Go Into The Story

Audio Q&A: Hannah Fidell, Will Brittain (“A Teacher”)

A 23-minute audio recording of a recent post-screening Q&A with writer-director Hannah Fidell and actor Will Brittain from the movie A Teacher: [soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/scott-myers-15/a-teacher-q-a[/soundcloud] A Teacher Date: 9/7/2013  Location: Laemmle Royal Theatre  With:

Video Interview: Edgar Wright

David Poland [DP/30] talks with Edgar Wright, co-writer and director of the movie The World’s End: The movie’s trailer:

Daily Dialogue — September 15, 2013

EXT. MAIN STREET -PUNXSUTAWNEY — CONTINUOUS There are a lot of people on the street for this hour. Traffic is so heavy in fact, the pedestrians are moving faster than the cars. Everyone seems to be going in the same direction, making the annual trek to see the groundhog. An OLD

Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Asking a favor

We’ve got a whole new batch of Daily Dialogue themes bubbling to the surface, still sorting through those suggestions from this post. But after a week’s worth of posts about reunions [thanks, Laura Deerfield, for that], this week the theme is… Asking A Favor, suggested by rdlln: Frankly

Dispatch From The Quest: Miranda Sajdak

Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch to share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding

Interview: Daniel Turkewitz — Part 6

It’s always interesting to interview “first-timers,” writers who break into the business by selling a spec script. Such is the case of Daniel Turkewitz, a proverbial overnight success who spent years of hard work before writing “Tranquility Base” which 20th Century Fox acquired in June 2013 for a

Great Scene: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”

Many of the best movie scenes are payoffs to plot elements that have been set up earlier in the story. And often, the set-up and payoff involve a physical object, something that becomes imbued with symbolic meaning and, therefore, emotional power. An excellent example of this is in the

Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 105th installment of Saturday Hot Links! Today: The Smells Like Teen Spirit Edition. Note: Nirvana’s first hit song “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was released 22 years ago this week. Every single Indiewire movie review from the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. 8 femme-centric movies from

Written Interview: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Manohla Dargis and A. O. Scott of the New York Times interview Joel and Ethan Coen. Here’s an exceprt about their writing process: Can we talk a little bit about how you write? Are you locked in a room together? Joel It’s always been the same. We don’

Daily Dialogue — September 14, 2013

MED. CLOSE SHOT BURNS AND HILDY HILDY: May I have a cigarette, please? Burns reaches into his pocket, extracts a cigarette and tosses it on the desk. Hildy reaches for it. HILDY: Thanks. A match? Burns delves into pockets again, comes up with matchbox, tosses it to Hildy, who catches

Daily Dialogue themes needed!

Once more into the breech as the cupboards are bare. Okay, so I’m sorta mixing metaphors there. Chalk that up to a paucity of creative inspiration. And that’s where you come in. We need Daily Dialogue themes. A whole slew of them. Reams and reams of themes. Compelling

Dispatch From The Quest: Christian Fontenot

Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch to share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding

Interview: Daniel Turkewitz — Part 5

It’s always interesting to interview “first-timers,” writers who break into the business by selling a spec script. Such is the case of Daniel Turkewitz, a proverbial overnight success who spent years of hard work before writing “Tranquility Base” which 20th Century Fox acquired in June 2013 for a

Go On Your Own Quest, Week 9: Prep

The 2013 version of The Quest starts Week 9 today. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by because you can Go On Your Own Quest by following the structure of The Quest to dig into screenwriting theory [Core — 8 weeks], figure out your story [Prep — 6 weeks], and write

Movie Trailer: “Divergent”

Screenplay by Evan Daugherty and Vanessa Taylor, novel by Veronica Roth Beatrice Prior, a teenager with a special mind, finds her life threatened when an authoritarian leader seeks to exterminate her kind in her effort to seize control of their divided society. IMDB Release Date: 21 March 2014 (USA)

September is Scene-Writing Month: Day 9

As noted in this post, September is Scene-Writing Month here at Go Into The Story. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a prompt for writing a script scene. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. If you really want to

Great Character: Tallahassee (“Zombieland”)

Since the kids are heading back to school, this month’s theme: Mentor. Today in his regular weekly guest post, Jason Cuthbert looks at Tallahassee from the 2009 movie Zombieland, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. When we think of mentor movie characters, the generic assumption is that these

Daily Dialogue — September 13, 2013

Nick (William Hurt): It’s pretty strong stuff. Mary Kay (Meg Jones): Ugh. I feel terrible. Nick: Yeah. Mary Kay: The last time I spoke with Alex, we had a fight. I yelled at him. Nick: (deadpan) That’s probably why he killed himself. They share a look. Nick smiles

Declare Your Independents: Volume 9

GITS development assistant Wendy Cohen here, and welcome to yet another edition of Declare Your Independents, our new series highlighting the latest developments in the world of independent film. This week… The 10 Best Movies Of Summer 2013 Women and Hollywood’s September Film Preview “The Obama Effect”: Harvey Weinstein

Dispatch From The Quest: Paul Wie

Over the course of the 24 weeks I am working with the writers in The Quest, each will write a weekly dispatch to share with the GITS community. There are several reasons for doing this, the main one educational: Hopefully you will learn something of value for your own understanding

Interview: Daniel Turkewitz — Part 4

It’s always interesting to interview “first-timers,” writers who break into the business by selling a spec script. Such is the case of Daniel Turkewitz, a proverbial overnight success who spent years of hard work before writing “Tranquility Base” which 20th Century Fox acquired in June 2013 for a

Jimmy Fallon: “Joking Bad”

Late Night take-off on “Breaking Bad” with lots of choice cameos: Comment Archive

Go On Your Own Quest, Week 9: Prep

The 2013 version of The Quest starts Week 9 today. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by because you can Go On Your Own Quest by following the structure of The Quest to dig into screenwriting theory [Core — 8 weeks], figure out your story [Prep — 6 weeks], and write

Movie Trailer: “Under the Skin”

Screenplay by Walter Campbell, novel by Michel Faber An alien in human form is on a journey through Scotland. IMDB Premiere: 29 August 2013 (Telluride Film Festival)

September is Scene-Writing Month: Day 8

As noted in this post, September is Scene-Writing Month here at Go Into The Story. Every Monday-Friday at noon Eastern / 9AM Pacific, I will upload a post with a prompt for writing a script scene. Each day, write a scene per those guidelines. If you really want to