ALL Guides
10 Cloverfield Lane: Everything Possible Must Happen
Oftentimes, when we're developing the story of a film, developing the plot of the film, we're afraid that we're going to run out of story, that we're going to run out of the right story. We worry that we don't have enough story, or a good enough story, that our idea doesn't work, that we don't have the right ending, that....
15 Checkpoints To Make Your Screenplay More Saleable
In this insightful teleconference, Dr. Melody Jackson, founder and Chief Smart Girl at Smart Girls Productions, will break down a variety of distinctions in screenwriting that have always been thought to be subjective. She turns them into a list of measurable checkpoints for evaluating your script's "saleability". In this in....
16 Things To Do After You Finish Your Screenplay w/ David Silverman
Don't send your script out right after you finish it. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Don't blow it. --Get feedback before submitting--How to get your script read--What readers look for when reading What every writer needs to do after finishing their script; get feedback from friends who write screenplays, too,....
5 Key Elements That Create A Sellable Script with Rhonda Bloom
It's important to zoom out now and then, and see your project from a bird's eye view. We writers tend to get caught up in the minutiae of the script when at times we need to understand what it is about the project that will draw potential buyers. So with this podcast interview, we bring in long time manager and development executive, Rhonda....
90 Pages/90 Seconds - How to Maximize Your Pitch Meeting
A five-minute pitch meeting is plenty of time to impress an executive as long as you don't pitch for the full five minutes. In 90 Pages/90 Seconds, the founding team behind the Great American Screenwriting Conference & PitchFest will discuss how to maximize your time to deliver an effective and efficient....
A Champion's Spirit with Fast Track Mentor, Karen Kirkland & Max Timm
Whether you're a writer or not, you need a champion - someone who is pulling for you. Someone who wants to see you succeed just as much as you want to. Whether this is your mom, a husband or wife, or in this interview guest's sake, the VP of Talent Development and Outreach with Nickelodeon! The process of writing, and really overall the ent....
A Ghost Hunter Watches: An American Haunting
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 the screen.....
A Ghost Hunter Watches: Mothman Prophecies
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 adapted the incredible story of the Mothman sightings and the book by John K....
A Ghost Hunter Watches: The Conjuring 2
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 report right? More than you may expect. This episode is hosted by Scott....
A Ghost Hunter Watches: The X–Files - Jose Chung’s From Outer Space
Taking a break from horror movies, Scott sits down with English Professor, Dr. Patrick Gonder to discuss the many layers of the classic X-Files episode “Jose Chung’s from Outer Space." Do you have a ghost story of your own? Share it at WhatsYourGhostStory.com....
A M C , Fox and Pixar Executives: Demystifying the Development Process
Today on Austin Film Festival's On Story Podcast, Demystifying the Development Process with Carrie Gillogly, Jessica Julius, Lauren Neustadter, Erika Weinstein. We usually feature writers on the On Story Podcast. This episode, four executives from film and television share their perspectives on the development process. Aspiring writers get read....
A Page 2 Scream Halloween Special - The Best of Horror & the Paranormal
Page 2 Screen talks to two paranormal experts about what constitutes good horror.If you’re a screenwriter interested in writing horror, you could learn a lot from two ghostbusters. This week’s guests are Scott Markus (whatsyourghoststory.com) and Mike Huberty (othersidepodcast.com) and they’re paranormal experts, as well as h....
A Quiet Place Part 2: Dialogue, Action & The Theme of Your Screenplay
In the first installment of this podcast, we looked at A Quiet Place in relation to writing action and discussed how all of screenplay formatting really exists for one purpose: to isolate visual moments of action.By isolating visual moments of action we can hypnotize the reader into seeing, hearing, and ....
A Quiet Place: Secrets of Screenplay Format - Part 1
This week we are going to be looking at A Quiet Place by Scott Beck, Bryan Woods, and John Krasinski.Everyone who knows anything about A Quiet Place has commented on the way it uses the visual medium directorially to tell a story with hardly any dialogue at all.But what very few people are talking about is how this relates to the writing of the scr....
Aaron Harvey, Building A Career Outside of Hollywood
Episode 288 In this episode of the SYS Podcast I talk with screenwriter Aaron Harvey about his career and how he got his new film, Into The Ashes, into production. Like m....
Adapting Articles, Books and Life Rights to TV and Film
Writer/Producer/Literary Consultant Brad Brad has written for all media, done consultations for worldwide clients when he was V.P. at Chris Vogler’s Storytech, and has been writer-producer for PBS. Brad created the series North Mission Road, which ran six seasons on truTV.....
Advanced Plot Construction with Jeff Kitchen
It's important to utilize consultants and their expertise as often as you're able. There are experts in this field of screenwriting and their knowledge of how a script breaks down and what creates an entertaining piece of media is priceless. It's necessary to test out each consultant in order to see if their individual process works for....
Advancing Your Writing Career
Writing competitions can be a lucrative venue to break into the industry and have yielded countless success stories. Hear from Matt Dy, Austin Film Festival's Screenplay and Teleplay Competition Director, Greg Beal, the Director of the Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, and past winners of both competitions discuss the ins and outs o....
AFI Graduate, Melissa Hoppe, and Her Award Winning Transgender Short
The term “young writer” doesn’t necessarily mean “young in age”. A young writer is simply someone who is still early in his or her career and pushing forward in their own creative growth process. Technically speaking, we as writers and filmmakers are always growing, but the more experience we gain from....
Alternative Strategies - Get a Writing Job in Hollywood
There are many ways to get noticed in Hollywood. Spielberg started working in an open office on the Universal lot. Trey Parker and Matt Stone got South Park on the web. Diablo Cody wrote a funny blog. However you do it, you have to get yourself out there, even without an agent, a manager, or so-called "connections." Producer/Writer David Silverman ....
