Screenwriting
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The Killer Idea: Learn to Turn a Stimulating Premise Into a Dynamic Script from My Friend Dahmer’s Marc Meyers
On some level, writing a script is just a collage of all the relevant life experience and movies that your original idea... -
A Screenwriter’s Guide to Getting (and Keeping) an Agent: An Interview with David Boxerbaum of Paradigm
Many new screenwriters think about getting an agent as soon as—or even before—they’ve finished their first scripts. For most people, this makes... -
Fighting Sex Slavery: Siddharth Kara Discusses the Impact of the Ripped from the Headlines Film Trafficked
Highlighting the global nature of sexual slavery, university professor turned screenwriter, Siddharth Kara, synthesized years of research and investigation into Trafficked, a... -
Eyes Open, Ears Open, Travel Everywhere: Learn From Martin McDonagh’s Screenwriting Philosophy
Martin McDonagh, the playwright-turned-director of new feature Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (as well as 2008’s In Bruges and 2012’s Seven Psychopaths)... -
“You’re Holding Up a Mirror, and the Reflection is Ugly”: Chucky Creator Don Mancini on Horror Screenwriting
Being provocative comes with the territory if you’re working within the horror genre. If you’re doing the job right you have to... -
Smile More: The Sound Director on the Strength and Complexity of her "Bitchy" Protagonist
Every woman has been told to smile. By strangers. By lovers. By friends. Society has come to expect the mask of pleasant... -
Hollywood’s Four Classic Narrative Types, Part I: When the Bad Guys Win
Cinematic stories give lessons on human thought and behavior. This is their most basic social purpose. The story places a certain type... -
Muddled Mythology: Hollywood’s Gluttonous Appetite For Franchises Undermines Fantastical Films’ Potential to Inspire
In the run-up to the release of this summer’s superhero saga Wonder Woman, articles hyping the film noted that it had taken... -
Matters of Fact: Seven Keys to Writing Historical Fiction From the Screenwriter of Pilgrimage
Since Pilgrimage, I’ve written a bunch more scripts, four of which are also based in historical settings. So I’m uniquely qualified to... -
First Draft: Take Stock In These 99 Stock Characters You Can Write Into Your Screenplay
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. What is the difference between archetypes and...
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Guide 2018
Summer 2017
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Year in MovieMaker
Inside the Issue: Distribution
Your Key to Distribution Success: Get Keyed in to Key Art, and You’re On Your Way to an Instantly Iconic Movie
Think about some of the most famous posters ever produced: Jaws, Scarface, Taxi Driver, The Shining, Ghostbusters, E.T., The Godfather. What do they have in common? To...2Inside the Issue: Festivals
deadCenter Film Festival 2017: Oklahoma City Is the Biggest Star Of This Consistently Great Event
Film festivals are as good as their programmers and audiences, and the deadCenter film festival has an abundance of excellence in both. From the very first...Inside the Issue: Producing
What Investors Want to Hear: Here Are the Things You Need to Be Telling Potential Financiers In Your Pitch
There are as many different ways to get funding as there are movies made, but the one thing all of those stories have in common is...6