"People make a mistake who think that my art has come easily to me. Nobody has devoted so much time and thought to composition as I. There is not a famous master whose music I have not studied over and over." -- MozartSometimes I forget just how lucky I have been on my journey of learning my craft. I have met some of the smartest and most generous people one would ever want to meet.They were
Friday, June 11, 2010
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Life: The Other Kind of Research
Posted on 12:25 PM by christofer D
“I'm trying to take culture and put it onstage, demonstrate it is capable of sustaining you. There is no idea that can't be contained by life: Asian life, European life, certainly black life. My plays are about love, honor, duty, betrayal—things humans have written about since the beginning of time.”—August Wilson
August Wilson was fond of saying that he didn’t do research
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Too much of a good thing: The pitfalls of research
Posted on 12:31 AM by christofer D
"If your work shows, you're in trouble." --Chuck Jones
I was once writing a script on a particular topic, and as part of my research I was reading the "For Dummies"book on this subject. Someone saw me reading this book and scoffed. I took that to mean that I should have been reading a more "serious" book on the subject. Why? To avoid embarrassment? I wasn't trying to impress anyone--I was
I was once writing a script on a particular topic, and as part of my research I was reading the "For Dummies"book on this subject. Someone saw me reading this book and scoffed. I took that to mean that I should have been reading a more "serious" book on the subject. Why? To avoid embarrassment? I wasn't trying to impress anyone--I was
Friday, April 16, 2010
This Is Not a Pipe: The Value of Research
Posted on 5:37 PM by christofer D
Before I start I want to thank all of you who have promoted my new book on your blogs. And also thank you all very much who have bought the book. I am grateful that you think I may have something worthwhile to say to you. The response has been great. It just got a really great review on MicroFilmmaker.And now back to our regularly scheduled program…A playwright once told me that I should write
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Of course you could just wait for the movie...
Posted on 5:24 PM by christofer D
Thanks, everyone, for visiting this blog. I’m still getting used to the idea that people care what I have to say. Some people hate what I say while others find it useful, but it’s just a strange feeling to have people care one way or the other. Sometimes the only way that I can muster up the courage to write this blog is to pretend to myself that no one reads it. I didn’t even want to start this
Friday, February 19, 2010
How to be Original
Posted on 7:05 PM by christofer D
"All my best thoughts were stolen by the ancients." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having
Monday, November 16, 2009
The Rabbit Doesn't Always Win
Posted on 7:00 PM by christofer D
Last weekend I guest lectured for some friends who co-teach a screenwriting class and something came up that I see happen a lot. As I taught/spoke, I could see people were working very hard to “get it.” They felt like they had to understand what I was talking about right then and there.One of the things that teaching has done for me is make me a better student, because I see where others get
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