Craig and John take a look at an old post that found new life this week when it got picked up on Twitter and Reddit. We go beyond the bullet points to look at the process of writing a scene, from asking the basic questions to getting the words on the page.
Craig and John start the year with a look back at three very early episodes not currently on iTunes, discussing outlines, agents and the Good Boy Syndrome.
John and Craig turn from the pen to the knife to talk through the whys and hows of cutting pages — both the cosmetic trims and the deep cuts.
Matt reports from a special Sundance session in which Kickstarter co-founder Yancey Strickler talks about how indie filmmakers can best use the site.
If you’re having a hard time finding a character’s voice, get him talking about something unrelated to the scene at hand.
Helpful audioclip from productivity guy Merlin Mann.
A scriptcast on how to begin a scene for more impact.
Synthian Sharp taped my Q&A in Rancho Mirage, and has it available on Vimeo.
A new screencast (scriptcast?) on writing action beats.
A YouTube lesson on making more-readable scene description.
Read this before you cash that first check.
A play by play of how it should go down.
Just as important, what NOT to do when trying to cut length. Don’t cheat.
I’ve written about the importance of a good title before. A great script with a crappy title faces an uphill battle. That’s why I always make sure I have a title I like before I type “FADE IN,” even if I later change my mind.1 So yes, I’d pay for a great title. Today’s LA [...]
Moment by moment; what to expect and how to behave in meetings.
Answering the tricky questions elegantly, so your audience can remain focussed on the story.
Reader Josh C wrote in with one solution to a problem that’s been frustrating me for months. When you want to save a script as a .pdf, Final Draft won’t always include the title page. It’s frustratingly inconsistent. The obvious workaround is to save the title page as a separate file, which is what I’ve [...]
The big villain in Spider-Man 3 was a plague of coincidence. Here’s how they could have avoided it.
One of the most difficult and important lessons to learn. Here’s some great examples and helpful guidance.
Some rules to using TV for exposition in screenplays.
