» Posts Tagged ‘script’
As fellow NoFilmSchool and feature-film script writer Christopher Boone would tell you (you’re my boy, blue!), writing is something you have to practice daily. The hardest part sometimes is just motivating yourself to stop staring at the blank page and just write something. If you’re the type of person who enjoys a challenge, then perhaps a fun way to get a few good pages in every day is a free platform called 750 Words. Hit the jump for a full rundown on the site, and how it could be a boon to your screenwriting creativity: More »
Screenwriting is a topic broached fairly regularly, and often authorities on the subject talk about the rules that govern scripts. An aspect of screenwriting discussed less often that seems to govern all other rules, however, is the Secret Rule, which is: “Feel free to break any of the aforementioned Rules if necessary.” Scott Myers at Go Into the Story recently posted about doing just that with screenwriting, and why The Princess Bride should never have worked as a film. More »
The Black List's New Paid Service Aims to Connect Screenwriters with Industry Professionals
For the uninitiated, The Black List compiles a list of the “most liked” unproduced screenplays according to the opinions of studio and production executives and their readers. At the time of The Black List’s publication in December each year, many of the scripts on the list have been acquired and are either in production or active development toward production. Getting a script listed on The Black List certainly boosts a screenwriter’s credentials within the industry and can lead to more work. Now, the people behind The Black List have launched a new paid service for aspiring screenwriters trying to get their screenplays in the hands of industry professionals. Here are the details: More »
For some people, the hardest part of screenwriting is muscling through that first draft. For others, the dreaded editing and rewriting phase, which can last for days, weeks, or even years, is the most difficult. As a writer, at some point in the process, you will have to ask the question: when is it time to lock the script and finally get it out to those who need to read it (whether that be buyers or producers)? To help answer the question, Scott Myers over at Go Into The Story has put together a list of 10 things to consider before locking a script. More »
For those of you just joining us, about two months ago, I got Pitch Slapped. In the middle of rewriting my latest comedy spec, Countless Melodies — an all-male collegiate a cappella group tries to recapture its former glory by becoming national champions once again, if the group could only defeat its archrivals, the three-time defending champion Blue Belles — I discovered the trailer for Pitch Perfect when it premiered on IMDb. Pitch Perfect (coming to theatres October 5!) looks like essentially the same movie I’m writing except the female a cappella group singers are the protagonists, not the antagonists. Great, now what? At that point, I could have stopped my rewrite, tossed the script in the proverbial drawer, and moved on. That would have been sensible. Instead, I finished the rewrite and posted my script online for anyone to read. Here’s why: More »
Ideas don’t always just come to artists out of thin air, contrary to popular belief. A lot of what happens between the mind and the page (or screen) is just pushing through and making things happen even when you’re not feeling inspired creatively. While this clip from Jack White speaking in the documentary The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights is about music, it can certainly be applied to filmmaking, and more specifically, screenwriting. More »
There aren’t too many screenwriters with as many hit movies as Tony Gilroy (who, full disclosure, also happens to be one of my favorites). Even fewer screenwriters make the full transition to writer/director and are nominated for an Academy Award for their directorial debut (Michael Clayton). Regardless of the validity of Hollywood’s most prestigious award, that still takes a bit of skill to pull off. So when someone with his experience level sits down and listens to some movie pitches, there’s a good chance he has a pretty good idea about the difficulties of getting those films made in the Hollywood studio system. More »
Screenwriters Erik Bork and Pamela Gray Break Down the Marathon Writing Process
Screenplays look deceiving. Short paragraphs, blocks of dialogue and all of that white space can lure new writers into the trap of believing that writing a screenplay just can’t be that hard. That is, until they actually try to write a screenplay. As aspiring screenwriters, we know it is so much more than putting words on a page. We have so much creative work to do before we even type word one of our screenplay. Yet, ironically, after we have grappled with concept, story, structure, character development and setting, we still face the long process of, well, putting words on a page. John Buchanan of Script Magazine interviewed professional screenwriters Erik Bork (Emmy winner for HBO’s From the Earth to the Moon and Band of Brothers) and Pamela Gray (Conviction, A Walk on the Moon) and uncovered valuable perspectives on tackling the long haul of writing screenplays. More »
American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest Offers Chance to Win $5,000 from Francis Ford Coppola
Screenplay contests abound. Notices for new screenplay contests arrive via email daily. Aspiring screenwriters could certainly go broke applying to the multitudes of contests in the hope of some sort of recognition. So, before handing over cash to a screenwriting contest, writers should really identify the value they get from a contest for the money they spend. Francis Ford Coppola’s American Zoetrope Screenplay Contest offers a chance to win $5,000 plus consideration for representation from major agencies and management firms as well as the possibility of optioning your screenplay to several notable production companies and studios. More »
Benh Zeitlin and Lucy Alibar Describe the Script's Evolution for Beasts of the Southern Wild
As Sundance and Cannes award-winner Beasts of the Southern Wild grows from festival darling to full-fledged must-see status in its platform rollout across the country, many interviews with first-time feature film director Benh Zeitlin have focused how his creative team managed to film a joyous apocalyptic story off the grid on the water during an oil spill in southern Louisiana with non-actors. Merely getting this film in the can was a miracle. My interest as a writer, however, craves to know more about how Zeitlin and his co-writer Lucy Alibar worked through the adaptation of Alibar’s play Juicy and Delicious to create this Beast. Thanks to Edward Douglas at ComingSoon.net, we have some answers, straight from the co-writers themselves. More »
Good Screenplays Start with Great Endings (from John August & Craig Mazin)
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 »
Scott Myers and the Go Into The Story blog is a tremendous resource for screenwriters, regardless of whether you’re an amateur or a professional. Over the past few years Scott has been writing about simple tricks that can help get you unstuck when you’re writing your screenplay. Most of them are straightforward, but a few are a little unorthodox. There’s a good chance you’ve heard some of them before, but I’ve compiled a list of 17 tips that Scott has shared on his site. More »
All too often people seem to think that you can become successful “by accident” — that by simply starting a funny blog or Twitter account, Hollywood will come knocking and give you millions. Unless you’re the child of a studio head or a famous actor, success comes from unbelievable amounts of hard work and dedication (and if you are, you probably don’t really need to read NoFilmSchool). A recent Los Angeles Times article about “Twitter sensation” Kelly Oxford (who just sold a spec script and has a new book deal) seemed to suggest that her stardom is merely due to her Twitter account, and not her years of hard work. In a fairly inspiring post, she sets the record straight, and in the process gives some insight into what really leads to success. More »
Speaking of Aaron Sorkin, if you haven’t seen the first episode of The Newsroom, you should go check it out right now, or at least watch the first scene. In a recent GQ article, Sorkin writes about his own material, specifically how he arrives at the dialogue for the first scene in that episode of The Newsroom. Writing good dialogue is not easy, but knowing the real purpose of the scene and having a deep understanding of your characters will help the words flow out of you. Check out some excerpts from that GQ piece below. More »
Not everyone can afford to pay for HBO — and there’s a good number who just prefer not to watch it — but if you’ve been living under a rock for the past five or ten years, some of the best writing anywhere is happening on pay TV. If there has ever been a golden age for writers, it’s right now, and it’s on TV. For most movies the director is the auteur, but TV is the medium of the writer. They are allowed to take more chances and spread their wings over 10-12 hours of content in a pay TV season. Academy Award winner (The Social Network) Aaron Sorkin’s new HBO show, The Newsroom, is pure Sorkinese (fast dialogue). Though that may not be everyone’s cup of tea, his ability to sculpt characters with language cannot be understated. If you missed the first episode, it’s now available online from the link below: More »
Keep Up to Date on the Spec Script Market with TheGrid and Go Into the Story
For many of us on NFS, we’re pursuing our filmmaking goals through the independent, DIY route. If you’re focused more specifically on screenwriting like myself, however, you may find yourself straddling the line writing content you can sell to the Hollywood studios and writing content you want to make as your passion project. Either way, it’s important to know what’s currently in development and production so you know what is selling and so you don’t get blindsided when you discover your current script is already in production as a major feature film. For decades, Variety and The Hollywood Reporter have been the standard trades for Hollywood. For the independent film community, IndieWire has established itself as the must-read sight. These publications typically cover done deals or finished films. For screenwriters that want to know what specs are heading out into the market before the deal is done, there’s TheGrid. More »
What You Do When You Discover the Exact Movie You Are Writing is Coming Out in Four Months
I am currently in the middle of rewriting my latest comedy spec script, Countless Melodies (that crossed-out ‘o’ is not a typo, it’s a purposeful omission), a script I haven’t shown to a soul yet because it’s not ready. It’s an idea I’ve had for several years and I finally got around to writing it this year. It’s a college-set comedy that follows an all-male a cappella group, Countless Melodies, as they try to recapture their former glory to become national champions once again, if they can only defeat their archrivals, the three-time defending champion Blue Belles. It’s completely “write-what-you-know” because I was in an all-male a cappella group in college. That’s right. I said it. I was in an all-male a cappella group in college — the Johns Hopkins University AllNighters. And we were good, too (at least, back in the day). So imagine my surprise when I surf over to IMDb today and see this trailer on their home page for Pitch Perfect: More »
Screenwriter Scott Myers was featured not too long ago on NoFilmSchool because of a contest of sorts that he started called “The Quest,” where anyone was allowed to submit as many of their original movie loglines as they wanted. Of the thousands, he’s picking four screenwriters who will write and develop a script with him over a period of six months. Even if you didn’t participate, Scott has a clever idea about staying productive as a screenwriter. This “numerical idea” is all about reading scripts, watching movies, and writing pages. More »
Donate to American Heart Association, Get Your Script Read by Daniel Vang of Benderspink
Aspiring screenwriters struggle to find ways to get their scripts read by agents and managers. Well, here’s an opportunity for screenwriters to make a donation to fight heart disease and get their screenplays actually read by a manager at Benderspink. Screenwriter Joe Nienalt is raising money for the American Heart Association Heart Walk, and he has partnered with Daniel Vang, manager at Benderspink, to help him reach his goal. Last year, Joe raised over $8,000 to help fight heart disease, two writers got representation, and several other writers earned an open door policy with Daniel to submit future material. To find out how you can help a good cause and your own screenwriting career, check out the details below: More »
'The Quest': Spend 6 Months Being Mentored by Hollywood Screenwriter Scott Myers
Speaking of Scott Myers and the Go Into The Story blog, Scott (writer of K-9, Alaska, and Trojan War) is doing something that I’ve never really seen done before at this scale, and with no entry fee. Starting today, he’s going to give four screenwriters the chance to write a screenplay and be mentored by him for a total of 24 weeks. I’ve been following this for the past week, but Scott has been writing posts describing the foundations of screenwriting and what he expects from those who submit — and they are very important to increase your odds of being picked. So what is the contest, that Scott is calling “The Quest”? I’ll let him explain in his own words below: More »
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