3.31.2014

Orson Welles on John Ford

Mann - Magic Act

Winter in Fenway

Steven Spielberg on John Ford

"I study John Ford."

Clint Eastwood & Darren Aronofsky On Actors

3.30.2014

12 Years A Slave Editor Joe Walker

I Am One

Finished Pinewood Derby Car

David Gordon Green on George Washington's Use of Voiceover

Does The Camera Describe Or Devour?

John Ford

3.29.2014

Hossein Amini: BAFTA Screenwriting Lectures

They Went Fast

Casamento's

Eric Heisserer On Loglines

Screenwriter and director Eric Heisserer wrote on Twitter last night about loglines for scripts:

- Notes call now has me writing furiously into the night. But a quick break to talk loglines.

- The short version ("I see what you did there"): I'm terrible at loglines. No way around it. But I can recognize a great one instantly.

- There is a mountain of how-to material out there about constructing an amazing logline. A lot of formulas and rules. A lot works, too.

- One version is the WHEN > THEN > UNTIL model. In one sentence you lob the situation, the complication, and the big conflict.

- Another model suggests you clash your protag's emotional need with your antag's need. Set up both and smash 'em together in 2 sentences.

- Yet another model pushes you simply to tee up the movie rather than summarize it. Hit the inciting incident and drop the mic.

- There is no single method to a great logline. But I can tell you the interesting versions that fire people up.

- The first is the one that plays the big reveal at the end of the logline. You read the conflict and the BOOM, bomb dropped.

- "A frantic father struggles to save his community against authorities conspiring to cover up an unstoppable disaster called GODZILLA."

- That isn't perfect, but that's the WHAMMY I'm talking about. You get the heart and the humanity in the front, then end with the "oh shit."

- Another version uses brevity as its main weapon. It offers a question or a declaration that creates a dozen more questions in your head.

- One of the shortest I'd ever seen: "A man sues God."

- Another variation: "What if your whole life has been in a virtual reality?"

- These can work in certain circumstances, although they fail when applied to script repositories like Black List, because lack of story.

- The strongest loglines speak to the big conflict the protag faces, and suggests the choice they must make without giving away the answer.

- In other words, strong loglines communicate the subtext and theme of your story. Which is why some writers start with one.

- What is really going on in your story? The thing behind the thing.

- Rather than getting into the minutia of word choices and sentence structure, let me toss out some practices that will help.

- 1. Have five trusted friends read your script and ask them to write a logline for it. Compare them, notice what they responded to/ignored.

- 2. Use a fun social game on the logline: Tell your story in one minute, then in three words, then in only one word.

- 3. Pick a favorite movie and pitch it in one sentence to friends. See how many guess the movie, how many agree with your logline.

- All right, that's good for now, I must crawl back to the salt mines for more work. Keep creating, you gorgeous monsters.

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3.28.2014

Movies in 2014

1. The Hot Rock
2. The Valley Of Gwangi
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. To Have And Have Not
5. The Third Man
6. Below
7. It Happened One Night
8. State And Main
9. Furious 6
10. Vengeance
11. Running Scared (1986)
12. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
13. The Thing From Another World
14. Matilda
15. The Shaolin Temple
16. The Avengers
17. The Raid
18. In The Heat Of The Night
19. Dillinger
20. The Mission (Johnnie To Film)
21. Odds Against Tomorrow
22. Outrage
23. My Name Is Nobody
24. The Wolverine
25. Fulltime Killer
26. Muppets From Space
27. The Man With The Iron Fists
28. Mad Detective
29. Batman Returns
30. Riddick
31. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
32. Captain Phillips
33. The Lego Movie
34. Now You See Me
35. Bull Durham
36. Nebraska
37. Big Trouble In Little China
38. Death Rides A Horse
39. Zero Effect
40. The Mercenary
41. A Fistful Of Dollars
42. World War Z
43. Batman
44. Monte Walsh (1970)
45. Ride The High Country
46. The 13th Warrior
47. Nothing Left To Fear
48. Raiders of the Lost Ark
49. Much Ado About Nothing (2012)
50. The Ballad of Cable Hogue
51. Mud

50 movies so far this year. I have given up trying to watch the latest films. I just watch what I want to. So many different ways to watch movies now.

A lot of Johnny To movies this year. Several Westerns. Enjoying watching what I want and not trying to keep up with anything.

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The Raid 2: Anatomy Of A Scene

Billy Wilder Speaks

3.27.2014

Una Vida Trailer

Trailer for a movie I worked on last year:

Una Vida - Trailer from RA—Richie Adams on Vimeo.

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Books in 2014

1. A Dance At The Slaughterhouse
2. A Walk Among The Tombstones
3. The Devil Knows You're Dead
4. Bandits
5. Slam The Big Door

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Nola.com Survey on Movie Theaters

My response to the NOLA.com survey on movie theaters:

Look at the way the Alamo Drafthouse is run. start copying it. Don't allow any talking or texting during a movie. Patrons get one warning and then are thrown out. No children or babies allowed in films that are clearly meant for adults or those older.

Show a diverse selection of films. From mainstream fair to art house to foreign films to revivals. Theaters are actually getting better and better with this, but I would love to be able to hop on down to the Grande Theater in Kenner on a weekday when I am off to see an old movie. It would also be nice to have mini local film fests or screening series the way Canal Place, Prytania, and Indywood have been doing. I would love to see a NOLA set film series. A lot of theaters could have done a great set of screenings leading up to the new Captain America. And screenings where someone knowledgeable gives a brief introduction to why the film is being shown.

Have a staff that is knowledgeable about films. Yes, I know it is a minimum wage job, but if you are going to spend the money to build and run a theater then you should care about films and filmmaking and you should want your staff to care about those things as well.

Concessions have gotten better in the last few years, and it is nice to see theaters offering more alcoholic beverages. Props to all the local theaters for getting better at this.

I would also love to see all the local theaters working more with local filmmakers for screenings. Indywood is doing great screenings of locally created content. It would be nice to see other theaters really embrace this, including the megaplexes.

There is still no better way to see a movie than on a big screen in a theater with others. Sorry, the at home experience will never be that good except for the ultra rich. I love going to the movie theaters, and I don't see myself stopping anytime. I just want going to the movie theater to be an even better experience.

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Movies in 2014

1. The Hot Rock
2. The Valley Of Gwangi
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. To Have And Have Not
5. The Third Man
6. Below
7. It Happened One Night
8. State And Main
9. Furious 6
10. Vengeance
11. Running Scared (1986)
12. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
13. The Thing From Another World
14. Matilda
15. The Shaolin Temple
16. The Avengers
17. The Raid
18. In The Heat Of The Night
19. Dillinger
20. The Mission (Johnnie To Film)
21. Odds Against Tomorrow
22. Outrage
23. My Name Is Nobody
24. The Wolverine
25. Fulltime Killer
26. Muppets From Space
27. The Man With The Iron Fists
28. Mad Detective
29. Batman Returns
30. Riddick
31. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
32. Captain Phillips
33. The Lego Movie
34. Now You See Me
35. Bull Durham
36. Nebraska
37. Big Trouble In Little China
38. Death Rides A Horse
39. Zero Effect
40. The Mercenary
41. A Fistful Of Dollars
42. World War Z
43. Batman
44. Monte Walsh (1970)
45. Ride The High Country
46. The 13th Warrior
47. Nothing Left To Fear
48. Raiders of the Lost Ark
49. Much Ado About Nothing (2012)

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Joss Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing

3.26.2014

Hercules The Archer by Antoine Bourdelle

At the Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art in City Park:


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3.25.2014

My Zephyrs' Cap

Go Zephyrs! My well worn baseball cap:


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Empty Notebook Pages


The worst thing in the world.

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Movies in 2014

1. The Hot Rock
2. The Valley Of Gwangi
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. To Have And Have Not
5. The Third Man
6. Below
7. It Happened One Night
8. State And Main
9. Furious 6
10. Vengeance
11. Running Scared (1986)
12. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
13. The Thing From Another World
14. Matilda
15. The Shaolin Temple
16. The Avengers
17. The Raid
18. In The Heat Of The Night
19. Dillinger
20. The Mission (Johnnie To Film)
21. Odds Against Tomorrow
22. Outrage
23. My Name Is Nobody
24. The Wolverine
25. Fulltime Killer
26. Muppets From Space
27. The Man With The Iron Fists
28. Mad Detective
29. Batman Returns
30. Riddick
31. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
32. Captain Phillips
33. The Lego Movie
34. Now You See Me
35. Bull Durham
36. Nebraska
37. Big Trouble In Little China
38. Death Rides A Horse
39. Zero Effect
40. The Mercenary
41. A Fistful Of Dollars
42. World War Z
43. Batman
44. Monte Walsh (1970)
45. Ride The High Country
46. The 13th Warrior
47. Nothing Left To Fear

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Frank Urioste On Film Editing

3.24.2014

The Cinematography Of Inside Llewyn Davis

The Cinematography Of True Grit

Movies in 2014

1. The Hot Rock
2. The Valley Of Gwangi
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. To Have And Have Not
5. The Third Man
6. Below
7. It Happened One Night
8. State And Main
9. Furious 6
10. Vengeance
11. Running Scared (1986)
12. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
13. The Thing From Another World
14. Matilda
15. The Shaolin Temple
16. The Avengers
17. The Raid
18. In The Heat Of The Night
19. Dillinger
20. The Mission (Johnnie To Film)
21. Odds Against Tomorrow
22. Outrage
23. My Name Is Nobody
24. The Wolverine
25. Fulltime Killer
26. Muppets From Space
27. The Man With The Iron Fists
28. Mad Detective
29. Batman Returns
30. Riddick
31. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
32. Captain Phillips
33. The Lego Movie
34. Now You See Me
35. Bull Durham
36. Nebraska
37. Big Trouble In Little China
38. Death Rides A Horse
39. Zero Effect
40. The Mercenary
41. A Fistful Of Dollars
42. World War Z
43. Batman
44. Monte Walsh (1970)

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3.23.2014

Cinematographer Gordon Willis

Eric Kress Lighting Workshop Part 3

3.22.2014

Movies in 2014

1. The Hot Rock
2. The Valley Of Gwangi
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. To Have And Have Not
5. The Third Man
6. Below
7. It Happened One Night
8. State And Main
9. Furious 6
10. Vengeance
11. Running Scared (1986)
12. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
13. The Thing From Another World
14. Matilda
15. The Shaolin Temple
16. The Avengers
17. The Raid
18. In The Heat Of The Night
19. Dillinger
20. The Mission (Johnnie To Film)
21. Odds Against Tomorrow
22. Outrage
23. My Name Is Nobody
24. The Wolverine
25. Fulltime Killer
26. Muppets From Space
27. The Man With The Iron Fists
28. Mad Detective
29. Batman Returns
30. Riddick
31. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
32. Captain Phillips
33. The Lego Movie
34. Now You See Me
35. Bull Durham
36. Nebraska
37. Big Trouble In Little China
38. Death Rides A Horse
39. Zero Effect
40. The Mercenary
41. A Fistful Of Dollars
42. World War Z
43. Batman

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Paul Thomas Anderson

Paul Thomas Anderson and Philip Baker Hall discuss Hard Eight, Filmmaking, Theater, and acting (a great listen for directors, writers, and actors):







More from Paul Thomas Anderson on filmmaking from the commentary to Boogie Nights:





Quentin Tarantino on There Will Be Blood:




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Richard Linklater on Filmmaking

Steven Soderbergh & Neil Labute on Filmmaking

Craft Truck: In The Cut

Editors discussing their recent work:


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BAFTA: Paul Greengrass: David Lean Lecture

3.21.2014

Abandoned Boat In West End

8 years on and this is still there:






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Liuzza's By The Track

Statue On N. Lopez

3.19.2014

IndieWeb

Design In Film: The Modern House

3.18.2014

Cineworks: Michael Mann

The Career of Paul Thomas Anderson In Five Shots

"You've not read Borges?"

From Warren Ellis' Global Frequency:


The Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges

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The Art Of The Steadicam

Insight: Derek Cianfrance

Behind Closed Doors With Alfonso Cuaron

3.17.2014

Movies in 2014

1. The Hot Rock
2. The Valley Of Gwangi
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. To Have And Have Not
5. The Third Man
6. Below
7. It Happened One Night
8. State And Main
9. Furious 6
10. Vengeance
11. Running Scared (1986)
12. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
13. The Thing From Another World
14. Matilda
15. The Shaolin Temple
16. The Avengers
17. The Raid
18. In The Heat Of The Night
19. Dillinger
20. The Mission (Johnnie To Film)
21. Odds Against Tomorrow
22. Outrage
23. My Name Is Nobody
24. The Wolverine
25. Fulltime Killer
26. Muppets From Space
27. The Man With The Iron Fists
28. Mad Detective
29. Batman Returns
30. Riddick
31. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
32. Captain Phillips
33. The Lego Movie
34. Now You See Me
35. Bull Durham
36. Nebraska
37. Big Trouble In Little China
38. Death Rides A Horse
39. Zero Effect
40. The Mercenary
41. A Fistful Of Dollars
42. World War Z

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3.16.2014

DP/30: The Raid 2: Berandal w/ Gareth Evans & iko Uwais

Writers Guild: Mark Boal

3.15.2014

The Motion Picture Camera: Past, Present and Future

Thinking Differently: Has the Internet Changed Us?

Warren Ellis: Comedy, Dystopian America & The Space Age


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A Conversation With Ray Bradbury

Eric Heisserer on Dealing With Studio Execs

More from Eric Heisserer on pitching and dealing with studio execs:

- In a meeting recently, an exec pitched me a movie title and showed me the poster. That's all they had. Plus marketing's word it was "gold."

- You don't build a goddamn house by starting with the furniture. I don't care what the IKEA lady said, you're gonna have a bad time.

- This kind of mindset is actually common in the studios. Why? THEY DON'T CREATE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. That's our job.

- So what can they do? They can think up movie titles and walk them into the marketing department and get some poll done at a mall.

- No studio wants the motto: "Patiently waiting for original material." They don't want to believe that's a reality. They want control.

- The good news is: An original story with a universal message will win you keys to the city. That right there is the REAL gold.

- But if you're struggling to get a foothold in this crazy upside-down business, sometimes your only way in is with a studio property. *cough*

- So what can you do in the scenario when facing an exec pitching you CATNADO? If you're struggling to pay bills? Character.

- It will feel like the most bizarre thing to go at it talking about theme, character, and metaphor, but crack that, you'll get hired.

- The mid-level people are all focused on the trailer, the poster, etc. But the top execs? They want to keep relationships with actors. How?

- By delivering great CHARACTERS in their movies.

- If you want to pitch CATACLYSM or whatever "summer tentpolecat" open writing assignment, make it something a star would love to star in.

- I pitched for a project last year by showing up with a scripted monologue for the hero. I said, "This is the kind of person he is."

- That was above-and-beyond, but I saw the whole movie through that lens, and as a writer my most convincing weapon is actual writing.

- On top of all this, you ABSOLUTELY CANNOT be cynical about the business. Even if you feel like Charlie Brown w/ Lucy's football.

- Way more execs than you realize can smell cynicism. Can sense when you truly believe they're the enemy. That attitude is cancer.

- There are amazing people in the studio system, at all levels. They can be hard to find, yes! But good attracts good. Seriously.

- The people making STORY OF YOUR LIFE believe in movies with ideas. They have big hearts. They don't care about the 'fuckability factor.

- There are screenwriters who've found their way to producing positions. They know the plight of the writer. A lot of them are way cool.

- You have to silence that voice that warns you'll get fired for pushing for quality, and assume it's a monogamous movie relationship.

- Also! The studio system isn't the only game in town. I got HOURS made entirely out of that world, with one producer and financiers.

- None of these paths are simple or easy. You will get exhausted swinging at them. But great material gets attention. Maybe quick, maybe slow.

- If your goal is to sell a screenplay, you are in for a world of hurt. Because those shouldn't be your goalposts. A sale = a START to career.

- Another one: DO NOT dare watch a crap movie and think you can make it in the biz because "I can write better than that!" No no no.

- That is called the "shit plus one" dilemma. It means your goal was to produce something marginally better than shit.

- And consider maybe that crappy movie actually started as a GENIUS script, way back when? And some writer cries over the monster it became.

- So let's reach for really damn awesome writing. Let's raise the median, skew the grading curve, build a new floor.

- If you're looking for total creative autonomy, you're bound for heartache in this business. It's collaborative by design.

- Want your words to reach the audience directly? Cool! Write a novel. A script is a thing to build what the public eventually sees.

- That means when you're working with producers, directors, cast, execs, etc., you have to think about what will help them in your writing.

- The spec script gives you freedom to do whatever you want. Put in all the needle drops you desire. Paint the world blue. Go nuts.

- The moment that spec sells, understand the realities that set in: Song rights are expensive/impossible. Digital coloring troublesome. Etc.

- The biggest lesson I learned as a writer was to work on my social skills. Shyness cost me jobs early on. Fear of introducing myself, mainly.

- I hate the term "networking." It's not really accurate. It's also a staid business term. What we do? Seek friends. Mentors. Peers.

- When I write a script now, I don't write for the studio, I write to impress , , , and my other writer friends.

- So this began with me bitching about the exec with a movie poster and no script, but it ends with: They need us to show them the better way.

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Foundation 37 - David Byttow

Eric Heisserer On Pitching Your Script

Screenwriter and director Eric Heisserer on Twitter today gave lessons and stories about pitching your script:

- All right, I'm going to be tossing around lessons learned. When I use the word "you" I mean "me" as it's what I've discovered. YMMV.

- Let's make some delineations. There are pitches of original material you invented, and pitches on properties/assignments, two diff beasts.

- If it's your own idea and you're pitching it, that is a crazy steep climb. Because the buyers will wonder why you don't just write it.

- What you need to get in the room with anyone at that point is a super strong script of something else they've already loved.

- Even then, pitching your own ideas first and hoping to get paid to write them is leaving money on the table. Specs = always bigger $$.

- So with that out of the way, let's focus on what 90+% of pitching will be for you: Writing assignments.

- From Gary Whitta: And it makes more sense to just write it - greater commitment, but far greater chance to sell and for more money than a pitch.

- So there is a writing gig up for grabs out there and you want it. Your agent or manager or friend at the front desk can get you in the room.

- Or maybe you have a general meeting with the producer and you use that opportunity to say you're crazy about X and want to pitch them.

- Sounds silly to mention, but you have to really care about it. You have to know why you want to write this thing vs your own stuff.

- Even if one of the big reasons is, "I'm terrified someone else will screw it up. I'd rather be the one, if it comes to that."

- But what will be your guide from the start is your motivation for this story. What do you want to say through this particular voice/world?

- That's a huge help going into the pitch. The next step is to share how that motivation is personal to you. How it connects to your life.

- That's what you lead with. Why is this personal to you, and how does it connect to the character(s) of this property? What is its soul?

- This means being able to talk about yourself, sometimes sharing traumatic experiences, with a room full of strangers. Tough.

- But binding yourself and your passions or fears to a thing increases both your purpose and its value. Producers want that connection.

- Now I'm going to keep going by talking about the particular beast of movie pitching, but I've done TV dev for 8 years and that's tough too.

- If you're swinging for something even halfway cool in this town, expect it to be a "bake-off" (lots of writers pitching).

- You are not really in the game with the other writers. That is the tragic mistake I used to make. Your big opponent is yourself. Not them.

- Focus on what you love about the property, be it an adaptation, remake, or sequel. Share what it means to you; what it does so well.

- Now here are some really crazy specifics, based on tragic blunders by yours truly.

- All the preamble talk can be about how you identify with the story, and how that translates, but when you get into the actual pitch...

- Hit the milestone at around five minutes in and declare it. For me that's the "end of act one" moment, but it can be the big sequence, etc.

- The thing that launches the rest of the movie, whatever that is, gets announced. "That's our engine for act two." And here's why you say it:

- Producers/execs have sat through pitches for 20 minutes only to hear the writer say at the end, "That's the backstory. Now, we open on..."

- This is one of their horrible fears: That you don't know where to start pitching.

- Seed some "mile markers" in your pitch to help everyone know where in the story they are. It's a great relief to them, trust me.

- Next: visual aids. Cards. Posterboard. Maps. Diagrams. All workable. Keep something in mind when using material like this in a pitch...

- If you put too much on them for your buyers to read, they'll be reading and not listening to your story. So be visual, not wordy.

- Characters in a pitch. Often tricky describing them. Some people love it when you offer casting ideas, so they see the actor in the movie.

- I can tell you I had a pitch completely crumble on me only because the studio exec HATED an actor I used as my template for the lead. Pow.

- Try to avoid: Physical description, unless it's germane to the story. Don't bother with that crap, it's superficial 99% of the time.

 - Instead, think of one behavioral trait that paints a bigger picture of a person. A bad habit. A cute sentimentality. What real people do.

- "He's the kind of guy who rants about the president but never voted." "Birthdays and holidays are a big deal to her."

- That sort of thing.

- More hard lessons I've the scars to prove: Make it a discussion. Don't feel it's a stand-up routine. Let them ask questions. Ask them ones.

- I spent way too long making my pitch simply "here are the beats of the story." That's not what they want to hear. Crazy, I know.

- They want the story -- they really do -- but have you ever managed to pay attention to someone telling you the events that happen in a film?

- It can be really... dry. Sadly. Even if the events are really cool.

- You gotta keep thinking to yourself, "How does this moment make me FEEL?" And share THAT with your buyers in the room.

- So in a weird way, it's almost like telling someone about a crazy thing you just lived through. Yourself.

- To get all chart-y, it helps to go between very specific details and broadstrokes. Give me two mental photographs then talk subtext.

- Show me the plumbing of the pitch. Don't go into detail the HOW of that epic shootout, but the WHY of it.

- The more I understand what's in the walls of the house you're describing, the less I worry about the decorations.

- Just dip into some really great bit of description now and then so I get eye candy, and feel the movie you see. A little goes a long way

- And the more you talk about the main characters, the better. If it's a sequel, the question in their minds is "Will [star] love this?"

- Something a few of you have already mentioned: This is a multi-tier process. You don't start by pitching to the top decision-maker.

- You will be pitching the same thing again and again to people at increasingly higher levels, all who want to hear what you told the others.

- You're like Bruce Lee in GAME OF DEATH pitching to get to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

- And because you'll be pitching it a lot, practice it a lot. Get it down to fifteen minutes or less. Leave a ton of room for Q&A.

- Annnnd I see some of you already just said that. But yeah. Make it shorter than you think it should be, they can always ask you follow-ups.

- Sometimes you'll get the sense that the people you pitch to will simply re-pitch your story to their boss. Try to avoid that. How?

- End the meetings by saying you'd love to get back in the room and pitch to anyone else who needs to hear it. Be direct with them.

- Won't always work but if you ask that to their faces you can come back and help keep the pitch's integrity vs a bad translation by execs.

- Does your pitch have a villain? Find a way to say "Here's why I agree with the villain" and mean it. Make us feel s/he could be a hero.

- ...in some other version of the movie.

- Next up: References and inside language. You know what can save your hide? A little homework on what movies/TV/lit the exec loves.

- Find out (thru your reps or your own questions in a call/mtg) what posters they hang on their walls. What they couldn't put down at home.

- That helps you to know what shorthand to build into your pitch. Not to pander to them, but to give them emotional anchors to your story.

- From John Spaits: The longer I work, the more I find that looser pitches win. You can sabotage yourself by working out too much.

- From John Spaits: You have to leave room for the development team to play in the sandbox with you. Let it still be fluid.

- And finally, a reminder: It's a scary, exhausting, nerve-wracking thing, to pitch for a story you love. It's tough. It's also the job.

- Don't be hard on yourself afterward. Practice pushing through social awkwardness in non-pitch scenarios. At parties. With friends.

- As scary as it may be to put your heart on your sleeve and say, "This is me, this is my heart in this story," talent does this all the time.

- We are the first to do it, but then we're telling people to follow our footsteps. The director does the same dance, to slightly diff music.

- Actors REALLY do it, in an all-in kind of way that still boggles my mind. And they're relying on your commitment from way back.

- Okay, with those trial-by-fire lessons learned, I'll end with this, my worst pitching horror stories.

- I once pitched to an exec who got up mid-pitch to use his private adjacent restroom, but left the door cracked for me to "keep pitching."

- Yeah, that was a moment of humiliation right there.

- I once pitched on a comic book adaptation using other successful CB movies as touchstones. Their reply at end: "That won't win us Oscars."

- I once pitched to someone at Smokehouse Pics and mid-pitch was interrupted by GEORGE EFFING CLOONEY, totally wiped my brain.

- Once, my only way to crack a tough property and make it personal was by putting it in a very different setting. So I start my windup..

- ME: "We open in [setting]." EXEC: "I hate that setting. Next?" ME: *crushed silence*

- From Gary Whitta:  It’s the toughest thing, many of us are writers because we’re introverts, but you have to be the opposite in the room.

- And let me reiterate: There are as many ways to work in this business as there are writers. But these are my lessons based on my path.

- And in my experience, feature pitching is all about writing assignments. (TV writing is a different ballgame.)

- Some studios (be it TV or feature) love original ideas and buy those pitches, to make it their own. TO MAKE IT THEIR OWN *spooky music*

- I pitched and sold an original idea to a studio that then got warped and twisted into something else

- That can happen. It has happened. It will happen. You have to keep swinging and act as if it won't happen again to you.

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3.14.2014

Lunch Today - Kenner Seafood

Hot Coffee

My current notebooks

A couple of books, three screenplays, a TV show, a game, and some general writing:


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Ye Olde Bake Shoppe

My Thursday afternoon snack place:


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3.13.2014

Opening Paragraph To Slam The Big Door

John D. MacDonald is a hell of a writer:






So happy Random House is republishing MacDonald's other books.

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Queen & Country Cover

Found this while going through storage. One of the best comic book covers ever:


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Sam Mendes' Rules For Directors

From Vanity Fair:

1. Always choose good collaborators. It seems so obvious, but the best collaborators are the ones who disagree with you. It means they're passionate, they have opinions, and they'll only ever say yes if they mean it.

2. Try to learn how to make the familiar strange, and the strange familiar. Direct Shakespeare like it's a new play, and treat every new play as if it's Shakespeare.

3. If you have the chance, please work with Dame Judi Dench.

4. Learn to say, "I don't know the answer." It could be the beginning of a very good day's rehearsal.

5. Go to the ancient amphitheater in Epidaurus, in Greece. It makes you realize what you are a part of, and it will change the way you look at the world. If you're an artist, you will feel central, and you will never feel peripheral again.

6. Avoid, please, all metaphors of plays or films as "pinnacles" or "peaks"; treat with absolute scorn the word "definitive"; and if anyone uses the word "masterpiece," they don't know what they're doing. The pursuit of perfection is a mug's game.

7. If you are doing a play or film, you have a secret way in if you are directing it. Sometimes it's big things. American Beauty, for me, was about my adolescence. Road to Perdition was about my childhood. Skyfall was about middle-age and mortality. Sometimes it's small things. Maybe it's just a simple idea. What if we do the whole thing in a nightclub, for example. But it's not just enough to admire a script, you have to have a way in that is yours, and yours alone.

8. Confidence is essential, ego is not.

9. Theater is the writer's medium and the actor's medium; the director comes a distant third. If you want a proper ego trip, direct movies.

10. Buy a good set of blinkers. Do not read reviews. It's enough to know whether they're good or they're bad. When I started, artists vastly outnumbered commentators, and now, there are a thousand published public opinions for every work of art. However strong you are, confidence is essential to what you do, and confidence is a fragile thing. Protect it. As T.S. Eliot says, teach us to care, and not to care.

11. Run a theater. A play is a temporary, a building is permanent. So try to create something that stays behind and will be used and loved by others.

12. You are never too old to learn something new, as I was reminded when I learned to ski with my 10-year-old son. He, of course, did it in about 10 minutes, and I spent four days slaloming up and down, looking like a complete tit. But, don't be scared of feeling like a complete tit. It's an essential part of the learning process.

13. There is no right and wrong, there is only interesting, and less interesting.

14. Paintings, novels, poetry, music are all superior art forms. But theater and film can steal from all of them.

15. There are no such things as "previews" on Broadway.

16. Peter brook said, "The journey is the destination." Do not think of product, or, God forbid, audience response. Think only of discovery and process. One of my favorite quotes from Hamlet -Polonius" "By indirections find the directions out."

17. Learn when to shut up. I'm still working on this one.

18. When you have a cast of 20, this means you have 20 others imaginations in the room with you. Use them.

19. Please remember the Oscars are a TV show.

20. Get on with it. Robert Frost said, "Tell everything a little faster." He wasn't wrong.

21. The second production of a musical is always better than the first.

22. Learn to accept blame for everything. If the script was poor, you didn't work hard enough with the writer. If the actors failed, you failed them. If the sets, the lighting, the poster, the costume are wrong, you gave them the thumbs up. So build up your shoulders, they need to be broad.

23. On screen, your hero can blow away 500 bad guys, but if he smokes one fucking cigarette, you're in deep shit.

24. Always have an alternate career planned out. mine is cricket commentator. You will never do this career, but it might help you to sleep at night.

25. Never, ever, ever forget how lucky you are to do something that you love.

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3.10.2014

Books in 2014

1. A Dance At The Slaughterhouse
2. A Walk Among The Tombstones
3. The Devil Knows You're Dead
4. Bandits

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Movies in 2014

1. The Hot Rock
2. The Valley Of Gwangi
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. To Have And Have Not
5. The Third Man
6. Below
7. It Happened One Night
8. State And Main
9. Furious 6
10. Vengeance
11. Running Scared (1986)
12. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
13. The Thing From Another World
14. Matilda
15. The Shaolin Temple
16. The Avengers
17. The Raid
18. In The Heat Of The Night
19. Dillinger
20. The Mission (Johnnie To Film)
21. Odds Against Tomorrow
22. Outrage
23. My Name Is Nobody
24. The Wolverine
25. Fulltime Killer
26. Muppets From Space
27. The Man With The Iron Fists
28. Mad Detective
29. Batman Returns
30. Riddick
31. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
32. Captain Phillips
33. The Lego Movie
34. Now You See Me
35. Bull Durham
36. Nebraska
37. Big Trouble In Little China
38. Death Rides A Horse
39. Zero Effect
40. The Mercenary
41. A Fistful Of Dollars

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Pinewood Derby Car Is Started

3.09.2014

Cinematography of 12 Years A Slave

Eric Kress Lighting Workshop Pt 2

The Cinematography of Nebraska

Steve McQueen: The Power of Cinema

3.08.2014

Louisiana


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Movies in 2014

1. The Hot Rock
2. The Valley Of Gwangi
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. To Have And Have Not
5. The Third Man
6. Below
7. It Happened One Night
8. State And Main
9. Furious 6
10. Vengeance
11. Running Scared (1986)
12. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
13. The Thing From Another World
14. Matilda
15. The Shaolin Temple
16. The Avengers
17. The Raid
18. In The Heat Of The Night
19. Dillinger
20. The Mission (Johnnie To Film)
21. Odds Against Tomorrow
22. Outrage
23. My Name Is Nobody
24. The Wolverine
25. Fulltime Killer
26. Muppets From Space
27. The Man With The Iron Fists
28. Mad Detective
29. Batman Returns
30. Riddick
31. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
32. Captain Phillips
33. The Lego Movie
34. Now You See Me
35. Bull Durham
36. Nebraska
37. Big Trouble In Little China

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That's A Wrap On Ravenswood

From Elmore Leonard's Bandits

3.03.2014

610 Stomper Family

3.02.2014

Movies in 2014

1. The Hot Rock
2. The Valley Of Gwangi
3. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
4. To Have And Have Not
5. The Third Man
6. Below
7. It Happened One Night
8. State And Main
9. Furious 6
10. Vengeance
11. Running Scared (1986)
12. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
13. The Thing From Another World
14. Matilda
15. The Shaolin Temple
16. The Avengers
17. The Raid
18. In The Heat Of The Night
19. Dillinger
20. The Mission (Johnnie To Film)
21. Odds Against Tomorrow
22. Outrage
23. My Name Is Nobody
24. The Wolverine
25. Fulltime Killer
26. Muppets From Space
27. The Man With The Iron Fists
28. Mad Detective
29. Batman Returns
30. Riddick
31. The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
32. Captain Phillips
33. The Lego Movie
34. Now You See Me
35. Bull Durham
36. Nebraska

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My Boy Ready For Parades


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Krewe of Tucks Toilet Float


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St. Charles Avenue Street Sign At Mardi Gras

Pints & Parades

Guinness

Guinness at Irish House before going grocery shopping:



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