Static vs. dynamic scene settings — As I have noted from time to time, my late sister was an actor. For decades she was best known for her femme fatal role in the first movie ever directed by Clint Eastwood: PLAY MISTY FOR ME. That led to thirty years of bad girls: WOMEN IN CAGES, WOMEN…

Are there things that are more important? — Beyond writing and teaching I have a number of sidelines. One of the most fascinating is court-authorized expert on intellectual property law. I testify regularly in litigation regarding copyright infringement and plagiarism. The question before the court is invariably a version of: Who really wrote the movie? In some instances…

The first movie I ever saw, at age 4, taught me one of screenwriting’s most important principles — The first movie I ever saw, in the late 1940s, was Disney’s live action adaptation of Robert Lewis Stevenson’s classic novel Treasure Island. My parents took my sister and me to the theater, not in the interest of cinematic edification but to escape the heat. Who cared what was playing…

It’s not hypocrisy if it’s film fakery — My wife and I can tolerate about an hour of TV per night. If we’ve settled in with a worthy series, say The French Village, Borgen, Squid Game, or Inventing Anna, we’ll watch another episode. …

Shakespeare was right all along — Years ago I was invited by my undergrad alma mater, Harpur College (that’s how they spell it) at Binghamton University, to lecture on screenwriting. “Frankly,” the dean cautioned me, “the Cinema majors are not likely to attend your presentation. They regard UCLA as too commercial,” he said, “too Hollywood. They’re…

It’s a hard business for Christians — In the early pages of my book ESSENTIALS OF SCREENWRITING there is a chapter called SCREENWRITING: THE GOD GAME. I argue that to write a screenplay is, in many ways, to play God. As God created the universe, each writer creates the universe of his screenplay. If he wants it…

What to do when writing a screenplay based upon published material — My own screenwriting teacher, USC’s late and legendary Irwin R. Blacker, used to ask his classes the following: “When adapting a novel for the screen, what does the writer owe the original material?” He required a one-word answer, which we had to recite in unison. “Nothing!” What writers owe, whether…

Good movies. Bad movies. — Perhaps thirty years ago my wife and I went to a multiplex to see the then-current Woody Allen picture. At that time, it was possible to do so without damage to one’s reputation. Upon arriving at the theaters, alas, we realized we had come to the wrong location. There wasn’t…

Search for down-to-earth actions to elicit character development — Among my favorite movies is Sweet Smell of Success, whose screenplay was written by legendary playwright Clifford Odets collaborating with Oscar-winning screenwriter Ernest Lehman (North by Northwest among many other credits). Tony Curtis, in the most memorable performance of his career, plays NYC publicist Sid Falco, who is always sucking…