Brian Helgeland: Screenwriters Lecture

Writer Brian Helgeland (42, Robin Hood, Green Zone, The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Man on Fire, Mystic River, A Knight's Tale, Conspiracy Theory, Payback, L.A. Confidential) explains what it feels like to win an Oscar and a Razzie on the same weekend, why he thinks writer's block is a myth, and reveals Clint Eastwood's unique powers of persuasion.


First posted: 9 September 2014

How to Write a Logline

Writing a logline is a vital part of the screenwriting process and one of the most effective ways of selling your script. A logline is the essence of your screenplay (character, want, and obstacle) written in a clear, concise and creative way - ideally between 20-30 words.

In this video, Michael Schilf uses the Oscar award-winning film, Argo, as an example.

After watching this video, continue on to their website for more instruction and hundreds of examples.

Facebook    IMDb    LinkedIn    The Script Lab    Logline Library    Twitter

First posted: 6 September 2014

Advice on writing - Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut was an American writer. His works such as Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Breakfast of Champions blend satire, gallows humor, and science fiction. He was a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union and a critical pacifist intellectual. He was known for his humanist beliefs and was honorary president of the American Humanist Association.

---

Here are Kurt Vonnegut’s eight basic rules of writing:

• Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.


• Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.


• Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.


• Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.


• Start as close to the end as possible.


• Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.


• Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.


• Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

---

First posted: 5 September 2014

Tony Gilroy: Screenwriters Lecture

This a speech by Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Legacy, State of Play, Duplicity, Michael Clayton, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Identity, Proof of Life, The Devil's Advocate, Dolores Claiborne) on creativity and the original screenplay.


First posted: 14 August 2014

'The Big Chill' - Heard It Through the Grapevine

This clip is the opening sequence to Lawrence Kasdan's The Big Chill (1983). Thirty years on the cast look incredibly young. The dead body being dressed by the undertakers belongs to Kevin Costner, who was edited out of the film due, I suspect, to time constraints.


First posted: 1 September 2014

Richard Curtis: Screenwriters Lecture

Richard Curtis (About Time, War Horse, The Boat That Rocked, Love Actually, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Four Weddings and a Funeral) delivers the last of the 2013 screenwriting lectures for BAFTA, in which he discusses style, inspiration and creative control.


First posted: 26 August 2014

Coen Brothers and Roger Deakins

Coen Brothers and Roger Deakins have worked together on a lot of films. Here is a tribute to that work, with some of the greatest shots of their filmography.

First posted: 14 August 2014