Creative Principles

“What led me into filmmaking was being in the world and being dyslexic,” said documentarian Thom Zimny, who got into music and then editing before becoming a filmmaker.

Zimny is known for his work as a music video director with Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. He’s the Director of Elvis Presley: The Searcher, The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson & Family, and now Sly.

Sly follows “the nearly fifty year prolific career of Sylvester Stallone, who has entertained millions, is seen in retrospective in an intimate look of the actor, writer, director-producer, paralleling with his inspirational life story.”

In this interview, we talk about shifting from editor to director, not telling Sly in a linear fashion, not forcing a POV, themes of fathers and sons, themes that had not been overanalyzed, avoiding short-hand versions of history, and what Sly taught him about ambition.

Want more? Steal my first book, Ink by the Barrel - Secrets From Prolific Writers right now for free. Simply head over to www.brockswinson.com to get your free digital download and audiobook. If you find value in the book, please share it with a friend as we’re giving away 100,000 copies this year. It’s based on over 400 interviews here at Creative Principles. Enjoy!

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Character actor Stephen Tobolowsky has nearly 300 credits to his name, including roles in Groundhog Day, Seinfeld, Mad About You, The Practice, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Deadwood, Californication, Glee, Silicon Valley, and The Goldbergs.

Most recently, he stars in Love Virtually as Dr. Divine. The film follows four couples as they attempt to find true love in a virtual world by going to absurd extremes in a world where the meta verse is commonly used. The movie also stars SNL alum Cheri Oteri.

In this interview, we talk about how he met Robert DeNiro his first day in Los Angeles, getting past teachers who try to limit you, how long Bill was actually trapped in Groundhog Day, conversations with Harold Ramis, his audition for Silicon Valley, his character’s desire on The Goldbergs, and much more.

Want more? Steal my first book, Ink by the Barrel - Secrets From Prolific Writers right now for free. Simply head over to www.brockswinson.com to get your free digital download and audiobook. If you find value in the book, please share it with a friend as we’re giving away 100,000 copies this year. It’s based on over 400 interviews here at Creative Principles. Enjoy!

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

“We delivered six, critically-acclaimed, super long documentaries in the last five years with the help of 80,000 backers,” Robin Block told me. “We’re the leading crowdfunded factual entertainment company in the world right now.”

This includes the In Search of Darkness horror trilogy, First Person Shooter, In Search of Tomorrow sci-fi documentary, In Search of Last Action Heroes, First Person Shooter and the latest installment, In Search of Darkness 1990-1994.

“It’s a manifestation of fandom,” he said of these films. “We’re not going to be doing documentaries forever. Where my interest is now, is membership and community platforms. Instead of one-off, big projects that are supported by tens of thousands of backers, I want to build a never-ending In Search of Darkness.”

The new project, Darkness Unlimited, will launch with 14 hours of new content, 20 hours of never-before-seen materials. “It’ll be exclusive interviews, like long-form interviews with John Carpenter. And we’ll launch that for about $29 for six months access. I want to create a community for elite horror fans who want to visit old movies and understand them and see what’s happening on new movies, on set. We want to create the most powerful horror community in the world.”

Want more? Steal my first book, Ink by the Barrel - Secrets From Prolific Writers right now for free. Simply head over to www.brockswinson.com to get your free digital download and audiobook. If you find value in the book, please share it with a friend as we’re giving away 100,000 copies this year. It’s based on over 400 interviews here at Creative Principles. Enjoy!

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

“Curation is creation,” Eric Jorgenson told me. “There’s this false god of originality that I just don’t buy. Maybe that’s because I stumbled into this awesome niche as a curator-editor, but I have no problem being front and center about saying this other person who is really smart said this thing and I learned from it. Here’s something I learned from Charlie Monger or Nassim Taleb and here’s what I learned from it or here’s how it conflicted with this other thing.”

“If that’s borrowed authority or curation, I find it so much easier to write when I’m reacting to something or complimenting something or rephasing it. I have no problem being upfront with the reader about that. Respecting curation as a form of writing is maybe what unlocked the opportunity of these books. These books aren’t written. I’m not sitting with a blank page and generating content. Every word of this book came from a resisting resource where I’m the super-editor, trying to take everything they’ve ever said and stitch it together to make something great.” 

These books include The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness and The Anthology of Balaji: A Guide to Technology, Truth, and Building the Future. “I don’t know if it’s harder or easier, but I certainly respect it as a craft. I think it’ made me a better writer. It’s given me permission to write a shitty first draft and then edit my own work. To some people who maybe struggle with pushing themselves towards originality or getting that first draft done, I say don’t shy away from using raw material or reacting to something that’s out there or borrowing heavily and making that your source material.”

Want more? Steal my first book, Ink by the Barrel - Secrets From Prolific Writers right now for free. Simply head over to www.brockswinson.com to get your free digital download and audiobook. If you find value in the book, please share it with a friend as we’re giving away 100,000 copies this year. It’s based on over 400 interviews here at Creative Principles. Enjoy!

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

“I wanted to direct movies. That’s all I ever wanted to do. I never had a plan to write movies,” says BenDavid Grabinski. ‘In college one summer, I wrote a script and people seemed to like it. So I wrote a few more and moved to LA.”

Initially, Grabinski was writing with the goal of making something he could direct, but then he ended up loving the process of screenwriting. “I just really enjoy that creative approach to storytelling.”

“I have a very unorthodox career narrative because I moved to LA at 22 and the first thing I wrote got optioned and made in six months. The next thing was on the Blacklist and Barry Sonnenfield was going to direct, but the studio went bankrupt. I kept almost having an overnight success.”

This would have been around 2005. “I know I’m a much better writer now than I was then. When I look back at that, I think that guy didn’t know anything about anything. So much about success is out of your control. You have to keep writing and opportunity will fall into your lap or it won’t.”

Grabinski is known for writing Skiptrace, Happily, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and the new Netflix series, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. “I didn’t go to Film School. It has a lot of value for a lot of people, but my way to learn movies was watching movies, reading scripts, listening to audio commentaries. That’s how I figured out the process.”

“If you read enough scripts and are excited about that kind of language and that format and that structure, I think it can only help. I think I read so many I internalized how it felt to read a script, how something is broken down versus executed, and I think I absorbed that. It helps to see the code in the Matrix.”

Want more? Steal my first book, Ink by the Barrel - Secrets From Prolific Writers right now for free. Simply head over to www.brockswinson.com to get your free digital download and audiobook. If you find value in the book, please share it with a friend as we’re giving away 100,000 copies this year. It’s based on over 400 interviews here at Creative Principles. Enjoy!

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Welcome to Creative Principles! In this special episode, we’re sharing the audiobook version of Ink by the Barrel - Secrets From Prolific Writers by author Brock Swinson, which is based on interviews from this very podcast.

It’s our mission to give away 100,000 copies of the book in 2023! We’ve given away thousands of copies already. To help our cause, please share these episodes and you can also get the PDF version of the book here:

www.brockswinson.com/ink

Inside this book, you’ll learn groundbreaking secrets, such as…

- Annihilate Writer's Block by Embracing Elizabeth Gilbert's "Playful Trickster" Mentality

- Learn to Weaponize Your Anxiety with Kevin Kelly's "Different is Better" Approach

- Defend Your Time with Ryan Holiday's "Calendar Anorexia" Mindset ​

- Create Ruthless Prioritization with Stephen Covey's "Urgent Versus Important" System ​

- Uncover the Truth About "Magic" with Raymond Teller's Steps to Avoid Self-Sabotage

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts?

It only takes about 60 seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom of your Apple Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Welcome to Creative Principles! In this special episode, we’re sharing the audiobook version of Ink by the Barrel - Secrets From Prolific Writers by author Brock Swinson, which is based on interviews from this very podcast.

It’s our mission to give away 100,000 copies of the book in 2023! We’ve given away thousands of copies already. To help our cause, please share these episodes and you can also get the PDF version of the book here:

www.brockswinson.com/ink

Inside this book, you’ll learn groundbreaking secrets, such as…

- Annihilate Writer's Block by Embracing Elizabeth Gilbert's "Playful Trickster" Mentality

- Learn to Weaponize Your Anxiety with Kevin Kelly's "Different is Better" Approach

- Defend Your Time with Ryan Holiday's "Calendar Anorexia" Mindset ​

- Create Ruthless Prioritization with Stephen Covey's "Urgent Versus Important" System ​

- Uncover the Truth About "Magic" with Raymond Teller's Steps to Avoid Self-Sabotage

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts?

It only takes about 60 seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom of your Apple Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Welcome to Creative Principles! In this special episode, we’re sharing the audiobook version of Ink by the Barrel - Secrets From Prolific Writers by author Brock Swinson, which is based on interviews from this very podcast.

It’s our mission to give away 100,000 copies of the book in 2023! We’ve given away thousands of copies already. To help our cause, please share these episodes and you can also get the PDF version of the book here:

www.brockswinson.com/ink

Inside this book, you’ll learn groundbreaking secrets, such as…

- Annihilate Writer's Block by Embracing Elizabeth Gilbert's "Playful Trickster" Mentality

- Learn to Weaponize Your Anxiety with Kevin Kelly's "Different is Better" Approach

- Defend Your Time with Ryan Holiday's "Calendar Anorexia" Mindset ​

- Create Ruthless Prioritization with Stephen Covey's "Urgent Versus Important" System ​

- Uncover the Truth About "Magic" with Raymond Teller's Steps to Avoid Self-Sabotage

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts?

It only takes about 60 seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom of your Apple Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Welcome to Creative Principles! In this special episode, we’re sharing the audiobook version of Ink by the Barrel - Secrets From Prolific Writers by author Brock Swinson, which is based on interviews from this very podcast.

It’s our mission to give away 100,000 copies of the book in 2023! We’ve given away thousands of copies already. To help our cause, please share these episodes and you can also get the PDF version of the book here:

www.brockswinson.com/ink

Inside this book, you’ll learn groundbreaking secrets, such as…

- Annihilate Writer's Block by Embracing Elizabeth Gilbert's "Playful Trickster" Mentality

- Learn to Weaponize Your Anxiety with Kevin Kelly's "Different is Better" Approach

- Defend Your Time with Ryan Holiday's "Calendar Anorexia" Mindset ​

- Create Ruthless Prioritization with Stephen Covey's "Urgent Versus Important" System ​

- Uncover the Truth About "Magic" with Raymond Teller's Steps to Avoid Self-Sabotage

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts?

It only takes about 60 seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom of your Apple Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Welcome to Creative Principles! In this special episode, we’re sharing the audiobook version of Ink by the Barrel - Secrets From Prolific Writers by author Brock Swinson, which is based on interviews from this very podcast.

It’s our mission to give away 100,000 copies of the book in 2023! We’ve given away thousands of copies already. To help our cause, please share these episodes and you can also get the PDF version of the book here:

www.brockswinson.com/ink

Inside this book, you’ll learn groundbreaking secrets, such as…

- Annihilate Writer's Block by Embracing Elizabeth Gilbert's "Playful Trickster" Mentality

- Learn to Weaponize Your Anxiety with Kevin Kelly's "Different is Better" Approach

- Defend Your Time with Ryan Holiday's "Calendar Anorexia" Mindset ​

- Create Ruthless Prioritization with Stephen Covey's "Urgent Versus Important" System ​

- Uncover the Truth About "Magic" with Raymond Teller's Steps to Avoid Self-Sabotage

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts?

It only takes about 60 seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom of your Apple Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!