Freeebooks!

You can find ebooks at your local library and download them, and you don't even have to go into the library!

The Influencing Machine

Brooke Gladstone does the "On the Media" program on NPR, where she takes on how the media shape, distort and hype stories. Her podcast on the revolution in Egypt is particularly compelling. She's been one of the rare voices of reason in a media market saturated with blatant untruths.

Now she's got a book on the media. THE INFLUENCING MACHINE tracks the history of the news media and how they shape our world, from ancient Mayan publicists through Civil War journalists to Fox News. And it's a cleverly drawn graphic novel whose style is inspired by Scott McCloud's excellent Understanding Comics.

How do we get the media we deserve? Why does debunking a lie often make it stick in people's heads even more firmly? This book should be (and probably will be) required reading in communications courses. It's also worth reading by screenwriters, because every story teller needs to know how we understand the stories going on around us.



Check it out.

Full disclosure: Brooke is a dear friend, and I'm acknowledged in the book.

Lexmaniac

At the risk of splintering understanding & energy, or something, here's a fun new blog about language.

Nominated Screenplays

Chino Kino has posted links to three dozen downloadable award-contending screenplays. Check'em out. The links may not last forever. Via.

The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses

I'm trying to learn about game design. But I also like to read books that are about creating things that are not screenplays; often they give me fresher insight than screenwriting books do. (As Ram Dass said, "When you know how to listen, everybody is the guru.")

Jesse Schell's ART OF GAME DESIGN: A BOOK OF LENSES presents a hundred ways to look at game design. It's about your process designing a game, seen from a multiplicity of angles. It's incidentally also about making movies, although it pretends not to be. It is also probably about fashion design, although I know nothing about fashion design.

For example, in dealing with dumb feedback, don't agree to the client's changes, or reject them. Instead, try to figure out what problem the client is trying to solve. Schell had a client ask for more chrome on the racing cars in a game. When Schell asked what problem the client was trying to solve, it turned out that the client thought the cars should go faster, but assumed they were going as fast as the game's computer processor could handle. He thought that more chrome would feel faster. Adding chrome probably wouldn't have fixed the problem. Lowering the virtual camera so it was closer to the ground did fix the problem.

Or, the "three layers of desire." What does the client say she wants? What does she think she wants? What does she really want? Your client may say she wants an educational game. But what she really wants is a space game; but she has money from an educational game publisher, so she has to deliver an educational game. That's why she's so hot on the spaceships in your educational game. What she really wants, though, is to become a game designer herself, a desire you must consider as you work with her.

Relating these ideas to the movie world is left as a fairly simple exercise.

I could go on, but then you might not go and read the book. It is really an extraordinarily smart book.

(Oh, and there's a deck of cards that goes with the book. They are available both physically and digitally.)

The Circle Cast

I was rather jazzed to discover that my novel, THE CIRCLE CAST: THE LOST YEARS OF MORGAN LE FAY, is coming out next month (due to a type I thought it was coming out next year). You can already pre-order it at Amazon.ca.

Morgan le Fay, seducer of King Arthur, sorceress, destroyer of Britain, was a girl once. When Uter Penndragon uses Merlin's magic to seduce her mother and murder her father, Morgan flees to Ireland to avoid being killed herself. But Ireland is no refuge. She's captured in a slave raid and sold to a village witch. As Morgan comes of age, she discovers her own magical powers. She falls in love with a young Irish chieftain. But will her drive for revenge destroy her one chance for love and happiness?

Another Fine Mess

I've been dipping into Saul Austerlitz's new book ANOTHER FINE MESS: A HISTORY OF AMERICAN FILM COMEDY. It isn't really a history in the sense of illuminating the underlying trends of film comedy. It's more a chronological appreciation of the great comedy filmmakers, from Buster Keaton to Judd Apatow. I'm enjoying it because I haven't seen all the comedies of Buster Keaton, and the book goes a long way to filling in the blanks. Austerlitz certainly has seen a lot of movies, and he gives you a good sense of them. Worth the visit, if not the detour.

5 Annoying Trends...

Cracked notes 5 Annoying Trends That Make Every Movie Look the Same.

And Here's the Kicker

I'm reading AND HERE'S THE KICKER: CONVERSATIONS WITH 21 TOP HUMOR WRITERS ON THEIR CRAFT. It's ridiculously full of useful nuggets of info. Marshall Brickman on Annie Hall:

After watching [the rough cut], we thought, "Where's the relationship?" When people come to me with ideas, sometimes they say, "I want to do a story about a war," or "I want to do a story about a hospital." And I'll always say, "Tell me the story in terms of a relationship." So with Annie Hall, we knew what was missing. It didn't focus on a relationship.

And Harold Ramis:

I always tell students to identify the most talented person in the room, and go stand next to him. That's what I did with Bill [Murray].

And George Meyer:

You can't keep bitch-slapping your creativity, or it'll run away and find a new pimp.

Buy it. Read it.

They Don't Like Generica in Beantown, Either

This Boston Globe columnist is tired of Canadian shows that look just like American cop shows. But he likes THE BRIDGE.

It all started a couple of seasons ago, when CBS picked up “Flashpoint," a series about a Toronto police SWAT team that was popular in Canada. “Flashpoint" celebrates everything the Canadians say they hate about us Americans: It’s gratuitously violent and stupid, with the Kevlar-vested lads in blue armed to the teeth with the latest weaponry. They cruise the world in caravans of gas-guzzling, black Chevy Suburbans, just like Canada’s favorite son, Kiefer Sutherland, in “24.’’ They even use the phrase “set up a hard perimeter,’’ which I thought had been trademarked by the lazy writers on “24.’’

Here’s the thing. Absent the gorgeous scenery and the occasional glimpse of an Ontario license plate, you would never guess this was a Canadian show. The cops work for a “big city police force,’’ with no identifying uniform or cruiser markings. Toronto-based logophobe Naomi Klein, author of “No Logo,’’ would approve.

I disagree about FLASHPOINT, which is after all the sniper show where they try not to shoot people. But I am down with the idea that maybe some Americans wouldn't mind seeing shows about Canada.

Bill Murray on Comic Delivery

But you asked how you get the comic pitch. Well, obviously a lot of it is rhythm. And as often as not, it's the surprising rhythm. In life and in movies, you can usually guess what someone is going to say—you can actually hear it—before they say it. But if you undercut that just a little, it can make you fall off your chair. It's small and simple like that. You're always trying to get your distractions out of the way and be as calm as you can be [breathes in and out slowly], and emotion will just drive the machine. It will go through the machine without being interrupted, and it comes out in a rhythm that's naturally funny. And that funny rhythm is either humorous or touching. It can be either one. But it's always a surprise. I really don't know what's going to come out of my mouth.

Bill Murray Will See You Now

Tough Time for Screenwriters -- The View from the Trenches

MetaFilter, my favorite news aggregator, has a good post on the "tough times for screenwriters" meme, with lots and lots of actual screenwriters commenting to flesh out the picture. Some say it's the aftermath of the writer's strike followed by the crappy economy. Others say it's the obsession studios have for idiotic projects like, I kid you not, MAGIC 8 BALL: THE MOVIE.

Just for the record: any good screenwriter could probably come up with an interesting pitch for MAGIC 8-BALL: THE MOVIE. When you're writing a movie about a toy that comes with no narrative content, you can write anything you want. But why?

Anyway, there's an explanation of one-step deals and lots of other goodies. Check it out.

The Bucket Brigade

In the current New Yorker, there's a very fine piece on Steve Carell (tragically behind a paywall although everything else seems to be free). The key takeaway is the degree to which the big comedy hits are worked over and over:

With "Dinner for Schmucks," the script was crowd-sourced: after Paramount and Dreamworks hired several screenwriters to try to adapt the 1998 French farce "Le Diner de cons," without success, David Guion and Michael Handelman, both trained in improve, devised a structure that seemed to work. ... Guion and Handelman's draft was fussed with three times by sets of other writers, then tweaked three more times at comedy roundtables, where groups of writers gathered for about six hours to suggest new bits and jokes. Last summer, the script was given a two-week polish by Roach's writing partner, Larry Stuckey, and revised one last time by Guion and Handelman, before finally being turned over to a cast skilled in improve (with Guion and Handelman on set to suggest more alts).

Nowadays in the comedy industry, a Bucket Brigade of actors, writers and directors pitches in to punch up one another's films... They read one another's drafts, attend one another's table reads and rough cuts, and give notes. Lots and lots of notes.

The full article is definitely worth a read. Now where's my Bucket Brigade?

Emmy Nominees Talk About Showrunning

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER had a little roundtable last month with Vince Gilligan, Damon Lindelof, and a few other showrunners about what they think about showrunning. You should check it out.

Mind Your Business

It's about time an agent wrote a screenwriting book. In her book MIND YOUR BUSINESS, veteran lit agent Michele Wallerstein gives you a perspective another writer won't. What is an agent looking for in a script? How do you score in a meeting? How do you handle your side of a negotiation? How can you tell when your agent isn't into you any more?

Many good writers put all their efforts into their scripts. But a brilliant writer can screw up his own career by what he does or doesn't do. Minding your business -- and agenting your agent -- is almost as important as your screenwriting craft.

When I was starting out, Ms. Wallerstein was one of the agents people recommended I contact. She really knows her stuff. Her book is a tad slim, with a lot of sample contracts, but it's worth a read. Check it out.

Raindance Has a Slew of Coen Bros Scripts

I wouldn't recommend trying to write like them, particularly, but certainly worth a read.

Lean In

I'm reading Mark Burnett's autobiography JUMP IN. It's fairly self-congratulatory, but I suppose the guy who owns SURVIVOR and THE APPRENTICE is entitled to congratulate himself.

One of Burnett's many pearls of wisdom is this: never pitch over the phone. Insist on a meeting. You want to see the body language as you pitch. Are they leaning in, or leaning back? If they're leaning in, you're getting their attention. If they're leaning back, you're losing them.

In show business, you often have the opportunity to send a pitch in. Absolutely try to avoid doing this. No matter how well you write your pitches, a cold read requires your reader to put energy into your material. They can take energy out of your live pitch.

I know some writer-producers don't leave material behind; they want to be judged only on their pitch, not what they wrote down. I've never tried this approach. I know whoever I pitch to is going to have to take the idea to their boss, and it will help if they have something to refer to. I don't want my idea mis-pitched; I don't want the gatekeeper to have to say, "Aw, you hadda be there." But "leave no material behind" works for some people.

Costume Design 101

This is a little bit astray from this blog's territory, but since I'm hoping to direct another short in April, and hopefully a feature next year, I checked out Richard La Motte's COSTUME DESIGN 101, to get a handle on what costume designers do. It's a clear and (I believe) comprehensive book setting out what you, the costume designer, need to do on a show, from breaking down the script to creating characters through their clothes to dealing with budgets, and so on. If you're thinking of doing a short yourself, and you don't have an experience costume designer, check it out.

Linx to Oscar Nominated Screenplays

USA Today, of all places, has an article full of links to all the Oscar-nominated screenplays. Check'em out. What did you learn?

Filmmaking for Teens

Steven Spielberg started his directing career when he was twelve by shooting a 9 minute Western on 8 mm film. He made films of crashing his train set, and sold tickets for 25 cents; his sister sold popcorn. I remember going to see DAY FOR NIGHT when I was 20, knowing this, and thinking, "If only I'd seen this when I was young, it would have got me started in the film business!"

Monkeying around with 8 mm was a pain in the ass. The film is 8mm wide, i.e. each frame is much smaller than your fingernail; imagine trying to splice a single frame into your edited work print in order to lengthen a shot. And then you have to synchronize that with your sound. But going up to 16mm meant you started burning money, fast, on each take.

Over the past decade or two it has got about a hundred times easier for any kid to make his or her own movie and show it to people. Consumer video cameras are quite good, and even near-pro-quality "prosumer" cameras are a couple of thousand bucks new. Digital editing is a breeze using Final Cut. And you can upload the whole schmeer to YouTube for free.

So why not start young? If there's one thing teenagers have a lot of, it's time.

Troy Lanier and Clay Nichols' FILMMAKING FOR TEENS: PULLING OFF YOUR SHORTS is a one-stop shop for how to make a short film with the resources your average teenager has: friends, a camera, no money and a long weekend. It covers everything from how to write a short script and how to edit it, to when to use handheld, to how to get people to see your minor opus. It has lots of ideas for how to mooch resources (who's not going to help a kid?) and what to watch out for (run your take back to make sure you got it) to what won't work (redubbing your audio because you didn't get it in the take).

I know there are kids out there making films, because I've heard from them from time to time. Buy this for your favorite budding filmmaker. Or, heck, see if this book can get your kid out of World of Warcraft.