Screenwriting Blog
Posted on by Courtney Meznarich

This Month in Movie History – June Roundup

  • On this day in history 

    Aaron
      Sorkin

    • Happy
    • 58th Brithday

    Aaron Sorkin -

    Happy birthday, Aaron Sorkin! The master of dialogue-driven stories, Sorkin earned a career that screenwriters around the world revere. From ‘The Social Network’ film to TV series such as ‘The West Wing’ and ‘The Newsroom,’ we admire his style, and we have so much to learn from him.

  • On this day in history 

    E.T. The
    Extra-Terrestrial

    screenplay by

    • Melissa Mathison

    E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial -

    On this day in history, Steven Spielberg unleashed ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’ on the world. Written by the late Melissa Mathison, E.T. was inspired by Spielberg’s childhood imaginary friend. ‘E.T.’ has become one of the most famous stories about friendship, and it ranks as the greatest science fiction film ever made.

  • On this day in history 

    Diablo
    Cody

    • Happy
    • 41st Birthday

    Diablo Cody -

    “Having your film made is the award. That alone is a miracle,” writer and producer Diablo Cody said. She is 41 this year. Happy birthday to this award-winning scribe of ‘Juno’ (Oscar for Best Original Screenplay), ‘United States of Tara,’ and ‘Young Adult.’

  • On this day in history 

    Psycho

    screenplay by

    • Joseph Stefano

    Psycho -

    It wasn’t until ‘Psycho’ debuted that viewers were truly convinced urban horror flicks would go mainstream. Before then, monster movies abound, but Joseph Stefano’s screenplay – based on the novel by Robert Bloch – sent chills down audiences’ spines that we still feel today. Stefano is known to have taken many risks in writing this screenplay, including killing off the star halfway through the film.

  • On this day in history 

    Yankee
    Doodle
    Dandy

    screenplay by

    • Robert Buckner
    • Edmund Joseph

    Yankee Doodle Dandy -

    ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ dazzled audiences with its musical and biographical portrayal of George M. Cohan, known as the man who owned Broadway. The screenplay is credited to Robert Buckner and Edmund Joseph, but the Epstein Brothers (‘Casablanca’) also contributed to this 11942 Academy-Award winning film. It’s been named to several AFI Top 100 lists and was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

  • On this day in history 

    Billy
         Wilder

    • Happy
    • 113th Birthday

    Billy Wilder -

    Billy Wilder was so many things: screenwriter, filmmaker, producer, journalist, and artist. For more than five decades, he created films including ‘Some Like it Hot,’ ‘The Seven Year Itch,’ ‘Sunset Boulevard,’ ‘Double Indemnity,’ and ‘The Apartment.’ AFI honored Wilder with its Lifetime Achievement Award, and he also received the National Medal of Arts. He would have been 113 years old on June 22, but his films will live on in our hearts and minds for many years to come.

The images in this blog were modified, and originally appeared on Wikimedia Commons.

Courtney Meznarich, Director of Community Outreach
Courtney Meznarich Director of Community Outreach
@courtonthecoast

You may also be interested in...

4 Common Dialogue Problems in a Script

Screenplays are meant to be taut, precise, almost effortless reads that act as a blueprint for other film industry folk. But there are common dialogue problems in a script that muddy its purity, leaving your reader trudging through page after page of gobbledygook. Luckily these issues are easy to spot during a rewrite of your script's lines of dialogue. Take a read through four common screenplay dialogue problems (with dialogue script examples) that you can probably find (and fix) right now. You’ll learn how to write strong dialogue in a script that keeps the reader moving right along ...

How to Write Foreign Language in a Screenplay

Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood … in the 21st century, movies are made everywhere. And while the film industry expands, so does our desire to hear from more diverse voices, including languages we may not understand. But with strict screenplay formatting, how do you utilize foreign language to enhance the authenticity of your story, and at the same time make it legible and not confusing? Never fear, there are a few simple ways to add foreign language dialogue to your screenplay, no translations needed. Option 1: When it Doesn’t Matter if the Audience Understands the Foreign Language...

Acts, Scenes, and Sequences - How Long Should Each Be in a Traditional Screenplay?

If I had to name my favorite adage, it’s that rules are for breaking (most of them - speed limits are exempt!), but you must know the rules before you can break them. So, keep that in mind as you read through what I’d call “guidelines” to the timing of acts, scenes, and sequences in a screenplay. There’s a good reason for these guidelines, though (just like speed limits 😊) so don’t stray too far off the mark or you might pay for it later. Let’s start from the top. A 90-110-page screenplay is standard and produces an hour and a half to two-hour long film. TV networks may prefer an hour and a half because they can...