What Makes High School Movies Work? (Part 2)
Archetypes Parents (good and bad), teachers (good and bad), friends, teammates, and classmates (good and bad), and siblings all form the basis of an archetypal character set. In The Edge of Seventeen: Nadine’s mother: a bit unraveled and trying to cope with her own life as well as her two children. Nadine’s father is […]
What Makes High School Movies Work? (Part 1)
High school movies span decades. There are thousands covering most of film and TV history. This is mainly for one reason: the themes in them are universal. The stories of high school are the stories of life. Of joy, sadness, yearning, accomplishment, and all things in-between. On The Edge of Seventeen is a prime example of […]
Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 2)
Make ‘Em Laugh Of course, comedies need to be funny and that starts right at the beginning of the film. Mel Brooks was a master of comedic openings. Blazing Saddles has a fairly mundane opening with a theme song that sounds just like any western theme song. So where’s the comedy? Being satirical, the humor […]
Writing Memorable Script Openings (Part 1)
Let’s get the cliché out of the way, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.” In movies, that may not be true because people coming to your work may already know about the movie or TV series, but the first people to actually judge your work are reading it, not watching […]
Deconstructing “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” (Part 2)
Heart And Soul I’ve been teaching this film for decades and I am honestly surprised when students mostly miss the serious themes here. I ask, “Is Indiana Jones a nice person?” On several levels he is not. RE: Marion. Their backstory is involved. They knew each other when Jones was a student and Marion’s […]
