Category: film
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La La Land analysis : a Humble Rebuke of Hollywood
Tara insisted I go see La La Land with her and I didn’t plan on doing a La La Land analysis, frankly. I wanted to go see the film, enjoy it, and let that be that in keeping with the reticence theme of this year-long social media hiatus. Especially since I have an analysis of Arrival, Dr.…
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Spillface — another Parengo Coffee Commercial
This Parengo Coffee Commercial makes fun of the typical local ads you see in small towns. Worked on it, like the others, alongside Mark N. Photo and Flying Treasure:
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Monomyth Definition: A Defense of The Hero’s Journey
Let me again pick up a standard that has fallen on our literary battlefield: the standard that marks the entrance of The Defender of The Common. It would seem a silly thing to need to defend common things, but in truth we have grown quite accustomed to tearing down good things simply because great things exist.…
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John Lithgow, The Crown Spinoff, and other musings
Tara and I seldom watch TV shows and movies — I’ve focused on doubling down to catch up on my reading. Having said that, we burned through The Crown during the holiday break and I have some thoughts, spoilery though they may be: For one, the series tends to focus on the tension between the two…
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Mr. Two Face Dark Knight : Meeting Jongluers and Troubadours in my Dark Knight Rewatch
I could be called Mr. Two Face Dark Knight when it comes to analysis and thinking — reflectively — on the films and books I read. I don’t know about you, but I find myself wrong more often than I’m right. Likely that’s because everything we don’t know is infinite. Everything we do know is finite. And…
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Artistic Resistance :: Reflections
IN Aids to Reflection, Samuel Taylor Coleridge says the following (he often enjoyed employing the use of all-caps): READER!—You have been bred in a land abounding with men, able in arts, learning, and knowledges manifold, this man in one, this in another, few in many, none in all. But there is one art, of which…
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Short Film Festivals :: DOs and DON’Ts
I’ve been a judge for several short film festivals in NYC since I moved here and I’ve noticed common threads in the ones I reject (finishing up my list for one of the bigger festivals today). Those of you who have been around the block won’t need to read this — you know this stuff…
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Adapting Your Novel to Television is like Entrusting Your Daughter to Her First Date…
The process [of turning my novel into a TV series] that began with Sam Raimi, ended up in the hands of producers and writers that took things in a very different direction. The best way I can describe it (without the gory details); it’s something like letting your daughter go out on her first date.…
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Story Q&A: When should budget limit my film’s genre?
One of the questions that has come up in Free Lance Friday was posed by a screenwriter and filmmaker: when should my budget limit my story? The answer is either always or never, but not both. First, “never.” Your budget, as a screenwriter, should never limit your story when you write to sell your screenplay.…
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On Your Calling in Life
No one, not even Milton, ever made a living off of writing good poetry. Only those who were patronized by the rich could ever afford to do only poetry, but even then they did not generate an income off of the sale of their poetry. That’s a historical “never,” which are pretty hard to come…
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Becoming Sons and Daughters (a documentary)
This film features the issue of fatherlessness in our culture. Watch it and then let’s talk about the issues in the comments as I’m curious for your thoughts.