Category: SCREENWRITING
About scripts and the magic of it.
Writing American TV fiction: An ironic look at the process
During the 2023 screenwriters’ strike, The Hollywood Reporter is publishing an account of the situation through the eyes of an anonymous film writer. It’s a delightful and very ironic take. In one of the pieces, the writer describes, with a…
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For Screenwriters: How to Define Characters
(according to Arthur Miller, Henry James, Robert McKee, and Aaron Sorkin) In fiction, characters are not what they say but what they do. Action defines character. Some even say that action = character. Let’s check first what a couple of…
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Top Screenwriter Scott Frank: “I Hate Writing”
Wikipedia states that A. Scott Frank (born March 10, 1960) is an American screenwriter, film director, and author. Known as “one of the most reliable and highly-paid screenwriters in the business”, Frank received two Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay for Out…
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Subtext: The Magic Dust of Good Screenwriting
Some script experts don’t even mention it. Others, aware of the importance of subtext in movies, mention it all the time. I’ve spent a significant part of my time as a writer and a director thinking about it. Let’s find…
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Video-Analysis: The First 10 Minutes of HIS GIRL FRIDAY
During the first key 10-15 minutes of any movie, the audience takes a fundamental decision: they make their minds about going with the film or just disengaging. 10-15 minutes is the amount of time that filmmakers, in general, have to…
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David Mamet’s Master Class Memo to the Writers of THE UNIT
David Mamet is the renowned dramatist behind theatre plays like Speed-The-Plow, American Buffalo, Sexual Perversity in Chicago and Glengarry Glen Ross (1984 Pulitzer Prize winner). A few of his plays have been adapted into movies. Particularly successful was Glengarry Glen…
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Video-Analysis: The First Ten Minutes of 12 ANGRY MEN
During the first key 10-15 minutes of any movie, the audience takes a fundamental decision: they make their minds about going with the film or just disengaging. 10-15 minutes is the amount of time that filmmakers, in general, have to…
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How to Write a TV Drama Series
The Keys to Succeeding as a Professional Writer on TV. I have been checking books about TV writing for some time now, and I must say that many get old very quickly. The reason is obvious, the TV drama world…
For Screenwriters: William Goldman on your Working Habits
By now, you should know who William Goldman is. In case you don’t, William Goldman (1931-2018) is one of the best screenwriters Hollywood has seen. He was the author of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (an original script that won him…
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