Screenwriting From Iowa

“Sam’s voice was very singular. It was very distinctive.” Playwright Tracy Letts

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Something in the career of Elvis informs Sam Shepard and [his play] Fool for Love. Perhaps the sheer weight of animal spirits, the flagging optimism over the ramifications of the American dream, the passion that is barely kept in bounds, the lurking undercurrent of violence and destruction, the ghost of the family with its grotesque eccentrics […]

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“I almost died once…I almost died the first time I saw your mom.” Sam Sheperd’s character Gil talking about Jewell (Jessica Lange) in Country “This movie observes ordinary American lives carefully, and passionately. The family lives on a farm in Iowa. Times are hard, and times are now.” Roger Ebert 1984 film review of the […]

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“We’re on our way out, as a culture. America doesn’t make anything anymore! The Chinese make it! Detroit’s a great example. All of those cities that used to be something. If you go to a truck stop in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, you’ll probably see the face of America. How desperate we are. Really desperate. Just raw.” […]

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“I’m self-taught. I learn everything by doing it. I wasn’t born knowing how to write a play. You do it and hopefully you keep evolving. One really great thing happened was that I discovered Chekhov’s short stories.” Sam Shepard When I was in film school back in the early eighties I don’t think there was […]

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Tim Raines was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame today. Born and raised in Sanford, Florida I was fortunate to enough to see him play high school baseball and take photos of him his rookie season with the Montreal Expos when I was a 19-year-old photojournalist for the Sanford Herald. Looking back over […]

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As a follow-up to yesterday’s post Sequence Writing (Tip #105) I found these videos produced by The Script Lab which you may find useful in exploring the sequence method of writing further: Scott W. Smith

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Way back when I started this blog in 2008 I did so while living in Cedar Falls, Iowa. A town of 35,000 and if known by anyone outside of Iowa it’s probably because it’s home to the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). Sports fans may know of UNI because it’s where Pro Football Hall-of-Fame QB […]

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“The sequence method doesn’t just make a screenplay better; it also makes it easier to write. Sequencing helps clarify character motivation and drive, and illuminate which scenes are dramatically necessary and which are irrelevant.” Screenwriter Andrew W. Marlow (Air Force One, Castle) “A typical two-hour film is composed of sequences—eight-to fifteen-minute segments that have their […]

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“I’m more of the sort of Lars von Trier Breaking the Waves school. The movie [Lion] is primarily an emotional journey, and the movies that matter to me, you experience them here, in the heart and the gut. They’re not such intellectual exercises as visceral and emotional experiences.” Screenwriter Luke Davies (Lion) “I made mistakes […]

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