Screenwriting From Iowa

“I never spent less than two years on the text of one of my picture books, even though each of them is approximately 380 words long. Only when the text is finished … do I begin the pictures.”
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This week I watch Last Chance Harvey on DVD and really enjoyed it and wondered who wrote the script that attracted the acting talents of Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Turns out it was Joel Hopkins who also directed the film.
Though I know little of his life story, what I do knows shows the difficulties [...]

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This is no question that journalism is changing these days. But between whatever it was and whatever it will be there was a 50+ year span where producer Don Hewitt was in the center of the mix. Hewitt, who died yesterday, was many things in his career—but at the core he was a master storyteller.
After [...]

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I know William C. Martell’s book The Secrets of Action Screenwriting is out of print but you can really track down a copy if you want one (and want to spend a little money) so this will be the last post from Martell’s book. I’ll leave you with some encouraging words:
“Now, it’s time for YOU [...]

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Right now there is a hurricane out in the Atlantic Ocean and there is speculation on whether or not it will hit the eastern coast of the United States. A couple days ago was the five year anniversary of hurricane Charlie. Charlie made landfall in Fort Myers, moved directly over Orlando where I happened to [...]

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“REVERSALS are little twists which occur within a scene. If the twists takes the STORY in another direction, it’s a ‘plot twist.’ The most common criticism of beginner’s scripts is that they’re too predictable. The reader KNOWS what’s going to happen next, so why read on?
      Already, you’re up against the genre in making [...]

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“The key to a good action scene is reversals.”
                                           Shane Black
                                           Lethal Weapon 
William C. Martell [...]

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As far as I know Les Paul never wrote a screenplay. Though he does have an impressive list of IMDB credits including working on the soundtracks for Casino, Mona Lisa Smiles and last year’s Speed Racer. How many people rack up film credits when they are in their 90s?
A lot has been written and said [...]

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When you think of classic actions films a few of these might pop into your mind; Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, 48 Hrs., The Last Boy Scout, The Matrix. Those films all have at least on thing in common –they were produced by Joel Silver. Orphan currently in theater was also produced by Silver.  His first producing [...]

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“Grab the script to Die Hard. Sometimes the script goes as long as three pages without a single line of dialogue. It’s all action.”
                                                           William C. Martell 
You [...]

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