Four screenwriting secrets… Follow the link below to hear more about them!

• Setups for Believability
• Don’t Let Your Antagonist Disappear
• Dramatic Irony for Comedy
• Fatal Flaws

https://youtu.be/x3RnrZzzB2k

Michael Arndt, screenwriter of Little Miss Sunshine and Toy Story 3, shows us in this short video how to set up your first act, and therefore set up the whole movie.

http://www.pandemoniuminc.com/beginnings-video

Jamie, Jimmy and Bob are cursed with questions while breaking down the script to The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It. Personally, I enjoyed the film — despite the script problems, it had several engaging horror sequences, good acting, and powerful imagery. As a story, if felt more like an episode of a Warrens TV show. (I kept thinking of the X-Files.) So the main characters’ motivations are a little weak, just wanting to solve the mystery of the curse.

Listen to the breakdown at
https://thundergrunt.com/e/writersblockbusters-062-the-conjuring-the-devil-made-me-do-it/

In this Film Courage video, several screenwriters and authors share their tips for writing better dialogue. This is a long video, great to dip into for inspiration!

https://youtu.be/qfQpJxRP8ew

Listen up to hear how screenwriters feel about the hot new animated film from Netflix. Writers/Blockbusters is a podcast where the hosts watch movies and discuss the screenwriting/storytelling tricks/tips that they represent. According to co-host Jamie Nash, this episode might just be the greatest. Check it out:

https://thundergrunt.com/e/writersblockbusters-061-the-mitchells-vs-the-machines/

Here’s an article from author Diane Duane about outlining. She learned the discipline of outlining when working in television, where they were a mandatory part of the process of writing. Stories were worked out in writers’ rooms, and although an individual writer would be tasked with drafting each episode. that writer wouldn’t be permitted to just submit a script that hadn’t been through an approval process.

Diane now uses a similar outline approach in writing her novels. Find out more at
https://www.dianeduane.com/outofambit/2020/07/25/outlining-one-writers-approach/

Godzilla Vs. Kong had some of the most beautiful kaiju fights I’ve ever seen. It also had the most plot hand-waving I can remember. The movie itself had five credited writers, but I found an interview with just one of them. Watch as Mr. Borenstein defends the script for 15 minutes!

https://lrmonline.com/news/max-borenstein-interview/

Where do you set your film’s climax? The worst place in the world.

Here’s a terrific new video addendum to Michael Arndt’s lecture on writing movie endings.

Watch it on vimeo at https://vimeo.com/434863349

See the original video at pandemoniuminc.com