Tag: glm

Filmmaker Matthew Nash Talks About His Work, Influences and Style

Hello again, friends and compatriots! We’re jumping right back into our conversation with the head of Lesley’s Film and Animation department, Matthew Nash. Apart from his academic duties, Matt is an accomplished, award-winning filmmaker, most well-known for his powerful documentary film entitled 16 Photographs at Ohrdruf.

If you missed last week’s post, be sure to give it a look-see here!

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ADAM GREENE: How did you decide to become a filmmaker?

MATTHEW NASH: Totally by accident. I’ve never been an artist who’s particularly wedded to a medium. It’s fine to be wedded to a medium, I’ve just found that for myself, I don’t like having to channel all of my ideas through a tool. I like to find the tool for my idea.

My creative partner, Jason, and I, had done a lot of videos. Experimental, weirdo goofy stuff. And then, super long story super short, we decided to make a mock version of Ross McElwee’s Sherman’s March, that actually turned into a serious project.

It was supposed to be a week-long gag, and we ended up doing it for two years. That’s a film that you should never watch. [laughs]
But, I learned a lot. I had moved into that mindset. We did an experimental, semi-narrative piece where the concept was basically two people, who are nowhere, talking using just a microphone and a speaker. [Jason] and I, over the course of several months, recorded all of our phone conversations, transcribed them, edited them, and then turned that into a script.

On its face, this could be a profoundly boring 15 minute short film. The solution that we came up with was that we wanted to take the production level to 11.

We rented 18 foot cranes, 20 feet of dolly track, really good microphones, really good production team, the whole nine yards. It was that experience that got me hooked on production, on process.

When [16 Photographs at] Ohrdruf fell into my lap, I didn’t even know what to do with it.

The backstory is that my grandfather died in 1991, and after he died, we found this packet of photos that he had taken at the liberation of a concentration camp called Ohrdruf.

In 2008, when Barrack Obama was campaigning for the presidency, on the campaign trail, he says something like, “My uncle liberated Auschwitz.” And of course, big scandal, because America didn’t liberate Auschwitz, the Russians did.

They found his uncle, and they interviewed him, and it turns out that he was at the Ohrdruf camp. So all of a sudden, I’ve got the uncle of the future president of the United States and my grandfather, and I can put them in the same place.

I dug out the photos, and honest to God, I didn’t know what I was going to do. Having just done the project inspired by Ross McElwee, his very personal narrative process, I thought, “That might be my approach to this. As I try to figure out these pictures, I’ll just bring a camera along, and see what happens.”

Initially it was just going to be some YouTube shorts, but a really close friend of mine is a high-end editor in New York, and he said, “I’ll edit this for you.” And my partner and producer in New York said, “I’ll produce this for you.” And he also wanted to do the soundtrack.

Once everything came together, and I started doing the research into the photographs, it followed its own course. If you watch the film, it more or less is chronological to what I did.

AG: How has your experience working on documentary filmmaking influenced your narrative filmmaking?

MN: I think I’m still getting my feet under my knee as a narrative filmmaker. I really enjoyed the sci-fi film, but when I watch it now, there’s some stilted dialogue or, you know, I could have given more direction at a certain point, things like that. These are the things you learn.

The big difference that I have found is that when you’re working in a doc mode, you lay out an outline, or sort of a trajectory that you want to take your viewer on. Then you set out to find people to interview, or find footage to meet the needs of each stage of the process. And as you find people, they tell you things that you hadn’t expected, so you’re constantly tweaking your script or your outline.

Whereas with narrative, the script is everything. You’ve made or broken your project before you’ve ever done a casting day. If you don’t have a good script, everything after that is wasted effort.

There are areas where editing, acting, rewrites can save you, but if you’ve set yourself out on a bad course, you’re stuck on that.

I have learned, as I look toward doing narrative work, to be much more upfront about flaws in scripts, whether they’re things I’m helping my friends on, or students are sending me, or my own scripts.

One of the big lessons from last summer was just making sure that you are on the right track, that you really understand what you are doing. You know how it is on set, your camera guy has a great shot, or your lighting guy can’t light the space that you want, and you have to be adaptable and you have to be flexible.

VIKTOR HERRMANN: Do you think your documentary background gives you an advantage in being flexible?

MN: I hope so. My own self criticism of when we did the sci-fi film is, I think, [that] I was too flexible. I think the project really would have benefited from a director, me, taking a much harder line about some compromises that were made. I think we would have made a stronger project if we had taken the extra two minutes to move that light or to reposition that tripod or whatever it is.

The thing that you can do with documentaries is you can go, “I’ll live with that.” I think the thing you can’t do with narrative is say, “I’ll live with that.”

AG: What advice would you give to students or filmmakers in general that are wading into the corporate sphere? A lot of corporate places don’t have time to help write scripts with you. They might say, “Well, just bring your camera and start unfolding the story, you’ll figure it out.”

MN: One of the things that I would advise people in that circumstance is to have your own script, air quotes here, ready to go. Have your default model firmly established. So if you’re hired in a corporate situation to do an on-the-fly thing, walk in the door knowing, “Here’s how I tell a story. It begins here, it goes here, it climbs to here, it falls to here, rises back up and ends.”

If you’re going to have to work on-the-fly, how do you assess which elements in front of you meet the needs of basic storytelling 101?

It takes skill, it takes practice, it takes an eye. It takes being able to recognize when the world is giving you the thing [that you’re looking for], and getting a camera on it.

If you’re just pointing your camera at things because somebody gave you a paycheck, you’re not going to make a good product.

One thing I say to my students is all of the thinking and understanding and planning and research and immersion into your medium, all of that happens before you ever take the lens cap off.

If you haven’t done that work, if you don’t understand your medium or how you speak with it, you’re just making footage.

AG: Why is video important as a teaching or marketing tool?

MN: I think where we have gotten with our video tools is that it democratizes things. It makes it fast. It makes it accessible. When I was a student, if you wanted to make a film, the process was arduous. But today, I could grab a video camera, and tell a story really quickly.

Nowadays folks who are working in video have to incorporate a vocabulary of cinema, of narrative. It doesn’t matter if you’re going into a corporate environment, an academic environment. You’re bringing to the tool all of its history and all of its vocabulary.

Partially because we are so media saturated, I think people are bringing a lot of that stuff intuitively now.

VH: Would you say there are benefits, even if you’re not pursuing film or video as a career, to having video skills?

MN: Oh, I think so. It’s one of the major and rising vocabularies that we have. Your phone shoots video now. Your phone shoots photos too, but more and more as I scroll through Facebook, I notice: It’s video. And frankly, there’s a lot of bad video out there.

One of the things that I know we’re going to face when we launch the digital filmmaking program, because we already face this in the photography program, is, “Oh, hey, I shot some cool pictures with my phone. I’m a photographer.”

This is not to devalue our students; anywhere a student develops a love for photography is totally valuable. But the ease of use and the ease of access [has made it so] amateurs can very quickly think that they’re professionals.

I think the same is going to hold true for filmmaking. “I shot a great short video on my phone.” Awesome! You know what? You can do professional quality work with your phone. But it has nothing to do with the phone. [laughs]
It has to do with whether you can use a cinematic vocabulary.

VH: Is there something that has influenced your filmmaking that perhaps doesn’t come from film, that perhaps would surprise people?

MN: Sure. So many things. One of the things that I talk about with my students is that inspiration comes from everywhere. You can go to the library and get the art history books, but you might be sitting at home watching an episode of The Simpsons, and it just clicks.

What goes in eventually comes out. I consume as much as I can get my hands on. I love 1950s horror comics. In fact, film students are all going to be required to read at least one volume of something from Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, Weird Science, the classic EC 1950-1955 Golden Age.

I think filmmakers should fall in love with this stuff, because it’s formulaic storytelling 101. By the time you’ve read 5 or 6 Tales from the Crypt stories, you’re like, “Oh, this is just formula.”

If you can take your brain to the next step, you can be like, “You know what? It’s a formula that I should probably learn.” If you go back to the 80s, HBO did what, 9 or 10 seasons of Tales from the Crypt episodes.

These comics are the script, the formula that allows you to do a successful 9 or 10 season series. Every episode is standalone. Think about The Twilight Zone.

It’s very formulaic. It begins in a certain way, it unfolds in a certain way, it reveals in a certain way, it climaxes in a certain way, it concludes in a certain way. Every time.

VH: And yet it’s still one of the greatest pieces of television ever.

MN: Exactly. Because you know what you’re going to get. And even though it’s different actors, different characters, different stories, you know.

And on one hand, it’s boring television watching. If you’re an educated viewer, you’re like, “Yawn.” But if you’re going to make this stuff? The thing I always tell my students is, “You can’t break the rules until you know the rules.”

To a certain extent, these are our rules.

AG: Can you talk about collaboration and the importance of developing good working relationships?

MN: Sure. I have lots of friends doing cool stuff, but it’s not like I picked my friends because they were going to be film producers or anything. I met some these guys when I was 16. I always tell my students, “If you surround yourself with cool and interesting and motivated people, they’re going to grow up to be cool, interesting, motivated people who do cool stuff.”

AG: I would say that applies to crews, too. I’d much rather work with somebody that I really click with, that I think is a really smart, reliable person, rather than just somebody who knows how to operate a camera really well. Because that first person will be able to learn how to use the camera really well with time. You can teach people, and you can teach skills, but it’s much harder to teach people skills.

MN: Yeah! On my sci-fi film last summer, we were a small crew so everybody wore multiple hats. Our associate producer, Rob, was also our lighting guy. And he brought this guy that he had been working with and liked, and the guy just flaked. He worked for half the morning, checked his phone, was like, “Oh, I’m bored,” and left.

This was a volunteer gig, whatever. But Rob cut him loose. This was his number one guy, and he dropped to the bottom of the list. Meanwhile, the boyfriend of somebody on my crew, his name was Joe, shows up, does an amazing job, and ends up getting hired.

Rule number one is just don’t be a dick.

AG: [laughs] That’s a great rule.

VH: Just for life in general.

MN: Yeah! It’s a people based business. You hire who you trust. I got offered a job in Hawaii a couple of years ago, and one of the things that absolutely terrified me was leaving behind this whole network of people that were beer-and-pizza friends, and I know if I called them up and was like, “Hey, I want to do a short film,” – I actually did this recently, I said, “Hey, Rob, I’m interesting in doing a short film,” and he said yes before I even told him the title or when it was or anything.

Having that network of people who trust each other… that’s how it works.

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16 Photographs at Ohdruf can be found on Hulu, Vimeo, or Amazon Prime. Be sure to check out Matt’s, http://www.mr-nash.com, to find out even more about the man and stay current on what he’s cooking up next.

April 16, 2015
Lesley University’s New Digital Filmmaking Program

As of writing this, I am just a little over a month shy of graduating from Lesley University. It has been a fantastic four years, and I’ve been fortunate enough to meet some wonderful peers and professors.

My only complaint throughout was, “Geez, I wish there was more film stuff.” And wouldn’t you know it, right on the cusp of my graduation, Lesley announces that it’s starting a film program.

Ain’t it always the way?

Adam and I sat down with Matthew Nash, who is the head of Lesley’s Video and Animation Department. As of the Fall of 2015, the department will include the brand new Digital Filmmaking program. We spoke with Matt about what potential film students could expect.

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VIKTOR HERRMANN: Can you talk about the film program and what your plans are for that?

MATTHEW NASH: The film program launches in the Fall of 2015. We’re aiming to have 15-20 students in our first Freshmen class; obviously if we get more, it’ll be better. But that’s our goal. We’re going to roll it out over four years.

The four year program will have students doing filmmaking from day one. On average, they’ll take two to three film classes per semester. In the first year, Fall and Spring, their two core courses each semester are Concepts of Cinema, and Cinema Techniques. They’ll be working with an award winning filmmaker, who’s originally from Syria, a guy named Ziad Hamzeh. He’s a fantastic filmmaker.

He’ll be doing Concepts, introducing them to how to tell stories; all of the thinking stuff that goes into making television commercials, or experimental media, or narrative media. The rules are the rules are the rules, right?

And as he’s giving them assignments that push the way that they think about filmmaking, I’ll be meeting that with a technical course, giving them the skills and the techniques, whether it’s camera work, rigging, lighting, etc, to meet the assignments that he’s doing.

We want, at every stage, to be feeding their brain and how they think, and then to back that with the skills to make it happen. The whole four year program is designed that way. It’s different from year to year, but we’re always backing ideas with skills.

In the Junior year, the goal is to put them into teams that will actually shoot a short film over the course of the year. So they’ll do pre-production and production in the fall, and production and post-production in the spring.

It’s really important that our students get a chance to wear a lot of hats. Not everybody is the director, and you’re not the director all the time. So, if you can be a good sound-tech for somebody’s project, or a good gaffer, or a good production member on somebody’s team, you’re still valuable. We all came up through the ranks being a part of other people’s projects first.

And then, Senior year is thesis year. We want our students to walk out the door with film festival winning, high-quality short films, whether they’re experimental or narrative. We want them to have a whole year to build up to something that showcases how awesome they are, and how awesome our program is. So that’s the goal.

VH: That sounds fantastic.

ADAM GREENE: It does, and it also raises some questions about some of the other well known film schools in the area. Is Lesley trying something different that those schools aren’t doing?

MN: I think there are three things that will really set this program apart. One, all of our students, no matter what program they’re in, are required to do a professional internship. Getting into the industry you want to be in is hugely important to us.

We’ve shot some great Hollywood films in Boston, but there’s a lot of independent film going on here, a lot of independent documentaries going on here. And not all of that stuff is permanently fixed in a building where you can go and knock on the door. We’re getting our ear to the ground so our students can get in on some of these things that might only exist for the length of a production.

And at the same time, talking to guys like you, where there are great internship opportunities. That’s one thing that our program has always been really strong on: Internships. We are a professional school. We talk a lot about professional practice.

Students are coming to us because they want to do this for their livelihood. You don’t spend four years and God knows how much money to then graduate and never do the thing.

But at the same time, our educational background means that we’re not just making you a technician. We’re making you a full-rounded thinker.

Two, we’re launching a program in 2015. We’re not burdened by a past of how it was always done. We’re not anchored in any way to any history. We can look at the state of the market in 2015 and say, “These are the things that our students need to be successful.”

Three, when I talk with potential students and their parents, one of the things that I talk about is the fact that we all consume huge amounts of media nowadays, and a lot of it is short form. The standard 22 minute television show, the standard 90 or 120 minute movie, those still exist, but Hulu, Netflix, Amazon… they’re changing the game.

Our students will be graduating into a media market that is not locked into a lot of the standards that we have taken for granted for so long. We’re baking that right into the cake from day one, and thinking, “How do we get students making strong work that will survive?”

Our first graduating class will be in 2019. So, what is a successful digital filmmaker in 2019 going to look like? There’s a lot of question marks around that, but you can trace some trends, and you can make some educated guesses.

Obviously it would great to have students who go off to New York or Hollywood, but we also know that they can be successful doing the kind of stuff that Green Lens Media is doing. Corporate work, short form work, advertising, short web narrative.

Every time you go to YouTube, you have to watch a commercial. Somebody got paid to make that 30 second ad that you don’t want to sit through! It’s maybe not the most glamorous side of the business, but these are all paying gigs that can support real professional creative practice.

AG: I can definitely tell you, as someone who came from a bunch of film related programs… the one thing that would have made the most difference would be a background in business. How to communicate with clients. That is so huge, and it’s not even being talked about.

MN: That’s funny, you almost took the words right out of my mouth. Most of my friends in New York who are quote-unquote “film industry types,” they’re on the production-house side.

They’re not running cameras or dealing with actors, they’re either dealing with budgets or managing production teams. They’re line producers, they’re production coordinators. They’re not talking about the glamour, hanging out with celebrities every day. They’re talking about booking flights and renting camera gear; which is just as much a part of the business as anything else.

We’re sneaking some of that in through those Junior and Senior year classes, where students have to do pre-production, production and post. You can’t do pre-production, even on a student project, without making a budget. Without organizing your team. Without scheduling. Without planning.

If you walk in and tell students, “Alright, this is a business planning class,” they’re all going to get up and walk out the door. But if you say, “This is pre-production for the movie you want to make,” then all of a sudden it’s like, “Yeah, okay, now a spreadsheet sounds interesting.” [laughs]
A spreadsheet is a tool. Just like a camera or a tripod is a tool. So we’ll just have to get students to appreciate the spreadsheet when it’s appropriate, when it’s useful, and in its context.

AG: That’s very valuable. Everybody thinks, “Oh, I’m going to be the next Peter Jackson, and not need to bother with that, I’m just going to focus on my art.” But the fact is that in order to build up enough capital to do those kind of projects, you have to work in the trenches, and you have to do some of these very basic business things. So, it’s good that Lesley’s working that in.

MN: Yeah. Last summer we did a little short sci-fi film, and it was an all volunteer thing, lots of students, people doing it for the experience. And even that ended up running about $10,000 dollars when it was all said and done. Just for a couple weekends of shooting, pizzas and coffee, renting gear and hotel rooms. It adds up super fast.

That’s one of the reasons that we’re not going to emphasize the feature [film] in this program, because it’s an undergraduate program, and because it’s prohibitively expensive to do a feature. Even a five or a ten minute short, on a student budget, could get prohibitively expensive.

AG: It comes back to what you were saying before. The landscape is changing anyway. So why not embrace it? And say, “We’re going to focus on short form, and even corporate advertisement.”

MN: Yeah. So much of the basic stuff transfers over. A lot of nice cameras have been showing up, so a handful of students have been like, “You got a Blackmagic 4K? I want to shoot with that!” Great. First thing you have to do is buy 8 terabytes worth of hard drive space, so that we can work with this footage.

And they’re like, “Wait. What? I’ve got to go buy four hundred dollars worth of hard drives before I can even consider starting this project?” That’s the kind of prohibitive thing that we’re talking about. You have to create infrastructure inside your college for boring stuff like data. For footage. People who look at it from the outside see it as sort of, “It’s easy, you just get a camera.”

VH: Talking about changing landscapes, do you have any overarching visions for this film program five, ten years down the road?

MN: I think where the program will really shine, will really have its character, is in our elective packages. At this point we’re at least a year away from really implementing those, but I threw up a Google Doc, and I asked some of the development team, the faculty, to make a list of everything they’d like to do in the electives.

Things like green screening and compositing, which would be great with our animation classes, of course. A course entirely dedicated to music videos. Some really whacky ones. One professor pitched a low-budget DYI special effects class.

VH: Not visual effects but special effects?

MN: Yeah, like practical effects. Anybody who’s ever seen the making of Saving Private Ryan, you see Steven Spielberg talking about how they would put a little stick in the ground with some dirt on top of it, and if you stepped on it really hard, it made it look like a landmine exploding. Practical effects like that for student projects and lower budget projects, what a great thing to give our students.

AG: Home Depot 101.

MN: [laughs] Exactly. There are great things you can do with 3D animation, with game engines, and in post. But sometimes you just want the practical effect. Those are some of the areas where my brain is churning right now. I think when we start having real serious conversations about which elective we’re going to roll out first, frankly, it’s going to involve the students.

Part of my pitch to potential incoming students for the fall is saying, “This is the wild west. You are pioneers. This is the Oregon Trail. Nobody has done this before. You will be the first. Which means you’ll have a huge amount of say in what we do.”

The 2015-2016 group and the 2016-2017 group, those first two classes are probably going to influence this program more than I ever could.

Unlike the folks who are maybe more in the fine arts, as a film student, you are immersed just as much in pop culture as you are in fine arts. There’s tons of film out there that’s cinema, you can go watch your Felini, or David Lynch’s early work, there’s experimental stuff. But most of our students are arriving at our door because they loved watching Gladiator and Transformers.

It’s really interesting to hear their different motivations. I have robust e-mail lives with a lot of the folks who are looking at our program. Each one’s motivation is different. One guy just wants to do horror thrillers, another guy’s done all comedy pieces. A lot of them don’t know what they want yet, they’re just mimicking what they see and what they like. So it’s a program that’s going to have a really interesting relationship to the mainstream, which you don’t necessarily see in a fine arts program.

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Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? By all accounts, Lesley intends to create not just talented filmmakers, but working, successful ones. Even though personally I won’t get to be a student in the program, its existence makes me both very excited and very happy.

Tune in next week to the 2nd part of our conversation with Matthew Nash, which will delve into his personal experiences and influences (some of which you might be surprised to learn).

April 1, 2015
“Better Call Saul” Writer Gennifer Hutchison Discusses Her Craft and Career

As of writing this, we are over halfway done with the first season of the Breaking Bad spinoff, Better Call Saul, and I think by this point, we can all breathe a sigh of relief.

Not only does Better Call Saul avoid the pitfalls of most failed spinoffs, it rockets past them to become a truly great piece of fiction. In hindsight, we probably didn’t have anything to worry about anyway.

Why? Well, because so many of the people that made Breaking Bad a masterpiece returned, and it’s not like they weren’t going to give the show their all.

One of those Breaking Bad alums is writer/producer Gennifer Hutchison, who wrote some of that show’s finest episodes, including “Confessions” and “Cornered”, which gave us the now-famous “I am the one who knocks” line.

So needless to say, when Adam and I sat down on spooky Friday the 13th to have a phone call with Gennifer Hutchison, we were both pretty jazzed.

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VIKTOR HERRMANN: What were the early days of your career like? How difficult was it to get where you are now, and what kept you going through the years?

GENNIFER HUTCHISON: That’s a good question. My first job in LA was as a PA in the writers’ office at the X-Files, which was a pretty awesome opportunity. I ended up becoming Vince Gilligan’s assistant in, I think, Season 8.

That was sort of my start. And then from there I kept moving up and I eventually kept consistently getting jobs as either a writers’ assistant or a producers’ assistant. But every show I got on would either get cancelled, or my boss would leave, or I would have to leave, and so after X-Files, every show I was on I was only on for a season.

This went on for quite a while. It was pretty difficult because I was never able to really get any traction, as far as an assistant who could then pitch possibly writing a freelance [episode]. I was writing my own stuff, but I definitely had some days where I was like, “what could I do instead?” [laughs]
But I kept doing it, mostly because I just didn’t know what else I would do. It was the only thing I could think of that I wanted to do.

Then I was working on Mad Men in Season 1, for Matthew Weiner. Season 1 was wrapping up, and one of the AMC producers said, “Oh, we’re working with your old boss, Vince Gilligan,” and I was like, “What is the show?” and they said, “It’s this thing called Breaking Bad.” And so I immediately contacted him and said, “Please hire me in any capacity.”

So he brought me on as his assistant, and then it just kind of hit, where I managed to get on a show that was great and sustained. And since I had this prior relationship with Vince, he knew what my goals were, and he had always been really supportive. When I came back for Season 2, I had a conversation with him and said, “I want to write for the show. What do I need to do to show you that I’m ready?”

And he said, “I need to read your stuff, any extra work there is on the show, webisodes, blogs, do those, and just show me.” So basically Season 2 was kind of my audition. [laughs]
And by the end of that, I said, “So, what do you think?” And he was like, “Well, why don’t we give you a freelance in Season 3 and see how that goes?” And it went really well, and that’s when he ended up staffing me.

VH: What was it like in those days, both as an assistant and when you first came on to the writing staff? How comfortable were you pitching ideas, versus how often you bit your tongue?

GH: When you’re a writers’ assistant you tend to not pitch as much. It varies by room. Some rooms don’t really like writers’ assistants to pitch, some do. You basically wait until everybody else has talked. [laughs] And then, if you have a pitch, you’ll volunteer it.

The difference of pitching as an assistant as opposed to pitching as a writer is you only want to pitch your best ideas. You want to make sure that it’s a great idea that you’re really confident in. When you’re on staff, your job is to keep the flow going, so a lot of times you pitch, “Oh, this is the bad version, but here’s what I’m trying to get to.”

As an assistant, you’re never really pitching the bad version. You want to pitch your absolute best. So transitioning from that? My first season as a full writer, that was interesting. It’s like, “Oh, I don’t have to be 100% sure of every detail of my pitch. I can take a flier, and it’s going to be okay. I’m not disappointing them.”

As a staff writer, you want to make sure that your pitches are great, but there’s definitely a little more freedom. You’re on staff. That’s your job. They believe in you, at least to a certain extent. [laughs] There’s more comfort.

ADAM GREENE: As we know, in Hollywood and pro-filmmaking, it’s pretty male dominated. What advice would you give to female writers for how to get to where they want to go?

GH: It’s tricky, and I think that there’s more attention being paid to it now. There’s definitely a huge disparity. I think it really comes down to, honestly, just being your best. There’s the idea that with women you have to be twice as good to be considered half as good. But it’s generally advice I would give to anybody who’s trying.

Do your best job, no matter what job you’re in. So if you’ve got that writers’ assistant job, be the best writers’ assistant. But make sure, especially for women, that people understand that you have goals beyond that.

Don’t be afraid to speak up; don’t be pushy, there’s a difference between being persistent and harassing people. But I think a lot of times, women tend to be quieter. They tend to not self-promote, just because of the culture we’re raised in.

It took me a long time to speak up, and say, “Vince, this is what I want.” And I think if I had spoken up earlier he would have been just as open to it. So I think it’s mostly about having that confidence in yourself, and being able to self-promote.

Whereas I think guys are told, “Go in there! Go in there! Do it!” And I think women need to start being told that as well, and people need to listen.

VH: What are your writing habits like, and do you find that those habits change based on different projects you’re working on, or do you tend to stay consistent?

GH: With this show, we break all the stories together. We do all of them on 3×5 cards and then you take those to write your outline, and from there you write your script.

When I write on my own projects, I tend to do something similar. I like to break on cards, or I might skip the cards and go straight to outlining, but I definitely do the outlining.

As far as my personal writing habits, I tend to write in bursts. I’ll write for 45 minutes, and then I’ll take a 20 minute break, and then I’ll write for 30 minutes, and take a 10 minute break. I’m very bad about procrastinating, so deadlines are very good for me.

On my own projects, I tend to have to impose deadlines, or I tend to languish a bit more. That’s why TV is a really good place for me. It’s a world of deadlines. [laughs]
VH: I don’t think you’re the only writer who struggles with procrastination.

GH: [laughs] No, no, it’s something I always beat myself up about. And then once I started working, I was like, “Oh, everybody does this.”

AG: When you are faced with no idea how to continue or resolve or even start a scene, what gets you in the zone, as a writer?

GH: Other than fear?

AG: Other than fear and coffee.

GH: [laughs] You know, I actually don’t drink coffee. Mostly what I tend to do is I try to step away for a minute. I might sit and play a video game for half an hour, or go outside and take a walk. And then it just comes to a point where you have to force yourself to sit down.

It also helps me to talk to other people. The TV shows I’ve worked on, and TV in general, is very collaborative. Talking out ideas helps get you past writers block in a lot of ways. Sometimes I’ll just go and talk to my husband and say, “I’m having a real problem.”

He’s not a writer, and usually he won’t give me an answer. As I’m talking, I’ll figure out the answer. But just being able to say it out loud to someone helps get past the issue.

VH: Your first episode, 308, “I See You,” I imagine was a tough episode to write. It’s very different than most Breaking Bad episodes. It’s much quieter. What was your process writing that, and what were the challenges? I’m sure there was a lot of pressure to get it right.

GH: Yeah, there was. You don’t want to let your boss down, especially when they’ve taken a chance on you. Breaking that episode was tricky, and the big sequence with the Cousin crawling across the floor on his severed legs was a late addition.

I remember when it got pitched in the room and Vince was really excited about it. I had this moment of panic, where I was like, “I have to do what?” Our most iconic scenes actually came from a pitch where we thought, “That’s completely insane, we can never do that.” And the more we talk about it, and refine it, we realize that it will totally work. That was sort of my first panic moment, and then, ultimately it ended up being great.

The other thing that was interesting about that episode is that it was the first of my Walter White monologues; I tend to get monologues of his in my episodes. That was really fun for me write, but getting it right was a lot of pressure.

I remember when Vince gave me notes. “This direction is good, but I think you need to do a little bit more of this. Why don’t you take another stab at it?” And I was able to refine it from there.

Vince was really great through the whole process, and really allowed me to address my own notes, and find my way through the script.

AG: What is your unwritten rule of screenwriting? What’s something that’s maybe overlooked by aspiring writers or teachers, but you consider crucial?

GH: Honestly, I’m a character driven person, and I don’t think that’s necessarily overlooked, but I think there can be this idea that the idea should come from a concept instead of a character. I think you can have amazing concepts, but if you don’t have this great character driving your story, then it’s just not going to get where you want it to go. I think getting trapped in the plot as opposed to letting the character guide the plot can be a real problem.

A lot of times when I’m working on my own stuff, I’ll find myself thinking, “Okay, and then I need a run-and-jump here,” and it’s like, “No, no, no. What would the character actually do here?” That’s where you’re going to get the best drama. How would a real person, your real person that you’ve created, react in this situation?

AG: It might not even be something that you want to happen to the character.

GH: Exactly. We found ourselves in that situation a lot on Breaking Bad, and we would always go, “Why isn’t this working? We need this, we need that,” and it’s like, “Okay, no, no, no. Where’s Walt’s head at? What would he do?” And that usually got us through.

VH: Moving onto Saul. So far this first season feels to me very, very deliberate. Even more than Breaking Bad did. Sometimes things are set up very subtly, and they take several episodes to pay off. Can you talk about the process in the Better Call Saul writers’ room compared to Breaking Bad, and how broadly you might have planned things out this time around?

GH: Sure. It’s funny, because I think Better Call Saul benefits from the fact that we did five seasons of Breaking Bad, and so many of us came from there. We really had that basis, and we really refined our process. Coming in [to Better Call Saul], it was more about figuring out what the show was, and not how do we get there. We know the best way to break stories for us as a group.

And yeah, it is really serialized in a lot of ways. Which is funny because I think a lot of people expected it to be, you know, Saul deals with a whacky client every week. And that’s not at all what it ended up being.

It was really a learning process for us when we started. It’s interesting that you say we placed so many things that don’t pay off until later. As we were going through, we really took it step-by-step. And there were definitely points where we had discoveries. So sometimes we went back to make sure we had laid the groundwork.

It really was a brick-by-brick process with Season 1 on this show. Because [Jimmy] doesn’t have this thing of, “I’m learning how to be a drug dealer,” it really is about, “How does this Jimmy guy become Saul?”

AG: Knowing that you have to be true to the Breaking Bad world, has that been a challenge or something that’s been good?

GH: Both. [laughs] It’s good to have parameters when you’re writing, because if you can do anything, you often can’t decide on what’s best. We know that there are certain characters that just don’t exist in Albuquerque at this point, so that’s good.

But there are other times where we’re like, “Oh, what if we did this?” But we can’t because we know that in Breaking Bad era, this character is not in jail, or isn’t here. So it really was a mix of feeling constrained, but then seeing opportunities, and wanting to pull as much of the Breaking Bad mythology as we could.

VH: Do you have any nightmare stories? A scene that was particularly tough and memorable to write?

GH: You know, it’s mostly in the breaks. When we’re putting an episode together on the board, that’s the hardest part. On both these shows, we tend to break in such detail that once you get to script, usually you have a really good idea of where you’re going.

As far as being in the room, all the Tuco stuff was very tricky. We wanted Tuco to be not exactly where he was in Breaking Bad, and we needed to introduce this new character, Nacho, in an interesting way.

As far as writing, the salon scene in “Hero,” when Kim and Jimmy are talking and she brings the cease and desist, was really interesting for me, because there’s a couple different things going on in that scene.

It was a challenging scene, not in a bad way, but just making sure that you establish their rapport, you show that she doesn’t like that she has to give this thing to him, but she also thinks that he needs to stop what he’s doing. He’s kind of trying to let her know his feelings for her. There’s a lot of little things going on in that scene. That was definitely something I spent a lot of time on, but it ultimately ended up being a great scene.

I just think Rhea and Bob did such an amazing job with it, and it was probably my favorite scene in the episode.

VH: In the performances, but in the writing too, there’s such a humanity between those two characters and how they interact. It’s wonderful.

GH: Yeah, those two have such great chemistry.

AG: Who came up with the allergic to electricity psychosis condition that Chuck faces? And has that world been fun to play in?

GH: That was pretty early. We knew that we wanted Chuck to have some sort of condition that kept him housebound. We liked the idea of it being something that was like, “Is this a real thing? Or is this a psychosomatic condition for him?”

As far as the electricity thing, I don’t know who specifically came up with it; it may have been Vince. I remember it coming up pretty early. Refined from, “This guy is stuck in his house, what is it that’s keeping him there?”

That’s been fun. Although, it causes problems, because a lot of stuff is like, “Okay, and then Chuck calls Jimmy,” and we’re like, “Chuck cannot call Jimmy.” [laughs] It’s fun, but it is very challenging.

Chuck also maintains such a sense of dignity, so you want to keep that balance. You don’t want him to come off like this stereotypical crazy guy in his house. You want him to feel like a real person. That’s definitely a fine line to walk.

VH: One last question: We already know that you’re a fantastic writer, but do you have any plans or aspirations to direct in the coming seasons?

GH: It’s funny, when I was in college, I wanted to be a director. I think that’s what everybody knows. But I had always written, and so I was like, “Oh, you can do that too. Great!” And so I started heading down the writing path, and I didn’t really think about directing for a while, but it is something that I still have interest in.

I would love to direct down the line, for sure. It’s something that I would hope to be able to do. It’s also a really tough job, and a specific skill set. So there’s definitely a lot of learning to be done. [laughs]
—————————————-

You hear that, kids? You can be one of the best writers working in television, and there will always still be learning to be done.

I hope fans of the shows and of Gennifer’s work found this entertaining, but more than anything, I hope aspiring writers found it useful. Mrs. Hutchison gives out the kind of sage advice people usually charge multiple digits for, so study up, writers!

PS: If you enjoyed this interview, check out our earlier conversation with another Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul writer, Tom Schnauz. Some of the hints he gave us as to what Saul would contain are only now becoming evident.

March 17, 2015
Breaking Bad’s Tom Schnauz Talks Writing, Directing, and “Better Call Saul” – PART 2

Alright, friends, let’s not waste any time here. Diving right back into the second half of my and Adam’s interview with Breaking Bad writer/director/producer Tom Schnauz!

VIKTOR HERRMANN: About the end [of the series], this is just a little aside, but do you know whose idea it was to use “Baby Blue” as the outro song?

TOM SCHNAUZ: I’ll say with 96% certainty that it was Vince. He used to come in a lot of times and say “Here, I heard this on the radio.” Certainly the… holy moly, I’m drawing a complete blank. The song we used in 508.

VH: “Crystal Blue Persuasion”?

TS: Yeah, that was definitely a song Vince had been wanting to use for a long time. So I’m pretty sure “Baby Blue” was the same, too.

VH: What did it feel like when you finished the “Buried” script and you realized this was the last Breaking Bad script you would ever write?

TS: It was pretty depressing. [laughs] I gotta say, it was really, really tough. It was a very strange time for me. My own father passed away from cancer right in the middle of filming, and that episode is dedicated to him. There was a sadness to the Breaking Bad family breaking up, but I was going through my own thing with my own family, so maybe I would have been more emotionally torn by Breaking Bad ending if I didn’t have this other stuff going on in my life that was devastating.

VH: I don’t think anyone could blame you for that. So, now, you are in a way, still writing the characters. Now that you’ve been in the Better Call Saul writers’ room for a while, how has the idea of what the show would be like changed from what you thought it would be like before you got into the room?

TS: I don’t know if I had a clear idea. I think some part of me knew it was going to be, kind of carrying on the tradition of Breaking Bad, that same feeling. I think if you had asked me before we started, I may have said that this is going to be a more comedic version of the show. But part of me probably knew, inside, that it was going to have that same mix of drama.

We are attacking this just like our Breaking Bad episodes. We wonder where the character’s head is at and go from there. We don’t try to think “What’s the big comedic set piece?” or “What’s the funny thing we’re going to do?”, we do it from an emotional “What does our character need” type of thing and go from there. If it’s funny, great. Bob Odenkirk is incredibly funny and I think even the serious scenes, he’s going to find, you know, the little flash of humor here and there.

VH: So far, is Better Call Saul as serialized as Breaking Bad or is each episode more of its own thing?

TS: I’ll say it’s just as serialized at this point. We’re only five episodes in, but I mean, we’re just doing the kind of writing we know how to do. Which is serialized, following the character and his development.

The interesting thing is, you know, this is a prequel to Breaking Bad, of course, Mike Ehrmantraut’s coming back… so we’re in this really interesting situation where we know where the characters are going so instead of having this freedom of letting a character, you know, go off wherever it needs to go, we sort of know where we have to end up. So it’s like we’re fitting these puzzle pieces into this space.

We’ve created the start point, and we know the end point. We’re really trying to maneuver within the reality and history that we already have.

VH: Has that been challenging? Have you found something maybe you’d like to do but it would conflict with the Breaking Bad continuity?

TS: I think so, I think there’s been a couple of times where we’ve been like, “Oh, this is good!” and then someone will say, “Well, you know what, in episode 208, when Saul’s introduced, he says this and that”, and we’re like, “Oh, shit.” [laughs]

You know, we have what we’ve established with Mike and his granddaughter, Kaylee, and Kaylee’s mom, and what that situation is. We’re trying to explore why is mom there but not dad? We’re exploring that a little bit. I don’t want to say too much without spoiling things.

VH: Of course. When we e-mailed, you mentioned you were working on your first Saul outline. I’m assuming I can answer this question myself based on what you said, but are the Saul outlines so far just as detailed as those legendary Breaking Bad outlines that none of the fans have ever gotten to see?

TS: Yeah, they’re the same. I think the first outline we did, for the first episode, was 17 pages, [laughs] which is a good sized outline for us. My outline I tried to keep a little more conservative. Right now it’s a 12 page outline. We carded them exactly the same – actually that reminds me I should take pictures of these boards before they disappear – so eventually on Twitter, after they air, I can post them. We’re pretty detailed.

ADAM GREENE: Tom, do you find it more preferable to write or to direct?

TS: Oh, I love directing. I’ve only gotten to do it the one time, except for when I was back at college. Preferable? You know, I need to do it some more before I can give you a straight answer. I mean, I love writing and I think the hardest part is the writing, getting that right.

I feel like when you’re directing you have a lot of people supporting you. A lot of departments and a lot of very skilled people doing things, contributing ideas. The writing is a little more solitary, even though we have our core group who we break the story with, it just feels harder to break a story and get it right. Certainly all the heavy lifting’s been done, so when it comes time to direct, I’m not going to say it’s easy… but I had fun directing, for sure.

AG: A question about Walt’s character: he has two sides, the everyday normal Walt, and the conniving, evil Walt. How do you effectively ride that line between his Jekyll and Hyde?

TS: So much of that is credited to Bryan. We were lucky to have an actor who, you could write down the subtext of what we want to say as writers without having dialogue there, and he, through a squint of his eyes, we get what’s going on in his head. So when he’s saying one thing you know he means another.

AG: Was there anything in particular that comes to mind that you learned working with the cast and crew? Whenever I get onto a new set, or start a new project, I always seem to gain from someone something that I didn’t have before, and I just wondered if something rubbed off on you that might influence your future projects?

TS: Yeah, it’s just being open to everybody’s ideas. Like I said, I drew storyboards for everything, but I didn’t stick to them rigidly. They were more of a guide into going in and having a feeling of what I wanted to do, but a lot of times Michael Slovis would come in and say “Hey, look at this” and it would be much better than what I originally drew. And Bryan would have a thought about the way a line should be read.

It’s just… always being open to everybody else’s ideas. I learned that in the writers’ room too. The most effective writers’ rooms are the ones where you feel completely safe. You get into a writers’ room where there’s one person who’s judgmental, it is completely damaging. It just shuts down creativity and people don’t want to say things because they think they’re going to get made fun of. That is something I luckily learned very early on, that you cannot, you cannot have that personality or be that personality in a writers’ room.

You want to be free to say the worst idea ever and not be laughed out of the room, because you never know what good thing is going to come out of it.

AG: My final question, and then I want to wrap up, because you’ve been so generous with your time. Do you have any advice for writers that are trying to get into the business while also trying to maintain their voice?

TS: Yeah, I always hate giving this answer cause it sounds like… bullshit, a lot of the time. [laughs] So much of this business depends on luck and timing, and so what you have to do as a writer is to keep writing and keep generating products, keep churning out ideas, and creating scripts that make you happy. Make yourself happy, that is.

I think early on, one of my first screenplays was, “Oh, what is the public going to love? What am I going to sell?” And it was just a disaster, it went nowhere. Finally, the script that I had optioned was one that I was just like, “Screw it, I’m gonna write a script for myself, I’m somehow going to get the money together, and I’m going to make this film myself.” And once I started writing to make myself happy, I think that’s when things gelled for me as a writer, and then, fortunately, it just fell into the right hands at the right time.

This was back in 1995, I wrote, again, my first feature screenplay that was really for myself. The screenplay never got made, but it got me in the door with an agent and a producer, and it got the ball rolling for me when I started thinking “Yes, I can do this for a living” so I think what you have to do is keep trying to write things that make you happy, things that you are proud of. And then, the unfortunate thing is that you need to keep shooting those bullets out there until one lands in the right hands.

Again, if it’s something you really want to do, and you keep trying and going for it, you gotta hope that your script lands in the person that is looking for that particular kind of thing at that moment. A lot of times you can have a really well written script, and it’s just gonna, you know, cross the desk of people who either A.) don’t have good taste, or B.) they’re just not looking for that thing at that moment. You know, you wrote a quiet little dramatic independent film, and they’re looking for an action comedy. But there is somebody out there looking for the thing you have written, so you gotta keep, you know, putting that arrow in the bow and keep shooting until it lands in the right spot. I think persistence is what it takes.

If I can give any bit of advice, keep trying, if it’s something you really want to do, keep going for it until you get your script in the eyes of the person who is looking for it.

VH: That’s great, I don’t think that was a bullshit answer at all.

TS: [laughs] I hate using the word “luck”. It sounds like bullshit, but luck is… as a concept for right moment, right time, or needing the planets to align, or whatever that other bullshit stuff is. [laughs] I don’t believe in the mystical things but you just gotta wait for the right things to align.

June 25, 2014
The Top 13 Films of 2013

Movie lovers, rejoice. Great storytelling is still alive, well, and kicking like an over-caffeinated donkey. 2013 seemed like it was going to be a year film buffs would remember almost from the start. By the time it was over, there was no doubt about it.

Before we start the list (arranged in descending order for the most dramatic umfh), I feel obligated to say that this is all only my opinion. Film is subjective, and what I found amazing, riveting and engaging, someone else might find boring, predictable and just plain stupid.

That said: one of the best things about movies is the discussions they open up. So, if you strongly disagree about some of my choices (or would just like to share your opinion, whatever it may be), I urge you to leave a reply below and start a dialogue.

Finally, I did not get a chance to see some of this year’s most acclaimed movies — namely 12 Years a Slave and Nebraska — so it’s very possible I missed out on some real gold.

With all that out of the way, let’s get on to my picks for 2013’s best films.

13. SPRING BREAKERS

This was one of the first movies I saw this year, and boy, did it make an impression. Unrelenting, hypnotizing and unforgettable. Like many great works of art, Spring Breakers takes a decisive moral stand. It presents the world of spring break for everything that it is – a nightmare flimsily disguised as a fantasy.

Also, say what you will about James Franco, but his performance here is one that absolutely glues your eyes to the screen and dares you to look away. It’s a peculiar role, and one many actors would be too afraid to tackle. But he does so with a fierceness that is incredible to watch.

12. THE WAY, WAY BACK

Movies about angsty teenagers are a dime a dozen, so it’s always a real treat when one comes along that manages to defy expectations. This certainly does that. Just as much about the adults as it is about the teens, The Way, Way Back is funny, heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting. It’s a feel-good movie the way feel-good movies should be done.

Special props to Sam Rockwell (who is always a joy to watch) and Steve Carell, who branches off and plays someone unlike anyone else he’s ever played — a genuine jerk.

11. MUD

The fact that a movie this good didn’t even crack the top 10 tells you a whole lot about film in 2013. Like writer/director Jeff Nichols’ previous work Take Shelter, this is a deliberately paced character study with a unique down-on-the-bayou feel.

As fantastic as Matthew McConaughey is (and boy, did he have a run of quality performances this year), the real star of the show is Tye Sheridan, the young actor who basically carries the movie on his shoulders. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

10. AMERICAN HUSTLE

Let me get this out of the way: This is a flawed film. HOWEVER — and this is a big however — if you gave me Blu-ray copies of every movie on this list, I’d probably pop in American Hustle more often than any of them.

It’s a blast from start to finish, a treat for both your eyes and ears, and one of the most enjoyable movie going experiences I’ve had all year (twice). In particular, I want to point out the opening scene which is simply Christian Bale (who in my opinion gives the performance of the year here) putting on a hair piece. It’s so simple, yet so effective in telling you everything you need to know about the character. Brilliant storytelling, and a whole heap of fun, even if the entire package is slightly uneven.

9. BLUE JASMINE

Man, Cate Blanchett really killed it here. We all know she’s going to win the Oscar, and damn right, if you ask me. She’s impossible to take your eyes off of. I’ve heard a lot of people say this is a return to form for Woody Allen. I can’t speak to that, as I’ve only seen half a handful of his movies, but for a movie that is essentially people in rooms talking for an hour and a half, this is a blast.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll thank your lucky stars your life isn’t as dysfunctional.

8. THE HUNGER GAMES: CATCHING FIRE

As great as so many movies were in 2013, one genre seemed to disappoint: the blockbuster. I’m sure many of you will disagree, but personally, I found practically every big-budget extravaganza disappointing. In particular, Thor: The Dark World, The Great Gatsby and especially Star Trek Into Darkness.

So by the time The Hunger Games: Catching Fire rolled around, I had lost a lot of faith in big-budget/special effect pictures. And then I watched it. Holy crap.

This is top-tier filmmaking from first frame to last. I won’t say much more about it, in case you haven’t seen it yet, except SEE IT. The first Hunger Games was a really solid teen action-drama, but this transcends the genre. It’s The Dark Knight of teen sci-fi/action movies. If you still can, definitely try to see it on the big screen.

7. KILL YOUR DARLINGS

This was yet another surprise. I saw this for one reason: Dane DeHaan. He is someone I consider to be amongst the finest actors working today, especially for his age. And while I certainly got a great DeHaan performance, I also got a whole lot more.

This is a dark, engrossing film that pulls no punches and makes no apologies. If you enjoy films that deal with the darker side of youth, and explore interesting subcultures, this is for you. Check it out. Really great editing in this, too.

6. DALLAS BUYERS CLUB

Now we’re really talking. This is one of the finest character arcs I’ve seen in a very long time. Most great actors give an award worthy performance once every few years – this year alone, Matthew McConaughey gave three (we’ll get to the third). He’s unbelievable in this, as is Jared Leto, who transforms himself in the role of a pre-op transgender woman.

Those two performance are worth the price of admission alone, but Dallas Buyers Club also has an incredibly tight, smart script that’s only made better by Jean-Marc Vallée’s confident direction.

5. HER

Romantic movies aren’t usually my thing. Sure, there’s plenty I do like, but for the most part, I find them to be very typical and not particularly interesting. Spike Jonez’s Her almost seems like a response to that complaint.

The film follows genre tropes more closely than you might expect, but it does something utterly fresh and unique with them. Perhaps what I enjoyed most was the subtle sci-fi setting, which while a major part of the film, never overbears the characters, as it does in so many other sci-fi movies.

Though a few moments might not land as well as intended, this film is really something special.

4. MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

Prequels are hard to get right. Actually, I take that back. Prequels are almost impossible to get right. After all, movies are all about change — characters going through arcs — and by definition, a prequel means we will be seeing characters that have yet to go through the change that drew us to them in the first place.

The result is usually sloppy, unnecessary and most of all not nearly as interesting as the previous movies. But somehow, Pixar pulled it off.

Monsters University has no right to be as good as it is. Yet, it is. It really, really is. It stands shoulder to shoulder with almost any of Pixar’s best, and like them, it is a spectacular achievement – made all the more so when you think about how much of a train wreck it could have been.

3. INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS

Like Monsters University, Inside Llewyn Davis is a movie that shouldn’t work. It has no real plot, its protagonist doesn’t really change at all by the end, and yet… it is never once dull, never once pointless, and never for a moment not compelling. Indeed, it is the exact opposite.

If Coen brothers’ humor is your thing, you’ll probably find this a melancholy, but hilarious movie. If it’s not, you’ll probably be depressed for days. Either way, you’ll likely find yourself sucked into the cold world of the early 60s New York folk scene.

And if you wanna talk about Oscar snubs, few things fit the bill better than Oscar Isaac not getting nominated for his performance here.

2. THE WOLF OF WALL STREET

Once again, Martin Scorsese shows all the kids how it’s done. The legendary filmmaker may be 71 years old, but here he has crafted a film more full of unrelenting life and energy than anything even remotely comparable by his much younger peers. This is Goodfellas for the 21st century.

The fast pace, almost constant voice over and subject matter certainly makes this a spiritual successor to both Goodfellas and Casino, but thanks to an entirely different cast, scriptwriter and cinematographer, it manages to stand on its own.

Like in those films, Scorsese takes a strong moral stand while also presenting these characters with absolute honesty. The Wolf of Wall Street is not for the faint of heart, but if you can handle it, this is a movie that will entertain you like crazy, then make you hate yourself for being so entertained in the first place. It’s riveting stuff that will stay with you long after the credit rolls.

PS: Though he’s only in the film for the first 20 or so minutes, Matthew McConaughey hits his third home run of the year here. Well done, Matthew. Now leave some work for the rest of Hollywood.

1. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES

I went to the theatre to see this movie early in 2013, knowing next to nothing about it. By the time the lights came up, I knew I had witnessed something really special. This isn’t just the best film of the year. This is the best film of the last several years. Walking out of the theatre, I knew there was hardly any chance I would see a movie this good by the time 2013 ended. While The Wolf of Wall Street made me doubt that, in the end, I had to give it up to Pines.

To me, this is nothing short of a modern American masterpiece. It features career defining performances from all the leads — especially Eva Mendes and Bradley Cooper – and is the quickest 2 hours and 20 minutes you’ll have at the movies this side of The Dark Knight.

It’s the kind of movie that won’t do the math for you. It forces you to think, to put the dots together in your head, and it refuses to succumb to your expectations. A lot of people will be turned off by some of the directions this movie goes in, but all that means is that this is a movie that takes real risks. And oh lord, is it refreshing to see that.

From the acting, to the gorgeous cinematography, haunting score, and razor sharp editing, The Place Beyond the Pines is indeed a cinematic masterpiece.

Also, although this is predominately an actor’s movie, I don’t consider it an overstatement to say it features the finest chase scene I have ever seen.

If you haven’t checked this movie out yet… do it.

The chances we’ll get a year so full to the brim with great movies is rare, but let’s just be grateful we got this one, eh?

What were some of your favorites from 2013?

January 23, 2014
Rewriting: If You’re Going Through Hell, Keep Going

Rewriting is a sobering experience. All too quickly that story you’ve been convinced is better than anything Hollywood’s churned out in the last twelve years isn’t so great anymore. Suddenly the holes seem a lot more apparent. The little sections you knew needed to be rethought grow much larger. You realize you’ve got a lot of work left to do. You realize it’s time to rewrite.

To be clear, I’m not talking about revising here. Revising is fun. When you get to that stage, you already know that the story works. The structure is tight, the character arcs solid. Revising is tightening things up, getting them to be the best they can be. That last bit of polish before your baby is ready to be seen by the world.

Unlike revising, rewriting is scary because there’s always that fear—as small and as in the back of your mind as it may be—that the story might completely collapse. I’m currently in the rewriting process, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to share a few of the things that help me when the going gets tough.

As it often does.

Treat your writing like it’s your worst enemy’s.

This is basically another way of saying “be honest”. If you read my post on the writing of Breaking Bad, you’ll recognize that we’re treading familiar ground here. Take a step back. If you can stomach it, a week or two away from your story is often extremely helpful. It helps clear the mind, obviously, and if you like bouncing back from projects, I recommend starting to work on something else.

Then, when you’re ready, come back to your story and prepare to be brutal. When I say treat it like it’s your worst enemy’s I mean go into it expecting to hate it. Call yourself out on everything. The small stuff, like dialogue that’s too on the nose or blatant exposition. And the big stuff, like a protagonist that’s rarely proactive, or a weak (and often criminally short) third act.

This is the stuff that’ll make or break your film, so be honest about whether or not it works.

Find people you respect and ask them to critique your work.

I can’t stress this enough. As honest as we can be about our own writing, ultimately, we are way too close to it. Our stories live and breathe in our heads, and they’re much more expansive than what an audience will ever see. Often we might take elements in them for granted and leave out important information, or worse, not realize what our movie is really about.

To avoid this, it’s vital for any serious writer to find someone they can count on to provide honest feedback. Preferably, multiple people with different qualifications. A fellow writer who understands the art of structure and pacing can be an invaluable resource; but an average-Joe who doesn’t know anything about movies other than that they like them will often catch things a pro might miss.

If you can, get both perspectives. I’d say in general, avoid best friends or family members unless you know they’re not going to pull any punches. Also, if your critic is a writer, it’s only natural that you offer to give them feedback on their work as well—plus, this will most certainly benefit your own writing as well.

Know that it takes time, but it will be worth it when it’s done.

This might be the most important bit. Rewriting can be a long and painful process. First off, if you’ve even finished that first draft, give yourself a well deserved pat on the back. You’ve gotten farther than a lot of aspiring writers ever do.

Just know that it’s not over.

You’ll have to throw away some of your favorite scenes and replace them with brand new ones. You’ll probably delete entire characters you thought were vital to the plot. And almost every small change you make will ripple through the story in some way (or at least it should), and you’ll have to play clean up and make sure everything gels together. It’s a lot of work. But when you’ve got a second draft sitting in front of you, I guarantee you’ll very plainly see the difference in quality from the first. All the hard work will finally seem worth it. Then, it’s time to go through the process again.

When it gets hard, remind yourself that most movies go through four, five, or even more drafts. A story that always inspires me comes from Rian Johnson, writer/director of the film Looper. While working on the script, Johnson came upon the realization that the second half wasn’t working. So he threw it out, and wrote an entirely new one.

That’s the kind of honesty and (this one’s important, folks) willingness to do the work it takes to be a professional writer.

Finally, to end on an amusing anecdote. For the life of me, I can’t remember where I came across it, so apologies to whoever thought it up. It puts a smile on my face and fills me with just that bit of inspiration required to keep going. Hope it hits you likewise.

In the first draft, the characters are strangers. In the second draft, they are friends. In the third draft, they are family.

December 11, 2013
Cambridge Naturals: Local Eco Advise and Health Products

Recently, we came across Cambridge Naturals in the Porter Square Shopping Center. Their mission, store, and service caught our eye and we thought we would share some of their story.

We sat down with one of the owners, Michael Kanter, who discussed Cambridge Naturals’ role in the community.

What is Cambridge Naturals’ mission?

“While we are not a pharmacy,” answered Kanter, “our mission is to help people find solutions for their health issues. But our mission goes well beyond that. It includes trying to build a better society, and trying to promote locally owned independent businesses—to help be part of building a strong local economy.”

Michael emphasized, “It’s about the relationships, not the initial sale. We want to provide the community with solutions.” In order to supply those solutions, Michael says that they spend a lot of time carefully researching their products, so that their customers get exactly what they need and so the community can thrive from it as well. “We research the brands really carefully both in natural medicines and supplements and in body care. We try and find products that are organic and fair trade. We try and find products that are made locally, or include some local ingredients.”

Curious about the growth of the company, we asked Michael what the future was for Cambridge Naturals.

“Our goal is to continue to thrive as a locally owned and independent business in Cambridge. We’ve almost tripled our business since we moved to our current location six and a half years ago. What we have in the works is to keep seeking out more products that are not available elsewhere and yet can help people enhance their lives.”

So, here’s GLM’s take: If you are interested in natural health and want to support the Cambridge community, Cambridge Naturals is a solid recommendation. They supply everything from vitamins and herbs to groceries, books, body care, and even yoga and meditation items, many of which are made or grown locally. If you are in the area, stop in for a visit with the Cambridge Naturals team.

Cambridge Naturals can be found at 23 White St, Cambridge, MA 02140, calling (617) 492-4452, or at www.cambridgenaturals.com

March 22, 2013
Cambridge Naturals: Local Eco Advice and Health Products

Recently, we came across Cambridge Naturals in the Porter Square Shopping Center. Their mission, store, and service caught our eye and we thought we would share some of their story.

We sat down with one of the owners, Michael Kanter, who discussed Cambridge Naturals’ role in the community.

What is Cambridge Naturals’ mission?

“While we are not a pharmacy,” answered Kanter, “our mission is to help people find solutions for their health issues. But our mission goes well beyond that. It includes trying to build a better society, and trying to promote locally owned independent businesses—to help be part of building a strong local economy.”

Michael emphasized, “It’s about the relationships, not the initial sale. We want to provide the community with solutions.” In order to supply those solutions, Michael says that they spend a lot of time carefully researching their products, so that their customers get exactly what they need and so the community can thrive from it as well. “We research the brands really carefully both in natural medicines and supplements and in body care. We try and find products that are organic and fair trade. We try and find products that are made locally, or include some local ingredients.”

Curious about the growth of the company, we asked Michael what the future was for Cambridge Naturals.

“Our goal is to continue to thrive as a locally owned and independent business in Cambridge. We’ve almost tripled our business since we moved to our current location six and a half years ago. What we have in the works is to keep seeking out more products that are not available elsewhere and yet can help people enhance their lives.”

So, here’s GLM’s take: If you are interested in natural health and want to support the Cambridge community, Cambridge Naturals is a solid recommendation. They supply everything from vitamins and herbs to groceries, books, body care, and even yoga and meditation items, many of which are made or grown locally. If you are in the area, stop in for a visit with the Cambridge Naturals team.

Cambridge Naturals can be found at 23 White St, Cambridge, MA 02140, calling (617) 492-4452, or at www.cambridgenaturals.com

March 22, 2013