Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 308th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

‘It’ Devours Competition with Record-Breaking $117 Million Opening.

‘It’ Makes Box-Office History, Sets New Bar for Horror Pics.

‘It,’ ‘Split’ and ‘Get Out’: Horror’s Star Continues to Rise at the Box Office.

Have We, As a Society, Reached Peak Scary Clown?

Toronto Film Market: Indie Distributors Struggle as Netflix, Amazon Look to Dominate (Again).

Toronto’s Diverse Array of Films From Africa Paint Bigger Picture of Continent.

Why Toronto Has Become Hollywood’s Go-To Source for VFX Movie Magic.

‘The Shape of Water’ Wins the Golden Lion in Venice, a First for Guillermo del Toro.

Telluride 2017 Report Card: Critics Rank the Best Films and Performances.

There Are No Frontrunners Yet, So Here’s Some Unsolicited Oscar Advice For Hollywood.

20th Century Fox Boss Stacey Snider Disses Netflix’s Original Movies.

Why the Marvel Movie Formula is Flawed.

Patty Jenkins is Now the Highest-Paid Female Director in History with ‘Wonder Woman 2’ Deal.

.J. Abrams to Replace Colin Trevorrow as Director of ‘Star Wars: Episode IX’.

Hollywood Has Reached Peak ’80s Nostalgia.

2007: The year dumb bro comedy died.

30 Highest Grossing Animated Movies of All Time Worldwide.

Celebrities Don’t Have to Pay You for Movie Ideas You Tweet at Them.

Millennials Do Care About Classic Movies, But Need More Exposure to Them.

Remembering ‘No Country for Old Men’, a Masterful Book–Movie Collaboration, 10 Years Later.

Why Rotten Tomatoes is Bad for Film Criticism.

It’s Time to Stop Applauding Biopics With This Horrible Cliché.

2017 is the worst fall TV season in recent memory.

Emmys 2017: The Full List of Nominations.

Creative Arts Emmys 2017: Winners List.

Cord-Cutting Explodes: 22 Million U.S. Adults Will Have Cancelled Cable, Satellite TV by End of 2017.

Scripted Series Snub Seniors, Study Says.

‘Game of Thrones’ Rarely Passes the Bechdel Test, and It Still Has a Rape Problem — Study.

Was Twin Peaks: The Return Worth It for Showtime?

All the Ways ‘The Deuce’ Will Remind You of ‘The Wire’.

How the Jeopardy! Writers Room Comes Up With All of Those Questions.

Watch: Sci-Fi: since 1902.

Watch: STEVEN SPIELBERG Opening Shots (1971–1991).

Watch: 10 Best Structured Movies of All Time.

Watch: A Male Eye.

Watch: High School Students Landed James Franco and Seth Rogen For Their First Short Film.

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week

Whatever degree of importance you attribute to your script’s story concept… it’s probably not enough. Here’s how I begin Lecture 1 of my Core II: Concept class:

The foundation of any movie is the screenplay. The foundation of any screenplay is the concept. Therefore it stands to reason which story concept you develop and write as a script is a critical choice. And that is precisely why I created the second part of the Core curriculum — to understand how movie industry insiders think, provide you with proven methods to generate story concepts, and develop analytical skills to help you decide which ideas are the most viable ones for you to write.

Don’t believe me? How about this:

“Most aspiring screenwriters simply don’t spend enough time choosing their concept. It’s by far the most common mistake I see in spec scripts. The writer has lost the race right from the gate. Months — sometimes years — are lost trying to elevate a film idea that by its nature probably had no hope of ever becoming a movie.”

— Terry Rossio (Aladdin, The Mask of Zorro, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)

“Ideas cost NOTHING and require ZERO risk. And yet, oddly, the LEAST amount of time’s usually spent in the idea stage before a small fortune is dumped on a whimsy that’s still half-baked… Ideas cost nothing yet have the potential to yield inexplicably long careers and happy lives.”

— Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Zak and Miri Make a Porno)

In the Core content of The Quest, we work with eight screenwriting principles, and the second one is this:

Concept = Hook

On Monday, September 25, I will begin teaching Core II: Concept. In this 1-week online course, you will learn:

• The lowdown on high concept
• Genre, Cross Genres and Sub-Genres
• Hollywood’s obsession with ‘similar but different’
• Brainstorming and recycling
• Gender bending and genre bending
• How to test your story concept

And much more. The course consists of four components:

• Lectures: There are six lectures written by me, each posting Monday through Saturday.
• Writing Exercises: These optional exercises offer you the opportunity to workshop one of your own loglines and receive feedback from class members and myself.
• Teleconference: We will have a Skype teleconference call to discuss course material.
• Forums: The online course site has message boards where you may post questions / comments, a lively source of some great conversations.

For those of you who have not taken an online class, the interface is extremely easy. Plus online classes can be an amazing experience. Most of the activities you can do on your own time — download and read lectures, review and respond to forum discussions, upload loglines and track comments. In addition, I’ve been teaching online for over a decade and it never ceases to amaze me how much of a community emerges in such an environment with writers from all around the world including Europe, South America, Asia, and Africa.

If you sign up for The Core Package, you gain exclusive access to the content in all eight Craft classes which you can go through on your own time and at your own pace, plus automatic enrollment in each 1-week online course — all for nearly 50% the price of each individual class.

“I’m a huge fan of Scott’s classes, and I signed up for his Core Package, which I cannot speak highly enough about. If anyone wants to take a serious look at improving their writing, there is more than enough material to keep you busy for a few… dare I say, lifetimes? He’s the best. No bones about it.”

~ Heather Farlinger

Here are the eight courses offered in the Core curriculum:

CORE I: PLOT — A one-week class which begins with the principle Plot = Structure and explores the inner workings of the Screenplay Universe: Plotline and Themeline. Start date: September 11 [Already offered].

CORE II: CONCEPT — A one-week class which begins with the principle Concept = Hook and examines multiple strategies to generate, develop and assess story ideas. Start date: September 25.

CORE III: CHARACTER — A one-week class which begins with the principle Character = Function and delves into archetypes: Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, and Trickster. Start date: October 9.

CORE IV: STYLE — A one-week class which begins with the principle Style = Voice and surfaces keys to developing a distinctive writer’s personality on the page. Start date: October 23.

CORE V: DIALOGUE — A one-week class which begins with the principle Dialogue = Purpose and probes a variety of ways to write effective, entertaining dialogue. Start date: November 6.

CORE VI: SCENE — A one-week class which begins with the principle Scene = Point and provides six essential questions to ask when crafting and writing any scene. Start date: November 13.

CORE VII: THEME — A one-week class which begins with the principle Theme = Meaning and gives writers a concrete take on theme which can elevate the depth of any story. Start date: November 27.

CORE VIII: TIME — A one-week class which begins with the principle Time = Present and studies Present, Present-Past, Present-Future and time management in writing. Start date: December 11.

These eight Core classes represent decades of my work on the front lines of the entertainment business as a writer and producer, and engaging the craft as a teacher as well, over time pulling together a coherent, comprehensive, and cohesive approach to screenwriting theory.

This is not about secret systems or magic formulas, rather the Core content presents a story-crafting process that starts with characters, works with characters, and ends with characters. That process of engaging you with your story universe through your characters and getting you in touch with these living, breathing individuals informs every step of your creative process, leading you to story structure, themes, conflict, subplots, and all the rest. As I say, Character Based Screenwriting.

NOTE: I provide feedback and am actively involved in our online chats. That includes a 90 minute teleconference for each Core class.

Check out the Core Package to ground yourself in a proven, professional approach to screenwriting theory and practice.

To learn about any of the Core classes, click here.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!