Script Analysis: “Hanna” — Part 5: Takeaways 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. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major Plot Points Wednesday: Sequences Thursday: Psychological Journey Friday: Takeaways Today: Takeaways. This
Movie Trailer: “Knight of Cups” Written by Terrence Malick Once there was a young prince whose father, the king of the East, sent him down into Egypt to find a pearl. But when the prince arrived, the people poured him a cup. Drinking it, he forgot he was the son of a king, forgot about
Classic 60s Movie: “The Music Man” January is Classic 60s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Felicity Flesher. Movie Title: The Music Man Year: 1962 Writers: Screenplay by Marion Hargrove, based on the play by Meredith Willson in collaboration with Franklin Lacey Lead Actors: Robert Preston, Shirley Jones, Buddy Hackett, Hermione Gingold, Paul Ford,
Great Character: Ed Wood (“Ed Wood”) The Great Character theme for the month: Struggling Artist. Today: Ed Wood from the movie Ed Wood (1994), screenplay by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, book by Rudolph Grey. Here is Jason Cuthbert’s weekly Great Character post. The multifaceted moving parts of art and commerce that must be synchronized
Daily Dialogue — January 9, 2015 Shaun: Do you want anything from the shop? Ed: Cornettos. — Shaun of the Dead (2004), written by Simon Pegg, Edgar Wright The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Hangover. Trivia: According to writer-director Edgar Wright in the DVD commentary, when Ed attempts to cheer Shaun up at the Winchester
Twitter Rant: @RachaelPriorMBE on How a Development Team Works Yesterday @RachaelPriorMBE went on an informative Twitter ‘rant’ about how a development team works. Reprinted by permission: https://twitter.com/MysteryBritExec/status/552943497586954240 Specifically, my relationship with my right hand person, who I often refer to as my Robin. You also asked abt process of hiring good dev ppl, so
Interview (Part 4): Chris Sparling Variety recently named Chris Sparling as one of their 10 Screenwriters to Watch. With good reason. Chris made his first splash in the business with his script for the movie Buried, starring Ryan Reynolds and followed that up with another contained thriller ATM. He has multiple projects in development and
Script Analysis: “Hanna” — Part 4: Psychological Journey 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. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major Plot Points Wednesday: Sequences Thursday: Psychological Journey Friday: Takeaways Today: Psychological journey.
Movie Trailer: “The Wedding Ringer” Written by Jeremy Garelick, Jay Lavender A shy young groom needs to impress his in-laws, so he turns to a best-man-for-hire to help him out. IMDb Release Date: 16 January 2015 (USA)
Classic 60s Movie: “The Apartment” January is Classic 60s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Daryl Powell. Movie Title: The Apartment Year: 1960 Writers: Billy Wilder, I.A.L. Diamond Lead Actors: Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, Fred MacMurray Director: Billy Wilder IMDB Plot Summary: A man tries to rise in his company by
Spec Script Deal: “Sam & Liz: A Killer Love Story” Relativity Media acquires action science fiction spec script “Sam & Liz: A Killer Love Story” written by Matt Altman. From Deadline: Sam is an average guy working a 9 to 5 job that he hates, wishing for a more exciting life. When he meets gorgeous thrill-seeker Liz, he gets
Daily Dialogue — January 8, 2015 Debbie: I don’t care what you did or who you were with. I would have appreciated a call and maybe a little help today. Danny: I’m hung over, so shoot me. Debbie: Don’t tempt me. Danny: Besides, they can’t eat all this. Don’t work so
Update: Award season screenplay downloads (7 new scripts!) It’s that time of year again when studios make available PDFs of movie scripts for award season. As in years past, we will be tracking them and posting links as they become available. If you want to get these scripts first, come here. No one posts them faster than
Tom Benedek on Gone Girl, Broadchurch, and writing for TV A guest post from Tom Benedek, screenwriter (Cocoon) and teacher: Happy New Year. Right after seeing Gone Girl, I found myself getting hooked on Broadchurch, a British TV series available on Netflix Streaming. Gone Girl functions as a mystery during its first half, then at the midpoint, it shifts into
Interview (Part 3): Chris Sparling Variety recently named Chris Sparling as one of their 10 Screenwriters to Watch. With good reason. Chris made his first splash in the business with his script for the movie Buried, starring Ryan Reynolds and followed that up with another contained thriller ATM. He has multiple projects in development and
2015 WGA Screenplay Nominations ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Boyhood, Written by Richard Linklater Foxcatcher, Written by E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman The Grand Budapest Hotel, Written by Wes Anderson & Hugo Guiness Nightcrawler, Written by Dan Gilroy Whiplash, Written by Damien Chazelle ADAPTED SCREENPLAY American Sniper, Screenplay by Jason Hall; Based on the book by
Script Analysis: “Hanna” — Part 3: Sequences 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. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major Plot Points Wednesday: Sequences Thursday: Psychological Journey Friday: Takeaways Today: Sequences. A
Movie Trailer: “Love, Rosie” Screenplay by Juliette Towhidi, novel by Cecelia Ahern Rosie and Alex have been best friends since they were 5, so they couldn’t possibly be right for one another…or could they? When it comes to love, life and making the right choices, these two are their own worst enemies.
Classic 60s Movie: “Persona” January is Classic 60s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from James Prichard. Movie Title: Persona Year: 1966 Writer: Ingmar Bergman Lead Actors: Bibi Andersson (Alma), Liv Ullmann (Elisabet) Director: Ingmar Bergman IMDb Plot Summary: After she is put in charge of caring for an actress who stopped talking,
Script To Screen: “Dark Star” A scene from late in the 1974 movie Dark Star, original story by John Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon. IMDb plot summary: In the far reaches of space, a small crew, 20 years into their solitary mission, find things beginning to go hilariously wrong. In a moment that is an
Daily Dialogue — January 7, 2015 Jack Sparrow: [Wakes up and sees Elizabeth burning the rum] No! Not good! Stop! Not good! What are you doing? You burned all the food, the shade… the rum. Elizabeth: Yes, the rum is gone. Jack Sparrow: Why is the rum gone? Elizabeth: One: because it is a vile drink
Write Every Day + Dare To Suck = Productive Writing Write Every Day + Dare To Suck = Productivity I pulled this from comments from a recent blog post on time management: cilly247 says: January 6, 2015 at 12:00 PM In short, ineffectively. All these are really useful tools. I used to think that starting off at 2pm was wasting the
Interview (Part 2): Chris Sparling Variety recently named Chris Sparling as one of their 10 Screenwriters to Watch. With good reason. Chris made his first splash in the business with his script for the movie Buried, starring Ryan Reynolds and followed that up with another contained thriller ATM. He has multiple projects in development and
Video: The Whisper Supercut I’ve seen a zillion supercuts and pretty much enjoy them all. A chance to see lots of images from movies. Who wouldn’t love that? But this one is especially sweet. Who would have thought to edit together whispers? Seems to esoteric and yet as the video demonstrates, there
Script Analysis: “Hanna” — Part 2: Major Plot Points 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. Our daily schedule: Monday: Scene-By-Scene Breakdown Tuesday: Major Plot Points Wednesday: Sequences Thursday: Psychological Journey Friday: Takeaways Today: Major Plot
