Screenwriting From Iowa

“There’s no one to tell you it’s bad. So in your own grandiosity and pride tells you—’Wow this is great; it couldn’t be any better. I think the audience would be comfortable with a two-hour-twenty-minute comedy. Why not?’ Then you show it to your studio or producers and they go, ‘Ooooh. That’s a little long…do […]

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“I would never write about someone who was not at the end of his rope.” Stanley Elkin I’ve always been fond of the above quote by Elkin and I thought I’d add some movies that I know are not only about characters at the end of their ropes, but movies that as of last night […]

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Harold Ramis was one of the co-screenwriters of Back to School so I dug around on the internet to find the most class like talk Ramis gave and this is what I found:

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 ”I’m a writer-director-actor, which I’ve always kind of enjoyed. I compared it to the Olympic biathlon. “Not only can he cross-country ski, but he’s a terrific marksman as well.” Writer-director-actor Harold Ramis “Harold Ramis and I together did the ‘National Lampoon Show’ off Broadway, ‘Meatballs,’ ‘Stripes,’ ‘Caddyshack,’ ‘Ghostbusters’ and ‘Groundhog Day.’ He earned his keep […]

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“More than anyone else, Harold Ramis has shaped this generation’s ideas of what is funny.” Paul Weingarten The Chicago Tribune Magazine in 1983 When it was announced a few days ago that Harold Ramis died I wondered how many people first thought of Ghostbusters which he co-wrote and co-starred in. The film came in second […]

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“I like to say a prayer and drink to world peace.” Phil (Bill Murray) in Groundhog Day Written by Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin If you’ve never seen Groundhog Day, all you need to know to appreciate the scene above is Bill Murray’s character is an unhappy SOB who magically is reliving the same day […]

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“I can barely watch [Caddyshack]. All I see are a bunch of compromises and things that could have been better. Like, it bothers me that nobody except Michael O’Keefe can swing a golf club. A movie about golf with the worst bunch of golf swings you’ve ever seen! It doesn’t bother golfers, though.” Harold Ramis GQ/Harold […]

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“Find out what attracted you to the story. Try to find out the essential theme and forget everything else. Try to place the theme in another context with the situations and characters. Many of the best directors really only make one story over and over again, they find new circumstances into which to set their […]

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Though more of a directing device than a screenwriting device, “sweeping the floor” is a phrase used to describe an  action given to an actor so their lines appear more natural. Sometimes an actor with a short scene or just one line wants to give more importance to their small part so they put too […]

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“How does one persuade an audience to put aside its normally critical approach to subject matter and willingly collaborate with the storyteller in accepting as logical what is plainly incredible, nonsensical and/or absurd? The phrase ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ comes to mind.” Alexander Mackendrick “Them!, a 1954 American science-fiction film, is absolute and unashamed hokum. […]

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