Rob’s Finds GITS contributor Rob Fuller emerged from his weekly descent into the Web’s wild, wooly, and weird relationship with movies, returning with these gems: Cinema Therapy Will “Field of Dreams” see you through a midlife crisis? Can “Groundhog Day” help you visualize your way out of a rut? What with
Great Scene: “The Verdict” Courtroom dramas. A staple of Hollywood cinema for decades. From a string of great films nearly a half-century ago Anatomy of a Murder (1959), Inherit the Wind (1960), Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) to more recent hits including Presumed Innocent (1990), A Few Good Men
Reader Question: What kind of chances does a period piece have as a spec? Question from Violet: Can you talk about what kind of chances a period film has as a spec? I’m not talking sweeping epic, just a character focused coming-of-age drama set in the 1940s. How do studios and producers feel about period pieces that aren’t based on
Movies You Made: “Grocery List” Another Movie You Made: “Grocery List” written & directed by Brian Neill. Brian provides this background: I moved out to California in 08 to attend film school. (Ran out of money and am now back in Arkansas.) While in school, I wrote and directed a short — a light comedy romantic
“Top 10 Worst Network TV Decisions” The folks at Ranker.com sent me this link: Top 10 Worst Network TV Decisions. Hm, wonder what could have possibly provoked this piece? The so-called ‘compromise’ with Leno moving back to 11:35 and Conan at 12:05 — such bull shit. And NBC would appear to be majorly
Thoughts on pre-battle speeches So per your suggestions, this week’s Daily Dialogue theme is pre-battle speeches. And while bumping around the ‘Internets,’ I stumbled upon this discussion on MaryAn Batchelor’s blog FencingWithTheFog.com from August 2006: As Chris Soth mentioned on my previous battle speech post, I pretty much expect pre-
Scene Description Spotlight: “Raging Bull” Sports movie are tough to write for many reasons. Here’s one of them: How to describe athletic action without being too specific and ‘stagey’ or too generic and inauthentic. A screenplay that does a great job on this front is Raging Bull (1980). Adapted by Paul Schrader and Mardik
Daily Dialogue — January 14, 2010 “Sure, Mohawks has beaten us twelve years in a row. Sure, they’re terrific athletes. They’ve got the best equipment money can buy. Hell, every team they’re sending over here has their personal masseuse. But it doesn’t matter. Do you know that every Mohawk competitor has an
Question: What about submitting a 187-page script? Reader Question: What about submitting a 187-page script? Sure… if you want the script reader to hate you! Reader question from stefano altieri: Getting Into The Story — A question of length… THEY say that a script’s length in pages is an approximation of its film’s length in
Movies You Made: “The Academy” Another Movie You Made: “The Academy”. Kenneth Barr provides some background: THE ACADEMY They are society’s flotsam, murderers, sociopaths, criminals bred for Darwinian survival. Culled together, a select group of convicted youths are given a second chance by a shadowy organization: The Academy. They will be trained to become
“The 2008 Black List (Unproduced Screenplays) Update: Where Are They Now?” This is back from Nov 2009, but ioncinema.com provides a good status report on what happened to the top 15 Black List scripts from 2008: I thought we’d go back one year and see where we were at with the top 15 projects of the list. Only three
“Studio Stories” Writer and blogger Lee Mathias has started something similar to our Hollywood Tales called “Studio Stories:” This is the first in an irregularly recurring series I’ll call Studio Stories. If it sounds oddly familiar, it’s because it is directly inspired by Scott Myers’s great blog, Go Into
Screenwriting 101: John Hill “I mention the concept of ‘great scenes’ in a movie script because that’s what we’re always trying to write. Terrific scenes are the coin of the screenwriting realm. But what are some characteristics of great scene construction? * Protagonist start the scene under tremendous pressure, the emotions already sky-
Question: What is the state of spec script market? Open Forum question from JD Walters: Dear Scott, I wonder if you could clarify a bit more the real state of the spec market, and also the meaning of a spec script. I’ve heard contradictory reports on this website. On the one hand, you say (and agents seem to
Movies You Made: “Man Overboard” Another in the series Movies You Made: “Man Overboard,” written by Ashley Scott Meyers & Nathan Ives. Here’s some background info from Ashley: Last year I co-wrote Man Overboard which was produced and is currently being distributed independently by the production company. The official site is here: http:
“I’m Expecting a Package” The subject of packaging has come up lately on GITS, so this post by writer and Creative Screenwriting columnist Jim Cirile is timely: So what is packaging? It simply means attaching ‘elements’ — a name director or actor — to a spec script to improve the chances of a sale. “It’s
“Where Writers Write” Nice catch here: A feature in “Poets & Writers” about where writers write: Conrad Aiken worked at a refectory table in the dining room; Robert Graves wrote in a room furnished only with objects made by hand. Ernest Hemingway wrote standing up; D. H. Lawrence under a tree. William Maxwell
Hollywood Tales “Then Hitchcock arrived at MGM and he signed Cary Grant and fixed a starting date. Here I am, sweating my way through a first draft, and I still didn’t know what the whole third act would be. I was so desperate I called Hitch and said I needed to
Daily Dialogue — January 12, 2010 “Did you say ‘over’? Nothing’s over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell, no! And it ain’t over now. ’Cause when the going gets tough… … … …the tough get going! Who’s with me? Let’s go! Come on! [runs from
WGA nominations The WGA came out with its nominations today: Two sci-fi blockbusters and a raunchy box office hit comedy were nominated this morning for the Writers Guild of America Award. James Cameron, who earned a Directors Guild of America nomination last week, received a WGA nod in the original screenplay
Question: What’s the best way to network in L.A.? Reader question from cameron: I’m graduating college in a few months and moving down to LA in the summer. By this time I should have 8 full screenplays in various genres. I have very few “contacts” and am interested in developing more — my question is where are good places
Movies You Made: “Dangerous Calling” Here’s another in our series of Movies You Made: “Dangerous Calling,” written and directed by Jeremiah Daws & Josh Daws. Josh posted this background info: My brother and I wrote and directed a feature called DANGEROUS CALLING. It’s a thriller about a Pastor and his wife who move
Writing Mantra: “Minimum words, maximum impact” Some of the mantras I’ve collected over the years relate to the general craft of writing, but this one is directly connected with screenwriting: “Minimum words, maximum impact.” This mantra derives from a moment of inspiration from one of my online screenwriting students — and it’s a beautiful saying
On Writing “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.” — Anne Lamott (Bird By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life) H/T to Greg aka The Unknown Lyricist Comment Archive
Daily Dialogue — January 11, 2010 “What’s he that wishes so? My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin; If we are mark’d to die, we are enow To do our country loss; and if to live, The fewer men, the greater share of honour. God’s will! I pray thee, wish not one man
