Resonance
Segment 12 Creating Resonance: I conclude our theoretical foray into the craft of screenwriting with an overwhelming question. Unlike the women in the rooms that come and go, we will […]
Author Archives: Joel Barish
Birdman
After reading a string of scripts from this year’s Blood List [and finding nothing which made me proud to be a screenwriter] I decided to spend a few hours on […]
Wormholes Between Minds
Segment 11 The Writing Is the Thing! I know you. I do. When I look into myself, I see you staring back at me. You are, like me, always and […]
Premise is King
Segment 10 Premise is King? As a writer and a person with the occasional pretension, I often groan loudly when An Insistent Writer on a website somewhere repeats the mantra […]
The Blood List
So, I was all cavalier about reviewing what I wanted to review and consequences be damned, but that was back when I assumed that a script with representation would be, […]
Character Individuation
Segment 9 Character Individuation Sets Your Script Apart Some people just know how to write great dialogue. We’ve already mentioned the Coens and Tarantino, but I would include Paul Thomas […]
Iceberg Exposition
Segment 8 Why Exposition Destroys Story Momentum Exposition is always and everywhere, universally condemned. You will find no lone hold outs advocating adding more exposition to your script. It’s bad. […]
Overtext
SUBsegment 7 Subtext Step 4—Avoiding Overtext(64) I first recognized the importance of this term while reviewing a Nicholl Prize winning script called The Jumper of Maine—a beautiful script which more […]
How to Mine Subtext
Segment 7 Subtext in Dialogue Dialogue seems like such a skill; the kind of thing that’s just a talent. No matter how much you try and adorn it, classify it, […]
Interstellar
Of course this movie is ambitious, visually stunning, and [as most of the criticism so far has noted] completed with an unforgivable deus ex machina. The fact that this particular […]
Searching for Charlie Kaufman 