THR: Writers Roundtable, Part 2 For the last few years, the Hollywood Reporter has brought together screenwriters just in advance of the awards season to talk about their movies. This year’s version: The Hollywood Reporter’s Jay A. Fernandez and Matthew Belloni gathered six screenwriters — Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker”), Scott Z. Burns (“The
Screenwriting resource: Beat Sheet Central H/T to Colt Hansen who emailed me a link to a great new screenwriting resource Beat Sheet Central. The host of the site Nick Jarecki explains: I’m a screenwriter and a director, and I made this site for myself. Often when I’m writing a film or teleplay,
Update: Daily Dialogue contest So on Monday, I posted this: As any of you who are regular GITS readers know, I start off each day on this blog with something I call Daily Dialogue. It’s a (hopefully) an interesting side of dialogue from a movie that I’ve seen to (hopefully) inspire each
Exclusive Q&A Interview: Emily Hagins (Part 2) Here is Part 2 of a 3-part Q&A with screenwriter-director Emily Hagins. Emily has written and directed two full-length feature films: Pathogen (2006) and The Retelling (2009). Emily is currently 17 years-old. How long did the shoot last for Pathogen (when did shooting start
Writers on how they write: Edwidge Danticat The Wall Street Journal had a great article a few weeks back: “How to Write a Great Novel”, reflections by novelists on how they approach writing. Since the article is subscription only, I’m featuring one writer per day here, highlighting their process with a key excerpt from the article.
THR: Writers Roundtable, Part 1 For the last few years, the Hollywood Reporter has brought together screenwriters just in advance of the awards season to talk about their movies. This year’s version: The Hollywood Reporter’s Jay A. Fernandez and Matthew Belloni gathered six screenwriters — Mark Boal (“The Hurt Locker”), Scott Z. Burns (“The
Screenwriting 101: Lawrence Kasdan “Very often my films are about the conflict between our ideas and our desires, and that’s where the drama is for me. We know how we’re supposed to act, but we’re constantly in rebellion against the things we’ve been taught, and our hearts and bodies are
Exclusive Q&A Interview: Emily Hagins (Part 1) As promised, here is Part 1 of a 3-part Q&A with screenwriter-director Emily Hagins. Emily has written and directed two full-length feature films: Pathogen (2006) and The Retelling (2009). Emily is currently 17 years-old. How old were you when you and your mother started
Writers on how they write: Margaret Atwood The Wall Street Journal had a great article a few weeks back: “How to Write a Great Novel”, reflections by novelists on how they approach writing. Since the article is subscription only, I’m featuring one writer per day here, highlighting their process with a key excerpt from the article.
Pitch sale: “Untitled Jim Field Smith & George Kay Project” Paramount buys family-adventure-comedy pitch from director Jim Field Smith and writer George Kay: The logline is being kept under wraps, but those familiar with the project describe it as a fantasy-tinged four-quadrant comedy in the vein of “Night at the Museum.” Field Smith is on board
Spec script sale: “Last Stand” Lionsgate with preemptive purchase of action thriller spec “Last Stand” from writer Andrew Knauer: The story, described as having shades of “Gone in 60 Seconds” and “High Noon,” features a Gumpert Apollo, a race car used by drug smugglers, and it centers on a cartel leader that uses it to
“Free Movies Online: Great Classics, Indies, Film Noir, Documentaries & More” Great list from Open Culture: Where to watch free movies online? Let’s get you started. First, we have listed dozens of free, high quality films that you can watch online. Then, below, you can find movie sites that feature free movie collections. Classics, international, film noir, documentaries, indies — they’
Hollywood Tales “I was working valet at the [Playboy] mansion. We used to park the nicer cars in the roundabout just for show. At 2 AM Jack [Nicholson] comes out with a tall blond girl. She couldn’t have been a day over 25 and they start going at it on top
Upcoming: Q&A with filmmaker Emily Hagins Remember Emily Hagins? The young woman (now 17 years old) who wrote and directed her first full-length feature film when she was 12 years old? Who has written and directed a second movie? Subject of the award-winning documentary “Zombie Girl: The Movie”? I posted about Emily here and
“The Wire — 100 Greatest Quotes” Continuing my refusal to let die the greatest TV series of all time, here is another awesome video: The 100 greatest quotes from the series “The Wire.” Note: Just about every quote is R-rated, so if you’re at work, pull out your headphones. Comment Archive
Writers on how they write: Kate Christensen The Wall Street Journal had a great article a few weeks back: “How to Write a Great Novel”, reflections by novelists on how they approach writing. Since the article is subscription only, I’m featuring one writer per day here, highlighting their process with a key excerpt from the article.
On writing “Here is one simple rule to remember: Characters carry theme…Always…Develop your characters fully and set them in the story world where their values will conflict with each other. Allow your characters to struggle naturally and passionately. Theme will emerge without effort.” — James Scott Bell Comment Archive
Daily Dialogue — November 16, 2009 “It seems that the initial reports that one of our submarines was missing were not completely accurate. The submarine in question… is commanded by Captain Marko Ramius. Apparently he’s suffered a kind of mental or nervous break down. Just before he sailed, he posted a letter to Admiral Yuri
Writers on how they write: Dan Chaon The Wall Street Journal had a great article a few weeks back: “How to Write a Great Novel”, reflections by novelists on how they approach writing. Since the article is subscription only, I’m featuring one writer per day here, highlighting their process with a key excerpt from the article.
“For Your Consideration: The 50 Most Despicable Oscar Snubs of the 2000s” H/T to Mystery Man for this link: “For Your Consideration: The 50 Most Despicable Oscar Snubs of the 2000s” from Peter Knegt at IndieWire.com. The ones for screenwriting are: 50: Tina Fey for best adapted screenplay (Mean Girls, 2004) 39: Woody Allen for best original screenplay (Vicky Cristina
Video Interview: Robert Towne I originally posted this on September 14, 2008. Since our 14 Days of Screenplays script yesterday was Chinatown, I figured it was worth revisiting this interview with its writer Robert Towne. Today’s special video interview features Robert Towne. His script to Chinatown (1974) is generally acknowledged to be one
Writers on how they write: Richard Powers The Wall Street Journal had a great article last Friday: “How to Write a Great Novel”, reflections by 11 novelists on how they approach writing. Since the article is subscription only, I’ll feature one writer per day here, highlighting their process with a key excerpt from the article. Today’
More on Orson Welles In this post’s comments — last week’s video interview with Orson Welles — Scott Smith, who hosts a fine blog called Screenwriting From Iowa, provided a link with some interesting biographical background re Welles: Orson Wells was born May 6, 1915 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His mother died when he was
Daily Dialogue — November 14, 2009 “Drop the stone, Counselor. You live in a glass house.” — Paul Biegler (James Stewart), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), screenplay by Wendell Mayes, based on a novel by John D. Voelker Comment Archive
Question: Use or don’t use title cards? A question via email: Sticking a literary quotation in a “TITLE CARD” / “SUPER” / “SUPERIMPOSE”. Use ’em or lose ‘em? Potentially informative or pretentious as all hell? In previous drafts I used three (what I considered) highly appropriate quotes at the start of each of my acts. I used a “TITLE
