Thursday, July 22, 2010

My Own Sixth Sense -- Why Shyamalan is Not Serling and Never Was

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"OVERALL THEME LEADS TO CHARACTERS THEN ON TO PLOT" -- Rod Serling First let me say that I debated with myself about writing ...
29 comments:
Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Here’s Another Movie I Like -- Norma Rae

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I have many films that I love, but there are only a few I wish I had made. One of those films is Paper Moon. And then there are a few films ...
1 comment:
Friday, June 11, 2010

If it's Good Enough for Mozart...

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"People make a mistake who think that my art has come easily to me. Nobody has devoted so much time and thought to composition as I. Th...
3 comments:
Thursday, May 20, 2010

Life: The Other Kind of Research

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“I'm trying to take culture and put it onstage, demonstrate it is capable of sustaining you. There is no idea tha...
2 comments:
Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Too much of a good thing: The pitfalls of research

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"If your work shows, you're in trouble." --Chuck Jones I was once writing a script on a particular topic, and as part of my...
Friday, April 16, 2010

This Is Not a Pipe: The Value of Research

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Before I start I want to thank all of you who have promoted my new book on your blogs. And also thank you all very much who have bought the...
13 comments:
Thursday, March 11, 2010

Of course you could just wait for the movie...

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Thanks, everyone, for visiting this blog. I’m still getting used to the idea that people care what I have to say. Some people hate what I sa...
22 comments:
Friday, February 19, 2010

How to be Original

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"All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson ...
10 comments:
Monday, November 16, 2009

The Rabbit Doesn't Always Win

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Last weekend I guest lectured for some friends who co-teach a screenwriting class and something came up that I see happen a lot. As I taught...
11 comments:
Saturday, October 31, 2009

Here There Be Monsters

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One of the most common things I hear from people who object to learning, or having others learn, story structure is that the writing becomes...
3 comments:
Monday, August 03, 2009

Movies I Like: It's a Wonderful Life

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There are some films we have that are respected and less loved, and some that are beloved and less respected. Citizen Kane...
1 comment:
Saturday, July 04, 2009

One-trick Pony

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"Overall theme leads to character and then on to plot" -- Rod Serling There are two things that inexperienced screenwriters talk a...
2 comments:
Friday, June 05, 2009

Yet another movie I like—The Apartment

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"The best director is the one you don't see." -- Billy Wilder Someone asked me today why I like older movies better than n...
6 comments:
Monday, April 27, 2009

My bad play and what it taught me

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“Never bore people.”-- Billy Wilder When I was in the 8th grade I was a big Star Trek fan. At that time there was no movie and no Next Ge...
2 comments:
Monday, April 13, 2009

Another Movie I Like: 12 Angry Men

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“I happen to think that the singular evil of our time is prejudice. It is from this evil that all other evils grow and multiply. In almost e...
2 comments:
Friday, March 27, 2009

Movies I like

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"I know a woman who looks like a bullfrog but that don't mean she's the damn thing's mother." -- Moses Pray (Paper ...
4 comments:
Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Two Questions That Drive Me Crazy

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First some backstory: When I was a kid there were no VCRs. Only rich people had them; they were still rare for the rest of us. I desperatel...
7 comments:
Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Perfect Solution

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I would like to take back the word “perfectionist.” Let’s start by assuming that perfection is something we can actually attain. For instan...
3 comments: