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Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are writers who practise the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media such as films, television programs, comics or video games are based.

Profession[link]

Screenwriting is a freelance profession. No education is required to become a professional screenwriter but good storytelling abilities are required. Screenwriters are not hired employees, they are contracted freelancers. Most, if not all, screenwriters start their careers writing on speculation (spec), meaning they write without being hired or paid for it. When such a script is sold, it is called a spec script. What separates a professional screenwriter from an amateur screenwriter is that professional screenwriters are usually represented by a talent agency. Also, professional screenwriters do not work for free often, an amateur will often work for free and are considered writers "in training". Spec scripts are usually penned by unknown professional screenwriters and amateur screenwriters. There are a legion of would-be screenwriters who attempt to enter the film industry but it often takes years of trial-and-error, failure, and gritty persistence to achieve success.

Screenwriting in the film industry[link]

Every screenplay and teleplay begins with an idea, and screenwriters use those ideas to write scripts, with the intention of selling them and having them produced.^[1] The majority of the time, a film project gets initiated by a screenwriter and because they initiated the project, the writing assignment exclusively becomes his or hers.^[1] These are referred to as "exclusive" assignments or "pitched" assignments. Screenwriters who often pitch new projects, whether original or an adaptation, often do not have to worry about competing for assignments and are often more successful. When word is put out about a project a film studio, production company, or producer wants done, these are referred to as "open" assignments. Open assignments are more competitive. In situations where screenwriters are competing for an open assignment, more established writers will usually win these assignments. A screenwriter can also be approached and personally offered a writing assignment.

Script doctoring[link]

Many screenwriters also work as full or part time "script doctors", attempting to better a script to suit the desires of a director or studio. For instance, studio management may have a complaint that the motivations of the characters are unclear or that the dialogue is weak.

Script-doctoring can be quite lucrative, especially for the better known writers. David Mamet and John Sayles, for instance, fund the movies they direct themselves, usually from their own screenplays, by writing and doctoring scripts for others. In fact, some writers make very profitable careers out of being the ninth or tenth writer to work on a piece; in many cases, working on projects that never see exposure to an audience of any size. Script doctoring companies, also known as script consultancies, are also often used by directors, production companies and individual screenwriters. These usually do not offer full re-writes, but are used when a production company or an individual requires feedback on whether or not a script is marketable, how it can be improved, and whether or not it holds any potential for development. Many up and coming screenwriters also "ghost write" projects and allow more established screenwriters to take public credit for the project.

Development process of a project[link]

After a screenwriter finishes a project, he or she pairs with an industry-based representative, such as a producer, director, literary agent, entertainment lawyer, or a entertainment executive. These partnerships will often pitch their project to investors or others in a position to further a project. Once the script is sold the writer only has the rights that were agreed with the purchaser.^[1] A screenwriter becomes credible once their work is recognized, giving the writer the opportunity to earn a higher income.^[1]

Production involvement[link]

Screenwriters are rarely involved in the development of a film. Sometimes they come on as advisors, or if they are established, as a producer. Some screenwriters also direct. Although many scripts are sold each year, many do not make it into production because the amount of scripts that are purchased every year outnumber the amount of professional directors that are working in the film and TV industry. When a screenwriter finishes a project and sells it to a film studio, production company, TV network, or producer, he or she often has to continue networking, mainly with directors or executives, and push to have their projects "chosen" and turned into films or TV shows. If interest in a script begins to fade, a project can go dead.

Video game writing[link]

Video game writing is also considered to be a form of screenwriting. Some film and television writers also work in this industry.

Union[link]

Most professional screenwriters in the U.S. are unionized and are represented by organizations such as the Writers Guild of America. Although membership in the WGA is recommended, it is not required of a screenwriter to join. The WGA is the final arbiter on awarding writing credit for projects under its jurisdiction.

See also[link]

• Screenwriter's salary
• Screenplay
• Playwright
• Script (comics)
• WGA screenwriting credit system
• List of screenwriting software
• First look deal
• Television crew
• Film crew

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Ferguson, Brooks (17). "Creativity and integrity: Marketing the "in development" screenplay". Psychology and Marketing 26 (5): 428. DOI:10.1002/mar.20281. 

Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, a Spanish writer, depicted with the tools of the trade.

A writer is a person who produces literature or nonfiction, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, essays, articles, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images.

A writer's output sometimes contributes to the cultural content of a society, and a society may value his or her work as art.

Broadly, a writer is anyone who writes, especially one who writes professionally. The term writer is customarily used as a synonym of author, although the latter term has a somewhat broader meaning.^[1]

See also[link]

	Writing portal
	Literature portal

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Writers

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Richard Walter is an American forensic psychologist for the Michigan prison system, a crime scene analyst and one of the creators of modern criminal profiling.^[1][2][3]

Career[link]

Walter developed a number of psychological classifications for violent crime, and is a co-founder of the Vidocq Society, an exclusive organization of forensic professionals dedicated to solving cold cases. As a psychologist for Michigan's prison system, he has interviewed more than 22,000 convicted felons.^[4]

He worked with Robert D. Keppel, then the chief investigator for the Attorney General's Office in the State of Washington, and together they wrote Profiling Killers: A Revised Classification Model for Understanding Sexual Murder. Keppel created the Homicide Information Tracking Unit (HITS) database, of which Walter was a prolific contributor. Walter was the first to develop a matrix as a tool of investigation using pre-crime, crime and post-crime behaviours to help develop suspects.^[5]

The Vidocq Society and its three co-founders, including Walter, were the subject of a 2010 book by Michael Capuzzo.^[6] The book is titled The Murder Room: The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World's Most Perplexing Cold Cases. Walter is also a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine/Clinical Forensic Medicine, A Fellow of the Australasian College of Biomedical Sciences and a 22-year veteran prison psychologist for the state of Michigan.

Walter gives lectures to police organizations throughout the United States, England, Scotland, Turkey, Australia and Hong Kong. He has also been featured on programs for CBS, A&E, TLC and Court TV.

Notable cases[link]

In 1989, Walter provided the psychological profile for mass murderer John List,^[7] who had evaded detection for 18 years. Using Walter's profile, forensic sculptor Frank Bender was able to create a bust of List that was accurately aged to reflect the changes in the unseen List's face over the years. This was featured on an episode of America's Most Wanted; the sculpture was so similar to List's current appearance that he was captured the next day.

In Lubbock, Texas in 1999, City Police solved the murder of Scott Dunn with Walter's aid. This is a rare case where a conviction was garnered in the absence of a body. The case is chronicled in the book Trail of Blood" by Wanda Evans and in the television series Medical Detectives

In 2005, the Hudson, Wisconsin Police Department consulted with the Vidocq Society on the cold case double homicide of Dan O'Connell and James Ellison. With the help of Walter, the Hudson police solved the case. The murderer was a priest who was trying to keep child molestation allegations from surfacing.

The Drake Case[link]

In October 1982, Walter testified in Niagara County (NY) Supreme Court in the double murder trial of Robie J. Drake, who was convicted of killing fellow high school classmates Steven Rosenthal, 18, and Amy Smith, 16, in a "lover's lane" killing. Shortly before midnight on Dec. 5, 1981, Drake fired 19 rounds from a semiautomatic .22-caliber rifle into a 1969 Chevrolet Nova. He killed Smith with two shots in the back of the head, and shot Rosenthal fourteen times in the face and upper body. With Rosenthal still groaning, Drake admitted he stabbed him in the back with a 71/2-inch hunting knife, according to The Buffalo News. He removed Smith from the car, bit her breasts and tried to sexually assault her with a flashlight. Drake was caught by police at a landfill as he tried to stuff Smith's nude body into the trunk. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of 20 years to life.

In 2003, Walter became an innocent victim of Drake's attempts to get a new trial, when, after 27 years of appeals, Drake was granted a new trial when the U. S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Walter had inflated his resume and committed perjury in the 1982 trial. The American Academy of Forensic Science (AAFS) investigated Walter, a longtime member, for wrongdoing. Walter wrote to the AAFS's Ethics Committee that he was "flabbergasted and stunned" because "the Niagara County Prosecutor's Office did not…advise me of the issue and/or make any effort to respond to Drake's contrived and malicious claims…the U.S. Court of Appeals…relied totally upon the false and misleading statements made in Drake's affidavit…without a challenge to the accuracy or authenticity." The AAFS twice investigated Drake's allegations against Walter and found Walter innocent of any wrong-doing.

The Vidocq Society, the international pro-bono crime-fighting organization that Walter helped establish, investigated the allegations and also cleared him of wrong-doing. In the course of writing his book on the Vidocq Society, The Murder Room, New York Times-bestselling author Michael Capuzzo investigated the allegations and found them groundless. Capuzzo interviewed Vidocq Society President William Fleisher, a federal agent with the FBI and U.S. Customs for more than 20 years."Richard got a bum deal," Fleisher said. "A convicted killer made defamatory stuff up about him and got a court to believe it because nobody bothered to check whether the killer was telling the truth, which is ridiculous. Richard became a victim without a remedy. Courts make mistakes, and this one did."

"Drake did what criminals do," Walter told Capuzzo in an interview for Capuzzo's book. "He lied and tried to take advantage of people and the system. Justice took a holiday in this case, and I ended up with an undeserved scar of war with crime. Occasionally bottom-dwellers in the forensic community will try to exploit Drake's lies on the internet. But I've simply gone on to do some good work while choosing to avoid lawyers and chalk it up to "life is not always fair."

In May 2010, Drake got his new trial in Niagara County. He was convicted again of the murders of Smith and Rosenthal. This time the judge gave him a longer sentence, two consecutive terms of 25 years to life, "which will keep him from parole eligibility for 10 extra years," The Buffalo News reported.

Notes[link]

Tony Kushner
Kushner in 2010
Born	Anthony Robert Kushner (1956-07-16) July 16, 1956 (age 55) New York City, New York, USA
Occupation	Playwright, screenwriter
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	Columbia University New York University
Spouse	Mark Harris[1]
Information
Magnum opus	Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
Awards	Pulitzer Prize for Drama (1993) Tony Award for Best Play (1993, 1994)

Anthony Robert "Tony" Kushner (born July 16, 1956) is an American playwright and screenwriter. He received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1993 for his play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes and co-authored with Eric Roth the screenplay for the 2005 film Munich.

Life and career[link]

Kushner protesting at Columbia University in 1978

Kushner was born in Manhattan, New York to Jewish clarinetist and conductor William Kushner and bassoonist Sylvia Deutscher. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to Lake Charles, Louisiana, the seat of Calcasieu Parish where he spent his childhood. During high school Kushner had a reputation in policy debate, at one point going to a camp, and making it to the final rounds. Kushner moved to New York in 1974 to begin his undergraduate college education at Columbia University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Medieval Studies in 1978. He attended New York University's Graduate Acting Program at the Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in 1984.^[2] During graduate school, he spent the summers of 1978-1981 directing both early original works (Masque of Owls and Incidents and Occurrences During the Travels of the Tailor Max) and plays by Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest) for the children attending the Governor's Program for Gifted Children (GPGC) in Lake Charles.

In 2008 Kushner received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from SUNY Purchase College^[3], and in May 2011 received an honorary doctorate from CUNY's John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Kushner's best known work is Angels in America (a play in two parts: Millennium Approaches and Perestroika), a seven-hour epic about the AIDS epidemic in Reagan-era New York, which was later adapted into a miniseries for which Kushner wrote the screenplay. His other plays include Hydriotaphia, Slavs!: Thinking About the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness, A Bright Room Called Day, Homebody/Kabul, and the book for the musical Caroline, or Change. His new translation of Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children was performed at the Delacorte Theater in the summer of 2006 starring Meryl Streep and directed by George C. Wolfe. Kushner has also adapted Brecht's The Good Person of Szechwan, Corneille's The Illusion, and S. Ansky's play The Dybbuk.

In the early 2000s, Kushner began writing for film. His co-written screenplay Munich was produced and directed by Steven Spielberg in 2005. In January 2006, a documentary feature about Kushner entitled Wrestling With Angels debuted at the Sundance Film Festival. The film was directed by Freida Lee Mock. In April 2011 it was announced that he is currently working with Spielberg again, writing the screenplay for an adaptation of historian Doris Kearns Goodwin‘s book Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.^[4]

Kushner is famous for frequent revisions and years-long gestations of his plays. Both Angels in America: Perestroika and Homebody/Kabul were significantly revised even after they were first published. Kushner has admitted that the original script version of Angels in America: Perestroika is nearly double the length of the theatrical version.^[5] His newest completed work, the play The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures, began as a novel more than a decade ago.

Political views[link]

Kushner's criticism of Israel's treatment of the Palestinians and of the increased religious extremism in Israeli politics and culture has created some controversy in the American Jewish community, including some opposition to his receiving an honorary doctorate at the 2006 commencement of Brandeis University. The Zionist Organization of America unsuccessfully lobbied the university to rescind its invitation to Kushner.^[6] During the controversy, quotes critical of Zionism and Israel made by Kushner were circulated. Kushner said at the time that his quotes were "grossly mischaracterized." Kushner told the Jewish Advocate in an interview, "All that anybody seems to be reading is a couple of right-wing Web sites taking things deliberately out of context and excluding anything that would complicate the picture by making me seem like a reasonable person, which I basically think I am."^[7] In an interview with the Jewish Independent, Kushner commented, "I want the state of Israel to continue to exist. I've always said that. I've never said anything else. My positions have been lied about and misrepresented in so many ways. People claim that I'm for a one-state solution, which is not true." However, he later stated that he hopes that "there might be a merging of the two countries because [they're] geographically kind of ridiculous looking on a map," although he acknowledged that political realities make this unlikely in the near future.^[8]

On May 2, 2011, the Board of Trustees^[9] of the City University of New York (CUNY), at their monthly public meeting, voted to remove (by tabling to avoid debate) Kushner's name from the list of people invited to receive honorary degrees, based on a statement by trustee Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld about Kushner's purported statements and beliefs about Zionism and Israel.^[10][11] In response, the CUNY Graduate Center Advocate began a live blog on the "Kushner Crisis" situation, including news coverage and statements of support from faculty and academics.^[12] Three days later, CUNY issued a public statement that the Board is independent.^[13] On May 6, three previous honorees stated they intended to return their degrees: Barbara Ehrenreich, Michael Cunningham and Ellen Schrecker.^[3] Wiesenfeld has said that if Kushner would renounce his anti-Israel statements in front of the board of trustees, he would be willing to vote for him.^[14] The same day, the board of trustees moved to reverse its decision.^[15]

Personal life[link]

Kushner and Mark Harris, an editor of Entertainment Weekly and author of Pictures at a Revolution – Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, held a commitment ceremony in April 2003,^[1] the first same-sex commitment ceremony to be featured in the Vows column of the New York Times.^[16] In summer 2008 they were legally married at the city hall in Provincetown, Massachusetts.

List of works[link]

Interviews[link]

• Gerard Raymond, "Q & A With Tony Kushner," Theatre Week (20–26 December 1993): 14-20.
• Mark Marvel, "A Conversation with Tony Kushner," Interview, 24 (February 1994): 84.
• David Savran, "Tony Kushner," in Speaking on Stage: Interviews with Contemporary American Playwrights, edited by Philip C. Kolin and Colby H. Kullman (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1996), pp. 291–313.
• Robert Vorlicky, ed., Tony Kushner in Conversation (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998).
• Victor Wishna, "Tony Kushner," in In Their Company: Portraits of American Playwrights, Photographs by Ken Collins, Interviews by Victor Wishna (New York: Umbrage Editions, 2006).
• Jesse Tisch, "The Perfectionist: An Interview with Tony Kushner," Secular Culture & Ideas 2009.

Awards and nominations[link]

Awards

• 1993 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play – Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
• 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama – Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
• 1993 Tony Award for Best Play – Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
• 1994 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play – Angels in America: Perestroika
• 1994 Tony Award for Best Play – Angels in America: Perestroika
• 2004 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special, Angels in America
• 2007 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical – Caroline, or Change
• 2008 Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award
• 2011 Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship^[19]

Nominations

• 2004 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical – Caroline, or Change
• 2004 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical – Caroline, or Change
• 2004 Tony Award for Best Original Score – Caroline, or Change
• 2005 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay – Munich
• 2005 Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay – Munich

Other

• Evening Standard Award
• Obie Award
• New York Drama Critics' Circle
• American Academy of Arts and Letters Award
• 1990 Whiting Writers' Award
• Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fellowship
• National Foundation of Jewish Culture, Cultural Achievement award

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Contemporary Literary Criticism, Gale (Detroit), Volume 81, 1994.
• Bloom, Harold, ed., Tony Kushner, New York, Chelsea House, 2005.
• Brask, Anne, ed., "Ride on the Moon", Chicago, Randomhouse, 1990.
• Brask, Per K., ed., Essays on Kushner’s Angels, Winnipeg, Blizzard Publishing, 1995.
• Dickinson, Peter, "Travels With Tony Kushner and David Beckham, 2002-2004", in Theatre Journal, 57.3, 2005, pp. 229–50
• Fisher, James, The Theater of Tony Kushner, London, Routledge, 2002.
• Fisher, James, ed., Tony Kushner. New Essays on the Art and Politics of His Plays, London, McFarland & Company, 2006.
• Geis, Deborah R., and Steven F. Kruger, Approaching the Millennium: Essays on Angels in America, University of Michigan Press, 1997.
• Klüßendorf, Ricarda, "The Great Work Begins". Tony Kushner's Theater for Change in America, Trier, WVT, 2007.
• Lioi, Anthony, "The Great Work Begins: Theater as Theurgy in Angels in America", in CrossCurrents, Fall 2004, Vol. 54, No 3
• Solty, Ingar, "Tony Kushners amerikanischer Engel der Geschichte", in Das Argument 265, 2/2006, pp. 209–24 [1]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Tony Kushner

• Tony Kushner at the Internet Broadway Database
• Tony Kushner at the Internet Movie Database
• Tony Kushner at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Tony Kushner on Charlie Rose
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Works by or about Tony Kushner in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Tony Kushner collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Tony Kushner collected news and commentary at The Guardian
• Tony Kushner collected news and commentary at The Jerusalem Post
• Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner documentary film website, and associated website at PBS POV
• Biography at the Steven Barclay Agency

Interviews

• Writing the Playwright, interview by Frederic Tuten, Guernicamag.com, June 2005
• Interview with Tony Kushner, Craig Young, AfterElton.com, October 12, 2006
• Of angels and agnostics, Steve Dow, SteveDow.com.au, undated

Chris Terrio is an American film director and writer based in New York City. After joining the film festival circuit, his short film Book of Kings was shown on IFC in 2004.^[1]

Terrio's first feature-length film, Heights (Sony Pictures Classics, 2005), premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It follows a pivotal twenty-four hours in the interconnected lives of five New Yorkers. It stars Glenn Close, Elizabeth Banks, James Marsden and Jesse Bradford, and features Isabella Rossellini, George Segal and Rufus Wainwright in small roles. It was one of the final films produced by the late Ismail Merchant.

This article is outdated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. Please see the talk page for more information. (December 2010)

In 2010, he directed "I Look Like Frankenstein," Episode 8 in Season 3 of Damages on FX.

Terrio wrote the screenplay for Argo a film directed by Ben Affleck, which is due for release by Warner Brothers in the fall of 2012.

He has been hired to write an adaptation of "A Murder Foretold," an article by David Grann which appeared in The New Yorker, as well as the American remake of Tell No One, a French film by Guillaume Canet based on the novel by Harlan Coben.

External links[link]

• IFC picks up short film. Accessed 3 July 2006.
• Interview with Terrio in the Seattle Weekly. Accessed 3 July 2006.
• Interview with Terrio at About.com. Accessed 3 July 2006.
• [2] Terrio to Write Screenplay for 'A Murder Foretold'
• [3] Terrio to Write 'Tell No One' for Affleck

References[link]