Go Into The Story

Charlie Kaufman (V.O.): I have failed, I am panicked. I’ve sold out, I am worthless, I… What the fuck am I doing here? What the fuck am I doing here? Fuck. It is my weakness, my ultimate lack of conviction that brings me here. Easy answers used to

This last round of suggestions surfaced a number of good themes for Daily Dialogue. This week, we’ve featured notable movie monologues based on a suggestion from OutOfContext.  For the upcoming week, I like the idea of doing notable voiceover dialogue. This per a suggestion from Jeff: Since it’s

Oscar Day special interviews with likely winner of Best Original Screenplay: Hurt Locker writer Mark Boal. RealTVfilms.com Screen Rush LovefilmUK Movies Ireland Real Video UK Maple Pictures One thing I noticed about all the interviews I’ve seen with Boal and Bigelow when they’re together: It’s clear

Several GITS readers emailed me about a great series The Guardian ran recently: Ten Rules For Writing Fiction. Today we feature Anne Enright: 1 The first 12 years are the worst. 2 The way to write a book is to actually write a book. A pen is useful, typing is

Oscar Day special interview with likely winner of Best Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air co-writer Sheldon Turner: 10-minute excerpt from The Dialogue series.

Oscar Day special with likely winner of Best Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air co-writer and director Jason Reitman. From the Kevin Pollak Chat Show: One hour and thirty-five minutes of creative goodness. UPDATE: In comments, BellaVida asks a pertinent question: Hi, I love this blog and drop

“Have you ever had a SINGLE MOMENT’S THOUGHT about my responsibilities? Have you ever thought, for a single solitary moment about my responsibilities to my employers? Has it ever occurred to you that I have agreed to look after the OVERLOOK Hotel until May the FIRST. Does it MATTER

Several GITS readers emailed me about a great series The Guardian ran recently: Ten Rules For Writing Fiction. Today we feature Geoff Dyer: 1 Never worry about the commercial possibilities of a project. That stuff is for agents and editors to fret over — or not. Conversation with my American publisher.

To write a spec script that lands the writer representation and gets made into a major motion picture: I would guess that is the dream of most every GITS reader. That’s one of the reasons I am happy to promote again the work and words of screenwriter Michael C.

“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are

Precious was the big winner. Here are the screenplay categories: BEST SCREENPLAY Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, “(500) Days of Summer” Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman, “The Messenger” Michael Hoffman, “The Last Station”  Lee Toland Krieger, “The Vicious Kind” Greg Mottola, “Adventureland” BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY  Geoffrey Fletcher, “Precious” Sophie

Several GITS readers emailed me about a great series The Guardian ran recently: Ten Rules For Writing Fiction. Today we feature Helen Dunmore: 1 Finish the day’s writing when you still want to continue. 2 Listen to what you have written. A dud rhythm in a passage of dialogue

Today is the last day of our 5-part series on what we as writers can learn about our craft from the craft of acting. In particular, I’m hopeful that between what gets posted here and what gets posted in comments — especially by those GITS readers who are actors

We are privileged to have an exclusive Q&A with Michael C. Martin, screenwriter of the movie Brooklyn’s Finest which opens today in theaters nationwide. First a bit of chronology. Evidently you took a film appreciation class at South Shore High School in Brooklyn, then studied film at

Kristy at Matriarchal Script Paradigm shared some good news recently: As most of you have already read, I had some great news to share with you guys. The script I co-wrote with Ralphy made finalist in the Tracking B Contest, roughly top 3 of 828 scripts. Because of that

It’s one of the most poignant, sad, and beautiful movie moments I can remember: The ending of The Elephant Man (1980). Directed by David Lynch from a screenplay he co-wrote with Christopher De Vore & Eric Bergren, the movie tells the story of John Merrick (John Hurt), known

“Fuck you. That’s my name. You know why, mister? You drove a Hyundai to get here. I drove an eighty-thousand dollar BMW. THAT’S my name. And your name is you’re wanting. You can’t play in the man’s game, you can’t close them — go

Today is Part 4 of a 5-part series on what we as writers can learn about our craft from the craft of acting. In particular, I’m hopeful that between what gets posted here and what gets posted in comments — especially by those GITS readers who are actors or

Several GITS readers emailed me about a great series The Guardian ran recently: Ten Rules For Writing Fiction. Today we feature Roddy Doyle: 1 Do not place a photograph of your ­favourite author on your desk, especially if the author is one of the famous ones who committed suicide. 2

MMOF’s latest is an appreciation of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged”: “In the midst of my absence last month, I managed to squeeze in some time to read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. It was only 1000 pages of very fine print — no problem! I had been meaning to

The Great Scene last Friday was from one of my favorite comedies Withnail and I (1987). Unfortunately I only had a transcript of the scene to post. But once again a GITS reader — in this case Danny Parsons — came to the rescue: Hi Scott, Attached, as promised, is the scene

(in the inner-city) Robert Wakefield: I can’t believe you brought my daughter to this place. Seth Abrahams: Woah. Why don’t you just back the fuck up, man. “To this place”? What is that shit? Ok, right now, all over this great nation of ours, ‘hundred thousand white