This Savage Art

Be Bold

William Speruzzi — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:09:56 +0000

After yesterday’s screenings of Badlands and The New World at the Museum of the Moving Image I got into a frenzied conversation about film that usually follows these things. An acquaintance asked me why did I think the films of 70′s Hollywood were more adventurous and my response was “Because everyone was coked up.” As flippant as that response was there is some truth at its core. What I was trying to say was everyone was looser with their ambitions, creative and otherwise. Wild ideas were explored, fostered and yes, they did make a profit, until they didn’t. With the unveiling of Terrence Malick’s new film The Tree of Life at Cannes today there is (if there isn’t a rumor, I’m starting one now) an undercurrent of hope that this film might, just might begin a trend of filmmaking in this country that’s not about reboots or comic book adaptations. It might just be the cinephile’s version of the blockbuster. Hyperbole aside, Malick is an adventurous filmmaker, maybe one of the purest and boldest working filmmakers in America now so let’s use him as inspiration.

Be bold. Some of the best advice I’ve gotten from a fellow screenwriter.

As I enter the Television Writing Intensive next Monday and stay immersed for six weeks I’ll keep these words in mind. I’ll be concentrating on a one-hour drama pilot that by the end of the course will be a fully realized outline. Does it matter that I don’t know what I’m going to do with a one-hour pilot when I’m done with it? No. This one’s about the getting there. The journey. A boost to the system.

So yes, be bold. Write those scenes. Bring something new to the table. Take a chance.

Desperate times, ya dig?

Television Writing Intensive At Columbia

William Speruzzi — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 14:40:02 +0000

You might have noticed a Short Ends post on the sidebar a while back announcing the newly offered Television Writing Intensive at Columbia University this summer. Well, I took the plunge and enrolled. It was kind of impulsive but not a decision I will soon regret. It wasn’t part of my original plan of developing a screenplay through a variety of online offerings but I’ve come to realize at this point that most endeavors get diverted and that’s not always a bad thing. Sometimes you just need to go with it.

No one can deny that television has come a long way. The writing is savvier, wittier and more ambitious. In a lot of ways it has surpassed current popular film. Storylines can be expanded. Character depths can be explored over multiple seasons. I never had a desire to write for television but that was before The Sopranos came along. It single handedly leveled the television landscape by utilizing jumpy story throughlines and dark, dark humor to unravel its current interpretation of the American Family (I have to add that Twin Peaks is the modern blueprint for this current wave of television, David Chase admired it greatly.) It was followed by other groundbreaking shows like The Wire, Deadwood and my current on-hiatus favorite, Mad Men. Television is…respectable.

The course is six weeks of two six hour days and one three hour day for guest lecturers. The instructor, Frank Pugliese, is one of the main reasons I took the course. Playwright, screenwriter, director, WGA East member and award winner, he will steer the boat. It’s not an intensive for nothin’. Here’s the course info.

It starts May 23rd and at some point when I come up for air I’ll share.

The Creative’s Life

William Speruzzi — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:28:31 +0000

As I get ready to celebrate my son turning three only to be followed by the preparation for another move to another apartment I’m trying to stay focused on filmmaking. I can’t physically make a film now or really wrap my mind around writing anything but I can still be exposed to the teachings of others. So instead of abandoning everything I decided to read up. I started a book that I’ve had for a while but haven’t cracked open yet and I’m glad I recently did. The book is On Film-making: An Introduction to the Craft of the Director and it’s a benefit to the writer-director. It validates a belief that I’ve had in my head for a long time now and that is you cannot effectively give out advice about something if you’ve never actually executed it. Theories that state that some people make better teachers are valid but this happens to be a case that covers its bases. The director Alexander Mackendrick not only directed Sweet Smell of Success, a film that encapsulates what I think a film should be, he also was the founding dean of the Cal Arts film school where he taught for 24 years. I’m going to get into the details of book in later post but if you want to get answers for the “unanswerable questions” of directing and story this book is a goldmine.

I also read a post on time management that every creative should read. Time is everything to me now and I want to make the most out of it. Accounting for your work hours and seeing how much time your wasting on Facebook is a good start. I will be implementing some of these methods once I get settled in and have a desk again. Read this post.

Another post I came across is definitely worth a read too. The title says it all, How To Steal Like An Artist (And 9 Other Things No One Told Me.) It’s by a guy named Austin who lives in, eh, Austin. It’s destiny.

2011 Noir Festival

William Speruzzi — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:55:46 +0000

The New School is presenting a unique schedule of events celebrating the dark genre.

A minimal wordpress theme by Jared Erickson

The Thomas Beale Cipher

William Speruzzi — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:23:30 +0000

An interesting case study of how a filmmaker launched his short online vs the traditional film festival route.