Screenwriting From Iowa

Life is a series of hellos and goodbyes
I’m afraid it’s time for goodbye again
Say goodbye to Hollywood
Billy Joel
Say Goodby to Hollywood
There is a lot of finger pointing going on in the film & TV business right now. Who and what is to actually to blame for Hollywood’s economic downturn that has resulted in fewer script [...]

Original Source…

“When I meet with recent film school graduates, I remind them that whatever happens next in the industry won’t be something my generation does. It will happen among the 20-somethings, the narrative entrepreneurs who figure out how to make the next great thing. Rather than seeking permission to work in the existing industry, they’ll make [...]

Original Source…

In light of the box-office success of Oren Peli’s low-budget  (almost no-budget) movie  Paranormal Activity I’ve decided to start a new category on this blog dealing with filmmaking.  The first quote will be from writer/director Peli who was asked by Indy Mogul’s Erik Beck, “I was wondering if you had any advice for our audience [...]

Original Source…

The movie Paranormal Activity continues to be that little film that is doing mysterious things in the dark. The $15,000. film averaged $25,000 per theater last weekend. (The number one film in total box office revenue had under $9,000. per.) Much has been written about the film that was shot in 2006 with some friends [...]

Original Source…

Flipping through the TV channels today I came across a 1969 film starring Robert Redford that I had not seen before and was quote good. So I decided to find out about the screenwriter of Downhill Racer. From what I can gather the film was written by James Salter based on a novel by Oakley Hall.
Slater is [...]

Original Source…

“You tell the audience only what they need to know—no more. And as little of that as possible. I feel that a great deal of tension can be given to any scene, any character, by keeping the information to a minimum. As Hitchcock said some time ago, ‘The one who tells you everything right away [...]

Original Source…

“The modern age has been characterized by a Promethean spirit, a restless energy that preys on speed records and shortcuts, unmindful of the past, uncaring of the future, existing only for the moment of the quick fix…Lost in a sea of perpetual technological transition, modern man and woman find themselves in increasingly alienated from the [...]

Original Source…

Before screenwriter James L. White wrote the film Ray, which stars Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles, he had a long journey. According to an article by Nancy Hendrickson White moved to L.A. in the late ’70s to pursue his writing dreams, but he didn’t get his first writing assignment  until 1995. Ray was produced in 2004 [...]

Original Source…

“Francis Ford Coppola may have people over to his house and read his script and discuss things, then go back and rewrite. This is very much like the way I work with the story team.”
Brad Bird
Two-time Oscar winner
Writer/director The Incredibles,  Ratatouille
Creative Screenwriting magazine
Volume 14 #3
Page 66

Original Source…

Earlier this year I did a post called Writing from Theme (tip #20) and I just came across a couple more related quotes on the matter so I thought I pass them along.
“To produce a mighty work, you must choose a mighty theme.”
Herman Melville
“Great writers communicate theme through action and images, with good dialogue used [...]

Original Source…