Symbols don’t matter like they used to — In a Los Angeles Times op-ed piece Mark Oppenheimer writes (appropriately enough on the July 4th holiday weekend) of symbolism run amok: the way flag-waving too often replaces thoughtfulness. …

Err on the side of the creative muse — Some time ago, the Robert Plant/Jimmy Page Led Zeppelin copyright infringement trial got underway regarding the origins of their mega-hit, iconic rock anthem Stairway to Heaven. (Full Disclosure: Rock buff that I am, I was never into the Zeppelin; would have been just fine if I’d never heard Stairway.) A…

Three hoaxes, actually — I have written and lectured over the years regarding among other notions the subject of Hollywood hoaxes. Some among them that I have challenged: 1) Hollywood movies require happy endings; 2) Success in The Biz is not about talent but connections; 3) Agents are reluctant to read new writers. Reiterating…

Stop whining, start writing — I’ve had it up to here with screenwriters acting like crybabies. As I told a hugely successful writer who was cataloguing the litany of grievances visited upon him throughout his career, in Hollywood it is a privilege even merely to be mistreated. Far worse is to be ignored. There is…

Our job is to desensitize the audience — A letter arrived recently from screenwriting newsletter subscriber Ronald M. Sandgrund, a prominent Colorado attorney, law professor, and writer. (Full disclosure: Ron is also my brother-in-law.) We had both read Erik Larson’s masterful bestseller Dead Wake, which recounts the history of the sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania by a…

Do you have what it takes to be a screenwriter? — Surely I’m better known as a writing educator than a writer. All the same, after half a century of therapy, I am able to say that I enjoy success as a writer. Forty years ago The Wall Street Journal called me a “…writer of substantial professional experience throughout the media.” …

The 1967 Six Day War is the perfect script tip — College students complain from time to time — not unreasonably — of professors who, instead of teaching the course described in the catalogue, spew their own personal political rants, often angrily, always self righteously. The commentary I offer here is not ideological but pedagogical — it is designed not to…

No drama, no comedy, no horror — A reporter quizzed me about the different skills required for writing animation rather than live action movies. I said there are no differences. He pressed me, however, pointing out that since animation was for children, there had to be differences regarding, for example, the sorts of violence that could be…

It’s how Thelma and Louise got made — Iconic Hollywood Golden Age executive Samuel Goldwyn (the G of MGM) was notorious/legendary for his use and, especially, his misuse of the English language. Declining to participate in the production of a particular film, for example, he is reported to have invented the phrase, “Include me out.” On another occasion…