Screenwriting From Iowa

“What’s so wonderful about surfing is that it not only connects you with the ocean but also a certain energy in nature.When you’re surfing, it’s like you really are tapping into that source.” Novelist/screenwriter Kem Nunn “Let me hasten to say I’m not comparing myself to St. Paul. But I know what it is to [...]

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“It was the naive 15 year-old girl from California, and her desire to join the Malibu surf set, that launched surfing in mainstream America.” Riding Giants “I got on the plane with a book about how to make movies. I never had formal training in filmmaking, and that probably worked to my advantage.” Director Bruce [...]

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Since this is a four day week, and I just returned from a trip to Florida—I think I’ll make this surf movie week. I’ll start with a placed called Mavericks. In the world of big wave surfing, Mavericks is known for its winter swells just north of Half Moon Bay that can produce waves between 25 [...]

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On Wednesday the sun finally came out and the waves all but disappeared on the east coast of Florida after tropical storm Issac turned into Hurricane Issac in the Gulf of Mexico. I kicked around New Smyrna Beach looking for a fitting Endless Summer-like photo and came across these two surfers.  New Smyrna Beach is [...]

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Kelly Slater is larger than life—so is his statue in Cocoa Beach, Florida. As a surfer he’s won 11 ASP Surf Championships. As a statue he’s bronze and built to withstand 140 MPH winds. The statue was designed by Sam Drazich and his sister Tasha. Slater began surfing in Cocoa Beach, and for a town [...]

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When the outer bands of what would become Hurricane Isaac passed through Florida a few days ago it brought a lot of rain. Though the waves were mushy, it did bring out a few surfers. I took this picture by the pier at Cocoa Beach. As a nice screenwriting connection to yesterday’s post on screenwriter [...]

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At the end of my post on Neil Armstrong (Shoot for the Moon) I wrote that Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dudley Nichols was also born in Wapakonita, Ohio where Armstrong was born. I’ve mentioned Nichols a couple of time on this blog but decided to dig a little deeper to see what I could find. After [...]

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 ”The Eagle has landed.” Neil Armstrong Before Neil Armstrong took that historic step of being the first person to walk on the moon, he took his first steps in the small town of Wapakoneta, Ohio where he was born in 1930. It was reported that as teenager he worked in a pharmacy there, ‘saving money for [...]

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“Somebody who worked as a crime reporter for two years in Raleigh-Durham is gonna have a lot more interesting things to talk about than some 22-year-old kid who grew up in Brentwood, who wants to be a writer because he likes the way the life looks.” Writer/Director Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, The Bourne Legacy) Deadline [...]

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Over the past 15 years, I’ve had the opportunity to see many different aspects of Chicago (The Loop downtown, Ukrainian Village, Cabrini Green, Wicker Park, Hyde Park) but yesterday was the first time I ever went to The Heart of Chicago. I was doing a video shoot in the Pilsen neighborhood, which is Chicago Mexican [...]

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