Dexter Season 6

Dexter season six premieres on Sunday, October 2 on Showtime. Once again, we will get the opportunity to watch some strong dramatic writing at work. Dexter has always been a good example of the use of a dynamic character and the technique of dramatic inevitability. Both devices contribute to dramatic character and plot arcs over the course of a season. Read more

script screenplay

Are you writing a “script” or a “screenplay?” Is there a difference between the terms script and screenplay?

Screenplay vs. script. Which is it?

Exhibit A: “Script”

Exhibit B:”Screenplay”

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The Shawshank Redemption Screenplay

The Shawshank Redemption screenplay by Frank Darabont, based on the novella by Stephen King, is a powerful character-driven drama that covers many years in the lives of multiple characters, all tied together around the theme of “preserving hope in the most hopeless of situations.”

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A script consultant is like a recording studio

One afternoon in April 1990, Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and drummer Chad Channing arrived at producer Butch Vig’s Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin… “They rolled up in a van,” says Vig, “and they probably hadn’t taken a bath or shower in three or four days.” The songs Nirvana began recording that day would eventually become Nevermind.

Source: Rolling Stone.

On January 3, 1991, five young musicians who called themselves “LunchHead” entered the same studio, used the same equipment as Nirvana, and paid Butch Vig the same fee. Read more

Story Maps book review in Script Magazine

Story Maps: How to Write a Screenplay has received high marks from Script Magazine’s book reviewer, Heather Hale. Here’s some excerpts from the review…


Calvisi uses both contemporary commercial blockbusters and critical successes as well as the old stalwart classics the average reader is sure to be familiar with as examples. This grounds and contemporizes the readers’ communal frame of reference. Read more

Elijah Wood wants a great script, not just a character (Video)

Dan’s 2-Minute Screenwriting School strikes again, this time with a short interview with actor Elijah Wood (the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Ice Storm, Green Street Hooligans, Sin City, and the American version of the single-camera sitcom “Wilfred”).

I’m equally attracted to just simply a great script and not necessarily great character.

I asked Elijah the same question I’ve been asking of other actors/filmmakers, like Louis C.K., Vincent Kartheiser and Graham Yost, and his answer was quite intriguing… Read more

Book to Script Part II

<–Back to Part I

What initially caught my eye about this page of text from Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather, with hand-written notes by Francis Ford Coppola, was that this is the scene in The Godfather that I have mentioned for years to my students and clients and one that I highlight in my book, Story Maps: How to Write a GREAT Screenplay: Read more

Adapting a book to screenplay with Coppola Part I

The Godfather may be the most famous example of a great movie made from a poorly-written book. With the release of this page of text from Mario Puzo’s novel with hand-written notes by Francis Ford Coppola, we can see this claim in action! In other words, if you click on the image below and actually read the text, you can see how bad Puzo’s writing really was and breathe a sigh of relief that Coppola meticulously planned his translation to the screen.

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Risky Business screenplay

Paul Brickman, writer/director of Risky Business, is one of those Hollywood enigmas. Risky Business was a very confident, stylish, well written and impressively directed film that performed well at the box-office. So why did Brickman go on to direct only one more film? (1990’s Men Don’t Leave with Jessica Lange) Read more