Everyone Says Call My Agent! (Spoiler: But in very different ways)

This month, our Script Club focused on the Turkish version of Call My Agent! (the acclaimed French series Dix Pour Cent).
As I dug into the pilot script, I noticed the starkly different creative choices between the French and Turkish versions.

Sure, much of it comes down to culture, industry norms, and audience expectations but what fascinated me was how these elements translate into the dramatic codes of each country. And as a writer, I wondered if I could learn something from seeing how each remake reshaped the same story through its own lens.

Here is what I did to find out.

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14/10/2025 0

The Audio Bubble of Ex Machina

I would have easily missed it if I had only watched the movie. But reading the Ex Machina script made it impossible to ignore: Caleb’s isolation from the world is framed through sound, in both the beginning and the end.

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11/08/2025 0

Gravy Pots and CenterFrame Script Club

The Bear is not my favorite TV show. It’s just too loud and fast for my highly sensitive senses. I can feel the tension building in my body scene by scene, and by the end, I just want to throw a gravy pot at the wall—just like Carmy did in a scene from the pilot script that didn’t make the final cut.

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19/02/2025 0

My Experience of Shonda Rhimes Course on MasterClass

I just finished Shonda Rhimes’ “Pitch & Write Stories for Film and TV” course on MasterClass. It’s very beginner-friendly, like most courses on the platform. Actually you don’t even have to be a writer to follow along; it offers a great peek into the story-breaking process and gives you a taste of the writer’s room experience if you’re interested.

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23/10/2024 0

An Alternative Storytelling Process

Yesterday, I had the chance to attend an online presentation by LIM (Less is More), the European feature film programme. While the presentation focused primarily on their upcoming year-long training programme for story development, it gave me valuable insights into their overall philosophy. I must say, I’m quite impressed by their humanistic approach to storytelling.

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25/09/2024 0

Mr. Monk’s Last Case

Every project has its own time, and the journey of our beloved Adrian Monk and his creator, Andy Breckman, exemplifies this truth once again. Since the conclusion of the “Monk” TV series after 125 episodes in 2009, Breckman has harbored a dream of bringing the character to the big screen. Over the years, he developed various storylines, pitched them, and even penned two different scripts, but none of them seemed to materialize. That is, until the pandemic struck. Sometimes, out of adversity, opportunity arises.

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14/05/2024 0

The Distinguished Citizen

Once again, here we are in the realm of those wonderfully eccentric Argentinian filmmakers: Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat. They’ve captivated me before with their dark humor and expert characterizations in TV shows like “El Encargado” (The Boss) and “Nada” (Nothing). I simply fell in love with their work then, and now, after delving into their 2016 film, “El Cuidadano Ilustre” (The Distinguished Citizen), I’m happy to report that my admiration for them remains steadfast, if not grown stronger.

In “The Distinguished Citizen,” we’re taken on a journey following a Nobel Prize-winning Argentinian author returning to his small hometown after 40 years. As the sophisticated and enigmatic writer inevitably clashes with the narrow-minded locals, we’re given the opportunity to reflect on themes such as identity, origins, art, and fame. Ultimately, the film reinforces the age-old adage that “no one can be a prophet in their own land.”

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20/03/2024 0

Owning My Taste For Films

I’m delighted to see that at least one of my New Year’s resolutions has lasted up to this day. 😊 At the beginning of this year, I made a commitment to write about the films I’ve seen. Primarily because, if I don’t do that, after a week or so, they vanish from my mind as if I’ve never watched them. Jung’s quote stating that it’s alright not to remember what we consume, as they become part of our subconscious mind nonetheless, wasn’t sufficient to reassure me anymore. So here we are.

However, there is also another reason for this quest: To own my taste for films without feeling any shame. And I must tell you; it’s been a quite journey to come to that point for me.

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13/03/2024 0

The Great Escaper

Sometimes, I happen to like the production story of a film more than the film itself, and that was the case with “The Great Escaper,” released in 2023. The film portrays an 89-year-old Second World War veteran’s escape from a care home in the UK to attend the 70th-anniversary commemorations of D-Day in France. Co-produced by the United Kingdom, France, and Sweden, the movie is directed by Oliver Parker and written by William Ivory. It drew inspiration from the real-life incident of Second World War Veteran Bernard Jordan, whose escapade from his East Sussex care home made headlines in 2014.

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11/03/2024 0

Without Air

What if an idealistic high school teacher’s recommendation of a film to her students resulted in a complaint to the school management? And what happens if that seemingly trivial incident gets out of control and turns into a witch hunt? Hungarian director Katalin Moldavai explores these questions in her feature debut, “Without Air,” offering timely messages about freedom of expression amidst themes of political oppression, cultural conservatism, and the erosion of the education system.

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08/03/2024 0