How David O. Russell reels in the audience. For almost everyone, the experience of following a recipe is markedly different from following a story. A well-told story is an enthralling experience, consumed from beginning to end without interruption, and fully comprehensible after one hearing/viewing. Following a recipe, on the other hand, will likely result in [...]
“Since ideas aren’t necessarily protectable, other people’s ideas are fair game, right?” For the most part, nope. Sorry. Granted, there are some ideas that aren’t created by anyone. They already exist– have to exist to be true to the genre. (This is called “scènes-à-faire” and we’ll go into this in depth in later columns.) For [...]
Persona is a great little program for either Windows or Mac computers, making it simple to create characters for novels, plays, scripts or any writing project, for that matter. It is straightforward and easy to use. You simply fill in blanks with information such as name, height, age, hair and eye color. There are 16 preset [...]
A few nights back I was having dinner with some new friends when I was reminded of this story. I was describing a conversation I’d had with director Florent Siri during pre-production on Hostage. Most of the movie takes place in and around a very special mountaintop house I’d invented for the movie. Modern, architectural, and installed [...]
Screenwriting gurus stress one of the keys to a successful script is “write what you know.” Well, there are many examples where the screenwriter had to know or learn much about a place or how something worked as an integral part of telling the story. Movies take us places we’ve never been and show us [...]
I love technology. As a result, I have somehow wound up being the (pro bono) tech support person for my friends. Which got me thinking about how technology — computers, software, fax machines, and cell phones — have affected the writing process. It’s hard to believe that classic movies such as Casablanca, On the Waterfront, [...]
As I sat in my Panera office today writing, a friend popped in asking what I was working on. When I responded that I had another rewrite of Slavery by Another Name (SBAN) to get done, she gasped, “You’re STILL working on that script… hasn’t it been like 100 years since you started?” My response, [...]
In Stanley Kubrick’s film Barry Lyndon, Lord Bullingdon is the titular character’s stepson. He is played by Leon Vitali, who would ironically become enmeshed with Kubrick’s career and personal life, including the films The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut. Kubrick’s atypically paternal interest in Vitali led the latter to serve as actor, [...]
I’m late night gorging on trash TV instead of reading a script, watching a movie or even catching up on sleep. Hulu is apparently determined to keep me awake, no matter how repetitive the commercials. Because just below the video is written, “What are you thinking?” Haunting. Those very same words have been running through [...]
