http://www.natpe.org/natpe/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=628

Hope you all will check it out! It is my new blog sponsored through NATPE entitled DATING YOUR CHARACTER… eight steps to screenplays that sell. I do have a DVD version, soon and a free all day seminar, upcoming at USC if you want to hear more about it!

I think podcasts are an invaluable tool for aspiring screenwriters who cannot afford, or don’t have time to attend classes. It won’t replace the benefit of networking you get with classes, but podcasts like “On the Page” and the (now in limbo) “Creative Screenwriting Magazine” podcast provide real-life information and opinions from real-life writers and movie industry folks.
I started a podcast called “Screenwriting Movies and TV” which kinda sucks right now, but I’m still gathering equipment and original content. The goal of MY podcast, is simply to provide screenwriters with links and information to screenwriting tools and resources that I come across while doing research for my own writing.
I would gladly pay a subscription for a “Screenwriting Goldmine” podcast, based on all of the information I’ve read on the website and via the email updates… I like video podcasts, but prefer AUDIO podcasts. I hope you decide to do one!!!

Giving access to this sites goodness on the go in a neatly packaged App

Just a suggestion

Riki

If I may, a few of the screenwriting podcasts I listen to and why I listen to them–
Sam & Jim Go to Hollywood is a good screenwriting podcast which is almost an audio documentary, chronicling the adventures of two guys who up and moved to Hollywood and try to break in. They talk about their successes and difficulties and offer advice for new screenwriters. This works best as a podcast because the two guys are, in real time, discussing aspects of their journey. You couldn’t get that from a blog, where it’s just one person writing down their opinions– you don’t get the opposing viewpoints (in real time) and the level of discussion you would from a blog or column, and making it into a tv show would just be overkill– no reason to see the two guys sitting around talking, and if it was a tv show i’d have to actively commit to sitting down and watching it– major inconvenience. (though they haven’t had a new podcast in over a year, but the archives are well worth listening to)

Jeff Goldsmith has a podcast which is simply a recording of the Q&A he does with screenwriters. I can’t make these Q&A’s, i’m not in LA, so getting the chance to hear them is fantastic. Did you make it in to the Q&A with James Cameron and Peter Jackson when Avatar and Lord of the Rings was big? No? There’s a podcast of it. And if it were a transcription, would it really be the same? Could I listen to it during my walk to work every day? Nope.

Pilar Alessandra’s On the Page is a straightforward interview podcast– she invites in notables in the industry, and interviews them much like a radio show– except, I can access it any time I want, not just whenever it airs. (she just switched to a pay format, again the archives are great to listen to, I haven’t decided if it’s worth paying for yet)

So in short, it’s the advantages of the medium that make podcasts fantastic. They’re convenient. They’re recorded in real time. They’re actual people actually talking. I can listen to them anytime, even walking around or on the subway, without having to fumble through a magazine to read interviews that half the time the interviewee simply received a set list of questions via e-mail without any room for elaboration or follow-up questions. And oh yeah, nearly all of them are free!

For me the antagonist in MOON STRUCK is the brother the Cher character was supposed to marry, and her family and his family that are expecting her to do the ‘right thing.’ It is also perhaps the society of spinsterhood in an Italian American family that traps her into a choice that is not authentic.

Her decision about whether she should believe she is just moonstruck or if this is really love fuels the whole movie, and the characters, quirky, surprising choices and performances that inhabited the final product fulfill on its promise. Truly one of the best scripts ever.
Your thoughts? & Happy writing. I am finishing up a script tonight
and will be burning the post mid-night oil. It was one I wrote 30 years ago that just won a contest and I am rewriting it for that program. Quite a challenge revisiting work that was so raw and unformed and still speaks to me. As well as the emotional aspect of all the disappointment attached to it, it has been financed twice and optioned many times… Still loving it and who knows. Best with your endeavors and thanks for reminding us all to keep asking why things work and get smarter/better/deeper etc. on our way to a great script that could rival something as spectacular as MOONSTRUCK! – Devo

I have been reading Screenwriting Goldmine and am inspired by it. I appreciate your straightforwardness and humour. Thank you. Last night I read the screenplay “Moonstruck”. To me this script stands way and above 99 percent of the formulaic ditzy dribble romantic scripts and films that have been written and made since that film was made. Please set me right if I am wrong but who or what is the villain in Moonstruck, as there doesn’t appear to be one? Can the villain, or antagonist be a Hero’s own mental attitude? Also, you say in Step 2 in Screenwriting Goldmine to ‘Attack Your Hero’ …Now imagine something truly terrible that could happen to that person… Well, in Moonstruck, nothing truly ‘literally’ terrible happens to our heroine ‘Loretta’, actually something fabulous happens to her – she falls passionately in love. What can you tell us about this please Phil? cheers, Loralei

I don’t like video podcasts, but as Charles says, most are audio. A quick search on iTunes will find you a few – I listen to On The Page which can be irritating cosey but gets good interviewees; there are a lot of others which have clearly gone the way of most blogs – a few chunks and they peter out. And like most thing Internet, there’s a massive American bias. They’re great for commuting, exercising (I imagine), or when Radio Four is only offering ‘Midweek’.

The other element is that they’re periodical – most have new editions weekly/fortnightly/monthly, so once you get it up on iTunes, users get updated automatically regularly. This is great from an online marketing point of view, and you’d reach anyone searching iTunes for screenwriting, and they’d get steered towards this blog, your website, the forum, your book…. etc.

In terms of content it would be great to have a UK orientated screenwriting podcast, and the interviews you have on your site would work fine. Anything format that works on Radio Four would work as podcast… in fact an awful lot of Radio Four is up there as a podcast.

Thanks for doing what you do… write and write about writing!
Devo

Some are paid access only, but most are free, and you can download the MP3 files to use as you like. (Well, you know, don’t package them up and sell them on, but personal listening is great, and what they are there for.)

I agree that it would suck to watch video on the tiny iPod screen. But most podcasts are audio-only — think of it as a radio show that you can download and listen to at any time.

Podcasts can be lectures that teach us something new (or something old that we have trouble remembering), or can be discussions or interviews with successful screenwriters or other people in the business. Successful writing is much more than just writing, so there are plenty of topics to cover and people to talk to.

For me personally, the best thing about podcasts is that I can listen to them during the 40-minute drive to and from work. Time that I would normally spend bored, or cursing at idiots, can be spent learning something useful.

I’m not listening to any screenwriting podcasts at the moment, so I can’t talk about what works/doesn’t work in them. I do plan to check them out now.