Paths, Ripples & Choices: How character and story logic can make or break your scriptRipplesI recently read a student’s one-hour television pilot, and while the dialogue was on target and the action moved at a fine clip, there were...

At some point early in the creation of their screenplays, students I work with need to share their loglines with their fellow screenwriters, and very often the air of unease about this process is palpable. Not so much because these authors are...

For the past several years, the ISA has had the honor of partnering with Kids In The Spotlight (KITS), a program that supports youth from disadvantaged areas in Los Angeles and allows them to learn filmmaking by writing, casting, and starring in...

(REPOST) Scaring Up Funds: How to Acquire Investors When Your Movie’s in Horror, the Most Profitable Genre of Them AllBy Brian Herskowitz and Tony Timpone on November 14, 2017There are a few paths you can take to finding investors for your...

Producer Adam Fratto’s Advice To Screenwriters: “No Cowardly Storytelling.”Adam Fratto is a prolific film and TV producer, currently based at Reel One, he has a lot to say about what screenwriters should be doing to build their...

We interviewed Diane about the essentials of a first act, getting to know what your story is really about, and whether or not Hollywood will ever return to the golden age of spec scripts.Were you always interested in telling stories?I always felt...

If you’re a savvy writer, you know it’s a good idea to get feedback from multiple readers and make comparisons between the sets of development notes. As a script editor and script reader myself, I’ll frequently be dealing with...

On the face of it, musicians and writers do not have much in common. Musicians perform in public, writers work alone in private. Music is fleeting and intangible, writing endures forever. Musicians are often extroverts, writers tend towards...

Imagine a story about a soldier, wounded by past battles, who is sent to a hostile, unfamiliar place filled with danger and overwhelming obstacles. He’s a stranger in a strange land – the geography and the climate are almost the...

I always start my UCLA classes by asking my students to raise their hands if their goal is to become a professional writer. Usually everyone raises their hands.I then tell them that I have good news and I have bad news.  The good news is that...

If one wished to select the most well-known story in the English language, a top contender would surely be Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Originally published in 1843, this little novella has reached the rarest heights of...

One of the oldest clichés about writing fiction is that “the essence of drama is conflict.” It is also the truest. There are many ways to make a script dramatic, but the following five techniques are key to creating...

No need to check your calendars. It’s not yet October. Horror screenwriter, John Russo who put Night Of The Living Dead in every horror movie fan’s library, talks to us about his career, his movies and gives some simple advice to horror...

James Cameron’s screenplay Avatar is an outstanding example of using many structural tools and devices successfully in one script.In addition to the overall structure of your screenplay – the three acts, the five key turning...

Movies are about transformation. We want to see someone change. It’s the reason we are drawn to sit in a dark room and eat popcorn with a bunch of strangers. But this transformation has to have a larger meaning. This is where knowing what your...

We caught up with the busy Aaron Mendelsohn to discuss the importance of asking questions about your characters, common mistakes new screenwriters make, and the most important question you can ask about your story. Recognizing that his...

“Introduce Yourself As A Writer & Your Brand.” Sage Advice From Zimran Jacob, Netflix Showrunner’s Assistant On ‘The Punisher’ & ‘Narcos’:We sat down with Showrunner’s Assistant, Zimran Jacob,...

What if I told you Star Wars and The Godfather were the same story? You’d call me crazy, right? Now what if I said both are essentially the same as Die Hard? Crazier still? What if I sweetened the pot...

Stories are built on a foundation of desire and conflict. To create an emotionally-involving and commercially-successful screenplay, you must give your hero some compelling desire he or she is desperate to achieve. Then you must make that goal seem...

At the beginning of your screenplay, your hero should be in a state of inertia — settling for a life that may be emotionally safe and tolerable, but that lacks passion, risk and fulfilment. Their life might be filled with activity and...