Screenwriting From Iowa

When I heard that baseball great Joe Morgan died over the weekend my memory snapped back to the 1970s. It was 1975 & 1976 when the Cincinnati Reds not only won back to back World Series, but Morgan was the National League MVP both years. I was 14 and 15 years old those years and […]

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“My mentality was to go out and win—at any cost.”—Basketball great Michael JordanThe Last Dance “The same thing that made Michael Jordan a star will make your character stand out from the run of the mill, and attract the actors you want and need. Make sure your main character wants something very much, and has […]

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StudioBinder dropped a video today (Learning to Light) with Oscar-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins (1917, Blade Runner 2049) that is outstanding. They’ve been cranking out great videos for years, so if you’re not familiar with them check out their YouTube channel (which to date has over 250 videos). Below are three StudioBinder videos featuring Deakins. P.S. […]

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This mini-lesson from Lawrence Turman is from his 2005 book So You Want to be a Producer? Turman has produced over 40 films including The Graduate. At 93 he’s still listed as professor and chair of the Peter Stark Producing Program at USC Cinematic Arts. “The great Ernest Lehman began writing for New York press […]

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“[Eddie]Van Halen was not just an awesome guitarist. He developed a repertoire of techniques that transformed the way that the guitar was played.”—Steve WaksmanNPR music You’ve heard about the 10,000 hour rule, right? It’s the theory developed by Dr. K. Anders Ericsson and popularized in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers: The Story of Success. The essence […]

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Note: Check out my new paperback or eBook Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles to help support this blog. As I continue to digitize some old files during this pandemic I came across some old film school notes that were from a cinematography class I took 38 years ago. While some of the notes about film stock […]

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Besides using some downtime during the coronavirus global pandemic to finish my book Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles, one of the things I’ve been doing is digitizing old files of photos, papers, and the like. Brings back lots of memories. Today’s post is kind of a photo journey that I hope helps some of you who […]

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Talent is talent. It doesn’t matter if it’s college football players or Hollywood filmmakers. I’m calling it the talent tree, but others have used the pyramid analogy. It both cases the smallest part of the tree/pyramid is at the top (where the most talented and accomplished hang out), there’s a thick middle, and a wide […]

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Note: My new book Screenwriting with Brass Knuckles is available on Amazon in both paperback and eBook. Years ago when I traveled more for productions than I do today, I started this postcard section where I shared various shots on the road. And that also gave me a break from writing a daily posts. So […]

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When singer/actor Mac Davis died this week most people talked about his hit songs that he wrote for Elvis (In the Ghetto, A Little Less Conversation), his own hits (Baby, Don’t Get Hooked, Stop and Smell the Roses), or his popular 70s Tv show The Mac Davis Show. But I flashed to his debut film […]

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