Screenwriting
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‘Breaking Bad’ — Best Pilot Ever?
It’s a rhetorical question, as this excellent video proves. Seems like every time a television series ends, the same question pops up: what are the greatest…
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‘20th Century Women’ and the Movement of Memory
A montage of meaningful repetition. Mike Mills’ 20th Century Women, on its surface, is the anecdotal story of Dorothea (Annette Bening) and her son Jamie…
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Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France: ‘Inglorious Basterds’ First Scene Explained
How QT established his film’s central tension in the opening minutes. The opening sequence of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is a 17-page slow boil that introduces…
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Smartphones and Storytelling: Embrace, Avoid, or Both?
‘Better Things’ and the narrative advantages of technology. Back when I was writing terrible horror and disaster films for the SyFy channel, one of the…
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6 Filmmaking Tips From the 2017 Oscar Nominees for Best Director
Only one will get the award, but all five give winning advice. Most of this year’s contenders for the Best Achievement in Directing Oscar are new…
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When Romantic Comedies Met Nora Ephron
How ‘When Harry Met Sally’ defies as many genre conventions as it embraces.
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The Shyamalan Twist: How to Craft Unexpected Endings
A new video examines a master of misdirection. It’s a subtle distinction, but there’s a difference between a surprise ending and a twist ending. A warning…
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To The Mattresses: A ‘Godfather’ Scene-to-Script Comparison
How the death of Sollozzo changed everything.
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Plain-Speaking: How Character and Story are Hidden in Dialogue
It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it. One of the first rules you should learn as a screenwriter – after “show, don’t tell”…
