“Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different than that from which it is torn; the bad poet throws it into something [...]
Entries Tagged as 'big screen/small screen week'
Scalping Nazis for Aesthetic Purposes
August 27th, 2009 3 Comments
Tags: big screen/small screen week · Brooks
Adapting the Epic: Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings
August 19th, 2009 1 Comment
Harry Potter has caused quite the stir around Vernacular of late, so I thought I should weigh in on its place in big screen adaptations. I recently saw the sixth Harry Potter movie with a friend who does not read the books. She had to play catch-up, so we did a marathon and watched Order [...]
Tags: big screen/small screen week · Harry Potter · Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince · kim · Lord of the Rings · movie adaptations · screenwriting
Military Writing Sates Modern Desire for the ‘Real’
August 17th, 2009 1 Comment
It isn’t shocking to consider how our media technology has developed parallel to our taste for mainstream media; I think a fitting example is the modern military narrative.
Tags: big screen/small screen week · Chris · military · narrative · war · writing
Characters Welcome: A Paean to the USA Network
August 16th, 2009 2 Comments
Despite the preponderance of reality programming—maybe in spite of, in fact—television is full of great writing. And while the networks continue to pour out the new pilots each fall, it is cable where the magic happens.
Eight years ago, the network began airing Monk, the quirky mystery-comedy show about a former detective overwhelmed with OCD, [...]
Tags: big screen/small screen week · Bridget · writing
Weekly Writing Exercise: Scene to Screen
August 14th, 2009 1 Comment
I’ve never studied screenwriting, but I’d like to think that, with a little practice, I could be good at it. Excepting, of course, for the fact that I rarely watch movies. Television, maybe. I could write a killer TV show.
In truth, I know virtually nothing about screenwriting. I have, however, been [...]
Tags: big screen/small screen week · Bridget · weekly writing exercise
The Silence of Lost In Translation
August 14th, 2009 1 Comment
Lost In Translation won the Oscar for Best Writing, Original Screenplay in 2004 not just for the words written, but for the words omitted. Silence plays as important a role in this movie as dialog. As important even as that infamous opening shot of Scarlett Johansson’s sheer underwear.
Silence surrounds the relationship of the two main [...]
Tags: big screen/small screen week · Llalan · Lost in Translation · movies · screenwriting
Vampire Empire: “True Blood” deepens the obsession
August 12th, 2009 6 Comments
“If there’s one thing I hate about Santa Clara, it’s all the damn vampires.”
- The Lost Boys, 1987
“If there’s one thing I love about HBO, it’s all the damn vampires.”
- Me, TODAY
When I was about six years old, my dad read Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” to me as a bedtime story and for the next three [...]
Tags: Alexis · big screen/small screen week · Television · vampires
On Soaps
August 12th, 2009 No Comments
My preference when it comes to prose is always precision and elegance: I find nothing less forgivable than sloppily written descriptions, cliché dialogue, hastily fleshed-out characters, and so forth. Indeed, as far as I’m concerned, any story, no matter how interesting, is made pretty much irredeemable by poor quality writing. (”His corded, muscular arms.” Yeesh. [...]
Tags: Andrew · big screen/small screen week · language usage · literary taste · Neighbours
Watching Lost: Payoffs Outweigh Frustration; But Only Slightly
August 10th, 2009 No Comments
Warning for Lost Noobs: Possible Spoiler Alert
I find it especially challenging to compare anything else on TV to the mindtrip that has been the last five seasons of Lost (Five years already?!). Lost is a show fueled by, to a greater extent than anything else, its writing.
Tags: big screen/small screen week · Chris · j. j. abrams · Lost · mystery · Television · writing
THE BIG and small Screens
August 9th, 2009 No Comments
Welcome to a week of encouraged couch potato-ness! All across America, you students are nearing the end of your free time–so let’s all make the most of it! Make perfect you-sized dents in the sofa cushions. Try eating popcorn three meals a day. Or even…and here’s the challenge that looks a bit like an over-the-summer [...]
Tags: big screen/small screen week · Llalan · movie writing · screenwriting · tv writing