Screenwriting From Iowa

It’s West Virginia day here at Screenwriting from Iowa. Below are three of the Google micro documentaries that I field produced and shot in Charleston and Martinsburg, WV on behalf of Magnet Media in New York City. In total, I did 21 of these last year in six states and they were a blast to work [...]

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A couple of weeks ago I was in Des Moines on a project and came across a book by Hugh MacLeod (@gapingavoid) called Ignore everybody; And 39 Other Keys to Creativity. And I landed on this little sentence of his that I’ve mulled over ever since: “Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid [...]

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“I [write] everyday: bankers hours—10 a.m. to 4:00—5:00 p.m. It’s a job…On a script that goes well, I’d say I spend three months outlining and two months writing. That’s ideal.” Oscar-winning screenwriter Steve Zaillian (Shindler’s List) Script Magazine Interview with Ray Morton P.S. And for what its worth, Zaillian writes on a legal pad sitting [...]

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“A co-worker of mine was raving about him, and I had never met him or seen his work, and I said, ‘What’s the big deal about Scott Duncan?’” Natalie Jowett Producer—ESPN/Maggie Vision Here are three more videos to give you a glimpse into Scott Duncan and his creative world. The first video is an overview [...]

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One of the things that makes Scott Duncan‘s work as a director of photography stand out is his use of contrasts. Shooting wide (sometimes fisheye wide) and shooting extremely tight, sometimes he slows images down (the Phantom camera can shoot 1,000 FPS) and sometimes he speeds up the images with time-lapse photography, sometimes his images [...]

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“If Indiana Jones were a cameraman his name would be Scott Duncan.” Moe Shore Abel Cine blog post by Moe Shore  “I have several cameraman that I’m close to—that I respect and love, but there’s Scott [Duncan]—and then there’s everyone great, and then there’s everyone else.” Natalie Jowett Producer-ESPN/Maggie Vision There are some talented shooters [...]

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Yesterday I noticed that WordPress added a nice little feature that shows me global stats to this blog Screenwriting from Iowa…and Other Unlikely Places. They show me where views to this blog come from. The big three are no surprise; United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. But there’s also Malaysia, Serbia, Bangladesh, Iceland, Saudi [...]

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“If I got an email from Adam [Levenberg] with a script attached, I would assume it was great. If he suggested I read it immediately, I would.” Ryan Engle VP-Kopeson Entertainment (Platoon, The Fugitive, Se7en)  It’s hard to condense a three our conversation in under 1000 words—but I’ll try. Last December, on Christmas eve, I [...]

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I thought it would be interesting to take all the 2012 Oscar-nominated live action films and see where their stories take place. Best Picture The Artist—Hollywood, California  The Descendants—Honolulu, Hawaii Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close —New York, New York The Help—Jackson, Mississippi Hugo-Paris, France Midnight in Paris—Paris, France Moneyball—Oakland, California  The Tree of Life—Waco, Texas War Horse— [...]

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“Documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a warrior for truth.” Ellie Knaus/Huffington Post  When Americans think about Pakistan & Iran the first think that comes to mind is…well, not movies. And certainly not Oscar-winning movies. In fact, a filmmaker in Pakistan had never won an Oscar until last week when Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won an Academy Award [...]

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