nightmare-loki: #best reaction to a zombie in the history of zombie movies
Read moreAustin Update
John August smiled at me and said hi. A woman with a story about women won the pitch contest. Got a gig writing a column for Script mag. Noah Hawley said the Coen Bros entire reaction to his Fargo was, “Yeah. Good.” Satellite Beach is a masterful piece of guerilla filmmaking. I never want to…
Read moreNotes from a Screenreader: Well, Obviously
nywift: Photo via Go Into the Story. The post “Writing Advice So Obvious It Gets Overlooked“ covers the most fundamental of all story fundamentals (thanks to the marvelous writerlyn at Musings from a Young Hollywood Professional for reblogging this brilliance). It is advice that deserves a thorough looking over. Whose story is it? Very obvious,…
Read moreNotes from a Screenreader: Well, Obviously
nywift: Photo via Go Into the Story. The post “Writing Advice So Obvious It Gets Overlooked“ covers the most fundamental of all story fundamentals (thanks to the marvelous writerlyn at Musings from a Young Hollywood Professional for reblogging this brilliance). It is advice that deserves a thorough looking over. Whose story is it? Very obvious,…
Read moreTHE THIRD PAGE OF A TALKING SCENE
DON’T GIVE IT AWAY
annerocious: I was just reading a spec script, and a great thing happened. I was intrigued by an idea it proposed at the inciting incident. I thought to myself, “This question is going to get me all the way to the end, still guessing.” And in the very next scene, it was answered. Why? WHY?…
Read moreGO AHEAD, BE A BITCH
Telling the truth includes revealing the less savory aspects of your characters. Good characters, interesting characters, have depths and shadows. They don’t have to be serial killers, but they don’t have to melt down with guilt when they march seventeen items through the express lane, either. This is most often a symptom of spec scripts…
Read moreTONE DEAF
In a comedy, stuff like sex and violence and drugs and kink and crime are tolerated at different levels than they are in dramas and genre. That’s tone. Messing with tone is a lot of fun, you can mash up horror and comedy and get something fun or bitingly dark or satiric, depending on where…
Read moreNotes from a Screenreader: Bad Contractors Build Great Characters
nywift: Photo via Go Into the Story. Like badly built houses, when your characters suffer from faults in their very foundation they can get by just fine with good weather. But when conditions turn ugly, their weaknesses begin to show and the drama starts to happen. To make a really great character, think like a…
Read moreScreenwriters shouldn’t direct on the page? […] Screw that. We’re building a movie on paper. We should use all tools available both to make the reader see the film and our fellow filmmakers understand our intentions. Craig Mazin (Scary Movie 4, The Hangover Part II, Identity Thief) Craig has a big personality and is wonderfully generous…
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