My Resolutions for 2014

Okay 2014, I'm ready for you! Here's what we're gonna get done this year: 1. Break bread with as many interesting, creative, effective, and real people as possible. 2. Inspire, encourage, and/or enrich the life of at least one person every day. 3. Resist all negativity, distractions, and apparent defeat like Teflon, living every day by the mantra, "Stay positive, stay focused, and do the work!" 4. Complete two feature film screenplays...

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Scoring Films - Part 2: Ten Questions To Ask Your Director

I was 15 when I got my first job flipping patties for his royal highness, the Burger King. As anyone who has plied the fast food trade knows, the burger-making process is the essence of streamlined simplicity with a final product that is utterly predictable, every time. If you've never had the privilege, trust me, it's a riot. Heel, ketchup, mustard, pickles, patty, cheese, crown, wrap, and down the chute. Over and over again. Oh, to relive...

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Mandela to Me

I still remember the first time I bought a "Free Mandela" pin. Sting concert, BC Place in Vancouver, 1987. Amnesty International had a table of assorted pamphlets and wares and I picked the button partly because it was the most colourful thing they had, but mostly because it was hip to display back then - even if, like me, you had no idea who Nelson Mandela was. The pin did, however, get me thinking. Who was this person the world seemed to think...

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Scoring Films - Part 1: Where To Begin?

Visit Paul's YouTube channel to hear his music in films  Occasionally, over a glass of this or that, I get asked the question: "When you scored that last film, how did you know what music to put where? And how did you come up with that stuff in the first place?" I wish the answer was simple. It would sure make me sound smarter at dinner parties. But as any songwriter knows, creating music always involves some strange dance of mathematical,...

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Living That Dream: It's Never Too Late To Get Started!

 Though admittedly unconventional and definitely unpaid, my first writing gig took place at age 5. For reasons I can't recall exactly, I felt that L. Frank Baum could have done better with The Wizard of Oz. So I rewrote it. The whole thing. Then performed it live in my grandparent's living room for any neighbour willing to pay the low, low price of twenty-five cents. Four people showed up. In my mind, it was a smash hit (after all, a dollar...

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In Memory of My Incessant Cheerleader, Auntie Barb

I was eight years old when I decided I wanted to be just like my Auntie Barb. At the time, she was the lead singer of the Vancouver band, Broadway. (My dad was the guitar player.) I remember because I had painstakingly learned all the words to Bonnie Tyler's "It's A Heartache" and was invited by my aunt at the last minute to get up and sing it at Vancouver's Kejack's nightclub where Broadway was playing that evening. It was the Spring of...

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Orillia Gears Up For First Annual Film Festival

Visit the O.F.F. website for more details. ORILLIA, Ontario - Local ophthalmologist Tim Hillson not only has an eye for film, he knows a good opportunity when he sees one. Why else would he take upon himself the mammoth task of orchestrating the famous town's first annual film festival? "I've always loved film," says Hillson. "Watching my kids and others enjoy making their own movies, I started to see how much more accessible film-making is with...

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Happy Anniversary, Fellow VFS Writing Comrades!

A year ago today, I and my fellow writing students at Vancouver Film School donned our Golden Bagels (you had to be there) and ventured out into the sunset to see what opportunities and fortunes awaited. At the time, we were frankly glad just to be done and to get on with our lives as, well, whatever we'd end up becoming after insane months of perpetual scribbling. But we also knew that we had just experienced one of the greatest years of our...

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The Shaka Zulu Project: How Great Stories Come Together

In the 19th century, one man changed the face of South Africa forever: Shaka Zulu. Combining innovative battle strategies, brutal military training, and a complete top-down reorganization of Zulu society, he united the fractured tribes of the vast region in a manner that rivaled the campaigns of William Wallace and Alexander the Great.  But was Shaka a hero or a villain? It is a question that continues to embroil historians, with cultural...

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My Top 60 All-Time Favourite Screenwriters

Too often overlooked, without a writer you simply have no story. No movie. Nada. These are my personal choices, based on: Originality of concept and characters  Strength of story elements (characters, dialogue, plot, arc, tone, overall structure) Coherence and effectiveness in storytelling The writer's influence on other writers, filmmakers, and society The sheer pleasure I got watching their films, critics and box office be damned! Whether...

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