GOOD ARTISTS STEAL
Stealing You know the old stand-by, “good artists borrow, great artists steal”. Now I’m not a great artist. Not even close. Not yet. However I am going to steal something from someone I admire. Nick Hornby, probably best known for novels such as High Fidelity, About a Boy, etc… is probably lesser known for his books on his passions, mostly music and books. In them he has chapters separated into groups by months and often gives a list of the records or books he’s bought that month, and then the ones that he’s read/listened to. He uses that as a jumping board to discuss other things. So, with your permission, I’d like to try the same. Things I bought this month: The Queen Pan’s Labyrinth Bridge to Terabithia Little Children Popeye Lena: My 100 Children Death of a Presiden tTaxi Driver: Collector’s Edition I Shot Jesse James The Baron of Arizona The Steel Helmet Dexter: season one Heroes: season one Things I watched this month: Now to begin, I normally don’t buy this many DVDs in a month, however it’s been awhile since I’ve bought any, and I got good deals on each and every single one of these. Some were bought Looking over my list of bought/watched I’m actually impressed with myself. I’m really bad for buying things and then they sit on the shelf for forever. Criterion has a new series out called ‘Eclipse’ which offers box sets of lesser-known films from great filmmakers. I’ve been buying them but they’re just sitting there and I need to get on it. I’m a big fan of an ongoing film education, I think it’s important to aware of as much as you can, but not to over saturate yourself to the point where you’re not really processing what you’re watching. That’s exactly why I’ve been keeping my film journal for the last few years, it forces me to think about what I’ve watched. I’m sure I’m a bit of a broken record when it comes to a lot of things in this blog. I suppose when I repeat myself it’s something I deem important, and that works for me – so there it is. The new canvas Looking over my list too I realize how much more television I’m watching these days. Television kicks ass in a serious way right now. I know that I’m not the first to say it, but I think that there’s a lot more interesting things going on in television right now than there is in cinema. Television is the new novel, it allows us that detail and the networks are finally not scared to treat their viewers like intelligent human beings. They trust us that we can follow a storyline week after week. TV was so bad for so long and I never watched it. Reality TV seemed to be the wave of the future, and then luckily there was a shift. Some will say HBO started it, I’m not sure, but Showtime is pumping out some great stuff, and even the networks right now are doing well within their censored limitations. I just discovered a new show a few days ago thanks to Mr. Grani called “Californication’ and it’s really really great. It’s in that tone of what I’ll call ‘comedy with consciousness’ where it’s just wickedly funny, but there’s a really sad and human backbone there, heart breaking. There’s a lot of other really great shows I’m watching right now (see list above) but I can’t waste the whole blog just rambling on about that, now can I?… well… I guess I could, but I won’t. Stepping So this morning I handed in my new step outline/beat sheet to the, for now, undisclosed company that is very interested in a script I’m working on. We’re gearing up to apply to Greenberg for treatment to first draft and it’s really exciting/stressful. We’ve taken the old story line and basically tossed it out with the wash. The new story line feels really good though and I’m excited to present it. The next step is the treatment, and then onto draft. I can’t express enough how much it’s improved my over-all writing to spend the beginning time on a script just doing the grunt work and figuring everything out. I’m a broken-record but I can’t tell you how many scripts I get and read that just don’t have the basic structure of a story, and it’s frustrating and sad. In the back of Robert McKee’s “Story” he has a great bit talking about the school of thought where people just think that you’re either born with it or you’re not. Now I tend to agree with that. I believe that I was born to be a storyteller. I believe that others were not. Now I also believe that I need to learn the craft of storytelling and use it to help whatever natural gifts I was lucky enough to be possessed with. OK. There’s my rant about doing your homework. The back nine OK. So I’m taking an extra long weekend. Going to start it off with a round of golf with my boss/buddy/amigo, and then go to the farm and relax, do some reading, maybe writing, who knows. Basically I just want to relax before the madness of September comes on, because once it hits it’s going to be nasty. I’ll have a thirty-some-odd page treatment to write, all the while TIFF will be in full swing (please oh please draw from box #3 in the advance tickets…. Please… ). Somehow, god willing, I’m going to get into the gala screening of ‘Cassandra’s Dream’ so I can see Woody in person, and just work in general. I can do it. I’m excited. Bring it on. See you in September… Return from Good Artists Steal to Watch Films Online
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