Movie Reviews · 1 min

Mini Review – Django Unchained

Django Unchained  Mercifully Short Review by Jonathan Empson It’s two years before the American Civil War, and a liberal and articulate bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) frees…

Story & Structure · 1 min

[Video]: Sucker Punch’s Hidden Subversiveness

It's still puzzling why Zack Snyder's pop-culture pastiche film Sucker Punch bombed out. Many critics felt that it alienated its audiences by rampantly objectifying women as…

Pitching & Selling · 2 min

Screenwriting Competitions

The deadline of a writing competition can be both a blessing and a curse. You only get one chance to impress so make it count. Make…

Movie Moments · 4 min

Movie Moment: The Untouchables – Mexican Standoff

Let's face it, ever since David Mamet started directing his own movies, his screenwriting has gone downhill (Glengarry Glen Ross was a play first, remember). His…

Best of the Web · 1 min

Best of the Web 20 Jan

Story & Structure :: Bad Guy Protagonist and ‘Dexter’ :: Act II: Arguing for a Narrative Question with a Positive Purpose :: Four Ways to Control…

Stuff · 5 min

Brace Yourself, Screenwriter! It’s The Come-Back Of Structure Man

Yes friends, that is me in the pic. Even more surprising, it is actually me writing this. With my - temporary - new look comes a…

Logline It! · 4 min

Logline it! – Week 24

Writing loglines is an essential skill for screenwriters, from early development through to the pitch. In this section, every week our panel reviews a few loglines…

Video · 1 min

[Video]: Spielberg on Lincoln

The world's most commercially successful film director talks about what inspired him about the man and the history behind Lincoln. If/when you have seen the movie,…

Story & Structure · 5 min

Being Ruthless

Writers are nice, normal people, right? We don’t sit around devilishly plotting against others in real life. We don’t plan real murders or evil schemes. So…

Best of the Web · 1 min

Best of the Web 13 Jan

Story & Structure :: Supporting Characters Gone Wild :: Break Into Act III and ‘Chinatown’ :: Paul Haggis on Writing 'Crash' and his General Process Script…

Logline It! · 4 min

Logline it! – Week 23

Writing loglines is an essential skill for screenwriters, from early development through to the pitch. In this section, every week our panel reviews a few loglines…

Video · 1 min

[Video]: Characterisation in Wreck-It Ralph

How do you achieve characterisation in feature animation? Writer-director Rich Moore talks about how they developed Alan Tudyk's villain character King Candy. If you liked this,…

Story & Structure · 9 min

Get a “God’s-Eye View” of Your Story

I know what you’re thinking and the answer is no, I don’t get a kickback from Microsoft! I just happen to like using Word and Excel…

Best of the Web · 1 min

Best of the Web 6 Jan

Story & Structure :: Show Don’t Tell and ‘Up’ :: Triple the Effectiveness of Your Rewrite. Script Perfection :: TV Writer Podcast 066 – Jenny Frankfurt…

Video · 1 min

[Video]: Gangster Squad’s cop-writer Will Beall

In a suitably low-fi video interview with Will Beall (LA REX, Gangster Squad), the cop turned writer recounts from memory one of his gruesome LA cases…