Story. Screenplay. Sale.
The below is a report of an experiment: the trial run of the legendary Immersion Screenwriting course. The beta version was a little rough and dirty – but free, and effective! A free screenwriting course? Too good to be true. Of course it is. But hear me out. As my boss in London told me, you … Read more
Flavorwire published 20 quotes from filmmakers on writing. So you don’t have to flick through all 20, I put the best ones on a single page for you. (I even added one for free.) Stupid auteur theory (Billy Wilder) “What does the director shoot—the telephone book? Writers became much more important when sound came in, but they’ve … Read more
People will say a lot of things about what it takes to create great characters: they require depth and complexity. They must be multi-dimensional, they need to transform, etc. Until recently, if you had asked me about one thing more important than all the above, I would have replied: goals. Characters must have a clear … Read more
Alex Garland has mastered storytelling for a long time. I remember the novel The Beach to be a riveting read. Here I will show you how he lifted his own screenplay for Ex Machina from gold to platinum level, through inspired direction. This will only take one scene. At the time of the screen adaptation of Alex Garland’s The Beach, all eyes … Read more
Behind the charming accent and sweet demeanor hides a clever cynic. Angry at the injustice of society, Jimmy McGovern has a reason to write. In an unexpectedly controversial Bafta lecture, he covers generating story, professionally causing offense, and the gravity of hard work. “You haven’t got to be better, you just have to work harder.” … Read more