Author Archive
Jan
17
2015
 
The President & Cedar Falls, IowaPosted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From Iowa“There’s Hong Kong, Tokyo, Paris, and Cedar Falls. That’s the company you’re keeping.” President Barack Obama speaking in Cedar Falls January 14, 2015 If you followed this blog for long you may know that I started writing it in January 2008 while living in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Well, earlier this week President Obama was in […] I’m a little late to the party but I just saw the Oscar-winning “Best Documentary” Twenty Feet From Stardom (2013) that’s currently on Netflix. Great stuff from writer/director Morgan Neville and a wide variety of people he brought together to create something special. (It also fits nicely into my thread of musical related posts.) Scott W. Smith Tagged: […] Turns out writing songs and writing screenplays have some things in common: “Around nine in the morning I’d hear Jackson Browne’s teapot going off with this whistle in the distance, and then I’d hear him playing piano. I didn’t really know how to write songs. I knew I wanted to write songs, but I didn’t […]
Jan
13
2015
Different Drummer from Linden, TexasPosted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From Iowa“Linden, Texas is my home town. It’s a small town in northeastern Texas. When I was growing up the population was about 2,500—2,600. It’s primarily an agricultural area. Some people worked at the steel mill —it’s just a typical small Texas town. There’s an old courthouse dating back to before the Civil War and one […] This is a blog about screenwriting, but there is also an emphasis here of a sense of place. And since tonight is the first college football national championship playoff game between the University of Oregon and The Ohio State University it’s as good a time as any to talk about Eugene and Columbus. Eugene, Oregon […] “I attempted to write my first novel when I was twenty-four. Bagger Vance[my first published book] came out when I was fifty-one. “Twenty-seven years is a long time to labor without success. Can you imagine how many times I was taken aside by spouse, lovers, family, and friends and given ‘the talk?’ Can you imagine […]
Dec
25
2014
Merry Silver Linings ChristmasPosted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From Iowa“The world will break your heart ten ways to Sunday—that’s guaranteed.” Pat (Bradley Cooper) Silver Linings Playbook “Next year all our troubles will be miles away.” Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas lyrics Frank Sinatra version featured in Silver Linings Playbook Here’s a little video I put together today sitting in a hospital bed on […] “If you don’t die of thirst, there are blessings in the desert.” Author Anne Lamott/ @ANNELAMOTT Hail the heaven born Prince of Peace Hail the Son of righteousness Light and life to all He brings Ris’n healing in His wings Christmas carol lyrics of Hark! The Herald Angles Sing The first time I cried watching TV […]
Dec
19
2014
Stop Making Soul-less MoviesPosted by: screenwritingfromiowa in Screenwriting From Iowa“Stop making the same, safe, soul-less movies and TV shows.” Part of a memo from the Sony Pictures leak “We have a new paradigm, a new reality, and we’re going to have to come to real terms with it all the way down the line.” George Clooney on the Sony hack and canceling of The […] “I used to call what we do when we light for movies ‘poetic realism.’ A scene should look real, but it should also have poetry. When we light something in a movie, we sometimes want it to look better than life. Sometimes we want to exaggerate a little bit to get the point across. We […] |
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