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Behind the Screen: Getting to Know Dan Pyne
Writer and director Dan Pyne was honored in 2003-2004 with UCLA’s Hunter/Zakin chair in screenwriting, and is a Sundance Institute Labs writing mentor. “Pacific Heights” was Pyne’s first produced...
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Monthly Screenwriting Tips: THE WATERCOLORIST OR… A SCREENPLAY IS NOT A...
The view from the writing studio high atop my Silver Lake home is so beautiful that in order to avoid distraction I draw the shade. Some years ago I commissioned an artist to paint a picture of the...
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Behind the Screen: Getting to Know Dan Mazeau
DAN MAZEAU grew up in Santa Rosa, CA and majored in physics at UC Berkley before enrolling in the MFA screenwriting program at UCLA. There he wrote a family fantasy “The Land of Lost Things” and the...
View ArticleSeptember Monthly Screenwriting Tips – Don’t Spank the Writer!
Too many arts educators beat up on neophytes, attack their efforts, belittle their hopes, and trash their dreams. They claim that it toughens artists for the rough-and-tumble world they hope to enter....
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Monthly Screenwriting Tips from Richard Walter: HOLLYWOOD: THE BEST OF TIMES,...
I have long preached that there are no trends in screenwriting. What’s the trend today? Vampires are already so last year. If, just for the sake of argument, we could actually identify a particular...
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Behind the Screen: Getting to Know Neil Landau
Neil Landau is a professor in the MFA in Screenwriting and Producing Programs at UCLA School of Film, Television and Digital Media, and a guest lecturer in the MFA Screenwriting Division at USC School...
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My Shower with the Supervisor
I am a compulsive, obsessive swimmer. I swim 1700 meters (just over a mile) seven days a week at UCLA’s incomparable Sunset Canyon Recreation Center. Since joining the film faculty in the ‘70s I have...
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Behind the Screen: Getting to Know Susan Hurwitz Arneson
Susan Hurwitz Arneson is a California based television and screenwriter who received her MFA in Screenwriting from UCLA. She has developed shows for several networks and producers and recently sold a...
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Monthly Screenwriting Tips from Richard Walter: NO LEARNING ALLOWED
The University of California is a research institution. Faculty’s second obligation is to teach. First is what traditional disciplines call “research.” (In The Arts it’s called “creative activity.”)...
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Monthly Screenwriting Tips from Richard Walter: THREE TREATMENTS OF TALIBAN...
On the feature article in this month’s newsletter, Richard Walter shares: “Last night at my house we watched Zero Dark Thirty. It’s not too bad. ‘Not too bad’ from me is really rather a compliment, as...
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THE PROFESSOR’S PET PEEVES
Writing is language; language is words. It often seems to me these days that the English language is under assault. But then maybe I’m just an old professorial fuddy-duddy. Language evolves, doesn’t...
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Behind the Screen: Getting to Know J.M. Evenson
J. M. Evenson received a Ph.D. in Renaissance literature from the University of Michigan and an M.F.A. from UCLA’s famed School of Theater, Film and Television. At UCLA, she was awarded the Harmony...
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The Average Versus the Mean or It’s Not Called Screen Talking
The graduate screenwriting program at UCLA enjoys an embarrassment of riches. We receive fifteen times as many qualified applications as we have available slots for new writers. The ‘take rate’ for...
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THE QUALITY OF GENIUS or SNEAKING A CREW BACKSTAGE TO FILM THE ROLLING STONES
Einstein told us there are two—and only two—constants in the universe: 1) the speed of light and 2) The Rolling Stones. They showed up in downtown Los Angeles last spring celebrating their fiftieth...
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Screenwriting and The Dreadful Weight of Truth
Art, Picasso tells us, is the lie that tells the greater truth. Screenwriters need to learn how to lie through their teeth. As a screenwriting educator and script doctor I have seen more scripts...
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Why I Love Cold Callers
I know it’s a cold call, designed to sell me some product or cause, even before the caller speaks. Indeed, more often than not the caller doesn’t speak at all. The equipment in telephone boiler rooms...
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Lost in Translation: Killing In Beijing
A privilege I have enjoyed now over several decades is to travel the world lecturing, teaching master classes, and consulting on film and screenwriting issues to international audiences. I’ve taught...
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LONELY AT THE TOP – A DIRECTOR’S NARCISSISM
Not the director but the writer is film’s first artist, if for no other reason because she’s first. There’s no use for upscale stars, fancy effects, and sophisticated equipment without a worthy script....
View ArticleScreenwriting Tips: Finance 101 for Screenwriters
A well known and somewhat wacky NY stage actor friend of mine was irresponsible regarding the way he managed his money. ‘Wacky actor,’ I expect, strikes many as a redundancy. His finances were handled...
View ArticleWRITE WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW (WITH THANKS AND APOLOGIES TO JULIAN HOXTER)
Thirty years ago I was profiled in The Wall Street Journal. Their reporter called me–I’ve memorized it—“… the prime broker for Hollywood’s hottest commodity: new writing talent.” I mention this not to...
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