Writers: Don’t Skip Jury Duty

“Most people , I believe, initially shun jury duty. The summons always seems to come at the least opportune time, and one might go kicking and screaming.” David Mamet Introduction, Twelve Angry Men, Penguin Books Some writers begin with character, some with a situation, some from theme, but today we’ll look at a writer who [...]

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Dennis Hopper, Farm Boy (1936-2010)

“Being born in Dodge City, I really wanted to know where the trains were going. The first real light I saw was in a movie theater. I just wanted to know where they were making those movies.” Dennis Hopper “He was a Midwestern boy on his own…” Bob Seger Hollywood Nights Dennis Hopper was born [...]

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Learning from Others (Tip #42)

Two years ago I wrote a post called Can Screenwriting Be Taught? and I just found another quote to toss into that mix: “It is possible to examine how certain dramatists have constructed material in a way that at times has seized the interest of the audience. If they have also succeeded in seizing and [...]

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The Rise of the Creative Class

“Creative-minded people enjoy a mix of influences. They want to hear different kinds of music and try different kinds of food. They want to meet and socialize with people unlike themselves, trade views and spar over issues.” Richard Florida The Rise of the Creative Class “We focused on places that specialize in out-of-the-box thinking.” Kiplinger’s [...]

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Before “Groundhog Day”

Danny Rubin is another screenwriter with Chicago roots. Before he wrote Groundhog Day, he did his grad work at Northwestern. Rubin was around 35 years old when the classic Bill Murray comedy was released in 1993. What was he doing before that, and what’s his advice to writers before they sell their first screenplay? “If [...]

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Arthur Miller on Writing

To blog daily is a monster beast to feed and I wish I had some great system to feed that monster. Instead it tends to be like manna I get just for the day. But when I find myself stuck for a post I don’t turn to the Internet to find something fresh, I turn [...]

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Clint Eastwood is Like Fine Wine

Orson Welles was only 25-years-old when he made his first film Citizen Kane. It is considered one of the greatest films ever made. He won his sole Oscar on that film. He was 43 when he directed his last significant film Touch of Evil. Welles died in 1985 at age 70. Though he worked as [...]

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Ben Hecht the Prophet

“Movies are dying because they killed off the people who could make them, the writer and the director. They took away their identity.” Ben Hecht February 15, 1958 Yesterday, on the post The Shakespeare of Hollywood, I wondered what screenwriter Ben Hecht (Spellbound, Wuthering Heights) would think about TV and the Internet today.  In one [...]

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The Shakespeare of Hollywood

“Writing a good movie brings a writer about as much fame as steering a bicycle.” Ben Hecht “The job of turning good writers into movie hacks is the producer’s chief task.” Ben Hecht Screenwriter Ben Hecht was born in 1894 just as moving pictures were being invented. Before he died in 1964 he worked on [...]

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Shelter from the Rain

“My years in Chicago were a bright time spent in the glow of new worlds. I was a newspaper reporter, playwright, novelist, short-story writer, propagandist, publisher and crony of wild hearts and fabulous gullets.  I haunted streets, whorehouses, police stations, courtrooms, theater stages, jails, saloons, slums, mad houses, fires, murders, riots, banquet halls and bookshops. [...]

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