Is putting the audience to sleep a mistake?or a blessing? Filmmaker Sondra Lowell sets new screenwriters and directors straight.
1. Contrary to current belief, keeping the audience awake is the biggest mistake a first time filmmaker can make. If viewers are asleep, they will never notice your other mistakes.
2. Waiting to get famous till after your movie is made is another error common among those new to the medium. Why do people pay to see and hear Jessica Simpson–this goes double for Ashlee? Because they?re already famous. While having people actually see your work is not advisable, you still want them to buy tickets or DVDs, and they are more likely to do that if they feel they already know you. Consider inviting hundreds to your wedding, then escape just before The Big Day and make up a story about being kidnapped.
I?m reeling with the delight and the unexpected impact of discovering a rare artist of immense depth and humanity — Krzysztof Kieslowski, the Polish movie director who gave the world his famous Three Colors Trilogy (Blue, White, Red) and the 10-film series Decalogue, among many others.
A chain smoker and a hopeless workaholic, Kieslowski (pronounced kisch-loaf-ski) died of a massive heart attack at the young age of 54 in 1994 not before, however, he showed us what a transformative, moving and humanizing experience watching movies can be.
Once when he was a little boy in England, Leslie Hope (He later renamed himself Bob after a race car driver he idolized) wanted to pick an apple off a tree. Symbolic of his career, he didn’t want just any apple but the highest one possible. He lost his balance, fell and permanently changed the shape of his nose.
Plot points are linear links that make up the chain of traditional Aristotelian 3-act dramatic structure. This classic structure worked well in Hollywood for almost a century now. Although young movie makers are forcing the limits of this structure, plot points still rule the day as the ?tent poles? that hold up of the circus of our dreams. Here are the plot points of Red (1994), a part of the Kieslowski trilogy, as I see them.
Red (1994)
Starring: (Irene Jacob), Jean-Louis Trintignant (The Judge), Jean-Pierre Lorit (Auguste Bruner)
Directed by: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Writers: Krzysztof Kieslowski, Krzysztof Piesiewicz
In 1934, when Walt Disney called for a meeting among his artists, a rumor had spread that he was going to shut the studio down and they would all be left unemployed during the great depression. Instead he personally told them in his own spellbinding way the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which he intended to make into his first feature length film. It was a risk unlike any other he had taken before. The film would cost a million and a half dollars at a time Disney was spending anywhere from ten to thirty thousand on his short cartoons. Doubts came from his wife Lillian and his brother and business partner Roy, who were sure they would be in debt for most of the rest of the lives. Also nervous was Walt’s backer Bank of America, who at one point interrupted the production by cutting off his credit. Then there were the heads of the other studios like MGM, Universal and Warner Brothers. They would gather for their weekly poker games at the Hillcrest Country Club and speculate that Walt, who they called the Mickey Mouse Man, would never succeed, no one would sit still for an hour and a half to watch a cartoon. And the press referred to Snow White as Disney’s Folly.
Is it possible to think about ?Godfather? and not also think about Al Pacino?
In the role of Michael Corleone (Godfather Part II, 1975), the reluctant-hero of the mafia epic, Pacino has become a legend of movie history.
Born in South Bronx, New York on April 25, 1940, Pacino has given us such unforgettable performances as those in Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Serpico (1973), Scarface (1983), Sea of Love (1989), Frankie and Johnny (1991), Donnie Brasco (1997), The Merchant of Venice (2004) and Two For The Money (2005).
The TV industry has lost one of its most successful producers. Aaron Spelling, 83, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants, has made it from a poor kid to the creator of such unforgettable shows as the CHARLIE’S ANGELS, DYNASTY, and THE LOVE BOAT has passed away in Los Angeles, as a result of a stroke.
Early on, Spelling’s writing ability worked very well for him. A small and frail kid often harassed at school, he had a nervous breakdown at the age of 8 and that’s when took it to reading while recuperating in bed. Soon he was inventing stories to himself and putting them on paper as well.
Identity is a very vague term with different meanings. What is identity? It refers to the cultural values or perspectives an individual most strongly relates to; such as an Asian identity(SCP), The distinguishing character or personality of an individual(Arts Connected Organization), It includes those qualities that distinguish one person from another (Encarta Encyclopedia), The distinguishing character or personality of an individual (Britannica Encyclopedia). The very concise definition of Identity is realized in the question of who Am I? It refers to one’s specific and unique characteristics and features which differ it from others. It represents the real self of the person and the behaviors and desires due to that understood self. Like most human characteristics identity is formed through a very long and deep process.
Plot points are linear links that make up the chain of traditional Aristotelian 3-act dramatic structure. This classic structure worked well in Hollywood for almost a century now. Although young movie makers are forcing the limits of this structure, plot points still rule the day as the ?tent poles? that hold up of the circus of our dreams. Here are the plot points of Thieve’s Highway (1949), as I see them.
Thieve’s Highway (1949)
Starring: Richard Conte, Valentina Cortese, Lee J. Cobb
Directed by: Jules Dassin
Writers: A. I. Bezzerides (Screenplay and Novel)
Every true life rock ‘n’ roll television melodrama has the same scene: the unknown artist/band gives their freshly cut 45rpm single to the local disc jockey. He spins it on his top 40 radio show…and a star is born. This legend has been passed down through the generations of wannabe popstars like an ancient family recipe. The ingredients may differ, but in the end you get the same glorious results: radio play equals fame and fortune.