Shanee Edwards

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Shanee Edwards graduated from UCLA Film School with an MFA in Screenwriting and is currently the film critic for SheKnows.com. She recently won the Next MacGyver television writing competition to create a TV show about a female engineer. Her pilot, Ada and the Machine, is currently in development with America Ferrera's Take Fountain Productions. You can follow her on Twitter: @ShaneeEdwards

Posts by Shanee Edwards 176 results

Five things I learned about screenwriting from Mother!

If you’ve seen any of Darren Aronofsky’s films (Black Swan, The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream, Pi), there’s no doubt he has a dark mind. But seeing his latest film Mother! makes me think he’s only just begun to tap into his own psychological agony.  Be warned – this movie isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea (it gave me nightmares) – but there’s no denying Aronofsky’s a genius storyteller.

The Danger of Competing Projects and How to Protect Yourself

So you have an idea for a movie. Before you commit to doing any hard work, research what’s in development and production to make sure a competing project doesn’t already exist. Depending on where you’re at in your career, it’s likely the other project will take the wind out of your sails and render your screenplay dead in the water. The good news is that there are ways to protect yourself!

How to write a screenplay in 10 steps

Writing a screenplay can be intimidating, even if you’ve done it before. It’s a lot of time, a lot of brainpower and a lot of staring at a blank screen. But don’t strees out! Here are 10 simple steps you can use to guide you through the process.

Turn your feature screenplay into a TV pilot using these 7 steps

Most professional writers will tell you not to chase the marketplace. But if you’re working with an agent or manager, they will urge you to write what is currently on trend. The days of selling spec features are long gone. Yes, it does still happen, but it’s not reasonable to plan on it happening. Today, it’s all about television: network, cable, but mostly streaming.  And that’s a very good thing for writers.

The Tick writer on “The creative renaissance that really backs writers”

Never heard of a superhero called The Tick? You may be surprised to learn that he’s been around since the 1980s when 17-year-old Ben Edlund first started creating the comic books.  ScreenwritingU talks to a writer on the new Amazon superhero show.

Will creator uses Punk Rock to “Pull Shakespeare out of the dusty pages”

You can say showrunner Craig Pearce has a signature style, but he claims there’s a narrative purpose for every anachronism he includes in his scripts for Will, the tale of Shakespeare's life and love on TNT.

An Inconvenient Sequel’s Surprising Ally in Fighting Climate Change: YouTube

It’s hard to believe it’s been 11 years since the documentary An Inconvenient Truth became planet Earth’s biggest wakeup call ever to be put on celluloid. Now, the Emmy-nominated directors, Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk (The Rape of Europa, Audrie & Daisy), have joined forces with Al Gore to tackle the sequel. All three filmmakers ...

7 Things Sam Shepard Taught Me About Writing

My lifelong obsession with Sam Shepard began in high school. I attended an arts school, where I studied acting, which really meant I spent most of my time reading plays. Checkov was good, Shakespeare was better, but nothing affected me like Sam Shepard. His dialogue came out of my mouth like molten lava. His twisted, worn-down characters ...

Wind River writer asks, “How can I wreck the audience’s expectation?”

Taylor Sheridan has written two films previous to Wind River: 2015’s Sicario and 2016’s Hell or Highwater, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. But Sheridan didn’t start out as a writer. He came to Hollywood to be an actor. But soon that all changed.

Girls Trip writer Karen McCullah: “They brought me on to be outrageous”

Girls Trip writer says they brought me on to do outrageous R-comedy for women.

8 thriller subgenres to explore when writing your blockbuster thriller

We love the excitement of a thriller. Its plot twists, mistaken identities, savage villains and high anxiety brought on by the element of suspense gets our blood racing. To help us relate to the protagonist (and up the terror), he is usually an “every man,” someone just like you or me, compelling us to coldly consider that the same ...
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