Direction is a matter of emphasis. In telling a story, the task of the director is to emphasize what is significant by under-emphasizing what is less so. The actors’ performances, the camera’s coverage of the performances, and the film editor’s reconstruction of these during post-production: all are designed to make certain things more significant than others to the audience.
Source: keithcalder
“What’s it about?”
Michael Piller, who wrote during the best years of Star Trek: The Next Generation, talks about the importance of theme in a story.
It is the thematic material I’m talking about, not the plot, the exploration of the world we live in that guides the development of the stories I like to work on.
Source: gointothestory.blcklst.com
Talent Evidently Matters
Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers was hugely eye-opening and motivating to me. It’s core message is that hard work is what actually determines success, not talent. This article doesn’t negate that message, but it does attempt to balance it some.
In fact, it would be nice if they [intellectual ability and the capacities that underlie it] weren’t important at all, because research shows that those factors are highly stable across an individual’s life span. But wishing doesn’t make it so.
Source: creativitypost.com
Best advise I got when I was trying to make Brothers McMullen. ‘There are two types of pain. The pain of regret and the pain of hard work.’
Source: twitter.com
Maurice Sendak talks with Terry Gross on NPR’s Fresh Air about getting older:
I have nothing now but praise for my life. I’m not unhappy. I cry a lot because I miss people. They die and I can’t stop them. They leave me and I love them more.
Source: twitter.com
Everything is a Remix Part 4. This great video series by Kirby Ferguson looks at how creativity works. Part 4 dives into copyright and patent law and the effect that has on progress.
Be sure the check out Parts 1-3 if you haven’t already: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Billy Wilder’s 10 screenwriting tips:
- Grab ‘em by the throat and never let go.
- Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
- The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
- If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
- Tip from Ernst Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.
- The audience is fickle. Know where you’re going.
- In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they are seeing.
- The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
- The 3rd act must build, build, build in tempo until the last event, and then…
- …that’s it. Don’t hang around.
(Tips via Gwenda.)
(via austinkleon)
Source: gointothestory.com
In order to arrive at a personal style, you have to have a technique to begin with. In other words, when I say that style is a special case of technique, you have to have the technique — you have to have a place to make the choices from. If you don’t have a basis on which to make the choice, then you don’t have a style at all. You have a series of accidents.
Source: NPR
Rob Legato, Jacob Rosenberg, Vincent Laforet, and Sharlto Copley discuss how technology is changing the way movies are made.
Source: blog.vincentlaforet.com
