AMY SEIMETZ TALKS SUN DON'T SHINE

Amy Seimetz, whose screenplay, SUN DON'T SHINE, won the at the 2012 SXSW Festival, talks about the origins of her story and the emotions that drive it. Check out the interview here.

Source: GreenCine Daily

MIRA NAIR TO OPEN VENICE FILM FESTIVAL

This year's Venice Film Festival will be opening with Mira Nair’s political thriller “The Reluctant Fundamentalist”. The rest of the lineup will be announced July 26th.

Mohsin Hamid, author of the novel "The Reluctant Fundamentalist", worked on adapting it into a screenplay. Check out this article on his creative process and turning the book into a film.



Source Tribune.com

SHORT: FOPS FEAT. WILLIE GARSON

1789. French Revolution. Heads will roll.

The latest short in Colonist Victor Quinaz's ('05) online comedy film series PERIODS.

SPOTLIGHT: LUCY ALIBAR

Playwright Lucy Alibar had never written for the screen before writing Beast of the Southern Wild, winning the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Find out about her writing process with this fascinating Q and A, here.

Source Tribecafilm.com

UP FOR DISCUSSION

You Decide:

Blacklist.com recently published a post in their series, Dumb Little Writing Tricks that Work, which you can see here.

The post suggests not to finish scenes when you end work for the day. The idea is that when you pick up the next day, you will have the momentum of being in the middle of the scene to power up your writing.

Some of the feedback on the article shows that readers think the opposite! Commenters suggest that stopping the scene halfway risks losing the feeling of the scene.

We're putting this question to you. Would you rather finish your scene and have to start the next day with a whole new fresh one or begin with the unfinished one that you left yourself from the day before?

We at the Screenwriters Colony are starting an ongoing series of post that allow you the reader to take the spotlight. You can post your comments here or on our Facebook page. We want to hear from you!

STELLA MEGHIE: 2012'S TONY COX SCREENPLAY AWARD WINNER

Congratulations to Stella Meghie for winning this year's Tony Cox Screenplay Award at the Nantucket Film Festival, announced here. We caught up with Stella to find out a little bit about her screenplay, JEAN OF THE JONESES, and her background in writing.

Q: Tell us a little about how you started as a screenwriter.
A: I watched a lot of film growing up. I also wrote -- mainly poetry and short stories. At some point I decided I wanted to write films rather then just watch. I decided to apply to film school a few years after I finished my undergrad and started there.

Q: What inspired you to write JEAN OF THE JONESES?
A: I have a very large family of predominantly women. I heard a lot of loud voices growing up. Maybe I needed to get them out of my head. The script is loosely based on my experiences and family.

Q: Can you describe any challenges you had executing your original vision
for the story? How did you overcome them?
A: In early drafts I may have held too closely to personal experiences. When I loosened up and allowed the story to grow into something bigger it became more interesting.

Q: JEAN OF THE JONESES has been described as a "Comedy Drama". Was it
difficult to find a balance between the lighter and darker material in
the screenplay?
A: I tend to find humor in desperate situations when I write. Avoiding emotion and running from your fears can bring out a lot of comedy in a scene, especially when a character is really jumping through hoops to avoid a dramatic moment that will inevitably happen.

Q: The main character, Jean, is a writer. How much of yourself do you see in her?
A: I drew a lot from myself for Jean in the beginning. I can relate to her struggle to find her place in adulthood and in a culture that's slightly foreign to her family's.
 
Q: What was your best experience at the Nantucket Film Festival?
A: I was invited to a Mentor's brunch with Writer Director Nancy Meyers. She was very generous with her advice and offered insight into her writing process and how she works with actors. She's worked with some of the best like Meryl Streep, Diane Keaton and Kate Winslet.

Q: Do you have any plans to put JEAN OF THE JONESES into production?
A: It’s still in the development stage, but I hope to direct and go into production within the next few years.

Q: How was your experience at the University of Westminster master's program?
A: I had a wonderful tutor on the course named Sophie Balhetchet who hung in there with me from outline through to a few a drafts of Jean of the Joneses.

Q: Can you talk about the Berlin International Film Festival’s Talent
Campus and the Bell Media Screenwriters Program? Did these experiences
help you at all as you undertook this project?
A: Berlinale Talent Campus was an amazing experience. It was a really inspiring environment. I was able to discuss my project with other filmmakers and participate in lectures and workshops on everything from writing to directing to post-production. I'm still finishing Bell Media's program. It's a television writing fellowship. I'm developing a half hour comedy drama pilot.

Q: What do you hope to gain from Screenwriters Colony Writers-in-Residence program?
A: I'm going in with two projects. 'Jean of the Joneses' and 'You Ain't Hip to Baby' -- a romantic drama that I will direct first. I usually write alone, so it will be great to be in a focussed space and have the mentors and other writers to bounce ideas off at the colony.


We are proud to announce that Stella will be with us this fall as a Writer-in-Residence at the Screenwriters Colony.
(Post by Dana Eckstein) 

BEN ROBBINS: FINAL WITNESS

ABC's new true-crime series FINAL WITNESS premieres this Wednesday, June 26 at 10pm, with two of its six episodes written by '04 Colonist (and current Colony co-director!) Ben Robbins.

Ben Robbins '04

Each episode explores an actual murder case through a unique mash-up of Errol Morris-style documentary interviews with lyrical, scripted recreations from the point of view of the victim, reckoning with his or her life from beyond the grave. "By hiring young Sundance directors like Cruz Angeles and Alrick Brown to direct the recreations, we ended up with the most cinematic show I've ever seen on network television," says Ben.

Ben's episodes -- "Addie Hall" and "Andrew Dotson" -- air on 7/4 and 8/1, respectively.

17th ANNUAL NANTUCKET FILM FESTIVAL

This week is the 17th Annual Nantucket Film Festival (June 20-24th)

The festival holds the distinction of being one of the only film festivals in the world dedicated to "the cultural awareness and appreciation of the art of screenwriting."

This year's highlights include; an all-star comedy roundtable discussion hosted by Ben Stiller featuring Jim Carrey and Chris Rock among others, a Quebec sidebar showcasing some of the greatest French Canadian filmmakers working today, and a staged reading of Alan Taylor and Alexander Payne's newest screenplay starring Steve Zahn, Cara Seymour, and Steven Root.

But the must-see movie is our very own Jenny Deller's ('09) FUTURE WEATHER.

The festival ends with the announcement of the winner of Showtime's Tony Cox Screenplay Competition, the winner of which receives $5,000 as well as an all-inclusive month's stay on Nantucket at the Screenwriter's Colony.

Past winners have included Sophie Barthes (COLD SOULS, '06) and Debra Granik (DOWN TO THE BONE).

Go to www.nantucketfilmfestival.org for tickets and more information.

JJ ABRAMS AND HIS MYSTERY BOX

In this classic TED Talk, JJ Abrams describes how secrets drive his stories.

It started when he was young and his grandfather would bring home cameras, "He would open them up and reveal his inner workings." This experience hooked Abrahms both on film and on finding what lies beneath the surface.


(Post by Dana Eckstein)

NEW JOHN HILCOAT FILM, LAWLESS, SCREENED AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Screenwriter Nick Cave who adapted the the book, THE WETTEST COUNTY IN THE WORLD, into the movie, says that the film was easy to write because the novel was so well done.

"[Matt Bondurant] wrote an incredible book, the script was absolutely a dream to write because it was all there, all the dialogue and everything like that."

To see the rest of the interview at Indiewire, click here!