“… I confess I had gone into this breakfast expecting the worst—and even condescending in my mind to what I imagined was some pretty low-level entertainment. Now the scales fell from my eyes. My employer had become a mentor. Immediately I grasped that the don’t-stop-the-story principle could be applied to other, more mainstream genres….”
Go to […]

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Denis Faye interviewed clinical psychologist and “dating, mating, and relating” expert Dr. Wendy Walsh at the WGA West site.
“… We know that love is everywhere. It’s a mouse click away. The first romantic comedy writer who figures out how to tell the story of learning to love with conflict and then coming back into love […]

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“… Monday is the Jewish High Holiday. It’s the day of atonement. A chance to reflect and ask forgiveness for our sins and transgressions over the past year…. It’s a day of fasting (Jewish tradition has it that on all holidays you either fast or eat way too much), spiritual reconnection, and taking a break […]

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“The opportunities in Hollywood for 20-minute pitch meetings are fairly rare, especially for newer screenwriters. But as soon as you complete your first screenplay, you’ll repeatedly face the challenge of having less than 60 seconds to convince the people in power to read it.
“Every time you phone an agent or production company to discuss your […]

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“… When a script starts tipping the scale and exceeding the two-hour standard, the page-gobblers can invariably be traced to one or more of the following:
* Extraneous conversations
* Explicit character descriptions
* Detailed scene descriptions
* Excessive camera and lighting directions
* Parentheticals ad nauseum
“It’s the last of these, I’ve found, that writers are the most reluctant to […]

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Chris Thilk at Movie Marketing Madness keeps an updated list of movie studios using the Twitter microblog service.
(h/t — Anne Thompson)
Go to site …

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“… As this model has been used more widely, the meaning of the term ‘hybrid distribution’ has become less precise. When Thom Powers asked me to give a presentation at the 2009 Toronto Film Festival, I took the opportunity to define the core principles of hybrid distribution. My goal was to break the concept into […]

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After three rounds of class, scene assignments, and feedback, 23 semi-finalists have been named in the Biz of Screenwriting 2 competition. Congratulations, everyone!

More details at BizOfScreenwriting.com …

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“… This crisis can’t be blamed entirely on the economy. Box office traffic is strong across the board, with Landmark, the largest indie exhibitor, reporting booming admissions. People will go to movies. But they have to (1) hear about them, and (2) be able to find them. And that leads me to the real subject […]

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“…  It used to be that if you wanted to reach millions with a moving picture project, you had two choices: you could play in television’s sandbox, or you could play in film’s sandbox.  Either of these scenarios required you to play within the system because you were otherwise unable to access the distribution pipelines.  […]

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The final list of quarterfinalists in the Writers on the Storm 2009 competition was published early today. Included were Barbara Senatore’s “The Last Bigheart,” Janet Zibell’s “The Lighthouse,” Lee Tidball’s “Atlanta from Olympus,” and, as previously reported here, AF Grant’s “War Without End.” Congratulations, everyone!
Go to site …

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“… At the moment, I happen to be between jobs, which is a nice way of saying ‘unemployed.’  This is, unfortunately, a very common state for writers, even those with fairly successful careers.  One of the biggest challenges of being a professional writer is learning how to deal with frequent bouts of unemployment without going […]

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“… I recently watched all four LETHAL WEAPON movies.  LETHAL WEAPON is many things – buddy comedy, action movie, gritty police story, murder mystery.  If you are writing a story with multiple genres, the first step is to decide what your movie is….”
Go to Lindsey Hughes’ place …

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Russell T. Davies (”The Sarah Jane Adventures,” “Doctor Who,” “Torchwood”) spoke with the BBC writersroom about shaping scenes, and what he’s looking for as a showrunner.
“… I think people want to get on with it. When people are reading a script they just want to get on with it and find out what the story […]

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“… I had a couple screenplays optioned earlier this summer, and another one re-optioned (which means that the current option expired and a new one had to be renegotiated) all around the same time … and I realized I hadn’t really read much regarding options on the internets and thought I’d share what I know […]

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