Film School

We all have those movies that just make us feel warm and fuzzy inside. They feel like home. This week, the boys talk about those movies for them, Josh's self-imposed project to watch more of them, and how these special stories can keep us all inspired. What are YOUR warm fuzzy movies???

Life is like a box of chocolates, folks; you never know what you're gonna get. Tom Hanks plays the titular character in a film that defies traditional story structures and genre conventions. At the beating heart of this examination (and critique, perhaps?) of the US in the 60s and 70s is Forrest's undying love to Jenny. But that's about where 'conventional' and Forrest diverge, never to return again. Amazing cast, wonderful sweeping score, glitzy photography and a soundtrack that DOESN'T QUIT. It's Forrest Gump, this week on Film School!

We try new things all the time. New ways of doing stuff. Be better organized. Be more efficient. Work smarter, not harder. Most of the time, though, it doesn't stick.

Well, maybe that's okay. Maybe that's NORMAL...

Maybe it just takes awhile for things to click sometimes, and it's the things we keep coming back to try that are worth waiting for.

This week on the Cutting Room Floor!

It's the story of how Richard Nixon's presidency came to an infamous end: Watergate. Intrepid (god, I love the word 'intrepid!') reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein doggedly pursued the truth at the risk of their own lives and careers, and they're our heroes on this thrilling historical drama that takes us break by break in the early days of this unprecedented scandal. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman star. It's taught, fast-paced, and features scenes out of real life that are stranger than any fiction. Deep throat, anyone? This week, on film school!

How many times have you started something and not finished? How many times do we ALL just jump out the gate on something creative and we have all that wonderful energy and enthusiasm, and then in what feels like the blink of an eye...it's been weeks, months or years and we haven't touched it?

You're not alone.

We've all been there. But, we don't have to be. Josh and Ira ponder whether there's a better way; the difference between not finishing...and crossing that blessed finish line.

This week on the Cutting Room Floor!

Charlie Chaplin is on point this week with one of his most beloved appearances as the The Tramp. He can't hold down a job for his life, he's getting strapped into a homicidal auto-feeding machine, and he's doing blow in jail! What's not to love! There are truly some breathtaking sequences in this classic silent film, and Chaplin flexes his performance muscles that might just make you forget it's a silent film in the first place. Plus, it's the movie that brought us the timeless ballad "Smile." This week, on film school!

If any of them move, kill 'em! Our first Western on the AFI list is a bloody, gritty, corker of a bandit heist flick. It stars William Holden, whose star power was waning at the time, along with Ernest Borgnine and his iconic gap-toothed smile, and some truly EPIC action sequences that forever changed movies. It's also one the very first R-rated films in history. There are no heroes in this one. Mount up.

Okay, so we've gone through each of the different Genres of story. Great. But how do we actually APPLY that to our own writing? We use Josh's current work in progress as a launching point, discuss his super power hearing for police sirens, and break down the creative and vs mindsets. All this week on the Cutting Room Floor!

"That's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise." Jack Lemmon and Shirley McClain star in this absolute gem from writer/director Billy Wilder. One of the movies that defined the Romantic Comedy genre, it features two leads at their absolute peak, and a script that doesn't quit. Shut up and deal, boys and girls; this week on film school.

We conclude our dive into the fundamental story types we tell by by going over the remaining external Content Genres of Horror, Crime, Western, Performance, Thriller, Society, and War, and the remaining two internal Content Genres of Status and Morality. It's a lot of information, but don't worry: the rubber meets the road in applying these structures. So just sit back, listen, and use the resources for these over at storygrid.com