Screenwriting From Iowa

“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…

“Read, read, read. Read everything–trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the masters Read! You’ll absorb it. Then write.”
William Faulkner


Original Source…

One of my all-time favorite quotes about screenwriting comes from Richard Walter at UCLA; “Planes that land safely do not make the headlines and nobody goes to the theater, or switches on the tube, to view a movie entitled The Village of the Happy Nice People.” When things are normal there is no conflict, and [...]

Original Source…

It’s commonly agreed upon that the first 10 pages of your script are the most important. Script readers are savvy enough to judge in those first ten pages if the story, the characters, the set-up, and the writing keep their interest.  But Wesley Rowe makes the case that your spec script will probably be sold [...]

Original Source…

Producer/writer/director launched her career back in 1980 by co-writing Private Benjamin for which she won the WGA Award for Best Comedy Writing and earned her an Oscar nomination. She went on to write the hits scripts and produce film such as Baby Boom and Father of the Bride before turning her hand to directing What [...]

Original Source…

“I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.” Pearl S. Buck
Related post: Screenwriter’s Work Ethic


Original Source…

“A writer’s job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.”          John Irving


Original Source…

Carolyn wrote in the comments yesterday about Whip It, “I can’t wait to see this film.” The problem is the film opened last weekend and these days that opening weekend is extremely important for a film to become a financial success. The filmmakers and studios were depending on the Carolyn’s out there to show up and [...]

Original Source…

Ellen Page can skate. Really skate. Roller derby-style to boot. That alone makes Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut Whip It worth seeing. But wait, there’s more….
Most people know Page for her Juno role, but the 22-year-old Oscar nominated actress from Nova Scotia already has a decade old career having been in over 25 films and TV [...]

Original Source…