Posted on

How to Write A Lifetime Network Murder Movie of the Week

In my work as a Script Doctor, I take dramatic stories for television, the movies, and the stage, and I make them structurally better. That sort of work isn’t formulaic, but there are common touchstones that must always be considered and then incorporated — what I remember the great Joseph Campbell loosely calling, “the natural rhythms of human storytelling shared with the reliability of a heartbeat” — and that’s what I do; I provide an unpacked redirection of the concentric condition that we are all innately accustomed to sending and receiving in a performance communication dyad, in the acknowledgement of, and in the often unwitting acceptance of, “The Holy Triad.” The Creator, The Object and The Observer.

Continue reading → How to Write A Lifetime Network Murder Movie of the Week

Posted on

On Bill Murray Preventing a Train Wreck

When I was a child, I vividly remember my father telling me about the life cycle of an artist. There are only so many stories an artist has to tell and after that it is all repetition and rehashing of stories that he or she has already told. When that time comes, it is incumbent on the artist to recognize this and step aside for other artists to come and tell their stories.  This recognition does not get acknowledged when it takes place in the film industry. Based on some of the dreck that has been excreted upon the silver screen in the last handful of years some would say there is oblivion in this department. Not so with SuperGenius Bill Murray, who starred in the two Ghostbusters films and does not seem too keen in helping a third one get made.

Continue reading → On Bill Murray Preventing a Train Wreck

Posted on

How to Read a Script

We know how to Fix a Script — but we don’t yet know how to properly, and fairly, read one.

Continue reading → How to Read a Script

Posted on

How to Fix a Script

Scripts are written to be broken.  Scripts get shattered in process by misunderstood meaning, poor plot development and shoddy character formation — and that’s all before a director even reads the thing! 

Continue reading → How to Fix a Script

Posted on

Yoostar is the Future of Movies

If you haven’t visited Yoostar.com yet, I strongly urge you to head on over there and meet your future maker: Your stardom awaits you!  You see, Yoostar is the future of movie making where you can replace an actor in a scene with your own dang self!  On July 12, 2006, I predicted this would happen in an article titled — Are Actors Necessary: Negotiating Future Dead Rights — and now you can be the future of movies as well as rewriting the history of cinema.  Here’s Snoop Dogg acting in an old Abbot and Costello movie.  Eerie, eh?

Continue reading → Yoostar is the Future of Movies

Posted on

Final Draft 8 Review

If you’re a professional screenwriter, there is one and only one, software package you need to help you find success in the marketplace:  Final Draft. 

Continue reading → Final Draft 8 Review

Posted on

I am a Plumber Not a Painter

In one of my many lives, I am a Script Doctor — but I call myself a Script Professor because I think that editorial and writing process should be evolutionary and not surgical if you really want to provide an everlasting value for the money spent.

Continue reading → I am a Plumber Not a Painter