Screenwriting From Iowa

If you’re going to recycle you might as well recycle from the best. And today we’re going to not only recycle from David Mamet, but a quote that Mamet learned from others and that he calls “filmmakers’ pearls.” Chicago born Mamet is one of America’s great dramatists. He’s not only a screenwriter but a playwright, [...]

Original Source…

Last night I watched Daniel Day Lewis’ character in There Will Be Blood  self-destruct. Self-destruction is never enjoyable to watch, but it is usually fascinating within the confines of a movie theater. And that leads us to our quote of the day.
“Stories of self-destruction are often the stuff of great movies because the lines of [...]

Original Source…

When the Sylvia Nasar biography A Beautiful Mind, the story of  John Nash, was brought to the screen it was a giant of a creative team that created a beautiful movie.
It not only earned Russell Crowe, who played John Nash, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, [...]

Original Source…

Sure screenwriter Charlie Kaufman was born in New York and attended Boston University and NYU but perhaps the secret of his success is (get ready for Midwest connection) he lived in Minneapolis in the late 80s for more than four years working in the circulation department at the Star Tribune.
According to the Being Charlie Kaufman website [...]

Original Source…

Happy New Year.
A lot can happen in one year.  As of one year ago today I had not seen the movie Juno, and I don’t recall having heard the name Diablo Cody yet. I hadn’t even thought about starting a blog or even read very many. Then a couple weeks into January 2008 I saw [...]

Original Source…

Our screenwriting quote of the day comes from Skip Press on the benefits of gathering actors together to do a reading of your script:
“If you live in Keokuk, Iowa, and write a screenplay, you might find that actors will flock to you for the chance to participate in a reading. I don’t know much about [...]

Original Source…

Happy New Year.
A lot can happen in one year.  As of one year ago today I had not seen the movie Juno, and I don’t recall having heard the name Diablo Cody yet. I hadn’t even thought about starting a blog or even read very many. Then a couple weeks into January 2008 I saw [...]

Original Source…

 
Florida has had an awkward dance with movies for the past 100 years. While it’s had its share of feature films and TV programs filmed there over the years it’s almost as if the industry there is a façade. (Just like the above New York façade I shot on the Universal Studios Florida back lot [...]

Original Source…

      

Original Source…

Yesterday I returned to Lake Howell High School where I graduated from years ago to talk to five classes and around 350 students total. The groups were a mix of students in video and TV production, radio, graphic design, journalism and entrepreneurship.  Since Lake Howell was where took my first photography class and wrote and directed my first [...]

Original Source…