Screenwriting From Iowa

Postcard #13 (Willmar, MN)

screenwritingfromiowa — Sat, 19 May 2012 05:58:38 +0000

Speaking of Jessica Lange (see yesterday’s post) have you ever seen the movie Country? Lange was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as a wife of a farmer during the farming crisis of the 80s. That film was shot in Waterloo, Iowa and the most memorable scene to me was the auction of a farm [...]

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Postcard #12 (Little Falls, MN)

screenwritingfromiowa — Fri, 18 May 2012 04:00:01 +0000

On Monday I did a shoot in Little Falls, Minnesota and met a fellow who said he gave a bike ride to future actress Jessica Lange when she lived there in ninth grade. But the two-time Oscar-winning is not the most famous resident to have ever lived in Little Falls. That honor would go to [...]

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Microbiology & Screenwriting

screenwritingfromiowa — Wed, 16 May 2012 08:15:56 +0000

“I believe luck favors those who are prepared.” Screenwriter Marc Maurino “Dans les champs de l’observation le hasard ne favorise que les esprits préparés.” Louis Pasteur French chemist & microbiologist I know very little French and even less about microbiology, but I think you’ll find the above quote helpful in your screenwriting and filmmaking endeavours. It’s [...]

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The Myth of “Breaking-in” (Tip #58)

screenwritingfromiowa — Tue, 15 May 2012 21:19:46 +0000

“The question about breaking in seems perfectly legit, but really it’s not. A writer must create compelling work, and then try to sell it. Once sold, the writer has to do the same thing again. It’s really not true that the writer ‘breaks in’—that’s an artifact of the belief that the person is being judged, [...]

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Go Big or Go…Small

screenwritingfromiowa — Mon, 14 May 2012 06:20:41 +0000

“The industry is moving toward the big and the small. I think studios will always want a few of the high-budget high-profile projects. And there will be more and more of the micro-budget stuff. Everything in between is getting cut back, the marketing costs and production costs are too high, they don’t make sense in [...]

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Kalamafrickin’zoo’s Talent Pool

screenwritingfromiowa — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:35:01 +0000

Even though I’ve traveled to all 50 states in the U.S. and have been to every major city and most midsized cities, I’ve never been to Kalamazoo (metro pop. 326,589). I have been to Grand Rapids, Michigan and South Bend, Indiana— so I’ve been close. But did you know there’s been some big league talent [...]

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“Detroit is Not for Sissies”

screenwritingfromiowa — Thu, 10 May 2012 15:00:02 +0000

Since I’ve been kicking around Michigan recently on this blog I thought I’d find a quote from a Detroit son. Producer/director/actor/writer Scott Spiegal went to Wylie E. Groves High School in Birmingham, MI with Sam Raimi. He and Raimi wrote Evil Dead II, he directed Hostel: Part III, and acted in both Spider-Man and Spider-Man [...]

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The Dickens of Detroit (Elmore Leonard)

screenwritingfromiowa — Wed, 09 May 2012 16:24:21 +0000

Since for the last few days I’ve been kicking around Michigan on this blog I thought I’d pull a quote from Detroit writer Elmore Leonard (Get Shorty, 3:10 to Yuma). In the above video Leonard talks about how he usually starts writing based on characters. “Who’s good in this [story] and who’s bad ? That’s [...]

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Pure Michigan

screenwritingfromiowa — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:37:36 +0000

“At a time when Michigan finds itself reeling from the struggles of the industry that dominated our economy for 100 years, Pure Michigan gives America (and the world) a whole new perspective on a state that has so much more to offer than idled factories. It’s not just an ad campaign, it’s a whole new [...]

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Kalamazoo Filmmaker (Part 2)

screenwritingfromiowa — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:32:23 +0000

“We did everything wrong—everything out of order.” Writer/director Cindy Gustafson For the past 100 years of film history every filmmaker knows what it’s like to go down many dead end streets. The frustrating part is those streets never have a warning sign reading “Dead End Street.” The best way to deal with that is to know that [...]

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