Morning coffee art talk.

While SAG is still on strike (let's give them solidarity) this is an excellent time to study the craft of film acting so we can all work better with actors when the strike is over. Here are some great YouTube resources that can level up your game... This older video by Michael Caine is fantastic. He's speaking actor to actor, but it's something anyone that WORKS with actors should watch. An hour of viewing and you'll be a full letter grade more prepare to direct actors --

Been studying Adrian Lyne’s films, breaking down his “look.” He’s worked with multiple DP’s, but his aesthetics are common between his films, so I’ll attribute them to him.

Let’s use FLASHDANCE (1983, recently released in 4K) for some general aesthetic trademarks… The vast majority of his films are “city films” and he likes to establish that in the opening credits (often red on black) with texture. So get those city shots up.

Just got off a zoom with a very talented young filmmaker I'm (sort of) mentoring -- and I shared an exercise that I find useful for storytelling. I'll share it here too in case it helps someone reading... How I battle writer's block -- I use THESIS STATEMENTS. I often ask people what their story is about, and when they start telling me plot, I stop them...because that's just plot. It's not what the story is about in philosophical terms, and writers ARE philosophers.

I’m studying Nolan’s Batman films and I’m noticing all the effective “feed lines” in the scripts.

What’s a “feed line?” It’s my term for a line that’s there to set up a character for a zinger — often as a question. In THE DARK KNIGHT… “What do you believe in?!”

“I believe whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you…stranger.”

Small thread about dealing with the dark times when you're building your creative career -- and most of us went through some dark times on the way.

If you're there now, maybe this will help? About ten years ago, I was in a REALLY dark place. Had no idea if I could succeed, and life gave me a lot of evidence that I wouldn't succeed. All of the fun and excitement of a risky life choice left me and there was just a lot of fear in its place.

So how did I manage?

Speaking to Noam’s comment in further detail…

For a first short, I’d suggest doing a “one shot film” — now, I don’t mean a complicated one take (although that’s a fine experiment) I mean just film a scripted conversation in a well composed two shot.

https://twitter.com/noamkroll/status/1608231373243817985

Steve McQueen is one of my favorite filmmakers, and there’s a brilliant example of this in his film HUNGER.
Eventually the scene breaks into shot/reverse shot — but the red meat of it lives in the two shot.

Something you can do with an iPhone and a well hidden microphone.

Pitching tip(s) for writers, and general business communication.

Everything goes better when you add a little dopamine. So how do we do that with a pitch? A few suggestions, if you’ll indulge me… …emotion is the key. Don’t just tell the story, or present the idea. ANCHOR your presentation with EMOTIONAL MOMENTS. A moment of loss in the story. Gain. Love. Hatred.

Have three key moments where you intend to evoke emotion in the listener.

Random 007 thought.

It’s hard for me to invest into Madeline Swan and Bond, despite Lea Seydoux’s fantastic work — because Vesper Lynd casts such a shadow over Craig’s Bond. With one whole (excellent) film dedicated to their love — and the following film dedicated to his grief over that loss — I never made that shift to Swan the Craig films wanted me to make.

Grew up here. I don’t know what we can do, but we need to do something.

We can’t normalize this.

nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna5… Philosophically, I agree with Gun control laws, because I don’t particularly care about guns — but it’s more than access.

It’s the American relationship with guns. Seeing them as a solution. Some kind of talisman.

That’s the sickness. Laws or not.

Here's a #writing tip about the necessity of a STRONG, EMOTIONAL MOTIVATION for your protagonist.

So, I'm doing a third draft of this studio thing. Challenging project and I like the executive a lot -- but he wants a great deal of MISDIRECTION in the storytelling. Now -- -- that's not normally how I fight. I tend to get frustrated with narrative misdirection. I write how I live -- I come at you from the front.

But this is the discipline of the job. Sometimes, you have to fight in the ring with a style you don't use on the street.

So, what --

I did pretty well last year with zoom pitching as a screenwriter. As I said, I learned a bit from studying YouTubers I watch and here are a few adjustments I made in the age of digital story trapping, LOL.

Your mileage may vary... 1. Get a decent camera. I have a @razer kiyo and I'm about to try out the new @elgato -- but having a decent webcam is a good investment. Also, have good lighting. My Razer has a built in soft ring light, but try to give yourself a nice soft source.

It'll look good on you.

I don't mean to be politically divisive, but more philosophical...

The right wing preaches about American exceptionalism, its enduring power and providence over all other nations. They also treat America as a nation so fragile, ANY criticism will destroy it.

Can't have both. What this says to me, is this isn't a defense of the nation, but rather a defense of its NOSTALGIC MYTHOLOGY (which IS fragile), and the self-esteem many receive from their perceived (and generationally perceived?) role in that mythology.

Here's a funny #DavidLynch story, since I was posting LOST HIGHWAY.

So I'm in film school, like sophomore year, I think. NYU. We're shooting a project on the street, forgot what it was. Silly, film student stuff. Working with something like a krasnogorsk-3 super 16, but 8mm... ...so my friends and I were setting up a shot and I see -- who I THINK is -- David Lynch walking with a group of folks, taking photos. Like he was scouting something.

I'm like "if he looks at our camera, then that's probably Lynch." So we walks closer, across the street and...

If you can find Tony Gilroy’s script for this, it’s amazing. It’s one of the scripts I always read before starting on an assignment. There are three scripts I re-read before every feature gig. MICHAEL CLAYTON by Tony Gilroy…

https://twitter.com/SilvermanJacob/status/1408407446784253955

THE HUSTLER by Robert Rossen and Sydney Carroll.

In case it's not clear, they're not actually concerned about Critical Race Theory. They know they don't have any actual ideas and this is a solid "scary brown people" culture war scare for fundraising and sound-bytes because actual governance is difficult. Engaging them is playing into it. They don't want to talk about not having any good reason to fight infrastructure bills and they REALLY don't want to talk about making it harder to vote.

So yeah, "scary brown people corrupting your kids."

When you see them, remember...

I’m finishing up a screenplay assignment this week, and here’s a workflow technique that I use for genre stuff...might be helpful.

I tend to write scripts that balance action/set pieces and dialogue scenes, with the hybrid scenes in there, obviously. My approach to action — — is to not write it all out in my first draft.

What I’ll do is write it in paragraph form, within the body of the script and highlight certain things I know I want but most importantly I’ll have a sentence that tracks the CHARACTER GROWTH across the action scene —

It's #Oscars day and whenever I think about The Oscars I think about 70's era films, 70's influenced films for some reason. I guess when I was growing up those were the "Oscar movies" so the ceremony always puts me in the mood to watch films either of or in that era. Today... ...before I leap into this screenplay I'm finishing, I'm going to watch, for the first time, SUMMER OF SAM. It's the Spike Lee I haven't watched yet, and I'm not sure why. Maybe because when I want to visit Lee, I miss this because it feels like DePalma to me...

Being clear, I was suggesting ONE possible structure to writers new to the craft, looking to find a way through a draft of something.

You have to write something of high quality, but there’s nothing wrong with starting with a structure to get over blank page jitters.

https://twitter.com/reed_indeed_98/status/1386110695603802113

Campbell is a version of structure. Aristotle is a version of structure. I don’t believe form is the inherent antithesis of quality, and once you get through a draft or even just a concept you have something you can rework into what’s unique for you.

Just finished a conversation with the director of a feature I'm producing, and here's a perspective from it that I've shared before. It might be useful for your genre #writing so I'll share it again for those that might have missed my earlier thread. It returns often in my work. Often the problem of genre writing, especially in film, is that the stories are DEPENDENT on the genre elements for any dramatic impetus or conflict.

Great genre movies are dramas INTERRUPTED by genre elements, around the first act break. I'll explain.

Hmm. As a kid?

DUNE.

I don’t think critics liked it, but it blew my mind out of my ears as a kid. I was kinda raised by HBO (big surprise) and it was always on, or felt that way, but I loved it.

Had the soundtrack on vinyl. Toto!

https://twitter.com/mindykaling/status/1365166375321313289

I saw the movie first so the concept of a box that puts makes you experience excruciating pain, while you have to use mental discipline to endure the pain or a future-witch will poison you with a metal finger blade.

Like what?!

Going to be measured about this.

One of the key aspects of a Trump supporter is the dismissal (and ridicule?) of anyone who didn’t vote for Trump. Empathy is not an aspect of Trumpism. Trumpism scoffs at empathy.

And now they ask for it.

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1347521407463415808

To be clear, philosophically, I’m on the side of reconciliation — to a point. It’s just incredibly difficult to be the shepherd to people that would set you on fire and throw you off a cliff if they could. The way she feels entitled to empathy she and her flock don’t have?

Phew