Just had to try one last installment on my Overheard Dialogue series…including a brand new scene from Chicago’s one and only Blue Line that happened to me just a couple days ago. THE ITALIAN RESTAURANT I overheard a Man, a Woman, and presumably her Son eating dinner at an Italian restaurant. The son was standing […]
A few weeks back we looked at classic screenplay structure– Syd Field- style– for the Matrix. This week, let’s look at those structural points for another movie, The Godfather. I do this for those of you who want to outline, and are looking for how you would go about that. Recognizing the structural signposts in […]
“You gotta get in to get out…”—Carpet Crawlers, Genesis Learn to forget. Learn something so you can forget it. Master it. Sounds like a contradiction but it’s not. I started Script Gods not so much to pull down Syd Field as to illuminate him, the bad and the good. Syd Field didn’t create 3-Act […]
A quick statistic (from Script Magazine and Deadline Hollywood): In 2010, 360 “spec” (speculation) scripts made the rounds in Hollywood. Just 62 sold. If around 600 major Studio and Indy movies are made every year, it means the spec market hovers at around 8-10% of all non-low-budget films. So, what are they buying? What generates […]
Argo is one of the tightest thrillers in years. There’s a reason why it upset the Spielberg-Lincoln Oscar applecart. Great source story, cinematography, acting, directing, sure. But dig deeper. Why is this such a good movie? We don’t have to trot Hitchcock out again on the nature of suspense, though I do remember a documentary […]
