RevEx's Very Useful Link of the Day: Trash Theory

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Welcome to our daily feature, where each day, we post a link to something useful. Whether it be news related to creativity or a guide to something or instruction on craft or just something that we can all learn from, we’ll give you one a day. Here’s today’s Very Useful Link of the Day:

Trash Theory is one of the best video channels out there in terms of tracing the evolution of pop and rock music, with a particular focus on the British music scene. Every single video is a treasure trove of information and great music. Binge them all…

RevEx's Very Useful Link of the Day: The Lotus Blossom Stereotype - Dangers of the Asian Fetish

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Welcome to our daily feature, where each day, we post a link to something useful. Whether it be news related to creativity or a guide to something or instruction on craft or just something that we can all learn from, we’ll give you one a day. Here’s today’s Very Useful Link of the Day:

The Take examines the trope of the Lotus Blossom:

A Screenwriter's Journey #11: The Curriculum

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It’s been a long time, but this series is back. While I haven’t been writing these posts in a while, I’ve continued to write a new screenplay every month and currently have completed a feature or short for 16 consecutive months.

But that’s for another post, today’s post is about how I learned to write screenplays. My professional training is mostly in the social sciences, so my approach to anything is a combination of learning everything I can and then putting that into frequent action. So this post will actually be about that “learning everything I can” process. Here’s what I’ve consumed (and recommend) in order to become a screenwriter.

The first, and most obvious, thing to do if you want to write movies is you need to watch a lot of movies. But you not only need to watch them as a fan, you need to watch them critically and think about the way the filmmakers told their stories. Generally, I watch a movie the first time for pure enjoyment and don’t get too critical and don’t over-think it. I save that for the second or third watch. If the movie made me feel some kind of way, I re-watch it to figure out how the filmmakers did it. If they made me laugh, how did they set up the jokes and how did they pay them off? If they scared me, how did they do it, whether it be intellectually or through a plain old jump scare? If they made me hate the movie, how and why did I hate it? Yep, that means I purposefully watch bad movies, too. It’s important to see both what works and what doesn’t work.

It’s not enough, though, to just watch the movies. Watching a movie doesn’t give you much insight as to how to WRITE a movie. What words go on the page that lead to the images and sounds you see and hear? To figure that out, you have to read screenplays. Tons of them are available for free online and the same process works here, I read the screenplays of movies I loved. I read them for movies that are critically acclaimed. And I read them for bad movies. If I can find them. People don’t tend to post bad writing as often as you might think.

Okay, those are some generalized things to start with, and anyone interested in being a screenwriter has probably already started doing those (although they probably haven’t read enough screenplays. You really can’t read too many when trying to become a screenwriter). But these things don’t teach you the craft of how to actually write a screenplay. The good news is that there are tons of books, videos, podcasts and other things that can really help you. And most of them are inexpensive or free. The rest of this post will be a list of the things that I read, watched or listened to along the way and what was good or bad about them. If it’s listed here, you should probably at least be familiar with it, even if you don’t fully incorporate everything the author has to say into your work.

And that’s a key thing to keep in mind: There is no one right way to do this stuff. Every time someone says “you HAVE to do it this way,” there are many others who not only say you don’t have to do it that way, they easily point out massively successful AND critically acclaimed works that don’t fit that requirement. So my general rule of thumb is to approach this material the same way I would a scientific literature review: Read everything that has some relevance, take everything with a grain of salt, pay more attention to those who have proven their points through actual work and go with the aggregate of what people think and say while also allowing for more obscure approaches to influence me if they fit my process and my writing style.

Books

Here are the classics you have to read to understand the history and present state of screenwriting:

  • Screenplay - Syd Field

  • The Screenwriter's Workbook - Syd Field

  • Dialogue - Robert McKee

  • Story - Robert McKee

  • Save the Cat - Blake Snyder

  • Save the Cat Strikes Back - Blake Snyder

  • Save the Cat Goes to the Movies - Blake Snyder

And here are some that I think are classic, some even better than those in the above category:

  • Actions & Goals: The Story Structure Secret - Marshall L. Dotson

  • The Story Solution - Eric Edson

  • Writing Movies for Fun and Profit - Robert Garant and Thomas Lennon

  • The Great Courses: Screenwriting 101: Mastering the Art of Story

  • Writing for Emotional Impact - Karl Iglesias

  • The Craft of Scene Writing - Jim Mercurio

  • Anatomy of Story - John Truby

And here are some other books I’ve read that have good advice or craft instruction:

  • The Hollywood Pitching Bible - Ken Aguado & Douglas Eboch

  • Script Culture and the American Screenplay - Kevin Alexander Boon

  • The Way Hollywood Tells It - David Bordwell

  • Script Tease - Dylan Callaghan

  • Build Better Characters - Eileen Cook

  • Wired for Story - Lisa Cron

  • How NOT to Write a Screenplay - Denny Martin Flinn

  • Reading the Silver Screen - Thomas C. Foster

  • Fast, Cheap and Written That Way - John Gaspard

  • Writing the Comedy Blockbuster - Keith Giglio

  • The Great Courses: How to View and Appreciate Great Movies

  • On Writing Horror: A Handbook - The Horror Writers Association

  • The 101 Habits of Highly Successful Screenwriters - Karl Iglesias

  • The Comic Hero's Journey - Steve Kaplan

  • On Writing - Stephen King

  • The Plot Machine - Dale Kutzera

  • The Tenacity of the Cockroach - The Onion A.V. Club

  • Making a Good Script Great - Linda Seger

  • Creating Character Arcs - K.M. Weiland

Podcasts

The Gold Standard is Scriptnotes and if you aren’t listening to this show AND going back into the archives, you’re missing out on the best recorded discussions about both screenwriting and the state of the industry.

Other good podcasts that are specifically about screenwriting include:

And here are a couple that regularly discuss creativity and specifics with filmmakers present and past:

Video Channels

These aren’t all explicitly about screenwriting. But they ALL discuss storytelling, story structure and other concepts directly related to screenwriting. Not every video they release is relevant, but many, if not most are.

This is a start. I’ll add more as I remember them or find new ones. If you know of good ones I haven’t included, e-mail them to quinnelk@gmail.com. I’ll also later to a post with specific blog posts, web articles, individual videos and podcast episodes that are particularly helpful for the craft and writing of screenplays.

RevEx's Very Useful Link of the Day: Trope Talks!

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Welcome to our daily feature, where each day, we post a link to something useful. Whether it be news related to creativity or a guide to something or instruction on craft or just something that we can all learn from, we’ll give you one a day. Here’s today’s Very Useful Link of the Day:

Overly Sarcastic Productions has a great series of short videos discussing movie/tv tropes with a great perspective:

RevEx's Very Useful Link of the Day: How to Structure a Sitcom

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Welcome to our daily feature, where each day, we post a link to something useful. Whether it be news related to creativity or a guide to something or instruction on craft or just something that we can all learn from, we’ll give you one a day. Here’s today’s Very Useful Link of the Day:

Tyler Mowery takes a look at how to structure a sitcom:

RevEx's Very Useful Link of the Day: How Marvel Movies Kill Their Characters

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Welcome to our daily feature, where each day, we post a link to something useful. Whether it be news related to creativity or a guide to something or instruction on craft or just something that we can all learn from, we’ll give you one a day. Here’s today’s Very Useful Link of the Day:

Nerdstalgic takes a look at the right way to kill characters on screen:

RevEx's Very Useful Link of the Day: Chaos Walking — How to Make an Unreleasable Movie | Anatomy Of A Failure

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Welcome to our daily feature, where each day, we post a link to something useful. Whether it be news related to creativity or a guide to something or instruction on craft or just something that we can all learn from, we’ll give you one a day. Here’s today’s Very Useful Link of the Day:

Filmento’s evaluation of the movie “Chaos Walking” contains some very important thoughts about story:

Professor Rex's 2021 Oscars Preview

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Okay, I did it. For the first time in my life I watched every single Oscar-nominated movie, read all the nominated screenplays and listened to all the nominated songs multiple times. That's 56 total movies (although I admit I didn't watch all of the movie with accused sex abuser Shia LaBeouf, only saw about 30 minutes of that one), 10 screenplays and 5 songs.

Here is my take on what should win in each category and what I predict what will win. Keep in mind that "should" here is my personal preference, not necessarily a measure of quality and historic nature.

Here we go...

Best Picture: If you read my commentary on movies, you probably already know that I think "Judas and the Black Messiah" was the best movie of the year. Said that the day I watched it and it I still think so. The story is spectacularly told with some sublime acting. It's an important story with near-flawless execution. This should be required watching as part of American history curriculum. It probably won't win, though, for whatever reasons. The early buzz was around "Mank" and after that died down, it started to focus on "Nomadland" and that's where I think it'll end up. "The Father" or "Minari" could pull off an upset and I wouldn't rule out "The Trial of the Chicago 7." If "Judas" wasn't in the running, though, I'd likely go with "Promising Young Woman" or "Sound of Metal." Better movies and less frequently heard stories (along with "Minari"). I will note, though, that this is one of the best group of Best Picture nominees I've seen in a long time. All are worth watching.

Actor in a Leading Role: This is probably the biggest blowout of the night. And not because of the talent of the other performers. Any other year and I'd likely vote for Riz Ahmed, but Chadwick Boseman did one of the great movie characters in recent memory while covering up cancer that killed him. Awards are made for people like him in moments like this. He will always be alive because he left performances like this one, so filled with energy and confidence and vibrance, when his body was losing each of these things. I almost feel sorry for Steven Yeun. His leap from the beloved Glenn on "The Walking Dead" to his character in "Minari" is something that deserves recognition, just not in this particular moment.

Actress in a Leading Role: This might be the tightest race out of all of them. I didn't watch all of Vanessa Kirby's work because of the presence of LaBeouf, but what I did see was powerful stuff. She could definitely win. Carey Mulligan's acting in "Promising Young Woman" kinda hasn't ever left my mind since I saw it. The same could be said for Viola Davis and Andra Day. Personally, I lean towards Day. Like that was her first acting performance in a movie and she held her own with this list of amazing actresses. The award very likely could go to Frances McDormand, though, who is not only worthy, but she gets an advantage because the similarity of Davis and Day's roles. Both women did outstanding jobs, but the characters share a lot of territory, making it possible the vote for them could cancel each other out. If that happens and voters don't want to award McDormand again, Kirby or Mulligan could sneak in.

Actor in a Supporting Role: It's a little unfair to the other actors that Daniel Kaluuya is in this category. He's the lead in his movie and his work is just plain ground-breaking. Then again, if he were in the same category as Boseman, they both couldn't win, which would seem wrong. This isn't a fair fight and any of the other four could win if Kaluuya wasn't in the race, but he is and I can't see anyone else getting it.

Actress in a Supporting Role: At one point this was definitely thought to be Maria Bakalova's award without a doubt, but more recently Yuh-Jung Youn has been coming up a lot more. I think Youn is going to win and I think she was the best. The quality in this category is so high this year, though, that I wouldn't be surprised by anyone winning it except Glenn Close. Close's work was as good as always, but people really seemed to hate "Hillbilly Elegy" for some reason. Personally, I thought it was pretty accurate, so I'm not sure about the complaints.

Directing: This is a very tough category. Hollywood wants to give an award to Thomas Vinterberg, but it's not likely in this category. Sooner or later, David Fincher will get one of these trophies as one of the most seriously-taken directors in Hollywood, but I'm thinking it probably won't be this year. A lot of the buzz has been around Chloé Zhao for "Nomadland" and I think she'll probably win. But she adapted the work from existing material, so personally I think both Emerald Fennell ("Promising Young Woman") and Lee Isaac Chung ("Minari") had tougher tasks (ass all three wrote AND directed their films). All three movies are equally great, but I think the greatest leap in quality from screenplay to film was done with "Minari," so I'd personally give it to Chung.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay): This one is kinda wide open. "The White Tiger" won't win, but it might be the best script in the group. I'd be a little shocked if "Borat Subsequent Moviefilm" or "One Night in Miami" won. "The Father" could very well win, it's almost perfectly like the film, as in the filmmakers didn't need to change much because it was so well-written, but I think this one will go to "Nomadland." The screenplay evoked the same feelings in me as the movie did. After I saw the movie. That's good writing.

Writing (Original Screenplay): All of these screenplays are genius. I'm guessing the winner will be Sorkin for "The Trial of the Chicago 7" and it is a great screenplay. But I really thought "Promising Young Woman" was an important work and the script has layers built into that made me a better writer just for having read it.

Costume Design: Without question, I'm going with "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom" as my favorite here. And I think it could win, but Hollywood loves Hollywood, so I'm guessing "Mank" will win. A surprise might give it to "Emma" as well.

Music (Original Score): It's sad that this is the only nomination for "Da 5 Bloods," as that was a great movie. It's likely that Trent Reznor will be getting an award here, though, with his partner Atticus Ross, since they're nominated twice. I think they will win for "Soul" (along with Jon Batiste) and I think they should.

Music (Original Song): Literally everyone thinks Leslie Odom Jr. is going to win for "One Night in Miami," (on his way to an EGOT) so I'm not going to go against that. These are actually all really good songs. It was really challenging for me not to pick H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas' "Fight for You" or Celeste's "Hear My Voice," but "Husavik" from Eurovision, featuring Will Ferrell, is actually the most haunting and inspiring of these songs, in a year that seems to be what all the songs were nominated for.

Documentary Feature: For me, the winner is definitely "Crip Camp." It's fun, funny, inspirational and still fully relevant right now. "Collective" has gotten a ton of push from the Internet, but the win is likely to go to "My Octopus Teacher," which is among my least favorite films nominated, so I hope not. "Time" could also sneak in here for a surprise win.

Documentary Short Subject: This is the hardest one for me to pick. My favorite was definitely "Colette," but it's getting no buzz. At first I was certain "A Concerto Is a Conversation" was going to win, but "Hunger Ward" and "A Love Song for Latasha" have really started getting some momentum. I'm guessing the academy goes with "Hunger Ward."

Animated Feature Film: "Soul" is basically a perfect movie from the second-most consistent major movie studio there is (after Marvel) and their other entry, "Onward" could win in a different year. I'd be shocked if "Soul" doesn't win, though. If it doesn't, the winner will be "Wolfwalkers." It's the most visually original of these movies, although it still is less original and stunning than "Opera" (see below).

Animated Short Film: "Burrow" is very cute and I thoroughly enjoyed it, but "If Anything Happens I Love You" is likely to win. If not, my favorite, "Opera" will. Opera is just visually stunning and conceptually amazing. I paid $12 to watch 9 minutes and I felt like I ripped them off.

Live Action Short Film: It's easy for me to pick my choice here, it's "Two Distant Strangers." That or "The Letter Room" or "The Present" could win. Hell, I wouldn't even count out "White Eye" here, all four movies are about edgy social issues and all tell poignant stories. I'm guessing the academy will go for "The Present."

International Feature Film: Everything everywhere says "Another Round" is going to win this one and it's hard to ignore that kind of unanimity. "Collective" has been getting a counter-push from the Internet, but I actually think "Quo Vadis, Aida?" is the one that will stick with me the longest.

Cinematography: This one seems pretty easy. "Nomadland" is visually stunning and really serves as a visual document of the American road and the West. "Mank" could sneak in here, if the voters are feeling a little funky.

Film Editing: This is probably the hardest category for me to judge. If the editing is done well, you tend to not notice it. Based off the blueprint they were given by Aaron Sorkin, I think "The Trial of the Chicago 7" probably deserves the award, but "Nomadland" is deserving and will probably win. "Sound of Metal" might be worthy, too, as the Sound Editing is very well integrated with the Film Editing.

Production Design: I'm guessing this is a lock for "Mank," as it's an easy way to give recognition to a worthy film. Personally, I prefer "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," and I don't think you can fully count out "Tenet."

Makeup and Hairstyling: I think we can safely say that "Hillbilly Elegy" and "Pinocchio" are out. "Pinocchio" is the worst movie of all 56 that were nominated and "Hillbilly" has been widely ridiculed. The Oscars LOVE movies about movies, so "Mank" could win this one, and traditionally, movies like "Emma" win, but I think "Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom" is the best and I think it'll win.

Sound: If anything other than "Sound of Metal" wins this category, demand a recount. "Sound of Metal" is the best use of sound I've ever seen in a movie and all the buzz seems to say the same.

Visual Effects: Personally, I think "Tenet" was the best, effects-wise, even if the overall movie failed to live up to my expectations. It'll likely win, but if there is a surprise here, it could be "The One and Only Ivan." I don't think it's worthy of the win, but others seem to.

Overall, this is one of the best groups of Oscar nominees I've ever seen. There are only a few movies I don't like and some of that is politics more than filmmaking. There's a lot of diversity here in terms of voices and stories and this is definitely not looking to be an "Oscars So White" kinda year. We could see record numbers of winners for people of color and women, which is great.

RevEx's Very Useful Link of the Day: The One Word Ruining Superhero Fight Scenes

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Welcome to our daily feature, where each day, we post a link to something useful. Whether it be news related to creativity or a guide to something or instruction on craft or just something that we can all learn from, we’ll give you one a day. Here’s today’s Very Useful Link of the Day:

Nerdstalgic takes a look at one particular trope that is dragging down Superhero movie fight scenes:

RevEx's Very Useful Link of the Day: The Actress Trope | How We See Women

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Welcome to our daily feature, where each day, we post a link to something useful. Whether it be news related to creativity or a guide to something or instruction on craft or just something that we can all learn from, we’ll give you one a day. Here’s today’s Very Useful Link of the Day:

The Take analyzes the concept of the “the actress” as a character:

RevEx's Very Useful Link of the Day: The Sympathetic Villain | Why The Bad Guy Is Taking Over

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Welcome to our daily feature, where each day, we post a link to something useful. Whether it be news related to creativity or a guide to something or instruction on craft or just something that we can all learn from, we’ll give you one a day. Here’s today’s Very Useful Link of the Day:

The Take analyzes the concept of the sympathetic villain:

A Screenwriter's Journey #10: The 10 Movies That Influenced My Writing the Most

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I think when it comes down to it these are the 10 most influetial movies on the way I write movies and TV shows. Like they aren't exactly my favorite 10 movies, I just think when I write, I'm writing in the tradition of these particular movies (and the movies they spawned).

  • Airplane 2: The Sequel

  • Blade

  • Blues Brothers

  • Dawn of the Dead

  • Do the Right Thing

  • E.T.

  • Mallrats

  • A Nightmare on Elm Street 2

  • Pulp Fiction

  • Virgin Suicides

Notably, I either seem to lean towards sequels or second films, part of that is don't really want to write origin stories much, I'm kinda bored with them. But also these films were all groundbreaking, even where they aren't the full originator of what they introduced me to.

Here's how each of the films influenced me to be the writer I am.*** In alphabetical order:

Airplane 2 - The Sequel: Unless I'm mistaken, this is the movie that has the highest gut-busting jokes per minute (GBJPM) in history. Yes, it's a recreation of the first movie nearly exactly (But so was Evil Dead), and most of the jokes are the exact kind of jokes from the first, I just always thought more of the silly, silly jokes in the second landed. A HUGE part of that was Shatner. And the BEEPING AND BEEPING AND BEEPING AND BEEPING! Also, all modern Dad Jokes are traceable to Zucker-Abrams-Zucker or Mel Brooks. Or Dave Barry.

Blade: COMIC BOOKS! That's almost 'Nuff Said. There were earlier movies, but they either weren't good or they weren't Marvel. And I'm the type of guy to whom Blade is not an obscure character. I'm the type of kid who walked to the Grinning Gremlin (which was a butcher shop last time I saw it) and paid my allowance money to get Blade's first appearance when it came out. Hell, I have an autographed poster of Blade by his original creator on my office wall. Well, I did before COVID. Haven't been to the office in a while, but... THE MUSIC. Man, this wasn't even EDM, either, this was Electronica. Remember when Rolling Stone and Spin tried to make that a thing? But the Blood Rave and all that, fucking ridiculous.

Blues Brothers: The actual funniest movie of all time to me. Like I am literally thinking of everything all at the same time always and this movie does that, too. But it somehow all fits together seemlessly. Like one moment adult men are getting slapped on their hands with a ruler by a nun and another James Brown is a Preacher. One second Aretha Franklin and Matt Guitar Murphy break out into a song in a diner where they'll actually serve you five whole fried chickens and in another Ray Charles shakes his tailfeather. One moment Princess Leia's trying to kill them and the next they're at a bar that plays both kinds of music, country AND western. And I think Twiggy was in there somewhere? One of the great things about this music is that they included most of the musicians that influenced them in the movie. Like this is a Hall of Fame cast of musicians from Soul, R&B, Blues and other genres. And then there is, to me, the greatest chase sequence in the history of movies. I will not pass this mortal coil without writing something that at least tries to be as epic.

Dawn of the Dead: I grew up in a trailer park. The Mall was an aspirational place. TV stations used to have to fill time with relatively cheap movies like the original Dawn of the Dead. And man, I was instantly hooked. At that age, the Mall had literally everything I wanted. And human beings were kind harsh on me as the autistic kid, so the idea of being trapped in the mall forever with only a few of my closest friends AND the power stays on (and they have an ice skating rink?) was a pretty appealing fantasy. It had a proper realistic ending, too. The lesson was indulge in the fantasy, but NOT too much. Also, fuck capitalism!*

Do the Right Thing: Public Enemy inspired my political career. Hence the tattoo. This is one of several pathways to me finding the band, but also to a whole host of other thoughts and ideas. This is where I first realized you could use movies to change the world. And when it didn't win Best Picture, it made me realize that "systemic" meant "throughout the ENTIRE system." Spike Lee said to me that if you wanna change the world you gotta get in people's faces. Like literally. Those camera shots were uncomfortably close. The scary part, though, is that you could set this movie in 2021 and basically you wouldn't have to change hardly any of it. THAT has to inform my writing. I also could've put Higher Learning here, but Spike's style appealed to me a bit more than John Singleton's.

E.T.: One of the things that makes the world better is "wonder." Like we need it. It heals. They say laughter heals, and it does, but laughter can be dark, too. Like go watch that Trump Comedy Central Roast and see if you don't feel icky. But one of the insults aimed at Trump will probably at least make you smile. Like professional comedians are shitting on him to his face, that has to provide at least some catharsis, right? Anyway, never gonna find out, but wonder is not only hopeful, it's aspirational. We want to search for more wonder, it not only heals, it inspires. When I watched E.T. I wanted to fly! Then my dad told me that no one had invented a flying bike yet and that aliens weren't real and Santa was fictional and we're all gonna die some day, Timmy! Wait, that wasn't my dad, that was Timmy's dad. But then E.T. made me want to get Reese's Pieces and I did. And I would MUCH rather eat some Reese's Pieces than go soaring through the air on a Reagan-era unregulated bike with a Muppet driving. Like, even if the individual Reese's Pieces were laying in the grass, in like a trail, I'd still prefer them. It's a hard candy coating, so it doesn't really suck up any cooties or cenobytes or whatever's in that grass. Just like brush them off on your pants leg and peanut buttery goodness!

Mallrats: When I first saw this in the dollar theater, the one that was Mugs and Movies, although I'm not sure it still had that name at that time, I was like. Holy. Crap. Someone literally made a movie EXACTLY for my EXACT tastes. And then everybody hated the movie. And, yep, that was about right for me at the time, too. But, over the years, we both grew to be an acquired taste but something that is really great if you have that very specific taste. Which I do. Also, Stan Lee did. Since he was in the movie. And he was Captain Marvel reading a Mallrats script. I'm okay being in that company, in terms of my tastes.

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: I could've easily put the first one here because they were kinda connected in my brain, but I picked this one because I really picked up on the bi/gay subtext. Like I talked about it at the time. And people were all like "Why don't you go refill your beer at the keg, Kenny." And I was all like, "is it still really foamy?" And they were like "why don't you go check?" And I did. And it was actually pretty good. Yeungling. Back before we found out they were a shitty company. And then years later, everybody on the Internet said "that's TOTALLY gay subtext" and I did a little dance and made a little love. Anyway, that's EXACTLY what watching Nightmare 2 was like. For me.

Pulp Fiction: Notably this entire essay appears IN order, but it was written OUT of order. Also, somewhere in this essay, John Travolta dies.** But, really, if I become a filmmaker, it will have started with watching this movie, again, in a dollar theater, but a different one. Like in a different city. Anyway, that moment sitting in the chair having my mind blown. Like, as an untreated autistic young adult living on my own at that point, this movie let me know that I could think about the world through a different lens than the Southern Baptist one I had grown up around. Like, this movie, and the success it had, let me know that I was not only not alone, but there were a LOT of freaks like me. Also, this was before I knew about Tarantino's foot fetish thing. But I did think while watching it that Quentin was way too comfortable with the N-word. But it definitely seemed to me like Samuel L. Jackson signed off on the whole thing, so that justified it in my head. I did take note to NOT write that word in my screenplays. But this movie DID make me want to write (as did Good Will Hunting).

Virgin Suicides: Sophia Coppola took a book that I had already read, a book I had previously said was impossible to adapt, and turned it into one of the most haunting movies ever made. It was in the theater watching this on opening night that I realized that I liked her work better than her father's. Which is literally the most Gen X thing ever said. Anyway, I'd seen her other work and yeah, I love it all, but this one was the gold standard. Every time I watch this movie, I learn lessons. Not just about film, but about our culture. And the male gaze. And toxic white Christianity. And so many other things. And, yes, Toxic White Christianity would be a good name for a band. I saw TWC open for Slayer in 2014.

Anyway, so, well, my movies won't be about all of that, but each movie will be about some part of all that. Got it? Hopefully, because I'm pretty excited about the whole thing myself.

Clearly.

*Well, it explicitly said "fuck consumerism!" What is consumerism, but a subset of capitalism.

**John Travolta didn't really die. But he is a Scientologist and that's pretty gross, so while I definitely don't want him to die, I would like people to remember that his support of Scientology has given cover and helped raised funds for some pretty heinous shit.

***To note, some of these movies are problematic as are some of the creators, so this isn't to say that I'm fully on board with any of these works or creators in totality, recognizing they all have problems. These aren't my ONLY influences and my knowledge and personal values heavily influence my writing, to the point of clearly over-riding any of these influences' problematic influence.

RevEx's Very Useful Link of the Day: Queer Coding, Explained | Hidden in Plain Sight

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Welcome to our daily feature, where each day, we post a link to something useful. Whether it be news related to creativity or a guide to something or instruction on craft or just something that we can all learn from, we’ll give you one a day. Here’s today’s Very Useful Link of the Day:

The Take analyzes the concept of “queer coding” in film and TV:

RevEx's Very Useful Link of the Day: The Mansplainer in Pop Culture - Why He Mansplains

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Welcome to our daily feature, where each day, we post a link to something useful. Whether it be news related to creativity or a guide to something or instruction on craft or just something that we can all learn from, we’ll give you one a day. Here’s today’s Very Useful Link of the Day:

The Take analyzes the Mansplainer:

A Quick Guide to Recording Vocals at Home

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Before I get started, I have to note that I haven't had any professional training and I have little technical knowledge, so this process is the one that I've developed over several years, recording hundreds of hours of recording and more than 100 finalized and released tracks. It's not the most formal or fancy process, but it works.

1. Recording equipment: You'll need a laptop, headphones, a mic stand, pop screen and a good recording mic. There are many mics that work, but I use a Blue USB microphone so I can record directly to the laptop. There are other setups, but they are more expensive and more complicated.

2. Recording location: You need a good quiet place to record in, one with good acoustics. You should record a few different places around the house as a test and find which one sounds the best. If you can't find a completely quiet room, you'll need to edit out ambient sounds (like air conditioing) with a filter. These come free with the:

3. Recording software: Audacity is free and professional-quality. I'm sure there are other alternatives, but I've never needed them. Important tip: Once you have your microphone set up and plugged into the laptop, make sure to change the Audacity software to record from the USB mic, not the laptop's internal mic.

4. Music track: Vocals and instruments should be recorded separately unless you're working with a professional recording engineer. Generally speaking, I will import the backing track into Audacity and go from there.

5. Setup: Here are the steps:

a. Set-up laptop in your chosen recording space.

b. Set-up your mic stand and mic, attach USB. The mic stand should be set to your height, so that when you sing, you are looking straight ahead or slightly downward. If you have to look up or too far down, you'll stretch and/or strain your vocal chords.

c. Make sure you have a pop screen set up in front of the microphone to catch your excessive P's and S's. Any cheap pop screen will work and these simply attach to the mic stand and put a screen between your mouth and the mic. Also, the screen keeps your mic clean, and you should probably clean it regularly.

d. Plug in headphones. When recording, you only want to record your voice, not a second-hand version of the song along with your voice. This process will create two separate tracks (vocals, instrumental) that you’ll combine into one and export as the final song file.

e. Download, set up and open Audacity. Import your backing track. Make sure the program is set to the proper mic.

Now you are ready to record.

6. Recording process:

a. Audacity sometimes slightly moves your recorded vocals around in the timeline and you may have to adjust in order to get back to the proper timing. This is what happened if you play it back and it sounds terrible because you aren't in time with the music. This is fixed by simply sliding the vocal track left or right until the song and the backing music match up to the way you want them to. This may not come up, depending on your computer, OS, etc.

b. There are two basic approaches to recording a song that I'll take. If it's an easy song or I know it super well, I'll try to sing the whole thing straight through. That's rare, though, so there are two ways to get around that. One is to record each part (verse, chorus, hook, bridge) separately and piece them together. The other is to sing the whole thing in the proper lyric order until I get to a part where I mess up. I'll stop singing, go back before the error and start from that clean place and move forward from there. The other approach is to sing multiple full takes of the song and cut and paste the various parts until you get an entire song that you like. This last approach takes the most technical skill.

c. An important thing to note for recording is that if you aren't doing the whole song in one take, you have to be careful about how you fix it. If you make a mistake in the middle of a verse, you can't just start at that word with a fresh recording, because you don't sing words the same way in the middle of a line as you would at the beginning. So you have to start at the beginning of not only the line in the song, but likely several lines back, so that you get the full and proper melody and enunciation. If there are long enough spaces between sung lines, this isn't a problem, but if the lines are close together, you have to sing them in blocks in order to maintain the proper melody/rhythm.

d. A tip I use that helps with recording is to record the full song (regardless of errors) as a "guide track." This version is perfectly matched up with the instrumental track and then is MUTED. You never play this version, you use it to match up the waveforms, sliding the vocal part you do want to use to the exact spot in the song it should be. Visually, the instrumental track isn't as easy to match things up with as a muted vocal track is, since you’re matching the same thing to itself. If you record the full song in a take you don't need to edit, then you don't have to worry about it, but if you can't do that (I rarely can), then it's easier to cut and paste the parts together and matching the waveforms makes the edit SOOOOOOOOOO much easier than trying to match vocals to instrumental, an auditory thing, through visual processing. I may make a video on this part so it makes more sense.

There are more details, but I'm not sure what else is necessary to know at this point, so I'll leave it open to future questions...

RevEx's Very Useful Link of the Day: The Teen Mom Trope | Tragic, Heroic or Glam?

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Welcome to our daily feature, where each day, we post a link to something useful. Whether it be news related to creativity or a guide to something or instruction on craft or just something that we can all learn from, we’ll give you one a day. Here’s today’s Very Useful Link of the Day:

The Take analyzes the trope of the Teen Mom: