So, yesterday, I had my screenwriters group in the morning. We had a very good session giving notes on two scripts. It’s the benefit of having a long, consistent history together: you know the others are interested in helping you to the best work you can deliver.
After that, I headed to the nearby Writers Store, where there was an afternoon panel about focusing on Oscar nominated films and their scripts. (Well, it’s the Writers Store, we weren’t going to talk about pretty pictures – heh.)
The panel consisted of (left to right) Matt Lohr as moderator, with Steve Kaplan, JM Everson, Carole Kirschner, and Eric Edson.
They had a wide range of opinions about the nominees, which made for interesting discussion. Matt did a great job of coming up with questions for them (they’d been sent the questions beforehand, to prepare), asking such things as which one of the best picture nominees did they think shouldn’t be there, and what would they have included instead.
I wish I had been able to see more movies last year, because I would have liked to responded to their comments from knowledge of the films. But the only one of the nominees I had seen was Captain Phillips. But I enjoyed their discussions of points.
(The panel was sponsored by Michael Wiese Productions, and all the panelists have books from the publisher. Who also just happens to be the publisher for my Creating Graphic Novels. I realized how long it’s been since I bought books, because I didn’t have any of the panelists’ books, although I’d seen them listed, particularly Kirschner’s Hollywood Game Plan and Everson’s Shakespeare for Screenwriters. Now I want to buy the all. I guess that’s want the Amazon Wish List is for.)
