Filmmaking in the Other LA

“This is awesome for Louisiana.” Julie Bordelon Lafayette Entertainment Initiative “This is the first Academy Award ever received by a Shreveport artist and a strong affirmation of the role arts in brining international recognition, employment and a culturally generated economy to Shreveport.” Shreveport, La. Mayor Cedric Glover The other LA, of course, is Louisiana. At the [...]

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Filmmaking in Northern Ireland

“The people of Northern Ireland, Protestant and Catholic, who after 30 years of war sat down, negotiated a peace and proved to the world that the Irish are great talkers.” Terry George in his Academy Award acceptance speech “Hundreds of thousands of short films are produced every year around the world and for Northern Ireland [...]

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Neon Prophecy?

It seems like the first two months of 2012 I’ve been writing a lot about Hugo and The Artist so I was pleased they both did so well at the Academy Awards last night.  I’ll reflect on the Oscars later this week. I shot the above photo Elkader, Iowa on Saturday at the day end [...]

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“Wake up and pay attention.”—Alexander Payne

Today on NPR, Susan Stamberg had this exchange with Alexander Payne, the screenwriter, producer, and director of The Descendants: In the [The Decendants'] powerful final scene, the 10-year-old daughter watches TV on the couch, wrapped in a quilt. Her father enters with two bowls of ice cream. He sits, and pulls the quilt over to [...]

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Living Out Loud

“If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I will tell you, I came to live out LOUD.” Émile Zola  

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“Extremely Loud” Screenwriting

Think I can segue from two previous posts about Bridesmaids to one about Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close? No problem. In Bridesmaids there is a scene where the lead character’s life is falling a part and her mother tells her to watch the movie Cast Away saying, “It’s like Forrest Gump on a deserted island.” [...]

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Filmmaking Quote #31 (Annie Mumolo)

“My token advice (to aspiring filmmakers) is do it—make your own stuff. Whether it’s short films or whatever you can do, my advice is make your own stuff. I’m a real believer in preparation meets opportunity. When this opportunity (to write Bridesmaids) came along I really had been at this a long time…I was really [...]

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Another First Script = Oscar Nomination

“We basically pounded out our first draft in six days.” Annie Mumolo, co-writer of Bridesmaids Because I write so much about screenwriters who wrote 6-13 screenplays before they sold a script, it’s always nice to point out the anomalies. (It’s much more encouraging to new writers, right?) Here’s the story of a first screenplay that [...]

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May the Force Still Be with You

“Star Wars is one of those films — old films — that was designed for the big screen. It makes a big difference to see it on the big screen with the overwhelming sound, the picture and now 3D. We’ve had two generations be able to see it on the big screen and it was great. [...]

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Filmmaking Quote #30 (Martin Scorsese)

“I’m often asked by younger filmmakers, ‘Why do I need to look at old movies?’ I’ve made a number of pictures in the last 20 years and the response I have to give them is that I still consider myself a student. The more pictures I’ve made in 20 years, the more I realize I [...]

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