Susannah Grant is the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Erin Brockovich. Here she talks about her love of dialogue.
Susannah Grant on Dialogue
About Writing: Susannah Grant on Dialogue
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e.phemera: Bored Robber
If you want to write sketches and need some inspiration, you could do worse than mining this seam; inappropriate reactions are always a good starting off point, as are professionals acting inappropriately.
This sketch, from The Kids In The Hall, plays around with, and combines, both those ideas, to great effect:
The Kids In The Hall
About Writing: Jonathan Hensleigh On Absurb And Illogical Scenes
Jonathan Hensleigh talks about over the top action scenes, and the mentality you need to write and execute them.
You could steal City Hall
e.phemera: These Are The Daves I Know
I discovered Kids In The Hall one night whilst re-tuning my old black and white portable television, sometime in the early nineties. I keep coming back to them, because they’re always worth a re-watch. Especially this:
Kids In The Hall
About Writing: Paul Haggis on Screenwriting
There are two interesting moments in this interview with Paul Haggis. The first is his assertion that writers should ask questions, and not answer them. The second is almost a throwaway line, “What’s the worst thing that could happen to this character?”
From the video0 description:
Acclaimed writer-director Paul Haggis has been a fixture of television and film for over 25 years. In this wide-ranging interview, the Oscar-winning co-screenwriter, director, and producer of Crash (Best Picture 2005) discusses a three-decade career that led from writing for sitcoms like Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life to his breakthrough screenplay for Oscar-winning director Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby (Best Picture 2004). Haggis’s matter-of-fact stories of navigating the entertainment industry are an indelible primer for how to manage the screenwriting life, make a successful transition from TV to film, develop a strong story and characters, pitch an idea, and surmount Hollywood’s more frustrating obstacles.
Paul Haggis on Screenwriting