Perfect Formatting

It’s certainly no secret. I believe that all the screenplays we write today must be flawless in terms of formatting and grammar simply because of the competition. Everything counts. And in my review of Mickey Lee’s great new story, The Other Side, which you really should read if you get the chance, I did a little bird-walking on … Read more

Best o/t Web 14 Mar 10

:: Black on action (via Scott Myers).

:: Christopher Nolan on what to expect from Batman 3

:: How to logline a dual plot story? John August helps.

:: Dick happy about Blade Runner (via Kottke).

:: Final word on the Oscars (and Karel agrees)

:: The North By Northwest shooting script for download

:: Charlie (and Donald) Kaufman’s Adaptation script

:: (we keep going…) The Shawshank Redemption script

:: Finally: Basic Instinct (for Forest Gump and MANY others, go to MyPDFscripts.com)

:: Hitchcock on Content vs. Technique (via Bill Martell)

:: To three-act-structure or free-form, that is the question.

:: Cultivating a following- writing for a TV series.

:: Advice: never send out your first screenplay.

:: Own up to your audience: your inciting incident.

:: What really goes on in act one?

:: Satire with a touch of truth: the Super Script

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How, Not If

I play games like I once used to read novels. There exists a pile and as I finish each game (taking a number of weeks and occasionally months each) I move immediately onto the next, working my way through the continually replenishing stack. FINISH? It seems significant that I would use the word ‘Finish’ in … Read more

You Can Write a Movie

“You Can Write a Movie” by Pamela Wallace Writers Digest Books, Cincinnati, Ohio. 2000. 118 pages. ISBN 0-89879-974-0 Amazon Price: US $4.35 THE AUTHOR In 1986 “Witness” won the Academy Award for the best Original Screenplay. It also won awards from the Mystery Writers of America and the Writers Guild of America and was named … Read more

Introducing Names

When I re-watched the pilot episodes of LOST, it struck me how late the main characters’ names are introduced. And it works so well. By the time we hear the names mentioned, we are already wondering about them. First we see the stranded group realize their situation, dumbfounded. Then they start interacting and some characters … Read more