I Popped my Interview Cherry!
My fellow screenwriting blogger & friend, Scott Myers, recently interviewed me. Here's a highlight:
SM: I read where The Unknown Screenwriter was an inspiration to you when you first started blogging. What other screenwriting bloggers are in your MMOF Hall of Fame?
MM: Well, I first began on TriggerStreet. I love writing script reviews. Then Unk was my inspiration to blog. So blame him. To this day, I still love his series on the The Transformational Character Arc. I'd put Go Into the Story on that pedestal worthy of daily visits. People used to complain about me being a prolific blogger. You're a frickin' machine! Of course, I read John August, Billy Mernit, Bill Martell, and Tedd & Terry's articles. Danny Stack is great. He had a fabulous series on "The Professional Screenwriter," which I highlighted here. Also, to this day, I love what Julie Gray wrote on theme & the entertaining question. Anytime someone sends me an e-mail about theme, I just tell them to read Julie's article. I still love what Joshua James wrote on the Emotional Logic of Characters and his great formula of WHAT plus WHY equals WHO. And I love MaryAn Batchellor's "Purpose of Battle Speeches" ( here & here).
ScriptMag has great articles on their website and podcasts, too. They just finished a 3-part podcast series on "Your Screenwriting Career in Today's Market" ( part one, part two, & part three), which you MUST take the time to hear. I also have to mention Ray Morton. I loved his article called Fouteen Scripts I Never Need to Read Again (Ever) and "How Not to Annoy the Reader" ( Part One & Part Two).
For my blog, though, I wanted to showcase not just screenwriters but also the film bloggers because there is so much to be learned from them. Consider Film Studies for Free and, say, their latest collection of scholarly links on the art of close ups. Close ups, man! Unbelievable. Consider Jim Emerson's fantastic Opening Shots Project. Consider David Bordwell and, for example, his free excerpts from his book,Film Art. The man's a wonderful film scholar. Screenwriters should listen to him. I love - LOVE - Bordwell's .pdf onThe Man Who Knew Too Much. I also have a real thing for the mind of Matt Zoller Seitz and his video essays, like Zen Pulp. How about Girish Shambu, my all-time favorite blogger. He had a post on Poetics in Cinema that - I kid you not - forever altered my perspective on storytelling.
Do you feel intellectually fed yet? If that's not enough, I recently posted my own 101 Best Articles...
For the rest of the interview, go here.
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