Notes from a Screenreader: Your Tenth Idea
Photo via Go Into the Story. No amount of technique can make up for a weak story. Weak stories are bland and predictable; they treat familiar themes and conflicts in familiar ways. They feel recycled. A fresh and original take on your story does 75% of the work for you. Give or take. To put the...
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Slut: The Play. Sasithon Photography. Teen actors from Slut: The Play discuss a serious issue among the selfie generation. Naomie Harris on the struggles of portraying Winnie Mandela. (video) Helpful phone apps for actors. Do (non)friends ask to meet for coffee? Charge them for it. Q&A with Teresa Lee, creator of NYC comedy web series #YouUp. Halle Berry helps Hannibal gain strength at the...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Meaningful Images
Photo via Go Into the Story. A script is a story that will be told with images. It feels like that goes without saying, but spec scripts are so often crushed under the weight of their own dialogue that it bears repeating. Meaningful images are revealing, memorable, interesting to read, and space saving. To rewrite for...
READ MORERoad to Muse: Meet Past Honoree Marquita Pool-Eckert
Marquita Pool-Eckert, a 1999 Muse Awards honoree, was a CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite producer when I joined that broadcast as a production secretary in 1978. I was totally intimidated by her role on that fabled news program, but she treated me as an equal. That’s says so much about her. So, imagine my delight when I joined NYWIFT in 2011...
READ MORERoad to Muse: Meet Our Announcer, Valerie Smaldone
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome…” That mysterious off-stage voice that announces presenters and honorees during awards ceremonies — it’s an actual position, listed on scripts and production notes. It’s called the VOG, the voice of god. At this year’s Muse Awards, that role will be filled by someone who’s becoming a NYWIFT favorite: Valerie Smaldone. New York Women in...
READ MORE‘Monster-Fighting Feminists’
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Over at RogerEbert.com, Bob Calhoun discusses the liberated women of 1950s sci-fi cinema — classics like Them! (1954) and The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) — and why the woman scientist archetype waned in later decades: In her October 8, 2013 RogerEbert.com piece, “Visual Pleasure and Voodoo Demographics: a Reflection on...
READ MOREWeekly Film & TV News Roundup
Photo by Joe Pugliese Finally, a truly diverse actress roundtable. New York Film Academy’s article on gender inequality in film. Wow. HBO’s getting a show created by Diablo Cody and someone named Oprah. Winona is back. And starring in an action flick. Meet director Dennie Gordon, made in the USA—in demand in China! Indie producer Alison Owen controls the only...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: The Deep Freeze Script
Photo via Go Into the Story. Scripts that feel rote turn readers off right away even though rote scripts are written by people who know exactly what they’re doing. The plot moves forward, the conflicts are in place, the beats come and go like clockwork. Scoring high marks for plot and structure, these scripts still feel...
READ MOREOut of 300 Scripts, Only 30 Written by Women
That number comes from a fascinating infographic created by a script reader who says they’ve covered 300 spec scripts for 5 different companies. See the full infographic. Given the record-breaking success of female-protagonist-led Hunger Games and Twilight series, we hope stats like “out of 300 scripts, only 77 had a female hero” will be changing soon. What do you think of...
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Still from Lucky. I got goosebumps from the trailer for NYC filmmaker Laura Checkoway’s Lucky. The WGA or Fashion Police writers—whose side is Joan Rivers really on? Conservative commentator and author Monica Crowley discusses her career, Nixon, and the hypocrisies woman journalists still face. (video) Guinevere Turner’s new project is called Creeps. I’m sold! Here are the best women in...
READ MOREWendy Williams & Andy Cohen to Co-Host 2013 Muse Awards
Wendy visits Andy at the Bravo clubhouse during season 6 of What Happens Live! (photo via Bravo). What’s better than one groundbreaking television host emceeing our 2013 Muse Awards? Two of ‘em: friends Wendy Williams and Andy Cohen have just confirmed for this year’s event. We feel like the luckiest folks in the world! Order your ticket for the 2013 Muse Awards on December 12.
READ MORERoad to Muse 2013: Flashback to 1983
Meryl Streep rocks her embroidered NYWIFT jacket as a Muse Award nominee in 1983. Who else thinks we should bring back the NYWIFT jacket?! Fun fact: The early Muse Awards in the1980s often only had one honoree, sometimes two. It wasn’t until 1989 that there were three Muse honorees, and the number has grown ever...
READ MORENotes from a Screenreader: Lie to Me
Photo via Go Into the Story. Lie to me. Most spec scripts have an importance of being earnest problem. They tell the reader the truth, all of it, all the time. All the backstory, all the exposition, all of what everyone is doing and precisely why, before it even happens. Lying to the reader in your...
READ MOREFlix Not to Miss: Stories We Tell
One of the best documentaries this year comes from Sarah Polley, already an accomplished narrative director (if you haven’t already, go watch Away From Her and Take This Waltz). In Stories We Tell, Polley turns the lens on her own family secrets and potentially devastating personal revelations. It is a fantastic film that seamlessly uses actors and old family movies to tell...
READ MORERoad to Muse 2013: Meet Awards Show Organizer Susan Steiger
Susan Steiger (third from the right), the rest of the NYWIFT board, and Muse honorees take the stage at the 2012 Muse Awards. At the 2001 Muse Awards, Dede Allen — the first editor to get an exclusive credit on a film — received a standing ovation from a packed house. It’s those moments that make Susan...
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Photo by Google photos Need to finance your project? Check out these grant writing secrets. Maya’s coming back! Maya’s coming back! Well played, Lorne. WIE Network founder Dee Poku on taking risks, entrepreneurship & the state of women. This Lena Dunham & Mindy Kaling interview is FUNNY and very important. “Older guys” at ABC couldn’t steal Shonda Rhimes’ creative thunder. Soledad...
READ MORENYWIFT Fall Membership Drive
NYWIFT’s most important asset is its members, and this year, we’re calling on ALL OF YOU. Help build our amazing community of over 2000 successful women in the film and television industry by participating in our Fall Membership Drive. New members will receive two great discounts (50% off initiation fee, and over 50% off Muse...
READ MOREBechdel Test Adopted by Swedish Theaters
A Bechdel Test approval certificate now in use at select Swedish theaters People are sounding off around the internet after four Swedish movie theaters announced last week that they had adopted the Bechdel Test as a new rating for gender bias in their programming. Famously invented by graphic novelist Alison Bechdel in 1985, the test checks for...
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