First Draft
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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: Build Your Rewriting Chops With This Case Study From The Hateful Eight
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, we’re publishing “First Draft,” a series on everything to do with screenwriting. Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight had a notoriously difficult...
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First Draft: Learn Techniques of Story Progression From Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. Comparing two drafts of a script can be hugely instructive,...
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First Draft: Understand The Humility Arc To Allow Your Story’s Heroes To Succeed
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. What quality makes a hero? What single trait must a...
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First Draft: What are Plot Patterns, and Why Should You Identify Them in Movies?
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. What if I told you Star Wars and The Godfather...
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First Draft: Crafting Supervillains by Pushing Your Antagonists Over the Edge
In partnership with the blog ScreenCraft, we’re publishing “First Draft,” a series on everything to do with screenwriting. The importance of the superhero in today’s...
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First Draft: How to Develop and Nurse a Theme Throughout Your Narrative
In partnership with the blog ScreenCraft, we’re publishing “First Draft,” a series on everything to do with screenwriting. From academics in film school to producers...
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First Draft: The Most Common Mistake in Spec Scripts (And Four Ways to Avoid Making It)
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. Finding the right concept to base your next work on...
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First Draft: How To Create Moments For Your Characters To Shine
In partnership with Creative Screenwriting and ScreenCraft, “First Draft” is a series on everything to do with screenwriting. Moments: They’re what the audience remembers about a great movie, what actors...
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First Draft: How Screenwriters Can Fix the Broken Hollywood System
In partnership with the blog ScreenCraft, we’re publishing “First Draft,” a series on everything to do with screenwriting. Hollywood development is broken, caught in a...
Guide 2020
Summer 2019
Spring 2019
Winter 2019
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...