Screenwriting From Iowa

In the post “The Inside Pitch” I mentioned improving your pitching skills by coming up with loglines and pitches for existing films. (It’s sort of like wanting to be a comedian and doing an old Jerry Sienfeld routine in front of your friends. If they don’t laugh, it’s probably not that the material isn’t funny.) So [...]

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Since writers are always talking about how difficult it is to get their script read, I found a quote from Christopher Lockhart, story editor at WME, from a post he wrote on his blog “The Inside Pitch” several years ago.  This is an excerpt for a question he received from a Colorado screenwriter who asked [...]

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“A pitch is a verbal presentation of your dramatic story. It is a concise presentation.” Christopher Lockhart A logline is a super tiny pitch. A TV guide presentation of your story. Two or three sentences. If you ever want to sympathize with Hollywood executives watch the DVD “The Inside Pitch”, a workshop that turned into a TV [...]

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SWS Question 7: Screenwriter Diablo Cody is with your agency and a great inspiration behind this blog because she went to college in Iowa. I love that she broke into the industry writing a spec script in Minneapolis that went on to win an Oscar. And while “Juno” was her first screenplay, by her own [...]

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SWS Question #5: What should a writer avoid when writing a query letter? CHRISTOPHER LOCKHART*: Avoid silly, self-effacing, or obsequious letters. Be professional. Often, authors of comedy scripts try to pen funny letters. In some cases, it is effective. However, if the letter does not garner a chuckle, this can kill the script. Allow the [...]

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SWS Question #4: So if the way to finding a manager, agent, or production company is a strong logline and query letter, can you give us what you consider an effective examples of both? CHRISTOPHER LOCKHART*: You cannot go wrong with a short letter that features one brief paragraph indicating your intent, one brief paragraph [...]

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SWS Question 3: If a writer living outside of L.A. writes “the right script” do they really have a chance of creating heat in Hollywood? (And what if they live outside the United States?) CHRISTOPHER LOCKHART*: If an out-of-town writer scores a local manager or agent, the writer can certainly see results.  However, because the [...]

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One of the side benefits of this blog I started three years ago is it’s given me interesting connections that I didn’t even make when I lived in Burbank. Soon I will be posting interviews I did earlier this year with screenwriters Dale Launer (My Cousin Vinny, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels) and Pen Densham (Robin Hood [...]

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“She was known and loved universally as Gertrude Stein, born at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, in 1874, now rests in the cemetery of Pere Lachaise at Paris, along with Balzac, Oscar Wilde, Daumier, Beaumachais, Delacroix, Brillat-Savarin, and countless other writers, painters, and musicians.” Bruce Kellner Baby Woojums in Iowa  Watching Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris and Kathy [...]

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“Am I alone in struggling with vulnerability? No. So this is what I’ve learned. We numb vulnerability…We are the most in debt, obese, addicted, and medicated adult cohort in U.S. history. You cannot numb emotion.” Brene Brown TedxHouston  Vulnerable: capable of being physically or emotionally wounded Merrian-Webster  I just got an email from the Austin [...]

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