Script mags

[E Williams]

I really like Scenario, Creative Screenwriting and Script? What does everyone else think? Any other good choices?

[Clint]

Rocks. Between it, Script magazine, this website, the Wordplay website, and the Hollywood Creative Directory on-line, all your bases are covered.

[BlueParrot2]

I think that Creative Screenwriting has the best interviews.

Screentalk mag is rather lame but it does have an occasional column by William C. Martell. I enjoy reading the bi-monthly roundtable discussions with the current Nicholl fellows. It's amazing how they are all back to square one almost after the initial flurry of requests by agents and such.

What I don't like about the mag is that there are way too many articles by non-pros or prolific American Zoetrope posters.

Script mag is okay too.

I might be getting Script and Screentalk confused as they both had Spidey on the cover this month.

[wcmartell]

Blue,

Though I have an occasional article in Screentalk. I have a regular column in Script...

And Script is mostly written by pro screenwriters. There's an article in the Spiderman issue by Nick Kazan (others, too - but that would require I go into the other room and grab the issue - I'm just too lazy to do that). Script has an editorial policy to print screenwriting articles by working screenwriters - though some interviews of pro screenwriters are done by pro journalists.

- Bill

[BlueParrot2]

Bill,

oh, okay, then I am confusing the two mags. There's one where the magazine lists the "credits" of the columnists.

One in particular "finished in the top 10 percent of Austin Film Festival screenwriting contest in 1998 and was a quarterfinalist in Cinestory." I think you know who I am talking about.

And when I read that bio, I was truly truly embarrassed for her and underwhelmed.

[wcmartell]

Actually, now I'm more confused than ever.

Script lists writer's credits in a paragraph at the end of the article. Can't find my current issue, but this one I pulled from the pile with Woody Allen on the cover has articles by Wesley Strick and Rafeal Yglesias and Andy Kindler and TV writer Steve Young and several others - they may have placed in the top 10% at Austin, but they no longer put that in their credits. Flipped through this issue and the WORST credit was either a multi-produced playwright or an entertainment journalist who contributes to a bunch of other magazines. I'm counting Ray Morton - who had an article on what reader's want - as an expert... he reads for a couple of big production companies.

Screentalk has writers credits either in a box on the first page of the article or under the writer's photo on the first page of the article. Here's where you get a bunch of "Studied screenwriting at NYU" type credits.

I haven't bought a copy of CS in a long time, so I don't know who is writing for them.

Now I have to figure out what I did with my current issue of Script - since the new issue comes out any day now.

- Bill

[wcmartell]

Blue,

Remembered that Script USED TO print a credits column on the page after the masthead. Grabbed an old copy (HANNIBAL on the cover) to see if I could find your Cinestory quarterfinalist... Not in that issue.

In that issue there were articles written by Robert King (VERTICAL LIMIT, SPEECHLESS), Adam Brooks (INVISIBLE CIRCUS), Howard Franklin (that Bill Murray heist movie), Gregory Allen Howard (REMEMBER THE TITANS), Robert Nelson Jacobs (CHOCOLAT and SHIPPING NEWS), a TV article by Genia Shipman (used to write for WALKER and that Spielberg fireman/cop show), plus... INTERVIEWS with screenwriters Chris Nolan, Stephen Katz, John Irving, etc.

So I have no idea who the Cinestory quarterfinalist is - but they don't seem to be a regular contrib.

- Bill

[BlueParrot2]

WCM,

I don't want to single out any writers who write for them but her name rhymes with Colleen Patrick.

And all her articles have some kinda of a 12 step formula to them. It's rather underwhelming.

But I do find your articles fun to read. You do a great job. Which is good because I usually ignore your posts. ;)

[Gaijin Samurai]

okay. now i'm confused. which one hails bill as the robert towne of straight-to-video?

[CRASH]

Is Colleen Patrick the red head with the big boobies?

[Gaijin Samurai]

with the face like a man? i've seen her picture.

[wcmartell]

She writes for ScreenTalk - which is why you've seen her photo (no writer photos in Script - unless they wrote some damned movie). You're getting your mags mixed up big time.

It was the Washington Post where the film critic gave a couple of my films *** out of 4 and called me that - a drug related incident, I'm sure. That whole city smokes crack.

- Bill

[BlueParrot2]

Dang, you are right. I don't recall seeing your photo with the articles that I read so I must be thinking of Scr(i)pt.

Yeah, Screentalk is not as good. I do like their PDF scripts.

[wcmartell]

ScreenTalk comes out of Denmark - it's an odd mix of European and US. Eric began the magazine on the web for free, then as a web-based subscription, then went to print. They are still fairly new, still using many of the columnists who wrote for them when they were free online.

Before Script went to newstands & subscription, it had similar columnists. People who had an interest in screenwriting but weren't in the biz. That's still the thing I hear most from people when I show up at some event as "West Coast Editor of Script Magazine" - "I have this great idea for an article about how David Lynch is reinventing the screenplay... who do I talk to about writing it for Script?" These folks may actually have something interesting to say, but the print magazine's policy is articles by pro screenwriters... So I usually refer them to Script's free online webzine (no pay, lots of exposure). Then they ask about the (i) - and I don't know the answer to that.

- Bill (had articles in CS, ST, Hollywood Scriptwriter, Writers Digest, Script, IFC/Bravo Magazine, and some reprints in weird foreign film mags in languages I don't understand.)

[BeefMissle]

ScreenTalk, Script, Hollywoodscriptwriter, Written By(the WGA-west's main news source). Also get the 2002 HCD guide.

[JakeSchuster aka Ostroff]

The 2002 HCD guide to what? I thought HCD publishes a series of directories to agents, managers, producers, etc. Am I missing something?

[dlshooter]

Is there a cheaper place to get the HCD than shelling out for it at B&N?

[dlshooter]

I just picked up my first copy of "Screentalk" and it's pretty lame, nothing I couldn't have read about in "Premiere". It's a pretty worthless pamphlet thin mag so you're basically paying 6.95 for a glossy cover of the hype movie of the month. I'd stick with "Creative Screenwriting" and "Script". Even though they tend to have almost identical industry info and articles for a given month the interviews are always great.