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SCREENWRITING TIPS & PROCESS

This is a selection of articles about screenwriting, from tips to interviews with very different type
of screenwriters, from the indie to the A-Lister.

I’ve learned something from each one of these articles, which is why I thought it could be useful
for you too to have them under one document you can consult quickly in times of need.

What they mean :

vidéo quotes masterclass

interview highlights business

Michael Arndt About The 5 Steps He Learned at Pixar to Includes

Write a Good Beginning
+
In less than a decade, Michael Arndt went from winning an
Oscar for Best Original Screenplay with Little Miss Sunshine,
to getting nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay with Toy
Story 3 for his second credit, and then on working on diverse
genres and scales with great success... [Read More]

The Power of the Prologue Scene and the

Reflective Epilogue in Indie Films

There is a storytelling technique I’ve noticed in several suc-

cessful independent films released in the last few years and
that I find extremely efficient; I call it the prologue scene and
the reflective epilogue... [Read More]

South Park Writers Share Their #1 Writing Rule

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the long time best friends who
created South Park 14 years ago and more recently the musi-
cal The Book of Mormon crashed a NYU Screenwriting class
and gave out a piece of advice that narrows down storytelling
to one single essential point, keeping it simple and clear in a
two-minute video... [Read More]

- mentorless.com/resources • 1/3 - © mentorless 2015

Community Creator Dan Harmon Unlocks His Storytelling Includes
Technique: Meet the Embryos

In Brian Raftery’s amazing piece about Community creator

Dan Harmon for Wired, the journalist writes about Harmon
start in life as a writer and evokes pretty quickly the latter’s
writing technique he made up early on to get a better unders-
tanding of storytelling... [Read More]

What Guillermo Arriaga Does When He Is Stuck on a Scene,

the Screenwriting Rule He Follows & His Writing Proces

There’s no progress in art, your last work is not going to be

better than your first work. So the best thing is to be authen-
tic and honest with your own work. That’s how it happened.
After I had the chance to briefly listen to Guillermo Arriaga at
Raindance... [Read More]

Mark Duplass Tips to Handle the “This Is No Good” Voice and

Get Your “Vomit Draft” Out

There is a lot to Mark Duplass‘ keynote speech at SXSW, but

I’ve decided to start with his tips on writing and dealing with
the this is no good voice, the one that can stop you from fi-
nishing a screenplay (or anything really). The one that comes
way too quickly after the dopamine released by the flash of a
good idea has... [Read more]

Screenwriter Terri Tatchell on Turning Short Film ‘Alive in Jo-

burg’ into Oscar Nominated ‘District 9’

Am I’ve started paying closer attention to co-screenwriting

credits, only to realize that several women screenwriters are
having successful collaboration with writer-directors and are
thus eclipsed when it comes to interviews and masterclass.
Thankfully, both Terri Tatchell and Neil Blomkamp, who co-
wrote District 9... [Read More]

Damien Chazelle on the 4 Criteria Whiplash Met that Made

It the Story He Would Fight For, and the Benefits of Making
a Short First

Seen from outside, there’s a lot of sparkles and magical glory

behind Damien Chazelle‘s trajectory, from winning Best Short
at Sundance in 2013, to winning Best Feature at Sundance in
2014, and starting 2015 with Oscars wins. But as we see time
and again, the overnight success is a myth, and Chazelle’s sto-
ry is actually... [Read more]

- mentorless.com/resources • 2/3 - © mentorless 2015

Emma Thompson on Failing to Fail Well, What Makes a Wes- Includes
tern and What Connected Her to Ang Lee

“Most people think of Emma Thompson primarily as an actor.

What they may overlook is that in 95 she won the Oscar for
Best Adapted Screenplay for Sense & Sensibility.” I’ll add to
BAFTA Series Curator Jeremy Brock that Thompson was first
a stand-up comedian/writer before slowly moving to beco-
ming an actor/writer. In the half-hour... [Read More]

Ava DuVernay on Her Creative Spark: From Observing to

Writing for Low Budget

Indie filmmaker Ava DuVernay, who gave one of the most ins-
piring and memorable Keynote speech in the last few years
empowering many of us to stop whining and start taking ac-
tions, was interviewed in the no less excellent Creative Sparks
series run by the Academy and shared about what inspires
her, how she captures it and how... [Read More]

Discover the 8 Steps Process of Award Winning Screenwri-

ter Dustin Lance Black

In the short video below, American screenwriter and Acade-

my Award winner Dustin Lance Black takes us through his
very well defined creative process to produce screenplays
that last. Despite the many videos and articles shared over
two years on mentorless on screenwriters craft, technique
and work (see full list at the end), I think Lance Black’s inter-
view... [Read more]

Enter Pedro Almodovar’s Mind: How Almodovar Integrates

Other Films Into His Stories

Am I’ve started paying closer attention to co-screenwriting

credits, only to realize that several women screenwriters are
having successful collaboration with writer-directors and are
thus eclipsed when it comes to interviews and masterclass.
Thankfully, both Terri Tatchell and Neil Blomkamp, who co-
wrote District 9... [Read More]

4 Highlights From An Interview with Fight Club’s Screenwri-

ter Jim Uhls

You might have noticed that the Internet has become a grayer
place since LoSceicco1976‘s twitter and Youtube accounts
closed. A bunch of videos got shut down, including Fight
Club’s BTS (if you find them again, let me know!) and as I was
trying to find them again, I stumbled upon this 10 min inter-
view with Fight Club’s... [Read more]

- mentorless.com/resources • 3/3 - © mentorless 2015

 Includes

Billy Wilder Ten Amazing and Always Current Advise to Write

conic director/screenwriter Billy Wilder gave 10 screenwriting

tips ‘back in’ the 90s and storytelling being a craft that has
barely evolves over the centuries at its heart, these ten tips
are still gold... [Read More]

How to Write a Scene in 11 Steps

Ryan Rivard summed up screenwriter John August‘s blog

entry about his eleven recommended steps to write a scene.
Step 11 being the most painful one. No doubt that this list is a
great tool to stay focus on what matters in a scene for a story
to grow strongly... [Read More]

What Charlie Kaufman Has to Offer: An Inspiring and Mo-

ving ‘Manifesto’

Charlie Kaufman is one of the most generous screenwriters

around when it comes to talking about his work and his jour-
ney to get where he is. Last September, he gave a 70 minute
speech that closed the BAFTA’s Screenwriters’ Lecture Series.
Director/Editor Eliot Rausch (that you might already know
from his Vimeo Festival winning short Last Minutes... [Read
more]

How Rian Johnson Demonstrates that Every Idea is Worth

Writing Down and Keeping

Few days ago, writer/director Rian Johnson shared a priceless

document on the Tumblr dedicated to Looper: the four page
story he wrote in 2002 that became the feature film that was
released last September. (you can download and read the
script here.) Back in 2002, Johnson was getting frustrated as
he was unsuccessfully trying to make his first feature, Brick,
happen... [Read More]

Award Winning Screenwriter Michael Arndt About His Career

and Making It Starting With Nothing But Faith

Michael Arndt’s one hour talk at Cody’s Book is probably one

of the best Screenwriting talk I’ve listened to so far.
Arndt was a script reader in New York for many years when
he decided to quit and start writing full time as an unknown
screenwriter. He wrote six scripts before tackling Little Miss
Sunshine, that he deliberately chose to write... [Read more]

- mentorless.com/resources • 4/3 - © mentorless 2015

 William Nicholson’s 11 Priceless Advice on Being a Screenwri- Includes
ter
British screenwriter William Nicholson, which credits include
Gladiator, Les Miserables and, more recently, Mandela, gave
a passionate and genuine BAFTA Lecture, sharing what
he has learned and what he feels is important to know as
a screenwriter. Nicholson, who qualifies himself from the
get-go as a failed novelist who never thought of writing
screenplays, has had... [Read more]

The 3 Elements Screenwriter Abi Morgan

(Shame, The Iron Lady, The Hour) Needs to Write
a Story

In the last two years, screenwriter Abi Morgan has been the
writing skeleton behind projects as diverse and critically ac-
claimed as Shame, The Iron Lady and BBC Drama The Hour.
Morgan, who is coming from the long british tradition of
playwright and TV, and who’s been writing for more than a
decade now, shares in the BAFTA Guru... [Read more]

Susannah Grant (Erin Brokovich, The Soloist)

Talks About the Art of Writing Screenplays

It is not often that I get to share a talk from a woman on

mentorless.com, and believe me, I am very aware of that fact
mostly because I spend a lot of time trying to find lectures
and masterclasses given by women in the industry I’m in-
terested about, and I inevitably fail. Why do... [Read more]

Talk is cheap: 13 Principles for Dialogue

As promised, here are the tips I gathered during the best lec-
ture I attended at the Great American Pitch Fest 2011. UCLA
Screenwriting chairman Richard Walter offered an enter-
taining lecture about the art of Dialogue. The man has an
impressive resume and not only masters his subject but also
knows how to share his knowledge... [Read more]

Written by Nathalie from mentorless.com

mentorless.com is a filmmaking blog for indie storytellers and filmmakers with an insatiable
thirst to nurture their craft and develop their skills.

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