Screenwriting From Iowa

“I was astounded at how really useful ‘thematic thinking’ turned out to be.” Stephen King On Writing, page 207 While I have found many quotes from talented writers and directors talking about their disdain for the topic of theme, I will say I have found more from equality talked writers and directors who embrace theme […]

Original Source…

“The more important the theme, the more important the story.” Frances Marion To show that the debate on theme in relation to screenwriting is nothing new, here’s what Oscar-winning screenwriter Frances Marion wrote in her book How to Write and Sell Film Stories—published in 1937: ‘If you cannot state the gist of a play in three […]

Original Source…

To show that the debate on theme in relation to screenwriting is nothing new, here’s what Oscar-winning screenwriter Frances Marion wrote in her book How to Write and Sell Film Stories—published in 1937: “The theme is the underlying idea, the aim, the implication of the plot; it is the proposition on which the plot is based; […]

Original Source…

Note: If you’ve followed this blog much you know that I’ve been writing a book based on this blog. It’s been a long in winding road to condense a greatest hits so to speak out of more than 2,600 post, but I’m hoping to actually see the release of it by the end of the […]

Original Source…

“‘Girl-writer’” is honestly what they called me. This was because comedy shows for people like Bob Hope and Jack Benny were usually written by groups of men who were known as ‘The Boys.’” Madelyn Pugh Davis Madelyn Pugh Davis was kind of the Diablo Cody in the early days of sitcom television, when there weren’t […]

Original Source…

Unless you’ve been stuck under a avalanche in Colorado the past few days you can’t have missed that Captain Marvel starring Brie Larson opens tonight. Here’s what the IMDB slash page looks as I type this post. But you may have missed that movie has Iowa roots. Captain Marvel co-directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck […]

Original Source…

“The farm was a stage set; the tractor drivers and nurserymen were stagehands.” Steven Bach “When I order a tree at nine a.m., I want to be sitting in its shade by five p.m.” Moss Hart In 1937 Moss Hart (You Can’t Take It with You) was a rich and successful Broadway playwright and Hollywood […]

Original Source…

“Borscht — beet soup usually served cold with sour cream and the waiter’s thumb — is a metaphor for Jewishness. . . . Thus the Catskills, which catered almost exclusively to Jewish vacationers for two generations, might have been called Pastrami Paradise, Derma Road or the Bagel Circuit. But Abel Green, the editor of Variety, […]

Original Source…

“The past is not dead. Actually, it’s not even past.” Owen Wilson’s character in Midnight in Paris (A rephrasing of a line from William Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun) When I was 20 years old I took my first film history class and I don’t remember a single thing about it—except I dropped the class […]

Original Source…