» Author Archive
Win-Win Redux: Donate to Heart Walk, Get Your Screenplay Read by a Professional Manager
Last year, we posted about a great opportunity for screenwriters to donate to a great cause and get their screenplay read by a professional manager in return. If you missed your chance last year, screenwriter Joe Nienalt and Benderspink manager Daniel Vang are back to help Joe raise money for the 2013 Heart Walk. Last year, with Daniel’s promise to read screenplays from Joe’s Heart Walk donors, Joe raised almost $45,000 for the American Heart Association (up from over $8,000 the previous year). Over the past two years, two writers and a writing team got representation as a result of Daniel reading their scripts through the fund drive. Joe appreciated our nofilmschool post about his Heart Walk campaign so much last year, he linked to it from his own post to help people understand why they should donate. Joe reached out to us again this year to help him spread the word, and we’re happy to do so. To find out how you can help a good cause and your own screenwriting career, check out the details below: More »
Literally thousands of people write screenplays every year, and for many of these writers, these screenplays are likely their very first efforts at screenwriting. For screenwriting newbies, several books exist that cover the basics of screenplay format and story structure, and more and more screenplays are available online for new writers to read and study. If you’re just getting started with screenwriting or if you have written one or two screenplays and want to hone your craft, a new online course from lynda.com, Screenwriting Fundamentals by Mark Tapio Kines, may be just want you need. And the best part is you can check it out for free (and any other lynda.com course) with a 7-day trial subscription. More »
Screenwriting Meets Simplicity: A Review of the New Screenwriting App Slugline
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the introduction of Slugline, a new Mac app for screenwriting from Stu Maschwitz and Clint Torres of Act Focused Media. The concept behind Slugline is to keep the app simple so screenwriters can focus on the writing. Slugline uses Fountain, the screenwriting markup language designed by Maschwitz with screenwriter John August, and adds a slight veneer of GUI to separate it from a plain text editor. Thanks to a review copy provided by Act Focused Media, I’ve had some time to work with Slugline to provide nofilmschool readers with a more in-depth review of this new Mac app. More »
If you write your screenplays in Final Draft (like me) but didn’t have an iPad when Final Draft Writer originally debuted at the sale price of $30 (like me), but now you have an iPad and wish you could’ve gotten Final Draft Writer for the cheaper price (like me) so you’ve waited for a sale (like me), you’re in luck. Until May 15th, Final Draft Writer is available for $30, 40% off the regular price of $50. Need a little more info about the app? Check out our recap below from when the app originally debuted. More »
Paint by Numbers? Hollywood Rewriting Scripts Based on Statistical Analysis to Boost Box Office
If there is one axiom about screenwriting for the studios that holds true above all others, it may be this: your screenplay will be rewritten. If you’re lucky (depending on how you define “lucky”), you’ll get to rewrite the script yourself. You may even get fired off your original screenplay only to be rehired a few drafts down the road to fix what other screenwriters have changed, like screenwriter Michael Arndt on his Oscar-winning Little Miss Sunshine, according to his introduction to the published version of the script. Studios want to take the guesswork out of rewrites to figure out which changes will lead to the biggest return on their investments. Enter the world of statistical analysis and script consultants who make script notes purely based on the numbers. More »
Time's Up, Pencils Down: 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowships Final Deadline is May 1
By now, if you’re planning on submitting a screenplay to the Academy Nicholl Fellowships, hopefully you’ve already done so. If not, your time to submit is quickly dwindling. The final deadline for the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowships is 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time, Wed. May 1, but don’t wait until the last minute. Get your screenplay submitted now so you’re not freaking out about whether your submission made it into the system on time. Check out the details on how to submit below. More »
Last month, I wrote about the retail version of screenwriting Mac App Highland from Quote-Unquote Apps, based on the Fountain markup language. The major selling point for Highland is its ability to melt PDFs into Fountain-based text files that can be edited and exported as either formatted PDFs or Final Draft (.fdx) files. Today, Slugline arrives, a new screenwriting Mac App now available for purchase that is also based on Fountain. What is Slugline’s major selling point for screenwriters? Simplicity. More »
Back in January, we couldn’t catch up with Shane Carruth for our Sundance 2013 interviews (we tried!) to learn about his sophomore effort, Upstream Color. Now that Carruth has launched his self-distribution of Upstream Color in theatres with digital streaming and downloads coming on May 7, 2013, the writer-producer-director-actor-editor-cinematographer-camera operator-composer opened up a little bit about his film in a Q&A with Film Society of Lincoln Center as part of its New Directors/New Films series. More »
We briefly interrupt our regularly scheduled NAB programming to bring you this short announcement about an intriguing animated short film masterclass. A little while ago, I highlighted a video from animation filmmaker Lucas Martell about his ideas tournament for generating new ideas and selecting the best ones to pursue further. Lucas is currently running an Indiegogo campaign for his latest animated short, The OceanMaker, and is now offering a perk specifically for those of you looking to expand your animation capabilities. For details about his upcoming animated short film masterclass, check out the video below. More »
A while back, I wrote a post about theatrical-on-demand services like Tugg, Gathr and OpenIndie that let individuals program one-night theatrical screenings of festival darlings, current documentaries and even catalog classics at their local movie theatres. Personally, I think these services will change how independent filmmakers use theatrical screenings as part of their release strategies: think theatrical tours after or conjunction with the festival circuit instead of or prior to traditional theatrical releases. Also, since I hope theatrical-on-demand services will survive so I may be able to use them one day when I have a feature film to share with audiences, I wanted to test out one of the services as a promoter. Today, I’d like to share the lessons I learned as a promoter of a successful Tugg screening in Albuquerque, New Mexico. More »
Finish That Rewrite: 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowships Regular Deadline is April 10
This is a combination PSA/light a fire under your a** post to make sure you are writing, rewriting, and rewriting some more to get your screenplay ready for the Academy Nicholl Fellowships regular deadline of Apr. 10. I’ll be honest, my latest script will not be ready by that deadline (needs a little more seasoning – okay, a lot more seasoning), but if you’ve been diligent, hopefully your script will be ready. Otherwise, it will cost you another fifteen bucks for the late deadline on May 1. Check out current stats on this year’s competition and details on how to apply below. More »
Know What Your Screenwriting Audience Wants: The Business of Spec Scripts
Many of us here on NFS will write screenplays for our own films that we plan to make ourselves. That said, it’s always good to know which scripts are selling in the marketplace: 1) to know what movies may be coming to a theatre near you soon so your script is different (or better); 2) to know the styles and genres of scripts that studios and financiers are buying should you want to sell your own spec; and 3) to know who represents and manages writers of scripts like your own to help you find representation. To shed some light on the spec script market, Scott Myers at Go Into The Story has been running a weekly series on this very topic, covering the history of the spec script market, the buyers of spec scripts, the spec screenwriter-representation relationship and more. More »
The Nine-Year Overnight Success Story of the 'Olympus Has Fallen' Screenwriters
Working on the outside looking in when you are an aspiring screenwriter can be a grind. Certainly, there are moments when you may wonder if you are making progress toward your ultimate goal of getting a screenplay turned into a feature film. If you don’t put in the hours on your writing, however, your craft will never rise to the level necessary to make a sale or get a greenlight. Those hours, in the case of screenwriter Creighton Rothenberger, started at 4 a.m. before his corporate job for several years until 2002 when he won the Academy Nicholl Fellowship. After conceiving Olympus Has Fallen in 2003 and writing it with his wife, Katrin Benedikt, this screenwriting duo spent another nine years writing specs before selling this particular script in 2012 and seeing it hit the big screen last weekend. Watch them tell their story below. More »
Highland Screenwriting Mac App Now Available, Free to Try and $10 Through March
After a little more than a year of beta testing, Highland, the screenwriting app from Quote-Unquote Apps, is now available for purchase in the Mac App Store. To promote the retail version, Highland is available for $10, half off its list price of $20, through the end of March. Highland lets writers write scripts in plain text and converts files between PDF, Final Draft (.fdx) and Fountain, a screenwriting markup language developed by Quote-Unquote Apps. To find out more about how Highland works and to get a free demo, check out the video and details below. More »
A few months ago, Justin posted a series of videos of 10 renowned directors offering their advice on filmmaking. While this list isn’t quite as extensive, today I present to you five award-winning screenwriters discussing their approach to the craft of screenwriting. You may want to get a snack or even a small meal because some of these videos are long, but all of them offer unique insights into how each of these writers (or writing teams) approach a story, and then break the story down into screenplay format. Hopefully, these videos will educate and inspire you as you work on your own screenwriting craft.
More »
Speaking of opportunities to further your screenwriting career, screenwriting labs that work with writers extensively on their screenplays as well as introduce them to professional screenwriters and producers as advisors are worth exploring. At NFS we’ve discussed the Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab, perhaps the most well-known of the screenwriting labs here in the U.S. For writers living in the Los Angeles area, Film Independent’s Screenwriting Lab offers a five-week program that meets two to three evenings a week in September and October to help writers improve their current screenplays as well as their overall craft. Plus, Film Independent helps lab fellows advance their careers with the help and guidance of film professionals. Check out the details below, but take note: the submission deadline is Apr. 1, 2013. More »
Based in the U.S.? Got a Screenplay Idea for Beijing? Then China Has a Contest for You
New screenwriting competitions appear all the time, as we discussed earlier this week here on NFS. As always, when evaluating a competition, I consider what it will do to further the career of an aspiring screenwriter. So when the Chinese government decides to launch a screenwriting competition specifically for U.S.-based screenwriters of any nationality, that’s not a screenwriting competition you hear about every day. Don’t start firing off your script just yet, though. You want to enter this contest? You’d better have a story that takes place in Beijing. More »
Equal Writes Competition Wants to Make Your Rebellious, Diverse Genre Film for $250K
As I’ve mentioned on NFS before, I think screenwriting contests should be evaluated on what they offer entrants to launch and further their careers. Many won’t really help a new screenwriter launch or further a career, so when a new competition is announced, I’m always a bit skeptical. Nevertheless, the new Equal Writes competition presented by We Make Movies and Duly Noted has me intrigued as they are looking for smart, rebellious, diverse genre films that can be produced for $250K or less, and they want seven finalists to pitch their movies in seven minutes in front of three producers and a live audience for the chance to get their movies made. Want to know if this contest is for you? Check out the details below. More »
At the beginning of 2013, I wrote about 6 things I’m doing to write my best screenplay ever this year (and you can too!). I thought it would get my usual small number of hits, disappear under the camera posts, and I’d move on to writing more posts about successful screenwriters and their words of wisdom. But I was wrong. While the post didn’t generate nearly as much traffic as our more popular camera posts, a lot of you read it and passed it around, making it one of my more popular posts, so thank you. Two months into the year, and based on the success of that post, I thought I would share with you my progress and delve into my own screenwriting process.
More »
Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab Now Accepting Applications for January 2014
After posting about the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting now accepting applications for 2013, one of our NFS readers asked which screenwriting contests I recommend. Well, I recommend screenwriting opportunities that will further your career – namely, making contacts in the industry or finding ways to turn your writing into films yourself (that’s why you’re here at NFS, right?). Beyond making industry contacts, I think there are a few screenwriting opportunities worth considering. The Academy Nicholl Fellowships is one. The Sundance Institute Screenwriters Lab is another — a long-standing program known for championing emerging voices in screenwriting and helping those writers turn their words into films. Sundance Institute has now opened applications online for the January 2014 Screenwriters Lab. More »
William Spiritdancer: Why don't you like Distrify? Reelhouse Paves the Way for the Future of Self-Distribution
Mark Weston: Way to state the obvious and add nothing to the comments section. Watch It Now: Crowdfunding Wonder 'The Cosmonaut' Goes Live
Mark Weston: Not looking good. At least they are honest that it isnt good at stabilizi… One Week Only: Get an Exclusive nofilmschool Discount on the Innovative Su…
Earnest reply: Would all this expansion cause wages to go down for rank and file producti… Hollywood Betting Big on Massive Studio Expansions
quobetah: The sample shots have some vertical jerk..either a part of the used brake … One Week Only: Get an Exclusive nofilmschool Discount on the Innovative Su…