Saturday Hot Links

Time for the 326th installment of Saturday Hot Links, your week’s essential reading about movies, TV, streaming, Hollywood, and other things of writerly interest.

Sundance 2018: MoviePass Will Build Its Own Film Catalog Under MoviePass Ventures.

Sundance 2018: It’s Hard to Be an Indie at Sundance This Year.

Why Sundance, America’s largest independent film festival, matters.

10 Buzziest Films at Sundance Film Festival 2018.

14 Sundance Movies That Could Be The Year’s Breakout Hits.

The Best and Worst Movies of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

Sundance: Every Movie Sold So Far — And It Ain’t Much.

The Slowest Sundance Ever: How the Festival Left Buyers Cold.

Sundance 2018: Where Are the Masterpieces? Sorry, There Are None.

Sundance Market: Fewer Big Deals As Buyers Get Cautious.

Jason Blum to the Sundance Producers Brunch: ‘Don’t Get in the Way’ and 10 Other Pieces of Advice.

Oscars: From ‘Get Out’ to ‘Mudbound,’ Sundance Titles Made a Big Impact This Year.

‘Get Out,’ ‘Dunkirk’ to Return to Movie Theaters Following Oscar Nominations.

How Pigeonholing Oscar Contenders Affects the Race.

The Lack of Oscar Nods for Latino Actors Points to Chronic Under-Representation in Film.

How The Academy Will Avoid Another Oscars Envelope Snafu.

Producers Guild Awards: Full List of Winners.

2017 Was Another Record-Tying Year For Hollywood Box Office Bombs.

What ‘Logan’ Gets About Telling a Great Superhero Story.

Why Studios Need to Start Focusing on Infrequent Moviegoers.

As Movie Attendance Drops, MoviePass Makes Its Big Move.

How Long Can MoviePass Keep Burning Cash?

2018 Continues Strong With New Movies Over-Performing at the Box Office.

Indie Films Are ‘Alive and Well’ Because of Digital Platforms.

Cutting to ‘The Core’: The Talk Show By and For Fans of Genre Film.

Charlie Kaufman Set to Adapt ‘I’m Thinking of Ending Things’ for Netflix.

Steven Spielberg: ‘I didn’t think anybody would go to see ET’.

‘Mosaic’ Writer Ed Solomon on the Origin, Challenges, and Execution of the Groundbreaking Mystery.

Ed Neumeier is Writing ‘RoboCop 2’.

The Directorial Excellence of Paul Thomas Anderson.

Limited Series from “Erin Brockovich” Writer Susannah Grant on the Way at Netflix.

6 Male BBC Presenters Agree to Pay Cuts Amid Gender Gap Controversy.

Is There a Place for Anthology Series on the Big Screen?

TV Pilots 2018: The Complete Guide.

Full House, Coach, The X-Files: Why TV Remakes Are Everywhere Right Now.

TNT Parts Ways With ‘Snowpiercer’ Showrunner Josh Friedman.

‘Breaking Bad’ 10th Anniversary: Writers Reunite to Reflect on What They Learned and That Final Season.

Meryl Streep Joins ‘Big Little Lies’ Season 2.

Netflix Took $39 Million Write-Down for ‘Unreleased Content’ — Was It Related to Kevin Spacey Scandal?

Netflix Execs Say They’re Not Afraid of Disney’s Streaming Service.

‘Stranger Things,’ ‘The Crown’ Propel Netflix Membership Gains.

Amazon May Dump Woody Allen’s Next.

Hulu Hit The Big Leagues With Its Emmy Win; Here’s How It Will Try To Capitalize On That In 2018.

Watch: Jennifer Yuh Nelson and Lisa Joy.

Watch: HBO is Ruining Movies.

Watch: The Death of “The Chosen One” in Millennial Fiction.

Allison Shearmur, ‘Rogue One,’ ‘Hunger Games’ Producer, Dies at 54.

Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week

Take my 1-week online class Handling Exposition to learn ways to make exposition entertaining.

In Hollywood, there is a saying: “Exposition = Death.” Why? Check out these comments:

Taylor Sheridan (“Hell or High Water”) said he learned how to write by taking note of what didn’t work. And he confessed, as a former actor, that he had plenty of practice working through bad material.

“I spent most of my time on TV shows kind of spewing exposition,” he said. “When I write I almost never use dialogue to move the plot forward because I understand painfully the traps. I try to have the lines tell you something about the character.”

The “traps” to which Sheridan refers are, I suspect, largely about the fact that nothing can slow down a story or cause a script reader’s eyes to glaze over more than reading a scene or scenes chock full of exposition: setting, information, data, backstory. I am reminded of David Mamet’s infamous memo to his writing staff on the TV series ‘The Unit’:

THERE IS NO MAGIC FAIRY DUST WHICH WILL MAKE A BORING, USELESS, REDUNDANT, OR MERELY INFORMATIVE SCENE AFTER IT LEAVES YOUR TYPEWRITER. YOU THE WRITERS, ARE IN CHARGE OF MAKING SURE EVERY SCENE IS DRAMATIC.

THIS MEANS ALL THE “LITTLE” EXPOSITIONAL SCENES OF TWO PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT A THIRD. THIS BUSHWAH (AND WE ALL TEND TO WRITE IT ON THE FIRST DRAFT) IS LESS THAN USELESS, SHOULD IT FINALLY, GOD FORBID, GET FILMED.

IF THE SCENE BORES YOU WHEN YOU READ IT, REST ASSURED IT WILL BORE THE ACTORS, AND WILL, THEN, BORE THE AUDIENCE, AND WE’RE ALL GOING TO BE BACK IN THE BREADLINE.

Nothing can bore readers more than the delivery of setting, information, data and backstory. Yet every script, play or story you write requires you to include exposition. What to do?

That’s why I created the Screenwriting Master Class course Handling Exposition. In this unique 1-week online class, we will break down exposition into various types, then by analyzing numerous examples from well known movies, delve into six key principles and techniques on how to best handle it:

• Exposition as Fascination
• Exposition as Mystery
• Exposition as Revelation
• Exposition as Conflict
• Exposition as Action
• Exposition as Humor

Plus 7 insider tips on working with exposition.

In addition, you can workshop exposition in your own stories using the principles and tips you learn in the course.

And the always popular Logline Workshop.

Thanks a million, Scott, for being there for us inspiring writers and for the practical, real and valuable learning experience that was hands down the best writing class I have ever taken. I was blown away by the creative and practical tools imparted from you in the Exposition Craft Class.

— Katalin Szonyi

This class definitely expanded my ability to deal with exposition in ways that I hadn’t considered before. The lectures, along with the accompanying examples, are a fantastic resource if you either struggle with exposition or are just looking for a new perspective.

— Calvin Starnes

The class consists of:

Seven lectures written by Scott Myers
Special insider tips
Daily forum Q&As
Workshop writing exercises with instructor and class feedback
A 90-minute live teleconference between instructor and class members

Trust me, you need to know how to handle exposition. That’s why I created this course. And this is the only time I’ll be teaching it in 2018!

That’s right, I’m offering this class just once this year.

So join me beginning Monday, February 5 for Handling Exposition, a 1-week immersion in this critical aspect of the screenwriting craft.

Enroll here!

Or have access to all 10 Craft Classes for nearly 60% off the regular price for The Craft Package.