Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The Creative Screenwriting Podcast


For those of you who haven’t discovered it yet, I’d like to take a minute to shine the League spotlight on the Creative Screenwriting Podcast, brought to you by the good people at Creative Screenwriting Magazine. Each podcast, and there are dozens of them, feature the writers, directors, and producers of some of the hottest movies over the past few years. The sessions are hosted by CSM senior editor Jeff Goldsmith and usually run from about 30-60 minutes. It’s fair to liken the podcast to Inside the Actor’s Studio, but for writers. When Jeff is at his best he’s getting the answers to the questions that all hungry writers on the outside want to know: How did you break in? What’s your writing process? How did your baby evolve from concept to movie?

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do with the podcasts, but I’m in no rush. Each session has been an enjoyable listen and frequently informative on how screenwriters are doing their job. You’ll also appreciate the tidbits of information that you wouldn’t necessarily know about some of your favorite movies or writers. I loaded up the Gone Baby Gone podcast the other day and listened to Ben Affleck reflect on his writing experience on Good Will Hunting and how as young writers he and Matt Damon were resisting studio notes that tried to sway them from their approach of having Will be stalked by a National Security Agency operative. A few drafts and an academy award later, nobody’s complaining. Man, I'd love to argue over my own studio notes.

You can check out more about the Creative Screenwriting Podcast at the link below. You can also just hop onto iTunes and run a search for Creative Screenwriting Podcast. The best part is that it’s all free. Definitely worth checking out if you haven’t done so already.

http://www.creativescreenwriting.com/podcasts/main.html