http://iaincoleman.net Sat, 03 Apr 2010 22:13:47 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en William Goldman's The Princess Bride is a corker of a script, and an endlessly delightful movie. Which might strike some people as a bit odd, given its blatant subversion of one of the most long-established principles of dramatic structure. If a pistol is fired in the third act, it should be ... http://iaincoleman.net/?p=70 I've been rereading William Goldman's masterful script for The Princess Bride, and before I do a meatier post on the story as a whole, I'd like to quickly mention one lovely piece of technique that I noticed. Spoilers follow. If you haven't seen The Princess Bride yet, stop reading this and ... http://iaincoleman.net/?p=67 I'm polishing up a short script. A very short script. It's for the Scottish Book Trust's Screen Lab 2010, and they want something no more than three minutes long. Three minutes! That's just three pages to tell your whole story. So every word counts. That's true of all screenwriting of course, ... http://iaincoleman.net/?p=64 I'm off to Cheltenham next week for the Screenwriters' Festival. If it's anything like last year, it should be great. There's one big difference, though - at least, for me. This year, as well as all the nattering, drinking and going to talks, I have some scheduled meetings that I ... http://iaincoleman.net/?p=62 I was reading the script for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - not just the best Star Trek film, but a fine movie in its own right - and something leapt out at me. The sexual tension between Kirk and Saavik. If you're saying "the what now?", then I ... http://iaincoleman.net/?p=60 I had some back trouble lately, which left me unable to do pretty much anything except sit up straight in front of the television. Not so good in terms of doing any kind of writing, but they say every problem is also an opportunity... ...so we finally got round to watching ... http://iaincoleman.net/?p=54 I've just received the printed copies of my most recent annual report, and flipping through it made me appreciate the importance of paragraphs in this kind of scientific writing. A 66-page report like this isn't really designed to be read all the way through like a novel. It's for dipping in, ... http://iaincoleman.net/?p=49 There's a useful repository of TV pilot scripts (British and American) at TV Writing Pilot School. http://iaincoleman.net/?p=47 If you put the name of any type of firearm into the search box on YouTube, you will almost certainly find a bunch of video clips of enthusiasts firing these weapons off. These are quite remarkably dull, but they can be an excellent tool for research. For example, I've just ... http://iaincoleman.net/?p=44 I sent three sample sketches off today to the new topical radio sketch show 7 on 7 (and thanks to Piers for the heads-up on the open call). It's a kind of writing I've never done before. Sure, I've written and performed comedy sketches on stage, but there's a whole ... http://iaincoleman.net/?p=42