Fast Company has an excerpt from Creativity, Inc., the book by Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull (with Amy Wallace), which goes inside the creative process at the studio. Catmull attributes much of their creative success to their internal process for continually refining stories. It includes meetings with the Braintrust, a group of executives, directors and other […]
film
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Writing Genius of Harold Ramis
Of all of his collaborations with Bill Murray, Groundhog Day was his masterpiece.
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Why Hollywood Will Never Look the Same Again on Film
After Michael Mann set out to direct Collateral, the story’s setting moved from New York to Los Angeles. This decision was in part motivated by the unique visual presence of the city — especially the way it looked at night. Mann shot a majority of the film in HD (this was 2004), feeling the format […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Philip Seymour Hoffman: 1967-2014
“In my mid–20s, an actor told me, ‘Acting ain’t no puzzle,’ ” Hoffman said, after returning to his seat. “I thought: ‘Ain’t no puzzle?!?’ You must be bad!” He laughed. “You must be really bad, because it is a puzzle. Creating anything is hard. It’s a cliché thing to say, but every time you start […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
Philip Seymour Hoffman: 1967-2014
“In my mid–20s, an actor told me, ‘Acting ain’t no puzzle,’ ” Hoffman said, after returning to his seat. “I thought: ‘Ain’t no puzzle?!?’ You must be bad!” He laughed. “You must be really bad, because it is a puzzle. Creating anything is hard. It’s a cliché thing to say, but every time you start […]
Posted inPodcasts, Quotes
What Goes On in Joaquin Phoenix's Head When He's Shooting a Movie
When I first started the film [“The Master”] — when I first read the script — there was a great deal of flashbacks where we actually saw all these injuries and these were things we were going to shoot; but as the film progressed we didn’t end up shooting those things so I’d kind of […]
Posted inNonfiction
Longreads Best of 2013: Best Life Lessons from Lindsay Lohan in a Feature Story
Here Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie Stephen Rodrick | The New York Times Magazine | January 2013 | 31 minutes (7,752 words) Jason Fagone (@jfagone) is the author of Ingenious, a book about modern-day inventors; his stories this year appeared in Wired, Philadelphia, Grantland, Men’s Journal, and NewYorker.com. Steve […]
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Watching Movies in Iran
“Our conversation turns to the movie Shrek. Nahal loves Shrek so much that she’s seen the first installment of the DreamWorks trilogy ‘at least thirty-six or thirty-seven times.’ Her obsession is, apparently, shared by many Iranians. The image of Shrek appears everywhere throughout Tehran: painted on the walls of DVD and electronics shops, featured in […]
Posted inNonfiction, Quotes
The Truth About Aliens, According to Ronald Reagan
“It was in the White House screening room and Reagan got up to thank me for bringing the film to show the President, the First Lady and all of their guests, which included Sandra Day O’Connor in her first week of as a Justice of the Supreme Court, and it included some astronauts… I think […]
Posted inArts & Culture, Quotes
David Mamet and the Art of the Closer
“When Greg Mosher directed Glengarry we had a lot of salesmen come in to talk to the cast, guys who were making five million dollars a year selling airplanes or industrial equipment. These people were super closers. There’s a whole substratum of people who are the closer, like the Alec Baldwin character in the movie […]