From a decade ago...
Part of this job is taking notes... and trying to figure out which notes to follow, which to discuss, and which to discard. Sometimes discarding the note requires a whole lot of discussion first. I have no idea how much of my life is spent trying to figure out notes - but probably more time than I spend writing the script in the first place. I guarantee there will be many more blog entries about notes.
I have a handful of buddy action scripts that feature a male and female team. After 48 HOURS, there was a flood of action movies featuring culture clashes - running all the way up to RUSH HOUR. I thought that eventually someone would want to explore a different kind of clash - and what is more different than male and female? And, it was a good way to explore my love and confusion for the opposite sex... in scripts where lots of stuff explodes real good.
But I never expected that in this day and age producers still would have trouble with a story where women have guns. Producers keep telling me to change the woman into a character some rapper could play - and not Lil Kim (even though she has firearms experience) - a *male* rap star. If it were only that easy. Imagine trying to change ADAM'S RIB into a story about two male lawyers - just can’t work.
So, when a producer became interested in one of my male-female buddy action scripts and *didn’t* want me to change the woman into a man, I thought this was a good sign. One of these scripts might finally make it to screen.
Now, no money had changed hands, yet. So it’s the beginning of the producer-writer relationship - you want them to like you so that they will pop the question: can I give you a big fat check for your screenplay? You don’t want to say the wrong thing.
The notes at this stage usually aren’t for a rewrite - they are just feedback on the project. Kind of a getting to know you stage. You are learning what they intend to do with your script once they buy it. But one of the things that often happen at this stage is a request for an unpaid rewrite. Here’s how that works - the producer says they have a great connection with a studio, and want to set up your script there. But, you see, there’s one or two little things that need to be done to make the script "studio quality" before they take your script in. You see, they only have one shot at this, and they want it to be the best shot - your best shot, too. So, if you could just do these couple of minor changes, the script will probably end up at the studio. Sometimes they pull out the "reputation" argument - they have a reputation as a producer, and they just can’t give the script to the studio like this. They don’t want the door to close on *them*.
The reputation thing frequently steams me - because often the studio they are taking this script to has already shown interest in other scripts of mine (through other production companies actually on their lot) and this producer would be *lucky* to ride my script through the studio gates. I’m the one who should get to play the reputation argument...
But that’s not the way to get them to pop the question and give you that big fat check.
So I play nice, and smile and try to explain why I think the changes they request will turn something that already is "studio quality" into the sort of cheese they’ve been making. Many notes are designed to file down any sharp edges in the script and make it... bland.
On this script, the producer doesn’t play the reputation card, but they do want me to do a rewrite before he takes it in. If the notes are reasonable, I may do that. I figure this guy already likes the script the way it is - he doesn’t want me to change the female cop into a male rapper cop - maybe the notes will be minor changes that actually improve the script?
And the first note is just a dialogue change. There’s a scene where my female cop first meets the male cop and she has a witty remark. Could that remark go to the male cop? Well, maybe not the same remark- but some witty remark. Lose her line and give him one? Sure, I think I can do that.
The second note is also a dialogue change... in fact, it’s another witty remark by the female cop. The male cop already has a witty remark - but can I lose hers?
The third note... the fourth note... the fifth note...
All of the notes are about giving the male cop all of the witty lines. Now, this is *banter* where the two trade insults - and by removing her lines, all we have left is the male cop insulting the female cop for the entire script.
The first note I get that isn’t about dialogue is about a scene where the female cop saves the male cop’s life in a scene - which is a set up for a later scene where he saves her. And throughout the script part of their relationship is based on her saving his life - so he owes her. Guess what the producer wants to do? Can we switch the script so that the male cop saves her in the earlier scene... then also saves her in the later scene?
So, I start out discussing these notes. The problem with the dialogue notes is that if it’s all him insulting her - it stops being funny. Part of these exchanges are the back-and-forth nature... they build to (hopefully) bigger and bigger laughs. Without the back-and-forth there is no build and the it won’t be as funny.
The producer disagrees - it’s just better without her responses. It just is.
So I discuss the relationship between the two - and how that will suffer if everything is one sided.
The producer disagrees again.
Anyway - no matter how I try to explain why it’s better if you have two evenly matched people playing the game, he’s not having any of it.
Now, here’s where this guy went wrong: he didn’t bring in the audience. It was all "because he knows what works". If he had explained to me that the audience for films like this are 15-25 year old males who are already insecure around women and by having a woman be an equal or even *potentially* dominant character would scare them away - and the movie would flop, I would have understood that. I’m not sure I would have made the changes - but I would have really given it some thought.
As it was, these notes were discarded. The producer obviously had problems with women and wanted me to change the script to make him happy. Just as I am going to consider notes that may change the script from what *I* want in order to make it a better script, I am also going to discard any note that will change the script just to make it what one person wants - be that a star or director or producer. Notes are to improve the script or make it more "filmable" - sometimes changes need to be made for location or cast or other practical elements in order to physically make the film. I’m more than willing to make those changes, even if they end up with some silly stuff like changing the fear of spending time in a Mexican prison onto the fear of spending time in a Canadian prison (HARD EVIDENCE). Some things just have to be done in order to get the film made.
In this case, I told the producer I disagreed - I thought the notes would ruin the script.
And that pulled the plug on the deal.
And maybe closed the door at this production company, because instead of being a discussion of what might work or not work in a movie - it was all about what he thought worked (no reason). His instincts. His experiences in the trenches as a producer.
Now, I also have instincts. I also have experience in the trenches.
As a writer, I often know what works and what doesn’t just by instinct. That might be good enough when I’m writing the script, but it’s not god enough when I’m discussing the notes with a producer. There I need *evidence*. You can’t discuss feelings and instincts and opinions. We all have those. The only thing we can discuss as facts. That means we need to be able to figure out why one thing works and another doesn’t so that we can discuss the notes. We need to be able to cite evidence when we discuss notes, so that it’s not "he said, she said" but creative decisions based on a logical reason. And this goes for both sides of the table - producers and development executives need to be able to explain the reasons behind their notes.
So, that one isn’t going to get made. On to the next chance for glory....
- Bill
Wednesday, February 08, 2017
Monday, February 06, 2017
Lancelot Link Monday: Awards!
Lancelot Link Monday! Before the Oscars are all of the guild awards - awards given to Key Grips by other Key Grips. Though often these are a great indicator or what will win on Oscar night, and what is *really* the best in its category, sometimes these awards go to craftsmen who do weird outlandish things that are completely anti-Hollywood. They are sometimes awards for *balls*. This week we have lists of winners for some of those guilds (not Key Grips) and a bunch of other fun links. Why isn't there an award show for the Key Grips?
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Split .......................... $14,584,485
2 Rings .......................... $13,000,000
3 Dog's .......................... $10,824,830
4 Hidden Fig ..................... $10,100,000
5 La La ........................... $7,450,000
6 RE: TFC ......................... $4,500,000
7 Sing ............................ $4,080,715
8 Lion ............................ $4,006,000
9 Space ........................... $3,820,000
10 XXX ............................. $3,700,000
THE SPACE BETWEEN US is a major major flop! Yikes!
2) This Is The Anniversary Of The Release Of BIRTH OF A NATION... and PBS Has A Documentary Tonight.
3) All Of The Super Bowl Trailers In One Place!
4) ASC Cinematography Award Winners.
5) Animation Awards Winners.
6) Screen Actors Guild Award Winners.
7) Directors Guild Awards: Winners
8) The Joys Of Pitching TV.
9) A Look At MIDNIGHT RUN (includes screenplay).
10) Working From Home.
11) Everything is a Damned Remake (1939 version)!
12) Clive Barker's Horror Film Contest - Win A $300,000 Budget.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Warming you up for Friday's release of JOHN WICK CHAPTER 2.
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Split .......................... $14,584,485
2 Rings .......................... $13,000,000
3 Dog's .......................... $10,824,830
4 Hidden Fig ..................... $10,100,000
5 La La ........................... $7,450,000
6 RE: TFC ......................... $4,500,000
7 Sing ............................ $4,080,715
8 Lion ............................ $4,006,000
9 Space ........................... $3,820,000
10 XXX ............................. $3,700,000
THE SPACE BETWEEN US is a major major flop! Yikes!
2) This Is The Anniversary Of The Release Of BIRTH OF A NATION... and PBS Has A Documentary Tonight.
3) All Of The Super Bowl Trailers In One Place!
4) ASC Cinematography Award Winners.
5) Animation Awards Winners.
6) Screen Actors Guild Award Winners.
7) Directors Guild Awards: Winners
8) The Joys Of Pitching TV.
9) A Look At MIDNIGHT RUN (includes screenplay).
10) Working From Home.
11) Everything is a Damned Remake (1939 version)!
12) Clive Barker's Horror Film Contest - Win A $300,000 Budget.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Warming you up for Friday's release of JOHN WICK CHAPTER 2.
Bill
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Thursday, February 02, 2017
Happy Groundhog Day!
No, this is not a holiday honoring Jimmy Dean sausage... it honors a rodent’s shadow. Now that’s a good reason for a holiday! It’s also the shortest month of the year, and Black History Month... so rent some Spike Lee movies like SCHOOL DAZE. And MALCOLM X... And maybe SHAFT’S BIG SCORE. Plus SOUNDER, even though it was directed by a white guy. You can see a different *great* movie either directed by an African American or starring an African American every day this month! There are easily 28 - had Black History Month been last month, you may have had a problem. The Hollywood Man doesn’t let minorities makes movies all that often.
If only Ernie Hudson had starred in GROUNDHOG DAY, you could watch that today for a two-fer! But the fourth Ghostbuster kind of got swept under the rug when they could have made him into a star - have you seen HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE? That guy can act!
I plan on celebrating Groundhog Day in the traditional Native American way - the family has dug a whole in the living room floor and we have placed gifts around the hole. If the groundhog come up through the hole and sees his shadow - we have to return all of the gifts, even if they were the right size and exactly what we wanted. If he doesn’t see his shadow, we open the gifts and continue the celebration.
Have a great Groundhog Day, and watch some good movies!
Black History Movies on Amazon!
TCM's Black History Month Line Up!
- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: The Pitch Reveals - when you condense your script to a pitch, all of the flaws show.
Dinner: Togos - turkey & swiss.
Pages: A couple of the family script, but have to really get my butt in gear because they need to read it.
Bicycle: Yes.
If only Ernie Hudson had starred in GROUNDHOG DAY, you could watch that today for a two-fer! But the fourth Ghostbuster kind of got swept under the rug when they could have made him into a star - have you seen HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE? That guy can act!
I plan on celebrating Groundhog Day in the traditional Native American way - the family has dug a whole in the living room floor and we have placed gifts around the hole. If the groundhog come up through the hole and sees his shadow - we have to return all of the gifts, even if they were the right size and exactly what we wanted. If he doesn’t see his shadow, we open the gifts and continue the celebration.
Have a great Groundhog Day, and watch some good movies!
Black History Movies on Amazon!
TCM's Black History Month Line Up!
- Bill
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: The Pitch Reveals - when you condense your script to a pitch, all of the flaws show.
Dinner: Togos - turkey & swiss.
Pages: A couple of the family script, but have to really get my butt in gear because they need to read it.
Bicycle: Yes.
Wednesday, February 01, 2017
Bad Ideas.... in 3D!
From a decade ago...
The summer movies are coming out, and almost all of them end in the number 3. Sequels and franchises have been a part of movies since the early days - and the beloved THIN MAN series although they may have been greeted with "Not another damned Thin Man movie" back in the 1940s. We love all of those Rathbone/Bruce SHERLOCK HOLMES movies, but they really lost quality after the third or fourth one - and the rest (where Sherlock was usually battling Nazis) were just the studio cashing in. The more things change the more they remain the same.
Horror movies always seem to end up franchises. The first one makes money, so they milk the premise for as many films as they can. But Horror films follow a strange pattern with their sequels....
Movie #1 sets up the series - though usually no one ever intended it to be a series..
Movie #2 sends in the military. ALIENS, the original DAWN OF THE DEAD, the new HILLS HAVE EYES 2... all send in the military to fight the monster.
Movie #3 is in 3D. JAWS 3D, FRIDAY THE 13th 3D, and many more.
After that, there’s always a movie where they Take Manhattan (Jason and The Muppets have both done this!)
Then there’s a movie where the monster is in The Hood. (LEPRECHAUN and a few others).
Then there’s one that gives us New Blood. (FRIDAY THE 13th did this).
Then they send the monster into outer space (JASON X, LEPRECHAUN 4, one of the HELLRAISER movies).
After that, they get to fight whoever wins the Alien vs. Predator bout later this summer.
Okay - what horror movie sequel cliches did I miss? What movies fit these patterns that I didn’t mention? And when will they send the shark from JAWS to the hood?
- Bill
The summer movies are coming out, and almost all of them end in the number 3. Sequels and franchises have been a part of movies since the early days - and the beloved THIN MAN series although they may have been greeted with "Not another damned Thin Man movie" back in the 1940s. We love all of those Rathbone/Bruce SHERLOCK HOLMES movies, but they really lost quality after the third or fourth one - and the rest (where Sherlock was usually battling Nazis) were just the studio cashing in. The more things change the more they remain the same.
Horror movies always seem to end up franchises. The first one makes money, so they milk the premise for as many films as they can. But Horror films follow a strange pattern with their sequels....
Movie #1 sets up the series - though usually no one ever intended it to be a series..
Movie #2 sends in the military. ALIENS, the original DAWN OF THE DEAD, the new HILLS HAVE EYES 2... all send in the military to fight the monster.
Movie #3 is in 3D. JAWS 3D, FRIDAY THE 13th 3D, and many more.
After that, there’s always a movie where they Take Manhattan (Jason and The Muppets have both done this!)
Then there’s a movie where the monster is in The Hood. (LEPRECHAUN and a few others).
Then there’s one that gives us New Blood. (FRIDAY THE 13th did this).
Then they send the monster into outer space (JASON X, LEPRECHAUN 4, one of the HELLRAISER movies).
After that, they get to fight whoever wins the Alien vs. Predator bout later this summer.
Okay - what horror movie sequel cliches did I miss? What movies fit these patterns that I didn’t mention? And when will they send the shark from JAWS to the hood?
- Bill
Monday, January 30, 2017
Free Short Story!
FREE THIS WEEK!
NEW SHORT STORY!
*** PRIME RATE
Modern day cattle rustlers. If you've gone grocery shopping lately you know there's big money in stolen beef.
Chuck Skinner inherited his father’s neighborhood butcher shop. A dying business... until Lee Benjamin made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Benjamin was the head of the Mary-Anne Mob, a group of modern day cattle rustlers who steal truckloads of cattle... and need butcher shops like Chuck’s to cut and sell the meat. If you’ve gone grocery shopping lately you know there’s a huge profit in beef... and Benjamin provides Chuck with a fake USDA Prime stamp - making his cuts of meat superior than anything you can buy in a supermarket. Chuck’s butcher shop becomes *very* profitable...
But when Mr. Benjamin, his huge violent bodyguard Woodsie, and a strange little man in wire-rimmed glasses show up one night at the butcher shop and accuse Chuck of skimming money off the top and cheating the mob, the butcher ends up in a fight for his life. Can he outsmart Mr. Benjamin? Who is that guy in the wire-rimmed glasses?
FREE From Monday Until Friday!
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Bill's Retirement Plan
Because I'm busy trying to finish this danged Blue Book, here is a blog entry from 2006 (over a decade ago) where I came up with the idea for Mitch Robertson (who will return in a new novelette at the end of February). Hopefully a new blog entry here next week!
- Bill
So, one of my problems with having a bunch of great behind the scenes stories is that I still have to work in this town... so there are some I just can’t tell. But I want to. I’m even compelled to tell these stories. Stop me before I dish again! I never knew what to do with these stories....
Until a couple of days ago.
While I was on my working vacation I bought a stack of books to read on the plane and in the airport, and finally got around to reading one after I returned. BLONDE LIGHTNING is the second book in a 2 book mystery series by T.L. Lankford. I’ve meet T.L. a few times because we have a friend in common - director Fred Olen Ray. Fred is a low budget director with zillions of films to his credit - many under pseudonyms. He directed by DROID GUNNER flick and my INVISIBLE MOM flick, and is a heck of a nice guy. Fred directed a few T.L. Lankford scripts before my stuff, and T.L. was at the DROID GUNNER wrap party... which Fred paid for out of his own pocket. So when BLONDE LIGHTNING hit paperback and got a great write up in Entertainment Weekly and the L.A. Times, I figured I should read it.
I’m a mystery and thriller guy, so this is my genre...
The bad news about BLONDE LIGHTNING (and the first book EARTHQUAKE WEATHER):
1) No real mystery. You know who done it, there are no clues and no twists.
2) Not much of a detective story. The protagonist, Mark Hayes, doesn’t do much to actively solve the crimes in the books, he just kind of hangs around until things sort themselves out. He doesn’t question witnesses or run down clues or anything like that. In LIGHTNING, the villain may not even be the villain - nobody ever actually investigates to find out whether he’s behind the crimes or not.
3) Not much suspense. Though Mark becomes a suspect in EARTHQUAKE, he’s not really a man on the run or anything. In LIGHTNING he’s never really in much jeopardy, and there are no suspense set pieces in either book and no real plot twists.
4) Not much action. The two biggest action scenes in LIGHTING are off screen - and don’t involve Mark. The villain gets wacked, then a mobster gets wacked (with Mark as look out - but he's in some other room when the action happens). There’s a great shoot out at the end where Mark gets to shoot a guy, but the rest of the book is pretty light on action. There’s a car wreck and a small fist fight, but 50 pages of any Mickey Spillane novel has more action than the entire book.
Okay, you’d think that was a bad review, right? Well here’s the good news...
1) Though the mystery and thriller stuff is kind of light, LIGHTNING is still a page turner. Why? It deals with making a low budget film. The hero is Development Exec who is on the short list of suspects when his jerk-producer is murdered in EARTHQUAKE, and after being a studio level pariah, manages to land a job working on a low budget film with many problems in LIGHTNING. You may not care if the bad guy is captured in LIGHTNING, but you constantly worry when the film gets behind schedule or an actor completely screws up an entire day of filming. At one point the First AD quits the film, and I had to keep reading to find out if the film crashed and burned or not. What we have here is a Hollywood novel.
2) The film takes you behind the scenes and shows you how films are really made. Though I wish it had been more "Tom Clancy" small detail oriented, you still get a great picture of all of those things that really happen on a film - and so much of the book is devoted to the hell of making a film on a tight budget, it’s almost like being there. If you’ve never been on a film set, if you’ve never had a script put on film, this book will teach you what really happens - and it's not a pretty picture! Most Hollywood novels are about flashy movie stars and sex scandals, but LIGHTNING is about actually making a movie. I can’t think of another novel that’s about making a movie.
3) The roman-a-clef aspect. Lankford has combined real life people to create his characters, and I recognized some portions of his composites. One of the actors has some characteristics of an actor I know personally - a guy I’ve worked with. A guy Lankford has worked with. So he gets to dish about all kinds of behind the scenes scandals without actually naming names...
Which brings me to my retirement plan.
See, I have all of these juicy stories I can’t really tell... unless I fictionalize the incidents and create composite characters.
Hmmm...
So, when I get too much gray in my hair to sell scripts, my plan is to "retire" to writing novels. Long ago I wrote 3 novels - all in dusty boxes - two comedy spy novels and a noir thriller. The plan is to follow in Lankford’s footsteps and write some Hollywood mysteries... but do it my way. Real mysteries with lots of twists, real thrills with lots of suspense scenes, and that "Tom Clancy" detail that will make each book a lesson in how films are really made. So, without being too Harlan-Ellison-The-Novel-I’m-Writing-In-Ten-Years-Is-Titled.... my first "retirement" novel will be called FIRST TAKE and it will follow screenwriter Mitch Robertson as his first script is produced... and the producer is murdered while on location in Mexico and the films funds mysteriously vanish... and Mitch is #1 suspect on the run from the South-Of-The-Border law. Any resemblance to the filming of TREACHEROUS will be strictly coincidental. The fun thing is - I can tell all of those stories that will get me banned from Hollywood for life... in a completely fictional world.
Of course, before I retire I still have a big stack of scripts to write... and some new classes on audio CD to record, and I have to take that 6 screenwriting books worth of articles on my hard drive and actually turn it into 6 new screenwriting books (actually working on that now)...
And sell a stack of new scripts so that I can have some more adventures to share with you in this blog. In fact, I’d better get to work on that!
- Bill
- Bill
So, one of my problems with having a bunch of great behind the scenes stories is that I still have to work in this town... so there are some I just can’t tell. But I want to. I’m even compelled to tell these stories. Stop me before I dish again! I never knew what to do with these stories....
Until a couple of days ago.
While I was on my working vacation I bought a stack of books to read on the plane and in the airport, and finally got around to reading one after I returned. BLONDE LIGHTNING is the second book in a 2 book mystery series by T.L. Lankford. I’ve meet T.L. a few times because we have a friend in common - director Fred Olen Ray. Fred is a low budget director with zillions of films to his credit - many under pseudonyms. He directed by DROID GUNNER flick and my INVISIBLE MOM flick, and is a heck of a nice guy. Fred directed a few T.L. Lankford scripts before my stuff, and T.L. was at the DROID GUNNER wrap party... which Fred paid for out of his own pocket. So when BLONDE LIGHTNING hit paperback and got a great write up in Entertainment Weekly and the L.A. Times, I figured I should read it.
I’m a mystery and thriller guy, so this is my genre...
The bad news about BLONDE LIGHTNING (and the first book EARTHQUAKE WEATHER):
1) No real mystery. You know who done it, there are no clues and no twists.
2) Not much of a detective story. The protagonist, Mark Hayes, doesn’t do much to actively solve the crimes in the books, he just kind of hangs around until things sort themselves out. He doesn’t question witnesses or run down clues or anything like that. In LIGHTNING, the villain may not even be the villain - nobody ever actually investigates to find out whether he’s behind the crimes or not.
3) Not much suspense. Though Mark becomes a suspect in EARTHQUAKE, he’s not really a man on the run or anything. In LIGHTNING he’s never really in much jeopardy, and there are no suspense set pieces in either book and no real plot twists.
4) Not much action. The two biggest action scenes in LIGHTING are off screen - and don’t involve Mark. The villain gets wacked, then a mobster gets wacked (with Mark as look out - but he's in some other room when the action happens). There’s a great shoot out at the end where Mark gets to shoot a guy, but the rest of the book is pretty light on action. There’s a car wreck and a small fist fight, but 50 pages of any Mickey Spillane novel has more action than the entire book.
Okay, you’d think that was a bad review, right? Well here’s the good news...
1) Though the mystery and thriller stuff is kind of light, LIGHTNING is still a page turner. Why? It deals with making a low budget film. The hero is Development Exec who is on the short list of suspects when his jerk-producer is murdered in EARTHQUAKE, and after being a studio level pariah, manages to land a job working on a low budget film with many problems in LIGHTNING. You may not care if the bad guy is captured in LIGHTNING, but you constantly worry when the film gets behind schedule or an actor completely screws up an entire day of filming. At one point the First AD quits the film, and I had to keep reading to find out if the film crashed and burned or not. What we have here is a Hollywood novel.
2) The film takes you behind the scenes and shows you how films are really made. Though I wish it had been more "Tom Clancy" small detail oriented, you still get a great picture of all of those things that really happen on a film - and so much of the book is devoted to the hell of making a film on a tight budget, it’s almost like being there. If you’ve never been on a film set, if you’ve never had a script put on film, this book will teach you what really happens - and it's not a pretty picture! Most Hollywood novels are about flashy movie stars and sex scandals, but LIGHTNING is about actually making a movie. I can’t think of another novel that’s about making a movie.
3) The roman-a-clef aspect. Lankford has combined real life people to create his characters, and I recognized some portions of his composites. One of the actors has some characteristics of an actor I know personally - a guy I’ve worked with. A guy Lankford has worked with. So he gets to dish about all kinds of behind the scenes scandals without actually naming names...
Which brings me to my retirement plan.
See, I have all of these juicy stories I can’t really tell... unless I fictionalize the incidents and create composite characters.
Hmmm...
So, when I get too much gray in my hair to sell scripts, my plan is to "retire" to writing novels. Long ago I wrote 3 novels - all in dusty boxes - two comedy spy novels and a noir thriller. The plan is to follow in Lankford’s footsteps and write some Hollywood mysteries... but do it my way. Real mysteries with lots of twists, real thrills with lots of suspense scenes, and that "Tom Clancy" detail that will make each book a lesson in how films are really made. So, without being too Harlan-Ellison-The-Novel-I’m-Writing-In-Ten-Years-Is-Titled.... my first "retirement" novel will be called FIRST TAKE and it will follow screenwriter Mitch Robertson as his first script is produced... and the producer is murdered while on location in Mexico and the films funds mysteriously vanish... and Mitch is #1 suspect on the run from the South-Of-The-Border law. Any resemblance to the filming of TREACHEROUS will be strictly coincidental. The fun thing is - I can tell all of those stories that will get me banned from Hollywood for life... in a completely fictional world.
Of course, before I retire I still have a big stack of scripts to write... and some new classes on audio CD to record, and I have to take that 6 screenwriting books worth of articles on my hard drive and actually turn it into 6 new screenwriting books (actually working on that now)...
And sell a stack of new scripts so that I can have some more adventures to share with you in this blog. In fact, I’d better get to work on that!
- Bill
Monday, January 16, 2017
Lancelot Link Monday: Hidden Fences
Lancelot Link Monday! Just in time for Martin Luther King Day - the #1 movie over the weekend was a true story about NASA's first manned space flight... and the *African American* *women* who made it possible. This film made more money that ROGUE ONE or the new Ben Affleck Movie or the horror movie (released on Friday the 13th). Awesome! If you make it they will come (unless you are Ben making the middle book of a trilogy).
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Hidden ........................ $20,450,000
2 La La .......................... $14,500,000
3 Sing ........................... $13,810,970
4 Rogue One ...................... $13,759,000
5 Bye Bye......................... $13,378,000
6 Patriots ....................... $12,000,000
7 Monster ........................ $10,500,000
8 Sleepless ....................... $8,468,787
9 Underwear........................ $5,815,000
10 Passengers....................... $5,625,000
2) LA LA LAND's Long Fight To The Screen.
3) Lonergan (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA) On Writing.
4) My Friend Matt Altman On Screenwritin' and Kung Fu Fightin'
5) Wriring With A Partner: How To Avoid Killing Them.
6) The Reality Of Being A Best Selling Writer. The Same Is True For Screenwriters!
7) French People Prefer Thrillers Over Dramas. (Um, this is nothing new - check out the films of Chabrol or Robert Enrico or even Truffaut.)
8) Old Spielberg (he's 70).
9) Why People In Boston Hate PATRIOTS DAY.
10) Seven Screenwriting Tips From Oscar Nominees!
11) Apple TV - Making Their Own Shows (someone has to write those).
12) Complete List Of For Your Consideration Screenplay PDFs Available For YOU To Read!
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Hidden ........................ $20,450,000
2 La La .......................... $14,500,000
3 Sing ........................... $13,810,970
4 Rogue One ...................... $13,759,000
5 Bye Bye......................... $13,378,000
6 Patriots ....................... $12,000,000
7 Monster ........................ $10,500,000
8 Sleepless ....................... $8,468,787
9 Underwear........................ $5,815,000
10 Passengers....................... $5,625,000
2) LA LA LAND's Long Fight To The Screen.
3) Lonergan (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA) On Writing.
4) My Friend Matt Altman On Screenwritin' and Kung Fu Fightin'
5) Wriring With A Partner: How To Avoid Killing Them.
6) The Reality Of Being A Best Selling Writer. The Same Is True For Screenwriters!
7) French People Prefer Thrillers Over Dramas. (Um, this is nothing new - check out the films of Chabrol or Robert Enrico or even Truffaut.)
8) Old Spielberg (he's 70).
9) Why People In Boston Hate PATRIOTS DAY.
10) Seven Screenwriting Tips From Oscar Nominees!
11) Apple TV - Making Their Own Shows (someone has to write those).
12) Complete List Of For Your Consideration Screenplay PDFs Available For YOU To Read!
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Bill
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Monday, January 09, 2017
Lancelot Link Monday: Those Golden Globes!
Lancelot Link Monday! The Golden Globes were last night and that means drunk celebs making acceptance speeches. The big winner was LA LA LAND which broke all kinds of awards records... does this mean it may win some Oscars, too?
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Rogue One ...................... $21,972,000
2 Hidden Fig...................... $21,800,000
3 Sing ........................... $19,573,670
4 Underwear 5 .................... $13,100,000
5 La La .......................... $10,000,000
6 Passengers....................... $8,800,000
7 Why Him.......................... $6,500,000
8 Moana ........................... $6,413,000
9 Fences .......................... $4,700,000
10 Ass Creed!....................... $3,800,000
Despite ROGUE ONE, so far this year is 5% behind last year at this time.
2) Indie Film Box Office... Jackie Chan Rules!
3) Golden Globe Winners List.
4) Golden Globes Gowns Showing Lots Of...
5) Behind The Scenes On HIDDEN FIGURES.
6) Trailer For THE LURE... You Won't Believe This!
7) David Lowrey's A GHOST STORY Sells At Sundance.
8) THE BIG SLEEP's 70th Birthday. Includes Screenplay!
9) New Head Of Development At Kinology.
10) Critics Did Not Love John Carpenter's THE THING.
11) National Society Of Film Critics Awards... Is David Spade On The List?
12) Carrie Fisher's First Film SHAMPOO. Includes Screenplay!
13) China / USA Feature Film Future Predictions.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
An Oscar Winner!
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
Today's Script Tip: Fear Is The Key- Horror!
Dinner: My Mom Made it!
Pages: 16 Pages On A Short Story! 4,000 words.
Bicycle: Nope.
Movie: I have seen a handful over the holidays!
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Rogue One ...................... $21,972,000
2 Hidden Fig...................... $21,800,000
3 Sing ........................... $19,573,670
4 Underwear 5 .................... $13,100,000
5 La La .......................... $10,000,000
6 Passengers....................... $8,800,000
7 Why Him.......................... $6,500,000
8 Moana ........................... $6,413,000
9 Fences .......................... $4,700,000
10 Ass Creed!....................... $3,800,000
Despite ROGUE ONE, so far this year is 5% behind last year at this time.
2) Indie Film Box Office... Jackie Chan Rules!
3) Golden Globe Winners List.
4) Golden Globes Gowns Showing Lots Of...
5) Behind The Scenes On HIDDEN FIGURES.
6) Trailer For THE LURE... You Won't Believe This!
7) David Lowrey's A GHOST STORY Sells At Sundance.
8) THE BIG SLEEP's 70th Birthday. Includes Screenplay!
9) New Head Of Development At Kinology.
10) Critics Did Not Love John Carpenter's THE THING.
11) National Society Of Film Critics Awards... Is David Spade On The List?
12) Carrie Fisher's First Film SHAMPOO. Includes Screenplay!
13) China / USA Feature Film Future Predictions.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
An Oscar Winner!
Bill
Today's Script Tip: Fear Is The Key- Horror!
Dinner: My Mom Made it!
Pages: 16 Pages On A Short Story! 4,000 words.
Bicycle: Nope.
Movie: I have seen a handful over the holidays!
Monday, January 02, 2017
Lancelot Link Monday: Happy New Year!
Lancelot Link Monday! Every New Year, Birthday, Arbor Day, or whatever is a chance to wipe the slate clean and begin again. New goals or the old ones again... and if you really screw up in the next couple of weeks? Remember that Chinese New Year is January 28th!
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) 2016 Worldwide Box Office:
1 Captain America:CW.............. $1,153.3 m
2 Dory ........................... $1,027.8 m
3 Zootopia........................ $1,023.8 m
4 Jungle Book ..................... $966.6
5 Life Pets........................ $875.5
6 Batman Superman.................. $873.3
7 Deadpool......................... $783.1
8 Fan Beasts ...................... $772.5
9 Suicide.......................... $745.6
10 Rogue 1.......................... $706.1
Due to Holidays & Hangover the weekend Box Office Numbers weren't ready at press time, so I went with the year end Box Office. These were the top 10 movies in the world for 2016!
2) Year End Box Office Winners!
3) Biggest Bombs Of 2016!
4) Big Box Office... But Small Returns? Is the sky falling again?
5) Jon Spaihts On The Journey Of PASSENGERS From Script To Screen.
6) The Battle For BUCKAROO BANZAI...
7) Shot On Film?
8) All Of The Shots From The TRAILER For ROGUE ONE That Didn't Make It Into The Movie...
9) 455 Fiction TV Shows?
10) Flashbacks!
11) The Movie Leo Doesn't Want You To EVER See! Used to cycle past this place!
12) Next Year's Movies?
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Ring in the New Year with RONIN...
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) 2016 Worldwide Box Office:
1 Captain America:CW.............. $1,153.3 m
2 Dory ........................... $1,027.8 m
3 Zootopia........................ $1,023.8 m
4 Jungle Book ..................... $966.6
5 Life Pets........................ $875.5
6 Batman Superman.................. $873.3
7 Deadpool......................... $783.1
8 Fan Beasts ...................... $772.5
9 Suicide.......................... $745.6
10 Rogue 1.......................... $706.1
Due to Holidays & Hangover the weekend Box Office Numbers weren't ready at press time, so I went with the year end Box Office. These were the top 10 movies in the world for 2016!
2) Year End Box Office Winners!
3) Biggest Bombs Of 2016!
4) Big Box Office... But Small Returns? Is the sky falling again?
5) Jon Spaihts On The Journey Of PASSENGERS From Script To Screen.
6) The Battle For BUCKAROO BANZAI...
7) Shot On Film?
8) All Of The Shots From The TRAILER For ROGUE ONE That Didn't Make It Into The Movie...
9) 455 Fiction TV Shows?
10) Flashbacks!
11) The Movie Leo Doesn't Want You To EVER See! Used to cycle past this place!
12) Next Year's Movies?
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Ring in the New Year with RONIN...
Bill
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Thursday, December 22, 2016
Post Zombie Apocalypse Holiday Tips!
Because you don't want the Zombie Apocalypse to ruin your holiday plans...
- Bill
- Bill
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
1947 Roswell Santa Autopsy
Something that has been getting *zero* press from the WikiLeaks thing is this video uncovered of the 1947 Sleigh Crash and subsequent Autopsy of Santa at Roswell, NM. The brave people at Parabnormal have posted this *actual Government footage* on YouTube.
Like this? There's more! ParabNormal TV
Happy Holidays!
- Bill
Like this? There's more! ParabNormal TV
Happy Holidays!
- Bill
Monday, December 19, 2016
Monday, December 12, 2016
Lancelot Link Monday: Free Screenplays Edition
Lancelot Link Monday! It's that time of year again! FREE LEGAL SCREENPLAY PDFs - for your consideration! Studios and producers put up links to the screenplays they think are their very best so that guild members can vote for them at Oscar time. But those links are easy for anyone to find, and that means *we* get to read some of the best screenplays of the year without fear of Copyright Police kicking down our doors! This week, we have all of the links I have found so far. Some of the studios haven't yet uploaded all of their screenplays - so check back to their For Your Consideration page every so often to see if that mess that is JASON BOURNE finally has a script uploaded. Why they think it's for ythe consideration of anyone other than paper recyclers is amazing to me... but when it pops up I *am* going to download it!
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Moana .......................... $18,842,000
2 Christmas Party ................ $17,500,000
3 Fantastic Beasts ............... $10,785,000
4 Arrival ......................... $5,600,000
5 Strange ......................... $4,631,000
6 Allied .......................... $4,000,000
7 Nocturnal ....................... $3,193,685
8 Manchester ...................... $3,155,330
9 Trolls .......................... $3,110,000
10 Hacksaw ......................... $2,300,000
2) Box Office Fall Slup Report From BO MOJO. But I predict that STAR WARS movie will end the year on a high note.
3) BLEECKER STREET Screenplays: EYE IN THE SKY, CAPTAIN FANTASTIC, ANTHROPOID, DENIAL.
4) PARAMOUNT's Screenplays: FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS, ARRIVAL, ALLIED, FENCES, SILENCE.
5) FOCUS FILMS Screenplays: KUBO, A MONSTER CALLS, LOVING, NOCTURNAL ANIMALS.
6) SONY CLASSICS Screenplays: THE COMMEDIAN< ELLE, I SAW THE LIGHT, HOLLARS, JULIETTA, MAGGIE'S PLAN, MEDDLER, MILES AHEAD.
7) UNIVERSAL Screenplays: HAIL, CAESAR!, MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 2, THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS, BRIDGET JONES'S BABY, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, SING.
8) AMAZON STUDIOS Screenplays: MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, LOVE & FRIENSHIP, and more!
9) WARNER BROTHERS Screenplays: SULLY, and more!
10) VIKTOR FRNAKENSTEIN by Max Landis.
11) WALT DISNEY STUDIOS Screenplays: ZOOTOPIA, and many more!
12) FOX SEARCHLIGHT Screenplays: BIRTH OF A NATION, JACKIE.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Animated!
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Moana .......................... $18,842,000
2 Christmas Party ................ $17,500,000
3 Fantastic Beasts ............... $10,785,000
4 Arrival ......................... $5,600,000
5 Strange ......................... $4,631,000
6 Allied .......................... $4,000,000
7 Nocturnal ....................... $3,193,685
8 Manchester ...................... $3,155,330
9 Trolls .......................... $3,110,000
10 Hacksaw ......................... $2,300,000
2) Box Office Fall Slup Report From BO MOJO. But I predict that STAR WARS movie will end the year on a high note.
3) BLEECKER STREET Screenplays: EYE IN THE SKY, CAPTAIN FANTASTIC, ANTHROPOID, DENIAL.
4) PARAMOUNT's Screenplays: FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS, ARRIVAL, ALLIED, FENCES, SILENCE.
5) FOCUS FILMS Screenplays: KUBO, A MONSTER CALLS, LOVING, NOCTURNAL ANIMALS.
6) SONY CLASSICS Screenplays: THE COMMEDIAN< ELLE, I SAW THE LIGHT, HOLLARS, JULIETTA, MAGGIE'S PLAN, MEDDLER, MILES AHEAD.
7) UNIVERSAL Screenplays: HAIL, CAESAR!, MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 2, THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS, BRIDGET JONES'S BABY, THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN, SING.
8) AMAZON STUDIOS Screenplays: MANCHESTER BY THE SEA, LOVE & FRIENSHIP, and more!
9) WARNER BROTHERS Screenplays: SULLY, and more!
10) VIKTOR FRNAKENSTEIN by Max Landis.
11) WALT DISNEY STUDIOS Screenplays: ZOOTOPIA, and many more!
12) FOX SEARCHLIGHT Screenplays: BIRTH OF A NATION, JACKIE.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Animated!
Bill
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Monday, December 05, 2016
Lancelot Link Monday: Interview Edition
Lancelot Link Monday! As Oscar Season approaches, the two great side effects of all of these Oscar campaigns for films like ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS: THE MOVIE are free legal screenplays and lots and lots of interviews with sreenwriters. I mean, as many as *5* interviews! Wow!
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Moana.. ........................ $28,373,000
2 Fan Beasts...................... $18,545,000
3 Arrival.......................... $7,300,000
4 Allied........................... $7,050,000
5 Strange.......................... $6,486,000
6 Trolls........................... $4,600,000
7 Hacksaw.......................... $3,400,000
8 BS2 ............................. $3,288,699
9 Incarnate........................ $2,659,000
10 Almost........................... $2,500,350
This year's box office continues to break records, 4.0% over last year, 8.4% over 2014, 3.4% over 2013, 3.1% over 2012, and 9.5% over 2011. And that new STAR WARS movie hasn't even opened yet (though many screenings are already sold out!).
2) Universal & WB Closing Theatrical Windows?
3) 10 Screenwriters To Watch (from Variety, not Homeland Security).
4) New York Critics Circle Winners.
5) Trailer For The New Remake Of THE MUMMY (1932).
6) STAR TREK: THE VOYAGE HOME writer on Eddie Murphy's role...
7) SICARIO Screenwriter On Why Emily Blunt's Character Is NOT In The Sequel.
8) DEADPOOL's Screenwriters On The Biz.
9) DIRTY PRETTY THINGS Screenwriter Steven Knight On Writing ALLIED.
10) AMERICAN PASTORAL writer John Romano on his writing process.
11) MAD SHELIA: VIRGIN ROAD? Yes, It's A Real Movie... and here's the trailer!
12) The Story Of A CHRISTMAS STORY.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
TRANSPORTER.
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Moana.. ........................ $28,373,000
2 Fan Beasts...................... $18,545,000
3 Arrival.......................... $7,300,000
4 Allied........................... $7,050,000
5 Strange.......................... $6,486,000
6 Trolls........................... $4,600,000
7 Hacksaw.......................... $3,400,000
8 BS2 ............................. $3,288,699
9 Incarnate........................ $2,659,000
10 Almost........................... $2,500,350
This year's box office continues to break records, 4.0% over last year, 8.4% over 2014, 3.4% over 2013, 3.1% over 2012, and 9.5% over 2011. And that new STAR WARS movie hasn't even opened yet (though many screenings are already sold out!).
2) Universal & WB Closing Theatrical Windows?
3) 10 Screenwriters To Watch (from Variety, not Homeland Security).
4) New York Critics Circle Winners.
5) Trailer For The New Remake Of THE MUMMY (1932).
6) STAR TREK: THE VOYAGE HOME writer on Eddie Murphy's role...
7) SICARIO Screenwriter On Why Emily Blunt's Character Is NOT In The Sequel.
8) DEADPOOL's Screenwriters On The Biz.
9) DIRTY PRETTY THINGS Screenwriter Steven Knight On Writing ALLIED.
10) AMERICAN PASTORAL writer John Romano on his writing process.
11) MAD SHELIA: VIRGIN ROAD? Yes, It's A Real Movie... and here's the trailer!
12) The Story Of A CHRISTMAS STORY.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
TRANSPORTER.
Bill
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
RIP: Dan Arnold - Mentor
From 4 years ago... but a good pre-Thanksgiving post, even if it is a bit sad. I'm thankful for having had teachers like Dan Arnold and Bob Olsen, and maybe you've had teachers who changed your life. Be thankful for them every day.
If you have ever taken one of my idea classes or bought the Ideas Blue Book you have heard me talk about the Magnification Method... which I learned from my teacher Dan Arnold in High School drama class.
Dan’s class was a refuge for the freaks and geeks who were shunned by all of the cool kids... so it was my home while I was in High School. If you couldn’t act, Dan put you to work building sets while he taught you the fundamentals. Eventually, everyone got up on stage - even if it was just to play some small role. We became a family - with everyone rooting for a performer when they landed their first role. There were no filmmaking classes in my highschool, a terrible creative writing class; so this was the closest I could get to doing what I loved. Dan was the father to all of us - or, maybe the favorite uncle. He encouraged us, teased us, gave us confidence - and pushed us when we needed a good push.
Dan passed away Thursday from a heart attack. I don’t know how old he was, but I am not a young man and he wasn’t one of those young teachers... I figure he was around 80. He lived a full life - and was one of those people who lived life to the fullest. He leaves behind his wife, Silva. He lives on in his students.
Dan had some unusual ideas about High School Drama - he *never* did a play that might be done on some local community theater stage. So we never did a musical. Never. Dan liked to pick edgy and interesting material - plays that were more likely to be banned in high school than performed on some high school stage. Yeah, we did a couple of Neil Simon comedies... but instead of playing a romantic lead, I was more likely to play a killer or a victim or a guy who discovers that his fiancé may be a lesbian, or one of those malcontents from an Albee play. Because there were more girls than boys in the class, one of Dan’s tricks was to do some dark edgy mostly male play... with the roles reversed. Robert Marasco’s thriller about violence in an all-boy’s Catholic school CHILD’S PLAY ended up being in an all-girl’s school - and the violence was even more shocking!
Before getting my first role, I built sets and usually ran the prop department for shows. Once I did some special effects on Gore Vidal’s cutting social satire VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET. These were great confidence building jobs for a geeky kid - we built flats from scratch and had to treat it as if we were doing a Broadway show. Things had to be done *right* and Dan would show us how to do something and then expect us to actually do it - and so we did. You lashed flats together as if a building inspector might be testing them later that day. If you screwed up, you kept at it until you learned to do it right. The cool thing with props is - there was no real budget, so you have to beg, borrow, steal. I had to make advertising deals with a local furniture shop so that we could get some banged up floor models to borrow for the show. Dan kind of forced us to do things that were frightening and required social skills we probably didn’t have - and this build our confidence so that we could do things we never thought possible. If I needed a sofa for a show and the furniture dealer didn’t want to give me one, I had to find some way to get him to change his mind. Trust me when I say the ad in the program of a high school play that no one was ever going to see isn’t much of an incentive. Dan pushed us to do those things that scared us, onstage and off. I think the first time I landed a role onstage... I still had to do props!
I could tell all kinds of stories about Dan and the drama department, but instead I have a better idea... I use his Magnification Method frequently - probably even used it today when I wrote a scene. So that Dan will live on, here’s how that method works:
Sometimes you have to play a character who is absolutely nothing like you - how do you *think* like them? How do you understand their motivations? How do you becomes them on stage so that you give a believable performance? I played killers a couple of times, and at that point in my life had not killed anyone... actually, at this point in ,my life I have never killed anyone, and I don’t think it is likely that I ever will. I’m pretty much a pacifist who would rather reason with people that get into any sort of fight. So, how do *I* play a convincing killer?
Have you ever gone to bed in the summer, turned off the lights... and had a mosquito buzzing around your face? They always seem to target your ears. You swipe at them in the dark, but hit nothing... so you get up and turn on the lights. And can not find the mosquito *anywhere*. So you flip off the lights and slip back into bed and... buzzz, buzzz, buzzz. You flip on the lights again and give a *thorough* search of your bedroom - can’t find the mosquito anywhere. Turn the lights off, climb into bed... buzzz, buzzz, buzzz! You become more and more frustrated and angry! At first your plan may have been to open your bedroom window and shoo the mosquito outside where it belongs... but after a while you just want to find it and kill it, and if this keeps on going - you want to *murder* that mosquito. This has happened to you, right? Maybe not a mosquito, maybe it was a fly. Once I had a cricket hidden somewhere in my apartment that would make a ton of noise as soon as I turned off the light. I tore my apartment apart one night trying to find it - and couldn’t. That cricket eventually stopped chirping - natural causes - but if I had found it I would have SMASHED it. Okay, if you can understand killing a mosquito, you can *magnify* those emotions and understand killing a person. Someone whose “buzzing” is driving you up the wall.
This is a technique that can help you get into the skin of someone completely unlike you. There is some similar small experience that you have had that can be magnified into that larger than life character - and you can know how they feel. Playing a character whose wife just died? Have you ever lost a pet? In one of the Blue Books, maybe Protagonist, I use Magnification to show how to identify with someone who has been falsely accused of murder. Since I write about many people unlike myself (I sit on my ass and type all day), I am constantly using the Magnification Method that Dan taught me many years ago to figure out how this character would think or react. You may never have had your best friend confide that he just offed his wife and made it look like an accident... but you’ve probably had a friend tell you some secret you wish they hadn’t, and then had to pretend like it didn’t effect the way you thought of them. Dan Arnold’s Magnification Method!
So, I hope that you will find some use for Dan’s Magnification Method, and keep part of him alive. He was (and is) a great teacher - and one of those people who made me who I am today. It’s sad that he has passed away, but I think he still lives on within all of us who found refuge in his class and learned how to be comfortable in our own skin... as well as the skin of the characters we played on stage.
Rest In Peace, Dan Arnold.
- Bill
If you have ever taken one of my idea classes or bought the Ideas Blue Book you have heard me talk about the Magnification Method... which I learned from my teacher Dan Arnold in High School drama class.
Dan’s class was a refuge for the freaks and geeks who were shunned by all of the cool kids... so it was my home while I was in High School. If you couldn’t act, Dan put you to work building sets while he taught you the fundamentals. Eventually, everyone got up on stage - even if it was just to play some small role. We became a family - with everyone rooting for a performer when they landed their first role. There were no filmmaking classes in my highschool, a terrible creative writing class; so this was the closest I could get to doing what I loved. Dan was the father to all of us - or, maybe the favorite uncle. He encouraged us, teased us, gave us confidence - and pushed us when we needed a good push.
Dan passed away Thursday from a heart attack. I don’t know how old he was, but I am not a young man and he wasn’t one of those young teachers... I figure he was around 80. He lived a full life - and was one of those people who lived life to the fullest. He leaves behind his wife, Silva. He lives on in his students.
Dan had some unusual ideas about High School Drama - he *never* did a play that might be done on some local community theater stage. So we never did a musical. Never. Dan liked to pick edgy and interesting material - plays that were more likely to be banned in high school than performed on some high school stage. Yeah, we did a couple of Neil Simon comedies... but instead of playing a romantic lead, I was more likely to play a killer or a victim or a guy who discovers that his fiancé may be a lesbian, or one of those malcontents from an Albee play. Because there were more girls than boys in the class, one of Dan’s tricks was to do some dark edgy mostly male play... with the roles reversed. Robert Marasco’s thriller about violence in an all-boy’s Catholic school CHILD’S PLAY ended up being in an all-girl’s school - and the violence was even more shocking!
Before getting my first role, I built sets and usually ran the prop department for shows. Once I did some special effects on Gore Vidal’s cutting social satire VISIT TO A SMALL PLANET. These were great confidence building jobs for a geeky kid - we built flats from scratch and had to treat it as if we were doing a Broadway show. Things had to be done *right* and Dan would show us how to do something and then expect us to actually do it - and so we did. You lashed flats together as if a building inspector might be testing them later that day. If you screwed up, you kept at it until you learned to do it right. The cool thing with props is - there was no real budget, so you have to beg, borrow, steal. I had to make advertising deals with a local furniture shop so that we could get some banged up floor models to borrow for the show. Dan kind of forced us to do things that were frightening and required social skills we probably didn’t have - and this build our confidence so that we could do things we never thought possible. If I needed a sofa for a show and the furniture dealer didn’t want to give me one, I had to find some way to get him to change his mind. Trust me when I say the ad in the program of a high school play that no one was ever going to see isn’t much of an incentive. Dan pushed us to do those things that scared us, onstage and off. I think the first time I landed a role onstage... I still had to do props!
I could tell all kinds of stories about Dan and the drama department, but instead I have a better idea... I use his Magnification Method frequently - probably even used it today when I wrote a scene. So that Dan will live on, here’s how that method works:
Sometimes you have to play a character who is absolutely nothing like you - how do you *think* like them? How do you understand their motivations? How do you becomes them on stage so that you give a believable performance? I played killers a couple of times, and at that point in my life had not killed anyone... actually, at this point in ,my life I have never killed anyone, and I don’t think it is likely that I ever will. I’m pretty much a pacifist who would rather reason with people that get into any sort of fight. So, how do *I* play a convincing killer?
Have you ever gone to bed in the summer, turned off the lights... and had a mosquito buzzing around your face? They always seem to target your ears. You swipe at them in the dark, but hit nothing... so you get up and turn on the lights. And can not find the mosquito *anywhere*. So you flip off the lights and slip back into bed and... buzzz, buzzz, buzzz. You flip on the lights again and give a *thorough* search of your bedroom - can’t find the mosquito anywhere. Turn the lights off, climb into bed... buzzz, buzzz, buzzz! You become more and more frustrated and angry! At first your plan may have been to open your bedroom window and shoo the mosquito outside where it belongs... but after a while you just want to find it and kill it, and if this keeps on going - you want to *murder* that mosquito. This has happened to you, right? Maybe not a mosquito, maybe it was a fly. Once I had a cricket hidden somewhere in my apartment that would make a ton of noise as soon as I turned off the light. I tore my apartment apart one night trying to find it - and couldn’t. That cricket eventually stopped chirping - natural causes - but if I had found it I would have SMASHED it. Okay, if you can understand killing a mosquito, you can *magnify* those emotions and understand killing a person. Someone whose “buzzing” is driving you up the wall.
This is a technique that can help you get into the skin of someone completely unlike you. There is some similar small experience that you have had that can be magnified into that larger than life character - and you can know how they feel. Playing a character whose wife just died? Have you ever lost a pet? In one of the Blue Books, maybe Protagonist, I use Magnification to show how to identify with someone who has been falsely accused of murder. Since I write about many people unlike myself (I sit on my ass and type all day), I am constantly using the Magnification Method that Dan taught me many years ago to figure out how this character would think or react. You may never have had your best friend confide that he just offed his wife and made it look like an accident... but you’ve probably had a friend tell you some secret you wish they hadn’t, and then had to pretend like it didn’t effect the way you thought of them. Dan Arnold’s Magnification Method!
So, I hope that you will find some use for Dan’s Magnification Method, and keep part of him alive. He was (and is) a great teacher - and one of those people who made me who I am today. It’s sad that he has passed away, but I think he still lives on within all of us who found refuge in his class and learned how to be comfortable in our own skin... as well as the skin of the characters we played on stage.
Rest In Peace, Dan Arnold.
- Bill
Monday, November 21, 2016
Lancelot Link Monday: Round Tables
Lancelot Link Monday! As we reach the end of the year, we get a lot of round table interviews from the trades focusing on what they think will be the Oscar nominated movies and artists... of course, they aren't always right and sometimes we just get some interesting discussions of film from a bunch of losers. Except they aren't really losers at all - sometimes their films are better than those which are nominated, because the Oscars are not much different than a beauty contest - the judges decide who is most beautiful and they work off their own criteria which may not match anyone else's ideas of beauty. So these interviews are often more informative than ones from the "winners".
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Fantastic Beasts ............... $75,000,000
2 Strange......................... $17,676,000
3 Trolls.......................... $17,500,000
4 Arrival......................... $11,800,000
5 Almost Christmas................. $7,040,000
6 Hacksaw.......................... $6,750,000
7 Edge 17.......................... $4,825,000
8 Bleed ........................... $2,357,946
9 Accountant....................... $2,115,000
10 Shut In.......................... $1,600,000
2) Are Indie Films In Trouble?
3) People In Hollywood You Should Know!
4) Movie Producer Round Table Interview.
5) Film Composer Round Table Interview.
6) First Question To Ask Yourself When Writing A Novel...
7) Fall Film Fest Round Up - What Are The Oscar Contenders?
8) Michael Chapman On Restoring TAXI DRIVER.
9) Kenneth Lonergan - The Writer Behind MANCHESTER BY THE SEA and YOU CAN COUNT ON ME.
10) The Netflix/Amazon ATM For Actors.
11) Paul Schrader Talks Film.
12) Lew Archer Finds Lost Ross Macdonald Interview!
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
It's the word... it's also all over these french fries.
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Fantastic Beasts ............... $75,000,000
2 Strange......................... $17,676,000
3 Trolls.......................... $17,500,000
4 Arrival......................... $11,800,000
5 Almost Christmas................. $7,040,000
6 Hacksaw.......................... $6,750,000
7 Edge 17.......................... $4,825,000
8 Bleed ........................... $2,357,946
9 Accountant....................... $2,115,000
10 Shut In.......................... $1,600,000
2) Are Indie Films In Trouble?
3) People In Hollywood You Should Know!
4) Movie Producer Round Table Interview.
5) Film Composer Round Table Interview.
6) First Question To Ask Yourself When Writing A Novel...
7) Fall Film Fest Round Up - What Are The Oscar Contenders?
8) Michael Chapman On Restoring TAXI DRIVER.
9) Kenneth Lonergan - The Writer Behind MANCHESTER BY THE SEA and YOU CAN COUNT ON ME.
10) The Netflix/Amazon ATM For Actors.
11) Paul Schrader Talks Film.
12) Lew Archer Finds Lost Ross Macdonald Interview!
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
It's the word... it's also all over these french fries.
Bill
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Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Monday, November 14, 2016
Lancelot Link Monday: PresiVeteran's Weekened
Lancelot Link Monday! We've had both Presidential Eleections and Veteran's Day in the same week! How patriotic can you get? Also, maybe due to one or the other, a record weekend at the box office!
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Strange ........................ $43,032,000
2 Trolls.......................... $35,050,000
3 Arrival......................... $24,000,000
4 Almost Christmas................ $15,564,000
5 Hacksaw......................... $10,775,000
6 Accountant....................... $4,570,000
7 Shut In.......................... $3,700,000
8 Boo ............................. $3,550,000
9 Reacher.......................... $3,325,000
10 Inferno.......................... $3,250,000
2) Why SUICIDE SQUAD Died...
3) SHUT IN Writer Sets Up New Deal.
4) Shane Black On Writing PREDATOR.
5) BEN HUR Remake Is Major Flop!
6) Eric Heisserer On Writing Arrival.
7) 5 Reasons Why ARRIVAL Scored.
8) GHOST IN THE SHELL Trailer.
9) More Suspects On ORIENT EXPRESS.
10) Someone Who Has No Idea WESTWORLD Was A Movie First, And Written By The Same Guy As JURASSIC PARK...
11) The Greatest Living Film Editor... Anne V. Coates.
12) Every British Swear Word In Order Of Nastyness!
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Presidential Car Chase???
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Strange ........................ $43,032,000
2 Trolls.......................... $35,050,000
3 Arrival......................... $24,000,000
4 Almost Christmas................ $15,564,000
5 Hacksaw......................... $10,775,000
6 Accountant....................... $4,570,000
7 Shut In.......................... $3,700,000
8 Boo ............................. $3,550,000
9 Reacher.......................... $3,325,000
10 Inferno.......................... $3,250,000
2) Why SUICIDE SQUAD Died...
3) SHUT IN Writer Sets Up New Deal.
4) Shane Black On Writing PREDATOR.
5) BEN HUR Remake Is Major Flop!
6) Eric Heisserer On Writing Arrival.
7) 5 Reasons Why ARRIVAL Scored.
8) GHOST IN THE SHELL Trailer.
9) More Suspects On ORIENT EXPRESS.
10) Someone Who Has No Idea WESTWORLD Was A Movie First, And Written By The Same Guy As JURASSIC PARK...
11) The Greatest Living Film Editor... Anne V. Coates.
12) Every British Swear Word In Order Of Nastyness!
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Presidential Car Chase???
Bill
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Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Monday, November 07, 2016
Lancelot Link Monday: Interview Edition
Lancelot Link Monday! Tomorrow is election day in the USA, but today we are all Brothers And Sisters In Cinema - no matter who we vote for or against, we all love it when the house lights go down and the trailers start showing and that anticipation of a great movie experience washes over you. We hope this is going to be one of those movies that make our all time favorites list... movies we'll be talking about for decades to come. To celebrate our Brother And Sisterhood In Cinema, here are a dozen links - many to interviews this week - all celebrating movies. The first link after the Box Office scores is a special one! Ages ago I met Jen Wescott online at the Wordplay site, and a few years ago I met her in person (along with her producer sister Victoria) at Raindance Film Fest where they were debuting their first film TRAPPED IN A GARAGE BAND. I probably wrote about it in one of my books. Now they have a new movie... with some guy named John Cleese! Click on the link to find out more! Here's the thing - they made their own movie, got it into a major fest, and now they're off to the races!
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Dr. Strange .................... $84,989,000
2 Trolls.......................... $45,600,000
3 Hacksaw......................... $14,750,000
4 Boo Madea........................ $7,800,000
5 Inferno.......................... $6,250,000
6 Accountant....................... $5,950,000
7 JR:NGB........................... $5,580,000
8 O:OoE............................ $3,983,000
9 Girl Train....................... $2,775,000
10 Peculiar......................... $2,100,000
Yes, this is still a record year for Box Office... and we have that STAR WARS movie coming out later!
2) People I Know In The News!
3) Jeff Nichols On LOVING.
4)
5) David Koepp Talks About INFERNO And Writing Blockbusters.
6) Paul Schrader On Screenwriting... And Staying Relevant.
7) Podcast Interview With HACKSAW RIDGE Screenwriter Robert Schenkkan.
8) You Won't Have Tarantino To Kick Around Anymore!
9) Interview With The Writers Of BAD SANTA.
10) Awesome! Black Cinema Posters Through History!
11) They Did The Math - And Your Film Will Be A Flop!
12) Writing In Your Dead Time.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Everything's a remake!
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Dr. Strange .................... $84,989,000
2 Trolls.......................... $45,600,000
3 Hacksaw......................... $14,750,000
4 Boo Madea........................ $7,800,000
5 Inferno.......................... $6,250,000
6 Accountant....................... $5,950,000
7 JR:NGB........................... $5,580,000
8 O:OoE............................ $3,983,000
9 Girl Train....................... $2,775,000
10 Peculiar......................... $2,100,000
Yes, this is still a record year for Box Office... and we have that STAR WARS movie coming out later!
2) People I Know In The News!
3) Jeff Nichols On LOVING.
4)
5) David Koepp Talks About INFERNO And Writing Blockbusters.
6) Paul Schrader On Screenwriting... And Staying Relevant.
7) Podcast Interview With HACKSAW RIDGE Screenwriter Robert Schenkkan.
8) You Won't Have Tarantino To Kick Around Anymore!
9) Interview With The Writers Of BAD SANTA.
10) Awesome! Black Cinema Posters Through History!
11) They Did The Math - And Your Film Will Be A Flop!
12) Writing In Your Dead Time.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Everything's a remake!
Bill
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Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Monday, October 31, 2016
Lancelot Link Monday: Happy Halloween!
Lancelot Link Monday! Happy Halloween - this week's links offer some pretty scary stuff for screenwriters and film folks, from the Best Unproduced Horror Screenplays Of The Year to Tippi Hedren's new Memoir... and everything in between. What's in Between?
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Boo! Madea ..................... $16,675,000
2 Inferno ........................ $15,000,000
3 Jack Reacher:NGB................. $9,550,000
4 Accountant....................... $8,475,000
5 Ouiji -1 ........................ $7,070,000
6 GOtT............................. $4,270,000
7 Peculiar Children................ $3,975,000
8 NOT Keeping Up................... $3,375,000
9 Storks .......................... $2,785,000
10 Mushkil .......................... $2,135,000
2) Happy Halloween! Here's *The Blood List* - Best Unproduced Horror Scripts!
3) Rise Of The Planet Of Great Female Horror Directors!
4) Shane Black's Writing Process.
5) The 1000 Monkeys Selected To Write SHERLOCK HOLMES 3 (Robert Downey, jr)
6) For Your Consideration: Legal PDF Downloads From Sony's Films.
7) Other For Your Consideration Scripts You May Have Missed.
8) How A New Writer Landed Idris Elba In The Starring Role!
9) Yesterday I Walked Past FFC's Restaurant In San Francisco - So Here's An Aricle On His DISTANT VISION.
10) I Joke About "Direct Plug" TV... NetFlix Is Actually Working On It!
11) Tippi Says Hitch Sexually Assaulted Her In New Book.
12) AFM Starts At The End Of The Week: How To Work It!
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Boo! Madea ..................... $16,675,000
2 Inferno ........................ $15,000,000
3 Jack Reacher:NGB................. $9,550,000
4 Accountant....................... $8,475,000
5 Ouiji -1 ........................ $7,070,000
6 GOtT............................. $4,270,000
7 Peculiar Children................ $3,975,000
8 NOT Keeping Up................... $3,375,000
9 Storks .......................... $2,785,000
10 Mushkil .......................... $2,135,000
2) Happy Halloween! Here's *The Blood List* - Best Unproduced Horror Scripts!
3) Rise Of The Planet Of Great Female Horror Directors!
4) Shane Black's Writing Process.
5) The 1000 Monkeys Selected To Write SHERLOCK HOLMES 3 (Robert Downey, jr)
6) For Your Consideration: Legal PDF Downloads From Sony's Films.
7) Other For Your Consideration Scripts You May Have Missed.
8) How A New Writer Landed Idris Elba In The Starring Role!
9) Yesterday I Walked Past FFC's Restaurant In San Francisco - So Here's An Aricle On His DISTANT VISION.
10) I Joke About "Direct Plug" TV... NetFlix Is Actually Working On It!
11) Tippi Says Hitch Sexually Assaulted Her In New Book.
12) AFM Starts At The End Of The Week: How To Work It!
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Bill
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Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Monday, October 17, 2016
Lancelot Link Monday: October Country
Lancelot Link Monday! It's actually fall in Los Angeles. The temperatures have dropped from the 100s, to the 90s to 70s! Where did I put my swaetshirt? Today it's overcast and we've even had some rain... it must be October! The time when pumpkins show up in grocery stores and Halloween decorations spring up. My favorite time of the year - not summer hot nor winter cold. Just right. And Halloween is a great "holiday" - a time of imagination and make believe, when adults even put on silly costumes and play let's pretend. I often wonder why we "grow out of" pretending and playing... aren't these the things that keep us young? Keep us *interesting*? Keep us having fun? While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 The Accountant ................. $24,715,000
2 Kevin Hart...................... $11,984,245
3 Girl Train!..................... $11,974,915
4 M. Peregrine..................... $8,900,000
5 Deepwater........................ $6,350,000
6 Storks........................... $5,600,000
7 Magnificent...................... $5,200,000
8 Middle School.................... $4,250,000
9 Sully............................ $2,960,000
10 Birth............................ $2,715,000
Box office is still breaking records even before that STAR WARS movie that comes at the end of the year. We are 3.4% above this time last year, 9.5% over 2014, 4.7% over 2013, 5.1% over 2012 and 9.5% over 2011... and this week's top film is about an *accountant*!
2) Specialty Box Office - What Indie Films Sold Tickets?
3) Ang Lee OPn BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK And Hyper Realistic Images.
4) Behind The Scenes On ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.
5) For Your Consideration: Universal's Oscar Bait Screenplays In Legal PDF For You!
6) Darren Aronofsky On His Writing Pricess.
7) The Screenwriter Of SULLY Explains His Process.
8) TV Showrunners Survey.
9) Amblin Finds Chinese Funding... What Does This Mean?
10) The CIA's Sabotage Manual... For Real!
11) Jim Jarmusch's 5 Must See Movies (one is my gavorite!) (Two others are also favorites of mine!)
12) How Hollywood *Really* Works.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Another film about an accountant!
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 The Accountant ................. $24,715,000
2 Kevin Hart...................... $11,984,245
3 Girl Train!..................... $11,974,915
4 M. Peregrine..................... $8,900,000
5 Deepwater........................ $6,350,000
6 Storks........................... $5,600,000
7 Magnificent...................... $5,200,000
8 Middle School.................... $4,250,000
9 Sully............................ $2,960,000
10 Birth............................ $2,715,000
Box office is still breaking records even before that STAR WARS movie that comes at the end of the year. We are 3.4% above this time last year, 9.5% over 2014, 4.7% over 2013, 5.1% over 2012 and 9.5% over 2011... and this week's top film is about an *accountant*!
2) Specialty Box Office - What Indie Films Sold Tickets?
3) Ang Lee OPn BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK And Hyper Realistic Images.
4) Behind The Scenes On ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST.
5) For Your Consideration: Universal's Oscar Bait Screenplays In Legal PDF For You!
6) Darren Aronofsky On His Writing Pricess.
7) The Screenwriter Of SULLY Explains His Process.
8) TV Showrunners Survey.
9) Amblin Finds Chinese Funding... What Does This Mean?
10) The CIA's Sabotage Manual... For Real!
11) Jim Jarmusch's 5 Must See Movies (one is my gavorite!) (Two others are also favorites of mine!)
12) How Hollywood *Really* Works.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Another film about an accountant!
Bill
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Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Sunday, October 09, 2016
RIP: Danny Grossman
I’ve been in a daze... Last night I learned that my friend Danny Grossman had passed away. This confused me, and I am still confused. Danny’s a relatively young guy, in his 40s, in good physical shape as far as I know (he’s an actor, and a leading man type - so he has to stay in shape to land roles), and he was a hell of a nice guy. If he had been in a car accident it would have been a major shock... but things like that happen. But it appears that he died of natural causes, which makes no sense at all to me. I can’t get my mind around it. If he’d been morbidly obese or had substance abuse problems or some other thing that might have prepared my mind for his passing... but no. I’m probably a decade older than he is, and in crappy shape, and only miss Taco Tuesday when I stand in line for Popeye’s fried chicken. I should be dead. But I am alive and Danny has passed away. This makes no sense at all, and makes me mad as hell at the world.
Danny was an actor, a screenwriter, and a director of amazing short films. One of his films, FINDING SPACE, makes me cry every time I see it. Seven minutes long, and packs more of an emotional punch than most serious dramatic features. He was incredibly talented. This is also something that confuses me and makes me mad at the world - if someone has to die before their time, why this talented guy? I don’t get it. There are a whole lotta idiots in the world - why take the guy who created things that make the world a better place?
I know Danny from a group of people who met on a screenwriting website and through meet ups and dinners became friends. This was a fairly close group, though many on the group knew Danny better than I did. But the year I was a guest speaker at Austin, just about the whole group was there due to some of their projects and it was like an extended meet up in exotic Texas. Harold Ramis was there that year, and Danny got to hang out with him... which was really cool. Even though we haven’t had a meet up in years, the group still stays in contact with each other and we care about each other.
Because he was primarily an actor, he was often on stage in some little theater in North Hollywood (easy bike ride for me) so I’d ride out to see him in things. I think the last show I saw him in was about a year ago in some little theater on Vineland near Little Tony’s Pizza. He was great, as ususal. The thing about people who come to Los Angeles to become actors is that many of them just want the fame part without any of the hard work... but Danny seemed to care nada about the fame and loved the work. He wasn’t chasing some impossible dream, his dream was acting so he was acting.
Danny is probably the nicest person I know. I think everyone who knows him will say the same. This is a competitive business, but Danny was never someone who thought of themselves before others. I’ve had “friends” who have stolen jobs from me, but I suspect Danny was the opposite of that - the kind of guy who might give you some job he landed if he thought you would be better (not that the biz works that way). He was a sincere, giving person who seemed to go out of his way to make sure *you* were doing okay. Another reason why I’m mad as hell at the world - why take a nice guy? There aren’t enough of them in the world. It’s just wrong. Unfair.
The world has lost a great guy. A very talented guy. And I don’t know how to process this. It’s just too strange to be true.
This is probably a good time to tell your friends and family that you love them, because we have no idea when it will be too late. And also probably a good time to contemplate our own lives and think about ways that we can be kinder to each other, be less selfish, be more encouraging, remove hate and distrust from our lives and focus on love and acceptance. We don't only know when the people we love may pass unexpectedly, we have no idea when it might happen to us. We don't went to go out on a note of anger or hatred or any of the negative emotions we may experience. Better to clean up our act while we still can. Be kind to people. Think of others before ourselves. Just be as nice as Danny was.
Even though I’m confused and angry at the world, I don’t think Danny would like that... I think Danny would want us all to be happy. So why not celebrate Danny by watching some of the great short films he made? Here’s a link to his Vimeo page....
Danny's Short Films - Check Out Finding Space!
And one of Danny's last roles on camera... with Amy Schumer. Amy Schumer Wants To Be A Real Housewife.
PS: Lancelot Link's Links are taking Monday off because it's a holiday in the USA. - Bill
Danny was an actor, a screenwriter, and a director of amazing short films. One of his films, FINDING SPACE, makes me cry every time I see it. Seven minutes long, and packs more of an emotional punch than most serious dramatic features. He was incredibly talented. This is also something that confuses me and makes me mad at the world - if someone has to die before their time, why this talented guy? I don’t get it. There are a whole lotta idiots in the world - why take the guy who created things that make the world a better place?
I know Danny from a group of people who met on a screenwriting website and through meet ups and dinners became friends. This was a fairly close group, though many on the group knew Danny better than I did. But the year I was a guest speaker at Austin, just about the whole group was there due to some of their projects and it was like an extended meet up in exotic Texas. Harold Ramis was there that year, and Danny got to hang out with him... which was really cool. Even though we haven’t had a meet up in years, the group still stays in contact with each other and we care about each other.
Because he was primarily an actor, he was often on stage in some little theater in North Hollywood (easy bike ride for me) so I’d ride out to see him in things. I think the last show I saw him in was about a year ago in some little theater on Vineland near Little Tony’s Pizza. He was great, as ususal. The thing about people who come to Los Angeles to become actors is that many of them just want the fame part without any of the hard work... but Danny seemed to care nada about the fame and loved the work. He wasn’t chasing some impossible dream, his dream was acting so he was acting.
Danny is probably the nicest person I know. I think everyone who knows him will say the same. This is a competitive business, but Danny was never someone who thought of themselves before others. I’ve had “friends” who have stolen jobs from me, but I suspect Danny was the opposite of that - the kind of guy who might give you some job he landed if he thought you would be better (not that the biz works that way). He was a sincere, giving person who seemed to go out of his way to make sure *you* were doing okay. Another reason why I’m mad as hell at the world - why take a nice guy? There aren’t enough of them in the world. It’s just wrong. Unfair.
The world has lost a great guy. A very talented guy. And I don’t know how to process this. It’s just too strange to be true.
This is probably a good time to tell your friends and family that you love them, because we have no idea when it will be too late. And also probably a good time to contemplate our own lives and think about ways that we can be kinder to each other, be less selfish, be more encouraging, remove hate and distrust from our lives and focus on love and acceptance. We don't only know when the people we love may pass unexpectedly, we have no idea when it might happen to us. We don't went to go out on a note of anger or hatred or any of the negative emotions we may experience. Better to clean up our act while we still can. Be kind to people. Think of others before ourselves. Just be as nice as Danny was.
Even though I’m confused and angry at the world, I don’t think Danny would like that... I think Danny would want us all to be happy. So why not celebrate Danny by watching some of the great short films he made? Here’s a link to his Vimeo page....
Danny's Short Films - Check Out Finding Space!
And one of Danny's last roles on camera... with Amy Schumer. Amy Schumer Wants To Be A Real Housewife.
PS: Lancelot Link's Links are taking Monday off because it's a holiday in the USA. - Bill
Monday, October 03, 2016
Lancelot Link Monday: Welsh Diversity Edition
Lancelot Link Monday! So MISS PERIGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN is getting some flack because there is little diversity among the children, who all seem to be pasty Welsh kids... because the story takes place on an island off Wales in the 1940s. I'm not sure how much diversity there was at that location at that time. I think films need more diversity, but it has to make sense. I thought Denzel was fine in MAGNIFICENT 7 because the West actually had Black cowboys... but I'm fairly sure there is a Chinese actress who could play Tilda Swinton's role in DOCTOR STRANGE (Michelle Yeoh?). And JUSTICE LEAGUE is looking very white... what's up with that? Hey, Superman is from another freaking planet - who says he has to be white?
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Peculiar Children .............. $28,500,000
2 Deep Water...................... $20,600,000
3 Mag Seven....................... $15,700,000
4 Storks.......................... $13,800,000
5 Sully............................ $8,400,000
6 MasterBehinds.................... $6,600,000
7 Queen............................ $2,608,000
8 Breathe.......................... $2,375,000
9 BJB.............................. $2,330,000
10 Snowed In........................ $2,029,390
2) What Does A Key Grip Make Per Year?
3) Well Paid Screenwriters!
4) Nick Hornby On Screenwriting.
5) William Wheeler On QUEEN OF KATWE.
6) Bleeker Street Released Their "For Your Consideration" Screenplay PDFs! Free, Legal!
7) Writing Tips From Tarantino, Oliver Stone, many more!
8) WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES News.
9) Nicholl Fellowship Winners.
10) OXFORD DICTIONARY: THE MOTION PICTURE... Yes, Every Book You Can Imagine Has Been Optioned By Hollywood! Mel Gibson Is Starring!
11) A Look Back At THE BIRTH OF A NATION - And Art Vs. Content Questions.
12) Film News Grab Bag!
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Okay... missile chase.
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Peculiar Children .............. $28,500,000
2 Deep Water...................... $20,600,000
3 Mag Seven....................... $15,700,000
4 Storks.......................... $13,800,000
5 Sully............................ $8,400,000
6 MasterBehinds.................... $6,600,000
7 Queen............................ $2,608,000
8 Breathe.......................... $2,375,000
9 BJB.............................. $2,330,000
10 Snowed In........................ $2,029,390
2) What Does A Key Grip Make Per Year?
3) Well Paid Screenwriters!
4) Nick Hornby On Screenwriting.
5) William Wheeler On QUEEN OF KATWE.
6) Bleeker Street Released Their "For Your Consideration" Screenplay PDFs! Free, Legal!
7) Writing Tips From Tarantino, Oliver Stone, many more!
8) WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES News.
9) Nicholl Fellowship Winners.
10) OXFORD DICTIONARY: THE MOTION PICTURE... Yes, Every Book You Can Imagine Has Been Optioned By Hollywood! Mel Gibson Is Starring!
11) A Look Back At THE BIRTH OF A NATION - And Art Vs. Content Questions.
12) Film News Grab Bag!
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Okay... missile chase.
Bill
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Monday, September 26, 2016
Lancelot Link Monday: Cowboy Grab Bag
Lancelot Link Monday! A western topped the box office this weekend. Denzel's star power? Return of the genre?
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Mag Seven ...................... $35,000,000
2 Storks.......................... $21,805,000
3 Sully........................... $13,830,000
4 Jones Baby....................... $4,520,000
5 Snowden.......................... $4,144,989
6 Witch............................ $3,950,000
7 Breathe.......................... $3,800,000
8 Suicide.......................... $3,110,000
9 Bough............................ $2,500,000
10 Kubo............................. $1,103,000
2) Can A Western Be Contemporary?
3) BRIDGET JONES beats MAGNIFICENT SEVEN At The Box Office?
4) News From Raindance Film Fest!
5) Sorkin Masterclass Cliff Notes?
6) BOUND FOR GLORY Is One Of My Favorite Films... Article Plus Screenplay!
7) Wayne Wang On San Francisco Cinema.
8) Scripts For THE NIGHT MANAGER? Here You Go!
9) Wim Wenders On James Cameron.
10) Curing The *Symptom* of Ageism In Hollywood While Ignoring The Disease...
11) Jeff Nichols On LOVING.
12) RIP: Bill Nunn.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Mag Seven ...................... $35,000,000
2 Storks.......................... $21,805,000
3 Sully........................... $13,830,000
4 Jones Baby....................... $4,520,000
5 Snowden.......................... $4,144,989
6 Witch............................ $3,950,000
7 Breathe.......................... $3,800,000
8 Suicide.......................... $3,110,000
9 Bough............................ $2,500,000
10 Kubo............................. $1,103,000
2) Can A Western Be Contemporary?
3) BRIDGET JONES beats MAGNIFICENT SEVEN At The Box Office?
4) News From Raindance Film Fest!
5) Sorkin Masterclass Cliff Notes?
6) BOUND FOR GLORY Is One Of My Favorite Films... Article Plus Screenplay!
7) Wayne Wang On San Francisco Cinema.
8) Scripts For THE NIGHT MANAGER? Here You Go!
9) Wim Wenders On James Cameron.
10) Curing The *Symptom* of Ageism In Hollywood While Ignoring The Disease...
11) Jeff Nichols On LOVING.
12) RIP: Bill Nunn.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Bill
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Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Monday, September 19, 2016
Lancelot Link Monday: Emmy Winners
Lancelot Link Monday! The strange thing about TV now is that it's not just traditional TV, it's all of these cable channels and internet channels and... well, anything that can get to your TV at home. And the doors have opened to all kinds of things - the once dead format of the mini-series has made a return, with "limited series" shows which end up more like novels than a typical TV show. The doors are open! What will *you* try to get through them?
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Sully .......................... $22,000,000
2 Blair Witch...................... $9,650,000
3 Bridget Jones 3.................. $8,240,715
4 Snowden.......................... $8,023,329
5 Don't Breathe.................... $5,600,000
6 When The Bough................... $5,525,000
7 Suicide Squad.................... $4,710,000
8 Wild Life........................ $2,650,000
9 Kubo............................. $2,509,000
10 Pete's Dragon.................... $2,041,000
2) Emmy Award Winners List.
3) Scripts From Emmy Nominated Shows!
4) And The Oscar Goes To...
5) Are Indie Films Completely Dead?
6) Indie Film Incubator? Will This Help?
7) Universal Emerging Writers Fellowship Winners Are...
8) Best Samurai Movies *Not* Directed By Kurosawa. (when the two samurais face off on the street and prepare to do battle, the subtitles always say something about honor... but what they are really saying in Japanese is "Hey, who does your hair?"
9) Behind The Scenes on BLOOD SIMPLE. Includes Screenplay.
10) Wim Wenders Interview.
11) Is Netflix The New Big Studio?
12) Top 100 Film Courage Segments For Last Month. Check out #6 and #21.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
A car chase from 1966 TV!
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Sully .......................... $22,000,000
2 Blair Witch...................... $9,650,000
3 Bridget Jones 3.................. $8,240,715
4 Snowden.......................... $8,023,329
5 Don't Breathe.................... $5,600,000
6 When The Bough................... $5,525,000
7 Suicide Squad.................... $4,710,000
8 Wild Life........................ $2,650,000
9 Kubo............................. $2,509,000
10 Pete's Dragon.................... $2,041,000
2) Emmy Award Winners List.
3) Scripts From Emmy Nominated Shows!
4) And The Oscar Goes To...
5) Are Indie Films Completely Dead?
6) Indie Film Incubator? Will This Help?
7) Universal Emerging Writers Fellowship Winners Are...
8) Best Samurai Movies *Not* Directed By Kurosawa. (when the two samurais face off on the street and prepare to do battle, the subtitles always say something about honor... but what they are really saying in Japanese is "Hey, who does your hair?"
9) Behind The Scenes on BLOOD SIMPLE. Includes Screenplay.
10) Wim Wenders Interview.
11) Is Netflix The New Big Studio?
12) Top 100 Film Courage Segments For Last Month. Check out #6 and #21.
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
A car chase from 1966 TV!
Bill
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Monday, September 12, 2016
Lancelot Link Monday: White After Labor Day?
Lancelot Link Monday! You aren't supposed to wear white after Labor Day, but tell that to people who get shot in movies (who often wear white, because it shows the blood squib better). Whenever I see someone wearing white in a movie I know the odds are good that they will be shot (BOOGIE NIGHTS anyone?) which makes you wonder why they wear white in the first place. Do they *want* to get shot?
While you're thinking about that, here are this week's links to some great screenwriting and film articles, plus some fun stuff that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Sully .......................... $35,505,000
2 Bough Breaks.................... $15,000,000
3 Don't Breathe.................... $8,210,000
4 Suicide.......................... $5,650,000
5 Wild Life........................ $3,400,000
6 Kubo............................. $3,230,000
7 Pete's Dragon.................... $2,938,000
8 Bad Moms......................... $2,830,000
9 Hell Or High..................... $2,600,000
10 Sausage.......................... $2,300,000
Looking to be a record Box Office year even before ROGUE ONE is released: So far we are head 5.7% over last year, ahead a whopping 12.0% over 2014, ahead 5.5% over 2013, 6.4% over 2012 and 10.2% over 2011. For those of you who say: "What about tickets and admissions, huh?" Well last year there were 1,320.1 million tickets sold, and let's compare that to 1980 when EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and AIRPLANE! and CADDYSHACK and THE SHINING and STIR CRAZY and 9 TO 5 and a bunch of other big hits came out... 1,022 million tickets sold. That's 298.1 million ***more*** tickets sold last year than the year EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was released! And if you would prefer 1981 (the years RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was released) last year they sold 253.1 million more tickets. So all of this gloom and doom over Hollywood is greatly exaggerated.
2) Is Tom Hanks Trapped?
3) Full List Of Venice Film Fest Winners.
4) Screenwriting Advice From Rod Serling.
5) Behind The Scenes On THEY LIVE! (includes Screenplay)
6) FREE Russian Science Fiction Films!
7) Making And Selling An Indie Film.
8) Why Chuck Stopped Reading Your Book (just substitute "screenplay" and it applies).
9) The Next Paul Schrader Film.
10) Should screenwriters be allowed on film sets?
11) CATWOMAN - The Remake?
12) It's Hard Out There For A Creative Person. (Maybe I should become a pimp?)
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Not a car chase, the trailer to Gary King's new movie!
Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Here are a dozen links plus this week's car chase...
1) Weekend Box Office Estimates:
1 Sully .......................... $35,505,000
2 Bough Breaks.................... $15,000,000
3 Don't Breathe.................... $8,210,000
4 Suicide.......................... $5,650,000
5 Wild Life........................ $3,400,000
6 Kubo............................. $3,230,000
7 Pete's Dragon.................... $2,938,000
8 Bad Moms......................... $2,830,000
9 Hell Or High..................... $2,600,000
10 Sausage.......................... $2,300,000
Looking to be a record Box Office year even before ROGUE ONE is released: So far we are head 5.7% over last year, ahead a whopping 12.0% over 2014, ahead 5.5% over 2013, 6.4% over 2012 and 10.2% over 2011. For those of you who say: "What about tickets and admissions, huh?" Well last year there were 1,320.1 million tickets sold, and let's compare that to 1980 when EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and AIRPLANE! and CADDYSHACK and THE SHINING and STIR CRAZY and 9 TO 5 and a bunch of other big hits came out... 1,022 million tickets sold. That's 298.1 million ***more*** tickets sold last year than the year EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was released! And if you would prefer 1981 (the years RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was released) last year they sold 253.1 million more tickets. So all of this gloom and doom over Hollywood is greatly exaggerated.
2) Is Tom Hanks Trapped?
3) Full List Of Venice Film Fest Winners.
4) Screenwriting Advice From Rod Serling.
5) Behind The Scenes On THEY LIVE! (includes Screenplay)
6) FREE Russian Science Fiction Films!
7) Making And Selling An Indie Film.
8) Why Chuck Stopped Reading Your Book (just substitute "screenplay" and it applies).
9) The Next Paul Schrader Film.
10) Should screenwriters be allowed on film sets?
11) CATWOMAN - The Remake?
12) It's Hard Out There For A Creative Person. (Maybe I should become a pimp?)
And the Car Chase Of The Week:
Not a car chase, the trailer to Gary King's new movie!
Bill
-
Dinner:
Pages:
Bicycle:
Movie:
Monday, September 05, 2016
New: THE BOURNE MOVIES Book!
Lancelot Link and Mata Hari are on vacation today (Labor Day), but I have a new book to tell you about!
STORY IN ACTION: THE BOURNE MOVIES.
UK Folks Click Here.
German Folks Click Here.
French Folks Click Here.
Espania Folks Click Here.
Canadian Folks Click Here.
STORY IN ACTION: THE BOURNE MOVIES.
BRAND NEW!
All five "Bourne" movies (including "Legacy" and it's potential sequels) - what are the techniques used to keep the characters and scenes exciting and involving? Reinventing the thriller genre... or following the "formula"? Five films - each with an interesting experiment! A detailed analysis of each of the films, the way these thrillers work... as well as a complete list of box office and critical statistics for each film. This book is great for writers, directors, and just fans of the series.
INTRODUCTORY PRICE: $2.99 - and no postage!
NO KINDLE REQUIRED! Get the *free* app (any device, except your Mr. Coffee) on the order page on Amazon!UK Folks Click Here.
German Folks Click Here.
French Folks Click Here.
Espania Folks Click Here.
Canadian Folks Click Here.
