What Has Happened To Me?

She's got laser eyes. She knows what you're thinking.

Where have I been?

At Go Into The Story, Scott posted an interview with Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell, writers of the currently in theaters movie, Get Low. And I read it.

I knew absolutely nothing about this movie.

I saw the poster last week when I passed by Landmark Theater on my way to buy a cookbook from Borders. It caught my attention, but for only a second, and probably only because I had never heard of the film. It's not a very good poster, and the only thought I really had besides "Whoa, hey Robert Duvall, haven't seen you in a while" and "Oh, Sissy Spacek" was "... Get Low? Like... Lil' Jon "Get Low""?

Public Service Announcement

Pitiful! Just Pitiful!

These are my new glasses. Kanye said they tight. New trend. 2011.

Nathaniel over at Film Experience Blog posted here about this NYTimes article here, talking about TV vs Film and whether Film sucks right now, compared to TV.
I agree with what Nate said, basically that they're comparing the best of tv with the lesser of film, and a bunch of other things. Read his stuff yourself. What I want to get around to saying is, the article/blogpost particularly caught my attention because just last night, I texted to my boyfriend that I needed to become a better cinephile - I watch far more tv series (not on actual television mind you - internet & DVD o'course) than films. The hours I dedicate to television is at least 1000% that of film (seriously, at least - it's probably more like 5000%, maybe more)- and this isn't a matter of spending $11 at the theater - the majority of dvds in my collection are movies I haven't seen! I buy them at $5 and then let them dust. And to better illustrate the severity of my problem, here is what I've watched in the last 4 weeks or so (now with math!):

Comments on Another's Rundown

Over at Script Shadow we have this week's Weekly Rundown. These are the bits that caught my attention, and a few brief thoughts on them.

First, a King Arthur movie to be helmed by Guy Ritchie is in the works. It'll be written by John Hodge (Trainspotting). Variety Article.

The first thing I thought was "weren't there a couple big budget King Arthur movies like, 5 years ago?"

A Quick Lesson from Mira Nair

I love Mira Nair. I admit, I don't know her work well at all. I've only seen Monsoon Wedding (which she directed and produced) and Vanity Fair (which she directed and I saw when it came out and I didn't like it). But my love comes all from Monsoon Wedding. It is one of my favorite movies (and there really aren't really many things I will right out call "favorites," I'm too loving to name names and too indecisive to commit) and I adore it whole heartedly. (Note to self: Put Mira Nair movies to top of Netflix list. Hurry and go see Amelia.)

Here is a quick lesson from Mira Nair, via Third World Girl over at Three Hole Punched, who attended the IFP's Independent Film Conference in New York where Mira Nair spoke (Bobby said, that Sally said, the Jimmy said... Yes, my through the grapevine/telephone game paraphrase lesson from Mira Nair). I looked for a direct quote on the internet for a couple minutes and came up with nothing helpful. So here is the he said/she said version of it. Thanks Third World Girl.

Don't "anthropoligize" or explain too much culturally. If you watch Monsoon Wedding you'll see how much you're thrust into the action. There's no expositional dialogue about why we dress this way or wear this henna, or sing this song. There's no outsider leading you through the action and the work is all the richer and more authentic for it.

Readin' Readin' Readin' and Doin'

One of the first screenwriting blogs I grew attached to was Scott Meyer's Go Into The Story. He updates many times a day and besides offering his opinions on what's going on in the film world he makes an effort to help any fledgling screenwriters that hop along his path by offering helpful hints. He teaches online courses for UCLA so it's a "thing" for him I guess, you know... being helpful.

Anyway, so one of the suggestions he makes is to read screenplays. Its a common thing students hear "If you want to write, read books, if you want to act, watch plays, if you want to do something else, engage as a spectator of someone else's something else." However, it's not only a tip people often ignore, with screenwriting maybe one decides watching movies is enough. Either way it's a common message.

Meyer goes farther than that though. He has what he calls 14 days of screenplays where he links to 14 screenplays of differing authors and styles. His hope, more or less, is that by reading a screenplay everyday for a time will force your brain into picking up something more quickly via osmosis. That, in reading many works in a short period, your brain will start playing connect-the-dots and see the patterns more clearly and quickly than it might otherwise. So I've been doing this.