Story & Structure · 7 min

Learn Screenwriting By Doing It – Online And In Your Own Time

The below is a report of an experiment: the trial run of the legendary Immersion Screenwriting course. The beta version was a little rough and dirty -…

Story & Structure · 5 min

Writing For Film – Filmmakers Quoted

Flavorwire published 20 quotes from filmmakers on writing. So you don't have to flick through all 20, I put the best ones on a single page for you.…

Story & Structure · 3 min

Great Characters In Movies Share One Thing…

People will say a lot of things about what it takes to create great characters: they require depth and complexity. They must be multi-dimensional, they need…

Story & Structure · 5 min

Ex Machina’s Secrets Show Garland’s Directing Genius

Alex Garland has mastered storytelling for a long time. I remember the novel The Beach to be a riveting read. Here I will show you how he lifted his own screenplay…

Story & Structure · 10 min

Jimmy McGovern: Soap Writer With Substance

Behind the charming accent and sweet demeanor hides a clever cynic. Angry at the injustice of society, Jimmy McGovern has a reason to write. In an…

Story & Structure · 4 min

One Surprising Scene That Earns Spotlight Best Picture

I really enjoyed Spotlight. Not a masterpiece, but a relevant story, well told. Irony is not my strong side, and some now believe that I genuinely have the…

Pitching & Selling · 3 min

7 Reasons Why Spotlight Shouldn’t Have Been Made

People go to the movies to be entertained. The emerging screenwriter should rule out writing scripts for any other reason than that. Like Spotlight. This film should not…

News · 6 min

Where Is Your Portfolio Website? [Marketing For Screenwriters]

Build it and they will come, right? In other words: just write an amazing screenplay, and producers will start hassling you. Well, not really. And I'm…

Movie Moments · 5 min

Sicario Threshold Sequence

When I saw Denis Villeneuve’s Maelstrom at a film festival in 2000, I walked out. Today, I don’t remember a thing about that film. Perhaps I…

Story & Structure · 19 min

Structure: How to train your dragon

With symbolic depth and masterful imagery, the craftsmanship of How to train your dragon exceeds that of many Academy Award-winners. Do not take the fact that…

Story & Structure · 12 min

The Force Awakens – Screenplay Analysis

THE FORCE AWAKENS - LOGLINE: An orphaned scavenger and a cowardly defector become the unlikely guardians of the location of Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi alive…

Movie Moments · 4 min

William Friedkin And The Faces Of The 70’s

William Friedkin is a big part of what I love about the 70’s. It was the decade when I became a teenager. It was also the…

Script Perfection · 12 min

Beau Willimon, Writer Out Of Necessity

Beau Willimon is a powder keg of clean-cut realism, childlike curiosity and sharp wit. During his Bafta speech, Willimon covers political writing, research in everyday life…

Structure Analysis · 19 min

Structure – The Help

Breaking down Tate Taylor's award-winner The Help (2011), proved challenging. The same issue making the piece hard to analyze, simultaneously makes it extraordinary. Taylor takes remarkable care of…

Movie Moments · 6 min

Screen Dialogue Genius: Nightcrawler

Nightcrawler is a phenomenal screenplay, and a great movie. I read the script long before seeing the film, and had such a great experience that I…