Are you working on a film script?

Amazon has created a new tool to help screenwriters visualize their work. AppNewser has more about the new service:

Amazon’s film production arm, Amazon Studios, has released a new tool that lets writers and filmmakers create their own storyboards. Amazon Storyteller, which is currently available for free in beta, will visually map characters and dialog from a script. They can use these mockups to share with others and make changes based on feedback.

Last night, filmmaker Joss Whedon appeared in New York City to promote his upcoming film, Much Ado About Nothing. He answered questions, showed the trailer, and shared a clip from the film.

Whedon’s interest in adapting William Shakespeare‘s “mother of all romantic comedies” came from a lifelong admiration for the famed English playwright. In the past, he would often invite actors, writers, and loved ones to come to his house and act out the plays.

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Trying to sell your screenplay? If you donate to a worthy cause, a production company manager will consider your script.

Screenwriter Joe Nienalt and Benderspink manager Daniel Vang have launched a campaign to raise money for heart disease and stroke research. Vang as offered to ”consider you for representation” in exchange for a donation to their cause. Last year the duo raised $45,000 and helped a set of writers start their career. Check it out:

If you donate $25, Daniel will read the first ten pages of your script. If you donate $50, Daniel will read the first 50 pages (if it’s great, he won’t want to put it down after 10 or 50 pages). If you donate $100, Daniel will read your entire script (good or bad) … Numerous writers have obtained representation through our past campaigns including one talented writing team last year … You WILL hear back one way or another once you donate and submit. It may take awhile but you will definitely hear back one way or another. It may take awhile so be patient but again, you will hear back so feel free to follow up with me every so often once you submit.

(Link via)

IT IS ACCOMPLISHED! First draft of CLERKS III is 137 pages. Plays like the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK of the… instagram.com/p/ZQR3qqxywh/

— KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) May 13, 2013

Director and writer Kevin Smith has drafted his script for Clerks III, the next film in the cult movie series he wrote, directed and acted in 1994.

On March 8th, Smith posted the first page of the script on Instagram, promising: “20 years later, this is the beginning of the end…”

Apparently, he worked quickly. Smith posted a photograph of the script on Instagram: “IT IS ACCOMPLISHED! First draft of CLERKS III is 137 pages. Plays like the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK of the Clerks trilogy.”

The great director Steven Soderbergh delivered a passionate speech about the current state of the movie business recently, quoting Present Shock by Douglas Rushkoff as he laid out the problems facing the industry.

Storytellers of all kind should watch this speech (embedded above) or read the Awards Daily transcript, it examines how audiences are changing in the 21st Century. Check it out:

I got my hands on a book by Douglas Rushkoff, and realized that I’m suffering from something called “Present Shock,” which is the name of his book. This quote made me feel a little less insane: “When there’s no linear time, how’s a person supposed to figure out what’s going on? There’s no story, no narrative to explain why things are the way they are. Previously distinct causes and effects collapse into one another. There’s no time between doing something and seeing the result, instead the results begin accumulating and influencing us before we’ve even completed an action. There’s so much information coming from everyone, from so many different sources that there’s simply no way to trace the plot over time.” So that’s sort of the hum that I’m talking about and I mention this because I think it’s having an effect on all of us. It’s having an effect on our culture, and I think it’s having an effect on movies. How they’re made, how they’re sold and how they perform. (Link via)

Star Wars: Episode VII screenwriter Michael Arndt gave readers a peek at his process as he struggles to write a brand new Star Wars movie.

How would you write the new script? Funny or Die posted the satirical video, but all kinds of writers can relate to his struggle to crack the first few sentences of a major work.

Arndt also wrote the script for Little Miss Sunshine, and you can watch him deliver some serious writing advice in this Fora.tv video.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt and his Hit RECord production company have launched a new television variety show called “Hit RECord on TV.” In the YouTube video embedded above, they invite writers to contribute work for the show.

The show will be broadcast on the brand new Pivot channel. If you want to submit, you need to join the hitRECord network and share your work online. Gordon-Levitt explained the process:

Hit RECord is a collaborative production company. So we are going to make this TV show together. Anybody can come contribute to our collaborations or start your own … As with any HitRecord production, if we use your stuff, we pay you for it. So. Writers, write us a short story or a script or a poem. Maybe another artist on the site will act that out and that becomes a short film.

Writers around the world struggle to pay the bills and maintain a writing career in their free time.

Over at the screenwriting section of Reddit, readers compiled a list of the best jobs you can take while working on your first script.

We’ve collected these suggestions below, but it is a question we’d like to pose for all GalleyCat readers–what are the best day jobs for writers?

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On today’s edition of the Morning Media Menu, we spoke with Andrew Weiner, director and co-writer of The Frankenstein Theory. Press play below to listen on SoundCloud.

The screenwriter shared tips for other aspiring filmmakers, exploring the script-writing process. Follow this link to watch the trailer for the scary found-footage movie. He offered this advice for first-time writers:

If you are an aspiring writer, just focus on the screenplay. Really focus on the craft of screenwriting. The screenwriters that I know who have become successful, almost all of them went through years and years of struggle. Writing, writing, writing without selling a movie … for most of the most successful writers in Hollywood, it is not unusual to go ten years before selling your first screenplay.

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“My instinct is to absolutely recoil when talking about writing in a mechanistic way,” says screenwriter and producer Michael Hirst. With a bunch of film credits under his belt, along with the award-winning series The Tudors, Hirst talks to Mediabistro for the latest installment of So What Do You Do? Though he writes for a different medium than most of you GalleyCat readers, his advice for research and crafting characters is useful for any writer.

“The key for me with historical characters is they’re interesting because they’re human beings,” he said. “A little bit of Hemingway goes a long way here, but journalists and writers should honestly look at their material and have a real interest, a real passion in what they want to write, and they should also have a lot of knowledge, as well. You don’t write police procedural stuff unless you really know that beat, but it’s ultimately not the procedure that makes the show work — it’s the people. The more real they are, the better.”

For more, read So What Do You Do, Michael Hirst, Creator of The Tudors and Vikings?