Quote Of The Day

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined”
-Henry David Thoreau

Today's quote from the lovely and talented Abby Dobson. Check her out http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/artist_282680?eid=3598685_7428622

You can also leave a comment and rate her song “Born 2 Luv U” at: http://www.singersroom.com/music/Abby-Dobson/Born-2-Luv-U/2014.

Alec Baldwin's take on hosting the Oscar's

This is dedicated to Ms. Cherry Blue who loves Alec Baldwin flawlessly. I couldn't agree more with his thoughts on last night's show.

"A television show like the Oscars is a strange bird. It's not like SNL or Letterman, where performers come out and do their thing and every one goes home. With awards at stake, awards that might actually change the course of the winners' careers, the proceedings possess an unavoidable and unique tension that does not exist elsewhere. At the Tonys and Grammys, musical performance provides a level of entertainment that the other awards can't hope to match. Yet, the Oscars remain the most important awards program for many people, probably because the movies, at their best, make audiences feel things about themselves and life that other media don't bring into focus as completely or effectively. Only books, I would argue, do a better job.

Hosting the show is an odd experience because you're out there, but it isn't about you. Steve Martin and I worked rather hard, along with the writers and producers, to make sure our contribution did not detract from the primary purpose of the evening, honoring the highest achievements in film. We tell some jokes and show some clips, but the night belongs to the great talent in that room.

I had a wonderful time at the Oscars this year, because the reality of just how many remarkably talented people work in the movie business was never more vivid to me than last night. We all have our preferences (I had to be careful to keep mine to myself in advance of the show). We all think that someone should have been nominated that was overlooked. (500 Days of Summer, anyone?) That someone should have won who didn't. Here are some of the things I will remember about last night's Oscars.

- Carey Mulligan at the Vanity Fair party. I talked with her briefly and thought, "This young woman has everything, absolutely everything, to have a great career in the movies."

- Quentin Tarantino's look after the show. A look that said, "I'm gonna dust myself off and win this thing next year." Gracious and restless in the same moment, who's tougher, and more talented, than Tarantino?

-- Christoph Waltz taking in the fact that he had won the Grand Slam (SAG, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Oscar) for what is the year's best performance.

- Lee Daniels before, during and after the show. Daniels made the film that was the hardest to make. Few filmmakers and few casts of actors go as deep as the Precious company did. Had they won everything last night, who could argue? Daniels should know he was among the biggest winners, with or without the Oscar.

- Kathryn Bigelow trembling onstage as she accepted her second Oscar in under two minutes. Bigelow was, no doubt, headed for the press room as the newly crowned Best Director when Hurt Locker won Best Picture and she had to spin around and pick up her other statue. Kathryn Bigelow's award buoyed the evening. History made as the best director of the best picture is a woman making a war film.

- Sandra Bullock sitting in a room just outside the VF party with her husband, spending a moment taking it all in. Sandy has made a lot of movies. And those movies have made a lot of money. I believe, however, that Sandy, whose career began with movies like Demolition Man, had that dream that we all have and had it all along. Money, fame and privilege all fade into the background. Winning the big one would be... oh so nice. That was the wonderful look on Sandy's face last night. That the reality is every bit as fantastic as the dream.

Congratulations to all of the winners and nominees."

The Small Picture

The following article is from one of my favorite blogs http://etheriel.wordpress.com.

I'm sure she wasn't writing this about filmmakers and screenwriters in particular, but, how applicable it is. I wish more films focused on the "small picture," stereotypes and stock characters would disappear and we would have an infinite series of wonderfully specific characters, new souls whose stories are worth caring about.

This is an unexpected example, especially on Oscar Sunday when we're supposed to go deep, but the "small picture" is the reason Boomerang was such a great movie.

Lady Eloise was a fantastically detailed character, vain, overtly sexual, in her 60s, and a little crazy, but still a shrewd enough businesswoman to be outraged by the original Strangé commercial. There was never an opportunity missed with Lady Eloise. A scene in which she appears, just in passing, gave us the gem, "Marcus, I don't have any panties on."

Strangé, was the same thing, but it was the commercial director who proved that even the smallest moment could be memorable. He didn't need to go for big gag to be funny, "Steel vagina, marvelous..." was far better, and came out of exploring the details of his kinky character rather than heaping on gags that didn't add to the humor.

I could expand this idea to Coming To America as well, and for that matter 48 Hours, but I'll just sum it by saying, Eddie Murphy movies were funnier when the characters were detailed, intricate, multifaceted. It's when his movies became "fat people are funny," that we all got bored. But I digress...

Here's the article...

The Small Picture
2010 MARCH 3
by Grace

Why do people always say – focus on the big picture?

What’s so special about “the big picture?”

Unless you’re making a god damn collage.

I like the small picture.

Details. Nicks.

Iridescent. Mumbling.

Within them I see everything I need to know.



Take this little gem, for example.

Can you count the lines that mark its face?

How about the chips and cracks that claim its age?

Did you count the creases of the skin it hugs? Weathered

with traces of travels,

and god knows harboring how many secrets.

Do you wonder?



And would you believe me if I told you that every single fragment of the sea

gave away, as I threw myself onto them

and then

quietly crawled close and

pressed into me?

That each one felt like a memory yet to be claimed,

a wonder yet to be understood,

a dream faded before it was known…



Would you believe me if I said

That I actually don’t know what I’m typing half the time,

That I sometimes look away and just tap out patterns of what feels good,

That sometimes the jumble of words stare back at me, wild-eyed,

And I stare back in return, wild-eyed.

That maybe I string them together like pastel shell-shaped candies,

Into little neat stacks of

Short lines that rhyme

Just so people can

Call it poetry.

That maybe I do that just to feel the rhyme.

That maybe I do that just for an excuse to post photos of seashells.

That maybe I am a seashell.

That maybe I just want an excuse to be the girl that fumbles in seashells.

That maybe I just want to be that girl

In itty bitty little pictures.

Oscar Bingo!

Bingo cards courtesy of Thrillist.com

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Best Screenwriting Advice

1st ACT – Get the character up a tree
2nd ACT – Throw rocks at the tree
3rd ACT – Get him out of the tree

Be harder on your characters – be meaner to them (throw BIG rocks at the tree - boulders).

Jump into the middle of a scene and leave early.

Let the protagonist make their own trouble - they set the tree on fire and have to get out.

Every scene should reveal something new.

There. Go write.


“Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this.” - Martin Scorsese

Quote Of The Day

"It is defeat that turns bone to flint; it is defeat that turns gristle to muscle; it is defeat that makes men invincible. Do not then be afraid of defeat. You are never so near to victory as when defeated in a good cause."
- Henry Ward Beecher

Free Screening -Shutter Island

WHAT: Creative Screenwriting Magazine cordially invites you and a guest to a free screening of the #1 box-office hit - Shutter Island - followed by a Q&A with screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis!!!!

WHEN: Tuesday March 2nd at 7:30 pm.

WHERE: The Los Angeles Film School - 6363 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90019
--- Please enter the theater from Ivar Ave., directly next to the parking structure - there is NO entry from Sunset Blvd.

PARKING: Is free and based on a first-come- first-served availability in the structure next to the LA Film School on Ivar Blvd. If parking on the street, ple If parking on the street, please read all signs.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Seating is on a First Come, First Served basis and is NOT GUARANTEED for you or your MAXIMUM ONE guest. We will overbook specifically so that we fill the house. If you arrive early, a line will begin forming OUTSIDE the theater. Some seats will be reserved in advance inside the theater for special guests of Creative Screenwriting magazine.

If the list is shut down - and you still wish to try and attend please read the new WAITLIST instructions below.

RSVP INSTRUCTIONS BELOW and remember it is a TWO STEP PROCESS.

PLEASE only RSVP if you plan to attend this screening for sake of a proper head count.

www.creativescreenwriting.com/ events.html