About scripts and the magic of it.
(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…
Continue reading For Screenwriters: How to Define Characters
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…
Continue reading Top Screenwriter Scott Frank: “I Hate Writing”
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…
Continue reading Subtext: The Magic Dust of Good Screenwriting
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…
Continue reading Video-Analysis: The First 10 Minutes of HIS GIRL FRIDAY
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…
Continue reading David Mamet’s Master Class Memo to the Writers of THE UNIT
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…
Continue reading Video-Analysis: The First Ten Minutes of 12 ANGRY MEN
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…
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…
Continue reading For Screenwriters: William Goldman on your Working Habits
FUTURE NOIR, the book by Paul. M. Sammon, summarises with amazing detail how the classic sci-fi movie was made. Sammons’s book is a mammoth work on the making of a very unique film. I’ve read many “Making Of” books, but…
Continue reading Best “Making Of” Books: The Making of BLADE RUNNER
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…
Continue reading Video-Analysis: The First Ten Minutes of SEVEN
