
“How Writers Create Their Fiction”: Ken Kalfus 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
Screenwriting 101: Robert Rodriguez “I had the worst schedule on Spy Kids, and I didn’t figure it out until the rewrite. I kick myself for not having figured this out years ago. I’d be so much more prolific. I have a writing system now that works fantastic. What threw me is that
Daily Dialogue — November 20, 2012 “Yep, I said it before and I’ll say it again. Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” — Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), written by John Hughes http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.
Update on new Black List service: Writer signs with CAA Well, that didn’t take long. From Indiewire: A month into its new online service allowing screenwriters to have their work read, reviewed and (potentially) pursued, the Black List announces its first success story. After submitting his script to the Black List site “out of sheer curiosity,” writer Justin Kremer
Spec Script Sale: “High Value Target” Millennium Films acquires action spec script “High Value Target” written by Spenser Cohen. Per TheWrap: The film, which will also mark Cohen’s directorial debut, chronicles Mantis, a lethal special-operations unit that attacks a boat operated by Somali pirates. In an effort to ramp up the realism, much of
The mystery of “Ergo Kumquat” Okay, you’ll just have to bear with me on this. I have a sense of humor. Good enough that I made a living doing stand-up comedy for 2 years. I believe I developed my sense of humor as a result of being a military brat. Moving around as
“What is the point of the scene?” I begin the scene-writing process asking this fundamental question: What is the point of the scene? Every single scene in a screenplay should have a purpose, a reason for its existence, a point to it. In the External World, the realm of action and dialogue, there is a structural
“How Writers Create Their Fiction”: Gayle Brandeis 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
On Writing “Another way to look at theme: it unifies story and bridges disparate elements. In this way theme is like The Force. Or like fiber. Or like bondage at an orgy. It ties the whole thing together. Different characters, tangled plotlines, curious notions: all of them come together with the magic
Daily Dialogue — November 19, 2012 LADY PRESENTER: Hello, and welcome to ‘The Middle of the Film’, the moment where we take a break to invite you, the audience, to join us, the film-makers, in ‘Find the Fish’. We’re going to show you a scene from another film and ask you to guess where
Go On Your Own Quest, Week 18: First Draft Several readers emailed me about aggregating the entire series of posts we have been running in association with the Go On Your Own Quest initiative. Here is Week 18: First Draft. “The story must be a conflict” [Maxwell Anderson] “If I waited until I felt like writing, I’d never
Screenwriting Advice From The Past: Cutting The Picture [Part 3] 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:
WGA Top 101 Screenplays Saw a Tweet yesterday from Jeanne Bowerman [@jeannevb]: WGA’s top 101 scripts… most available for download That link is here. Some of the scripts are not PDFs, but even if it’s a text or HTML version, you will still be reading words written by top professional screenwriters. Remember:
Screenwriting News (November 12-November 18, 2012) Phil Allocco writing-directing romantic comedy “The Truth About Lies” for Rumpus Productions. Doug Atchison writing sports drama “Turk” for Tenth Green Productions with Ed Burns to star. Simon Beaufoy adapting drama novel “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” for Film4 Productions. Max La Bella writing untitled thriller project for
Daily Dialogue — November 18, 2012 John Keating: Close your eyes, close your eyes! Close ‘em! Now, describe what you see. Todd Anderson: Uh, I-I close my eyes. John Keating: Yes. Todd Anderson: Uh, and this image floats beside me. John Keating: A sweaty-toothed madman. Todd Anderson: A sweaty-toothed madman with a stare
Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Breaking the 4th Wall! As we wrap up a week’s worth of teacher-student dialogue [thanks, Teddy Pasternak, for the suggestion], it’s time to move onto next week theme: Breaking the 4th Wall [suggested by Shaula Evans]. For those not familiar with the terminology, here is our old friend Wikipedia: The fourth
