Wednesday, January 11, 2006

The Strange Case of Sherman Alexie

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I was once asked to give a talk about storytelling to a convention of high school media students with Native-American writer Sherman Alexie....
3 comments:
Wednesday, January 04, 2006

We Live in the Dark Ages part 2

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The more I talk about, and teach, structure the more I see that people have a fundamental misunderstanding about what it really is. Story s...
2 comments:
Tuesday, December 27, 2005

We Live in the Dark Ages

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These are the Dark Times. This is, in my opinion, the worst time in the history of cinema. This trend toward bad films began around 1980. ...
2 comments:
Monday, December 05, 2005

King Kong -- An American Icon

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King Kong was one of my favorite movies. Until recently. While flipping through a book on the making of the 1933 film, I saw a pre-produc...
6 comments:
Monday, November 28, 2005

GOOD STORIES, GOOD BUSINESS Part 3

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I have a friend who was in the story department of a production company and their job was to come up with feature film ideas to be done usin...
1 comment:
Wednesday, November 16, 2005

GOOD STORIES, GOOD BUSINESS Part 2

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I recently had drinks with a Hollywood agent at a major agency. We got into a little debate. He kept saying that good films are hard to ma...
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Monday, November 07, 2005

GOOD STORIES, GOOD BUSINESS Part 1

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In 1993, there were, as I understand it, more comic books published than in any other year. Just a few short years later, so few comics wer...
3 comments:
Sunday, October 30, 2005

The Use of Clones Part 2

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John Steinbeck uses a cast of clones in his novel, Of Mice and Men. The armature of that story is that people need companionship. It is bo...
1 comment:
Tuesday, October 25, 2005

THE USE OF CLONES Part 1

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“ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WERE THREE LITTLE PIGS… .” What I am calling clones have been called other names—“mirror characters” and “reflection...
Wednesday, October 19, 2005

RITUAL PAIN part 3

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The Apartment has two characters who change, but they both learn essentially the same lesson. Because change is never easy, and is resisted,...
Tuesday, October 11, 2005

RITUAL PAIN part 2

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James Cameron took what could have been a little B movie and made Terminator into a surprise box office hit. He put Linda Hamilton’s charac...
1 comment:

RITUAL PAIN part 1

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James Cameron took what could have been a little B movie and made Terminator into a surprise box office hit. He put Linda Hamilton’s charac...
1 comment:
Tuesday, October 04, 2005

What August Wilson Taught Me About Being A Writer

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When I first met August Wilson, I thought, Here is a guy who can help me understand my craft. I was in a little mall on Seattle's Capita...
1 comment:
Friday, September 30, 2005

RITUAL PAIN part 1

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“EVERYBODY WANTS TO GO TO HEAVEN, BUT NOBODY WANTS TO DIE.” —Blues song lyric A few years ago, when I was working on a spec screenplay that ...
Thursday, September 22, 2005

TELEVISION - THE FIRST THOUSAND YEARS

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I once saw a TV guide, or something, that claimed to list the top shows of the millennium. Since TV wasn't around until 1948 that left a...
Sunday, September 18, 2005

dramatization and armature

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The following is a story by Aesop. “BUNDLE OF STICKS” Once there was a farmer with many sons whose sons were always bickering and fighting w...
2 comments:
Thursday, September 08, 2005

THE ARMATURE Part 6

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The success of There’s Something About Mary was a film that sent Hollywood rushing to produce toilet-humor comedies. But the Farelly Brothe...
2 comments:
Friday, September 02, 2005

The ARMATURE Part 5

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The Iron Giant is an amazing animated film directed by Brad Bird. On its surface, this film is like E.T. in many ways. It is about a boy w...
Friday, August 26, 2005

THE ARMATURE Part 4

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There is an old piece of advice usually given to someone about to give a speech: Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. Tel...
Thursday, August 18, 2005

THE ARMATURE Part 3

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The first thing you must do to get your point across is to understand what you want to say. I know that sounds simple and obvious, but I al...