Gordy Hoffman's  first produced feature screenplay, Love Liza, won the prestigious Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award when it premiered at Sundance. The film also featured a memorable performance from his brother, Philip Seymour Hoffman, his first starring role in a film. 

Dog Bowl, a short film that Gordy wrote and directed, also premiered at Sundance, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. Gordy has also taught writing at prominent film institutions around the country including USC and UCLA. His background as an accomplished working writer gives his BlueCat Screenplay Competition some credibility, as does BlueCat's 20 year history of discovering and developing writers who gone on to find success in Hollywood.

Some of the things we discuss include

• Why good feedback is important but difficult to give and receive
• How the BlueCat Screenplay Competition can help writers develop
• What it was like working with Philip Seymour Hoffman to bring Love Liza, a script about a man addicted to sniffing gasoline, to life
• Gordy's rant about one of Alamo Drafthouse's policies
• Where Gordy looks for inspiration

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I had a number of takeaways from the conversation and things I wanted to expand upon, so I recorded my commentary as a separate track, which you can hear below or next in the podcast feed.

 

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If you'd like to hear another thoughtful conservation about screenwriting and story development, you might appreciate this interview with Golden Globe-winning producer Lindsay Doran, who helped develop icon films This Is Spinal Tap, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Ghost.

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Sponsor for this Episode Screenwriters Down South – We're a screenwriting group in Baton Rouge. Some of our writers have written scripts that have been made into films with movie stars, written award-winning shorts, and worked at production companies or on film sets around the world.   Screenwriters Down South on

• Meetup
• Facebook

# Say hello: [email protected]

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Related Things

• BlueCat Screenplay Competition

  • Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
• BlueCat success stories
• Gordy Hoffman on Instagram
• Screenplays for Love Liza and Dog Bowl

• Watch Love Lizaand Dog Bowl on Amazon

• Ashley Scott Meyers interviews Gordy about Dog Bowlon sellingyourscreenplay.com
• Gordy interviews BlueCat winner (includes a reference to Morrissey!)
• The Independent's obituary for Philip Seymour Hoffman
• Scriptnotes episode with guest Aline Brosh McKenna about the progress made in Hollywood after the Weinstein revelations.

• Shortcut for the podcast: nicksav.show

Music for the show provided by Rob Costlow.

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Books Mentioned

• Jugheadcomic book series
• Nightby Elie Wiesel

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Shows & Movies Mentioned

• 27 Dresses
• Alien
• Almost Famous
• Animal House
• Annihilation
• Bicycle Thieves
• Boogie Nights
• Capote
• Citizen Kane
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
• Crazy Rich Asians
• Devil Wears Prada
• Get Out
• Godzilla
• Godfather
• Get Out
• Independence Day
• Jaws
• King Kong
• La Dulce Vita
• Love Liza
• The Master
• The Meg - reversals
• Mission: Impossible III 
• Nutcracker and the Four Realms
• Owning Mahowny
• The Searchers
• The Seventh Seal
• Titanic
• Unforgiven
• We Bought a Zoo
• When Harry Met Sally

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