The show premiered only marginally up from its low of last season. Here’s what I believe went wrong with the season premiere (and what danger signs it sends for the rest of season three).
Continue readingUgly Betty – 2008 Premiere Disappointment
Raising the Bar – Not Bochco at His Best
The audience needs to be actively concerned about a character’s sanity, safety or soul to be truly engaged.
Continue readingAntidote to Bad News
People who want a rich full life might be better off pursing play rather than wealth to get all that will make them happy.
Continue readingComing of Age Films and Power of Idealism
#WritingAdviceWednesday – Coming of Age films, as I define them, are Power of Idealism films.
Continue readingSecond Hand Wedding
As a frequent flyer on Air New Zealand I have the opportunity to see regional films that don’t ever make it to the US in wide distribution. My favorite film this trip was the delightful and heartwarming Second Hand Wedding. It’s everything one would want in comedy.
Continue readingValues at Stake – Film
The obstacles in a film or television series should create the kind of risk, peril or danger that pushes the character to take actions that define what is most fundamentally important or true in a character’s life.
Continue readingValues at Stake – Televison
A character should be forced to make a stark, definitive and active choice. As one value is ultimately chosen, the character finally negates or surrenders the other contrasting value. What price is paid for the character’s choice?
Continue readingThe Invitation
When I was in my Master’s Program at the UCLA Film School I got a handout with a copy of a wonderful poem, A Passion for the Possible. For me, the poem definitively sums up what the audience is looking for in a character.
Continue readingEmotional Status Quo
Too often characters seem to have emotional amnesia, especially when off stage for a couple of scenes. What’s a character’s emotional status quo? It’s the emotional temperature of the character when he or she enters a scene.
Continue readingRevolutionary or Rebel Part Two
#TypesTuesday – In order to have real power, a story and a character must have a single clear emotional focus.
Continue readingRevolutionary or Rebel
#MondayMusings – Rebels are opportunistic, but Revolutionaries strive for change
Continue readingThe Dark Knight & The Power of Truth
In a Power of Truth film things are never what they seem. None of the major characters in The Dark Knight are what they seem at first glance. The tangled undergrowth of human duplicity catches and pulls at every character in the film.
Continue reading