Tag Archives: screenwriting
Dark Shadows – A Movie Review
I expected to like this movie. I wanted to like this movie. At the theater, I tried to like this movie, but I couldn’t pull it off. Dark Shadows was a gothic soap opera that ran from 1966 – 1971. … Continue reading
Filed under Movies, Screenwriting
Save the Cat by Blake Snyder: A Book Review
I love (good) books on screenwriting, because of all the available guides to writing fiction, these focus most squarely on the primacy of story; first the forest, then the trees. Last week a fortunate weblink led me to Save the Cat, … Continue reading
Filed under Authors, Book Reviews, Books, Movies, Screenwriting, Writing
Water for Elephants: A Movie Review
There surely has been a drought this spring of movies worth venturing out to see, so I was pleased when Water for Elephants, based on a best selling novel, hit the theaters. The story is narrated by ninety year old … Continue reading
Filed under Movies
The Three Act Structure
In his book, Plot and Structure, (see the link in my previous post), author and speaker, James Scott Bell, offers this definition of his terms. Plot concerns the elements of a story, what happens. Structure is about the timing of … Continue reading
Filed under Screenwriting, Writing
Throughlines in Novels and Screenplays
I have posted before on how much I learn from screenwriters. I would even argue that film has become the groundbreaking medium in the world of storytelling. Yesterday, for instance, I received a newsletter on writing for children with a … Continue reading
Between a Plot and a Hard place
Okay, okay, so I should be pun-ished for a title like that. This post is really about finding one’s own right brain/left brain balance in plotting a novel, but I couldn’t work that into a catchy phrase. The topic was … Continue reading
Filed under Writing
The Golden Raspberry Awards
I enjoyed the Academy Awards on Sunday night. The nominations and the winners made sense. On Monday morning, however, I read the rather sad story of a once-celebrated director’s fall from grace. The night before the Oscars, the Golden Raspberry … Continue reading
And The Winner Is: Some Excellent Oscar-Related Resources
Here are some very neat Academy Award links for writers, thanks to the folks at the Gotham Writer’s Workshop, http://www.writingclasses.com/mailing.php?id=2008. There are hoopla links to articles in Variety and the New York Times, links on books compiling the history (and … Continue reading
Of High-Concepts and Strange Attractors
I get a lot from reading and listening to screenwriters. Today, while skimming some of the links posted below, I happened upon, Wordplay, the site for Scheherazade Productions, the company of screenwriters/producers, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. http://www.wordplayer.com/ The heart … Continue reading
