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.

Write On with Big Break Grand Prize Winners Jeff Cassidy and Myles Reid

February 12, 2019

Since winning the 2018 Big Break Screenwriting Contest, Feature Grand Prize Winner Jeff Cassidy and TV Grand Prize Winner Myles Reid have been busy taking industry meetings with managers, agents, and producers. In this episode of Write On, Cassidy an...

All the Write Moves: Velvet Buzzsaw

February 12, 2019

Cinematic satire has become something of a lost art. During the so-called “age of irony” in the 90s, the notion of presenting exaggeration as a means of revealing hypocrisy (or other social foibles) became somewhat redundant. Close to two decades lat...

Before You Know It Filmmakers On How To Get Your Passion Project Made

February 7, 2019

It’s a rare and difficult thing to write, direct, and star in your own film. But that is exactly what Hannah Pearl Utt and Jen Tullock did with their Sundance feature film debut, the comedy Before You Know It. The pair also knows what a tremendous fe...

All the Write Moves: Glass

February 5, 2019

M. Night Shyamalan, modern king of the twist ending, outdid himself with the final scene of Split (2016) — his surprise hit about a serial killer with multiple personalities — by connecting the picture to Unbreakable (2000), his cult-favorite thrille...

Write On with Kevin O'Brien

February 5, 2019

Writer-director Kevin O'Brien discusses his transition from Creative Director to filmmaker, raising money through crowdfunding, and submitting his debut feature 'At the End of the Day' to film festivals. Information about the film can be found HERE.

The Weekend Movie Takeaway: January 22, 2019

January 23, 2019

Although early tracking suggested it would earn close to $60 million, M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass took in around $47 million over the long weekend; an impressive haul for a film that cost less than half of that to make, but not quite a triumphant retu...

All the Write Moves: If Beale Street Could Talk

January 21, 2019

Like his previous film, the Oscar-winning drama Moonlight (2016), Barry Jenkins’ new picture, If Beale Street Could Talk, might seem like a difficult artifact from which to extract screenwriting lessons. While both films have received considerable ac...

Peter Hedges on Ben Is Back

January 3, 2019

When novelist, playwright and Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Peter Hedges sat down to write the screenplay for the new addiction drama Ben Is Back, he drew from a personal place. “I grew up in a family ravaged by alcoholism,” Hedges said.

‘Destroyer’ Director Karyn Kusama On Why Working Closely With Screenwriters Is Essential To Her Process

December 25, 2018

Traditionally, a director won’t see a script until it’s been written, rewritten, polished, and perfected to the nth degree. Then, when the script is in a near-perfect state, the screenwriter relinquishes control and sits idly by as the director takes...