Tag: screenwriting

Vanity Fair: “Will the Spec Script Rise Again?”

Vanity Fair is out with this insightful history of the spec market boom that lasted in Hollywood from 1990 to 2008. A must read for aspiring screenwriters and screenwriting scholars alike.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.screenplayology.com/2013/02/16/vanity-fair-will-the-spec-script-rise-again/

Could Validation Board Lead to Better Screen Stories?

Permanent link to this article: https://www.screenplayology.com/2013/02/05/could-validation-board-lead-to-better-screen-stories/

Should We Build Movies Like We Build Houses?

Lately I’ve been thinking about the screenplay as a kind of software and have turned to certain software development processes in search of models for alternative methods of screenplay development (particularly for microbudget features). I see many commonalities between programming and screenwriting (“A computer script is a list of commands that are executed by a …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.screenplayology.com/2013/02/03/should-we-build-movies-like-we-build-houses/

John August’s Courier Prime

This week saw the release John August’s new (free) typeface, Courier Prime: By standardizing around one typeface set at a specific size, we can take advantage of some rules-of-thumb. For example, one page of screenplay (roughly, sometimes) equals one minute of screen time. More importantly, producers can be assured that a 119-page draft really is …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.screenplayology.com/2013/02/02/john-augusts-courier-prime/

NYTimes: Writing Documentaries

The New York Times has posted this piece today that tackles the question of writing credits in documentary filmmaking. “While a documentarian taking a writing credit for narration rarely raises eyebrows, nonfiction filmmakers are also beginning to consider the behind-the-scenes structuring of their films to be a type of writing. The trend, which is being …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.screenplayology.com/2012/08/24/nytimes-writing-documentaries/

New Bible Has Screenplay Format? No So Much

The Associated Press has just published this story claiming that The Voice, a new translation of the Bible, is “written like a screenplay. The problem? It isn’t.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.screenplayology.com/2012/07/30/new-bible-has-screenplay-format-no-so-much/

More on the WGA Annual Report

In my recently published essay in Frames Cinema Journal, “Screenwriting 2.0 in the Classroom? Teaching the Digital Screenplay,” I tried to make a point about the employment challenges facing aspiring screenwriters: Screenwriting instructors have little incentive to change the way they teach because, in spite of the advent, indeed the proliferation of screenwriting software programs …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.screenplayology.com/2012/07/27/more-on-the-wga-annual-report/

Stereographic Screenplays

I’ve been thinking recently about writing for 3D: do screenwriters work differently when they know their material will be realized in stereographic projection? Stereographer Clyde DeSouza argues they should.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.screenplayology.com/2012/07/27/stereographic-screenplays/

Deadline Reports 2011 WGA Screenwriter Survey Results

Nikki Finke’s Deadline | Hollywood has published the results of the 2011 WGA Screenwriter Survey: The major findings of the newly released 2011 WGA Screenwriter Survey (click here for full report) are that “screenwriters believe their status in the industry has significantly deteriorated over the past several years. The most flagrant studio practices contributing to this …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.screenplayology.com/2012/07/25/deadline-reports-2011-wga-screenwriter-survey-results/