One of the biggest lessons I learned from writing a soap opera — One day before the production crew began shooting our latest ‘approved’ TV episode, the executive producer delivered the news: “We signed a contract with X (a big-shot Turkish comedian) to play the part of K!” It was a shock on many levels! To be able to get such a famous…

Even when they are bad — I know some people won’t agree, but the world is becoming a better place every day. I wrote a whole article about it, but if I needed to say only one thing, I would say violence has dropped significantly over the centuries. …

How to raise the tension in the second half of your story — You might think having a grand finale will solve your problems. “Just you wait!” you say, you will surprise and delight your audience with that fantastic revelation in your third act. But will you be able to keep your viewers until then? We often start our film or novel projects…

It’s like Karate Kid, only different — If you grew up in the 1980s, you probably loved Karate Kid (1984) too. I remember watching the movie with a group of 12-13-year-old girls from my class at a rich friend’s house on their Betamax player and color TV. We didn’t have color TV at my house then, let…

Korean legal drama transforms the genre — I loved Korean movies for as long as I remember. They often begin as some distant, whimsical pieces of narrative that I initially think I won’t easily relate to. But then they slap me with a hard universal truth about humanity. But I didn’t feel the same way about Korean…

Guillermo del Toro for all ages — Have you ever binge-watched a TV show with your kids? As soon as the ending credits appear on the screen your kid screams “Please! One more! I beg you!” and you give in “Oh… okay, but this one really will be the last!” secretly happy to see one more episode. …

I’ll give you a little test to figure it out — I’ve recently read an article that criticizes #freethenipple and claims it’s not feminism. The author asks “Am I a bad feminist if I don’t want to free the nipple?” and suggests that feminism has more important topics to deal with, such as reproductive rights and gender violence. And I understand…

It’s a masterclass for character development, that’s for sure! — I had no interest in watching Netflix show Orange is The New Black. I had worked for a whole year on women’s prison stories for a serious drama show we wrote in Turkey. I had done the research, talked to former inmates, created characters, and written scenes with my writing…

As a screenwriter, this question bothers me a lot — I was temporarily working with a group of young and energetic (and feminist) screenwriters. The group won the elections for the administrative board of the Turkish screenwriters’ association, and for some reason they kept me in their WhatsApp group. Around the same time, a low-grade, offensive comedy film got released…