Consumer Electronics Show circa 1982 This is mindboggling: More highlights from my “NightLife Show” which ran on local cable TV in FL from 1980–1986. This condensed episode features a look back at the Consumer Electronics Show from Chicago in June of 1982. This show features a host of analog home video products that have
Question: How much serendipity in a rom-com? Open Forum question from J: I have a question about the level of serendipity used in a romantic comedy. I am writing a romantic comedy and I am coming across sections where I could use serendipitous moments and they seem to fit well but I wonder where to draw the
Movies You Made: “Aquarius of Hearts,” written & directed by Cameron Alexander Another Movie You Made: “Aquarius of Hearts,” written & directed by UCSB student Cameron Alexander. Cameron had this to say about his movie: The film was made last January, 2009 — shot one day and no budget. There were only a total of 2 people working the tech side of the
“‘Avatar’ wins boxoffice for fourth weekend” From THR: Fox’s “Avatar” avalanche piled boxoffice higher than any other film for a fourth consecutive weekend, with an estimated $48.5 million tally in the latest frame producing a $429 million domestic cume. Doubly deep foreign grosses give James Cameron’s sci-fi epic a $1.34 billion
Profile: Robert Zemeckis Our friend Trevor Hogg at FlickeringMyth.com has Part 1 of a 3-part profile of screenwriter-director Robert Zemeckis: “In my family there was no art,” revealed Chicago-born filmmaker Robert Zemeckis. “There was no music, there were no books, there was no theatre. I grew up in a
Video Interview: Mike Leigh I’m willing to bet there are quite a few GITS readers who are Mike Leigh fans. As a writer-director, Leigh credits include High Hopes (1988), Life Is Sweet (1991), Naked (1993), Secrets & Lies (1996), Career Girls (1997), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002/I), Vera Drake
Question: Is January a good time to submit a spec script? Open Forum question from Mike: Scott, Question about submissions: I have read that the best time to submit a spec after the holidays would be — at least for 2010 — the week of January 4th. I have also read that it is better to wait until after Sundance. Any thoughts? A
Movies You Made: “Drafted,” co-written by JD Walters A number of respondents to Movies You Made have been people who have made student films. One is JD Walters who wrote: I co-wrote the story, and starred in, a Bourne-style action short called “Drafted”, available in three parts here: Drafted, Part 1 Drafted, Part 2 Drafted, Part
“Handicapping the summer movie clashes” We’re barely into January 2010 and already the LA Times is handicapping how summer movies will fare at the box office: About 40% of all movie tickets are sold between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and as the studios try to squeeze more dollars from the vacation season, they
“DirecTV Confirms Move Into 3-D Realm” Per Media Week: DirecTV on Wednesday confirmed its plans to forge ahead into the brave new world of 3-D TV, a space that is becoming increasingly crowded despite the fact that it doesn’t currently exist. While we were busy shopping and partying in the run-up to and
Interview: George Lucas I happened to tune in NPR’s “Fresh Air” the other day and there was George Lucas being interviewed to promote his new book “George Lucas’s Blockbusting: A Decade-by-Decade Survey of Timeless Movies Including Untold Secrets of Their Financial and Cultural Success”. And while the decidedly left-
Daily Dialogue — January 9, 2010 “In the end there were no simple answers. No heroes or villians; only silence.” — Tyler (Charles Martin Smith), Never Cry Wolf (1983), screenplay by Curtis Hanson and Sam Hamm and Richard Kletter, based on the book by Farley Mowat Comment Archive
Question: How to handle writing a musical? Open Forum question from paulkoren83: I’ve looked through the previous questions posted and have not seen anything relating how to write a musical. I haven’t a clue about what to include throughout the script such as discription of what a character sings about or their action/dancing in
Movies You Made: “Booth Girls,” written & directed by Adam Mallinger Here’s another Movie You Made: “Booth Girls,” written & directed by Adam Mallinger. Adam emailed me this background info on the project: The genesis of BOOTH GIRLS was a trip to Comic Con 2004, my first visit there ever. At the time, Mattel had a promotion for their She-
Our first GITS contributor! During 2009, a number of GITS readers emailed me links to stories of potential interest. Most of those folks would send me something every now and then. But there is one person who clearly has the same demented genetic make-up that I do, one that takes us deep down
Dialy Dialogue contest finalists Lots of good suggestions from this post here. How about we go with these three: Inspirational before battle speeches — the underling Best opening lines of a movie — Nate Davis Pick-up lines — Violet Let’s see what examples GITS readers can come up with for each theme. The choice for
Consider this approach to writing In today’s Writer’s Almanac, they describe the writing process of author Isabel Allende: Today, writer Isabel Allende (books by this author) is starting a new book, just as she has been doing every single January 8th for the past 29 years. On January 8, 1981, when Chilean-born
Paging tech support help!!! A special non-screenwriting related post, but necessary for the upkeep of this blog. Since Day 1, I have been using Google Pages for my archives. Since January 6, when I attempt to update any of the pages, I get this error notice: Oops! Google Page Creator is having a
Great Scene: “Fight Club” One of the most effective ways to begin a script is to start at the ending. And one of the best scenes that opens with the ending is in the movie Fight Club (1999). Adapted for the screen by Jim Uhls from a novel by the notable writer Chuck Palahniuk,
Question: What’s the best way to teach children screenwriting? Open Forum question from 305Writer: Whats the best way to teach young kids the basics of screenwriting, and at what age should you get them into it. Rob. That depends. If you’re talking about some sort of formalized after-school project or working one-on-one with a child
Movies You Made: “Phasma Ex Machina” written & directed by Matthew Osterman I posted What Movies Have You Made the other day — and it turns out a lot of GITS readers have been involved in the writing, producing, acting, and/or directing of an independent short or full-length feature film. Matt Osterman is one of them: It actually all started with
“How to Write Badly Well” Okay, great writing site to add to your list. U.K.-based writer and performer Joel Stickely turns his attention often and bluntly toward bad writing on hist site “How to Write Badly Well”. Here’s what Joel does: He’ll do a post where he posits a bad writing
“Incredibly Uplifting Fan-Made Mario Ad” One of the great thing about teaching screenwriting at a college is that it keeps me young. Well… To be totally honest, it just keeps me feeling young. Okay, okay. Actually it keeps me thinking that at some point in my life, a long time ago in a galaxy far,
Pitch Sale: “Untitled Cohen & Freedland Comedy” Universal Pics kicks off the acquisition new year by purchasing comedy pitch from writers Alan Cohen & Alan Freedland: The pitch involves a man who was unpopular as a kid. When he returns home, he is mistaken for a popular classmate and experiences the glory he missed in his formative
Scene Description Spotlight: “Unforgiven” The ‘folksy’ narrative voice in synch with the movie’s Western genre and a clean read with strong bursts of imagematic writing. I remember reading the script to Unforgiven (1992) and being struck by two things: It was a clean read and it was a compelling read. This scene, which
