Archive for the 'Recycled' Category

• 07.11.07 Split screens

  How would you go about writing two scenes in a script that run at the same time in split screen, but don’t necessarily have anything to do with each other? Basically like a scene from the movie Timecode.

  –John

  That’s a real challenge to do in standard screenplay format. While someone watching a movie can [...]

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• 06.30.07 Where to begin a script

  When you start writing, or right before you start writing, what do you know? What do you know about the story and characters before you start putting words on paper?

  –Dustin Tash

  Although I don’t do it on every project, I’m a big fan of writing off-the-page, which means creating character bios, alternate scenes and sequence [...]

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• 06.28.07 Summer Reruns

  Over the next two weeks, you’ll notice a bit of deja vu at this site: old articles suddenly popping up on the front page, with new dates and old comments. It’s not a technical glitch. I’m putting the site into reruns while I’m out of the country and off the grid.

  I’m going to Africa — [...]

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• 05.08.07 What is a script doctor?

  I’m sure this is an unusual type of email, but I am doing some footwork for a friend of mine who wants to be a script doctor and doesn’t really know where to start. Right now he has a degree in English - Creative Writing and some film classes under his belt, but no [...]

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• 06.17.06 Making the geek movie

  When you know computers pretty well, you start seeing certain things in certain movies as being rather idiotic. A huge amount of pictures scrolling by during a search, 3D graphics exploding out of an old laptop during hacking in HACKERS, people using Microsoft Word as a magical web search engine, etc. That stuff never happens [...]

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• 06.01.06 Rejection

  When you were starting out, how did you deal with rejection? Also, what advice can you give on the proper way to send out your work?

  –Alan Wojcik

  I dealt with rejection the same way I deal with it now: vodka.

  No, but seriously. The truth is, a screenwriter is going to face rejection over and over again, [...]

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• 06.13.05 Theory #1

  Why does it seem that there are maybe 6 templates for Hollywood movies? As a writer you pick one of those, fill in the check boxes, and poof the next movie of the week. Is it because of the money to be made, or a lack of talented writers getting their scripts to the right [...]

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• 06.08.05 Screenwriting wastes a lot of paper

  Do you print out your script pages as you go along, or do you wait until you have a completed draft before printing out the whole thing (assuming you’re using a word processor and not a typewriter.) There’s nothing more motivating to me than to see pages of script piling up, but then if [...]

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• 05.18.05 Recycled articles

  One of the suggestions from the survey was to highlight previous articles from the archives. I agreed, because (a) the readership has grown quite a bit recently, and (b) the archives are kind of daunting right now.

  So, every once in a while, I’ll be pulling old articles up to the front — generally entries [...]

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• 05.18.05 Does bad work spoil mine?

  I work for a small production company. While trying to break into the "next" (bigger) level as a screenwriter, I work here as a reader. Basically, I spend a lot of time writing coverages for awful scripts that never should have been written in the first place. I often wonder what is going through some of [...]

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• 06.05.03 Craft service

  I have a sincere question for you. If I, as an underpaid writer on-set, have an issue with craft services, who should I complain to? The studio head? The star? The city health department?

  –Lopa Mukherjee A substantial portion of our readership is asking, "Wow, you’re a writer, and you were allowed on the set?"

  But seriously-and I guess your question [...]

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