Director John Ford (1894—1973) is acknowledged as one of the greats of Hollywood. Orson Wells called him cinema’s poet. On Peter Bogdanovich’s commentary track on John Ford’s The Searchers, he makes a passing comment about Ford having an accordion on the set. I was curious about what that meant. I could see music being used on sets [...]
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Archive for September, 2011In the last couple of years I’ve read about how some writers write with music playing (Cameron Crowe, Stephen King, and Nancy Myers). Now you can add Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor (the writing team behind Election) to that list: Jim Taylor: Music is very important to Alexander. He has a musical sensibility that’s unusual and particular [...]
Sep
05
2011
 
Filmmaking Quote #22 (Lucas)Posted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From IowaToday on my blog about Entrepreneurial Filmmaking I wrote a post about E-Filmmaker (George Lucas): “Today’s upheaval is both economic and technological. Just as the coming of age of the baby boomer audience in the seventies helped define the type of films that got made, digital technology is now making production far more democratic. As [...]
Sep
05
2011
Writing the Struggle in lifePosted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From IowaAt the end of last month I finished watching the first season of the TV program Friday Night Lights that first aired in 2006, and this week I’ll finish the strike shortened second season. Since I don’t write about about TV writers much (or hardly watch TV at all) I thought now that it’s football [...]
Sep
03
2011
Screenwriting Quote #163 (Chris Columbus)Posted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From IowaIf you like simplicity in screenwriting advice, then you’ll like this exchange from MovieMaker magazine issue 84 Vol 18: Jennifer M. Wood: As producer, what are three things you look for in a script? Chris Columbus: Conflict, great characters and a gripping storyline. Simple, right? Scott W. Smith “I can understand the validity of showing people the ugliness of the world, but I also think there is a place for movies to leave people with a sense of hope. If your film isn’t going to do that, I just don’t think it’s worth making.” Producer/Director/Writer Chris Columbus Last weekend “The Help” again took [...]
Sep
01
2011
“The Lord of the Rings” FailurePosted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From Iowa“All filmmakers spend time on aborted projects… At any one time in Hollywood 90 percent of the writers and directors are busy working on scripts that will not get made.” Writer/Director John Boorman What’s worse that a Box Office Failure? The much more common practice of writing a screenplay that never gets made. (Or the [...] |
