Blake’s Top Ten
Golden Globes tonight and the subject comes up: what are your Top Ten movies of the year? As a former movie critic (if you want to see one heck of a review of Spider-Man 2, check out mine at Movieweb.com) I still get the question....
Thanks to Gil Whiteley and Gary Shusett!
Busy busy busy… Today’s seminar with Gary Shusett’s Sherwood Oaks group was terrific. The place: The Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. The backdrop: A star-studded reception for AFI winners honored for their work in TV and Film. The group Gary brought together for...
In L.A.? See Blake This Friday
Gary Shusett, brother of Ron who wrote the story for Alien, runs Sherwood Oaks Experimental College, one of the best series of screenwriting seminars available in the U.S. This Friday, January 13, I will be appearing on a screenwriting panel Gary has organized at the...
Gimme Your Best (Drama) Pitch!
From time to time on this site, I want to offer you the opportunity to discuss that most important of screenwriting issues — YOUR screenplay. In my book, Save the Cat!, I make it clear that pitching your gold-dust movie notion to strangers with no...
Cliche Alert!!
As stated repeatedly in Save the Cat!, the screenwriter’s job is to constantly scour our writing looking for the cliche — and stomp it out. Whether it’s the hackneyed idea, the dull turn of phrase, or the been-there-bored-by-that character, it’s our duty to make everything...
Blake on the radio!
This Saturday afternoon from 4 -5 p.m.west coast time I will be on the air! Gil Whiteley of KNUS AM 710 in Denver, Colorado will be interviewing the author of Save the Cat! The Last Book On Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need. And the author is...
Beat Sheet Palooza
One of the key resources of this website will be the creation and categorizing of beat sheets! These handy tools dissect movies of all kinds — both Indie and Blockbuster — according to the 15 structural beats outlined in my book. I call it the...
New Year’s Resolution 2006: Sell That Screenplay
If you’re like me — and don’t you think that’s a scary thought right there — then this is the time of year you like best. It’s trial run week, BEFORE the new year starts, when you get to test out your resolutions, try them...
Moviegoers to Hollywood: No more remakes!
King Kong, the Peter Jackson version, is a great movie. The special effects are amazing, Naomi Watts is marvelous, and the three hour running time zips by. There’s just one small problem: No one went. Well, some people like me did, and a few million...
