Building & Revealing Character Simple but powerful tools for building fascinating characters and revealing their inner truth Written by Dave Trottier   I get Dr. Format questions flung at me every day it seems, and many of the questions have nothing to do with formatting. For example, here’s one I get all the time: “Dave, … Continue reading “Building and Revealing Character”

Casting for Writing Written by Jon Zelazny   My first real crack at professional screenwriting was assisting the writer, the director, and the producer of the HBO film, TYSON, a fight biopic based on the book, FIRE AND FEAR, by Jose Torres. HBO in the nineties was the go-to port for smart nonfiction and biographical … Continue reading “Casting for Writing”

Photo by Štefan Štefančík. Follow Instagram @stefancikphotography.   Is Your Script Ready for Its Close-Up? Written by Christina Hamlett   Writing is—and has always been—a solitary craft. As such, it’s hard sometimes to know if your latest script is a hit or a miss until someone else gets their eyes on it. Ideally that someone … Continue reading “Is Your Script Ready for Its Close-Up?”

Don’t Get It Right, Get It Written: The Only Real Rule of Scriptwriting   Written by Matthew Cooper   If you want to be a scriptwriter, you need to write a lot of rubbish scripts, and all scriptwriters starting out will write a LOT of rubbish scripts. It’s the only way to learn. You can … Continue reading “Don’t Get It Right, Get It Written”

“Sometimes, someone can give you a helpful note, like in the case of ‘Back to the Future’, changing a refrigerator to a car.”   How to Get the Most Out of a Notes Meeting Written by Matt Koss   It might have taken a year. You’ve come up with a solid idea, formulated a logline, … Continue reading “How to Get the Most Out of a Notes Meeting”

Photo by Kazuky Akayashi. | wildsplash.photography Approaching the Rewrite and How to Know When You’re Done Written by Paul Chitlik   I’ve used the word “approaching” because approaching a rewrite is something to be taken seriously, like approaching a wild animal. You never know what’s going to happen. A serious confrontation might occur. Or, everything … Continue reading “Approaching the Rewrite and How to Know When You’re Done”

Photo by Nadi Whatisdelirium. Important Ways You Can Develop Your Characters Written by David Schwartz   In order to write a great film, there needs to be character development. The protagonist at the end of the film is going to be different than they were from the beginning of the film. Without character development, the … Continue reading “Important Ways You Can Develop Your Characters”