Advice

You don't need to go to film school to recognize the key elements of great movies. These same elements are present time and time again in the great movies, and they are worth highlighting: These movies tend to have strong single line - with one overriding problem or goal for the hero - to give the story drive, momentum, and a sense of priorities, or in the extreme, a sense of the first cause. These films occasionally digress from that strong line to allow the film to "breathe." That is, they play with the structure to comment on what is...

Spoiler Alert: DO NOT READ this breakdown if you haven’t seen the film. It is impossible to say anything useful about the writing without discussing the critical plot twists. With the tidal wave of superhero movies coming out of Hollywood, I get very excited when a serious crime story like Gone Girl comes along. Which is also why I was so disappointed when Gone Girl turned out to be a lot less than its hype suggested. This isn’t a bad film or a bad script by novelist Gillian Flynn. But it has serious problems. Some were embedded in the original...

George Clooney, Ben Stiller, Jon Favreau; just a few of Hollywood’s actor-writer-director multi-hyphenates whose careers offer the lesson that to prosper in show business, not to mention fully express your creative vision, it helps to be a “triple threat,” “wear three hats,” “pull triple duty,” call it what you will. For writers, even if the “actor” and “director” part of the equation doesn’t interest you, the importance of being a multi-hyphenate more than helps, it’s essential. For no one is this truer than for comedy writers. Choose what best fits you. Maybe, storyteller-TV writer-tweeter. Or, screenwriter-blogger-standup. Or, novelist-playwright-cartoonist-essayist. But to...

As independent filmmakers craft their projects, working from the script phase right through production, they are faced with this question:What should be their most important priorities in creating a narrative that’s compelling to audiences and commercially viable?Many filmmakers fall into the trap of chasing “production value,” with the idea that if their film looks like it’s more expensive than it is, that will somehow lead to praise and profits. Unfortunately, that would only be the case if your audience were composed of production managers. Trust me, the fact that your $400,000 film looks like it cost a million bucks really...

The results are in! With each round of the Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest it becomes more difficult to narrow it down to 10 finalists, but somehow we managed to make the tough decision and are happy to announce the top 10 deserving entrants: Jennifer Green, “Triangle” – Kensington, MD Jeff Meares, “The Deep End” – Australia Kevin O’Leary and Patrick Trillo, “The Fourth Horseman” – Winston-Salem, NC Tyler Runde, “The Bermuda Device” – Round Rock, TX Thomas Ryan Cuming, “The Son of Edward Teach” – Santa Ana, CA Paul Boyer, “Triangled” – Puyallup, WA K Ray and Robert Statzer, “The Magnificents:...