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 Screenwriting Takeaways: ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ and the infamous rise and fall of a televangelist

October 1, 2021

When Tammy Faye was a young girl, she felt like an outcast. In a deeply religious family, she was the sole daughter of a divorced woman; her mother and stepfamily believed she would soil their name if she even stepped foot into church on Sundays. But...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: The sharp satire of 'The Premise'

September 28, 2021

Television satire is rare. There’s the eyebrow-raising South Park, the always reliable SNL, and the genre-redefining The Office, but it doesn’t seem that streamers or networks often want to take the risk on new satire, rarely putting the faith in an ...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: 'Kate' is a standout, relentless assassin

September 24, 2021

Some actors act badass but struggle to pull it off. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is a badass in Kate, a new action film by director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan and writer Umair Aleem.

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: 'The Voyeurs' re-examines erotic thrillers

September 20, 2021

The Voyeurs is possibly giving the erotic thriller a come-back. Roger Ebert used to call this kind of film the “rumpy-pumpy.” And there are indeed some pumps and bumps in this movie, as well as some unexpected turns (especially still in the midst of ...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: 'Shang-Chi' and how to develop a Marvel origin story

September 17, 2021

Shaun is just a guy living in San Francisco who parks cars for a living and wanders through life with no direction. But Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a Marvel movie, so that definitely won’t be the place he ends up. His character arc m...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: ‘Clickbait’ is Netflix’s bingeable thriller

September 13, 2021

Clickbait has a huge hook: When a man is kidnapped in an East Bay town his kidnapping video goes viral. His captors make him hold up signs stating he abuses women and if the video reaches 5 million views, he will be killed. Adrien Grenier plays Nick ...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: ‘Amaraica’ shows truth of undocumented life

September 10, 2021

Amaraica is the combination of two words: Amara and America. It’s no coincidence then that the film titled Amaraica puts the pregnancy and birth of a little girl named Amara at the core of the narrative. Amaraica focuses on a single story within the ...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: 'The Chair' embraces difficult conversations and that's what makes it great

September 7, 2021

The Chair is the most binge-worthy show in recent memory. I sat down and watched it all in one sitting, in large part thanks to Sandra Oh’s Ji-Yoon Kim, the first woman of color to become chair of the English department at a fictional, but clearly st...

5 Screenwriting Takeaways: 'Reservation Dogs' is an engrossing dramedy of long-overdue firsts

August 31, 2021

Reservation Dogs is a historic, unique and highly watchable show. It’s the first series in U.S. television history with an all-Native writers' room and a Native showrunner. It’s a genuine look at young lives lived on Native territory with the simulta...