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I Hate to Break It to You, But Your Logline Isn't Working

(Be like Hermione…study, read, practice, be smart.)I am going to vent a little bit in today’s post, but it’s because you all need to hear it. I’ll hold myself back as much as I can. Please remember that I am coming to you with love and positive intention here, I swear.Your logline sucks.OK, so maybe I didn’t hold myself back. I ...
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So You Finished a Draft... Now What?

RewritingIt’s something we all need to deal with, and there is no getting around it. Rewriting, rewriting, rewriting. In the last post, I talked about writer’s block and, well, how and why writer’s block is pretty much a whole bunch of bullshit, and to again quote Terry Pratchett, “something invented by people in California who ...
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Writing Morally Gray Characters, Part 1

When you speak of gray in life, you’re normally talking about a mainly colorless tapestry. But morally gray characters, those considered not good nor bad, neither heroes not villains, are some of the more complex characters you can write. Even more interesting, is a psychological phenomenon that allows our audiences to embrace a...
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The Trigger – More Than An Inciting Incident

  • James "Doc" Mason
  • .October 18, 2024
While even the non-writer will recognize that the climax is the character’s final battle, the end of the story, fewer know what to call the start of the story. Remember, there is no story without conflict. Therefore the story starts with a clear conflict. Writers will know the Inciting Incident or Inciting Event is often describ...
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Navigating Your Story

  • Salva Rubio
  • .September 16, 2024
Since its inception over twenty years ago, the methodology of Blake Synder’s Save the Cat has been as synonymous with storytelling as Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey and Syd Field’s Paradigm Worksheet.Many screenwriters can’t help but spot the moment when “Bad Guys Close In”, or the “Dark Night of the Soul” whenever they sit do...
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My Voice Is A Collection Of My Experiences

  • Mike Gauyo
  • .April 8, 2024
Mike Gauyo (Ginny & Georgia, Insecure) cut his teeth in television as a production assistant on reality TV which led to  paid podcast and webseries gigs, which further led to a writers’ assistant job on Claws. Through a series of recommendations, he landed a writing spot on Ginny & Georgia.Being on set provided Gauyo with valuab...
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8 Keys to Writing a Marketable Script

  • Film Consortium San Diego
  • .October 9, 2023
1. ONE GENRE TO RULE THEM ALL I recently sat through a webinar where writers were given the opportunity to pitch their concepts. One lady stuck out to me because she described her project as a suspense, thriller, and comedy, with horror elements. She then went on to pitch her story, which I didn’t comprehend at all, because I wa...
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Lion Revisited

(REPOST) I’ve only now seen LION (Garth Davis, 2016). I have never been so affected by any film. This film states the obvious, which we all need to hear on a regular basis: that human emotions are universal. They transcend and are independent of different ethnicities, religions, and social mores.LION is an amazing achievement. W...
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I Want To See Something I Haven’t Seen Or Felt Before

  • November 22, 2022
“I Want To See Something I Haven’t Seen Or Felt Before” Says Roger Avary:Academy Award™-winning Screenwriter Roger Avary graced onto our screens in a big way after co-writing a little indie film called Pulp Fiction with an equally little-known screenwriter Quentin Tarantino. Avary continued his screenwriting career with films in...
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Building the El Dorado of Short Films

Filmmaker Alexander Jeffery didn’t plan on returning to live in El Dorado, Ark., where  the family had moved for his father’s work when Alexander was in high school.But after finishing film school at the University of Nebraska, and stints in Los Angeles and Sweden, the prolific producer/director of short films, Jeffery ended up ...
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Writing for Large Underserved Audiences

  • Brock Swinson
  • .October 31, 2022
“Writing for Large Underserved Audiences” Eleanor Coppola on ‘Paris Can Wait’ & ‘Love Is Love Is Love’:“I had a story I wanted to tell,” said Eleanor Coppola, filmmaker and wife of Francis Ford Coppola. “Some of it was a little bit personal, and I didn’t want to make a documentary out of it, so I made a fiction piece.”Prior to h...
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Desperation, Dread, & Determination

I call them the triple D’s of screenwriting:DreadEvery screenwriter experiences this eventually. You get to a place where it feels like it’s all over. You’ll never get that agent. The manager will never call you back. Will anyone respond to my query? Listen my friend. I’ve been there. You are not the only one. I remember doing o...
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The Power of Belief

We all have obstacles of some kind. A personal challenge. A flaw, or for most of us, a series of flaws – a whole host of issues, really. We deal with them on a daily basis, whether they’re literal and physical, or mental and emotional. We’re imperfect. And most of the time our beliefs surrounding our issues or personal challenge...
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The Mysterious Development of Your Villain

The Mysterious Development of Your Villain - (an excerpt from Max Timm's online class, The Craft Course - REPOST)In this week's lesson, we will be focusing on how the other characters in your story - namely the Secondary Character and The Villain/Rival - will play their essential roles in your project. I'm consistently reminding...
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Celebrating Another Successful ISA Fast Track Fellowship

Another incredible Fast Track Week has come and gone! This season, our Fellows, Vandon Gibbs and Elena Perez, spent a week being mentored by eight top-level agents, managers and producers, including reps from CAA, Endless Media, 1993 & more. They also took part in our Virtual Pitch Challenge, presenting their projects to a panel...
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The Key to a Perfect Pitch is You

Another successful Pitch Challenge and Panel has come and gone! We were so impressed by the quality and diversity of all of the submissions we received. It was definitely difficult to narrow it down to our three winners.At our Virtual Pitch Panel, we heard from our four amazing industry pro panellists Mitchell Bendersky (Manager...
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Improving Your Logline

Logline Breakdown ProcessHello from Max Timm, the ISA’s Director of Education, VP of Development with Creative Screenwriter Prods, and coach/consultant for The Story Farm! What you are about to consume is information, education, tips, and exercises that should help you improve the quality and effectiveness of your logline. We’re...
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THE HEELER: Brett Edwards

  • July 24, 2018
ShortsTV sat down with actor/writer/producer Brett Edwards, whose body of work includes Westworld, American Sniper. You also may recognize Brett from Halfway There, and The Heeler, American Muscle, American Cowboys short films and The Longest Ride.1. What’s your inspiration behind “The Heeler” short film? I felt, I'm sure as man...
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Interview with ISA Fellowship Winner Sean Collins-Smith

  • June 11, 2018
Ever since graduating from film school in 2010, Sean Collins-Smith has wanted to move to Los Angeles to pursue a TV writing career. His goal seemed unobtainable, though, until he won an ISA Fast Track Fellowship on the basis of his pilots End of Life and Lifers Anonymous. As part of his ISA prize package, he scored a week of ind...
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Why You Need a Professional Consultant to Give You Screenplay Feedback

  • May 28, 2018
What should expect from a script consultant? Creative Screenwriting Magazine gets into the weeds with our friends at the International Screenwriters’ Association to help elevate your screenplay to a marketable level and strategize your career.When your car needs repairs, you seek a mechanic to help you fix the issues that need t...

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