Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 324th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

Golden Globes Winners: Complete List.

10 Best Moments for Women at the Golden Globes.

Critics Choice Awards: Complete List.

BAFTA Nominations: Complete List.

Sundance Film Fest Launches Hotline to Report Misconduct, Harassment.

Your Guide to the ‘Three Billboards’ Backlash.

Warner Bros. Shake-Up: Toby Emmerich Named Film Chairman, Sue Kroll Out.

2018 Will Be the Calm Before the Storm.

MoviePass Surpasses 1.5 Million Subscribers, Adds 500,000 in Last 30 Days.

The Brutal Math of Gender Inequality in Hollywood.

Hollywood’s Pay Gap Shame: Why Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg Are Just the Beginning.

N.Y. Times Cancels James Franco TimesTalk Over “Recent Allegations”.

The New #MeToo Economy: Hollywood Lawyers, Crisis PR Pros Seeing “Unprecedented” Uptick in Business.

Fall Is the Best Season for Rom-Coms.

The Myth of the Humanizing Woman.

What Does It Mean For Hollywood If Another Copyright Extension Doesn’t Pass This Year?

Ava DuVernay says it’s time for the ‘righting of a wrong’ in Hollywood.

Making of ‘Three Billboards’: How a Haunting Greyhound Bus Trip Inspired the Dark Revenge Comedy.

In writing ‘The Post,’ self-doubt and insecurity align perfectly with the story that needed telling.

Netflix State of the Union: The Original Programs, Controversies, and Opportunities That Will Define 2018.

‘My Next Guest Needs No Introduction’ Is a Very Different Kind of David Letterman Show.

Listen: 3rd & Fairfax (Episode 88).

Watch: Steven Spielberg Shot By Shot | Raiders.

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week

Story Summaries: From Loglines to Beat Sheets
Learn six different types and how to use them to develop your stories.

From elevator pitches to development meetings to conference calls with talent, a screenwriter’s ability to share stories in a variety of narrative forms is both a valuable and necessary skill-set. In the upcoming 1-week Screenwriting Master Class online course Story Summaries: From Loglines to Beat Sheets [starts January 22nd], you will learn six different story summaries that are critical assets for any screenwriter.

A screenwriter not only needs to know how to write a script, we also have to be able to convey our stories in multiple other ways. Beyond that, every time we shape a story in a different way, we learn something about it. As such, summaries can be helpful tools in developing, understanding, and crafting our scripts.

This 1-week online course that I will be teaching covers multiple story summaries: Logline, Synopsis, Breakdown, Treatment, Scriptment, and Beat Sheet.

Learn the ins and outs of six different story summaries including using them to help you craft your stories.

Plus, you will have the opportunity to craft a logline of your own story with an optional workshop exercise.

The course consists of:

Seven lectures written by Scott Myers

Daily forum Q&As

Optional workshop writing exercises with instructor and class feedback.

A live teleconference between instructor and class members.

In the past, the response from participants in this course has been extremely positive. Here are some testimonials:

The prepared lectures alone are worth the price of this class. But, the added bonus of discussing the lectures as well as being able to workshop my loglines with Scott and my classmates was a fantastic learning experience that really helped me develop my ability to whittle an idea down to one intriguing sentence. If your manager, agent, guru, mother, or favorite reader asks you for a synopsis, treatment, beat sheet, or logline and you have no idea what any of those are, then this class is for you. — Calvin Starnes

Just wanted to thank everyone in this class especially Scott for a most valuable week of learning. I found this type of interactive environment has been far more helpful for me than reading books has been. The group collaboration has been excellent and I have really enjoyed and valued everybody’s contributions. I’ve personally found this course has really helped me zone in on the crucial aspects of each respective type of story summary. This in turn has given me much more confidence in taking the next steps into creating the first draft and I would like to thank you all for that. — Steve Broughton

That’s the “secret sauce” in all the SMC classes you and Tom teach. It’s not a “here’s what to think” listing of so called “rules of writing.” Instead, the emphasis is always on HOW to think like a professional, about story, character and the business side of the craft. — John Arends

If you haven’t tried an online course before, this is a great and simple way to do it. You can download lectures any time and read them at your leisure. Peruse forum comments from your fellow classmates and respond whenever you want. The teleconference is on Skype and recorded so you can have access to it for transcription purposes. It’s amazing how convenient and effective online learning is.

So why don’t you join me for Story Summaries: From Loglines to Beat Sheets? You can find out more about this 1-week online screenwriting class here.

I hope you can join me starting next Monday, January 22 for this important and informative class!

While you’re at it, check out the schedule for all of my Craft classes in 2018!

January 8, 2018 — Craft: The Coen Brothers and the Craft of StorytellingLearn More

January 22, 2018 — Craft: Story Summaries — From Loglines to Beat Sheets
Learn More

February 5, 2018 — Craft: Handling Exposition
Learn More

February 19, 2018 — Craft: Scene Description Spotlight
Learn More

March 5, 2018 — Craft: Character Development Keys
Learn More

March 19, 2018 — Craft: Create a Compelling Protagonist
Learn More

April 2, 2018 — Craft: Write a Worthy Nemesis
Learn More

April 16, 2018 — Craft: Scene-Writing Workshop
Learn More

April 30, 2018 — Craft: Dialogue-Writing Workshop
Learn More

May 14, 2018 — Craft: Pixar and the Craft of Storytelling
Learn More

You can double down on your learning curve by enrolling in the Craft Package which gives you exclusive access to all of the content provided in each of the Craft classes and automatic enrollment in all ten Craft classes, all at a nearly 60% discount.

How to put learning the craft into overdrive in 2018? Consider the Craft curriculum at Screenwriting Master Class.

As always, I look forward to the opportunity to work with you.

To learn more about Screenwriting Master Class, go here.