Screenwriting
-
WHY IS YOUR SCRIPT BORING?
My blog post last week on 15 Things to Do After You Finish Your Script dances around the issue of quality, but my approach was fundamentally affirmational. Over at Script Shadow, Carson Reeves is blunter with his 10 Possible Reasons Your Script is Boring. All ten points are pretty dead-on, meaning that I’ve encountered each one more times than I want to remember. Reeves does a good job of identifying the reasons why a script read could produce just a “meh” reaction, but the short diagnosis is, it all comes down to quality. A script shouldn’t be just good these […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 11, 2012 -
15 Steps To Take After You Finish Your Script
A Filmmaker reader recently emailed me with a simple question. After going to film school, making some shorts and working conspicuously within his means, he’s now written a script purely from the imagination — not censoring himself by thinking of things like money and production requirements. The resulting project, I take it, is too big for his usual DIY methods. He asked, “What do I do now?” A tough question, not knowing the filmmaker very well and not having read the script. There are easier-said-than-done answers: “Find a producer! Get an agent!” But just sending out a bunch of PDFs, […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 2, 2012 -
Amazon Studios Revises Terms for Writers
About 18 months ago I blogged about the new Amazon Studios venture, in which screenwriters submit their projects to the internet commerce giant for crowdsourced development and possible production. There was a lot of initial interest in Amazon Studios when it was announced, but I, like many other observers, found the terms shockingly poor for writers. I asked, why would you give “a company with a $74 billion market cap an 18-month free option on your original project?” Especially when, according to Amazon Studio’s original terms, there were scenarios in which that original work could have been exploited with you […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 14, 2012 -
What’s In My Instapaper: Sunday Morning Links, 4/8/2012
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but now that the new issue is shipped and off to the printer, here’s what I’m catching up on. What’s one measure of good dialogue? According to the Physics arIXv Blog at MIT, it’s the memorability of its quotes. A Cornell University study found that there’s a reason lines like “You had me at hello,” “You can’t handle the truth” and “Hasta la vista, baby” lodge themselves in our memories. “The cloud” — that system of networked and very terrestrial computers that store and stream are data — may have […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 8, 2012 -
Top 10 Screenwriting Tips From Script To Screen
Yesterday IFP’s Script to Screen conference took place at the 92YTribeca in New York City, and I was lucky enough to be there. During the “Writers’ Roundtable” panel, which featured the writer-directors Leslye Headland (Bachelorette), Liza Johnson (Return), Madeleine Olnek (Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same), and Ry Russo Young (You Won’t Miss Me; Nobody Walks), I took copious notes. I was also busily typing away as novelist and Bored to Death creator Jonathan Ames, The Believer‘s writer-director Henry Bean, and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon writer Jen Statsky discussed screenwriting after playing the “Exquisite Corpse” writing game. Many sage […]
by Nick Dawson on Mar 18, 2012 -
Columbia U. Launches Screenplay Revision Workshop
Becoming a good writer is not just about writing well — it’s about rewriting well. I know plenty of promising writers who positively fail at that essential skill. They are unable to move beyond their first drafts, to process feedback, and to shape their own raw material into production-worthy scripts. This summer a resource for the self-aware among this set is being offered by Columbia University. Columbia’s Film School chair Ira Deutchman recently announced the Screenplay Revision Workshop, which is open to all. From Ira’s blog at Tribeca: In all my years in the film business and my travels around […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 17, 2012 -
BENNETT MILLER, RY RUSSO-YOUNG, JONATHAN AMES TO APPEAR AT IFP’S “SCRIPT TO SCREEN”
The IFP’s popular conference for writers and writer/directors, Script to Screen, returns to the 92nd St. Y Tribeca on Saturday, March 17 with a program that promises to mix practical advice with freewheeling programs intended to generate creative sparks. The day’s program features a keynote presentation by Bennett Miller, the Oscar-nominated director of Moneyball and Capote, and a Screenwriter’s Roundtable featuring up-and-coming auteurs Ry Russo-Young (Nobody Walks), Leslye Headland (Bachelorette), Madeline Olnek (Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same) and Liza Johnson (Return). As a promising change of pace from traditional panels, Script to Screen also features a pair of interactive […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 5, 2012 -
TEN MINUTES. DOESN’T SEEM LIKE MUCH RIGHT?
Written in collaboration with Clay McLeod Chapman Our short film—Henley—had been back-burning in our brains for over five years. Clay had published a novel back in 2003 called Miss Corpus. Craig, it turns out, was the only person who read it. There’s a chapter in the book, The Henley Road Motel, which is all about a boy growing up in a family-run roach motel. Think lil’ Normie Bates before donning mom’s summer dress. When business begins to dwindle, our 9-year-old hero cracks a pretty devious scheme to bring customers back to the family business—and poof: A short film is born. […]
by Craig Macneill on Jan 17, 2012 -
The Microbudget Conversation : Ex Girlfriends
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to take a master class with Ted Hope and Christine Vachon. Now out of respect to them I will not reveal all that was discussed, but what I can tell you is that my perspective of things has been altered quite a bit. I first started this blog with the intention of showcasing microbudget work as the passionate filmmaking it is…and fuck the rules. (The whole series of manifestos is evidence of that.) We were making cinema fast and cheap, and we needed to completely re-write the rules; a message that can be […]
by John Yost on Nov 15, 2011 -
ON GATEKEEPERS AND “MALKOVICH’S MAIL”
Each week I write an original newsletter that I usually don’t repost to the blog. Here’s this week’s, about a favorite documentary I just found on YouTube. To receive future newsletters, you can sign up for free here. If I ever teach a course in the film business, there’s a documentary I’m going to make required viewing. My guess is that you probably haven’t seen it because it was made for AMC a few years ago as part of a short-lived strand of docs about film. It’s called Malkovich’s Mail, and it was directed by the independent filmmakers Keith Fulton […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 21, 2011
