Screenwriting From Iowa

“The desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other.” The Apostle Paul “I’m just obsessed with this search for a spiritual core in life. And I’m sorry to have to talk in that way about these films, but […]

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“I’m often asked by younger filmmakers, ‘Why do I need to look at old movies?’ I’ve made a number of pictures in the past 20 years and the response I find that I have to give them is I still consider myself a student. The more pictures I’ve made in the past 20 years, the […]

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“I say about myself that I make comedies the way John Ford might have said ‘I make westerns.’ That might be true. That might also be cloaking something. Scorsese in his survey of American cinema, talks about the American director as smuggler. You work within a given genre and smuggle your honest, artistic concerns in […]

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“He was born Rolihlahla Mandela on July 18, 1918, in Mvezo, a tiny village of cows, corn and mud huts in the rolling hills of the Transkei, a former British protectorate in the south.” NY Times Obituary for Nelson Mandela “What else is there to do when you are alone for days in the dull […]

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“What else is there to do when you are alone for days in the dull monotony of a narrow jail cell other than write long letters, think strange thoughts, and pray long prayers?” Martin Luther King Jr. Letter From Brimingham (1963) The former leper colony Robben Island  is located in Cape Town, South Africa and […]

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“Omaha, where I grew up, is the Paris of Nebraska.” Alexander Payne The Guardian “I think I’m lucky I’m from Neb. and that I have a virgin territory to show in movies.” Alexander Payne Alexander Payne’s Local Color by Leo Adam Biga Back in September Oscar-winning filmmaker Alexander Payne did a Q&A at the Nebraska […]

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“I like dissolves. A dissolve is a film technique, usually a transition from scene to scene where image A begins to fade out, overlapped with the fade in of image B….Nowadays you don’t see too many dissolves in movies. And I never paid attention to when they went out of fashion. And Kevin Tent, my editor, […]

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“I like dissolves. A dissolve is a film technique, usually a transition from scene to scene where image A begins to fade out, overlapped with the fade in of image B….Nowadays you don’t see too many dissolves in movies. And I never paid attention to when they went out of fashion. And Kevin Tent, my editor, […]

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“I  never tailor a screenplay to fit the actor. I always demand the actor come to the script – even if it’s Nicholson or Clooney.” Alexander Payne Nebraska Coast Connection Q & A “I’m not there to give an acting class. I’m there to make a movie. And I often don’t know, nor do I often care […]

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Today let’s look at how to cast farmers in Nebraska. Really. Relax— It’s going to be okay. Two-time Oscar-winning screenwriter Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Descendants) will be our guide. Come on,  I have this little blog called Screenwriting from Iowa…and Other Unlikely Places—what are the odds I’m going to pass up writing about Payne’s new […]

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