One of my favorite actors is Edward G. Robinson, and this is a particularly fun Mystery Guest segment on "What's My Line? He's having a joyful time with his accent, and not just answering with a simple "Yep" or "Nope" like most guests, but engages the panelists with witty chatting. The additional treat is when one of the panelists has a revelation on who the guest is.
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Here's another in our series of adverts for the British mobile company, Orange, that played in movie theaters in England. This one features Steven Seagal pitching a romantic company to the mythical Orange Film Board, headed by the unimpressed Mr. Dresden. This particular video I've embedded may start with an ad (what irony...), but it has better visual and -- important when dealing with Steven Seagal -- audio quality. You can click off the ad after just a few seconds. When Dana Stevens agreed to do an Email Interview, she'd just written her first big, breakout hit. Previously, she'd been an actress and had regularly gotten parts, but all in small, supporting roles. She started to move in a different direction and sold her first screenplay, the thriller, "Blink." A few years passed before she wrote the screenplay for the romantic fantasy, "City of Angels." Her writing career has kept going upwards since. In rereading what she had to say back near the start, I found it particularly amusing and appropriate that one of her influences in writing was the J.R.R. Tolkien novel, "The Hobbit." By way of reminder to readers new to this, the Email Interview were originally written for the Writers Guild of America. I sent a series of questions -- usually the same, core ones -- to each writer, and they did the harder work of answering them. E-mail Interview With Dana Stevens Edited by Robert J. Elisberg At the time screenwriter Dana Stevens did her Email Interview, her writing career had just started to blossom. She had first written the thriller, “Blink,” and then a few years later wrote her breakout hit, “City of Angels.” Subsequent to the interview, she has written “For the Love of the Game,” “Life or Something Like It,” and last year’s “Safe Haven”. She also created the TV series, “What About Brian?” and currently has filming the upcoming CBS crime drama series, “Reckless.” >> Were there any movies, TV shows or books that first got you interested in writing?
DS: I was very influenced as a kid by “The Way We Were.” It was the first “grown-up” movie I saw, and after seeing it on television recently, I have come to realize that I am writing "The Way We Were" over and over again. It has influenced my writing style right down to the rythms of the scenes. That movie is really underrated and terrific, despite Barbra Streisand’s over the top performance. It’s a movie where so much is said with so few words. That’s what I try to do; it’s a game, how much can I convey with the fewest amount of words? I think screenwriters are like poets in this way. Another influential film was “Annie Hall,” because it was so theatrical, it broke rules, and it was personal. Books? I was very influenced by fantasy books like C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia” and “The Hobbit.” I started out as a kid trying to write my own fantastical story. Later it was “Franny and Zooey” by Salinger. Yeah right, me and every other college girl. A guy I dated a few times, a Cuban named Carlos gave me that one and it really changed my writing style. >> When you write, how do you generally work? Is there a specific time you prefer to write? DS: I would like to be like a writer I admire, Nick Pileggi, who works from nine to five and takes lunch and coffee breaks and just does his work, like a normal person, but I have a hard time settling down. I get very distracted. I have recently rented an office and am attempting regular hours from nine to two. I used to love to write late at night, but that was when I was single. Writing a script is a very workman-like process for me; it doesn’t all come in a flood. Each day I work and slowly build up the connective tissue, slogging my way toward the end. After four hours my brain really gets tired and I start to hate everything I’m writing. So I stop. The next day I can look at it again and really see whether it’s good or not. I spend weeks prior outlining and thinking. At a certain point I do feel “ready” to jump in, even if the outline isn’t exactly complete. My one ritual is that I make a tape, a compilation of music I feel evokes the tone and emotions I’m trying to convey. And I listen to that tape until it wears out, all through the writing of a project. Sometimes I make a second one. The music really gets my head in the right place to imagine the film. >>> What sort of characters and stories interest you? DS: Well, I love a love story. I don’t think I would be a writer if I couldn’t have a romance in the plot. I’m not an action writer or a comedy writer. I tend to like to drive my plots with psychological motivations, with relationships, as opposed to outside forces. I like melancholy characters who are searching for something. I like a good cry. I am very inspired by people I see in the street or on the beach or whatever. I see certain little tableaus or hear snippets of conversations and I imagine the movie of their life. I also like research, real stories and places help me come up with ideas. I sometimes see a movie someone else has written that is totally unlike anything I would be attracted to or would be able to write, and I love that too. >>> How do you work through parts of a script where you hit a roadblock in the story? DS: What a horrible horrible feeling, those roadblocks. I had great advice from a friend recently who told me to take a break and just stop, even for days. I tend to think I have to sit there all day till my eyes bleed to solve it. But distance really does help. I also think it helps to just stop, go out for coffee, and think to yourself, “What would I do if I were this character? In this situation?” Try to make it really real. I also sometimes go back. Sometimes the actual problem is not where you are stuck at, but an earlier turn that was wrong and led you in the wrong direction. It’s good to go back and ask yourself, what if I change my mind, what if the character does this? How far would that get me? I think the secret of plot is a very clear chain of cause and effect. This happens. And because that happens, the next thing happens, and because that happens, the next thing happens and so on. It can be a psychological or actual events, but this is the key. If you’re stuck, it’s probably because there connections aren’t logical. Someone in the story did something that didn’t follow logically from the last thing. >>> What is your best experience as a writer. DS: “City of Angels.” I was very included in the process by the director and the actors. I loved the crew and being on the set, I learned a great deal about film-making, I made mistakes, I saw what worked in my writing and what didn’t. >>> Was there any particular writer who acted as a sort of mentor to you? DS: Ed Solomon. He was my boyfriend off and on all during my 20’s. He was a successful writer, but he encouraged me greatly when I made my early attempts. To this day he is my touchstone, my toughest critic, but also the smartest. He makes you go back and really think. Be clear. And be true to the vision you are trying to realize. 7) Why do you write? DS: Here’s my touchy feely answer. I write because I like to feel. I love drama, all those intense, swept away feelings that movies can give you and have given me my whole life. I love to create those intense moments, to live in the fantasy world of the movie, and hopefully to see it realized on screen. I also write because I find it comforting to be able to take my time, in my little room, getting everything just right. Much better than the extemporaneous communication we have to face out there in the real world. It's been a quiet week. But a lot of tales, culminating in one of the most different monologues the show has had, where Garrison Keillor brings in some other voices to help when when he reminisces about not having a TV when growing up but getting to watch one on Sunday night.
A month ago, I mentioned to my tech guru how my Huffington Post homepage and Politics page were freezing in Firefox. He didn't have a clue what was causing the issue, though we suspected it was something in the newest Firefox update, due to all the coding and embedded media the Huffington Post seems to have on its homepage. The problem unfortunately has been getting even worse, because all of Firefox would then freeze when Huffington did. It was getting to the point of unusable, so I started launching Internet Explorer and using that for reading the Huffington Post. All the while waiting for Firefox to release an update and hope that fixes the issue. My assumption, too, was that I wasn't alone with this.
By semi-chance, yesterday I discovered the actual cause when doing a search about something else. And it's not a problem with Firefox at all. It’s the Avast Online Security add-on, an extension that the excellent (and free) Avast anti-virus software integrates with browsers. What happened is that I did an upgrade of Avast a couple nights ago, and when I subsequently launched Internet Explorer, it asked if I wanted to install Online Security. Not knowing exactly what this was, I did a web search. As a result of that search, just trying to find out what it is, I happened to see a couple of people complaining about certain websites freezing for them after using the add-on, and then things being okay after disabling it. The metaphysical lightbulb going on over my my head, I tried that – and bingo! Not only is the Huffington Post running without freezing now, but it feels like all of Firefox is running more responsibly now. Whether that later is the case or just an optical illusion, who knows, but that’s the sense I get. (Oddly, I also sense that Microsoft Outlook is even running smoother, since that’s been a bit slow lately, like refreshing itself when changing modes, but a) that may not be the case, and b) my perception might be part of that optical illusion.) I don’t know if this glitch impacts other browsers (there seemed to be some complaints about Chrome), but I found that Online Security had also been added on in a previous install, so I got rid of that, too. Anyway, I pass this along in case anyone else has had this problem. Even if you haven't had any freezing, your browsers might still be more sluggish if Avast Online Security has been added. Or maybe it isn't. (All systems have different installations which can cause unique conflicts -- and be problem-free.) But it''s easy to disable the extension, and then click the same button to re-enable it you want to All browsers handle this similarly, though slightly differently. Just do a search for Add-ons or Extensions. Well, I was able to make the drive and sit through The Wolf of Wall Street" without issue. And that's after discovering that the movie is even longer than I'd been told, three hours.
It's very good, but too long for my taste, and too self-indulgent. Yes, I know that's the point of the film, but about two and a quarter hours in I got tired of hearing Leonard DiCaprio's voice. Also, unlike many reviews try to suggest, no, I didn't get sucked into loving the main character and being complicit in his extravagance. I was fascinated by how the story played out, but almost from the moment he came on screen, I wanted him to get his comeuppance, and when Kyle Chandler appears as an F.B.I. agent, he became my favorite character to root for. The writing is smart, the direction vibrant, and most of the acting terrific. I'll single out one, even thought its a very tiny role, because I loved the actor and didn't learn who it was until afterwards. It's the character who runs the cheesy boilerroom that sells penny-stocks to saps -- and the actor (who was wonderful) wasn't played by an actor at all, but rather director Spike Jonze. It was also nice to see Jean Dujardin, who won the Oscar for The Artist, and he was wonderful |
AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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