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Discussing November/December With Andrew Shearer |
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 Attention blossoming screenwriters who think screenwriting is a solitary art form. Read Script's article Anything but Elementary: Sherlock Holmes by Ray Morton with additional reporting by Bob Verini, and realize, as Editor in Chief Shelly Mellott put it, "It is better when we all work together." Morton's article breaks down four different credited writers; contributions on the new Sherlock Holmes movie, as well as how various directors contributed at different stages of the project and how much Robert Downey, Jr. contributed on his own, too. Continue reading on the Scriptmag blog ... |
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Mystery Man: An Intro to the Moneyball Disaster |
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 Moneyball was in development a few years and championed by Columbia Pictures co-chair cutie Amy Pascal. It’s an adaptation of a popular book by Michael Lewis. Whispering lips say the studio spent roughly $10 million to get this project off the ground. Steven Zaillian wrote a script. Everybody loved it. Soderbergh came onboard. Brad Pitt came onboard. The budget ballooned to around $57 million, which is quite risky. Baseball movies can be hit and miss. They rarely play well overseas, and you’re lucky to get $35 million domestic. Continue reading on the Scriptmag blog ... |
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Staton Rabin: Zen and the Art of Guerrilla Script Marketing |
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 I don’t have to tell you that there are too many writers trying to break into the film business these days. When it comes to writers and “Hollywood," I’m reminded of what baseball great and part-time philosopher Yogi Berra oxymoronically said about his favorite restaurant: “Nobody goes there anymore; it’s too crowded.” Frankly, up till now, I’ve been hesitant to tell you all my secrets about how to break into the film industry. It feels a little like telling you about my favorite neighborhood restaurant -- a little hideaway with great food. If everyone knows about it, the place is going to get awfully crowded. Continue reading on the Scriptmag blog ... |
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Discussing September/October With Andrew Shearer, Part 2 |
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 As new writers, it’s always hard to know whose advice to listen to. In film school, when sulky students got feedback they didn’t like, they’d complain, “If the professor knows so much about making films, why is he teaching, instead of making them?” Well if we already knew so much about making films, we wouldn’t have had to go to film school in the first place. I find the best guidance comes when it’s oriented toward making your project the best based on your own vision, not someone else’s. Continue reading on the Scriptmag blog ... |
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Barney Lichtenstein: A Story Analyst's Top-10 List: #5 |
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 Look for strong set-ups, or what I call “planted seeds” and their payoffs. An additional tip here: the greater the irony in the payoff, the better: The warden in Shawshank Redemption, a man who perverts use of religion, discovers Andy’s Bible to contain a small pick ax, explaining how Andy escaped; in Star Wars, Luke not believing in the Force at first, but finally using it at the climax to defeat the Death Star; air tanks and their volatility are referred to several times throughout Jaws, but it’s the cop, the one man scared of the ocean, who resourcefully uses a tank to destroy the shark; in The Wizard of Oz, ruby slippers -- cinema’s greatest MacGuffin -- are touted from the outset as possessing mysterious powers which endanger Dorothy, their magic revealed at the climax as they help bring her home. When a writer offers these types of setups and ironic payoffs, even if the structure of the material isn’t perfect, he or she is more likely to improve it in development. Continue reading at the Scriptmag blogspot ... |
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Meet the Reader: What I Look For |
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 I have to care about the protagonist. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I always have to like the protagonist, but I do need to understand him and have some degree of sympathy for his motives and goals. (This is especially important if you’re going to do a story about a bad or unsavory person that sees the light in some fashion. Such tales can be inspiring, but by definition, you have to begin the script with the character doing some sort of terrible things. If you don’t give me a reason to connect with such a person, then I’m not going to care when he has his eventual epiphany.) Continue reading on the Scriptmag blogspot ... |
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