How to Get Started Working in Production

“(Vilmos Zsigmond) made his way to Hollywood, where he found work as a technician in a film lab and also as a home portrait photographer.” Ray Morton writing about the days long before Zsigmond won an Oscar for Best Cinematography Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The making of Steven Spielberg’s Classic Film Here’s a [...]

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The Elvis of Screenwriting?

“It’s very hard to live up to an image.” Elvis Presley Last night at the Sundance Film Festival Sam Levinson won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Another Happy Day. Unfamiliar with Levinson, I was curious to see the path that the 25-year-old writer/director took to make his first feature. “I guess it goes back [...]

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The Perfect Murder…on Paper

“In Dial M for Murder, I did my best not to go outside…what I did was to emphasize the theatrical aspects” Alfred Hitchcock The film Dial M for Murder (1954) was written by Frederick Knott based on his play. Several different TV versions of the play have been done and it was the basis for [...]

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“Cedar Rapids”—The Movie

Finally, Hollywood has titled a movie after a city in Iowa. The film Cedar Rapids premiered this week at the Sundance Film Festival. Though not too many people in Cedar Rapids are going to recognize many locations. The majority of the film Cedar Rapids was shot in tax-incentive friendly Michigan. And actually from the little I [...]

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Sputnik, Sundance & Kevin Smith

“This is our generation’s Sputnik moment.” President Obama State of the Union Address 1/25/11 (Referencing the Soviet’s rocket launch in 1957 which fueled the USA in the space race.) “The piece of advice that Walter Gretzky gave (his son) Wayne Gretzky was this…’don’t go where the puck’s been, go where it’s gonna to be.’ The [...]

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Tell Me A Story—Pat Conroy

“Tell me a story, to me, are still four of the most beautiful words in our language. I remember my grandfather, I would ask him those words—’Tell me a story grandaddy.’ And he would tell me one. In the south, especially the rural south, the telling of stories on porches—that passing down of oral history [...]

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Jack LaLanne (1914-2011)

“If man made it, don’t eat it. Eat more fresh fruits, fresh vegetables…” Jack LaLanne Sure there’s news today from Sundance as well as the Academy Award nominations, but I’d like to take the time to pay respects to Jack LaLanne who just died. Long before his Power Juicer Infomercial days, he was known as one [...]

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Screenwriting the Pixar Way (Part 2)

“Toy Story 3 is about change. It’s about embracing change. It’s about people being faced with change and how they deal with it.” Lee Unkrich Director, Toy Story 3 “All the Toy Story films have been about mortality. It’s all about ‘Who am I? Am I going to be replaced?’” Darla K. Anderson Producer, Toy [...]

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“Returning to Zero”—Robert Redford

“I was a failure at everything I tried. I worked as a box boy at a supermarket and got fired. Then my dad got me a job at Standard Oil—fired again.” Robert Redford Success magazine This year’s Sundance Film Festival began a few days ago and it’s a fitting time to look back at the [...]

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Diablo Cody+3=823

“I never wanted to write a screenplay. To me, writing is this wonderful, indulgent activity where you just fill the page with words.” Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody Iconcinema.com Three years ago today I created my first blog post ever (Life Beyond Hollywood). I started out with a little Diablo Cody inspiration and a modest goal [...]

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