Screenwriting from Arkansas

Love my ma, love my pa
But I just love ole Arkansas
Arkansas lyrics from the musical Big River

“I remember I was in junior high school and I was going to write a short story about mobsters, or New York mobsters. I think I had just seen a Scorsese film. And I told my dad that. And he was like, ‘You haven’t ever been to New York.’ And I said, ‘Nah, but that’s where mobsters live.’ And he basically said, ‘Why don’t you write something about Arkansas?’ And a window in my mind opened, and I realized all of a sudden that I had access to something that was interesting, that the rest of the world couldn’t write about, because I was the one there.

And it just seems like, you have an idea, and it feels kind of fake or false or movie-ish, but when I drag it down to Arkansas and place it there, it starts to feel realistic and grounded and I’m accountable for the realism, because I know these people and these places and I have to get it right. And that’s a good thing, because so many southern films are affectations that it’s good to feel accountable to some kind of realism.”
Writer/Director Jeff Nichols (Mud) 
Hollywood Reporter 4/26/13
Jeff Nichols, “Mud: Director” Eschews Hollywood for the South by Jordan Zakarin

Though Jeff Nichols currently lives in Austin, Texas (and recieved his educated at the North Carolina School for the Arts) two of his first three feature films (Shotgun Stories,  Mud) take place in Arkansas where Nicholas was born and raised. (The third, Take Shelter, is set in a small town in Ohio.) I finally saw Mud over the weekend and it reminded me a little of Tender Mercies, a little of Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn, a little of A Perfect World, and even a little of Stand By Me. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Nichols getting an Oscar-nomination for his script. And if he ever wins an Oscar he’ll join fellow Arkansas native Billy Bob Thornton who won an Oscar for his Slingblade (1996) script.

And considering that Winter’s Bone (Mud’s country cousin) was set in a world on the Missouri/Arkansas border and the 2011 Oscar-nominated doc & Arkansas-centered Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory documentary there is some excellent (and gritty) work coming out of that region.

P.S. Other film related artists with roots to Arkansas and in the Arkansas Hall of Fame include Johnny Cash, Academy-Award wining actress Mary  Steenburgen, and actress Lisa Blout (An Officer and a Gentleman) who won an Oscar in 2001 for her role in producing the short film The Accountant. And to top it all off one of the most financially successful writers in history—John Grisham—was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Now that I think of it, there are traces of Grisham’s The Firm in Mud.  (The movie version of The Firm was shot mostly in Memphis, but some in Arkansas)

Related Posts:
Winter’s Bone (Daniel Woodrell)
Winter’s Bone (How it got made)

Scott W. Smith

John, Paul, George and ?

“There is no way I’d be doing what I do now if it wasn’t for The Beatles. I was watching the Ed Sullivan show and I saw them. Those skinny little boys, kind of androgynous, with long hair like girls. It blew me away that these four boys in the middle of nowhere could make that music.”
Gene Simmons of KISS
Gene Simmons Talks Liverpool, The Beatles 

Just after 3AM this morning I arrived back home in Florida after a road trip that lasted 22 days and covered 4099 miles. I worked on a variety of projects performing a variety of roles (producing, directing, shooting–stills and video–and editing).

Worked on everything from a long form multimedia symphony project that was performed live, to a one minute corporate web video. In fact as my trip came to a close I thought of the eclectic week I had just this week. Over the weekend I shot a reality auction TV show that I will also be editing. On Sunday, while at the Downtown Des Moines Marriott I saw a travel infomercial I shot and edited in Central Florida last month airing on TV.

On Monday a short film I was DP on years ago had a screening in Decorah, Iowa. On Monday a four camera production I produced, shot, and edited in Orlando launched online Monday. A commercial I edited Monday will air regionally in the Midwest next week. Another video I shot and edited (partly in a Starbucks in Atlanta yesterday) will be apart of an award show at the end of the month. And a feature film shot in Iowa last year will its a debut tonight. I shot some footage for extras part of the DVD that I’m told they are selling tonight at the screening. And I supplied some rental production equipment to a documentary that will be shown in Algeria.

All that to say, if your desire is to work in feature films or TV and you’re not doing so there are 1,000s of other opportunities out there for you to gain valuable production experience—and to make money to pay your bills. And you get the bonus to meet and work with plenty of production people who have like-minded goals that you do. (Go back and read the ’09 post Beatles, Cody, King and 10,000 Hours.)

And if you’re a writer you also get tons of material to file away in your idea bank. Here’s one example I picked up over the weekend. At the auction in Des Moines was a 11 or 12-year-old boy who had traveled from California with his father to bid on some antique billiard racks. (They won the main rack they wanted with a bid of more than $10,000.) Bu the auction also had some rock-n-roll memoriblia—including a KISS Pinball machine, a Bo Diddley outfit, and the Beatles Butcher album–so when I interviewed the 11/12-year-old I asked him if he knew who the Beatles were and he said he did.

Then I asked him if he could name them. He jumped right in with “John, Paul, George and…” then there was a paused, he thought for a few seconds and said, “Rambo.”  I bet even Ringo Starr would laugh at being excluded from the fab four. It was a fresh line and I’m not sure I’ll never think of the Beatles again without thinking of John, Paul, George and Rambo. (Perhaps I can start a rumor that Rambo was the sixth Beatle. Pete Best, of course, being the fifth Beatle.)

Speaking of the Beatles I did miss an opportunity to hear Paul McCarney’s son James McCartney and his band who were playing in Des Moines at Vaudeville Mews last Saturday night just a few blocks from my hotel. And speaking of KISS that Pinball machine I pictured with above went for $2,300. Made me think of their song Beth which was a favorite of mine back in the day. Looked it up on You Tube and found this unusual version performed with a small symphony in Melbourne, Austraila—with orchestra members wearing KISS painted faces. (Like that Rambo line, I’m not making this stuff up.)

From Pat Conroy to KISS is one day—that’s how we roll here at Screenwriting from Iowa…and Other Unlikely Places.

Scott W. Smith

Writing Quote #39 (Writing in Paris)

This morning I was in Atlanta, Georgia and writer Pat Conroy was on my mind. On this road trip I’ve been listening to Conroy’s book on CD My Reading Life.  While he’s usually associated with South Carolina’s Lowcounty because many of his books (The Water is Wide, The Great Santini, South of Broad) are set in that region. And I believe he currently lives on Fripp Island near Beaufort, South Carolina, but Conroy was actually born in Atlanta and has spent much of his life living there.

But it was neither Atlanta or South Carolina, but Paris where Conroy wrote one of his most successful books, The Lords of Discipline.

“I would work on the novel during the day, beginning at nine in the morning. I would break for lunch, walk down to the market street on the rue de Seine, buy food at the charcuterie, stop for a baguette, and bring the food back to my room. After lunch I would nap for an hour, rise, wash my face with cold water, then resume writing until five o’clock. There was an exceptional sameness to these days, a habitualness that pleased me immensely. I tried to fill up five legal pages a day, a quota that translated directly into seven typewritten, double pages. At the end of the first week I had twenty-eight pages. I worked seven days a week during that four month period I lived in Paris, and before I left Grand Hotel des Balcons I would produce six hundred written pages. It would be the most productive time of my life.”
Pat Conroy on writing The Lords of Discipline
My Reading Life, page 210

The book was published in 1980 and the movie version written by Thomas Pope and Loyd Fonvielle was released in 1983.

Related Posts:

Writing Quote #32 (Waiting for Tortoises)
Writing Quote #20 (Pat Conroy)

Scott W. Smith

Editing “Is” (Tip #72)

” In the active voice, the subject performs the action. In the passive voice, the subject is acted upon.”
Constance Hale
The Pleasures and Peril of the Passive/NY Times

Driving through Tennessee today I spoke briefly on the phone with William Akers who lives in Nashville and wrote the book Your Screenplay Sucks! So I thought I’d tap into his blog for today’s post.

Have you ever done a search for certain words in your screenplay? Akers suggests using Find (control F or Apple F) to look for words that you can edit to make your screenplay tighter and better.

Here are just three examples Akers shows how editing “Is” can improve your writing. (Check out his post 7 Deadly Sins of Writing to see a longer list.)

He is grinning…He grins.

Cheryl is looking at Stephanie… Cheryl studies Stephanie.

Betty is really pretty… Betty, hot as a two dollar pistol, struts in.

(Man, I’d hate to run a Find “Is” search on all my blog posts. Maybe for the book version.)

P.S. It’s worth noting that if you have the skill of Mark Twain you can use a passive voice quite effectively:
“The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.” H/T Sin & Syntax.

Related Posts:

No Emotion? Your Screenplay Sucks!
Your Screenplay Sucks!

Scott W. Smith

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

Filmmaker Les Blank (1935-2013)

“I think he’s a national treasure.”
Director Taylor Hackford on Les Blank 

“As his work testifies, [Les]Blank has made a fine art out of making a personal connection with diverse people. He works through the lens, behind the camera, never drawing attention to himself. He makes friends with his subjects, spends weeks with them and acknowledges their dignity.”
A Well-Spent Life
DGA Quarterly/Spring 2013 Betsy Mclane

When Les Blank died last month he left behind a 50-year library of documentary films. Many of which gave an unusual glimpse into life in the United States. Roger Ebert called him, “A brilliant filmmaker,” he received  a Special Jury Award at Sundance one year, and received  a lifetime achievement award from AFI.

In the post Les Blank’s start, I found a quote where he said in an interview, “When I got out of film school, I had a hard time getting into the show business end of the media in Hollywood. I wasn’t a very good fit.” I’m not sure how many of his classmates went on to have a career in Hollywood, but I imagine Blank is the only one who had a filmmaking career than spanned five decades.

Scott W. Smith

Filmmaking Quote #35 (Les Blank)

“You go out and find some interesting people. You get to know them and film them, and you make something that says something about who they are; you learn to make movies that have some meaning.”
Filmmaker Les Blank (Burden of Dreams)
A Well Spent Life by Betsy Mclane
DGA Quarterly Spring 2012

Scott W. Smith