How Do You Become a Screenwriter? The First Feature: AMATEUR [Episode 3] | No Film School

Click the play button on the Soundcloud player above to listen, or listen to other deep-dive episodes of The First Feature.

This episode covers many screenwriting tips and tricks, including:

Tracking your hours to ensure you prioritize screenwriting in your life
Brainstorming out loud and recording yourself so you don't forget a lightbulb moment
Writing your first draft by hand to ensure you finish it and you can't go back and edit
Spending >50% of your time NOT in screenwriting software — researching, outlining, breaking the story
Why applying for grants can be helpful even if you don't win them
The Sundance Screenwriters Lab (which we did an entire podcast on at Sundance)
Doing entire drafts from the perspective of supporting characters
Apps like Workflowy, Final Draft, and WriterDuet
Workshopping your script with actors at table reads

….and more.

If you have questions about the making of the Netflix Original Film Amateur — or about your own feature project — you can ask me at firstfeature@nofilmschool.com or find me on twitter @ryanbkoo.

Here's the trailer for the feature Amateur. Watch it now on Netflix!

About Amateur

14-year-old basketball phenom Terron Forte has to navigate the under-the-table world of amateur athletics when he is recruited to an elite NCAA prep school.

Amateur stars Michael Rainey Jr., Sharon Leal, Ashlee Brian, Corey Parker Robinson with Brian White and Josh Charles. The film is written and directed by Ryan Koo and produced by Jason Michael Berman, Chip Hourihan and Mark Moran with Michael Finley, Tony Parker, Jill Ahrens, Ryan Ahrens, Ben Renzo and Caroline Connor serving as executive producers. The film premiered on Netflix on April 6, 2018.

www.netflix.com/amateur

This episode of The First Feature is sponsored by Music Bed. Get 20% off your next on-site license with coupon code "FirstFeature20."

Please subscribe and rate us on iTunes, Soundcloud, Stitcher or the podcasting app of your choice. You can play all episodes of the The First Feature right here:

podcast firstfeature amateur ryan koo netflix screenwriting sundance labs

What's the Hype With 'Interstellar' Revisiting Cinemas After a Decade in 70mm IMAX?

Here's Why You Need to Revisit 'Interstellar' in 70mm IMAX

Celebrate the love and hope at the center of Nolan's space epic in the format it was meant to be seen.

If we know anything about Christopher Nolan, he likes to go big. Nolan started with smaller-scale stories (as many of us do) with early noir adjacent works like Following, Memento, and Insomnia, then started going and staying big with his illusionist drama The Prestige. Since then, the scale has been various degrees of massive, with the biggest scope in his time-and-space sprawling epic, Interstellar.

While Interstellarmight not be everyone's favorite Nolan outing, there's no denying it's an impressive feat of filmmaking and his most emotional—if watching Matthew McConaughey's Cooper desperately try to reach his family through quantum space-time doesn't make you cry at least a little bit, what's going on, dude?

With Interstellar'sIMAX release, it's a great time to shed some tears in a public setting in one of the most prestigious film formats around. As we mentioned in our film gauge piece, Nolan loves shooting on film and utilizes 65mm intentionally to provoke a tone of massive scale. In that regard, Interstellar was made for 70mm IMAX. That goes without saying, dawg. That being said, other factors make Interstellar a perfect movie to revisit in theaters while you can.

Let's break down the release further below.

Keep ReadingShow less

Popular

Latest