Final Draft Blog

All the tips, tricks and information you need to inspire your writing!
Read interviews with the pros, catch up with industry news, and listen to Write On: A Screenwriting Podcast by Final Draft.

5 Filmmaking Takeaways from making a Dances with Films short

August 23, 2021

Making a short always seems like a great idea — and it is! It can get traction for a larger idea. It can help you meet other people in the industry. It’s a fabulous way to test-drive something out of your comfort zone. It’s also a hell of a lot of fu...

Screenwriter Matt Lieberman on the journey to 'Free Guy' and writing for yourself

August 23, 2021

Directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Reynolds and Jodie Comer, Free Guy follows a bank teller who discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world video game and decides to become the hero of his own story; one he rewrites himself. N...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: ‘Beckett’ runs in political thriller

August 20, 2021

Beckett and April are American tourists enjoying a romantic vacation in Greece when a tragic car accident turns this relatively tame trip into a Hitchcockian nightmare. Alone, Beckett must navigate the unfamiliar territory as he tries to make it to t...

Write On with Big Break Winner Stacie Gancayco-Adlao

August 19, 2021

Stacie Gancayco-Adlao was a Grand Prize Winner in the 2020 Big Break Screenwriting Contest for her feature film script Clementine. Big Break Contest Director Kala Guess talks to Stacie about what it was like winning the contest, how Stacie's network ...

Viral' Screenwriter and Big Break finalist Joe McClean on breaking in and the long game

August 19, 2021

Screenwriting is one of countless tasks that fall under the "it’s a marathon, not a sprint," analogy. (We all learn the meaning of that analogy through the parable of the tortoise and the hare; the best telling being the Bugs Bunny version, obviously...

History of TV: The deeply, depressively funny world of 'BoJack Horseman'

August 19, 2021

Netflix’s original animated series BoJack Horseman is a little more dramedy than sitcom, while cleverly incorporating the show-within-a-show that the titular character, Mr. Horseman, once starred in during his heyday. Yes, I pun occasionally. As does...

Siân Heder's 'CODA': Writing and directing a film with deaf actors from a hearing person's perspective

August 19, 2021

CODA (also the acronym for Child of Deaf Adults) written and directed by Siân Heder follows Ruby (Emilia Jones), the only hearing person in her deaf family. A beautiful coming-of-age film with all the familiar genre beats, CODA takes the viewer on a ...

Christopher J. O’Bryant on trading script reads and Twitter handles

August 18, 2021

Debt collector by day, screenwriter and professional writers champion by night, Christopher J. O’Bryant is a 2019 Academy Nicholl Fellowship quarterfinalist and 2020 PAGE International Screenwriting Awards finalist. But just add those prestigious cre...

Uncovering 'Under the Volcano' with documentary filmmakers Cody Greenwood and Gracie Otto

August 17, 2021

Under the Volcano tells the story of legendary AIR Studios on Montserrat. Built by famed Beatles producer Sir George Martin, this state-of-the-art recording studio was located on a secluded and beautiful Caribbean island with a dormant but looming vo...