Thirty Classic 90s Movies June was Classic 90s Movie month and here are links to all 30 guest posts featuring some terrific films: Before Sunrise Being John Malkovich Boyz n the Hood Chungking Express Clerks Clueless Dave Death Becomes Her Fight Club GoldenEye Good Will Hunting Goodfellas Groundhog Day Home Alone Howard’s End
Interview [Written]: Simon Kinberg (“X-Men: Days of Future Past”) A WGA.org interview with screenwriter Simon Kinberg whose movie X-Men: Days of Future Past is now in theaters: Strip away the heavy artillery, pyrotechnic eye candy, gifts of levitation, immortality, time travel, and invisibility, the capes, tights, cloaks, and daggers, and the films of Simon Kinberg are actually
Interview [Written]: Linda Woolverton An Indiewire interview with screenwriter Linda Woolverton who wrote the screenplay for Maleficent which opens this weekend: More than a decade before Frozen’s Jennifer Lee became the first woman to direct a Walt Disney Animation Studios feature and Brave’s Brenda Chapman became the first female director of a
Daily Dialogue — May 31, 2014 “Wait a tick. Basil, if I travel back to 1969 and I was frozen in 1967, presumably, I could go back and visit my frozen self. But, if I’m still frozen in 1967, how could I have been unthawed in the ’90s and traveled back to… [goes cross-eyed]
30 Days of Screenplays: Week 1 Scripts On May 15th, I asked for 30 volunteers, each of whom would read a movie script, then write a guest post as part of a new 30 Days of Screenplays challenge. Not surprisingly, the GITS community responded in resounding fashion and less than 20 hours later, we had our 30
Movie Analysis (Part 5): “Gravity” This week, I’m going through the script for the movie Gravity, excerpting every scene that touches on its primary ‘small’ story: Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) dealing with her grief related to the death of her young daughter. I laid out my rationale for this exercise in Part 1 of
Interview (Part 2): Tasia Valenza, Voice-Over Artist From TV series to videogames, voice-over acting to commercials, Tasia Valenza has had a long and successful career in the entertainment business. In that time, there have been many changes, but one thing has remained constant: Movie trailers almost always feature male voice-overs. In fact, Tasia is one
“Prisoners”: Movie Analysis Via No Film School: One of the things I appreciate about cinema is that films are enigmatic. Many times the films we see when we’re kicking back and watching as passive spectators are not the same films we see when we sit up, pen and pad in hand, and
Movie Trailer: “A Long Way Down” Jack Thorne (screenplay), Nick Hornby (novel) Four people meet on New Year’s Eve and form a surrogate family to help one another weather the difficulties of their lives. IMDB Comment Archive
Classic 90s Movie: “Chungking Express” May is Classic 90s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from David Suto. Movie Title: Chungking Express Year: 1994 Writer: Wong Kar-wai Lead Actors: Brigitte Lin, Tony Leung, Faye Wong, Takeshi Kaneshiro Director: Wong Kar-wai IMDB Plot Summary: “Two melancholy Hong Kong policemen fall in love: one
Great Character: Celine (“Before Sunrise,” “Before Sunset,” “Before Midnight” This month’s theme: Attractor characters. Today: Celine from the trilogy Before Sunrise, Before Sunset and Before Midnight. Between 1995 to 2004, then from 2004 to 2013, director and co-writer Richard Linklater essentially provided audiences with an international love affair that unfolded in real time. Ethan Hawke played Jesse,
Daily Dialogue — May 30, 2014 Abe: I just want you to see it the way I saw it. Aaron: I am trying, okay, I really am here. Abe: Look, everything we’re putting into that box becomes ungrounded, and I don’t mean grounded like to the earth, I mean, not tethered. I mean, we’
2014 Black List Screenwriters Lab submission period now open From the Black List: In late August, the Black List will invite six promising feature film writers identified by the Black List script evaluation service to an all-expense paid intensive writers workshop from September 29 to October 4 in downtown Las Vegas. Go Into The Story blogger Scott Myers
Movie Analysis (Part 4): “Gravity” This week, I’m going through the script for the movie Gravity, excerpting every scene that touches on its primary ‘small’ story: Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) dealing with her grief related to the death of her young daughter. I laid out my rationale for this exercise in Part 1 of
Interview (Part 1): Tasia Valenza, Voice-Over Artist From TV series to videogames, voice-over acting to commercials, Tasia Valenza has had a long and successful career in the entertainment business. In that time, there have been many changes, but one thing has remained constant: Movie trailers almost always feature male voice-overs. In fact, Tasia is one
Edgar Wright — How to Do Visual Comedy From Tony Zhou: f you love visual comedy, you gotta love Edgar Wright, one of the few filmmakers who is consistently finding humor through framing, camera movement, editing, goofy sound effects and music. This is an analysis and an appreciation of a director so awesome that Marvel had to fire
Movie Trailer: “Begin Again” Written by John Carney A dejected music business executive forms a bond with a young singer-songwriter new to Manhattan. IMDB Release Date: 4 July 2014 (USA) Comment Archive
Classic 90s Movie: “Being John Malkovich” May is Classic 90s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from ‘John Malkovich’. Movie Title: Being John Malkovich Year: 1999 Writers: Charlie Kaufman (Nominated for an Oscar) Lead Actors: John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, Catherine Keener (Nominated for an Oscar), John Malkovich Director: Spike Jonze (Nominated for an Oscar) IMDB
Writing and the Creative Life: “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek” Wisdom on creativity and life itself from Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung. As most of you know, I’m an acolyte of Joseph Campbell, having studied him first when I was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, then later at Yale, and eventually when I came to Hollywood and
Daily Dialogue — May 29, 2014 Bill: If only we could go back to two days ago before your dad lost his keys, and steal them. Ted: Well, why don’t we? Bill: ‘Cuz we don’t have time, dude. Ted: We could do it after the report. Bill: Oh, yeah! Where should we put ‘em?
Movie Analysis (Part 3): “Gravity” This week, I’m going through the script for the movie Gravity, excerpting every scene that touches on its primary ‘small’ story: Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) dealing with her grief related to the death of her young daughter. I laid out my rationale for this exercise in Part 1 of
Q&A (Part 2): Screenwriter-film school teacher Brad Riddell Interview (Part 2): Brad Riddell I often get asked about the merits of attending film school. While I do teach one screenwriting course per semester at the collegiate level, I didn’t attend film school, so I always feel hamstrung in terms of what information or insight I can provide.
Joss Whedon — Character Archetypes — Creating Characters A guest post from screenwriter Tom Benedek (Cocoon): A few years ago I wrote a sci-fi script with lots of action, big set pieces. It did not sell. Whaaa! I can beat myself up in so many ways about this script. Or I can just make myself smile — knowing
Movie Trailer: “The Signal” Written by Carlyle Eubank, William Eubank and David Frigerio A group of college students are lured to the middle of the desert by a hacker. IMDB Release Date: 13 June 2014 (USA) Comment Archive
Classic 90s Movie: “The Shawshank Redemption” May is Classic 90s Movie month. Today’s guest post comes from Dean Scott. Movie Title: The Shawshank Redemption Year: 1994 Writers: Frank Darabont, Based on a short story by Stephen King Lead Actors: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman Director: Frank Darabont IMDB Plot Summary: Two imprisoned men bond over a
