...If it's a robot, that means I missed another post! Tomorrow, there will be a real post-- This I swear!
Hours Worked / Pages Written
Occasional Features (Each is in Backwards Order)
- The Ultimate Story Checklist
- Storyteller's Rulebook
- Underrated Movies (and TV)
- The Hero Project
- How To Generate A Story Idea
- How To Evaluate A Story Idea
- How To Create A Character
- How To Structure A Movie
- How To Build A Scene
- How (Not) To Alienate An Audience
- How To Write A Screenplay
- How To Re-Write
- How To Meet With A Producer
- How To Create A TV Show
- The Great Guru Showdown
- Problem, Opportunity, Conflict
- The 15 Minutes Project
- Hero Personality Profiles
- Books Vs. Movies
- The Story Project
- Beyond Good Vs. Sucky
- The Meddler
- What Should've Won
- Special Guest Picks
- What's the Matter With Hollywood?
- Film School Confidential
Underrated Movies
- 49th Parallel
- 5000 Fingers of Dr. T, The
- Act of Violence
- Alice's Restaurant
- Antz
- Apartment Zero
- Artists and Models
- Atomic Cafe, The
- Ball of Fire
- Ballad of Cable Hogue, The
- Barcelona
- Be Kind Rewind
- Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
- Below
- Big Easy, The
- Black Narcissus
- Blast of Silence
- Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice
- Bright Young Things
- Brother From Another Planet
- Caught
- Cedar Rapids
- Charley Varrick
- Clockwatchers
- Closer
- Court Jester, The
- Dark Days
- Dead Man
- Defending Your Life
- Destry Rides Again
- Diva
- Doubt
- Downhill Racer
- Easy Living
- Electra Glide in Blue
- Encounters at the End of the World
- Every Little Step
- Falcon and the Snowman, The
- Fallen Idol, The
- Fireman's Ball, The
- For a Few Dollars More
- Fort Apache
- Frenzy
- Funny Bones
- Funny Ha Ha
- Girl Can't Help It, The
- Gold Diggers of 1933
- Great McGinty, The
- Hamlet 2
- Happy Go Lucky
- Hero
- High and Low
- Holiday
- Hopscotch
- Human Desire
- Il Posto
- In the Loop
- Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
- It's Always Fair Weather
- Jump Tomorrow
- Junebug
- Kansas City
- Killer of Sheep
- Killer's Kiss
- Killing, The
- Kind Hearts and Coronets
- King of Kong
- Kiss Me, Stupid
- Kontroll
- La Ronde
- Landlord, The
- Letters From Iwo Jima
- Lineup, The
- Little Fugitive, The
- Little Murders
- Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner, The
- Lost in America
- Love and Death on Long Island
- Love Me Tonight
- Lover Come Back
- Man in the White Suit, The
- Manhattan Murder Mystery
- Metroland
- Metropolitan
- Miami Blues
- Mickey One
- Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, A
- Mirage
- Monkey Business
- Monsieur Hire
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith (1941)
- Murder By Contract
- Murder of Fred Hampton, The
- My Favorite Wife
- Never Cry Wolf
- Next Stop, Greenwich Village
- Nobody's Fool
- Nothing But a Man
- One False Move
- One Two Three
- Peeping Tom
- Prick Up Your Ears
- Pulp
- Queen Christina
- Real Life
- Red Eye
- Red House, The
- Reprise
- Ride Lonesome
- Ronin
- Saboteur
- Safety Last
- Salesman
- Salvador
- Scarlet Street
- Secret Lives of Dentists, The
- Shattered
- Shoot to Kill
- Simple Men
- Slums of Beverly Hills
- Small Back Room, The
- Smile
- Sniper, The
- Son of Paleface
- Stage Door
- Summer of Sam
- Tension
- The Informant!
- Thin Blue Line, The
- To Live and Die in L.A.
- Trading Places
- Two For the Road
- Unfaithfully Yours
- Vera Cruz
- Victim
- Walkabout
- Waterland
- Wendy and Lucy
- Went the Day Well?
- Where The Sidewalk Ends
- White Sheik, The
- Who's That Knocking At My Door?
Storyteller's Rulebook
- Tell Stories, Show Character
- A Movie Is About A Person's Problem
- Audiences Don't Want To Be Hurt
- Beware Of Over-Motivation
- Over-Motivation: The Proof
- Talent CAN Be Taught
- Movies Are Change, TV Is Fate
- The Villain's Plan Comes First
- Structure Was Discovered
- Unhappy Endings Can't Be Easy
- Sympathetic Doesn't Mean Likable
- Depth is Found in Holes
- Throw Away The Map
- Take Away The Safe Spaces
- Defying Expectation is Easy
- They Call It Breaking In For A Reason
- A Cell Phone Can't Solve the Problem
- It's Not Just Luck and Skill
- Twists Should Explain Everything
- Buy The Canvas, Call The Shots
- The Committee May Not Last
- Be An Armchair Journalist
- Listening To Real Cops and Crooks
- Throw Everything Into Relief
- A Screenwriter's Code of Ethics
- Don't Count Liabilities As Assets
- First You Have To Make A Thriller
- Let It All Hang Out
- Split One Person In Two
- Know What They Do All Day
- Be A Good God
- Directors Need To Get Bored
- Imagine You're On An Airplane
- Be Unhateable
- It Comes Right Out
- Movie Heroes Can't Keep Their Cool
- Thrillers are Nutty...
- ...But Creature Features Make Sense
- Why Do Hamlet and Batman Delay?
- Coping With Remake Fever
- Prospectors and Alchemists
- Objects Need Affection Too
- Genre Is How It Feels
- People Only Want What They Want
- Do As They Did, Not As They Say
- Leave a Question Unanswered
- Kitchens are Better Than Bedrooms
- Who's Chasing Who?
- The Rule of Evidence, Part 1
- The Rule of Evidence, Part 2
- Embrace Coitus Interruptus
- The First Rule of Write Club
- Love Your Naysayer
- Pure Isn't Always Better
- You Have To Make It Wrong
- What's Your Problem?
- Do More Than One Thing
- How to Succeed at Karaoke
- Angry Minds Don't Think Alike
- The Good Advice Problem...
- ...And the Bad Advice Solution
- From Zero to Caring
- Upsetting News Is the Best News
- Catholics Beat Protestants Anyday
- And Sweet Potato Beats Sweetheart
- Find Unique-But-Universal Details
- Let Them Hang Themselves
- Know The Way The World Works
- The Mastermind Exception
- Don't Laugh Away The Danger
- Be Incomprehensible
- Don't Flip That Metaphor
- Two Hour Movie = One Hour Plot
- You Have To Be Dense To Be Lean
- Screw-Ups Don't Screw Up All Day
- The Dark Side of Bio-Pics
- Tone is a Tool
- Lovers Can't Just Be Lovers
- Opposition Creates Meaning
- Redemption Requires Actual Guilt
- Don't Start From Scratch
- Embrace Teleportation
- Mentors are Overrated
- Disabilities Aren't Personality Flaws
- Confront the Great Hypocricy
- Training Sequences Are Death
- Sometimes Winning Isn't Enough
- Everybody's Success Helps Everybody
- Write the Emotions You Know
- Huge Problems Need Huge Motivation
- Outlandish Plots, Realistic Emotions
- Sturgeon, Zeno, and Easy Street
- Don't Misuse the Power of Humilation
- Let Your Characters Object
- We'll Care if the Hero Cares
- You Can't Always Want What You Get
- Play By The Rules
- Make a Rule to Break a Rule
- Money Is Too Generic
- Literature Vs. Entertainment
- Speak Their Language And Your Own
- Polarize Your Protagonists...
- ...But Don't Play Favorites
- To Get the Latest Rules, Click Here
How To Create a Compelling Character
- Introduction
- Characterize Them
- Contrast That With Their Inner Life
- Create A Metaphor Family
- Add A Default Personality Trait
- Give Them A Universal Fear
- And a Painful Dilemma
- Let Them Lay Down The Law
- Choose a False Goal and a True Goal
- And Two Statements of Philosophy
- Make Them Resourceful
- Set Their Deadline
- Conclusion
The Hero Project
- Are All Heroes On The Same Journey?
- Are Hero Stories Empowering?
- Can Heroes Really Start At Zero?
- Do Heroes Need Special Skills?
- So What Is A Hero Anyway?
- Nine Types of Heroes
- Two Sub-Categories
- Skills Are Where You Find Them
- Freud and Jung and Tony and Don
- You Have To Not Want To Change
- But What About Hitchcock?
- Hitchcock's Ill-Equipped Heroes
- In the Shadowlands
- So Why Categorize?
- Hit the Ground Running Uphill
- Now Meet the Villains
- Beware of Default Mode
- The Character Creation Checklist
- The Ultimate Question
- Weakness Strikes Back
- Cheers Vs. Fears
- The Wrong Person To Pick On
- Why Does the Villain Fail?
- He Knew You Were Going To Do That
- Goofus and Gallant
- Been Up So Long It Looks Like Down
- Inconvenient Revelations
- The Monster At The End Of This Book
- Is Every Hero A Luke Or Han?
- A Unified Structure
Underrated TV
- Better Off Ted
- Black Books
- Century of the Self, The
- Coupling (UK)
- Danger Man, aka Secret Agent
- Dragnet, the b&w years
- Good Neighbors
- Hitchcock does "Hitchcock"
- Kingdom, The
- Life On Mars (UK)
- Lone Star
- Lou Grant
- Lucky Louie
- Naked City
- Police Squad!
- Sandbaggers, The
- Slings and Arrows
- That Mitchell and Webb Look
- Tick, The (animated)
Cheesy Movies
Blog Archive
Links
- More info about all these movies at the Internet Movie Database
- Underseen movies reviewed at Movie With Me
- Buy cheap dvds and chat about movies at Movie Fanfare
- Aggregated movie reviews at Rotten Tomatoes
- Funny screenwriting vet Ken Levine
- Lots of great screenwriting posts every day at Go Into The Story
- Reviews and downloads of hot new scripts at Scriptshadow
- A funny film podcast by some friends of the blog, The Flophouse
- Opinionated movie news at Hollywood Elsewhere
- Smart comics guys at Comics Should Be Good
- Every comic ever at Comics.org
- The funniest comics blog: Chris Sims's Invincible Super Blog
- A big daily gallery that covers the history of illustration
- Mid-century weirdness at Lady, That's My Skull
- My lovely wife's blog at School Library Journal
About Me
- Matt Bird
- New York City, NY, United States
- I have an MFA in Screenwriting from Columbia University. I write screenplays and other things. Nothing you've seen.
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