Movies Matter
  • Blog
  • William Indick: Psychology for Screenwriters - 2nd Ed.
  • Streaming & In-Theater Reviews
  • Barry Eisler: Amok
  • Gael Chandler: Editing for Directors
  • Niceole Levy: The Writers' Room
  • Margaret Kerrison: Immersive Storytelling
  • Karla Fuller: Do The Right Thing
  • Review Archives
  • Victor Gischler: Conquistador
  • David Koepp: Aurora
  • George Pelecanos: Where He's At Now
  • Chris & Kathy Riley: The Defining Moment
  • Pete Chatmon: Transitions
  • Contact & join mailing list!
  • Dan Attias: Directing Great Televison
  • Jen Grisanti: The Wound That Drives Us
  • John Bucher: The Oscars
  • Scott Essman: The Total Filmmaker
  • Leonard Maltin: Star Struck
  • Christopher Riley: The Hollywood Standard
  • Books & Movies
  • Kelly Edwards: The Executive Chair
  • Diamond & Weissman: Family Man
  • Glenn Kenny: Made Men
  • Julie Salamon: The Devil's Candy Revisited
  • Judith Weston: The 25th Anniversary Edition
  • Carol Pearson: The Hero Within
  • Simon McCleave: The Snowdonia Killings
  • Glenn Frankel: Shooting Midnight Cowboy
  • Steve Kaplan: Comedy's Necessity
  • Claire Elizabeth Terry: Rocaberti Rockin'
  • Kathie Fong-Yoneda: Still rockin' with Rocaberti et al.
  • William Linn: Mythosophia
  • Chris Vogler: 25th Anniversary Edition
  • John Badham: On Directing, 2nd Edition
  • Ken Lee: Singin' with Musicals
  • Danette Wolpert: Illuminate
  • Elaine Shannon: Hunting LeRoux
  • Ben Fritz: The Big Picture
  • Ken Miyamoto: Writing the ScreenCraft
  • Charles Ardai: Are Snakes Necessary?
  • Barry Eisler: All The Devils
  • Dave Watson: Walkabout Undone
  • Seger & Rainey: Great Dialogue
  • Pilar Alessandra: The Coffee Break Screenwriter
  • Greg Loftin: Writing for the Cut
  • Debra Eckerling: Your Goal Guide
  • Marilyn Atlas: Dating Your Character
  • Heather Hale: Story$selling
  • Matthew Kalil: The Three Wells
  • Weiko Lin: Crazy Screenwriting Secrets
  • Jason Starr: Fugitive Red
  • Duane Swierczynski
  • Victor Gischler: No Good Deed
  • Diane Bell: Shoot From The Heart
  • Kathie Fong Yoneda: The Future of Story
  • Deborah Patz: Write! Shoot! Edit!
  • Edwards & Skerbelis: Film Festivals
  • Ken Lee, UFVA
  • Geoff Carter: The P.S. Wars
  • Michael Lucker: Action films
  • Dr. Linda Seger: Script to Screen
  • Diamond & Weissman: Bulletproof Scripts
  • Glenn Frankel: High Noon
  • R.R. Campbell: Imminent Dawn
  • Kristin Oakley: Carpe Diem
  • Rex Owens: Murphy's Troubles
  • Margaret Goss: The Uncommitted
  • John Bucher: The Oscars
  • Pamela Douglas: Writing TV Drama
  • Scott Von Doviak: Charlesgate Confidential
  • David Sonnenschein: Sound Design
  • Interview: Josh Friedman
  • Interview: Mike Olah
  • Interview: Stan Williams
  • Interview: Stephen Galloway
  • Interview: Maureen Ryan
  • Jon Fitzgerald: Filmmaking for Change
  • Interview: Ken Lee
  • The Oscars: Pamela Jaye Smith
  • Interview: Kim Adelman
  • Interview: Jeffrey Michael Bays
  • Pamela Jaye Smith: Romantic Movies
  • Interview: Jennifer Van Sijll
  • Interview: Adam Coplan
  • Interview: Shane Kuhn
  • Interview: Bucher and Casper
  • Interview: Troy Devolld
  • Interview: Simone Bartesaghi
  • Interview: The Shoot Like Series
  • Interview: Judith Weston
  • Interview: Pamela Douglas
  • Interview: Jennifer Dornbush
  • Interview: Peterson & Nicolosi
  • Interview: Sarah Beach
  • Interview: Jen Grisanti
  • Interview: Jacqueline Frost
  • Interview: Christopher Kenworthy
  • Interview: Joe Gilford
  • Interview: Richard Pepperman
  • Interview: Deborah Patz
  • Interview: Sam & Gifford Keen
  • Interview: Paul Chitlik
  • Interview: Christopher Vogler
  • Interview: Marx Pyle
  • Interview: Laurie Scheer
  • Interview: Todd Drezner
  • Interview: Tom Malloy
  • Interview: Brad Schreiber
  • Interview: Marilyn Atlas
  • Interview: Ken Miyamoto
  • Interview: Carole Kirschner
  • Interview: Lee Jessup
  • Interview: Jeffrey Michael Bays
  • Interview: Pamela Jaye Smith
  • Interview: John Schimmel
  • Interview: Christopher Riley
  • Interview: John Badham
  • Interview: Dr. Linda Seger
  • Interview: Pilar Alessandra
  • Interview: Steve Kaplan
  • Barry Eisler: the Killer Collective
  • Interview: Gil Bettman
  • Interview: Richard Dunn
  • Interview: Paul Dudbridge
  • New Page

Subscribe!

End of summer

8/23/2015

0 Comments

 
2015 may go down as the first summer where cable television series made an impact on the mainstream box office. Tentpoles such as Pixels, advertised for months, or sequels such as Ted 2, came and went. You didn't hear anything about the story, nor talk to one person who saw them. Forgettable is what they were. Yet True Detective, The Walking Dead, and others had people talking at work. We finally had the sleeper hit of the summer if not the year with Straight Outta Compton. It apparently is a personal story, appealing to African American, white, musical audiences. That covers a lot of ground, but it's also personal.

I've been reading Sharon Waxman's excellent book Rebels on the Backlot. It's about six directors who clashed/worked with the major studios in the '90s. They made such unique hits as Three Kings, Being John Malkovich, and Fight Club, all of which came out in 1999. These people had visions, stuck to their stories and butted heads with just about every studio suit mentioned in the book. And many of them made money and are still working today. A sequel to this book could easily be in order. What's missing today are those unique stories that really went out on limbs, yet didn't sink. The studios knew talent when they saw it, or in the case of Malkovich, it just went below the radar during a merger. Filmmakers should be so lucky in this teaser-trailer-buzzfeed-Youtube era.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.