Screenwriting From Iowa

  I’m holding to my post-Super Bowl promise to stop writing football-related posts on a screenwriting blog. But spring training for Major League Baseball is just around the corner so let me sneak in one baseball post. Here’s a photo I took of Tim Raines when I was a 19-year-old photojournalist for the Sanford Herald. […]

Original Source…

“The only way to tell if a play is truly spectacular is if it makes the fans jump up and say ‘O, damn, did you see that!” Actress Taragi P. Henson (Hidden Figures) Introducing the Play of the Year at NFL Honors ceremony Let me sneak in one more football post on this screenwriting blog. […]

Original Source…

“I was just a guy with a pen and paper and an idea for a book.” Sebastian Junger Author of The Perfect Storm “Writing is sweat and drudgery most of the time. And you have to love it in order to endure the solitude and the discipline.” Peter Benchley Author of Jaws With the New England […]

Original Source…

“Patriots won?” were the first two words I heard this morning. Those two words from my wife forming one question sum up pretty well the Super Bowl game last night. My wife stopped watching  when the underdog Atlanta Falcons had a 28-3 lead. She woke up not knowing the final score and saw on her […]

Original Source…

In light of Super Bowl LI today I thought I’d repost this from 2012: “When we speak of silent comedy we speak instantly of three names—Chaplin, Loyd, Keaton.” Walter Kerr The Silent Clowns   I thought it would be a fun challenge  to see if I could connect the silent film era with the Super […]

Original Source…

Shortly before he died I had a brief email exchange with Save the Cat author Blake Snyder.  I asked him if he had any encouragement for screenwriters living outside of L.A. and this is what he wrote back: “I have said often that geography is no longer an impediment to a career in screenwriting. I know of […]

Original Source…

“The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.” Alfred Hitchcock It’s not uncommon for me to walk out of a film these days and think, “that was about 20 minutes too long.” I’m not sure why that is. Maybe the Internet has stunted our attention spans. Or […]

Original Source…

“Primary exposition is telling and showing to the audience the time and place of the story, the names and relationships of the characters, and the nature of the conflict.” Irwin R. Blacker The Elements of Screenwriting “I crack up every time I’m watching a movie and a character says, ‘Let me get this straight…’ and […]

Original Source…

“Who is your hero, what does he want, and what stands in his way?” Three-time Oscar winning screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (Network) From the book The Craft of the Screenwriter by John Brady Note: I pulled this quote from my 2009 post, Starting Your Screenplay.

Original Source…