Rita Hayworth is “Stayin’ Alive” First today’s Great Character comes from The Shawshank Redemption based on a Stephen King novella called “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redmeption.” Then my friend Kurt Brown just happens to send me this link featuring some fantastic clips of Rita Hayworth to the sounds of the Bee Gees song
Go into the story… and find the animals If you’ve taken the time to scroll down the home page and read The Story Behind Go Into The Story, you know this mantra derives from a conversation I had with my then three year-old son. It went pretty much like this: Me: Hey, Luke, I’m starting
Spirit of the Spec: And if it doesn’t sell… I had a conversation recently with a former studio executive turned producer in which I found myself talking about the “spirit of the spec,” essentially when a person chooses to pursue a project or goal entirely on speculation with the hopes of some eventual payoff. Not everybody would make that
Great Character: Brooks Hatlen (“The Shawshank Redemption”) We may tend to think of Mentor characters as sage men and women, spouting off wisdom in memorable aphorisms. But there are all types of Mentors (as there are all archetypes). And in Brooks Hatlen in The Shawshank Redemption, we have a unique one: What I call a Dark Mentor.
Daily Dialogue — May 4, 2012 INT. THE CASTORINI HOUSE — KITCHEN — DAY Rose is at the stove. The kitchen is filled with steam and sunlight. Rose is stirring a pot filled with oatmeal. Another range has the coffeepot heating. Loretta shuffles into the kitchen, goes to the tin table, and sits down. There are red roses
“Dare to Suck” This may be my favorite video ever: As writers, we need to embrace the power of suckitude — because nothing frees us up creatively as much as knowing we can dare to suck. Here is a transcript of Maureen’s comments: A lot of you had questions about writing, and you
2012 Summer Blockbusters Get Indie Movie Posters As long as we’re talking 2012 summer movies, check this out. Thanks to FirstShowing for sourcing this: The summer really kicks off this weekend as The Avengers assemble, but for months we’ve been inundated with plenty of posters, trailers and more for films like The Amazing Spider-Man,
2012 Summer B.O.: It’s prediction time! Here we are! Right before the summer movie season, the biggest time of year for the studios in terms of generating the majority of their annual theatrical revenues. This always leads to people predicting which movies will do what total business in what order. So let’s join in the
Spirit Of The Spec: You Put It Out There I had a conversation recently with a former studio executive turned producer in which I found myself talking about the “spirit of the spec,” essentially when a person chooses to pursue a project or goal entirely on speculation with the hopes of some eventual payoff. Not everybody would make that
The Business of Screenwriting: Get a damn good lawyer! It’s September, 1999. My wife and I are at a party in Pacific Palisades to welcome families who are new to Wildwood School, where our then only son goes to grade school. A typical beautiful southern California night, schmoozing with a bunch of Type A parents dressed in Type
Daily Dialogue — May 3, 2012 Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: That music… Frau Blücher: Yes. It’s in your blood — it’s in the blood of ALL Frankensteins. It reaches the soul when words are useless. Your grandfather used to play it to the creature HE vas making. Dr. Frederick Frankenstein: Then it was you all the
GITS Script Reading & Analysis: What’s next? It’s been interesting to watch the ebb and flow of this series, and we’re clearly still trying to figure out the optimum approach. Participation during the last session focusing on Galaxy Quest was pretty slack apart from the live Tweet-Cast. But the previous script Michael Clayton was
Movie Trailer: “Beasts of the Southern Wild” Everybody I know who has seen this movie raves about it: Written by Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin IMDB site Movie website Release date: 27 June 2012 More movies like this, please. Comment Archive
2012 Austin Film Festival panelists announced The Austin Film Festival, which focuses on screenwriters, has yet another impressive list of attendees this year. Click below to see them all: Dan Angel — writer/producer R.L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour, Young Blades, Night Visions, Goosebumps John August — writer FRANKENWEENIE, CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, BIG FISH,
Spirit Of The Spec: You Write Your Story I had a conversation recently with a former studio executive turned producer in which I found myself talking about the “spirit of the spec,” essentially when a person chooses to pursue a project or goal entirely on speculation with the hopes of some eventual payoff. Not everybody would make that
How They Write A Script: John Michael Hayes Alfred Hitchcock worked with several great writers, one of them being John Michael Hayes, who wrote the screenplays forRear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955), The Trouble with Harry (1955), and The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956). After he and Hitchcock had a falling out, Hayes went on
Script To Screen: “Psycho” The famous “truth about mother” scenes from the classic 1960 movie Psycho, screenplay by Joseph Stefano, based on a novel by Robert Bloch. Setup: Lila Crane sneaks around the Bates home in search of her missing sister Marion. Suspicious of Norman, Lila heads downstairs toward the basement… The movie version
Daily Dialogue — May 2, 2012 Jenny: This is my very good friend, Mr. Gump. Can you say hi to him? Forrest Junior: Hello, Mr. Gump. Forrest: Hello. Forrest Junior: Can I go watch TV now? Jenny: Yes, you can, just keep it low. Forrest: You’re a mama, Jenny. Jenny: I’m a mama. His
Insight into Joss Whedon: Storyteller A special promotional video for the upcoming surer-to-be smash hit The Avengers, featuring Joss Whedon discussing a fight sequence between Thor and Iron Man. His insights into this one scene reveal how a storyteller thinks: Yahoo! Video PlayerEdit descriptiond.yimg.com Here’s an excerpt of Whedon’s
Spirit Of The Spec: You Act On Your Idea I had a conversation recently with a former studio executive turned producer in which I found myself talking about the “spirit of the spec,” essentially when a person chooses to pursue a project or goal entirely on speculation with the hopes of some eventual payoff. Not everybody would make that
Welcome to GITS! It’s the beginning of the month and you know what that means? Yes, it’s Welcome to Kitty City time! Now that we are sufficiently disturbed by wasting precisely one minute and forty-nine seconds of our lives watching that video, I think I’ve set just the right
Movie Trailer: “The Dark Knight Rises” Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan, story by Christopher Nolan & David S. Goyer, characters by Bob Kane IMDB site Release date: 20 July 2012
A Story Idea Each Day for a Month: What did we learn? For 30 days in April, I hammered you with story ideas. Some good, many so-so, a few stinkers. But all in the spirit of the point I made on the very first day of the series: If you have aspirations of becoming a professional screenwriter, you should be in
Screenwriting 101: Scott Frank “The best writing is also subconscious where you don’t know that you’re doing it, and you don’t realize you’ve done it. That’s a few seconds and the rest of the week is using the other half of your brain manipulating what you’ve come up
Daily Dialogue — May 1, 2012 Han Solo: I’m sure Luke wasn’t on that thing when it blew. Princess Leia: He wasn’t. I can feel it. Han Solo: You love him, don’t you? Princess Leia: Yes. Han Solo: All right. I understand. Fine. When he comes back, I won’t get in
