Final Draft Blog

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Read interviews with the pros, catch up with industry news, and listen to Write On: A Screenwriting Podcast by Final Draft.

Dialogue: The Art of Subtext

August 12, 2020

For me, writing dialogue is the most fun part of writing a screenplay. Action generally stays the same; the same tone, same sentence structure, same grammar. Dialogue, on the other hand, can be wildly varying, depending on the characters populating y...

5 Takeaways: The Psychological Thriller ‘She Dies Tomorrow’

August 12, 2020

Perhaps the only way to describe She Dies Tomorrow is psychological thriller meets an ode to anxiety and short-lived relationships. While granted the film was made before we’d ever heard of the horror-inducing virus COVID-19, the film could’ve been m...

Unscripted 8.12.20: This Week in Screenwriting News

August 12, 2020

Screenwriting career consultant Lee Jessup discusses this week's success stories, industry news, online events, and more. Watch now!

The Fast Five: Anti-Trust is the Industry’s Latest Buzz Word and Ben Affleck Makes Movie Headlines Again

August 10, 2020

The name of the game this week is “anti-trust.” With the abolition of old laws and media consolidation leading to accusations of unfair business practices, anti-trust violations have never been trendier. Ben Affleck is also somewhat trending again ov...

Q & A with Bellevue Lit Manager John Zaozirny, Moderated by Lee Jessup

August 10, 2020

Bellevue Literary Manager John Zaozirny answers pre-submitted audience questions about breaking in, the business of writing and more, moderated by screenwriting career consultant Lee Jessup. Plus a special drop-in from Infinite screenwriter Ian Shorr...

Stories are Connectors: Screenwriter-Filmmaker Randy Wilkins on the Evolution of his Craft

August 6, 2020

Screenwriter and filmmaker Randy Wilkins has a history with Spike Lee that goes way back. As an English major with a passion for filmmaking at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Wilkins was assigned as Lee’s host when Lee vis...

5 Takeaways from Hulu's 'Ramy'

August 4, 2020

Viewers watching season two of Ramy (co-written and played by Ramy Youssef) will note the writers have set aside his hilarious quest for love for a much deeper, philosophical quest. As the title character tells Sheikh Malik, played beautifully by Mah...

The Weekend Movie Takeaway: The Emmy Awards Nomination Announcements Signal Hope For Our Narrative Future

August 4, 2020

When it comes to collectively celebrating the power of mass narrative, the Oscars® and the Emmy® Awards are arguably the two highest-profile events of the year. While the 2020 Oscars managed to come and go a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic hit...

The Fast Five: Netflix Ups Its Emmy®’s Game, While Issa Rae and Jordan Peele Help One Writer Break Out

August 3, 2020

A writer in Spokane sold her short-story for seven figures, professional writers share their expertise via Comic-Con@Home, and Netflix shatters the record for most Emmy nominations in a single year. There’s a lot of lessons that aspiring writers can ...