Filmmaking how-to articles offer us fresh ideas and new methods for creating material. Anyone looking to grow as a filmmaker needs to be constantly working on growing as an artist.
Booksmart isn’t your typical high school party movie. Writer Katie Silberman and actress-turned-director Olivia Wilde intended it to be Clueless for Gen Z and embrace the risk-averse attitude of a generation raised on iPhones. While the lead characters may be snowflakes, the movie is full of so much heart and humor you’ll want to see it again -- it’s that good.
Horror movies and televisions shows are a perennial favorite among audiences. The storylines tap into our single most primal animal desire—to survive—and give us space to imagine how we would react if we were put into the same situation. But there’s more to horror than jump scares and music. It’s a complicated beast, as any director will tell you—and it’s not as easy as it may look.
Did you know aspiring filmmakers can option a short Stephen King story for just $1? It’s called the Stephen King Dollar Baby program and that’s exactly what writer/director Nicole Jones-Dion is doing. I spoke with Jones-Dion about her project and her challenging career goals.
My entire life I always wanted to be a writer. So, when I graduated with an MFA in screenwriting from the UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television in 2008, I felt like I’d achieved “the dream.” I soon realized however in running my first entrepreneurial endeavor as a video content marketer that the real success stories go beyond the proverbial dream and have an objective-minded strategy and clear plan of action.
It’s that time of year when all film lovers are waiting with bated breath to see which of our favorite films will be awarded with Hollywood’s greatest honor, the Oscar. For screenwriters, our eyes are focused on the Best Original Screenplay and ...
It’s likely you remember the film What Women Want starring Mel Gibson back in 2000, about a man who can hear women’s private thoughts. That premise has been delightfully flipped for the new R-rated comedy What Men Want, written by Tina Gordan Chism (Drumline, Peeples and the upcoming movie Little) and Peter Huyck & Alex Gregory.
I sat down with comic book writer Geoff Johns, who developed the story of Aquaman, along with screenwriters David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall to talk about bringing this story to life. The movie is visually lush, entertaining and full of surprises. It is a thrill-ride of an underwater fantasy lead by Jason Momoa as Arthur, who’s half land-dwelling human and half sea-loving Atlantean.
We all love watching movies. A good film takes you on a journey of adventure and self-discovery. Watching and re-watching classic films like Taxi Driver, Casablanca, or Titanic is what inspired us to become screenwriters in the first place. If you write in a particular genre, it’s important to watch all the current and past films in your genre. It’s also good to read books about screenwriting or take classes. But the one thing many screenwriters tend to overlook is the importance of reading screenplays.
The new historical epic Mary Queen of Scots is written by Beau Willimon (creator of the American version of House of Cards) and is based on the 2004 biography Mary Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart by John Guy. Well, it’s mostly based on the biography by Guy. Willimon took a liberty with one simple scene and British historians are calling it “problematic.” I call it genius.
It’s pretty difficult to believe that it’s been 20 years since Shakespeare in Love graced the cinema and reignited people’s passion for Shakespeare, the man often considered the greatest writer of all time. The film went on to win 7 Oscars, including Best Original Screenplay for Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, Best Actress for Gwyneth Paltrow, Best Supporting Actress for Judi Dench and Best Supporting Actor for Geoffrey Rush. John Madden was nominated for Best Director.
The two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter, William Goldman, passed last Friday in New York after losing his fight with colon cancer and pneumonia. He was 87. Even if you don’t know Goldman’s name (though if you’re a screenwriter, it’s likely you do), you certainly know his films like Misery, inspired by the book by Stephen King, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid that starred Paul Newman and Robert Redford, and the Marathon Man, from Goldman’s own novel. Many people consider The Princess Bride, also based on his own book, a perfect, if not their favorite, film.
