Go Into The Story

Interview (Audio): Leon Capetanos

A WUNC interview with screenwriter-novelist Leon Capetanos whose movie credits include Moscow on the Hudson, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, and Moon Over Parador. I met Leon years ago. He was a very busy writer in Hollywood for many years. To listen, go here.

Daily Dialogue — May 29, 2016

“I should have had you wear double condoms. But if you ever do it again, which is a favour to women everywhere you should not. But if you do, you should be wearing condom on condom. And then wrap it in electrical tape. You should just walk around always, inside

Daily Dialogue theme next week: Teacher

The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Teacher. The School of Rock (2003) Teachers. We’ve all had them. I’ll bet each one of you can recall a teacher who served as a mentor. Or maybe you had an absolutely atrocious experience with a bad apple. In either case,

Dumb Little Writing Tricks That Work: “Don’t Finish That Scene!”

Let’s say you’re in the middle of writing a script — and it’s a slog. You’re finding it really tough to drag your ass onto the chair and start writing the next scene. Well, let’s roll back the clock. What if yesterday, you hadn’t finished

Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 240th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest. Cannes 2016: Complete List of This Year’s Winners. Cannes 2016: How the Cannes Film Festival Made Movies Exciting Again. Cannes 2016: Amazon just won

Interview (Written): Matthew Weiner / The Paris Review

A Spring 2014: The Art of Screenwriting №4 interview in The Paris Review with writer-producer Matthew Weiner whose credits include “The Sopranos” (12 episodes), “Mad Men” (show creator, 73 episodes), and the 2013 movie Are You Here. WEINER: You know, I got a subscription to The Paris Review when

Daily Dialogue — May 28, 2016

Rabbi Marshak: When the truth is found. To be lies. [clears throat] And all the hope. Within you dies. Then what? [clears throat again] Grace Slick. Marty Balin. Paul Kanta. Jorma… Danny Gopnik: Kaukonen. Rabbi Marshak: …something. These are the members of the Airplane. Interesting. Here. He gives Danny back

How to Decide Which Story to Write

Are you trying to figure out which of one or more stories to write next? Perhaps you’ve put your producer hat on and considered each story’s relative merits in terms of concept, genre, marketability, casting, international appeal, and so forth. Or you’re the type of writer who

Interview: Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012 Black List)

One of the best ways to learn the craft is read what professional screenwriters have to say about it. To that end for the next few weeks, I will be featuring interviews I have conducted with Black List screenwriters. Today: Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber have written scripts

“6 Screenwriting Lessons from Nia Vardalos”

An LA Screenwriter post about a recent appearance by actor-screenwriter Nia Vardalos, best known for the 2002 movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding which grossed over $368M in worldwide box office revenues. Not bad for a movie with a reported production budget of $5M. Nia has gone on to

Interviews (Video): Alfred Hitchcock

I stumbled upon several interviews with famed director Alfred Hitchcock and thought I’d aggregate them here. They span from 1960 to 1973. If you discover any other interviews with Hitchcock online, please post URLs in comments.

The Business of Screenwriting: Selling Scripts and Shooting Scripts

There are broad stages in the life of a screenplay: There is the selling script and the shooting script. A selling script can be a beautiful thing to behold, every word precise, the balance of black ink to white space pleasing to the eye, the flow of dialogue to action

Daily Dialogue — May 27, 2016

“Where is pancakes house?” — Fargo (1996), written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: The Coen Brothers. Trivia: Gaear Grimsrud has 18 lines of dialogue in the entire movie and never says more than a complete sentence at one time. By comparison, Carl Showalter

Video: “The Directors Series — The Coen Brothers” (Part 1)

Perfect timing. With my 1-week online class Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling starting on Monday, May 30, along comes Part 1 of what looks to be an excellent series on the cinematic efforts of Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. Here the video covers how the Coens got

Interview: Chris McCoy (2007, 2009, 2011 Black List)

One of the best ways to learn the craft is read what professional screenwriters have to say about it. To that end for the next few weeks, I will be featuring interviews I have conducted with Black List screenwriters. Today: Chris McCoy is pretty unique among screenwriters in that he

“Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens”

I have been tracking Kirby Ferguson and his “Everything is a Remix” videos since the very first one came out in 2010. So when Kirby reached out to me via email about his latest video — “Everything is a Remix: The Force Awakens” — I had to check it out. Here it

Classic 30s Movie: “Sabotage”

May is Classic 30s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Jeff Xilon. Movie Title: Sabotage Year: 1936 Writers: Charles Bennett (screen play), Ian Hay & Helen Simpson (dialogue), Alma Reville (continuity), E.V.H. Emmett (additional dialogue), based on the novel of Joseph Conrad Lead Actors: Sylvia Sidney,

Writing and the Creative Life: Why creativity thrives in the dark

Back in 2009, I was up working in the middle of the night, as I always do, when I was inspired to write this reflection: Is there anything more profoundly intense than pounding out pages… Yanked from that story universe you’ve created… Then in the thick silence of night’

Daily Dialogue — May 26, 2016

“Look, let me explain something to you. I’m not Mr. Lebowski. You’re Mr. Lebowski. I’m the Dude. So that’s what you call me. That, or His Dudeness … Duder … or El Duderino, if, you know, you’re not into the whole brevity thing.” — The Big Lebowski (1998)

AMA with Black List founder Franklin Leonard

Recently it occurred to me we hadn’t had a Q&A with Black List founder Franklin Leonard in quite some time and with all the changes in the movie and TV business, as well as a host of new Black List initiatives including the Black List Table Reads

Interview: Donald Margulies (2014 Black List)

One of the best ways to learn the craft is read what professional screenwriters have to say about it. To that end for the next few weeks, I will be featuring interviews I have conducted with Black List screenwriters. Today: Donald Margulies, one of America’s most widely-produced playwrights,

Script Analysis: “Big Eyes” — Scene By Scene Breakdown

Reading scripts. Absolutely critical to learn the craft of screenwriting. The focus of this weekly series is a deep structural and thematic analysis of each script we read. Today: A scene-by-scene breakdown of the movie script Big Eyes. Here is my take on this exercise from a previous

Classic 30s Movie: “Bride of Frankenstein”

May is Classic 30s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Marija Nielsen. Title: Bride of Frankenstein Year: 1935 Writers: Mary Shelley (novel), Adapted by William Hurlbut and John L. Balderston, Screenplay by William Hurlbut Lead Actors: Boris Karloff, Colin Clive, Valerie Hobson, Ernest Thesinger, Elsa Lanchester Director: James

“Nobody Knows Anything (except William Goldman)”

I don’t often promote crowdfunding campaigns for movies, but this is an exception: Nobody Knows Anything (except William Goldman) is an upcoming documentary feature about two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter, bestselling novelist, non-fiction author and playwright William Goldman, the man behind unforgettable classics such as Butch Cassidy

Daily Dialogue — May 25, 2016

“Whatcha got ain’t nothin new. This country’s hard on people, you can’t stop what’s coming, it ain’t all waiting on you. That’s vanity.” — No Country for Old Men (2007), screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, book by Cormac McCarthy The Daily Dialogue theme