I Love You, Mom: Dan Fogelman’s The Guilt Trip Is A Love Letter To His Late Mother
Screenwriter Dan Fogelman’s story is a true life Hollywood fairy tale: New Jersey native comes to Tinseltown looking for work in the entertainment industry, lands a gig writing for TV, then writes for a little animation company by the name of Pixar (Cars), while writing his own scripts on the side, one of which becomes the hit Crazy, Stupid, Love starring Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling.
The fairy tale continues today (fitting,
Exec Producer and Writer Mark Goffman of White Collar Talks Aaron Sorkin, President Obama, and Patrick Swayze’s Final Show
Mark Goffman, a veteran TV writer and producer, has worked on a wide range of shows and films, including mega-hits like The West Wing and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. He’s currently a writer and executive producer on USA Network’s White Collar (the new season starts on January 22 at 10/9 central), about a criminal who agrees to help the FBI catch his brothers-in-crime using his expertise as an art and securities thief.
A Holiday Gift Guide for the Budding Filmmaker in Your Life
Do you have someone in your life who dreams of making movies? Or perhaps someone who just loves knowing how they’re made? Well, we've got some book and film titles that will satiate the hopeful screenwriters, directors, and producers in your life. No list like this could ever be totally comprehensive, so tweet at us if you’ve got some recommendations to add to this list.
Books on Screenwriting
For screenwriters,
First Film School, Then The World: Three NYU Students On Movies, Ambitions, and The Future of Film
"I believe that while it may not be possible to train people to make films, it is possible to create a climate in which people can learn to make films, where aspiring artists can absorb, in a relatively short, intensive period, insight that others have wrested from the experience of an entire career."
– George Stevens, Jr., founding director of the American Film Institute
With innovation and technology forging ahead at unprecedented rates in the film and television industry,
“The Funniest People I Know Are Women”: Director Paul Feig on The Heat, Bridesmaids and Freaks and Geeks
As one of the most respected comedy writers in Hollywood, Paul Feig’s professional trajectory has become something of an industry legend. The comedian turned actor-writer-director-producer has been relentless in his quest to leave an indelible mark on the state of comedy television and cinema. And his ambitions are infectious. Along the way, Feig’s helped launch the careers of many talented actors; James Franco, Jason Segel, and Seth Rogen all became household names thanks to Feig's instant television classic,
Actor Scoot McNairy On Getting Into Character for Killing Them Softly, Argo, and Promised Land
Scoot McNairy has been hard at work on some of the most highly-anticipated film projects of the year. In the last 12 months, he’s worked on Ben Affleck’s Argo, starred alongside Brad Pitt in the upcoming release Killing Them Softly, he’s top-billed in Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land, and he’s starring in Steve McQueen’s 2013 picture, Twelve Years a Slave.
A Conversation with Price Check Director Michael Walker on Casting Parker Posey, Supermarket Secrets, and Film School
Writer-director Michael Walker made his feature filmmaking debut with the 2000 thriller Chasing Sleep, starring Jeff Daniels, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to win Best Film at the Festival of Fantastic Film in Sweden.
His latest film, Price Check, is a far cry from the thriller genre, but this comedy about a middle-class family and the eccentric boss who shakes up their world is just as titillating.
The Incredible True Story Behind The Sessions: A Conversation With Director Ben Lewin
The Sessions tells the story of Mark O’Brien, a man confined to an iron lung for most of his day and who is determined, as he nears 40, to lose his virginity. The premise could be mistaken for a potential comedy or a melodrama. It was neither. In fact, The Sessions has been the focus of serious Oscar buzz ever since reviewers across the country fell in love with it in early November.
Q&A With Chris Carter, Writer and Creator of The X-Files
Chris Carter is a television legend. As the creative mastermind behind the iconic, 90s-defining supernatural television thriller The X-Files, he has nourished a generation with truly out-of-this world entertainment. Part metaphysical suspense, sci-fi epic, and well-wrought drama, The X-Files won over TV-viewing audiences with its unique plot lines, imaginative subject matter, and seemingly effortless execution. And the show's expertly nuanced protagonists, FBI special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully,
Behind-the-Scenes at the Austin Film Festival
The Credits recently traveled to the Austin Film Festival—a truly unique festival dedicated to the art of screenwriting. The week long event combines extraordinary films with dynamic and engaging discussions, Q&As, and expert panels. Screenwriting icons like Eric Roth, Chris Carter, Paul Feig, and David Chase shared tricks of the trade with festival-goers through workshops, live script readings, and intimate interviews. And A-list actors like Billy Bob Thornton and James Franco were on the scene to promote their latest movies and to shed insight into their creative processes.
The Lore of Lincoln…and Daniel Day-Lewis: Two Larger-Than-Life Personas Intersect in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln
For a president whose face appears on the five dollar bill and who has starred in countless elementary school plays, book reports, and dreaded pop quizzes, Americans just can’t seem to figure out Abraham Lincoln. Blame his larger-than-life stature, his well-worn anecdotes, or the truly bizarre myths that continue to circulate nearly 200 years after his death, but at least one uncontestable fact still stands: Abraham Lincoln is the ultimate American legend, and that the mere mention of his name is a fable unto itself only proves it.
A Man of Many Worlds: From Munich to Forrest Gump, A Conversation With Writer Eric Roth
The Credits recently traveled to the Austin Film Festival, the first fest to boast a unique devotion to the craft of screenwriting. And who better to teach us the tricks of the trade than legendary scriptwriter, Eric Roth? As the writer of movies like Forrest Gump, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Munich, The Good Shepard, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Ali, and most recently, the television show Luck,
Nosferatu, Night Monster, Hocus Pocus: An Ode to Halloween, the Movie-Lover’s Holiday
It’s that time of year when things that go bump in the night are on our minds and our movie screens. Halloween, perhaps even more so than Christmas, is a movie holiday; what else are you supposed to do to celebrate, once society deems you too old to knock on doors and demand candy?
Boutique theaters across the country understand this grown-up Halloween need, and answer enthusiastically with holiday-specific programming that runs the gamut—from camp to horror,
In Honor of HBO’s New Film The Girl: Ten Great Movies About Making Movies
Movie lovers, and Hitchcock fans in particular, are about to get a fascinating double dose of behind-the-scenes dramatization. First up is The Girl, which premiered on HBO on October 20, tells the story of the relationship between Hitchcock (Toby Jones) and Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller), the model selected to star in The Birds despite having no acting experience. Then, on November 1, Hitchcock will premiere at the AFI Film Festival –
Film School 101
Cinema verite, mise-en-scene, establishing shot–think you have the chops to make it in film school? Take our film school-inspired quiz to find out.
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*Feature image courtesy of California Institute of the ArtsFantastic Film Schools Infographic
Our latest infographic, inspired by Hollywood Reporter's 2nd Annual List of the Top 25 Film Schools, takes a look at some of the best film schools in the country.
Where Hollywood Hones Its Craft: Getting Film Schooled At AFI
Tucked in the hills of Griffith Park, the American Film Institute is as much a Hollywood mainstay as its film lore surroundings. From campus, one can see the hillsides housing such celebrated fixtures as the Hollywood sign, the Observatory where James Dean got into a knife fight in Rebel Without a Cause, and hundreds of eclectic, multimillion-dollar homes—many of which house Hollywood’s biggest stars—stretching all the way to the Malibu coastline.
Back To Film School: On Location At CalArts
Across the country, aspiring filmmakers are hard at work honing their craft at film schools. Whether it's learning about the cultural impact of cinema, getting a technical training education in directing or cinematography, or advancing a lifelong love of cinema, we're celebrating film schools everywhere with a week of film school-themed content.
The Credits recently traveled to the California Institute of the Arts–one of the country's premier arts schools located just outside of Los Angeles.
50 Reasons to Love James Bond
Last week marked the highly anticipated arrival of BOND 50 – the complete James Bond film collection showcasing all 22 classic titles on Blu-ray together for the first time ever, in one sleek collectable box-set. This Limited Edition set marks the debut of nine James Bond films previously unavailable in high definition Blu-ray and comes with a dossier of more than 122 hours of bonus features
Bond’s impact on our culture is such that the Museum of Modern Art in New York City is saluting her majesty’s favorite spy (for the second time,
A Q&A With Chicken With Plums Directors Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
In this intimate post-screening interview, directors Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud discuss their latest film, Chicken With Plums. Magical realism, animation, and innovative storytelling are trademarks of the filmmaking pair, who won an Oscar for the animated movie Persepolis. Here, Satrapi and Paronnaud discuss inspirations for the film, directing, collaborative storytelling, and the international fabric of Chicken With Plums.
