February 2012
3 posts
How Pilot Season Ensures That Great Actors Rarely... →
keithcalder:
Gavin Polone has written a great editorial on the insane casting process for Pilot Season (the three month period where television show pilots are greenlit, cast, shot, and killed).
On a more personal level, Pilot Season makes it almost impossible for an independent producer to cast a film during the months of February and March. Agents are unwilling to let their clients do an...
4 tags
Downton Abbey and 'the hook' of a project.
One of the most frustrating things I run into in development and production is a very simple question - ‘what’s the hook?’
You can have great characters, great tension, a killer creative team, but without a hook that distributors, broadcasters or sales agents can SELL, no one is interested in your project.
After finally watching the first episode of Downton Abbey, I’m...
“I was addicted. Not to success. I was addicted to trying my hardest. That’s the...”
– Ricky Gervais: On Fame (via keithcalder)
January 2012
3 posts
December 2011
8 posts
Two Thousand and Eleven
For the last few New Years I have been saying ‘this is going to be the year.’ And while every year has built on the last, 2011 was the year where everything seemed to click. There’s a lot of big question marks about 2012 and beyond, but I’ve never been so excited to continue moving onward and upward.
a note from Ti West on piracy →
keithcalder:
Every time you purchase something you are making a statement. You are creating physical evidence that something has value. If something has a high value, then it becomes in high demand. So if you make a concerted effort to support lesser-known, interesting and esoteric things (Art?) then you are helping make those lesser-known things more popular. I’m sure we can all agree that...
August 2011
1 post
Toronto The Good
Toronto (and yes, Canada too) often gets the reputation for being an apathetic city. Generally that’s a statement I wouldn’t disagree with. But in the last few months it feels like something has changed. The reaction to the Ford administration has been anything but apathetic. And witnessing, in person, the marathon council session last month cemented to me that Torontonians care about...
June 2011
3 posts
May 2011
1 post
10 tags
Don't Tread on #Glee
I loved the first half of the first season of Glee. It was funny and charming and subversive and the music was great. Sure, the auto-tune can be a bit much, but it was a show that was so original for network tv that I couldn’t help but appreciate it. I was totally charmed by New Directions.
Since then, I’ve become less enthused by the series. I find the writing to be among the most...
April 2011
6 posts
Attack The Block Has One Problem
Tonight Attack The Block was screened in LA and everyone on twitter was raving. I was lucky enough to catch it at SXSW and am seriously surprised that no one has brought up my single problem with the film…
Ultimately, there was very little definition between the members of the protagonist gang in the film. The main guy has a slightly more defined leader personality but ultimately I...
March 2011
6 posts
Into Reality
I’m hit with the sudden realization that my day-to-day life is basically what I’ve been working towards for the last four years. And to be completely honest, the best part is how much it just feels like life. Nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary. And how it’s only just the beginning.
Skins 5 Focuses too much on the Individual
I watched the premiere of Skins season 5 and the premiere of the US version in the same week and the clear lines between them were astounding. But I’ll stop myself here from getting into my issues with the American series (which actually can be summarized in a wonderful Guardian article). Season 5 of Skins started off with a bang, introducing the fascinatingly androgynous Frankie as she...
A Proud Sibling
The way I understand it, writing is the attempt to describe all that we experience through the completely flawed medium of language. Every writer attempts to create a fully encompassing experience through a system of symbols that we have been building over the course of existence.
“Every word that’s ever written will fall short of its intent. Even sung or spoke or screamed, they will...
1 tag
6 tags
Protest Gets Personal (Album Review)
As much as I enjoy everything that Protest The Hero has released, I’m never sure if there is much they can do to surprise me. As different as Kezia and Fortress are, they still embody the same base sound that a Protest the Hero record will always have.
Their new record however, Scurrilous, is a complete game changer for the band. In the past, Protest has always been a band more about ideas...
February 2011
17 posts
11 tags
Friday Night Lights Comes To A Close -...
I apologize for the cliche, but I was completely blindsided by Friday Night Lights. I started watching it as research for another project, but within the first 5 minutes of episode one, I was hooked. By the time the song Black Betty kicks in during the first Panther’s practice, its impossible to turn away.
Within about two weeks I watched the first three seasons of the show and was...
http://bookshelfporn.com →
Stacks of harddrives just wouldn’t be the same.
Pizza Gigi shut down on drug charges. →
It was only a matter of time…
“Somewhere along the way, I did something right.”
3 tags
New TV On The Radio - Spring 2011! →
2 tags
Futures
I like asking people what they want to do with their lives. Very rarely do I get a straight answer. It’s usually a confused mix of ideas that are more concerned with salary and ROI and how a certain industry is doing. That’s not the answer I’m looking for. I want you to tell me, in a perfect world, regardless of salary and responsibility and reality, what you want to do. The thing that you could...
“The true meaning of life is to plant a tree under whose shade you do not expect...”
– Norm Henderson
5 tags
New Yorker profiles Guillermo del Toro. →
An in-depth look at the wonderful mind of the world’s greatest fantasy filmmaker.
January 2011
10 posts
4 tags
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues →
Everyone’s favourite folk band has released the first single from their upcoming album
9 tags
Screenwriters: POV Is Key
A few weeks ago I picked up a Boxee Box (which is the best thing on earth), and have started to marathon the entire series of The West Wing. Its a series that undoubtedly can be described as one of the best written shows in television’s history, even though some of the stand-alone episodes can, at times, feel empty of emotional arc. The series is at its best when doing multiple-episode arcs...