Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 354th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

Oscars Won’t Televise All Awards Live, Adds “Popular” Film Category.

BAFTA Awards Likely to Move Earlier for 2020 in Line With New Oscars Date.

Thanks, Academy: An Earlier Oscars Date Will Hurt the Films That Need Help the Most.

56th New York Film Festival Main Slate Announced.

NYFF Announces 2018 Main Slate, Including ‘If Beale Street Could Talk,’ ‘The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,’ ‘High Life,’ and More.

Can ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ and ‘The Meg’ Prevent an August Box Office Slump?

The 20-Year Journey of The Meg, the Movie the Internet Wouldn’t Let Die.

Possible Reprieve On James Gunn & ‘Guardians’ As Marvel Back Channels With Disney?

MoviePass May Fail, but Subscription Services Are Here to Stay.

In Sure Sign Its Business Isn’t Failing, MoviePass Is Making a Bruce Willis Movie.

Jeffrey Katzenberg’s ‘NewTV’ Startup Closes $1 Billion, All Major Studios Among Investors.

Disney Misses Q3 Earnings Expectations; Stock Falls in After-Hours Trading.

Hollywood’s Child Stars and the Sketchy World of On-Set Tutors.

Trans & Nonbinary Communities Demand Better Representation in Open Letter, 47 Orgs Sign.

Hollywood’s Diversity Problem: Change Needs to be Both Top-Down and Bottom-Up.

What ‘Star Wars’ Has Borrowed from ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’.

Mark Hamill Wants Carrie Fisher to Replace Trump on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Robert Redford Is Retiring From Acting.

Looking for Lost Monty Python Material? Look No Further.

Maybe It Was Utah: The Coen Brothers’ Brilliance Explained in Five Final Scenes.

UTA Sells Minority Stake to Investcorp and PSP Investments.

Management 360 Melds TV Division With Hollywood Reporter Parent MRC For Joint Venture.

Is This the End of the TV Writers’ Room as We Know It?

Brad Kern and the House That Moonves Built at CBS.

The Peacock Patriarchy: Inside the Boys Club Culture.

Magnum P.I. Has a Latino Lead, But No Latinx Writers.

Netflix Strives to Keep ‘Stranger Things’ Perfect.

Google Launches Cameo, a Video Q&A App for Celebrities.

Apple and Google haven’t banned Infowars apps, and their downloads are booming.

Snapchat Lost 3 Million Daily Active Users During Second Quarter.

What Does Immersing Yourself in a Book Do To Your Brain?

Listen: Scriptnotes (Episode 362).

Read: Chuck Wendig — Your First Draft Does Not Require Your Faith In It.

Watch: Sword Expert Fact-check Hollywood Sword Fights.

Watch: Here’s How the Coen Brothers Use Sound to Strengthen Their Visuals.

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week

In the Core content of The Quest, we work with eight screenwriting principles, and the very first one is this: Plot = Structure.

On Monday, August 27, I will be starting a new cycle of Core classes, eight of them in all, beginning with Core I: Plot.

I have reduced the price of the Core classes to make them available to as many people as possible! Details below!

In this 1-week online course, you will learn the importance of Plot = Structure as well as:

• Key theoretical concepts from Aristotle, Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung
• The reality of Hollywood and the “Whammo” theory
• The External World and Internal World of a screenplay universe
• Metamorphosis: Screenplay structure grounded in character
• Analysis of movies including Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Silence of the Lambs, Shakespeare in Love, The Verdict, The Sixth Sense, Up, and others

And much more.

The course consists of four components:

• Lectures: There are six lectures written by me, each posting Monday through Saturday.
• Logline Workshop: This optional writing exercise offer you the opportunity to workshop one of your own loglines.
• Teleconference: We will have a Skype teleconference call to discuss course material.
• Forums: The online course site has 24/7 forums where you may post questions and we engage in conversation about the craft.

For those of you who have not taken an online class, the interface is extremely easy. Plus online classes can be an amazing experience. Most of the activities you can do on your own time — download and read lectures, review and respond to forum discussions, upload loglines and track comments. In addition, I’ve been teaching online for over a decade and it never ceases to amaze me how much of a community emerges in such an environment.

If you’re new to screenwriting, have intermediate experience, or you’ve read it all, but want to learn the basics of what I teach in The Quest — character based screenwriting — here is your chance to learn the foundation of screenplay structure that goes beyond formula.

I only teach my Core classes once a year and the 2018 cycle begins next month. Everything you need to know about screenwriting theory in this unique curriculum based on eight principles: Plot, Concept, Character, Style, Dialogue, Scene, Theme, Time.

CORE I: PLOT — A one-week class which begins with the principle Plot = Structure and explores the inner workings of the Screenplay Universe: Plotline and Themeline. Start date: August 27.

CORE II: CONCEPT — A one-week class which begins with the principle Concept = Hook and examines multiple strategies to generate, develop and assess story ideas. Start date: September 10.

CORE III: CHARACTER — A one-week class which begins with the principle Character = Function and delves into archetypes: Protagonist, Nemesis, Attractor, Mentor, and Trickster. Start date: September 24.

CORE IV: STYLE — A one-week class which begins with the principle Style = Voice and surfaces keys to developing a distinctive writer’s personality on the page. Start date: October 8.

CORE V: DIALOGUE — A one-week class which begins with the principle Dialogue = Purpose and probes a variety of ways to write effective, entertaining dialogue. Start date: October 22.

CORE VI: SCENE — A one-week class which begins with the principle Scene = Point and provides six essential questions to ask when crafting and writing any scene. Start date: November 5.

CORE VII: THEME — A one-week class which begins with the principle Theme = Meaning and gives writers a concrete take on theme which can elevate the depth of any story. Start date: November 19.

CORE VIII: TIME — A one-week class which begins with the principle Time = Present and studies Present, Present-Past, Present-Future and time management in writing. Start date: December 3.

These eight Core classes represent decades of my work on the front lines of the entertainment business as a writer and producer, and engaging the craft as a teacher as well, over time pulling together a coherent, comprehensive, and cohesive approach to screenwriting theory.

This is not about secret systems or magic formulas, rather the Core content presents a story-crafting process that starts with characters, works with characters, and ends with characters. That process of engaging you with your story universe through your characters and getting you in touch with these living, breathing individuals informs every step of your creative process, leading you to story structure, themes, conflict, subplots, and all the rest. As I say, Character Based Screenwriting.

I provide feedback and am actively involved in our online chats. That includes a 90 minute teleconference for each Core class.

This cycle, I am offering a special sale price. Normally the Core classes are $95 each. In 2018, each is on sale for $79!

A popular option is the Core Package which gives you exclusive access to the content in all eight Craft classes which you can go through on your own time and at your own pace, plus automatic enrollment in each 1-week online course — all for nearly 50% off the normal price of each individual class. If you sign up now, you can have immediate access to all of the Core content.

“I’m a huge fan of Scott’s classes, and I signed up for his Core Package, which I cannot speak highly enough about. If anyone wants to take a serious look at improving their writing, there is more than enough material to keep you busy for a few… dare I say, lifetimes? He’s the best. No bones about it.”

~ Heather Farlinger

To learn about any of the Core classes, click here.

I look forward to the opportunity to work with you!