Where Did The Romcom Go? by Tamzin Rafn
Where Did The Romcom Go? I have a question. Where did the romcom go, please? Has anyone seen it of late because I seek and ye does not find? Let’s …
Columnists
Posts by our columnists.
Screenwriters and The Flash of Genius
Screenwriters and The Flash of Genius The other day I awoke having had the most glorious film idea I felt I had ever had. IN MY SLEEP. I dreamt it. …
Something For Nothing – Writing Spec Scripts
Something For Nothing – Writing Spec Scripts There’s a terrific viral that periodically does the rounds where a restaurateur advertises on Craigslist for a solo musician to play in his …
In Script Development Nobody Knows Anything
Nobody Knows Anything When I worked in screenplay development, I spent an awful lot of time befuddled because William Goldman had really nailed it when he said: “nobody knows anything”. Nobody …
The Agony of Screenwriting Success
Screenwriting Success Hurts Some years ago I wrote a film that eventually I called ALBATROSS and subsequently it has been my own private albatross. I was incredibly fortunate. A series of …
The Hierarchy of an Executive’s Script Pile
A couple of months ago I had a friend round for dinner who just so happens to be the Head of Development at one of the best TV companies around. In …
The Top 8 Crowdfunding Pitch Movies on Indiegogo
The crowdfunding pitch film is the campaign’s secret weapon. The pitch film sits at the forefront of your ask for the crowd to fund you. The pitch film literally should …
The Film Producer Salary & A Pocket Full of Dollars
Let’s be blunt about it: the financial outlook isn’t great for Film Producers at the moment. A Film Producer Salary is firmly not what it once was… I remember the …
12 Things Screenwriters Can Learn from Musicals
12 Things Screenwriters Can Learn from Musicals I recently ventured from my comfortable world of screenwriting into completely new territory. No, I’m not acting– I’m working on a stage musical. The process …
Cutting Out the Middle Man in Film Distribution
The Berlin International Film Festival was distinctly different this year. Sure, there was the typical melee of execs taking pictures around remnants of the Berlin Wall. And yes, as per …
The Smell of Fear in LA
I’ve spent the week in LA, (City of Angels & Devils) As I have previously mentioned, many times, I love LA and this time was no exception. I ate dinner …
9 Observations about Aaron Sorkin’s THE NEWSROOM
THE NEWSROOM This post started as a tweet, developed into a Facebook status and is now finding full expression as a blog post. recently I finished, in a double-bill, The …
My Pain At Being “Replaced” as a Screenwriter
Being “Replaced” A couple of years ago, I became that person: a replaced screenwriter. It was a screenplay I dearly loved and had put my heart and soul into and, …
Swerving Development Hell in the New Dawn of Crowdfunding
Welcome and hello to the thousands of you who visit the IS website every week. By way of an introduction, I’m Miranda Fleming, and I’m thrilled to be starting this …
31 Screenwriting Books You MUST Own
When I say “screenwriting books you MUST own”, I’ll be honest: the MUST is for effect. You don’t have to do anything, particularly buying screenwriting books in such volume that …
10 Signs That You, My Friend, Are A Writer…
Do These Signs Match Your Habits? Someone tells a tragic family story that has taken them years to open up about and you unwittingly shout “DIBS ON THAT” the second …
Read It And Weep
“Will you read my script for me?” Gah. Five words to strike fear into the heart of anyone with eyes. As a former Development Exec, it’s something I hear an …
Five Screenwriting Rules You Can Break and Five You Can’t
Even the notion of screenwriting rules gets some people into a serious tizz, and it’s this controversial topic I want to explore this week. I’ve spent the last three weeks …
Why Women Screenwriters should Stop Moaning and Just WIN
All Screenwriters LOVE Moaning Because there’s been quite a lot in the press lately about the plight (or otherwise) of women screenwriters, I’ve been thinking a bit lately about whether …
My Search for a Screenwriting Truth
In Screenwriting, the truth matters… Today we’re going to talk about The Truth. Not this sort of truth. Or this. Or even this. We’re going to talk about the kind …
What I’ve Learnt about Screenwriting: Part I, The Idea
What I’ve Learnt about Screenwriting: Part 1, The Idea So I’ve been doing this for a while now, and for some reason I feel a powerful, hubristic, intimations-of-mortality urge to …
To Screenwrite Right, Write What You Know
Write What You Know or Just Say No! (and other rhymes) I’m going to give you procrastinating scribblers a little bit of advice today. Yes me, who gets up at the …
Screenwriting & The Fine Art of Procrasturbating
I’ve always been a big fan of those books that are a collection of interviews with Hollywood screenwriters where they tell you, with grating self-deprecation and lashings and lashings …
Seething With Screenwriting Envy!
Screenwriting Envy “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure”. Guess who said that? You never will. It was Bill Cosby! I …
In Screenwriting, Hope Springs Eternal
The Rafn Column Part III Screenwriting – Hope Springs Eternal When I worked as a Development Executive, the most terrifying thing I ever had to do was fly to LA …
10 Ways To Irritate a Development Executive
The Rafn Column Part II 10 Ways to Irritate a Development Executive When I finally made the transition from being a Development Executive to becoming a writer, I believed that …
The Rafn Column Part I: Explaining the Obvious
The script, the script, the script… I have always had a love affair with scripts. I love, love, love them. Love them warm coming off the printer, love the font …