Owner: The Screenwriters League URL:http://www.ScreenwritersLeague.com Join Date: Thu, 08 May 2008 10:27:57 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: The Screenwriters League is a collective of NYC-based writers sharing their experiences as they build their careers from the ground up, and hoping to impart any knowledge they gain along the way. Site statistics:Click here
Crime Fiction 101 2008-09-05 11:58:00 Hey all, king suckerman here. Newest addition to the very snazzy Screenwriters League blog. Many thanks to Cake Man, Zombie and the rest of the gang for the warm welcome, etc.OK, now that the pleasantries are out of the way, let me chatter a bit about what really drives me to write: Crime. Crime fiction, mysteries, thrillers, police procedural novels, private eyes -- whatever you want to classify Read more:Fiction
Trailer Trash XIV: The Thing With Two Heads (1972) 2008-10-04 11:30:00 "They transplanted a white bigot's head onto a soul brother's body!"And when that happens, y'all can guess that antics ensue. You'd like to think that this is one of those movie premises they only could have gotten away with making several decades ago, but that's not a true statement at all. If they were to shoot this now, it would probably just star Snoop Dogg and Rob Schneider.The real star of t Read more:Trailer
, Trash
, Thing
, Heads
Ballast and The Pleasure of Being Robbed - Filmmaker discussions in NYC 2008-10-03 15:53:00 These both look great - I wish I were able to make either screening this weekend!BALLAST followed by Q&A with writer/director Lance HammerSaturday and Sunday, 10/4 and 10/5 at the Film ForumAfter 8:00 PM showsA young boy drifts through the spare flatlands of a wintry Mississippi township and a middle-aged man sits in his rural home, frozen in grief after his brother’s suicide. These striking ima Read more:Filmmaker
Discussion and screening with writer/director Mike Leigh (Naked, Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake) 2008-10-03 07:14:00 To top off the Museum of the Moving Image's Weekend With Mike Leigh screening series, on October 19th the Scandinavian House at 58 Park Avenue will host a screening of the new movie Happy-Go-Lucky followed by a discussion with the award-winning writer/director Mike Leigh.If you aren't familiar with Mike Leigh's work, I'd recommend adding the dark drama Naked to your Netflix queue. Tickets are avai Read more:Discussion
, Secrets
, Drake
What, When, Where this Weekend - Rachel Getting Married, Ballast, Nick and Norah... 2008-10-02 11:30:00 What, When, Where is a weekly guide to select screenings, discussions and events in the NYC-area of interest to screenwriters.Opening This Weekend
:RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, dir. Jonathan Demme, written by Jenny LumetPREMISE: A young woman who has been in and out from rehab for the past 10 years returns home for the weekend for her sister's wedding.PLAYING AT: Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, Regal Union Squar Read more:Rachel
, Norah
5 Things to Watch Out For When Writing 2008-10-01 09:59:00 ScriptXRay, an online resource dedicated to the exploration of and craft of screenwriting, recently posted an article on “TIPS: 5 Things Not to Include in Your Screenplay.” Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, but the five things listed are either going out of fashion or instantly mark a writer as an amateur. According to cj Rice and the gang over at ScriptXRay, writers should do eve
Spike's New Joint Just Won't Hit 2008-09-30 13:15:00 So Cake Man asked me to write a movie review for Miracle at St. Anna, the new Spike
Lee joint. I haven't written a movie review since my high school newspaper days. Training Day was the last one if I remember correctly. I'm pretty sure I gave it a B+. I know, who scores movies with letter grades? I guess you could say it was fitting of the academic setting. But the review and score were fair I tho Read more:Joint
What are you reading? Week 3: Goodbye Harry Bosch, hello ex-junkie journalist bio 2008-09-30 05:00:00 Last week, I was in the midst of finishing off The Narrows, another Michael Connelly HarryBosch
novel that also featured guest appearances by some of his non-Bosch novel characters, most notably FBI Agent Rachel Walling and -- to a degree that I won't reveal because it's spoiler-y -- retired FBI Agent Terry McCaleb. Since then, I've plowed through the rest of The Narrows and finished off Connelly Read more:Goodbye
Ok, Guys: What movie made you cry? 2008-09-29 19:00:00 If you're a manly man, and I mean a real MANLY man like yours truly, then you don't cry at the movie
s. Oh, it's okay for a manly man to cry in some situations, such as when your favorite football team is the St. Louis Rams or when your arm is broken but you're too proud to tag out of the wrestling match. Or if you're eating a really, really hot chicken wing (I know those aren't real tears). I'd al
On collaborating with other writers 2008-09-29 17:30:00 Over at his blog, prolific novelist Dean Wesley Smith tackles a subject that I'm sure every writer (prose, screen, whatever) has pondered to some degree: collaborating with another writer on a project.In addition to noting that collaboration can take many forms (on most assignments, Smith doesn't even interact directly with his co-writer), Smith also offers up some words of warning and advice:Now
The Writing Week part 39 - Eat, Sleep, Breathe It 2008-09-29 13:42:00 I’ve experienced a dramatic shift in my approach to screenwriting. I can’t quite explain why or what happened. Yet in the past two weeks, and very dramatically this past week, screenwriting has been, by far, the number one thing on my mind. I climb in bed and remain awake for hours thinking about a script I’m working on. I wake up on weekends and spend a solid few hours in my room rewriting Read more:Sleep
A Must Read Interview for Emerging Writers 2008-09-27 17:25:00 Earlier this week, while I was taking a “mini” break from work at my day job to do something important, something screenwriting related, I scrolled over to Done Deal Pro. I was guided my desire to learn about more management companies to query. At the time, I hadn’t registered for Done Deal’s year-long subscription, so I couldn’t get too far in once I accessed the site. (An aside, I do p Read more:Writers
Trailer Trash XIII: The Vampire Lovers (1970) 2008-09-27 08:49:00 "If you dare... taste the deadly passion of the BLOOD NYMPHS!"Oh, I knew it would only be a matter of time before I opened up that can of b-movie goodness known as the Hammer Horror catalog. More to come, kiddos. Don't you worry your pretty little heads.Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin to you, nerds) stars in this film, just like he does in about 90% of Hammer's movies. The plot is pretty standard Read more:Trailer
, Trash
, Vampire
, Lovers
Watching the Detectives: TV cops and private eyes through the years 2008-09-26 14:51:00 The Onion AV Club has an excellent article running down the best, worst and most overlooked private detective TV series over the last 50-odd years. The article, which spans about three "pages" of content, is impressive because it not only lists which shows are of quality, but groups them based on structure -- classic private eye shows, shows with a more character-driven slant and shows that are m Read more:Watching
Tropfest Short Film Festival Tonight in NYC 2008-09-26 09:00:00 For anyone looking for something to do in NYC tonight, there's a great short film festival going on down in the financial district. And the good news for all of my fellow starving writers: it's free!From Tropfest NY's website:Thousands of film lovers will descend on Battery Park City on Friday night, September 26th, for Tropfest NY, the world's largest short film festival. Free and open to the pub Read more:Short
, Festival
, Tonight
The Cold Bum Test - Judging a Script from Start to Flush 2008-09-25 19:36:00 I saw this on Imdb.com on Wednesday. It tickled and disturbed me at the same time. Hoskins Reads Scripts In Bathroom23 September 2008 5:00 AM, PDTMovie legend Bob Hoskins test reads scripts for films - when he is sitting on the toilet. The Mona Lisa star decides whether or not to take a movie role depending on how engrossed he gets leafing through his lines as he answers a call of nature. And the Read more:Judging
, Start
Go ahead, judge a book by its cover. Please. 2008-09-25 15:24:00 This is pretty neat:As part the first year of Hearts & Minds, Creativity partnered with Penguin Books on a talent contest, asking artists of all types to conceive a cover design for one of the publisher's upcoming titles. Penguin, as you may know, appeared in our Creative Marketers report last year, for bringing an updated art-driven aesthetic to its book covers. Notably, its Graphic Classics Read more:ahead
, Please
The Write Stuff? 2008-09-25 14:53:00 I'm instantly wary of anything that claims to be any kind of all-purpose guide to, well, anything, but The Guardian newspaper across the pond has a fairly impressive list of articles on various aspects of the craft of writing, all well worth checking out.The best part is the people writing their respective articles are actual practitioners, as opposed to some guy who's writing a how-to book on cre Read more:Write
New York Film Festival opens Friday 2008-09-25 11:25:00 The 46th Annual New York
Film Festival
opens this Friday
. Their slate is full of great stuff, but here are a few I'd really like to see:WENDY AND LUCY, written and directed by Kelly Reichardt. A young woman loses her dog on a road trip through Oregon. It looks like the plot really is that simple, but the movie has gotten great reviews and I really enjoyed Reichardt's Old Joy.PANDORA AND THE FLYIN
Want to chat with an agent? 2008-09-24 13:03:00 Well, I'd assume you do. Especially if you read this blog.MediaBistro's GalleyCat blog has a must-read post about the "overlooked art of agent research":Hundreds of aspiring writers would sell their left arm for a chance to chat with an agent. Unfortunately, most writers end up telling the wrong agent the wrong things. Without some crucial research, these writers will always end up in the rejectio
How Long Do You Write For? 2008-09-24 06:16:00 In theory, writing every day is the best possible way to consistently improve and produce pages. I disagreed with this until I actually began doing it, and with the exception of a few weeks off in between projects, I now try to write for at least one hour every day. (I believe it was Stephen King who says that most writers only have one good hour in them a day.) I spent the weekend in Boston visit Read more:Write
Tuesday sick-blogging: Rock 'n Roll Reading 2008-09-23 11:06:00 I'm home sick today, laying in bed with my laptop at my side. Not fun.Last week, I asked if, while writing, you created a playlist or soundtrack to not only accompany you while writing, but to serve as an official anthem for the work. Not everyone does it, I'm sure. I find it to be helpful and an entertaining facet of the writing process. Or maybe it's just a distraction. No matter.Also mentioned Read more:Tuesday
, Reading
Writers' Warning - Consulting Service 2008-09-23 09:24:00 WRITERS' WARNING(Writers
' Warning is a new section we're debuting here on ScreenwritersLeague.com where we post about suspicious and potentially risky services and companies. Not all practices mentioned are necessarily dangerous for writers - some might be completely legit and just sound fishy at first. We only report the facts and encourage comments from people who know better and can speak on be Read more:Consulting
, Service
The Writing Week part 38 - Great (Negative) Feedback 2008-09-22 11:03:00 Years ago, when I was still a fresh-faced writing student, getting negative feedback on a script I was proud of would ruin my day. I could have sworn that everyone should and would have liked my dialogue and my scene structure as much as I did. It was a killing blow when my classmates or professor said otherwise. The more people agreed I'd missed the mark, the worse I felt, too. It was like I was Read more:Great
, Negative
, Feedback
What makes a crime novel a crime novel? The continued genre vs. literary debate 2008-09-20 21:37:00 The New York Times has a glowing review of Dennis Lehane's latest, The Given Day, which takes place in the early 20th century, during the historic Boston police strike.Now, I want to preface this post by explaining that I'm a huge Lehane fan. Specifically, I love his Kenzie/Gennaro detective novel
s, which kicked off his writing career. His later work, especially Mystic River, was still of high qua Read more:makes
, crime
, genre
Trailer Trash XII: Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973) 2008-09-20 11:53:00 "This is the stupidest damn thing I ever heard!" Wikipedia's one-sentence summary of this Stepford Wives rip-off is pretty funny: ...the premise of the movie is that a mad scientist (played by Anitra Ford) has created an army of beauties who seduce men to death.Seduced... to DEATH. What a way to go! The men of the town are quickly dropping off like flies, and the local law enforcement just can't f Read more:Trailer
, Trash
, Invasion
, Girls
The Writing Wire for 10/23 2008-10-23 13:18:00 The latest happenings in the world of books and related topics:• The L.A. Times Jacket Copy book blog dredges up some more bad writing tips.• Murderati has a great post discussing the realities of using real people and places in your novel, and just how it works. Worth a look.• The New York Times is reporting the death of famed literary agent Pat Kavanagh. They also review Eminem's new memoi
Independent Film Structure 2008-10-23 12:18:00 On Monday, I went to another of the Screenwriters Meetups here in the Big Apple. As it had been with the last meeting Zombie and I attended, I had to read a script and come ready to critique it. The script, very much an indie flick, generated almost as much discussion on the structure of indie films as it did on itself. The overwhelming consensus among the other attendees of the Meetup, which I di Read more:Structure
Charlie Kaufman interviewed about writing, directing your script, and Synecdoche, New York 2008-10-23 06:51:00 Scott Tobias recently posted a great interview with the ever-enlightening Charlie
Kaufman over at the AVClub. I always love hearing this guy talk about his writing
and the writing process, if only to hear something beyond the traditional character arc and three-act structure dialogue that most writers will get into when prodded about what makes them intriguing writers. That stuff is all important, Read more:interviewed
, script
, New York
Taking a stab at a SILENT CITY cover 2008-10-22 14:20:00 So, while tinkering with PhotoShop yesterday, I decided to take a stab at working up a cover for SILENT CITY. Above is what I came up with. Thoughts? Am I being pretentious by even posting this?Obviously, the images need to be a bit more hi-res and the smudging may work better as a dark red (Blood! Get it?), but overall I was pretty happy with the end result.I also blacked out my name (which would Read more:Taking
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