Hi Scott,
I'm a portuguese fan of your blog. It's consistant, informative, and optimistic, all things that I need :)

I work in Lisbon in a different field: computer animation. Mostly advertising work, but I am now trying to implement this screenwriting hobby of mine to create a short animated film.

Anyway, thanks for your amazing work, and I'll keep reading your blog anonimously, until the day that I might have some work to show, who knows...

Portugal too, here.

Unfortunately, any resemblance with the cinema industry here in the tail of Europe is... well, none. The portuguese cinema lives almost 100% dependent of the governmental aid and the money flows through a canal of corruption and all kind of contrivances to benefit certain people. Our filmmakers (some exceptions) are bastions of elitism and not only congratulate themselves as it is their main goal to reach a small portion of the public - the hipsters, the artists, the intelectuals (we're talking about an average of 50.000 people per film, only - none of our films ever got paid, except for Manoel de Oliveira).

Currently, I study at the Lisbon School of Cinema and... I'm trying to get away from all of this. I actually dream to make it in the US. I'm attending screenwriting classes in college, I'm reading scripts, watching lots of movies. Also studying to improve my english.

I must thank you for this blog; it has been helping me a lot. I discovered it about 6 months ago and is currently one of my favorites.

I have my own blog - www.agentenaove.blogspot.com - which is about to get international - the next review (The Tree of Life) will be my first in english.

Sorry for some gross typo.

@Tiago: Welcome, great to hear from you. Is there much in the way of support / resources for screenwriters in Portugal? Best of luck with your short film!

@DiogoF: Greetings. Thanks for the info re the state of cinema industry in Portugal. With digital filmmaking nowadays and worldwide distribution network (the Web), hopefully filmmakers from around the world can go at it on their own and create a niche for themselves. As per working in the U.S.: If you write a great script, it doesn't matter where you're from. In fact, Hwood is always open to hearing new voices, especially those with unique backgrounds, so international background can be a plus, especially with over 65% of B.O. revenues for films coming from overseas. I'll add your website to my Friends list. Best of luck in all your creative endeavors.

Also From Portugal here.

Also work in a totally different field, teach college Calculus. Which is great outlet for creative storytelling. Partial derivatives are like Rashomon , change the POV, this case the variable, and you get another story.

As fun as maths are, there are other stories I would like to tell, but I must confess that what first brought me to learn more about how a script is built was the same curiosity that made me try open a mechanical toy cat when I was little over 2.

@yellow: Hello and welcome. I'm not surprised by your interest in screenplays given your background in math. Of all narrative forms, with the exception of certain types of poems, screenplays are probably the most reliant on structure of them all. In fact, William Goldman, who has written numerous big movies including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, All the President's Men, and Marathon Man says, "Screenplays are structure."

If you do a search of this site for "screenplay structure" or "structure," you'll find tons of post on the subject.

Best of luck in everything you do!

Thank you very much, Scott, for the support and for adding my blog ;)

This is such a great internationally based writers List which you have short outed here.You have done such a great job.
Nrr ear plugs

Hi Scott,
We have a WGA of our own, but I never enrolled because I still feel a bit like an outsider. They do produce an online magazine where one can read interviews with portuguese screenwriters (a few of them can actually make a living of it, with the help of TV).
It's an interesting website but only in portuguese though: http://argumentistas.org/
Cheers :)

Hello,
I'm Greek and I really like your blog. I work mostly with fiction, but I love everything that screenwriting has to teach me. Keep up the good work! And thank you!
Lef

Hi Scott, sorry to be getting late to "Mediterranean day". I'm a Portuguese screenwriter with five motion pictures produced and a big fan of your site, where I always get my daily fix of inspiration and advice.
I also blog on the subject of screenwriting in my blog http://joaonunes.com ( in portuguese only, sorry). I've posted almost 1000 articles, mostly on screenwriting, movies and tecnology. I've got a reasonable number of readers in Portugal, Brasil and other Portuguese speaking countries.
Once again, thanks for the incredible work you've been doing for all of us screenwriters. All the best, Joćo Nunes