Who is John Galt?

In the midst of my absence last month, I managed to squeeze in some time to read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. It was only 1000 pages of very fine print – no problem! I had been meaning to read the book for years. I once knew a certain female executive whose passion for work knew … Read more

The Natural Three Acts

If Shakespeare were writing screenplays now, he’d be laughed out of Hollywood. Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet were both five acts long. Some printed editions of Hamlet weigh in around 400 pages. Would he have made it through a pitch meeting?  Probably not.  Somewhere along the line someone would have told him that he needed … Read more

On Adaptations

Let me get on my Project Gutenberg soapbox.  One of the most under-appreciated opportunities for aspiring screenwriters is Project Gutenberg. As many of you know very well, most assignment jobs screenwriters pick-up are adaptations of known works. I truly believe that before you ever step onto the world stage with your writings, you should already have lots … Read more

Make Our Myths

What is the motivation for our films? How does the Australian film industry maintain its identity in this new age of filmmaking? What should a screenwriter focus on in order to catch the audience? The purpose of Australian feature film production, I propose, is not to tell our own stories.  The purpose of our feature … Read more

The Incident versus The Call

On the one hand there are the followers of Syd Field who speak of ‘Inciting Incident’.  Then there are the believers in mythology who speak the language of Joseph Campbell and prefer ‘The Call to Adventure’. To make matters worse, others speak of ‘Opportunity’ or ‘Disturbance’, Catalyst etc. Chances are this post is not going to … Read more