Screenwriting from Yankee Stadium

Yesterday I took two plane flights, one bus ride, and one subway to get to my first game ever at Yankee Stadium. The journey from my house took about about nine hours. But it was really several decades in the making. It’s a place I’ve always wanted to visit ever since I was a little [...]

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Flipping Pancakes, Screenwriting & Emmys

A few days ago I learned that I received two more Emmy nominations by the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. That makes four in two years. And though there are many great screenwriting blogs out there, I was thrilled last year that Screenwriting from Iowa was the first screenwriting blog [...]

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Off Screen Quote of the Day #13 (Ed Thomas)

Since I wasn’t able to go to the Aplington-Parkersburg game last night I thought I’d drive out this morning and see the what remnants were left behind from the first ever high school football game from Iowa to be broadcast on ESPN. The only activity was a couple joggers running around the track. The only [...]

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ESPN in Parkersburg, Iowa

It’s not everyday that ESPN broadcasts nationally a from a high school in small town in Iowa. In fact, I don’t think it’s ever happened before anywhere in Iowa. But it’s happening tonight in Parkersburg, Iowa just 20 miles from where I live in Cedar Falls, Iowa.  Parkersburg,of course, would rather not be in this [...]

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Songwriter Ellie Greenwich (1940-2009)

Time it was, and what a time it was, it was a time of innocence… Simon & Garfunkel Bookend Theme While songwriter Ellie Greenwich never wrote a screenplay that I know of she lived dramatic enough of a life to have a show based on it, Leader of the Pack, make it to Broadway in the [...]

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Screenwriting Quote of the Day #102 (Alfred Hitchcock)

“I don’t want film to be a ‘slice of life’ because people can get that at home, in the street, or even in front of the movie theater. They don’t have to pay money to see a slice of life. And I avoid out-and-out fantasy because people should be able to identify with the characters. [...]

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Kelly Slater on the Digital Revolution

Champion surfer Kelly Slater gets it—this whole digital revolution. In an interview he did with Surfing Magazine four years ago Slater mentioned how the newer younger breed of surfers are not only sitting in on video editing sessions but editing their own footage and he speculated about the future of surfers using video:  “Guys in [...]

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Off Screen Quote #12 (Kelly Slater)

It seems like there’s been quite a few movies in the last couple years that deal with the changing of the guard from older to younger. And as the boomers start to retire I’m sure that theme will become more popular. One of the great lessons I learned playing sports into college is how every [...]

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Screenwriting & Florida Surfing

If you follow hurricanes at all you may know that Hurricane Bill kicked up some pretty nice waves along Florida’s east coast the past few days. Florida is not usually known for large waves. Most days the surf pales compared to the best surf spots in California & Hawaii. So one could make the mistake [...]

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Off Screen Quote #11 (Kanye West)

“Fame is like cigarettes with no surgeon general warning. It destroys most people as it did to the true and only King of Pop. We exploit ourselves and eat our own egos ‘Till there is nothing left.”                                      [...]

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