Movies & TV

You would think screenplay dialogue should be easy to write. Just listen to the way people speak and write it that way. But one of the few similarities between real life conversation and what...

Films are populated by characters -- characters that do things, that think things, that want things. The level to which a viewer believes what characters do, think and want depends on the amount...

A professional costume designer is required to provide appropriate clothing and accessories for any period in time. The art of costume design helps bolster the characters and the story line in the...

Structure kills creativity. Thousands of movies never get written each year because of the myth about having to have structure first. This just isn't true! Imagine for a minute that your movie...

Inuyasha is a popular anime and manga full of Japanese folklore, magic, swords, and a myriad of fantasy elements. This popularity has caused fans to create their own text-based role player games...

Writing a script for animation is similar to writing a live-action script. The format for an animation script is the same as for a live-action script. Formatting a screenplay or script can be done...

Finding success in the entertainment industry by creating an animated series can be a long, challenging road. The journey begins with finding a concept you can sell, then developing the concept...

Claymation, one of several forms of stop-motion or object-animation filmmaking, is filmed as a series of individual frames that are played back at a frame rate greater than 10 to 12 frames per...

Claymation may be considered an obsolete way to create animated movies, but the style and look are still preferred today by movies like "Coraline" and "9." While the effects and quality have...

Unlike traditional novel writing, movie scripts must be written and outlined in a specific manner. Transforming an idea into an award-winning script takes time and an understanding of the main...

The animation in "Nightmare Before Christmas," "Coraline" and "The Corpse Bride" may seem like impossible movie magic, but this particular animation, known as "Claymation," is one of the easiest...

Anime is rapidly becoming one of the most popular forms of animation and artwork. This due to anime-style characters being present in many different forms of entertainment. Anime characters are on...

Japanese animation, or anime, is an art form that has grown in popularity immensely in recent years. It's most well known for characters with big eyes and simplified and idealized anatomy, but...

Anime is an abbreviation of the Japanese word for animation. It is a specific style of hand-drawn or computer-generated graphics characterized by vibrant characters depicted in stark colors with...

You want to give voice over work a try but you have no idea where to start. Here are some tips to get you headed in the right direction.

Scriptwriting involves writing a script. A scriptwriter must have the ability to invent, the literary talent to elevate language, the story talent to raise life itself, the feminine power of the...

Costumes in a movie can often make or break the production. A large amount of planning often goes into giving characters clothing and props that reflect their personality and their environment....

Writing a script of any kind, whether mystery or other, is an incredibly tasking & rewarding process. Most people never finish mystery scripts but those that do know the fulfillment brought...

The godfather came out in 1972. It wasn't a real big picture, or hyped up at the time. Most of the cast, including the director Francis Ford Coppola were unknowns. The only big star at the time...

For many people, it is hard letting go of a beloved fictional character after the credits roll or the last page of a novel. Luckily, you're not alone. The Internet is teeming with fanfiction of...

The world of animation is endless. Sure, you can do a lot with an actual film, but through animation you can take characters and objects, as well as settings, and bend and twist them to do things...

3D animation requires a powerful computer processor and generally a lot of memory, as well as modeling software such as Maya, Blender, or 3ds Max, film editing software and photo editing software....

Making movies doesn't always require you to have professional experience or work with real actors. With access to the Internet and some free time, you can create a movie to entertain virtually...

ABC Family recently struck television ratings gold with the new television series Secret Life of the American Teenager. The show centers around one of the characters pregnancy and pretty much just...

To write a drama screenplay, develop a unique storyline with characters that the audience will relate to and like. Help the audience invest in the characters of a drama so that when problems...

In films or television, every now and then you will see what is called a swish-turn, or a whoosh effect, where the camera quickly pans around from Shot A and ends up in Shot B. Usually used in...

So you want to be the next Robert Holmes and write a script for a short film? First you need a good idea, a computer, and some script software to get yourself set up and ready to start writing.

A television test script starts with an idea. It's the dream of many to have a TV network turn your test script into a reality. It's sometimes easier to get a writing gig with a network if you...

Whether your story is still in your head or already on the page, transforming it into movie material means first creating a screenplay. The most important consideration is remembering that you are...

The phrase "Teen Drama" brings to mind a decade of high school students rushing home to watch Beverly Hills, 90210 and Dawson's Creek. With these classics, the 1990s became a decade that...

The "Star Trek" film franchise has encompassed 11 movies to date: seven featuring the original crew of the starship Enterprise, three featuring the cast of "The Next Generation" TV show and one...

Comedy movies are one of the oldest film genres, whose roots go back to the dawn of movies. Early comedy movies featured the slapstick humor of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers...

They're like bearing witness to family shenanigans at holiday time -- only better. Soap opera scripts hold audiences spellbound, tumbling out one climax after another to feed the appetites of...

Short scripts are a popular way for newer writers to test and explore their screenwriting mettle, with the added bonus that their work can more realistically be produced and exhibited in festivals...

Mobster movies have been around since the dawn of cinema, reaching their heyday in the 1930s and 40s when stars like James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson electrified audiences with their doomed,...

Writing characters for a screenplay is very different than writing characters for a novel or a fictional story--the form is very structured and dialog-centered.

Writer's block is the diagnosis given to those penmen who reach a point at which they cannot conjure up ideas for their story. It can be very frustrating and can even lead to scripts or stories...

Why just sit slouching on the couch while your kids make a mess in the living room or any other room? If you love Lord of the Rings, they will too if you dress up with them, get on your feet,...

"Anime" refers to animated cartoons, yet not all anime is funny. American anime, for example, is primarily geared toward younger audiences, so its tone tends to be lighter. Japanese anime, which...

Production design is the design of the set of the movie, or the world that the characters live within. Learn about the different platforms used in production design with filmmaking tips from a...

Write a funny script that strives to strike a chord with people, with funny, likable characters put into situations where they are out of their element. Find the humor in a situation, and get the...

One of the most popular film formats used throughout history is animation. To add life to animation, cartoon characters have been created throughout the years and become a huge part of pop...

Japanese animation videos, or "Anime," have a definite appeal in the United States. Originally starting through obscure, imported television programs and movies, Japanese animation has caught on...

One of the projects I had to do in broadcasting was create a television script along with another person. It turned out to be a lot of fun, and the finished product flowed smoothly. Here are...

Movie treatments are created to serve as a template for a complete movie plot. Treatments are used mainly by screenwriters in order to pass their ideas around without sending copies of full...

Dramatic irony occurs in a story, play, movie or television show when the audience knows what is happening but the characters do not. It is used for a variety of purposes, mostly to manipulate the...

Before a Disney character ever hits the movie screen, it has to start as an idea in an animators head. Sometimes a character can be inspired by an animators day to day life. Other times, it can...

The concept of getting lost in the middle of an ocean with only a tiny island to survive on has long been the subject of interest, but the drama television series Lost takes the idea to a new...

Did you just watch your first episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation, or are you a hardcore fan? In any case, this list will help you understand the show because let's face it, it's complicated!

So you watch shows like "Rules of Engagement" and "Til Death" and think, "Hey, I can do that." Then you come to your sense and realize that you'd rather shoot...