Being Discovered in the World 2.0

Until the invention of 16mm, it was almost impossible for any independents to make films.  The equipment was too expensive.  Even at the beginning of 16mm, you had to have some pretty heavy cash reserves to start making movies. 

In the world of music - the home 4 track recorders which started showing up in the early 80s were the first time home musicians could start to think about  recording multi track music.

Today the tools are very accessible for both music and movies.  The result of this is - there is a ...Read more

"No One Loves Me For Who I Am"

Something I've noticed is that people are drawn to people who live a little more outside their bodies.  This is why actors - even in person - often have that "presence" - the reason is that they are sharing all the things most people hide.  Some actors only do this on screen, some do it all the time. 

Everyone, whether they are an actor or not, either does or doesn't do this to varying degrees.  The more people are willing to share with the world, the more people are drawn to them for who th...Read more

What Defines You

The younger we are - all the way into elementary school - it seems the greater impact things have in a shorter period of time.  And many of these ideas and reactions seem to haunt us for the rest of our lives.  An acting teacher once told me "You don't forgive people for them, you forgive them for youself.  You forgive them so that you can let it go."

Who is allowed to define us?  Our parents?  The bully in school?  Our friends?  Are we defining ourselves by reacting or by making our own choices?

Something I...Read more

25

I am going to quote myself... I had written this on someone's blog - but it seemed relevant to a few discussions I've read lately - so I'm posting it as an entry here.

It is about the age of 25.

25.  Just old enough to realize that you could change your life into anything you want it to be.  Still too young to let go of the things which stop you from doing that.

Ideas: Part 02

Ideas: Part 02

So once you have some ideas (discussed in part 01) - you need to figure out which ideas have the best story in them.

The best way of doing this is to just turn them into stories.   Generally when looking for a story, you're going to look for the problem and the urgency.  

Any of idea that I wrote or that any of the commenters wrote could become a story - so I'll just take my last one and begin to work with it.

"A teddy bear is being chased by a fan.  The fan is jealous that the teddy...Read more

Ideas: Part 01

Ideas:  Part 01

Ideas are everywhere.  A professor of mine named Michael Gordon had the interesting saying, "Imagination is the rearrangement of memory."

You cannot avoid influence.  Your mind absorbs thousands of pieces of information every moment.  If you simply take two unrelated pieces of information and combine them, suddenly you have ideas.  

Right now in my peripheral vision I see a teddy bear and a fan (on different sides of the room).  Go!

A teddy bear is riding in a helicopter he made himsel...Read more

10,000

Just crossed 10,000 visits.  Thanks! 

Another 10,000 and I'll be in the  "Most Visited" perhaps.  ;)

I have been innundated with work, but I will try to blog more in the near future.  Some new thoughts have come up in the guestbook to wax philosophic about.

Screenwriting: A Must Before

There are some good papers on the web about loglines.  I'm going to keep  mine short.  Right now there is someone who is asking me to review their logline and again and again they keep on wanting to explain random details about their world when, in reality, almost all movies can be easily summarized with the following sentence.

A _______ must ______ before _____.

Call this technique:  "A Must Before."

A young boy must stop the evil empire before it takes over the universe.

A Hobbit mu...Read more

My Confession

I consider myself a grown man, yet... as I edit a car chase sequence tonight... I find myself making vrooming sounds as the cars go by. 

The Guidance of "Ain't Gonna Happen"

I usually write about the industry - but this is really just about people.

The Guidance of "Ain't Gonna Happen"

There are many things in life that would be awesome. Some of these things happen right from birth. Wouldn't it be awesome if you were born into being a billionaire? Wouldn't it be awesome if you had supermodel genes and everyone admired your beauty all the time and you never had to work at it?

But we are born into what we are born into and most people a...Read more