It’s the writing, stupid. Another reason to love Ken Levine and his dynamite blog:
Here’s a Friday Question that warrants an entire post…from Tastes Like Chicken:
Could you comment on this story from Slate.com about why so many Hollywood movies these days (like it never happened in the past, but still …) seem to resemble each other? His argument is that it’s because everybody these days is using the same 15-beat structure from the book “Save the Cat, by Blake Snyder.
There are certain films I’ve discovered just by channel surfing; likewise, there are films that I know and when I come across them (again, channel surfing), I may stay to watch a given scene and then find myself watching the film through to the end. Most of the OT Star Wars movies are like that; so isCasablanca. This morning my Mary and I came across another, Miss Pettgrew Lives For A Day. I found it first on TV, bought a copy, and today watched the movie through to the end anyway.
by
And here’s why:
by Troy DeVolldJust heard this late last week over lunch with a new friend, and thought it was important to share.
A young man was being shown the town and in an unremarkable stretch of the Burbank suburbs, he was told to look at the houses and ten year old cars in the driveways and take note that “this is basically a coal mining town.” Many of the people who lived here were folks who worked on movies and television shows, but they were living modestly, just getting by like much of the rest of America.
It’s very easy to romanticize film and television as places where great fortunes are made, and it’s true — though rare. Most of us are getting by in unremarkable fashion, slugging it out to pay our rent/mortgage and keep swimming in this pond long enough to be able to retire. The dollar doesn’t stretch very far in Los Angeles, but this is where the dream is, so you’ve just got to hold on.
It’s been said that TVWriter™ hates all reality TV. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some of it is so perfectly choreographed, written, edited, produced that it stands out from the crowd. And, over recent years, one Acme Super High Percentage of that good stuff has come from LB’s buddy, Troy DeVolld.
Gotta love how Troy thinks:
My fifth and final season of Basketball Wives makes its debut on VH1 on August 19th. Leaving a great franchise is tough, but it’s just time. To all my colleagues at Shed, VH1 and in the field, cast members and former bosses who have moved on to other opportunities as well — thank you for making the last three years a very special part of my life.