Go Into The Story

Similar but different (cont’d)

I’ve talked a lot on this blog about Hollywood’s working ethos of ‘similar but different.’ We got an object lesson its continuing presence yesterday. I posted this about the spec script sale of “21 and Over”: Per Variety, Relativity Media buys comedy spec “21 and Over” from “The

Q&A Interview with David Young (CollegeHumor.com)

So a few weeks back, I posted something called Inception Ending Extended: In comments,GITS reader FLO! wrote this: I’m a long time reader of this site AND I wrote this sketch! Such an honor. Thanks for posting it! So I emailed FLO! and discovered that he’s actually

Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: Make a Collage

Remember your first day in third grade? And your teacher… you know, the new one fresh out of college with boundless enthusiasm and alternative ideas about education… announced that instead of writing the same old dreary “What I Did Last Summer” paper, your homework assignment would be to do a

Screenwriting 101 — Richard Price

“On a strictly technical level, the one thing that never fails to surprise me is how even a little dialogue is always too much. On the page it can look like it flies and then you get in a sit-around in some hotel banquet room where everyone’s doing

Daily Dialogue — August 18, 2010

Twimble: As a brash young man, Well, I said to myself, ‘Now, brash young man, Don’t get any ideas.’ Well, I stuck to that, And I haven’t had one in years.  Finch: You play it safe.  Twimble: I play it the company way; Wherever the company puts me

Spec Script Sale: “21 and Over”

Per Variety, Relativity Media buys comedy spec “21 and Over” from “The Hangover” writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore: Story centers on two college seniors who get their best friend drunk on his 21st birthday and then must race to get him to his medical school exam the next morning.

“The Definitive List of Cliché Dialogue”

“The Definitive List of Cliché Dialogue” started with U.K.-based screenwriter Kevin Lehane. I explained the background in a post here back in November, 2009: Just about a month ago, I posted this: Writer Kevin Lehane, whose script “Grabbers” made the most recent Brit List, the UK equivalent of

“Ultimate Filmmakers Guide to Film Noir”

In the past, I’ve posted a lot of movie lists. Mostly for fun like these: Cinema’s 50 Greatest Flops, Follies, and Failures 7 Great Wes Anderson Parodies 8 Awesomely Stupid Fight Scenes But here’s something that’s a list of movies and much more. From Filmmaker IQ:

Hollywood Tales

“[Paul] Schrader probed the edges of Hollywood, working as a reader at Warners for fifteen dollars a synopsis and teaching himself screenwriting by working on an original called Pipeliner, something he hoped to direct. Then [Pauline] Kael called him from New York — a critic’s position was about to open

Daily Dialogue — August 17, 2010

ARIEL But without my voice, how can I- URSULA You’ll have your looks, your pretty face. And don’t underestimate the importance of body language, ha! The men up there don’t like a lot of blabber They think a girl who gossips is a bore! Yet on land

Popcorn Fiction: “A Good Lie”

It’s Monday and time for a new short story at Popcorn Fiction. A note from the site’s host screenwriter Derek Haas: I’m happy to bring you another story from Matthew David Brozik, who previously wrote the excellent piece “Service Station” for the site last year. I like

Reader question: What to do if I feel like I’ve regressed as a storyteller?

From Elizabeth O: Scott, What happens when you’re having trouble putting together plot for ALL of your ideas. In college, I was able to outline a feature idea in one sitting with subplots and everything, but now it is next to impossible. It’s as if I’ve regressed

Update: Emily Hagins

Some long-time GITS followers may remember the story of young filmmkaer Emily Hagins. It started off with a Q&A with the creators of the documentary Zombie Girl: ZOMBIE GIRL: THE MOVIE Emily Hagins is making a zombie movie. It’s feature-length, it’s bloody, and the

“What if ‘The Expendables’ were women?”

Seeing as The Expendables did well at the box office on its opening weekend, FlavorWire ponders this idea: The Expendables opens today, and if you didn’t know already, it’s an action movie that features a leather bag brimming with bundled cash, a helpless woman with an accent, and

On writing

“My notion of a story is an interesting situation in which a human being has to cope with a problem, does so, and thereby changed his personality, character, or evaluations in some measure because the coping has forced him to revise his thinking. How he copes with it, I can’

Daily Dialogue — August 16, 2010

“I put on some make-up turn up the eight-track I’m pulling the wig down from the shelf Suddenly I’m Miss Punk Rock, star of stage and screen and I ain’t never… I’m never turning back!”  — Hedwig (John Cameron Mitchell), Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Reader Question: What if I’m not sure I want a career in Hollywood?

A third and final question from Gregaria: If the script sells, what would I and my partner have to do? Move to the shooting site for three or four months, re-write the script, set up a contract, sell our souls to Hollywood? (Okay, kidding about the last part. :) ) I

Profile: Walter Murch (Part 4)

Our friend Trevor Hogg is back at FlickeringMyth with another profile, this one on famed film editor and sound engineer Walter Murch. Attentive readers know that I am fascinated about the relationship of editing and screenwriting, and in particular Murch’s ideas, as evidenced by previous posts here and here.

Box Office Weekend

Per BoxOfficeMojo: WLWTitle (click to view)StudioWeekend Gross% ChangeTheater Count / ChangeAverageTotal GrossBudget*Week #1 N The Expendables LGF $35,030,000–3,270 — $10,713 $35,030,000–1 2 N Eat Pray Love Sony $23,700,000–3,082 — $7,690 $23,700,000 $60 1 3 1 The

Update: James King, author of “Bill Warrington’s Last Chance”

Last week, I posted this: At the age of 6, James King announced his intention to become a novelist. And in his 50s, that was still the plan. Yes, he paid the bills (and two college tuitions) with his day job writing corporate training materials. But every morning at 5,

Daily Dialogue — August 15, 2010

“Michael. Dear Michael. Of course it’s you, who else could they send, who else could be trusted? I… I know it’s a long way and you’re ready to go to work… all I’m saying is wait, just wait, just-just-just… please hear me out because

Reader Question: Would there be copyright issues on the sale of both an original screenplay and a movie?

A second question from Gregaria: We want to make this movie ourselves just because we have a lot of friends who want to be in it and help us… and it would be fun. However, we kind of want to try selling it, too. If we make the movie first

Happy Birthday, Steve Martin!

Steve Martin hit it big when I was in graduate school, so there were times when I would finish reading Kierkegaard, Wittgenstein, or Bultmann, then whiplash my consciousness by listening to the record — yes, an actual LP — of Martin’s 1st comedy album “Let’s Get Small”. Although I had

Written Interview: David Michod (Animal Kingdom)

Today’s written interview is with David Michod, the Australian writer-director of several movies including three short dramas Ezra White, LL.B. (2006), Crossbow (2007), and Netherland Dwarf (2008), two documentaries Solo (2008) and Inside the Square (2009), and newest, the full-length feature film Animal Kingdom (2010), which

Daily Dialogue — August 14, 2010

“Dear Diary: Heather told me she teaches people ‘real life.’ She said, real life sucks losers dry. You want to fuck with the eagles, you have to learn to fly. I said, so, you teach people how to spread their wings and fly? She said, yes. I said, you’re