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The Black List Founder Franklin Leonard Clarifies New Paid Service for Screenwriters

10.24.12 @ 3:31PM Tags : craigmazin, franklinleonard, johnaugust, screenwriting, scriptnotes, service, theblacklist

Last week, The Black List announced a new paid service for aspiring screenwriters to get their scripts in front of industry professionals. The idea of putting together a database of undiscovered screenplays that professional readers rate and industry professionals can search sounds pretty good. Add to this the fact that algorithms promote scripts to industry professionals based on their preferences à la Netflix or Amazon makes it sound even better. Knowing that over 1,100 industry professionals using the database have been vetted (chosen from over 5,000 applicants) and range from agency assistants to studio presidents may convince several aspiring screenwriters to submit their scripts post haste. The idea of paying for access to these industry professionals, however, may stop several aspiring screenwriters in their tracks – is this just another scheme to make money off the thousands of wannabe screenwriters with no industry access? Thankfully, John August and Craig Mazin put The Black List founder Franklin Leonard in the hot seat during their live podcast recording at the Austin Film Festival last week to find out. More »

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Perseverance: What Sushi and Screenwriting Have in Common

08.1.12 @ 3:09PM Tags : craigmazin, jirodreamsofsushi, perseverance, screenwriting

Perseverance is one of the most important and perhaps most overlooked traits required of an individual pursuing the goal of becoming a screenwriter. When we begin writing screenplays, the process excites us. Naturally, we expect our initial efforts to be great. Then reality slaps us in the face. We either take our rejection letters and decide to pursue another path, or we stick the rejection letters on the wall to motivate us to write better. Those rejection letters never seem to stop coming. If we truly work hard on our craft, the rejections get softer with more encouraging words, but they reject us nonetheless. We continue to write in the hopes that one day, our script gets accepted. This craft takes several years to achieve mere competence, and several more to achieve high quality work. Searching for an appropriate analogy to illustrate this perseverance, Craig Mazin’s “One Cool Thing” on this week’s ScriptNotes podcast reminded me to watch Jiro Dreams of Sushi, just released on Blu-ray, DVD and online streaming. More »

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Good Screenplays Start with Great Endings (from John August & Craig Mazin)

07.9.12 @ 8:30PM Tags : beginnings, craigmazin, endings, johnaugust, screenplay, screenwriting, script, scriptnotes

As screenwriters, we need to tell good stories, and to tell good stories, we need to great endings. Duh. What fascinates me about this axiom, though, is how much time screenwriters, myself included, worry about the opening of a script to hook a reader and how little time we may spend crafting a great ending to satisfy the reader. Screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin tackle this very subject on their latest episode of Scriptnotes and how writers should handle the endings of their screenplays. More »

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Five Tests to See Whether a Character's Voice is Working (from John August & Craig Mazin)

05.16.12 @ 1:16PM Tags : character, craigmazin, johnaugust, podcast, screenwriting, scriptnotes

As screenwriters, we spend a lot of time writing, re-writing, and obsessing over dialogue.  Let’s face it — the audience won’t read the amazing writing of our action sequences, but they will certainly hear our pithy dialogue.  But do each of our characters have a unique voice? Thanks to the ongoing generosity of John August and Craig Mazin, their most recent Scriptnotes podcast provides five tests to see whether a character’s voice is working.  See the five tests from the podcast below and my personal take on each: More »

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Where the Money Goes in Hollywood

11.15.11 @ 2:54PM Tags : craigmazin, hollywood, johnaugust, money, podcast

Hollywood’s accounting practices are so infamously convoluted that you could write a book on them. Two, in fact: author Edward Jay Epstein has written two books on the topic, The Big Picture: Money and Power in Hollywood and The Hollywood Economist: The Hidden Financial Reality Behind the Movies (with an update of the latter on the way). I read his first book, but by this point my memory’s a bit hazy, so listening to the latest episode of the Script Notes podcast by screenwriters John August and Craig Mazin was a great refresher on the topic of where the money goes in Hollywood. More »