Go Into The Story

Excellent analysis, Vera, and many thanks.

Lauri/Orphaned Baby: I think your first instinct is right. These are Attractor characters because they connect with Schofield’s heart. From…

4 Tips To Help Writers Brainstorm Ideas

A 4-minute video excerpt featuring… me.

Script Analysis: ‘1917’ — Part 4: Themes

Read the script for the award-winning war drama and analyze all week.

Interview: Grant Rosenmeyer

A conversation with an actor-producer of the upcoming comedic road movie Come As You Are.

The Business of Screenwriting: Everything You Wanted to Know About Specs [Part 20]

“That spec script is your calling card. Depending on how good it is [Black List?], it can become your springboard to a screenwriting…

Daily Dialogue — February 13, 2020

“I’ll drive, I’m the cab. Outta my way, pencil neck!”

Interview: Rich Wong

A conversation with the screenwriter of the upcoming comedic road movie Come As You Are.

Script Analysis: ‘1917’ — Part 3: Characters

Read the script for the award-winning war drama and analyze all week.

“5 Hollywood Meetings You Should Master and How to Do It”

As a Hollywood writer, you may expect to take meetings. A lot of them.

Daily Dialogue — February 12, 2020

Taxi Driver: Now look, signora, it’s a very late night. My wife… I have three bambino. You know bambino.

Echoing my comments in Part 1, the plot is also simple (again, I say that not in a derogatory way)…

Metaphorically, Blake’s death lays a burden of guilt upon Schofield’s shoulders. Practically speaking, it also means he has to take on the…

There’s a saying I like about writing a screenplay: “Simple plot.

I don’t mean simple characters in a derogatory way, it’s just that Schofield’s journey which is simple — find Colonel Mackenzie to give the…

Great Scene: “(500) Days of Summer”

Tom’s best day ever plays out as a music video accompanied by Hall & Oates.

Interview: Erik Linthorst

A conversation with the screenwriter of the upcoming comedic road movie Come As You Are.

Script Analysis: ‘1917’ — Part 2: Plot

Read the script for the award-winning war drama and analyze all week.

Screenwriting 101: Steve Zaillian

“I don’t try to build empathy. I don’t need to, since a character’s behavior will do that for me, if there’s any to be had. Neither do I…

Daily Dialogue — February 11, 2020

“Her name’s Sarah Thomas.”

Milt, you have to go into a project like this knowing that if you include a bunch or even a few…

As noted in the OP, the best use of a song is if the specific lyrics match up with the specific events of the story’s plot, thereby…

Video: “The Art of Creativity” — Taika Watiti

A 2010 TEDx talk which foretells some of the writer-director’s future projects including the Oscar-winning movie Jojo Rabbit.

Script Analysis: ‘1917’ — Part 1: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown

Read the script for the award-winning war drama and analyze all week.

On Writing

“Writing isn’t about making money, getting famous, getting dates, getting laid, or making friends. In the end, it’s about enriching the…

Daily Dialogue — February 10, 2020

“Of all the cabbies in L.A. I get Max, Sigmund Freud meets Dr. Ruth.”

The Theology of Cinema: Purgatory

“If we look at purgatory metaphorically, a circumstance in which the visitor must suffer in the ‘furnace of affliction in order to…

Go Into The Story Script Reading & Analysis: “Parasite”

The entire 6 part series delving into the award-winning foreign film.

2019 Spec Script Market Analysis

Comprehensive analysis of all the reported spec script deals in 2018.