Advice — expert series

"I'm gonna write a screenplay" "Good!" "I've got this great idea for a story. I'm really excited" "Go for it." "Except, I've got this problem." "Oh?" "I stare at my computer and all it does is stare back at me!" "Have you tried using the keys on the keyboard?" "I'm being serious. What's the secret for starting a screenplay? Do you have a secret?" "As a matter of fact, I do." "Is it writing down scenes on 4x5 cards first and then laying them all out so that you can see the beginning, middle, and end?" "That's one way to...

Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. - Mark Twain Ah, January! A new year, a fresh slate, a virtual meadow of pristine winter white that stretches for miles in front of us. Where oh where do we put our first footprint or make that first goofy snow angel? If you're like most people, this is the month for throwing oneself with gusto into an aggressive self-improvement program involving the words "diet" and "exercise." Remember all those glam party invitations last month you couldn't...

The Duchess was such a disappointment. Though the wigs were beyond fabulous and the sets stunningly gorgeous and aristocratically dignified, the characters were flat, their dialogue practically non-existent, and their emotions understandably absent given the dearth of any context for the story. If you're going to do a period piece, do it up right. People, this was the Age of Enlightenment. The Age of Reason. The time of Revolutions. Of great philosophical, scientific, and social exploration, discovery, and change. It was a time of long, complex sentences that displayed the acumen of the speaker, who was most likely schooled in...

How do you make a documentary when you have no script? I was faced with this problem when I shot my first unscripted documentary for a class in documentary filmmaking. We had the assignment of making an 8–12 minute unscripted documentary. I started by visiting a friend's farm and shooting some footage. I quickly filled up 3 one-hour tapes. Wanting to make extra sure that I had enough footage, I shot more, and more, and more. I ended up with 30 hours of tape.Unfortunately I had a day job, and no time to log, much less edit all of it....

The interest in story is greater now than it has ever been, and - putting aside for a moment the movie business, television, book publishing, other major producers of story and their consumers - that interest now extends to every facet of our society. Heavily funded, major research projects now exist throughout government, the sciences, and the corporate world. And everywhere that interest is growing. Everyone - from stock brokers selling derivatives, lawyers trying to convince a jury, preachers trying to save our souls, and neophytes looking for employment - wants to be able to effectively tell their story -...