Go Into The Story

Q&A: Aaron Tracy (screenwriter, spec script “Article III”)

Back in February, screenwriter Aaron Tracy sold his spec script “Article III” as noted here. Aaron kindly agreed to do an interview for GITS readers. Here it is: Let’s start at the beginning. How does someone with a B.A. from Cornell and a M.A. from Yale in

Screenwriting 101: Gary Ross

“So many kids work backward methodically, calculatingly from a process instead of from the inside out in terms of what they want to express. All anybody really wants to find, (those) who take home stacks of scripts over the weekend, is an original voice that stirs them. Then they want

Learn how to market your script and build your career

So you’ve written a spec script. What’s next? How to market your script? How to build your career? Those are the precise topics in the newest Screenwriting Master Class course: “Network Hollywood.” Query letters, genre strategies, contests, working with managers and agents, choosing the right stories to write,

Reader Question: How do you manage your time?

Courtney asks: I have a question. I’ve followed this blog every day for roughly eighteen months and you post… every single day. 6am to 6pm. Has Mrs. M ever asked… “Can we leave the house… please?” The information you post on a daily basis is priceless but I do

The success of Popcorn Fiction

Back on September 1, 2009, I posted this: Here’s an interesting writing site — Popcorn Fiction: This site grew out of a love for pulpy short fiction that used to dominate popular magazines in the mid-20th Century. As a screenwriter, my partner and I have been tasked with adapting

Popcorn Fiction: “Gentle On My Mind” by Matt Ward

A special day for one of my favorite sites Popcorn Fiction: Well, this week marks our two year anniversary and our 89th story to publish on Popcorn Fiction. I seriously can’t believe it. Thank you to all of the readers for making this a memorable couple of years, and

On writing

“A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.”   — Sidney Sheldon Via @Quotes4Writers

Daily Dialogue — July 18, 2011

“Oh… fuck! Fuck!  — Charles (Hugh Grant), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), written by Richard Curtis http://movieclips.com/e/a2LSY/0/120.279/ The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is opening lines, suggested by KyahGreen. Today’s suggestion by @karenjeynes. Trivia: Inspiration for the film came when writer

Love letter… to a Smith-Corona

You may remember the interview I did with novelist Jim King who after being rejected by 54 agents, finally got his book “Bill Warrington’s Last Chance” published to great acclaim. Jim has a blog and had a recent post I thought was quite charming: Letter to a first love.

Update: “Moneyball”

Among the many movie projects I have tracked on the blog over the last few years is Moneyball. It is an object lesson in the hazards of Development Hell. Here is a post from back in December 2009 in which I spotlighted a key reason why the project had issues:

Live Now

I bumped into this site [welivenow.org] the other day and came away inspired: We are a growing collection of friends, powerfully pursuing the notion of ‘living now’. We’re spreading our message through artwork, literature, relationships, exhibitions and more. This movement cannot be confined, is spilling out, and making

“Flannery O’Connor: The Cartoons”

Flannery O’Connor is one of my favorite authors with “The Violent Bear It Away” as one of the best novels I have read. So whenever I see anything pop up about her, I race right to it to see what’s what. This one from Flavorwire is particularly delicious:

“‘Bad Santa 2’: The sequel so anticipated it gets … two scripts?”

Nothing like two writers working on competing projects… especially when it’s the same project! From the LAT: EXCLUSIVE: A “Bad Santa” sequel has been a tantalizing possibility ever since Willie Stokes (Billy Bob Thornton) survived a shooting at the hands of the police department and became its sensitivity trainer.

Written Interview: Carl Reiner

On their website, the WGA has a terrific series of interviews called The Masters. In this one, Dennis Faye interviews Carl Reiner: A look through Reiner’s resume shows that he’s been juggling scores of projects for over half a century, from his early work writing and performing for

Reader Question: What are some tips on striking the right tone in a script?

Atlanta asks: Any tips on tone? What I’m most intimidated by, strikes me as what you most gain through experience (and if Diablo Cody didn’t nail the tonal shift in Jennifer’s Body to folks’ satisfaction, what hope do I have, esp as a newbie?). Does tone entirely

Nonlinear storytelling in “Pulp Fiction”

In response to a comment by ZoeTheCat re today’s Daily Dialogue featured movie Pulp Fiction — which happens to be ZTC’s “favorite movie,” here is some analysis I did on it a few years back, specifically exploring the question of whether Tarantino’s choice of using a nonlinear approach

Rise of the international movie marketplace

I missed this article in the Economist from back in February, but not Annika W who forwarded it to me. Really drives home how important the international market has become as far as Hollywood movies are concerned. Just look at this chart: Here is the main point of the article:

Great Character: Withnail (“Withnail & I”)

This is absolutely one of my favorite all time movie characters: Withnail in the brilliant English comedy Withnail & I [written and directed by Bruce Robinson]: The character Withnail is played brilliantly by Richard E. Grant. Per IMDB: London 1969 — two ‘resting’ (unemployed and unemployable) actors, Withnail and Marwood, fed

Reader Question: Should I trim a 125 page spec script or not?

Nitro1976 asks: I’m struggling with the subject of script length. I’ve read some discussions on GITS and I realize that script readers have a tough job — they want short scripts. On the other hand, my genre is action and if you look at the script lengths of many

“Vince Gilligan and the strange world of ‘Breaking Bad’”

“Breaking Bad” is back with season four. The LAT did a nice feature on show creator, TV and screenwriter Vince Gilligan. Some excerpts: Still, there is a glaring disconnect between the outward persona of Gilligan and his bleak creation: How does a former film student at New York University and

Movie Trailer: “The Thing”

http://img.widgets.video.s-msn.com/fl/customplayer/current/customplayer.swf Screenwriter Eric Heisserer shares a “screenplay by” credit on the movie.  You can follow Eric on Twitter: @writerspry. Release date: October 14, 2011. Interesting if I’ve got this right: This version is a prequel of a remake

“After Potter, Warner Bros. seeks more magic”

What to do after you lose a $5B movie franchise? That’s what Warner Bros. has to figure out after the final installment of Harry Potter cycles through its well-oiled distribution pipeline. A good article from MSNBC on the studio’s situation: The Harry Potter franchise has, to date,

The Business of Screenwriting: “Qualify the customer”

Okay, this week’s post is a blast from the past and only comes about due to a recent revelation from a TV producer I know that she has started dating a dude whose mother’s sister is married to this guy: This is Larry Thomas who in 2010 was

Reader Question: Does posting your script on a public website hurt its chance of selling?

Sean Z P Harris asks: Howdy Scott, Long time, no post! I have a quick question: would a studio still buy a script that had been uploaded for critique on a public website such as GITS Club?  Would the fact that virutally anyone in the world may also have a

“Writers in Hollywood,” Raymond Chandler

I can’t remember who sent me this link — HT to you whoever you are! — but this is pretty special. This is an article written by Raymond Chandler in 1945 in Atlantic magazine. It you check his credits on IMDB, apart from his novels and stories, he has only a