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INT.PEARSON'S INDEX - DAY OR NIGHT
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This
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Order
It's All About The Story
Read two chapters FREE online:
During my career as a writer/producer, I read thousands of scripts by established and developing writers. Some of them succeeded in going into production, but--
90% or more of the ones that were not produced had no chance to begin with.
Why?
Because
they suffered from flaws in their stories.
Imagine how you'd feel as a writer if youcould avoid that trap. Think of how your confidence would soar!
****
Pearson's
Index
(to screenwriting articles on the internet, with direct
links)
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by William Martell. Martell does his usual probing analysis of the film "Die Hard," along with the most entertaining history of how the movie got to be made. Real insight into the clockworks of the Hollywood movie machine, but the best part is Martell's analysis of what makes an action movie tick.
Rossio. Witty and insightful column on doing adaptations. Also threads in a riff about getting your script in on time. Or not.
Daniel Petrie Jr. Guest Wordplay (Terry Rossio) column. Delightfully entertaining and informative article on the subject. Gives verbatim responses from Agents who appeared at a Hollywood symposium. Extremely worthwhile, honest advice.
Wendy Moon. From a column on Hollywoodnet. The hard facts about breaking into the Castle of Hollyrood. Also a cornucopia of other articles on this page. Good visit. Recommended
Terry Rossio. Whimsical Multiple choice self-test, which sugar coats good hard facts about the animated feature business in Jollywood.
Terry Rossio. Highly readable column by the always entertaining Terry Rossio. He details one of the most important, and often overlooked principles of screenplay writing--the writer's sense of his or her audience, how to understand, please, excite, and not offend or patronize people who lay down their bucks at the box-office.
Alex Epstein. Thumbnail on how to give your hero problems.
David Siegel Boils the art of the screenplay down to "Premise, People, and Plot." Siegel has a website on which he promotes his paradigm of the "Nine-Act Structure." Enthusiastic and genuine, but the concepts still tend to feel like a retread of Syd Field. Siegel's website, for its design and energy, is a recommended stop on your tour of the Web.
Bill Johnson (Lawrence Booth, Ed.). Solid, accessible attempt to define the essential nature of a story. Of particular interest is Johnson's take on what an audience desires of a story. A Must-Read.
Charles Deemer. Short article on laying out basic structure of a story idea by the well-known internet Guru. Deemer's website, although heavily commercial, is well worth a visit.
Alex Epstein. Short, cogent article by one of my favorite web columnists. Finally-somebody ready to say that the Emperor has no clothes.
Bill Johnson. Seven page essay detailing 15 principles Johnson suggests are necessary for a screenwriter to understand.
Terry Rossio. " Task" is a four-letter word you OUGHT to use, according Rossio. He's right, and he deftly distinguishes (with examples) the differences between Hero's Goal and Hero's Task.
. Richard Toscan. Potpourri of articles from this unique site. Toscan is allied with Amazon books. The site is a maze, and if you want to get the full benefit, you have to visit it.
David Trottier. Capsule overview of what Trottier considers to be the steps involved in writing a screenplay. See also
David Siegel. Excerpt from Siegel's nine-act structure site.
Allen White. Valiant attempt by an excellent webhost and writer to try to give substance to the concept of 3-act Structure (which, as we all know is only another way of saying "Beginning-Middle-End", so it wasn't a big mystery to begin with --too bad.)
Michael Hauge dissects this specimen like a surgeon. For all those who wonder how you can follow the rule " taking things to extremes" and still retain credibility.
Andrea Leigh Wolf. Wolf should know. She did it. And she's on her 34th screenplay as of this writing.
Daniel Knauf (Blind Justice). Witty and inspirational auto-bio sketch detailing Knauf's journey from student to screenwriter. How the purchase of a pair of sunglasses inspired a movie script. (I told you ideas come from everywhere, didn't I?)
Posted to the Screenwriters List by Tracie Hines. Interview with a pseudonymous staffer at a "Brand-Name Production Company."
Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption). Essay on the essence of being a screenwriter and director. This is what Oz is like, Dorothy.
Terry Rossio tells it like it is, but you feel good at the end, like you do after a two hour session with your Rolf specialist, after a 12K, after a day at the beach with your three preschoolers and their six little friends, or after diving into Lake Muskoka in April. Yeah!
Michael Hauge. Concise column from Hauge's site which describes, in summary form, five types of openings for features.
New York Screenwriters Monthly. A cautionary tale for beginning writers, and other denizens of the movie world.
Christopher Wehner. Homage to the superwriter who brought you Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and The Last Action Hero
Fade In Magazine. "The burdens of success can burn out even the brightest young stars." Having it tough in Tinseltown.
Michael Hauge. Candid discussion of what Hollyweird requires of its screenwriters, and what you'd better be ready for. Blunt but slightly inspirational.
Dr. Linda Seger. Good sense pro's and con's of whether or not you have to live in H.Wood or B.Hills to be a screenwriter. Best article on the merits of Being There. Must-read.
Terry Rossio's column entitled "Inspiration." A cogent answer to the ubiquitous lament, "Why doesn't somebody buy my script-it's twice as good as what's out there!" Entertaining, with a real-life horror story from one who's been there.
Terry Rossio. Rossio writes a letter to his friend Steve, and shares it with us. Down-to-earth, practical, and as usual laced with Rossio's engaging ironic wit.
Terry Rossio. Do you have to move to L.A. to be successful? An anecdotal feast on the topic with just the right soupon of wisdom.
Alex Epstein. Short article, gets right to the point of making characters real.
Rossio. The best article on the net about naming characters. Must read.
Alex Epstein. Itch-scratching rant on obtuseness of the Execs, but article is really about different aspects of character, especially backstory, or lack thereof. A must-read.
William Martell (Hard Evidence) as interviewed by Eric Lilleor. The good gritty from Martell on to create powerful believable bad guys. Specific examples. Practical tips.
Rossio. How heroes and failure work together in stories. Appealing anecdote about Superman.
350 BC . The famous Greek's codifying of the art of storytelling. Academic in its tone, but brimming with clarity and careful thought about fundamental principles that still have application today. Quote by one screenwriter, "There are three types of people in the world, those who take Aristotle too seriously, those who don't take him seriously enough, and those who don't take him at all." Find out which type you are.
Bernard Suzanne. Excerpt from an online site on Plato. Somewhat dense for those of us who are not philosophers, but offers insight into the eternal question of what virtue is and why a human being should strive for it.
David Siegel. Thumbnail of an interview with the great mythologist conducted by Bill Moyer. Score: Campbell 10, Moyer 0.
David Siegel. Short summary of Campbell's thesis on the commonality of heroes. For those who prefer to discover what Campbell is all about in the time it takes to sip a cappuccino.
Rossio. A must-read nugget from Terry Rossio, told in his usual appealing whimsical style. How to eat your coincidence and have it too, by using an arcane principle called anthropy.
Seger. Dr. Linda Seger gives practical advice with wonderful examples relevant to setting up the comedic framework in a script. A must-read.
Dr Seger uses Jodi Foster's film Nell as a springboard to discuss a number of script elements. If you can ignore her references to old theories (i.e. "turning points") this article provides some important insights into violence and the nature of conflict. Highly recommended.
Rossio. When your paranoiac alter ego takes possession of you and you're plagued by fears that someone may "steal your script," here's the remedy--for both the real and unreal fears. Practical advice about how to protect your work, and an entertaining real life story that underscores the human frailties that cause some people to fail at trying to write. Get your sense of balance here.
.. Rossio. Copyright information re screenplay titles, plus mini lesson on the importance of care in naming your script.
By Alex Epstein.. Very brief mini lesson on dialogue. Worth reading just as a reminder to keep it sub-textual.
. Rossio wrestles the Angel of Movie Endings.
. Terry Rossio puts on his Strunk and White hat and nails screenplay style with one nuts and bolts column. So stop agonizing over format and start writing. A must-read.
Alex Epstein. A series of links that include nother excellent article on screenplay formatting and submission. Bonus: A potpourri of tips on structure, character, dumb things to avoid when you're starting out. A gem. Must-read the whole page.
David Trottier. Good no-nonsense article on what you need to do to please the reader with the style of your spec.
A shareware formatting application by Apotheosis Productions, compatible with various versions of word processing applications, including Macintosh.
. Shareware for Word Perfect 6.1 (Windows) screenplay formatting.
David Trottier. Useful discussion of the nature of the Hero's goal by the author of The Screenwriter's Bible. Also touches on the inner need of the Hero similar to Truby's concept of Problem/Need. Worth reading.
. Alex Epstein. Succinct comments about the nature of the grabber.
. New York Screenwriters Monthly. A cautionary tale for beginning writers, and other denizens of the movie world.
Wordplay column by Terry Rossio. Rossio's theory of the essential ingredient in a good concept. Good writer with an interesting take on this topic. Inspirational.
An index to the first 37 of Terry Rossio's Wordplay Columns. Visit his internet site. A mini treasure chest of whimsy, wit, and down-to-earth tips on the screenplay trade. Honest, inspirational, practical-best columns about screenwriting on the internet, bar none.
Dr. Seger's website is worth visiting. One of my favorite writers on the art of the screenplay. I'd be a bigger fan if she moved on from the outmoded concept of Three-Act-Structure. Her books are recommended reading.
. This copyrighted document has been made available by its author, Colin Brunton, and by the Canadian Film Centre. Good "crib sheet" with compact and humorous, but practical, suggestions about writing for producers who have limited funds
Richard Michaels does a very thorough examination of what it takes to write a megahit. Recommended.
Alex Epstein promotes the idea of pitching your movie to a friend or colleague not in the business as a way to clarify your concept.
Christopher Wehner. Practical piece that gets you going pitching over the inet. Where to get cyberaddresses of the good, the bad, and the bored among the Hollybrood.
A Review of LA Confidential by Bill Johnson. Excellent review of how the writers of the film handle the plot intricacies of the story. A must-read.
. Dr. Seger analyzes the idea of point-of-view, then gives an excerpt from a writer's script, along with suggestions for how to improve said excerpt.
Epstein. Alex Epstein gives succinct gem-like tips on cleaning up errors and omissions in your script before dropping it off at your agent's or (potential) producer's office. A must-read even if you only want to avoid looking like an idiot. If your script is a masterpiece, don't bother to read this article, your genius will overcome all those "little" errors that would get other lesser writers rejected.
Delightful Rossio aria on the metaphorical "social ranking" of query letters.
. Don Vasicek (Warriors of Virtue, The Crown). Arguably the best query primer on the Internet. Gives a sample that was tested on agents for its effectiveness, plus a thorough analysis of each of its elements and how they work. Must Read.
Wendy Moon at Hollywood Screenwriter
Succinct advice on the do's and don'ts from Screenwriters Network.
Epstein. This article and the others that follow it are the clearest, most succinct distillation on the Inet of what makes a good movie premise. Must read.
David Trottier.
. Bill Johnson. Thorough study of what a premise is and how to develop it.
Refreshingly candid guest Wordplay column by Nina Jacobson who is (at the moment of writing, anyway) Executive Vice President of Production for Walt Disney/Hollywood Pictures. Jacobsen gives us a look from the other side of that desk piled high with scripts
Read this when you're about to send your script out. A knowledgeable reader, but a friendly one, shows you what you might be in for.
Terry Rossio. Story about an actual reader's checklist for submitted scripts. An O. Henry ending and cause for pause when getting your masterpiece ready to send.
Terry Rossio. Delightful, but practical, whimsy in which Rossio harpoons a few of the sharks in the Hollywood negotiating pool. A Must Read, if only for the vicarious satisfaction.
Andrea Leigh Wolf. Spec scripts have their own special status, style, and formatting, and Wolf sets out do's and don'ts. Includes a nice riff about the beginning of your script, the first 10 pages.
Rossio. Wordplay column. The inimitable Terry Rossio shines with this article on how to deal with sex in your script. Lots of examples. Highlight of the article is a hilarious but germane telling of a coupling with his girlfriend at 18. (Try not to read this column. I dare you.)
Interview with Billy Mernit. Examines how Romantic Comedies have to be combined with another form, or written with a twist to succeed in today's market. References to Pretty Woman (which Mernit describes as "Öa love poem to the credit card.") Chasing Amy and others.
. By Linda Seger. Not one of Dr. Seger's finest moments. Tries to use The Fugitive to illustrate points of structure. Annoying and confusing reference to simplistic three-act structure makes for a muddled analysis that fails to account for the brilliant FLOW of the movie.
Meticulous analysis of the Truman Show by Allen White, the resident screenplay columnist at About.com, (formerly The Mining Company) on the net. White is an intellig |