All posts by James Napoli
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First Draft: Sure, Story Structure Guides Are Useful. But When Should We Be Using Them, and How?
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take...
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First Draft: Understanding the Promise of the Premise Through Nocturnal Animals, Groundhog Day and Black Mirror
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. Save the Cat practitioners will be familiar with the phrase...
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First Draft: Living In the Past With Flashbacks and Monologues
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. Flashbacks Nothing provokes a more knee-jerk “don’t do it” reaction...
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First Draft: Knowing the Difference Between Fact and Truth When Adapting a True Story
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. Taking the 1994 film Quiz Show as a case study, let’s explore...
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First Draft: Know Your Place, Write Better Single Locations
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. Every screenplay should be set somewhere. Forget that maybe you’ll...
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First Draft: Hone Your Skills in Storytelling Efficiency With Groundhog Day
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. There are many screenplays available online, but one in particular...
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First Draft: When Is It OK For Your Script to Use On-the-Nose Dialogue?
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, we’re publishing “First Draft,” a series on everything to do with screenwriting. Near the end of Richard Wenk’s screenplay for 16 Blocks (which...
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First Draft: Lessons in Screenplay Plants and Payoffs from Chinatown and The Orphanage
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. “Bad for glass,” says private eye Jake Gittes in Robert Towne’s...
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First Draft: Is it Surprise, or is it Suspense?
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. I had an interesting experience while binge-watching the first two...
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Guide 2019
Year in MovieMaker
Inside the Issue: Acting
Taylor Russell on Waves and Why She’s OK With Being an Adult Who Plays High School Students
In director Trey Edward Shults’ Waves, Taylor Russell plays the younger sister of Kelvin Harrison Jr., even though she’s five days older than him in real life. In fact,...
Inside the Issue: Directing
Rob Zombie: Things I’ve Learned as a Moviemaker
Rob Zombie still can’t let go of some of his past off-screen nightmares. “After I finished Halloween II, I was so beat up by the process that I hated...
Inside the Issue: How To
Edward Norton Walks Us Through Every Part of Making Motherless Brooklyn
Edward Norton is the best possible person to explain each stage of the moviemaking process for his new drama Motherless Brooklyn—he’s the film’s writer, director and lead actor. For...