Branding Entertainment

“Many careers have been launched by new media that was discovered on the web.” Shelly Mellott Editor in Chief, Script magazine Were you one of the first people to get rid of your landline in favor of just having a cell phone? If so then you may have already cut your cable TV cord in [...]

Read Full Post »

The Spec Market Vs. Playing the Lottery

“Re the spec script market. Yes, it sucks right now. We’re on track for perhaps 50-60 sales this year, maybe even less.” Scott Myers Go Into The Story April 30, 2010 “Being one of the 33 (spec scripts) that was purchased this year is probably akin to winning Powerball.” Amy Butler I Write with Pictures A [...]

Read Full Post »

The Power of a Personal Letter (& a Prom Date)

“I wanted my first film to be special… but I had no idea how difficult it was going to be to get made.” Aaron Schneider, director of Get Low A part of the 10 year journey of Get Low getting made is the writing of Aaron Schneider. He wasn’t the writer of the script, but [...]

Read Full Post »

The 10 Year “Get Low” Journey

Get Low starring Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek received an 85% from the top critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Sharing the screenwriting credit are Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell. “If you ‘know’ it write it, if you write it, write it well, defend it; if you defend it, pick your battles; if you lose, stay [...]

Read Full Post »

“Am I passionate enough…?”

SCRIPTGIRL was asked how to make a “script irresistible to a director” and she differed to the director of Bone Dry to answer; “First off, I have to read it in one go. If I can’t, or I find reasons not to, I assume it’s not right for me (or visa versa) and push it aside. [...]

Read Full Post »

Stories that Help the Economy

“There comes a time when each of us must make a choice between what is right and what is easy.” Dumbledore (Harry Potter’s headmaster) When I wrote the post on J.K. Rowling yesterday I did not know that I would end up today at the Harry Potter ride at Universal Orlando Resort in Florida. But [...]

Read Full Post »

J.K. Rowling on the Benefits of Failure

“A mere seven years after my graduation day, I had failed on an epic scale. An exceptionally short-lived marriage had imploded, and I was jobless, a lone parent, and as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless. The fears that my parents had had for me, and that I had [...]

Read Full Post »

Off Screen Quote #21 (Sebastian Junger)

“Everything I do I just assume I’m going to fail. All seems impossible but I’m very scared of failure –you know, everyone is –and that sence of the impossibility gets me to crank up the turbines. Everything mentally and physically at my disposal I pour into a project.” Sebastian Junger (Author of The Perfect Storm [...]

Read Full Post »

Screenwriting with a Mini-Giraffe

I don’t know where New York copywriter Jon Kallus got the idea for the Russian millionaire (billionaire?) and the mini-giraffe but that Direct-TV spot is one compelling commercial. Every once in a while a spot comes around that captures people’s imaginations and goes viral on the Internet. The spot “Opulence” featuring Timothy Murphy complete with [...]

Read Full Post »

Hawaii Five-O and New TV Shows

I missed the premier yesterday of the new Hawaii Five-O. In general I don’t go out of my way to watch much TV at all. But the remix of Hawaii Five-O bugs me and not because I think the original show is sacred—but because several years ago I wrote a coming-of-age screenplay the opens with [...]

Read Full Post »