How does an aspiring artist bridge the gap between distribution and commerce?
We have to be very clever about those things. You have to remember that it’s only a few hundred years, if that much, that artists are working with money. Artists never got money. Artists had a patron, either the leader of the state or the duke of Weimar or somewhere, or the church, the pope. Or they had another job. I have another job. I make films. No one tells me what to do. But I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script.

This idea of Metallica or some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money?

In the old days, 200 years ago, if you were a composer, the only way you could make money was to travel with the orchestra and be the conductor, because then you’d be paid as a musician. There was no recording. There were no record royalties. So I would say, “Try to disconnect the idea of cinema with the idea of making a living and money.” Because there are ways around it.

—The 99% | Read the Full Article

Some writers don’t believe in it, and I’ve heard many interviews where writers will scoff at even the thought they would get infected with such a thing. In my personal opinion, I’m not sure how you can’t believe in it. I want to say that Writer’s Block is a bunch of crap, but I’m not sure I can. There are more mornings than I care to think of that leave me wide-eyed in front of my computer screen, praying for a thought. Any thought, just to make the pain go away. If I had darts and any aim, I’d throw them at my reflection in the mirror. If I had a hoop over my trashcan and more courage, I’d dunk my tired old screenplays into the can. And if I was lazy with little to no self-respect, I’d turn on the TV and admit defeat. But alas, getting up from my desk would be betrayal. So I stay, staring at the screen, pen in my hand… “Onward,” I say to myself. And so it rages on…

Give me a break.

— The Script Lab| Read The Full Article

Click on the Screenshot below for the link

After you’d read ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’, did you begin a period of outside research or interviews?

‘No, there was none of that. It was just a matter of getting a sense of “do I think that I know what to do with this?”. I didn’t go and see the Swedish version of the movie so I couldn’t use that as a template. I spent months agonising over how to do it and making notes and making outlines and making lists, going for walks and hating everybody and everything. It’s a lonely business. The guys at the coffee shop down the street all know me. They see me coming.’

— Timeout.com | Read The Full Article

Part one, “Gotham, The Quintessential Urban Landscape”
Panelists included David Koepp (Premium Rush, Ghost Town, Panic Room, Spider-Man, Carlito’s Way); Brian Koppelman (The Girlfriend Experience, Solitary Man, Rounders); David Levien (The Girlfriend Experience, Rounders); Stephen Schiff (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps).

Part two, “Supporting Character, NYC”
Panelists included Shari Springer Berman (The Extra Man, The Nanny Diaries); John Hamburg (Along Came Polly, Zoolander); Mark Heyman (Black Swan); Kevin Wade (Maid in Manhattan, Working Girl). Moderated by Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly).

That’s all I’m going to say.

Short.

Sweet.

An ongoing issue with the romantic comedy spec scripts I read is that they talk too much.

By “they” I mean the characters (i.e. the writers), which is surprising. Given that we’re living in the reign of Twitter, seeing as how we all have less time to take in information, why is that screenwriters still seem to think that romantic comedy = two people sitting or standing around talking, for page after page?

— Living the Rom-Com | Read The Full Article

…1. Trust your first reactions
With so many R-rated comedies getting made, what made the script for Horrible Bosses standout to Gordon? The tears. “I wasn’t looking for anything, I just read it and cried with laughter, and there was no more to figure out,” he told Movieline. “I read so many things that don’t move me any way. This one was really compelling. The plot is sophisticated enough, you don’t see stuff coming and things catch you off guard.”

— MovieLine.com | Read The Full Article