Screenwriting From Iowa

“Montage is conflict.” Sergei Eisenstein It’s not always easy to comprehend a Russian book of essays more than 50 years old and translated into English (and reduced to a blog post), but that doesn’t mean we should totally shy away from something more than a traditional sound bite. So here’s some meat to chew on [...]

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“I was the world’s worst student. I hated it with a passion.” Woody Allen “I am plagued by doubts. What if everything is an illusion and nothing exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my carpet.” Woody Allen Over the weekend I stumbled upon Woody Allen: A Documentary on Netflix and was surprised how little I [...]

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“The American dream is raising way above what you started with…” From the promo trailer The Queen of Versailles You know, it’s common to think that the great stories to be found are out there somewhere —”out there,” places far from where we live. I remember a photography class my first year of college in Central [...]

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“For the love of money is the roots of all sorts of evil.” 1 Timothy 6:10 “Great broker! Would recommend them. They’ve started TV Advertising which I think is always a sign of confidence from a broker looking for new wealth to manage.” Online user review April 16, 2012 (Less than three months before that [...]

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“The problem with romantic comedy is really—what keeps two people apart? What insurmountable problem keeps two people apart? And in the modern times it’s very hard to know what that could possibly be since there’s no rules about manners, and if people are married they can get divorced. There’s no class problems the way that [...]

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“The odds are stacked against everyone. Beat the odds and write a great script.” Writer/director Jeff Arch This afternoon at I’m going to be doing a filmmaking workshop for high school teenagers at Wartburg College. They’d probably rather talk about the upcoming release The Dark Knight Rises rather than a movie like Sleepless in Seattle [...]

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“A word that was very important to me when I was making the movie was timeless.” Director Nora Ephron on Sleepless in Seattle Even if you don’t like mainstream Hollywood romantic comedies, there is much to appreciate about Sleepless in Seattle. Afterall it not only made more than $250 million back when it was released in [...]

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“It was her journalist’s curiosity that made Nora [Ephron] the directing talent she was. Her writing was always voice and detail. I once sent her a piece I was trying to write, and her response was three words: “Voice! Voice! Voice!’” Tom Hanks Time article 6/27/12  Nora Ephron had a voice. A voice honed over [...]

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For all those who say you should never use voice-over narration in your scripts: “How can you be afraid of voiceover? You certainly can’t expect people to read what’s on the computer. I just love voice-over. I adore it. It’s great, especially when it’s right for the movie. I mean, I’m married to Nick Pileggi. [...]

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 [President Obama]was very easy to talk to. I’ve been invited to watch the 4th of July fireworks on the White House lawn.”  Taylor Morris Tonight Taylor Morris will celebrating the 4th of July at the White House. Just five years ago he was a recent graduate of Cedar Falls High School here in Cedar Falls, [...]

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