FEATURED
The Director, Producer and Showrunner of the upcoming Comedy Central show, South Side (as well as past credits including Late Night with Jimmy Fallon), sits with the ISA's Max Timm to discuss all things creative, career, and developing your position within the...
Bringing on the great Michael Hauge on the Curious About Screenwriting podcast is always a treat. Michael Hauge has been a screenwriting and story consultant for nearly 40 years, having worked one-on-one with writers at every level, from novice to A-List (Will Smith...
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” showcases the Coen Brothers’ wit and morality.
Movie anthologies can be hit and miss, but “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” from Joel and Ethan Coen shoots bulls-eyes throughout. The six, western-themed stories in their...
“The Girl in the Spider’s Web” needs to realize its lead character isn’t James Bond.
Lisbeth Salander, AKA “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” is many things: computer hacker, Goth girl, and righteous advocate of abused women. But one thing...
This episode was sponsored by our wonderful wine sponsor, Steele Wines, and our amazing friends at Cinequest - www.cinequest.org (which has a submission deadline in March that you should be preparing for!)
What makes for a great true story or biopic about an amazing person?...
As usual, our wine sponsor for this episode was the ever-so-tasty Steele Wines, and the helpful sponsor who gets the word out for and about us, Table Ready My Screenplay. The Table Ready My Screenplay - Park City contest is taking applications now, so hurry over to their...
Sponsored by our lovely wine sponsor, Steele Wines, and the incomparable screenwriting and career coach, Lee Jessup, this episode dives into the importance of delivering character flaw and how it relates to creating emotion - not only within each individual scene and moment,...
Two weeks in a row with a special guest! This time around, Max brought on producer and consultant, Wendy Kram, to talk about the business of screenwriting and how to navigate this crazy town. This episode was sponsored once again by our fabulous wine sponsor, Steele Wines, as...
“Widows” goes deep into character to tell its unique heist tale
Director Steve McQueen doesn’t seem interested in telling a typical heist film story. His new film “Widows” is gravely serious instead of a raucous romp like the “Ocean’s...
Episode 4 – An American HauntingAfter visiting the Tennessee location where the Bell Witch Haunting took place, ghost hunters Scott Markus, and Wendy Lynn Staats analyze how screenwriters Brent Monahan and Courtney Solomon struggled to bring this historical haunting to...
SYS episode 252:
This week on the SYS Podcast I talk with Writer/Director Ari Gold. We talk through the early days of his career directing theater, which lead him to short films, and eventually feature films and his new indy drama, The Song of Sway Lake.
The remake of “Suspiria” adds little to the classic horror tale.
Despite the talents of director Luca Guadagnino and screenwriter David Kajganich, their remake of Dario Argento’s classic 1977 horror tale “Suspiria” doesn’t come to much. The...
“The Haunting of Hill House” is an eerie and moving mystery of a mini-series.
Again, Netflix creates a watercooler show, one that dominated most of the Halloween conversation in 2018. This adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s titular 1959 gothic horror novel is...
On the heels of the breakout success of "The Conjuring," James Wan tells the story of the Enfield Poltergeist case as framed by real life paranormal investigators Ed & Lorraine Warren (despite them only actually being on the case for a day or two). Do the storytellers...
SYS Episode 251
In this week's episode of the podcast I talk with Jeremy Wechter about his his new horror film, E-Demon. We talk about his background writing/directing/producing short films and how that lead to this new feature.
After visiting the real life locations in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, ghost hunter Scott Markus (What's Your Ghost Story), and paranormal podcast host, Wendy Lynn Staats (See You on the Other Side) analyze how screenwriter Richard Hatem and director Mark Pellington...
This week we’re going to be talking about BlacKkKlansman by Spike Lee, Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott.When I first went out to see BlacKkKlansman, my hope was that I was going to be able to do a podcast about how to write a movie for a political...
SYS Episode 250:
In this week's episode I talk with Filmmaker James Morosini about making his new micro-budget feature, Threesomething. We talk through the nuts and bolts of putting this film together, and the emotional ups and downs that went along with it.
Sponsored by Nickelodeon Writing Program and Creative Screenwriting Magazine, in this episode Felicity Wren and Max Timm talk about how rarely writers focus on educating themselves and why it's so important. We know it is, but why don't we focus on it more often where our...
You know what time it is - back to school time! get your notebooks and trapper keepers ready. It's time to get organized and focused on being productive. Felicity and Max can help you do so, but only you can put the work in.
This episode was sponsored by MovieMaker Magazine...
