Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 228th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.
Oscars: The List of All the 2016 Winners.
Oscars: The Fascinating, Manic Process Behind How the Statuettes Are Made.
Oscars: Read Chris Rock’s Opening Monologue.
Oscars: What the Nominees Are Doing Next.
And the Oscar goes to … the Irish film industry.
The Good, The Bad and The Future of The Oscars.
Impact of Best Picture Oscar nomination on profit.
How ‘Spotlight’ Won the Big Prize on a Night of Oscars Shockers.
‘Spotlight’ Producer Reveals Why DreamWorks Passed on the Oscar-Winning Film.
How Did Independent Films Fare at the 2016 Oscars.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Win Is Most-Tweeted Oscar Moment in History.
The Idiot’s Guide To Oscar Frustration: 5 Reasons To Shut Up & Stop Complaining About The Academy Awards.
When Oscar Winners Don’t Thank Their Partner — Does Their Relationship Last.
‘I Was Rob Lowe’s Snow White’: The Untold Story of Oscar’s Nightmare Opening.
‘Inside Out’ Director Uses Oscars Scroll to Tell Kids They’re Getting a Dog.
Ava DuVernay and Ryan Coogler Use Oscar Night to Raise Money For the Flint Water Crisis.
Hollywood screenwriters face their own “OscarsSoWhite” drama, with minorities nearly shut out of the nominations.
‘Straight Outta Compton’ Writers: Studios Shouldn’t Be Afraid to Make Minority Movies.
What makes a great script: The Oscar nominees for best original screenplay.
Full List of All 2016 Film Independent Spirit Award Winners.
Film Independent Spirit Awards Offer a Bold, Inclusive Alternative to the Oscars.
Diversity Celebrated at This Year’s Independent Spirit Awards.
2016 Independent Spirit Awards Analysis: Why They Were the Best in Years.
Tribeca Film Festival Announces First Half of Feature Slate, Including ‘Equals,’ ‘High-Rise’ and More.
2016 Tribeca Film Festival Lineup: 6 Hidden Gems.
25 Movies We Can’t Wait to See at SXSW 2016.
President Obama and Michelle Obama Announced As SXSW Keynote Speakers.
In New York, Selling Movies as a Social Experience.
Why Theaters and the Moviegoing Experience Need an Overhaul (Guest Blog).
This Film Description is a Reminder of All That is Wrong in Hollywood.
Writers Guild of America, West Announces 2016 TV Writer Access Project Honorees.
Hi-Ho Silver Lining: 6 Lessons Hollywood Can (Hopefully) Learn from the Success of Deadpool.
158 movie sequels currently in the works.
Studio-by-Studio Profitability Report: Who’s Up, Who’s Down.
The Hollywood In$sider: Visualization explorer for every major film 2008–2015.
Hit-Driven Film Business Getting “Very Ugly,” Wall Street Analyst Says.
‘Increasingly Dire’ Film Industry Has Fewer Winning Films, Studios.
2016: Year Of The Comic Book Adaptations.
MPAA, Studios Slapped With Class-Action Lawsuit Over Smoking in Films.
Jeffrey Katzenberg Fantasizes About Merging DreamWorks Animation With Paramount.
Mary Parent Named New Production Chief at Legendary Entertainment.
Miramax Acquired by beIN Media Group.
AMC Acquires Carmike Cinemas for $1.1 Billion, Making It World’s Largest Theater Chain.
This Website Shows You Which Scenes in Movies Based on a True Story Are Actually True.
More film studios coming to Toronto’s Port Lands.
China Box Office Pulls in Massive $1B in February, Topping North America.
As China’s Economy Slips, Hollywood Looks More Enticing.
How Did Hollywood End Up in Hollywood.
The Last Living Silent Star: Child Actress Baby Peggy Made the Equivalent of $14M a Movie and Lost It All.
Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes.
Hollywood’s 100 Favorite Movie Quotes: The ‘Gone With the Wind’ Line That Was Almost Censored.
Original Star Wars script confirms Han Solo definitely shot first.
Charting the Similarities Between Star Wars: A New Hope and The Force Awakens.
How Pixar prepared writer Meg LeFauve for her next challenge: ‘Captain Marvel’.
Ben Affleck rewrote the “Batman v Superman” script while wearing his Batsuit.
‘Batman’ Writer and Artist: Movies Are “the Most Powerful Story-Telling Medium of Our Time”.
Coen Brothers to Award Janus Films and Criterion Collection at San Francisco Film Festival.
10 great songs that put the Coen brothers in the groove.
A brief history of America according to the Coen brothers.
The Mysterious Vision of Jeff Nichols, Hollywood’s Next Blockbuster Auteur.
J.J. Abrams Producing Docu-Series on Google’s $30 Million Moon-Landing Project.
How J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Is Bringing More Diversity to Hollywood.
Don’t Expect to See Any R-rated Marvel Studios Movies in the Foreseeable Future.
Cinema Law: Do You Need Adaptation Rights for Fact-Based Material.
A Map of the Most-Googled TV Shows in America, State by State.
TV Networks Recast the Role of Commercials.
Ryan Coogler And Destin Daniel Cretton To Direct TV Series ‘Minors’.
Netflix Caused 50% of U.S. TV Viewing Drop in 2015.
Netflix Sets ‘Godless’ Limited Series From Scott Frank & Steven Soderbergh.
14 Good Movies to Watch On Netflix in March 2016.
The 6 Indies to Watch on VOD This March.
The Ever-Shifting World of Social Media.
Verizon, Hearst Partner to Create Digital Video Programming.
Why Time Warner Now Owns Three Streaming Services.
Snapchat Steps Up to Facebook’s League With 8 Billion Daily Video Views.
Hollywood has a diversity problem, but Broadway may be at a tipping point.
Chris Hughes Sells New Republic to Win McCormack.
Gawker employees bargain first union contract at a digital media company.
Spring Reading: The Untold Story of CAA and 9 Other Hollywood Reads.
Flight of the Conchords announce 2016 reunion tour, confirm new music is on the way.
Death Cab for Cutie announce co-headlining tour dates with CHVRCHES.
New Emmy Rules Open Categories to YouTube and Other Streaming Shorts.
Holy Shit! Bob Dylan’s Secret Archive.
Pokémon Sun and Moon Are Officially Coming to the 3DS in 2016.
First Draft: The Ten Commandments of Writing a Great Sequel.
10 Commandments of Turning ‘Hamilton’ Into a Movie Musical.
Kate Hagen (Black List): The 2016 Academy Awards.
Joshua James: How To Appease The Distracted Creative Mind.
Billy Mernit: On Writing the Romantic Comedy.
Broken Projector: Fixing The (2006) Oscars.
Chicks Who Script: Episode 78 (Jessica Bendinger).
Scriptnotes: Episode 239.
Women and Hollywood: Episode 24.
Watch: Tom Hanks, Leonardo DiCaprio, Anne Hathaway, Michael Fassbender And More Talk The Art Of Acting [videos].
Watch: The Best Subway Movie Moments of All Time [videos].
Watch: 2-Minute Supercut Sums Up Steven Spielberg’s Career In 30 Shots [video].
Watch: 3-Minute Supercut Highlights Original Movies Against Their Remakes [video].
Watch: 50 Movies of 2015 Spoiled in Under 4 Minutes [video].
Watch: 11-Minute Video Essay Counts Down The 10 Greatest Movie Twists Of All Time [video].
Watch: 12-Minute Video Essay Breaks Down The Art Of Movie Editing [video].
Watch: A Short Film by Spike Jonze to open The Late Show with Stephen Colbert [video].
Watch: A Fan Recuts Ghostbusters 3 Trailer and It’s Much Better [video].
Watch: The trailer for the world’s first fully painted movie [video].
Watch: Supercut Highlights 20 Great Homages To Silent Films [video].
Watch: Unaired Clips of Celebrities Buying Girl Scout Cookies at the Oscars [video].
Watch: The Oscar Winner For Best Animated Short, “Bear Story” [video].
Watch: All The 2016 Oscar Acceptance Speeches [videos].
Watch: 2016 Oscars In Memoriam Tribute [video].
Alice Arlen, Screenwriter With Premier Journalistic Pedigree, Dies at 75.
Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week: You hear it over and over and over again in Hollywood development circles. Agents, managers, producers, execs, talent. All looking for writers with distinctive voices.
If you think voice just means character dialogue… think again. Voice also involves scene description. You know, that boring stuff you write to set up and play out a scene.
In my 1-week Scene Description Spotlight class, you will learn about:
* How Genre + Style = Narrative Voice
* Memorable ways to introduce characters
* The crucial importance of ‘editorializing’
* Using tempo and pace to make scenes spark to life
* The freedom screenwriters have to break grammatical rules
* Directing action through line management
* Imagematic, psychological, and action writing
And much, much more!
The class includes dozens of examples from notable movie scripts as well as some of the most recent selling spec scripts to give you a clear sense of how to use scene description to give expression to your voice and make your script worthy of one of Hollywood’s highest compliments: It’s a good read.
I’m really excited about this class and you should be, too. Take something as seemingly simple and mundane as scene description… and use it to show off your voice.
To learn more and enroll, go here.
The class begins Monday, March 7. As always, I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!