On Saturday, 9th Feb. 08, our theater play Ritzen will premiere. I´m already a little bit edgy, the topic is quite heavy and the play itself as well, but nevertheless, i´m really looking forward to the premiere.

The actor Christian Krall is doing an extraordinary job and even after hours of rehearsing the performance gives me a cold chill. The reactions of the first few people who saw the play were also very positive, so it really should work out well.

The theater holds up to 88 people and we´re quite full yet, if you wan´t to catch some last tickets you should hurry now, or just visit the next performance on March 1st.

Well, the first month of the new year is over, and here are the posts i´ve found most valuable.

Should Authors Get a Percentage of Used Book Sales? by Lee Goldberg

Lee writes about residuals when a book is sold second hand. It´s an interesting topic i haven´t thought about yet, but then again, it doesn´t really affect me.

Your first 10 pages and the hook by The Unknown Screenwriter

This is part 10 of the series “Screenwriting Structure” from Unk, he discusses the important first 10 pages of a screenplay.

$400 filmmaking course on DVD by Alex Epstein

Alex answers a question from a reader of his blog whether to spend $400 on an filmmaking DVD or rather buy something else (like a camera).

Story2Oh! by Jill Golick

Jill started a very interesting project with a different approach to storytelling than writing a screenplay. I wrote about that project in an earlier post.

Originality Doesn’t Make Great Drama by Clive

Clive doesn´t blog very often, but when he posts an article it is absolutely worth reading. In this article he writes about the desire of indie filmmakers to create something “new and original”, and that this approach might not be the best all the time.

Your first 10 pages and the Ordinary World by The Unknown Screenwriter

Part 11 of the series “Screenwriting Structure” is about the ordinary world of the protagonist and therefore the setting of the movie itself.

Internet “Screenwriting” Searches by Matt Hader

Matt answers a few questions like “What are the chances of selling my spec?”, “Screenwriter’s starting pay?”, “Page to minute ratio?”, etc.

The Nines on BitTorrent and More on the torrents by John August

John writes about his exceptional opinion about downloading movies, this is a very interesting post since he speaks as a writer / director as well as producer.

Writing For Actors - part 1 by Clive

Another great article from Clive where he writes about some screenwriting mistakes indie filmmakers are willing to make when writing the first few scripts.

A revised first draft walks into a bar by Alex Epstein

A very interesting article about the producer / writer business relationship and the writing of revisions. It´s important for writers to have some kind of business safety net, Alex provides some tips.

Top Ten Format Mistakes by The Mystery Man on Film

Based on a screenplay someone sent to the Mystery Man for reading through he points out the top ten format mistakes.

The Nines on DVD by John August

An interesting post from John about what the DVD of his movie The Nines will contain (specials, interviews, etc.) and the compromises he had to make.

So there have been quite some interesting posts this month, and another great piece of news spread through the internet: Guillermo del Toro will (most likely) direct the Hobbit movies that Peter Jackson is about to produce. The full piece of news can be found here.