month : 08/2016 9 results

Southside with You: Writing the Unconventional Biopic

Not all biopics are the same. Some tell a long epic. Others give a slice of life. The new romance drama about the first date of Barack and Michelle Obama takes a look at one day.

The 5 Best Screenplay Adaptations From Novels

From the Pages of a Book: Five Successful Adaptations When I was in film school at UCLA, the head of our department, Richard Walter, gave a lecture in which he asked the question, “What does a screenwriter owe the original material?” Immediately, he answered his own question, saying “Nothing!” While this is a great point—as a ...

Winning the Read: Five Tips to Make Your Story Shine Through

You know the story you want to write. You’ve learned the formatting rules for writing a screenplay. You’ve drafted and drafted and drafted. And, now you want to make sure that when your spec script gets read, everyone loves it. How does that happen? I can hear you in the back row saying, “I wrote a good story. I don’t need to do ...

5 things to learn from the Seinfeld TV spec script that went viral

If you want to be a TV writer, you need to write a spec script -- that's your own personal episode of a popular TV show. So, like many fledgling TV writers, Billy Domineau -- who works as a tutor -- paid his dues to the spec gods and crafted his own TV spec script. But unlike most writers, Domineau took a big risk. He wrote an episode of ...

Sausage Party: 7 ways the film adheres to Pixar rules then totally destroys them

Sausage Party is an R-rated animated film for adults that has a lot of fun turning the sacrosanct Pixar genre on its head. Then, slashing it with a knife. Then lighting it on fire, while throwing in some social commentary on the Israel/Palestine conflict. Yes, the movie does all those things and then some.

What Do People Mean By ‘Voice,’ Anyway?

Even if you've been writing for a long time, there's always room to hone your voice and see if you can amp up your originality and style. So let's take a look at a few writers and directors -- by no means an exhaustive list -- and see what we can glean about voice from their uniquely resonant work.

6 Ways To Network Better and Smarter

Many writers despise networking. Networking can produce serious anxiety in those who worry that they'll come off as awkward. Just as importantly: many of us don't have time to do the networking necessary to advance our careers -- many of us have responsibilities both at home and at our day jobs -- and what little free time we have, we'd like to spend writing. But since networking is crucial for your career, let's think of a few ways to take your networking game up a notch.

How a “stupid” cat movie saved screenwriter Matt Allen’s life

In person, screenwriter Matt Allen is a friendly, attractive man with salt and pepper stubble, and a cat-that-ate-the-canary grin. Little did I know when I went to meet him at Pete’s Coffee in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Westwood that he would reveal an outrageous story of survival that’s probably only possible inside the magical bubble of Hollywood.

5 (Somewhat Helpful) Ways To Beat Procrastination

Most of the rest of us struggle with procrastination at some point in our writing career. This article is for you. Since we all know putting things off is bad, let's think of some ways to get ourselves out of hole when the temptation to procrastinate (nearly) overpowers us.
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