Postcard #33 (Quincy, IL)

I’m on the tail end of a three week road trip working on a variety of video projects and I took the above picture at sunset this evening in Quincy, Illinois. The town sits on the Mississippi and no doubt was a stop for Mark Twain who came from Hannibal, Missouri just down river. Quincy also happens to be where actress Mary Astor (The Maltese Falcon) was born. And much more recently—this year— filmmakers (and brother/sister and business partners)  Peter and Rachel Craig of Quincy were featured in Reel Chicago after their short film Une Histoire d’Amour played at Slamdance.  According to Peter’s bio on Spacmanx, one of his latest scripts, “Relativity was purchased and is currently in development at Walden Media.”

Screenwriting from unlikely places….

Related Posts:
Mark Twain’s Florida
Mark Twain 

Scott W. Smith

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Postcard #32 (“The Planets”)

I wanted to write another post on Jackie Robinson and/or the movie 42 but was busy finishing editing a project today so I’ll push the Robinson/42 post back at least a day. The project I finished editing today is The Planets—Reimagined featuring the artwork of Gary Kelley.

Below is a photo what the project looked like today on the small screen, but Saturday night (April 27, 2013) the video with be projected in HD on a cinema-sized  screen at the Gallagher- Bluedorn Performing Arts Center in Cedar Falls, IA with conductor Jason Weinberger leading the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony performance of Gustav Holst’s The Planets.

Scott W. Smith

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Postcard #31 (Shingle Creek)

Several years ago I added the section of postcards to this blog as a shorthand way of keeping this blog rolling when things get super jammed. And they mix it up a little, but sometimes I find that even in a simple photo I can find a tie in to one of the themes of this blog.

Today’s theme I’m tapping into is source. Go back on any writer you admire and see if you can find a source of their inspiration. Often there are a mix of sources that made them become a writer such as the hometown they were raised in (as in Rod Serling’s case), but sometimes it’s singular—perhaps an event, a situation or a teacher.

Today’s photo is just a simple unretouched iPhone photo I took at sunrise Wednesday morning on the last day of a four day shoot I did at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida. Shingle Creek is believed to be the northern most waterway of the Everglades. It’s hard to believe that though I was raised in Central Florida I had never heard of Shingle Creek until this shoot popped up. It’s also hard to believe this creek—this swamp area— is just about a mile away from International Drive—which is one of the most touristy areas of the country—if not the world.

Related Post: Rod Serling’s Binghamton Roots

Scott W. Smith 

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Postcard #30 (Hammock Beach)

The last couple of days I’ve been shooting a TV Travel project at Hammock Beach Resort in Palm Coast, Florida.  Here’s a screen grab one of the lifestyle sunrise shots yesterday of Orlando talent Alison Skipper (@ProPretty) from the penthouse balcony overlooking the Atlantic. (And yes, I’m still holding on to editing with FCP7—but I have upgraded to the MacBook Pro Retina. Still looking to make the jump to FCP X, Premiere, or back to AVID. Any suggestions?)

Scott W. Smith

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Postcard #29 (Downtown Horses)

A friend called me today and asked if I was going to be in Minneapolis tonight for the Upper Midwest Emmy Awards, where I am up for an award for a project I shot earlier this year. Nope—I’ve been in Des Moines shooting a project since Wednesday.  It’s been a busy month and the Regional Emmy awards have been a little off my radar. Which is probably healthy. (Of course, it’d be nice to win.)

So after the phone call, I thought I’d sneak in a Saturday post and share a photo I took on Thursday when I was in downtown Des Moines shooting some beauty shots for a TV program. I’m not sure who the artist is, but I was drawn to these downtown horses and the beautiful blue sky.

P.S. Last night I had dinner in downtown Des Moines with a director from Santa Monica and the restaurant had a photograph of actress Cloris Leachman on a wall and I told the director she was from Des Moines, Iowa. He didn’t known that and said he actually ran into her at an ATM in Brentwood once. Small world, huh? BTW—Cloris Leachman has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards, which is more than any other performer—to go along with her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in The Last Picture Show. Des Moines is full of surprises.

Update 10/2/12: Didn’t win.

Scott W. Smith 

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Postcard #28 (Prime Time)

I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say about the shoot today in which I was field producer on in the greater Dallas area (on behalf of Magnet Media and MWW), so I’m just going to just pull a quote & picture Prime Time tweeted @DeionSanders:

Just finished shoot with BallPark. Prime has own Burger baby! “The Prime”
Read more at http://twitter.yfrog.com/hwc4wdhj#6Vp5Ty6XDDEFCiDR.99

It’s not everyday that I get to work with a Hall of Fame football player who was also a pretty solid professional baseball player. (In fact, he’s the only athlete in history to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series.) One of the teams he played for was the Cincinnati Reds, I wore my Reds hat today. Fun shoot with a talented guy.

Scott W. Smith

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Postcard #27 (A1A)

There’s something about this Sunday
It’s the most peculiar gray
Strolling down the avenue
Known as A1A
Jimmy Buffett
Trying to Reason With Hurricane Season

Last year I started this section about postcards from the road as a way to stay sane when I was traveling and still trying to keep up daily weekday posts. Two days ago I was driving on A1A in Ft. Lauderdale and kicking around ideas for a post and I took the above picture.

Then this afternoon after flying into Dallas—Ft. Worth from New York via Charlotte I stopped in at Half Price Books in Irvine. Turns out they not only had half price books, but also movies and music for sale. After my recent trip to Florida I had been thinking that the next time I see the Jimmy Buffett album A1A for sale I was going to buy it. There it was for $3.99. (Probably close to the original price when it was released in the mid ’7os.)

My newly found record album in Texas on its way to become wall art in my office

I realized when I took the record out of the sleeve that I hadn’t done that simple act in a long, long time. Then I realized that many who read this blog may have never even touch a record album. But I was a teenager in the 70s so I listened to a lot of records and actually miss the physical ritual of placing the record on the record player, and placing the needle on the record, and somehow having music magically appear through the speakers.

Official Coral Reefer Liner Notes
A1A is the beach access road that runs occasionally on and off U.S. 1 it can take you to some of the prettiest beaches in Florida East of Saint Augustine, right through the middle of “Wrinkle City” better known as Miami Beach and ending suddenly 90 miles north of Havana and four blocks from my house.

Peter Whorf came to Key West to talk about my ideas for the cover, after several hard skull sessions at Louie’s Backyard, we chose our name and started up A1A to Miami. So the cover was the trip and the trip was a cover, and there is also a record inside. I hope you like them both.
Jimmy Buffett
August ’74
Key West, Florida

No real movie connection here, just that the album A1A was listened to over and over by a kid who grew up on a dead-end street in Central Florida who would dream about living a great adventure and would some day write a blog called Screenwriting from Iowa…and other Unlikey Places.

If you’ve never had the opportunity to drive down A1A in Florida put it on your to do list. It’s one of America’s great roads. I have driven the entire section of it, but in chunks at a time. Because it goes through many towns—and a zillion stoplights—it would take you forever to try it on a short vacation. But here are some of my favorite sections to hit.

1) Key Largo to Key West. That’s 97.6 miles of magic. Water on both sides, but if you don’t like bridges you many want to pass this stretch. Highlights are John Pennekamp State park in Key Largo and the tradition of watching the sunset on Mallory Square in Key West. And Louie’s Backyard is still there and shouldn’t be missed.

2) St. Augustine to Daytona Beach. St. Augustine is a great little historical town that I never get tired of visiting. I love the architecture and food. As you head south from St. Augustine on  A1A there are actually some undeveloped areas, and the section between Flagler Beach and Ormond Beach reminds me of a mini Pacific Coast Highway in California. And while Daytona Beach is on the touristy side, the Chart House just west of A1A is located next to a marina and is a beautiful place to have a meal.

3) New Smyrna Beach to Sebastian Inlet State Park. Surf, sun, and space. (One overlooked place even by people living in Orlando is Playalinda Beach in Titusville. If you want to know what Florida looked like before condos, visit this beach. About the only modern development there is a road and some bathrooms. Playa Linda is Spanish for “pretty beach.”

4) Palm Beach to South Beach. As you get into the thick of South Florida condos and large homes tend to block a lot of your views of the ocean, and the traffic gets thicker. So there’s not much you can do but embrace it. If you’re into looking at beautiful homes, exotic cars, and interesting people than this part of A1A was built for you. A few places that give you the sense of the good ole days are The Breakers in Palm Beach and the Art Deco section of Miami Beach.

P.S. I learned on this recent trip to Florida that Jimmy Buffet’s daughter, Savannah Buffett, has a website and a clothing apparel company called…A1A.

Related Posts:
Jimmy Buffett in Iowa (Part 1)
Jimmy Buffett in Iowa (Part 2)

Scott W. Smith

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Postcard #26 (Scary New Jersey)

One night I was in Newark, New Jersey back in the ’90s, but today’s post is not quite that scary.

Last night/earlier this morning ended a 21 hour work/travel day that started in Ft. Lauderdale and ended in New York City. Missed the big storm in the area as well as the President hanging out with David Letterman and later with Jay-Z at the 40/40 Club in NYC. Got four hours of sleep and headed out with a crew for a video shoot in New Jersey.

Shot and directed a project today at the home of Tony Siragusa; a guy with an interesting (and diverse) resume; NFL tackle for the Baltimore Ravens when they won the Super Bowl in 2001, sideline reporter for NFL on Fox,  co-host of the DIY Network show Man Cave, owner of several restaurants, actor on the Tv show The Sopranos and in the movie 25th Hour, and author of the newly published book Goose: The Outrageous Life and Times of a Football Guy.

After the shoot I stopped in Chatham, New Jersey for lunch and had a vision. An illusion of sorts—interesting shadows created by a Halloween display/artwork outside one of the shops on Main Street. More charming than scary.

But if you really want to hear something really scary, on the cab ride in from JFK airport I learned that you can now buy a 12 oz Kobe Steak from Japan in NYC for $350. When I told that to the cab driver he said, “For $350 I can buy a cow.” Later I learned until last month it had been illegal to buy, sell or import Japanese beef in the United States. The ban was recently lifted and the Old Homestead Steakhouse (sounds like a restaurant that should be in Iowa, right?) began offering the steaks, and quickly sold out their first batch.

P.S. I passed on the $350 steak, but did get a nice steak at one of writer Stephen King’s favorite restaurants in NYC, Palm Too. He writes about it in his book On Writing. 

Scott W. Smith

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Postcard #25 (Miami Beach)

Miami is the most exotic city in the United States. Of course, that’s debatable—and I won’t even trying to unpack what I mean. I just love the city—and I do mean the greater metro area including downtown, Coconut Grove, Key Biscayne, Coral Gables as well as some of the outer areas.

Yesterday afternoon I was fortunate to not only eat lunch at Garcia’s Seafood Grille & Fish Market in Little Havana, but I was able to drive & walk down Ocean Ave. in Miami Beach and take in the sights and sounds of the Art Deco district.

I took this photograph of the Colony Hotel Miami South Beach just after sunset and while there was still just a little bit of light in the sky.

Some of my favorite films shot in Miami are Scarface, Up Close & Personal, Absence of Malice and the doc Cocaine Cowboys.

Scott W. Smith

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Postcard #24 (Coral Gables)

Crazy day today–lots of travel and some computer issues, but here’s the post for the day. I’m down in Miami for a shoot on Tuesday and was able to make a brief visit to my old stomping grounds at the University of Miami in Coral Gables.

Took a drive past my dorm building at Pearson/Mahoney, strolled through the old building that used to be the film department, and visited the athletic Hall of Fame. And that’s the postcard from the road today. A look back at the five National Championships the University of Miami has won in the last 30 years—something that no other division 1 football team has done.

Because I enjoy touching on regionalism on this blog—love the Miami Hurricanes football team or despise them —in the ’80s they were the product of the times and the area. A seemingly unlikely source to navigate the water is Joan Didion’s book Miami first published in 1987. Miami’s story is one of crippling orange grove freezes and damaging hurricanes. One of natural beauty and wicked human endeavors. (The year I attended Miami in the early 80s there was an average of a murder a day in the Miami metro area.)

As Fidel Castro took control of Cuban in the late ’50s there was an influx of Cuban exiles who were looking forward one day to returning to their homeland. More than 50 years later they’re still waiting. They’ve added a flavor to the area, but when the Mariel boatlift brought an exodus of 125,000 additional Cubans (some from prisons and mental health facilities) it caused quite a strain on the city. Mixed with the Overtown riots in 1980 following the death of African-American Arthur McDuffie and the acquittal of the police officers involved, and the increase of the illegal drug trade in the ’70s & ’80s—bringing money and murder—Miami needed a facelift.

Miami Hurricane coach Howard Schnellenberger is the man I believe who orchestrated that change. And he did it by recruiting South Florida players who traditionally would have gone to the University of Florida, Florida State University, or even more prominent Big Ten schools.

It’s hard to believe that in the late 70s they almost discontinued the football program at Miami. It’s what makes those national championships all the more remarkable. It’s quite a story.

Here’s the opening credits to the Billy Corben directed documentary “The U” which is part of ESPN’s 30 by 30 series.

P.S. While the football team isn’t currently the powerhouse it once was, the school itself was recently ranked the 44th best college by the U.S. News & World Report.

Scott W. Smith

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