July 2012
34 posts
4 tags
June 2012
38 posts
7 tags
Steven Soderbergh on important movies
“‘Contagion’ was $60 million. When I was on it, ‘Moneyball’ was $50 million. When you get into those kinds of numbers, the amount of time you spend doing the things you like to do decreases. I like being in a room with actors. But when the scale of a film grows, you are forced to wrangle with a bunch of other elements. And that’s not fun for me. “I look at these huge movies that come out, and some...
“Good work doesn’t happen with inspiration. It comes with constant, often tedious...”
– William Hefferman (via trishapearson)
4 tags
Woody Allen on his films
When you make the film, it’s like a chef who works on the meal. After you’re working all day in the kitchen, dicing and cutting and putting the sauces on, you don’t want to eat it. That’s how I always feel about the films. I work on it for a year. I’ve written it, I’ve worked with the actors, I’ve edited it and put the music in, and I just never want to see it again. When I begin a film, I always...
4 tags
What Woody Allen knows about Love
When it comes to the important things in life, you never learn anything. You can learn about technological things and you can learn about specific things, but the real problems that people deal with, in any subject, whether it’s existential subjects or romantic subjects, is that you never learn anything. You make a fool of yourself when you’re 20, and you make a fool of yourself at 40, at 60 and...
“The ideas aren’t that important. Really they aren’t. Everyone’s got an idea for...”
– Neil Gaiman (via therealkdgreen)
“Give your manuscript a chance. Keep going and believing and don’t be discouraged...”
– Brian Yansky, on his blog (via jaimecallahan)
1 tag
David Fincher on shooting 50 plus takes:
“At best, you get 60% of what you want.”
Hard to argue with the results - but wow. That’s a lot of takes.
June 20
Interesting day.
I’m still fighting getting cops on the phone for my show in TX next week. They keep being really southern sweet - but not getting me the details I need to get my treatment done and approved. And the clock is ticking.
But I get back from TX and am immediately heading up to SF to shoot a new series for a new company. I’ll be back and forth with them for the next 6...
“Writing is both a gift and an art. As a gift, it must be approached with...”
– K.M. Weiland (via emilyspen)
“I get a fine warm feeling when I’m doing well, but that pleasure is pretty much...”
– William Styron (via trishapearson)
“All writers are vain, selfish and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives...”
– George Orwell (via eelunphetmoore2)
Updates
Surviving. So that’s good right?
In preproduction for a show in Texas that starts next week. Have most of it set up - but still fighting through the shooting treatment. Due soon. But the story is really great and it should be fun.
Hearing this week if I am going up to SF for a month for a new show. Should also be fun. Like the concept and excited about working with a new group.
Met...
“They’re not in trouble if they say ‘no.’ Nothing bad can happen to them, and...”
– Screenwriter Dennis Palumbo, from the documentary Tales from the Script (via noyoudontoprah)
“You can’t think yourself out of a writing block, you have to write yourself out...”
– John Rogers, Kung Fu Monkey, 06-25-11 (via thewritershelpers)
“…Real writers sit down and write. Wannabe writers sit around and talk.”
– Joe Eszterhas (via therealkdgreen)
…Ugh GUILTY!
“No, outlining and structure is a pain, it’s pain and bricklaying. And to me is...”
– Joss Whedon (via joss-a-day)
Notes: This is so true. The structure is so important outlining is key and while it is a pain… it also can be fun to play around with an idea and play what if. (via beerosie)
“I’m a film geek; I was raised on movies. And there come these times in life...”
– Paul Thomas Anderson. From “Interview with Paul Thomas Anderson.” Magnolia: The Shooting Script. New York: Newmarket Press, 2000. 205. (via stayforthecredits)
“A guy much smarter than I once described [screenwriting] as a horse race without...”
– Peter Hyams (via bartleyblogs)
“Film school is a complete con, because the information is there if you want it.”
– Paul Thomas Anderson (via fashuncooldad)
“My best piece of advice if you’re looking to get into directing, is to not get...”
– Brett McKay (via crashingthisplane)
“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”
– Richard Bach
(via thewritershelpers)
“If you are not discouraged about your writing on a regular basis, you may not be...”
– Maxwell Perkins (via trishapearson)
“As artists, we wish we could always work well, but we must settle for working...”
– Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way Every Day: A Year of Creative Living, p.176 (‘June 4’ entry)
“You need more than a beginning if you’re going to start a book. If all you have...”
– Neil Gaiman (via therealkdgreen)
“When you take stuff from one writer, it’s plagiarism. But when you take it from...”
– William Mizner (via therealkdgreen)
“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”
– Jack London
(Submitted by Snarkysloan)
“Keep writing. Keep doing it and doing it. Even in the moments when it’s so...”
– Heather Armstrong, Keynote Speech, SXSW 2006 (via thewritershelpers)
