My interview with the 2023 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner. Page 1 of “Boy, Girl, Fig” Kayla Sun wrote the original screenplay “Boy, Girl, Fig” which won a 2023 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Kayla about her creative background, her award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl Award has meant to her. Today in Part 5 of a 6-part series to run each day through Saturday, Kayla shares what it was like to win the Nicholl and experience the award recipient week in Hollywood. Scott: What about t ..read more

Swiss psychotherapist and founder of analytical psychology Carl Jung was born today in 1875. He died in 1961 at the age of 85. Jung’s influence in the field of psychology as well as culturally is profound. For example, the concepts of introvert and extrovert derive from Jung. Collective unconscious. Also from Jung. The Myers-Brigg Type Indicator was developed from Jung’s theories. Synchronicity, archetype, shadow, and many more of Jung’s ideas have become part of our conceptual currency. Like this: https://medium.com/media/59ca6be5c4cd13a40a64832ca68ae5a0/href Screenwriters and film ..read more

Studying Aristotle’s “Poetics” — Part 9(C): Episodic As I’ve been interviewing screenwriters, I typically ask what some of their influences are. One book title comes up over and over again: Aristotle’s “Poetics.” I confess I’ve never read the entire thing, only bits and pieces. So I thought, why not do a daily series to provide a structure to compel me to go through it. That way we’d all benefit from the process. For background on Aristotle, you can go here to see an article on him in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. To download “Poetics,” you can go here. Part 9(C):&nb ..read more

Written by Steven Brill, characters by Steven Brill A trailer for the movie. https://medium.com/media/611cf85266e45aacb257e26017c74e87/href Tomorrow in Part 6, Kayla shares advice for writers attempting to break into the Hollywood screenwriter profession. For Part 1, go here. Part 2, here. Part 3, here. Part 4, here. Kayla is repped by Bellevue Productions. For my interviews with every Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner since 2012, go here. Page One: “D2: The Mighty Ducks” (1994) was originally published in Go Into The Story on Medium, where people ..read more

My interview with the 2023 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner. J. Miller, c. Craig Patterson, Harris McCabe, Brent Delaney, Kayla Sun at the 2023 Nicholl Awards ceremony [Photo courtesy of the A.M.P.A.S.] Kayla Sun wrote the original screenplay “Boy, Girl, Fig” which won a 2023 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Kayla about her creative background, her award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl Award has meant to her. Today in Part 4 of a 6-part series to run each day through Saturday, Kayla discus ..read more

Studying Aristotle’s “Poetics” — Part 9(C): Episodic As I’ve been interviewing screenwriters, I typically ask what some of their influences are. One book title comes up over and over again: Aristotle’s “Poetics.” I confess I’ve never read the entire thing, only bits and pieces. So I thought, why not do a daily series to provide a structure to compel me to go through it. That way we’d all benefit from the process. For background on Aristotle, you can go here to see an article on him in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. To download “Poetics,” you can go here. Part 9(C):&nb ..read more

I am sitting in the Beverly Hills office of my entertainment lawyer. In front of me is a contract. It’s for a writing assignment. My gig. The project name: Bazooka Joe. That’s right. Bazooka Joe. The bubble gum comic. I flip the page to check the compensation amount one last time. Yep, it’s still the WGA minimum (I’m going from memory, but let’s just say it is for $69,834). A few years back, myquote was several hundred thousand dollars. How had it come to this that I was about to sign a contract to adapt bubble gum characters into a movie which most likely would never get made for W ..read more

Written by Tony Gilroy A trailer for the movie: https://medium.com/media/8342313113bac7dbfd41ac3990ef08e9/href You may read the screenplay here. FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY! Page One is a daily Go Into The Story series featuring the first page of movie and TV scripts from the classic era to contemporary times. Comparing them is an excellent way to study a variety of writing styles and see how professional writers start a story. For more Page One posts, go here. Page One: “The Cutting Edge” (1992) was originally published in Go Into The Story on Medium, where people ..read more

My interview with the 2023 Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting winner. Kayla Sun Kayla Sun wrote the original screenplay “Boy, Girl, Fig” which won a 2023 Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting. Recently, I had the opportunity to chat with Kayla about her creative background, her award-winning script, the craft of screenwriting, and what winning the Nicholl Award has meant to her. Today in Part 3 of a 6-part series to run each day through Saturday, Kayla talks about how being a fan of detective stories influenced some key choices in writing “Boy, Girl, Fig.” Scott: What about the use o ..read more

Studying Aristotle’s “Poetics” — Part 9(B): Possibility, Probability and Necessity As I’ve been interviewing screenwriters, I typically ask what some of their influences are. One book title comes up over and over again: Aristotle’s “Poetics.” I confess I’ve never read the entire thing, only bits and pieces. So I thought, why not do a daily series to provide a structure to compel me to go through it. That way we’d all benefit from the process. For background on Aristotle, you can go here to see an article on him in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. To download “Poetics,” you can go ..read more