Story is Free: How to Write for Low and Micro Budget Film

This week’s rebroadcast comes from 2010, with thoughts on how to make sure a story with a low-budget doesn’t also wind up with low energy. One of my frustrations with independent film — and in particular, micro-indies of the past few years — is a lack of narrative ambition. Flip

3 Practical Ways Fury Road Binds Characters Together

When helping to build Mad Max: Fury Road‘s character arcs for Max and Furiosa, screenwriter Nico Lathouris saw how three chases could bind the characters together: “The first chase brings the Road Warrior [Max] and the Praetorian [Furiosa] together, the second chase manacles them together in mutual obligation, and

Featured Friday: Prison

Weekend Read, our app for reading scripts on your phone, features a new curated collection of screenplays each week. This week, we look at how stories of the incarcerated allow characters from all walks of life to interact, and how prisons as a location are able to accommodate many different

Endings Are The New Beginnings

This post contains spoilers. Don’t let that scare you off. You’ve likely seen all these movies, but even if you haven’t, knowing how a movie ends shouldn’t detract from the pleasure of watching a movie. Think about it: how many people skip out on Star Wars

Featured Friday: New Year’s Eve

Weekend Read, our app for reading scripts on your phone, features a new curated collection of screenplays each week. This week, we say goodbye to 2024 with some favorite features that perfectly capture those last few days of the year. You survived ‘til '25 – congratulations! Our collection includes: * Fruitvale

Featured Friday: Fantasy Epics

Weekend Read, our app for reading scripts on your phone, features a new curated collection of screenplays each week. This week, we look at how fantasy epics use their wizards, world building and wonder to create their own kind of magic. Our collection includes: * Game of Thrones - “Pilot” by

Writing Zombies Who Don’t Crave Brains

The Simpsons episode “Marge vs. the Monorail” doesn’t feature any flesh-eating ghouls. But it does offer examples for writing zombies of another kind: people stuck in a mob mentality. When local billionaire C. Montgomery Burns pays a $3 million fine for burying nuclear waste around Springfield, a town meeting

Why is Highland called Highland, anyway?

Unlike most screenwriting apps, Highland isn't named after a term from a screenwriting glossary.

Galaxy Quest Travels to the Stars

In the film Galaxy Quest, Jason Nesmith and the rest of the cast of the Star Trek-like series Galaxy Quest are forced to travel into space for real. An alien race called the Thermians mistake broadcasts of the show for “historical documents” about the crew of the NSEA Protector. So

The Brothers Bloom Show Off (And So Can Your Characters)

The Brothers Bloom tells a story of two sibling con artists. When Bloom (played by Adrien Brody) tries to quit the life, Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) offers him an out after one last job. The mark: A wealthy shut-in named Penelope (Rachel Weisz), whose longing for adventure pulls her into the