"...know whether it's a chicken or a centurion that you need.”

“{...} As a young editor, I used to get very upset about changing cuts. And it was really hard to let go, and to allow a director's input. And then I had a really epiphany moment – I saw a film about Picasso. And he did these two strokes of his paintbrush, and he made the perfect chicken... And then he starts meddling with it. And you're kinda going “No! Stop! I could sell that for half a million! It's a perfect chicken...” But he just does another thing, and before you know it, it's a centurion... It's even better... So, from that, I learned the lesson that, actually, it's sort of keeping the clay wet and moving things around to try and serve the whole structure. Not just being vertical about the edits, but about being horizontal about getting the whole story (and the pace of that story) right, and making sure that the beats land. That's really important. And if you have to sacrifice your “perfect cut”, then that's what you must do. You just to be clever enough to know whether it's a chicken or a centurion that you need.”

-- Joe Walker, film editor. Excerpt from featurette “Nonlinear Thinking –The Editing Process” for “Arrival” (2016)

Jack Nicholson developing a scene for ”The Departed”

 Matt Damon on Jack Nicholson

Saturday Night Live's...

... Control Room !

"You've got to have the work ethic that makes you show up.”

 “I always believe that it's very important to turn up at {your} desk, whether you feel like it or not, whether you have ideas or not... You've got to have the work ethic that makes you show up.”

(Ian McEwan)

"Know what you know" before you "write what you know"

“They say the most important thing is to write what you know. But there are two big problems with that... First of all, it's not enough to write what you know. You have to know interesting things. So you have to put yourself into a world where you have experiences. And then you also have to know what you know. And I think that that's even the hardest thing. Writing what you know is fine, but knowing what you know is the key to actually writing or creating any piece of art, because you have to know what it is that is driving you to do this completely narcissistic and a-social act of creating, forcing your thoughts and feelings upon a world that does not care. And you have to honestly figure out what it is you care about.”

(John Hodgman)

Before ”Ferris Bueller's Day Off”, ”The Silence of the Lambs” and ”Philadelphia”...

...Tak Fujimoto worked on ”Star Wars: A New Hope”:

how to “make it as a writer”...

Lynn Steger Strong's advice

"Manchester by the Sea" VFX breakdown sizzle reel

”...it’s a battle to take out, take out, take out...”

”...That should be another oneof the many things you should have on the wall in front of you: “Take out. Take out.” (Lawrence Kasdan, on dealing with a script that gets over 100 pages)

Ilka Tampke on writing

„Very few writers are motivated solely by the desire for recognition. It is lovely if it happens, but it cannot be the reason we sit down every day to stare at a screen and be immersed for hours in the soup of our thoughts. Most of us are motivated by the power of an idea, an image, a character, a world, a moral conundrum. This engages our imagination so deeply that we are willing to stay with it for the years it may take to find its most artful expression. (...) The completion of a novel brings an end to the creative relationship we have with our idea, but publication gives it a chance to be sustained in the imagination of readers. This is what fuels a fiction writer: the ongoing life of the ideas we love. The saddest thing about a book failing to reach an audience is not the wound to the ego, but the ending of the conversation. (...) Don’t underrate being underrated.”

Christopher McQuarrie says:

”Stop thinking about the business as something to “break into” and starting thinking of yourself as a business to be acquired. Your job is to create, improve and demonstrate your value.”

Negative voices, negative people

"All the negative voices, all the negative people that you meet do not think that they are negative on creative people. They think they are helping you. They are doing it out of a genuine sense of concern and care. They think they are helping you avoid pain and disappointment and humiliation, and [actually] all they're doing is stifling you.” (Patton Oswalt)

Amanda Palmer's inspiration receiver

"As an artist, I've unwittingly prioritized my life to keep the inspiration-receiver in my head tuned to a clear frequency. This both braces me to receive brilliant and clever ideas at any moment and makes me an impractical idiot who admires the beauty, poetry, and irony of the piano about to fall on my head instead of getting out of the damn way.

The songwriter in me struggles like mad when meditating. The rules of my conditioned art-mind say that nothing must stand in the way of a developing idea. When inspiration calls, follow. If I should be struggling with anything in my life, it should be taking that impossibly disciplined step from thought to pen to paper, from seed to full song.

I watch this mental boxing match take place with interest. In one corner sits a meditator, who calmly suggests that good ideas will linger if they are worthwhile. And so what if they don't? The songs are not happening; only sitting is happening. In the other corner paces the crazed composer with the mind specifically cultivated to jump from image to word to melody in an effort to create a work of art that will move her fellow humans. 

(...)

The best songs come like this, the melody and the words landing on the brain's sunlit kitchen table like a singing telegram, a complete and precise little package of information. In that telegram is encoded the entire blueprint for the verses and chorus, a musical strand of DNA. I cannot recognize the words, the length, or even the subject of the song, but I can detect something about how the song will feel when finished. I've always suspected that this glimpse of the whole from the part offers an excellent metaphor for life and death."

(AmandaPalmer, songwriter)

"It's not a meritocracy..."

"It's not a meritocracy, you learn that very quickly. It's a business. It's really a business. And the most talented people don't always get to do the things that they should get to do." (Sarah Paulson)

Living/Acting "intimacy"

why Sarah Paulson loves acting

Shonda Rhimes' hum

"The hum is the electricity that comes from being excited by life." (Shonda Rhimes' TED talk)

Prep you pitch...

...through fast delivery, and against loud music.
apud Shonda Rhimes

Screenwriter at work in real time!

Emily Carmichael

Josh Locy on facing obstacles

"Every stage of [filmmaking] is a new challenge and a fresh experience, even from the beginning of getting people to read the script. That's hard. Getting them to read and understand it, that's hard. Getting them to see the vision of the film is hard. Then you go to finding a location, having the guy bail on you the day before, that's hard. Having people who you want to be in the movie who don't want to be in the movie, that's hard. The sun's dropping in the sky. That's hard. Everything is hard, but it's all rewarding. Everything is worth it. You have to just find new ways to solve old problems, and you have to keep pushing. No one's going to make your movie for you. You're the only one who has that spark. It starts with a spark that turns into a flame. You're the only one that has it. You've got to push." (NoFilmSchool interview on his film "Hunter-Gatherer")

A Film's Resurrection

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s THE CURRENT WAR