Screenwriting From Iowa

The photograph from Rockford, Iowa taken this week of the black lab Hawkeye lying by the casket of his owner, fallen Navy SEAL Jon Tunilson, is one touching photograph. Tumilson was one of 30 American troops killed earlier in the month in Afghanistan. The photograph was taken by Lisa Pembleton, Tumilson’s cousin, during funeral service [...]

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For the past 15 years virtually every video project and short film I’ve produced has been edited on an Apple computer, and 99% of every Screenwriting from Iowa post has been written on an Apple. Yes, I think the Apple iPhone is one great useful invention. And I’m sure someday I’ll even warm up to Final [...]

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“When you’re young, you look at television and think, There’s a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that’s not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That’s a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can [...]

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“I think what’s interesting about The Help and why it’s become the phenomenon that it is is it’s so truthful. And it’s in a period when truthful stories aren’t being told that much. I mean aside from the literary world—just in movies—I mean people the entertainment they’re getting these days—it’s just genre. And people grabbed [...]

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Yeah, I know, you have to live in LA to be taken seriously as a screenwriter. But don’t tell screenwriter Tate Taylor that because after kicking around New York and LA as an actor for 15 years, last year he bought a home in Church Hill, Mississippi. How’s it working out for him? Right now, [...]

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I’m not one to follow daily box-office trends, but you have to take notice when a film like The Help takes the top box-office spot over and the new release of the $90 million Conan the Barbarian and last week’s box-office champ Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The Help is a $25 million [...]

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Earlier this week I drove through St. Paul, Minnesota which just happens to be the birth place of F. Scott Fitzgerald who is most well-known for his novels The Great Gatsby and Tender is the Night—both which were made into films.   ”All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath.”F. Scott Fitzgerald (Stumbled upon this [...]

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“As a guy who runs a blog about the nuts and bolts of screenwriting, I sometimes get frustrated by aspirants who only want to dip their toes in, or believe they should be able to have a thriving film career in Duluth. The don’t want to commit fully to the form or the craft.” John [...]

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“What applies to musicians, artists, ballet dancers, and practitioners of all arts applies to screenwriters. In order to create viable art that will hold someone’s attention, you must have dramatic tension. Which, in screenwriting, is created by a line of action and opposing forces. Tension=Attention. It is obvious that screenplays have many more elements than a [...]

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Tuesday night I drove by the Vali-Hi Drive-In in Lake Elmo, Minnesota off I-94 just outside The Twin Cities. It’s been at least  a decade since I’ve been to a movie at a drive-in. But I stopped and took this picture because it’s hard for be to pass up the combination of neon and an old [...]

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