Screenwriting
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MY OWN FILM SCHOOL
There are some jobs that bring about as much pain and rejection as they do inspiration and success. Screenwriting might be at the top of that list of professions. For every motivational tale of years spent toiling, hunched over the keyboard finally resulting in a six-figure sale, there are thousands of writers who continue to pound keys in front of just the pale, blue glow, still dreaming of being illuminated by a larger spotlight. Beginning writers are known to try everything in order to fulfill these dreams. They spend hours scanning the internet for names of agents and managers. They […]
by Eric Samulski on May 16, 2011 -
IFP’S SCRIPT TO SCREEN ON SATURDAY
It’s not too late to attend the IFP’s Script to Screen Conference, which takes place this Saturday at 92Y Tribeca in New York City. Highlights include conversations with writer-director Barry Levinson (Rain Man) and Black Swan screenwriter Mark Heyman; a Pitch Workshop in which five emerging screenwriters will pitch their screenplays to a panel of experts (including sales agents, Magnolia Pictures’ head of acquisitions, and a producer from Glass Eye Pix); a case-study with the team from Sundance hit Martha Marcy May Marlene moderated by Ted Hope; a live reading of two IFP alumni screenplays for dialogue analysis with independent […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Mar 2, 2011 -
IFP ANNOUNCES SCRIPT TO SCREEN CONFERENCE LINEUP
The IFP announced today the lineup for this year’s Script to Screen Conference. Taking place March 5, the event will take place at 92Y Tribeca in New York City. This year’s keynotes include Barry Levinson and Black Swan screenwriter Mark Heyman. There will also be a discussion on new platforms for writers with Onion News Network head writer Carol Kolb, a conversation with producer Ted Hope and the filmmakers behind Sundance hit Martha Marcy May Marlene talk about creative teamwork. To learn more about the conference and how to get tickets go to http://www.ifp.org/script-to-screen-conference/ Read the press release on Script […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 22, 2011 -
WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS, 2/20/11
Here are a few things in my Instapaper this week. In GQ, Mark Harris looks back at “The Day the Movies Died” and the preeminence of easy marketing over original ideas. An excerpt: Such an unrelenting focus on the sell rather than the goods may be why so many of the dispiritingly awful movies that studios throw at us look as if they were planned from the poster backward rather than from the good idea forward. Marketers revere the idea of brands, because a brand means that somebody, somewhere, once bought the thing they’re now trying to sell. YouTube has […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 20, 2011 -
Darren Aronofsky’s Top 5 Books On The Movies
Over at The Browser, Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky names and discusses his top five books on films and filmmaking. There’s an obvious one (Sidney Lumet’s Making Movies), an unexpected autobiography (Kirk Douglas’s The Ragman’s Son), and then the following screenplay tome. From Aronofsky’s piece: The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler. It’s the Bible for screenwriters. I think it’s the best book on how to write a screenplay ever written. It helped me get through so many roadblocks as a writer. Vogler adapted the work of Joseph Campbell, an American academic, to the art of screenwriting. Vogler’s approach to screenwriting was […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 11, 2011 -
WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS, 1/9/11
Here are some articles of interest I’ve sent to my Instapaper this week. At Script Shadow, Carson Reeves lists the 10 ways he knows he’s reading an amateur script. All of these are quotable, but here’s one: BORING ON-THE-NOSE DIALOGUE – This is probably the biggest clue that you’re dealing with an amateur. The dialogue is really straightforward and boring. Characters say exactly what they mean: “You make me so angry!’ Characters get way more specific than people in real life would: “I’m going to head over to get a cheeseburger at Portillo’s and then call my mom.” (instead of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 9, 2011 -
WHAT’S IN MY INSTAPAPER: SUNDAY MORNING LINKS
I haven’t done one of these in a while, so a few of these links are less than current. In any case, here are some links of interest from my Instapaper archives. First, Instapaper itself, and its founder Marco Arment, got some love from today’s New York Times. In The Paris Review, filmmaker Michael Almereyda collects largely unseen and uncollected photographs by William Eggleston. He writes: William Eggleston’s color photographs are among the most widely viewed, and widely admired, in the medium. But I wanted to survey Eggleston’s unseen, unpublished work—his B-sides, bootlegs, unreleased tracks—and to that end I made […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 12, 2010 -
BILLY BOB THORNTON ON TODAY’S SCREENPLAYS
Billy Bob Thornton steps off the road and learns what’s been going on in Hollywood for the last few years….
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 23, 2010 -
FILMMAKER FLASHBACK: WINTER, 1995
Winter, 1995, was a great issue. Our cover story was Rick Linklater’s Before Sunrise. Andrew Hindes interviewed Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, while Jean-Christopher Castelli detailed the film’s use of Austrian tax funds for its financing. Paula Bernstein interviewed James Gray about Little Odessa, and then there was one of the best pieces we’ve ever run: development executive (and, later, Oscar-winning short film director) Barbara Schock’s “The Write Stuff: Intelligent Screenplay Development.” Technology and methods of financing may change, but these notes on working with writers don’t date. From the piece: One of the biggest impediments I’ve encountered in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 11, 2010 -
ANDREW SARRIS AWARD WINNER SIMON KINBERG’S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
“I can promise you that you are going to fail… but failure is not final.” That’s screenwriter Simon Kinberg in his speech accepting the Columbia University Film School Andrew Sarris award. For all the talk here and elsewhere about the struggles of DIY filmmakers, it’s useful to note that directors and writers targeting the studio system have it tough too. In recounting the five-year-long story of turning his thesis project, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, into the big Hollywood hit it became, Kinberg offers simple but solid inspirational advice for filmmakers of all stripes.
by Scott Macaulay on May 6, 2010
