Milton Katselas. Acting Class: Take a Seat. Beverly Hills, Ca.: Phoenix Books, 2008.
This book presents the instructions that the author uses in his Acting classes at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.
Acting brings out the genius from inside an actor. An actor frees a creative spirit when acting.
Stella Adler stated “I’m not teaching acting, darling, I’m teaching actors to be people.” This requires merging artistic skills with life knowledge to produce a performance.
Acting involves the actor as a person. Director Martin Ritt explained that “All you’ve got to be is mine the gold within yourself.
Creativity requires some to forget past life lessons that taught that one should have humility and modesty. Acting requires one to be a Mensch, or a full, caring human being.
Acting is the craft, technique, and process of acting work. Attitude is the artist’s feelings regarding the artist’s own life, feelings towards other actors, and feelings towards others in life. Administration is the chosen actions undertaken in the craft of acting.
An honest actor tries to feel the same feelings and live the same life as the character being portrayed.
Marlon Brando presented a height in personal acting with a wit that caught people off-guard.
Realism is acting as a foundation that includes intelligences, expressiveness, irony, humor, and unexpectedness.
An actor needs to understand the story and know what a real person would do during the story. Katselas explains this is the simplicity to acting, and warns that many try to make it more difficult.
An actor should be enthusiastic and have a good attitude towards acting. An actor should be pleasure to others in order to become successful.
Actors should maintain contacts with directors.
An actor needs commitment.
Technique is what helps an actor in creating the art of acting. An actor considers a Checklist for creating the art of acting, namely the Event, Evaluation, Behavior, Physical / Emotional State, what occurred prior the scene, Creative Hiding, Be a Person. Inner and Outer Life: The “Cover”, Who’s the Author?, Improvisation, Humor, Trust, Being Personal, Pathology, Objectives, Specifics, Use of Objects, Arbitrary Choices, Momemt to Moment (part 1): Belief, and Moment to Moment (part 2): Alternatives.
The Event is the scene’s location and what is occurring. The actor must relate to the scene.
The Evaluation is the appraisal of a scene.
Behavior is what a character does in a scene. There is the Apparent Event of what the actor physically does and the emotions shown in the Actual Event of the character’s motivation.
Stanislavski advised actors to follow “the line of action, the line of truthful actions, and of genuine confidence in them.” An actor uses the simplest of actions and words to present full emotions.
The actor must know the psychology of the scene. Director Elia Kazan stated “The job of the director is to turn psychology into behavior.”
The Physical/Emotional State concerns the actors condition, both physically and emotionally.
What Happened Before the Scene requires an actor to portray a role at a specific moment.
Creative Hiding is when a character hides emotions from other characters.
Be a Person requires portraying a real person. An actor should consider what real people do in situations. Stanislavski notes people often have a reflective delay.
Inner and Outer Life: “The Cover” is the subtext to a character.
Who’s the Author? Requires delivering the lines in an effective manner, often according to a voice an author intended.
Improvisation requires making dialogue appear real and spontaneous. Katselas recommends to “play the written scene, but use your own words to paraphrase the text”, “set up a situation analogous to the written scene”, “explore a part of the scene that is not included in the script but relates to your scene”, “explore another technique out of character”, and “realize what is expressed by action that is the opposite of expectations.”
Moment to Moment, Part 1: Belief requires a portrayal to be believable by an audience.
Moment to Moment, Part 2: Alternatives requires an actor to realize that real people don’t act in specific actions that they do so while weighing alternatives.
The author provides several acting exercises. One exercise is to sing while still and to relax and observe the small emotional impulses and note where tensions and emotions arise. Sing fully to loosen emotions.
Another exercise is to assume a pose from a picture and then speak as the person in the picture, being true to the character in the picture.
Another exercise involves the actor relating to and changing the environment of a scene by making it more personal. This may relax an actor and allow the actor to better absorb a scene.
Another exercise is to write and perform a monologue that tells something personal. This gives an actor practice in relating personal emotions.
Another exercise is to pretend to audition by acting without reading. Robert DeNiro advised for real auditions that “you go in, you read you do your best you can, you go home. You’re probably not going to get the job anyway”. When auditioning, Katselas states the actor should be enthusiastic and let the auditioners know the actor is interested in them. Also, don’t place much reliance on any feedback given, as an actor will never learn the truth as to what the auditioners discussed. Katselas advises actors to keep faith in themselves, to retain their dignities, and to be persistent.
Another exercise is to do improvisation with another actor. This helps actors to improve their impulses and learn how to stay mentally fresh.
Tense actors should try relaxation exercises. Tension usually is found around the mouth, back of the next, and around temples. Falling asleep can relax a person.
An exercise for actors doing a shoot is to run lines together without over-thinking the scene. Instead, the actors rely on their spontaneous impulses and reactions to each other.
Presentational acting involves showing emotions through visual presentations, such as gestures. Real or feeling acting also requires an actor to experience the role so the audiences see the emotions as real and not fake. The essence of an actor must go into each performance.
Stanislavski stated an actor should feel total relaxation when performing at the height of emotions. This requires a set attitude.
Humor can result from juxtaposing realities. An actor should plan the truth of a comedic situation and note that opposites can both attract and be humorous.
A director only provides clues to an actor on how to play a part. An actor needs to act with self-reliance and conviction.
An actor needs the proper positive attitude. A successful actor is 80% positive attitude, 10% talent, and 10% technique.
Stanislavski wrote that “The actor is still bound in his everyday life to be the standard bearer of what is fine. Otherwise he will only destroy what he is trying to build…Develop in yourself the necessary self-control, the ethics, and discipline of a public servant to carry out into this world a message that is fine, elevating, and noble.”
A positive attitude is important. Self-invalidation can destroy an actor’s performance.
An actor should learn how to discover casting calls, work well with an agent, contract people who can be of assistance, make friends with casting people, write good thank you letters after auditions and work, wear proper fashionable clothes, have good hair styling, have a website and other promotional aides, meet industry people, and lean about the craft. Persistent enthusiasm is a key. An actor should feel dignified about being an actor.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
The Soul of Screenwriting by Keith Cunningham
Keith Cunningham. The Soul of Screenwriting: On Writing, Dramatic Truth, and Knowing Yourself. New York: Continuum, 2008.
The author sees stories, movies, and psychology as parts of connected patterns. Screenwriters who write with strong convictions are often the most productive writers. A writer needs to tap into an internal creativity. Keith Cunningham states there are sixteen story steps to screenwriting.
The first influential book of screenwriting was ‘Screenplay” by Syd Field, published in 1979. The author believes these books like that teach writing techniques when it is really the process of writing that needs to be learned. This process includes finding storylines that work and knowing when to remove subplots that are distract from the story.
Cunningham warns against placing too much emphasis on analyzing existing good screenplays. Some good characteristics may be unique to the particular movie. A different story achieves greatness on its own composition.
A good screenplay will reach an audience and make them want to follow the characters and their story. Such a screenplay is considered as having “a path with heart.”
The author declares that screenplays tell stories. They must touch the emotions of the audiences. Audiences seek to learn about themselves and most appreciate stories that provide such insights.
Cunningham presents some important fundamental principles of screenwriting, A screenplay must have a natural energy that forms a good story that touches the human spirit. A writer needs both willpower and an intuitive sense for creating a story with good relationships amongst characters. A writer taps into a universal energy to create authentic characters. The screenwriter needs to internally feel and analyze the same emotions as exist in the story. Screenwriters allow the energies from their stories to emerge and use willpower to guide their characters to their goals. The audience through identifying with the story’s hero taps into the hero’s story and shares the hero’s emotions. The screenwriter experiences a psychological “flow experience” while providing each characters their voices. The process begins from an uncertain beginning. A writer’s inner life should be connected to the story.
Experiences in life provide insights that writers should notice. Writers should shape those experiences into adventuresome stories.
A screenwriter requires creativity. Bright ideas emerge from fertile darkness. The beginning of the story has much uncertainty. Writers face risk and overcome challenges while achieving creativity. Writers use observations to overcome resistance to finding new ideas. A writer’s internal energy can be focused on creating an energetic story.
A wrier subconsciously and unconsciously, instinctively projects when writing. Empathetic insight is at the core of writing. Empathy includes emotional connectedness to characters, a capacity to create appropriate analogies to situations since a writer likely will not have experience the exact same situations as the characters, and an understanding as to the appropriate degree of separation to avoid becoming lost within a character.
A positive process emerges from a screenwriter to creating a Hero’s Journey. A Call to Adventure moves a story forward. The hero needs to Cross the Threshold into a dramatic crisis situation. This is a crisis from which the hero can’t avoid. The hero then has a Descent into points of despair. The hero faces numerous trials. The hero then has an Initiation and Meets the Secret Master. A spirit guides the hero to act through the trials or initiations. This process transforms the hero. The Secret Master is the hero’s realization of a dramatic truth that allows the hero to overcome the obstacles being faced. The hero has a Return to the Day World where the hero realizes important insights. There is then a symbolic Sacred Marriage or Ritual Kingship where the realization is celebrated.
A screenwriter must know the true nature of the characters and how their natures relate to the story. The characters’ modes or motivations as guide by their self-images must be shown. The conflicts of the story will change these modes. The writer also needs to know aspects about each character which the character isn’t yet aware. The character should face a core of psychological conflict and values conflicts. The hero will be the Carrier of Values and face opposing vales that cause the hero to reach a new self-image. The need for self-actualization is a universal need with which audiences can identify. The hero’s needs propel the story. Mode tensions create conflicts, driving the hero’s mode toward achieving subtext to the story. There should be a resulting character arc that improves the character’s development. These universal needs project the character. An Antagonist appears as a Dark Mirror impeding the hero’s needs. The hero Reconciles Mode and Need with a Dramatic Synthesis.
The author desires for writer to think by using both sides of the brain, thinking visually and psychologically. This is different from most other academic approaches to screenwriting that approach screenwriting linearly and focusing on left brain analysis.
John Sayles, a screenwriter and director, connects all characters to each other. A Character Web is created. From this, a Story Molecule is created. Visual thinking develops roles between the characters. The Story Molecule explores Need competing with Mode. The Dramatic Trajectory escalates the Plot’s drama. Each character has a Point of View from one character’s view. A screenplay could show a Second Person Point of View which can permit parallel storytelling from several characters’ points of view. A screenplay could show a Third Person Point of View from the observations of a distant character. The Point of View provides a guide to the character transformation.
Some movies don’t resolve their stories. Some end with a dramatic resolution. The characters require Character Orchestrations within the Emotional Networks.
Character relationships can conflict and increase the Dramatic Stakes. The psychological Oedipal triangle of mother, child, and father is oft repeating in varying degrees that explore ego, anima, and shadow. Each character’s emotions conflict with each other. The story presents the Barometric of Change along with Orchestrating Subplots within the Emotional Network.
Ensemble Movies often present vast emotional networks amongst characters.
There are different levels of dramatic interest in constant motion. The dramatic conflicts can be shown through characters’ emotional networks. The Story Molecule presents hidden meanings driving plots. The external story is what is seen. The body copy of settings moves the plot and touches the viewers’ subconscious. The Story Steps create drama and alters the characters in the Story Molecule. The story goes through a catalyst event followed by a Threshold Crisis, a Core Crisis, a catastrophe, and climax. Dramatic momentum changes the man relationships. Foreshadowing can be used to peak an audience’s interest and move a story away from a linear progression. The hero goes through a journey that changes the hero, except in some genre and action films that instead rely on a peaking dramatic intensity raised by building outer actions. The Story Molecule becomes balanced, either on emotional or plot levels.
Story ideas are guided by idiom and genre. Idioms are film style constructions that present perceptions.
Realism is an impression of what is real.
Expressionistic films present stories in dream or nightmare terms.
Robert McKee observes there is no agreement on how to designate genres of films. Many films blend genres.
Thrillers and melodramas rely on emotions driven by audiences.
A main character does not always have to be active and facing conflict. A main character can be introspective. A main character can develop a presence, perhaps iconic or perhaps comedic.
A story is a series of events. A plot is a structure of growth in a main character through the story’s crises.
Howard Suber notes Act II has two different movements with their own separate feel and areas of action.
A hero’s journey consists of separation (desire), then descent (deception), then intuition (discovery), and then return (destiny). This is the three act operative convention.
A catharsis at the screenplay’s climax should create a resolution of the plot.
People have subliminal sexual cues where the nervous system responds in similar fashions to sexual responses as to dramatic responses.
A resolution doesn’t require a happy conclusion. A resolution requires achieving a better understanding of an issue.
A writer’s own energy creates energy for the characters they writer creates. This creative energy is where a writer’s dark anxieties and own needs filter into the story. Act I sets the conflict and brings it to a threshold crisis. Act II develops the crisis and drives it to catastrophe. Act III climatically resolves the conflict. All three acts consist of continuous dramatic action. Story Steps are major plot point sequences, which are Threshold Crisis, Core Crisis, and catastrophe, and climax.
A beat is a distant action created by a certain motivation, combining desire and dramatic action. Action is doing something in order to achieve a desire. Dramatic moments during a scene involve increasing conflict.
The 16 story steps are Establishing Function, the Catalyst that sends the hero towards a goal, Forward Movement of the actions the hero takes in responding to a call to adventure and the resulting consequences, a Threshold Crisis that conflicts with the hero’s forward movement, the Woundedness, the Shift to the Emotional Network (the Primary Relationship), the Reminder that Outer Plot Stakes are Rising, the Forward Movement in the Relationship, the Core Crisis, the Deepening of the Consequences, the Breaking Point, the Catastrophe, the Calm Before the Storm, the Climax, and the Resolution.
Screenwriting relies on a writer’s insights and abilities to create and distill a story.
The author sees stories, movies, and psychology as parts of connected patterns. Screenwriters who write with strong convictions are often the most productive writers. A writer needs to tap into an internal creativity. Keith Cunningham states there are sixteen story steps to screenwriting.
The first influential book of screenwriting was ‘Screenplay” by Syd Field, published in 1979. The author believes these books like that teach writing techniques when it is really the process of writing that needs to be learned. This process includes finding storylines that work and knowing when to remove subplots that are distract from the story.
Cunningham warns against placing too much emphasis on analyzing existing good screenplays. Some good characteristics may be unique to the particular movie. A different story achieves greatness on its own composition.
A good screenplay will reach an audience and make them want to follow the characters and their story. Such a screenplay is considered as having “a path with heart.”
The author declares that screenplays tell stories. They must touch the emotions of the audiences. Audiences seek to learn about themselves and most appreciate stories that provide such insights.
Cunningham presents some important fundamental principles of screenwriting, A screenplay must have a natural energy that forms a good story that touches the human spirit. A writer needs both willpower and an intuitive sense for creating a story with good relationships amongst characters. A writer taps into a universal energy to create authentic characters. The screenwriter needs to internally feel and analyze the same emotions as exist in the story. Screenwriters allow the energies from their stories to emerge and use willpower to guide their characters to their goals. The audience through identifying with the story’s hero taps into the hero’s story and shares the hero’s emotions. The screenwriter experiences a psychological “flow experience” while providing each characters their voices. The process begins from an uncertain beginning. A writer’s inner life should be connected to the story.
Experiences in life provide insights that writers should notice. Writers should shape those experiences into adventuresome stories.
A screenwriter requires creativity. Bright ideas emerge from fertile darkness. The beginning of the story has much uncertainty. Writers face risk and overcome challenges while achieving creativity. Writers use observations to overcome resistance to finding new ideas. A writer’s internal energy can be focused on creating an energetic story.
A wrier subconsciously and unconsciously, instinctively projects when writing. Empathetic insight is at the core of writing. Empathy includes emotional connectedness to characters, a capacity to create appropriate analogies to situations since a writer likely will not have experience the exact same situations as the characters, and an understanding as to the appropriate degree of separation to avoid becoming lost within a character.
A positive process emerges from a screenwriter to creating a Hero’s Journey. A Call to Adventure moves a story forward. The hero needs to Cross the Threshold into a dramatic crisis situation. This is a crisis from which the hero can’t avoid. The hero then has a Descent into points of despair. The hero faces numerous trials. The hero then has an Initiation and Meets the Secret Master. A spirit guides the hero to act through the trials or initiations. This process transforms the hero. The Secret Master is the hero’s realization of a dramatic truth that allows the hero to overcome the obstacles being faced. The hero has a Return to the Day World where the hero realizes important insights. There is then a symbolic Sacred Marriage or Ritual Kingship where the realization is celebrated.
A screenwriter must know the true nature of the characters and how their natures relate to the story. The characters’ modes or motivations as guide by their self-images must be shown. The conflicts of the story will change these modes. The writer also needs to know aspects about each character which the character isn’t yet aware. The character should face a core of psychological conflict and values conflicts. The hero will be the Carrier of Values and face opposing vales that cause the hero to reach a new self-image. The need for self-actualization is a universal need with which audiences can identify. The hero’s needs propel the story. Mode tensions create conflicts, driving the hero’s mode toward achieving subtext to the story. There should be a resulting character arc that improves the character’s development. These universal needs project the character. An Antagonist appears as a Dark Mirror impeding the hero’s needs. The hero Reconciles Mode and Need with a Dramatic Synthesis.
The author desires for writer to think by using both sides of the brain, thinking visually and psychologically. This is different from most other academic approaches to screenwriting that approach screenwriting linearly and focusing on left brain analysis.
John Sayles, a screenwriter and director, connects all characters to each other. A Character Web is created. From this, a Story Molecule is created. Visual thinking develops roles between the characters. The Story Molecule explores Need competing with Mode. The Dramatic Trajectory escalates the Plot’s drama. Each character has a Point of View from one character’s view. A screenplay could show a Second Person Point of View which can permit parallel storytelling from several characters’ points of view. A screenplay could show a Third Person Point of View from the observations of a distant character. The Point of View provides a guide to the character transformation.
Some movies don’t resolve their stories. Some end with a dramatic resolution. The characters require Character Orchestrations within the Emotional Networks.
Character relationships can conflict and increase the Dramatic Stakes. The psychological Oedipal triangle of mother, child, and father is oft repeating in varying degrees that explore ego, anima, and shadow. Each character’s emotions conflict with each other. The story presents the Barometric of Change along with Orchestrating Subplots within the Emotional Network.
Ensemble Movies often present vast emotional networks amongst characters.
There are different levels of dramatic interest in constant motion. The dramatic conflicts can be shown through characters’ emotional networks. The Story Molecule presents hidden meanings driving plots. The external story is what is seen. The body copy of settings moves the plot and touches the viewers’ subconscious. The Story Steps create drama and alters the characters in the Story Molecule. The story goes through a catalyst event followed by a Threshold Crisis, a Core Crisis, a catastrophe, and climax. Dramatic momentum changes the man relationships. Foreshadowing can be used to peak an audience’s interest and move a story away from a linear progression. The hero goes through a journey that changes the hero, except in some genre and action films that instead rely on a peaking dramatic intensity raised by building outer actions. The Story Molecule becomes balanced, either on emotional or plot levels.
Story ideas are guided by idiom and genre. Idioms are film style constructions that present perceptions.
Realism is an impression of what is real.
Expressionistic films present stories in dream or nightmare terms.
Robert McKee observes there is no agreement on how to designate genres of films. Many films blend genres.
Thrillers and melodramas rely on emotions driven by audiences.
A main character does not always have to be active and facing conflict. A main character can be introspective. A main character can develop a presence, perhaps iconic or perhaps comedic.
A story is a series of events. A plot is a structure of growth in a main character through the story’s crises.
Howard Suber notes Act II has two different movements with their own separate feel and areas of action.
A hero’s journey consists of separation (desire), then descent (deception), then intuition (discovery), and then return (destiny). This is the three act operative convention.
A catharsis at the screenplay’s climax should create a resolution of the plot.
People have subliminal sexual cues where the nervous system responds in similar fashions to sexual responses as to dramatic responses.
A resolution doesn’t require a happy conclusion. A resolution requires achieving a better understanding of an issue.
A writer’s own energy creates energy for the characters they writer creates. This creative energy is where a writer’s dark anxieties and own needs filter into the story. Act I sets the conflict and brings it to a threshold crisis. Act II develops the crisis and drives it to catastrophe. Act III climatically resolves the conflict. All three acts consist of continuous dramatic action. Story Steps are major plot point sequences, which are Threshold Crisis, Core Crisis, and catastrophe, and climax.
A beat is a distant action created by a certain motivation, combining desire and dramatic action. Action is doing something in order to achieve a desire. Dramatic moments during a scene involve increasing conflict.
The 16 story steps are Establishing Function, the Catalyst that sends the hero towards a goal, Forward Movement of the actions the hero takes in responding to a call to adventure and the resulting consequences, a Threshold Crisis that conflicts with the hero’s forward movement, the Woundedness, the Shift to the Emotional Network (the Primary Relationship), the Reminder that Outer Plot Stakes are Rising, the Forward Movement in the Relationship, the Core Crisis, the Deepening of the Consequences, the Breaking Point, the Catastrophe, the Calm Before the Storm, the Climax, and the Resolution.
Screenwriting relies on a writer’s insights and abilities to create and distill a story.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Understanding Screenwriting by Tom Stempel
Tom Stempel. Understanding Screenwriting: Learning from Good, Not-Quite-So-Good, and Bad Screenplays. New York: Continuum, 2008.
Screenwriter Phoebe Ephron advised “Take notes. Everything is copy”.
Stempel described several good movies. One is “Lawrence of Arabia”, based on Thomas Edward Lawrence’s autobiography. Screenwriters Michael Wilson’s third and final draft was 273 pages and consisted of political insights yet the dialogue while good and was often flat. Robert Bolt, in his first screenwriting effort, revised the script. Wilson, a blacklisted screenwriter, was not listed as a screenwriter on this film until the film was re-released 40 years later. Stempel compliments the screenplay for being written with performance in mind and consideration for what audiences wish to see. Stempel praises the fast paced script and shows reactions to events. The main character is transformed and the audience sees this evolution.
“Bull Durham” is another movie Stempel rates as a good movie. The film, about a minor league baseball player, was written by Ron Shelton, a former minor league baseball player. His first script didn’t sell so he added a female baseball fan character. The movie successfully breaks a general screenwriting rule by starting the movie with a dialogue. The female fan delivers a great line, “I believe in the church of baseball”, which gives the feel of the movie with being on the nose.
Stempel declares “Rear Window” is a good movie. The screenplay, written by John Michael Hayes, took a good idea from a short story by Cornell Woolrich, and crafted that idea into an excellent movie. Hayes wrote a script filled with action instructions. Alfred Hitchock’s direction of the film was excellent although Stempel considers the film as more a product of Hayes’s creativity.
“Fargo” is a movie Stempel considers as good. He credits screenwriters Ethan Cohen and Joel Cohen with creating likeable characters (something lacking in many of their other films) and made villains more excitingly dangerous by making them less intelligent.
“Kinsey” is a movie Stempel rates as good. The screenplay by Bill Condon makes good use of composite characters in this story based on the life of a real person. It addresses sex scenes seriously while appealing to audiences.
“Y Tu Mama Tambien” is a movie Stempel rates as good. Stemple sees the movie as a contradiction to Ken Dancyger’s theory that movies worldwide are moving towards a similar model. Stempel sees this as a distinct Mexican story yet appeals internationally.
Stempel also states good screenplays include “All That Jazz” for its intelligent dialoge, “E.T.: The Extra-terrestrial” with good characters and story structure, “Unforgiven” for its strong characters, “Clueless” which properly condensed a longer story, “Something to Talk About” with an enticing story structure, “Bound”, a rare film noir with a happy ending, “Finding Nemo”, an animated movie with a strong story, “Ameriican Splendor”, which presents a good character study, “Bon Voyage”, which is hilarious, “Love Actually”, which manages to merge nine stories into one movie, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, a well done movie of complexities, “Maria Full of Grace”, an insightful script that was researched for three years, “Before Sunset”, with its sublime conclusion, and “Saving Face”, a good story presentation specific to Chinese culture.
“Collateral” is a movie Stempel consider “not quite so good”. Stempel argues its first plot point, where a body falls onto the main character’s windshield, occurs too soon. The main characters downgrade their intelligence in the last 25 minutes of the film.
Stempel rates all three “Jurrasic Park” movies as “not quite so good”. The movies skillfully suggest violence without presenting it. Stempel believes the films present action at the expense of character development. A scene that mimicked “Godzilla” was a point where the series jumped the shark.
“Troy” is a movie Stempel considers “not quite so good”. He sees it as a lesser version of other historic films.
Stempel views “King Arthur” as “not quite so good”. The audience is not overly inspired by one of the central dilemmas in this movie.
“Alexander” is a movie Stempel rates as “not quite so good”. The story is epic but lacks drama.
“Kingdom of Heaven” is considered by Stempel as “not quite so good”. Some characters are not believable.
“Something’s Got to Give” is “not quite so good”, according to Stempel. He finds the final half hour as lacking.
The “American Pie” movies are called “not quite so good” by Stempel. The raunch is misplaced. It has a good set up for a hilarious payoff line. The sequels are too repetitious of the previous formula. The characters are shallow.
Other movies Stempel rates as “not quite so good” are “Speed”, which follows the Syd Field formula yet becomes too busy and fails to develop secondary characters, “Deep Impact” which has a story that is poorly structured, “Armageddon” which overuses comedy in a movie about tragedy, “Shrek”, which has a good story yet overdoes its parody of Disney films, “Pearl Harbor”, which has great effects yet lacked character development, “Sleepover”, which has some story elements some audiences found as too creepy, “The Incredibles”, which begins fresh then turns conventional, “The Upside of Anger”, which as a flawed story, and “Junebug”, which fails to show characteristics ascribed to characters.
Stempel rates “Titanic” as “bad”. It has characters being repetitious. The movie is too long, has a bad script and has some bad acting.
“Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” is rated by Stempel as “bad”. It is an unfunny comedy.
The “Star Wars” movies are rated as “bad”. The sequels fail to satisfy audiences’ curiosity about known characters by overemphasizing new characters.
Stempel rates as “bad” other films, such as “Dune” which is too descriptive for a movie, “Howard the Duck”, which was meant to be a darker film that the studio insisted be made brighter and the result was disappointing, “Willow”, which has a boring story, “The Bachelor”, while failed to make a 1920s storyline appeal to a modern audience, “Gods and Generals”, which is too preachy, “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas” which did not work an animated film, “The Stepford Wives” (2004) and “Manchurian Candidate” (2004) which both improperly updated old movies, and “Broken Flowers”, which has poor character development.
When viewing a move critically, it is good to consider the time period being shown, notice how characters are presented, consider how dialogue is used, determine whether the characters fit the story, consider how characters develop during the story and if they are developing properly, see if the story is too formulaic, and watch if the ending is satisfying and resolves the story.
Screenwriter Phoebe Ephron advised “Take notes. Everything is copy”.
Stempel described several good movies. One is “Lawrence of Arabia”, based on Thomas Edward Lawrence’s autobiography. Screenwriters Michael Wilson’s third and final draft was 273 pages and consisted of political insights yet the dialogue while good and was often flat. Robert Bolt, in his first screenwriting effort, revised the script. Wilson, a blacklisted screenwriter, was not listed as a screenwriter on this film until the film was re-released 40 years later. Stempel compliments the screenplay for being written with performance in mind and consideration for what audiences wish to see. Stempel praises the fast paced script and shows reactions to events. The main character is transformed and the audience sees this evolution.
“Bull Durham” is another movie Stempel rates as a good movie. The film, about a minor league baseball player, was written by Ron Shelton, a former minor league baseball player. His first script didn’t sell so he added a female baseball fan character. The movie successfully breaks a general screenwriting rule by starting the movie with a dialogue. The female fan delivers a great line, “I believe in the church of baseball”, which gives the feel of the movie with being on the nose.
Stempel declares “Rear Window” is a good movie. The screenplay, written by John Michael Hayes, took a good idea from a short story by Cornell Woolrich, and crafted that idea into an excellent movie. Hayes wrote a script filled with action instructions. Alfred Hitchock’s direction of the film was excellent although Stempel considers the film as more a product of Hayes’s creativity.
“Fargo” is a movie Stempel considers as good. He credits screenwriters Ethan Cohen and Joel Cohen with creating likeable characters (something lacking in many of their other films) and made villains more excitingly dangerous by making them less intelligent.
“Kinsey” is a movie Stempel rates as good. The screenplay by Bill Condon makes good use of composite characters in this story based on the life of a real person. It addresses sex scenes seriously while appealing to audiences.
“Y Tu Mama Tambien” is a movie Stempel rates as good. Stemple sees the movie as a contradiction to Ken Dancyger’s theory that movies worldwide are moving towards a similar model. Stempel sees this as a distinct Mexican story yet appeals internationally.
Stempel also states good screenplays include “All That Jazz” for its intelligent dialoge, “E.T.: The Extra-terrestrial” with good characters and story structure, “Unforgiven” for its strong characters, “Clueless” which properly condensed a longer story, “Something to Talk About” with an enticing story structure, “Bound”, a rare film noir with a happy ending, “Finding Nemo”, an animated movie with a strong story, “Ameriican Splendor”, which presents a good character study, “Bon Voyage”, which is hilarious, “Love Actually”, which manages to merge nine stories into one movie, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”, a well done movie of complexities, “Maria Full of Grace”, an insightful script that was researched for three years, “Before Sunset”, with its sublime conclusion, and “Saving Face”, a good story presentation specific to Chinese culture.
“Collateral” is a movie Stempel consider “not quite so good”. Stempel argues its first plot point, where a body falls onto the main character’s windshield, occurs too soon. The main characters downgrade their intelligence in the last 25 minutes of the film.
Stempel rates all three “Jurrasic Park” movies as “not quite so good”. The movies skillfully suggest violence without presenting it. Stempel believes the films present action at the expense of character development. A scene that mimicked “Godzilla” was a point where the series jumped the shark.
“Troy” is a movie Stempel considers “not quite so good”. He sees it as a lesser version of other historic films.
Stempel views “King Arthur” as “not quite so good”. The audience is not overly inspired by one of the central dilemmas in this movie.
“Alexander” is a movie Stempel rates as “not quite so good”. The story is epic but lacks drama.
“Kingdom of Heaven” is considered by Stempel as “not quite so good”. Some characters are not believable.
“Something’s Got to Give” is “not quite so good”, according to Stempel. He finds the final half hour as lacking.
The “American Pie” movies are called “not quite so good” by Stempel. The raunch is misplaced. It has a good set up for a hilarious payoff line. The sequels are too repetitious of the previous formula. The characters are shallow.
Other movies Stempel rates as “not quite so good” are “Speed”, which follows the Syd Field formula yet becomes too busy and fails to develop secondary characters, “Deep Impact” which has a story that is poorly structured, “Armageddon” which overuses comedy in a movie about tragedy, “Shrek”, which has a good story yet overdoes its parody of Disney films, “Pearl Harbor”, which has great effects yet lacked character development, “Sleepover”, which has some story elements some audiences found as too creepy, “The Incredibles”, which begins fresh then turns conventional, “The Upside of Anger”, which as a flawed story, and “Junebug”, which fails to show characteristics ascribed to characters.
Stempel rates “Titanic” as “bad”. It has characters being repetitious. The movie is too long, has a bad script and has some bad acting.
“Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy” is rated by Stempel as “bad”. It is an unfunny comedy.
The “Star Wars” movies are rated as “bad”. The sequels fail to satisfy audiences’ curiosity about known characters by overemphasizing new characters.
Stempel rates as “bad” other films, such as “Dune” which is too descriptive for a movie, “Howard the Duck”, which was meant to be a darker film that the studio insisted be made brighter and the result was disappointing, “Willow”, which has a boring story, “The Bachelor”, while failed to make a 1920s storyline appeal to a modern audience, “Gods and Generals”, which is too preachy, “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas” which did not work an animated film, “The Stepford Wives” (2004) and “Manchurian Candidate” (2004) which both improperly updated old movies, and “Broken Flowers”, which has poor character development.
When viewing a move critically, it is good to consider the time period being shown, notice how characters are presented, consider how dialogue is used, determine whether the characters fit the story, consider how characters develop during the story and if they are developing properly, see if the story is too formulaic, and watch if the ending is satisfying and resolves the story.
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Bambi vs. Godzilla by David Mamet
David Mamet. Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose, and Practice of the Movie Business. New York: Vintage Books, 2008.
The author David Mamet claims that good dramatic storyline in movies are being overtaken by movies with just a premise and assorted attention grabbing scenes, such as explosions, stunts, shootouts, gags, etc. Studios today make movies for targeted audiences. Mamet sees this as an example of basic economics where any industry, including movies, that becomes more monopolistic are no longer driven by competition to keep their quality high.
Movies that shoot mostly during nighttime have problems with staff fatigue. Crews don’t complain. Star actors, who are pampered, do complain. This represents the two tiers of movies: Stars, directors, producers, and screenwriters are above the line. Crew are below the line. A director is referred to by “sir” even though crew members assign “sir” as meaning “asshole”.
All films earn money, according to Mamet, even though technically nearly all claim net losses. The money is distributed to down. Guilds and unions give workers some strength.
Mamet states that film business decisions involve intuition and/or courage. Studio executives gamble with other people’s money, make money and then invest that money into a new film, and then continue gambling until they create a film that loses money and get fired.
Otto Preminger needed 10,000 extras in Jerusalem while filming “Exodus” but could not pay for them So, he put up posters reading “Be an extra in a movie, ten shekels” and charged the extras.
Preminger also filmed in Seattle yet had to have equipment brought from Los Angeles to Seattle. Rules with Teamsters required Teamsters to be paid higher wages as set by Los Angeles wage rates. Preminger instead had the equipment sent by rail and paid the lower Seattle wage rates.
Mamet states that Ashkenazi Jews have composed a large proportion of leading studio executive positions throughout the industry’s history. This includes names such as Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, Carl Laemmle, William Fox, and Joseph Schenek.
Movies require managers who can work under chaos.
Some producers raise money for movies they produce. Some are shtadlans, who communicate between the studio (which has all the power) and those making the film.
Movies often reflect what is happening to our society. They often reassure the public that their problems can be solved. Unfortunately, much of these reassurances are useless. Yet people become addicted to these movies, and the idea that more spending on problems can solve anything, as with spending more on movies can create blockbusters.
It takes comedy to entertain an audience to appreciate viewing something they should learn but resist discovering. “Fahrenheit 9/11” is an example of this.
Mamet notes the irony of several films with the theme that a Caucasian person teacher other races about their culture. Among these are “The Jazz Singer” where a white person teaches jazz to Blacks, “Schindler’s List” where a white man saves Jews, and “Dances with Wolves” where a white man teaches buffalo hunting to Native Americans.
In movies, the background and foreground often can not simultaneously be in focus. Some smart animators have begun making distorted backgrounds so the animated film will appear more like a movie.
There is no formula for predicting which movies will be successful. Studios hire numerous experts and analysts who often are wrong. Even audience research is often wrong. This is because market research audiences try to be objective when real audiences are often subject to discussions from previous viewers and their opinions which skews their preconceived notions of the movies. Harry Cohn may have had the best known prediction system which he used which involved “the feeling in his ass”.
Most film schools, undergraduate and graduate and seminars on filmmaking seldom lead people into positions where they make films, according to Mamet. He claims screenwriting books and the MFA in Screenwriting appeal to the gullible. It is access to money that determines which movies are made. He claims graduate film schools primarily prepare students to follow formulas so they learn to become subservient to studio management.
The secret to movies, according to George Stevens, “cinema, as its most effective, is one scene effectively superseded by the next.”
Screenwriters should know about aesthetics, which involves the unification of time, place, and action. The screenplay must be a story audience can and wish to see. It must consist only of a hero solving a problem. The solution must face increasingly difficult challenges. Mamet notes that studios often change scripts to fit this formula.
Humans have drama in their lives and love analyzing drama. There are few rules for writing drama, except drama is difficult for writing as a craft. Humans love drama in their lives and in their films while relaxing.
The wisdom of filmmaking is as follows: Use a star people will pay to see. Show only the story in a film and nothing else. Remember the audience, and which movies they will pay to see, and decide which kind of movies will be financial successes.
Most good scripts being with an easily understood story and properly continues to a probably but startling end. An incident in the story stimulates reactions.
A good script presents what occurs. A bad scripts fails to see there is action in the dialogue and fails to have action shown.
A movie’s editing should present the story and cut out the extraneous.
A good screenwriter can properly create, without sentimentality, characters of the opposite sex who have messages to present. Good writers know the similarities between men and women. A good writer observes and writes the truth. A good writer need not have lived the life of whom the writer describes, but knows how to present how the characters really are.
A problem with many screenplays is they are written to satisfy studio executives rather than to appeal to audiences.
A writer has to live the process of the story’s lead character. The conclusion of each scene must find the protagonist unable to obtain the story’s main goal. This makes audiences wonder how the main character will cope and identify with the struggle. Any scene other than this is irrelevant and ruins the movie.
Mamet claims film supervision of children and animals is lacking.
Good logical gags can make audiences wonder or laugh.
Filmmakers need to be prepared to improvise when circumstances require it. Steven Speilberg couldn’t get the mechanical shake in “Jaws” to function properly so he had to revise the movie by leaving the shark out of several scenes and instead filmed shark attacks without showing the shark. This actually was heralded by many as being more scary than if the shark were shown/
Sometimes film footage shot even before the director yells “action” may later accidentally prove to be useful.
The first films in history were short scenes, such as people kissing and a train coming towards the audience. The earliest movies were then lengthened so exhibits could charge more money. This required that structured stores be presented.
When there is a movie where audiences are expected to attend in order to see a star actor, see that the best lines go to that star and not to supporting actors.’
Mamet suggest that many movies can be improved by removing the first ten minutes of exposition and starting with the action. He also agrees with the “less is more” axiom of showing only what is needed to move a story forward.
Billy Wilder said of audiences “individually, they’re idiots. Collectively, they’re a genius.”
“Violating the aesthetic distance”, which is a cheap film trick that should not be used, is when the audience is excited by something that detracts from the plot. Some examples of this are scenes when showing “555-xxxx”phone numbers that are not needed in a story, as audiences know these numbers don’t exist. Another example is showing an actor can perform a skill such as playing a piano when the audience has already accepted that the character can do this. It takes away from the viewer’s joy of viewing the fantasy.
Mamet notes many recent comedies have relied more on the melodramatic and become compilations of funny scenes as opposed to earlier comedies that relied more on plots.
Murder in film can have psychological appear to audiences that are thrilled by killing. Police drama can have psychological appear on issues with superiority.
Stanislavsky believes drama related to melodrama as does tragedy to comedy. Tragedy is enhanced comedy.
Film noir unites violence with irony.
American war films filmed during World War II often featured conflicts between individuals within military units. British war films had themes of united units of soldiers.
A visual depiction that tells part of a story is better than using dialogue.
Great actors give performances that make audiences grin or smile sadly.
Mamet recommends directors look at actors’ works rather than their auditions when selecting actors. Doing well at auditions is not necessarily related to acting skills. In addition, the process of listening to numerous people audition dulls the senses and makes it possible to pay little attention to good performances, especially when the mindset is there may be a better presentation yet to arrive.
The mission of critics is to attract readers to buy the publications publishing their criticism. The advertising of movies in these publications can bias as well as increase coverage of these movies.
Many screenwriters wish to direct, in part, in order to retain control over revisions to their scripts.
The last two minutes of a movie can be the most critical. A movie that turns a movie around in the time is often successful. A move that can make a turn-around in its final ten ten seconds can be even more successful.
The author David Mamet claims that good dramatic storyline in movies are being overtaken by movies with just a premise and assorted attention grabbing scenes, such as explosions, stunts, shootouts, gags, etc. Studios today make movies for targeted audiences. Mamet sees this as an example of basic economics where any industry, including movies, that becomes more monopolistic are no longer driven by competition to keep their quality high.
Movies that shoot mostly during nighttime have problems with staff fatigue. Crews don’t complain. Star actors, who are pampered, do complain. This represents the two tiers of movies: Stars, directors, producers, and screenwriters are above the line. Crew are below the line. A director is referred to by “sir” even though crew members assign “sir” as meaning “asshole”.
All films earn money, according to Mamet, even though technically nearly all claim net losses. The money is distributed to down. Guilds and unions give workers some strength.
Mamet states that film business decisions involve intuition and/or courage. Studio executives gamble with other people’s money, make money and then invest that money into a new film, and then continue gambling until they create a film that loses money and get fired.
Otto Preminger needed 10,000 extras in Jerusalem while filming “Exodus” but could not pay for them So, he put up posters reading “Be an extra in a movie, ten shekels” and charged the extras.
Preminger also filmed in Seattle yet had to have equipment brought from Los Angeles to Seattle. Rules with Teamsters required Teamsters to be paid higher wages as set by Los Angeles wage rates. Preminger instead had the equipment sent by rail and paid the lower Seattle wage rates.
Mamet states that Ashkenazi Jews have composed a large proportion of leading studio executive positions throughout the industry’s history. This includes names such as Samuel Goldwyn, Louis B. Mayer, Carl Laemmle, William Fox, and Joseph Schenek.
Movies require managers who can work under chaos.
Some producers raise money for movies they produce. Some are shtadlans, who communicate between the studio (which has all the power) and those making the film.
Movies often reflect what is happening to our society. They often reassure the public that their problems can be solved. Unfortunately, much of these reassurances are useless. Yet people become addicted to these movies, and the idea that more spending on problems can solve anything, as with spending more on movies can create blockbusters.
It takes comedy to entertain an audience to appreciate viewing something they should learn but resist discovering. “Fahrenheit 9/11” is an example of this.
Mamet notes the irony of several films with the theme that a Caucasian person teacher other races about their culture. Among these are “The Jazz Singer” where a white person teaches jazz to Blacks, “Schindler’s List” where a white man saves Jews, and “Dances with Wolves” where a white man teaches buffalo hunting to Native Americans.
In movies, the background and foreground often can not simultaneously be in focus. Some smart animators have begun making distorted backgrounds so the animated film will appear more like a movie.
There is no formula for predicting which movies will be successful. Studios hire numerous experts and analysts who often are wrong. Even audience research is often wrong. This is because market research audiences try to be objective when real audiences are often subject to discussions from previous viewers and their opinions which skews their preconceived notions of the movies. Harry Cohn may have had the best known prediction system which he used which involved “the feeling in his ass”.
Most film schools, undergraduate and graduate and seminars on filmmaking seldom lead people into positions where they make films, according to Mamet. He claims screenwriting books and the MFA in Screenwriting appeal to the gullible. It is access to money that determines which movies are made. He claims graduate film schools primarily prepare students to follow formulas so they learn to become subservient to studio management.
The secret to movies, according to George Stevens, “cinema, as its most effective, is one scene effectively superseded by the next.”
Screenwriters should know about aesthetics, which involves the unification of time, place, and action. The screenplay must be a story audience can and wish to see. It must consist only of a hero solving a problem. The solution must face increasingly difficult challenges. Mamet notes that studios often change scripts to fit this formula.
Humans have drama in their lives and love analyzing drama. There are few rules for writing drama, except drama is difficult for writing as a craft. Humans love drama in their lives and in their films while relaxing.
The wisdom of filmmaking is as follows: Use a star people will pay to see. Show only the story in a film and nothing else. Remember the audience, and which movies they will pay to see, and decide which kind of movies will be financial successes.
Most good scripts being with an easily understood story and properly continues to a probably but startling end. An incident in the story stimulates reactions.
A good script presents what occurs. A bad scripts fails to see there is action in the dialogue and fails to have action shown.
A movie’s editing should present the story and cut out the extraneous.
A good screenwriter can properly create, without sentimentality, characters of the opposite sex who have messages to present. Good writers know the similarities between men and women. A good writer observes and writes the truth. A good writer need not have lived the life of whom the writer describes, but knows how to present how the characters really are.
A problem with many screenplays is they are written to satisfy studio executives rather than to appeal to audiences.
A writer has to live the process of the story’s lead character. The conclusion of each scene must find the protagonist unable to obtain the story’s main goal. This makes audiences wonder how the main character will cope and identify with the struggle. Any scene other than this is irrelevant and ruins the movie.
Mamet claims film supervision of children and animals is lacking.
Good logical gags can make audiences wonder or laugh.
Filmmakers need to be prepared to improvise when circumstances require it. Steven Speilberg couldn’t get the mechanical shake in “Jaws” to function properly so he had to revise the movie by leaving the shark out of several scenes and instead filmed shark attacks without showing the shark. This actually was heralded by many as being more scary than if the shark were shown/
Sometimes film footage shot even before the director yells “action” may later accidentally prove to be useful.
The first films in history were short scenes, such as people kissing and a train coming towards the audience. The earliest movies were then lengthened so exhibits could charge more money. This required that structured stores be presented.
When there is a movie where audiences are expected to attend in order to see a star actor, see that the best lines go to that star and not to supporting actors.’
Mamet suggest that many movies can be improved by removing the first ten minutes of exposition and starting with the action. He also agrees with the “less is more” axiom of showing only what is needed to move a story forward.
Billy Wilder said of audiences “individually, they’re idiots. Collectively, they’re a genius.”
“Violating the aesthetic distance”, which is a cheap film trick that should not be used, is when the audience is excited by something that detracts from the plot. Some examples of this are scenes when showing “555-xxxx”phone numbers that are not needed in a story, as audiences know these numbers don’t exist. Another example is showing an actor can perform a skill such as playing a piano when the audience has already accepted that the character can do this. It takes away from the viewer’s joy of viewing the fantasy.
Mamet notes many recent comedies have relied more on the melodramatic and become compilations of funny scenes as opposed to earlier comedies that relied more on plots.
Murder in film can have psychological appear to audiences that are thrilled by killing. Police drama can have psychological appear on issues with superiority.
Stanislavsky believes drama related to melodrama as does tragedy to comedy. Tragedy is enhanced comedy.
Film noir unites violence with irony.
American war films filmed during World War II often featured conflicts between individuals within military units. British war films had themes of united units of soldiers.
A visual depiction that tells part of a story is better than using dialogue.
Great actors give performances that make audiences grin or smile sadly.
Mamet recommends directors look at actors’ works rather than their auditions when selecting actors. Doing well at auditions is not necessarily related to acting skills. In addition, the process of listening to numerous people audition dulls the senses and makes it possible to pay little attention to good performances, especially when the mindset is there may be a better presentation yet to arrive.
The mission of critics is to attract readers to buy the publications publishing their criticism. The advertising of movies in these publications can bias as well as increase coverage of these movies.
Many screenwriters wish to direct, in part, in order to retain control over revisions to their scripts.
The last two minutes of a movie can be the most critical. A movie that turns a movie around in the time is often successful. A move that can make a turn-around in its final ten ten seconds can be even more successful.
Monday, October 20, 2008
The Control Room by Martin Plissner
Martin Plissner. The Control Room: How Television Calls the Shots in Presidential Elections. New York, N.Y.: The Free Press, 1999.
The author, former CBS News Director Martin Plissner, writes a history of how the TV news determined the coverage of Presidential candidates.
In 1916, the first broadcast of a political event was by Lee DeForest using a ham radio. DeForest announced to a few local listeners that Charles Evan Hughes had been elected President. Thus began a long history of broadcasts getting the news wrong. This would include 1948 when H.V. Kaltenburn of NBC mistakenly announced that Tom Dewey had defeated Harry Truman.
When the TV networks broadcast their first political convention, the 1952 Republican National Convention, the Republican National Committee Chairman at first thought the network should pay his party for the broadcast, as the networks do for sports broadcasts.
Not every candidate appreciated national TV coverage. In 1964, Nelson Rockefeller did not want TV cameras covering his speeches. By 1976, candidates were mostly planning their speeches according to obtaining network coverage.
In 1964, both CBS and NBC changed their evening news from 15 minutes to 30 minute programs. In 1963, had surpassed newspapers as the public’s primary source of political news. Presidential campaigns have increasingly strategized on how to obtain network news coverage.
The author states, from experience, that networks seek news coverage to reach the greatest number of viewers at the lowest costs. TV networks seek to find material that shows they have a broadcasting advantage to viewers over the other networks. Ratings are important, and ratings help determine the showing of national political conventions in accordance with lead in shows that may benefit or highly rated shows that may be shown instead of convention coverage.
TV news coverage has changed the political process. TV coverage of Presidential primaries caused more states to adopt primaries.
Networks began creating benchmarks for candidates to achieve in primaries. This made the races more interesting for viewers as all candidates were given benchmarks that news reporters expected them to achieve. The “expectations game” became a feature of TV coverage.
Networks created tiers of candidates. The first tier is a front runner and a primary challenger. The second tier is candidates with a potential to shine. The third tier is candidates consider to have no chance at winning. These designations are fluid, as John Connally in 1980 and John Glenn in 1984 were first tier candidates who quickly collapsed during their first primaries.
In 1975, network news began conducting and reporting “straw votes” at political gatherings to raise viewer interest in the upcoming elections.
Candidates can use network interviews to turn their campaigns around. In 1988, when Dan Rather of CBS challenged that George Bush has to have known about a controversial arms sales, Bush improved his image by attacking back at Rather.
Coverage of the 1992 Presidential campaign faced network financial cutbacks due to increase expenses networks faced covering the 1991 Iraq War as well as declining general network revenues.
The networks viewed campaign coverage during the 1960s as something that gained viewers. During the 1990s, campaign coverage was seen as something that lost them viewers. It became viewed as more of an obligation that as a ratings booster.
Gennifer Flowers’ accusation but inability to prove an affair with Bill Clinton soaked up much of the early 1992 campaign coverage. Voters stated they had no problem with a candidate who may have cheated on his marriage. Ironically, the Clinton scandal provided more coverage and acceptance of Clinton. The Clinton campaign gained while other candidates found they received relatively less coverage.
Convention broadcasting can affect news programming. When CBS failed to get its radio broadcasting star Edward R. Murrow to cover the 1952 Republican National Convention, a young reporter Walter Cronkite rose to fame when he provided the coverage. CBS received $3 million from Westinghouse for sponsoring the 1952 conventions from “gavel to gavel”.
TV coverage impacted the 1952 Presidential race. The 1952 Republican Convention began with Robert Taft having the most delegates. A Credentials Committee meeting was held where Taft supporters held a majority in determining controversies over seating delegates. The committee meeting was closed to cameras yet Taft supporters quickly realized the negative effect this closed door meeting had on viewers as Eisenhower supporters were shown demanding letting cameras to be brought in. A CBS technician was able to listen in to the committee’s closed proceeding and Cronkite reported what was happening. The committee hearings were then opened to cameras and the Taft supporters backed down on their planned maneuverings that would have seated more Taft delegates. Eisenhower wound up winning the nomination.
NBC devoted 152 hours while CBS provided 139 hours of coverage of the two 1953 national conventions.
CBS wanted to make speakers appear better on TV. CBS held candidates’ TV training classes led by Walter Cronkite. The classes included tips of diction, clothing, and makeup. Sen. John Kennedy was one of the attendees. Kennedy would narrate a 30 minute film at the 1956 Democratic Convention that ABC and NBC showed but CBS did not.
The 1956 convention featured fewer contests compared to the 1952 conventions as both opened with their Presidential nominees as certain. Two little known broadcasters, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, won praise for their NBC convention coverage that included humor and insightful stories. NBC then made Huntley and Brinkley the anchors of their network news. In 1960, NBC overtook Douglas Fairbanks of CBS in the network news ratings. CBS News had led the ratings since World War II.
Huntley and Brinkley’s NBC coverage of the 1960 conventions had more viewers than CBS, which used Cronkite and Murrow. A CBS news executive was fired. When NBC outdrew CBS at the first 1964 convention, CBS removed Cronkite from covering the second convention. NBC increased its spending on convention coverage by four times.
CBS had an advantage in that they polled delegates. They declared that Barry Goldwater had wrapped up the 1964 Republican nomination after the California Primary. In 1968, CBS announced that Richard Nixon had 689 delegates when he needed 667 delegates for the Republican nomination. This helped Nixon win the nomination as Ronald Reagan’s campaign claimed there were delegates desiring to switch from Nixon to Reagan but they wouldn’t switch as they had already made their commitments known to CBS.
In 1976, CBS was on the verge of declaring a week before the start of the Republican convention that their survey of delegates showed Gerald Ford was going to win the nomination. Ronald Reagan then announced his selection of Richard Schweiker as his running mate. It took CBS that final week to repoll delegate to ascertain that Ford retained his lead despite the Reagan selection of a running mate. Thus, though, had the impact of keeping Reagan in the race until the convention.
Network presentations of disorderly and divisive political conventions led to what has been labeled Donilon’s Law, from a quote from Democrat Tom Donilon who stated “a party’s chance of winning the Presidency varies inversely with the length of the time it takes it’s nominee to clinch the nomination”. Republicans transformed this law into what they called their 11th commandment, which is “thou should not makes news” or attack other Republicans in public. Ford’s campaign in 1976 gave up a convention fight over platform points to Reagan’s camp rather than have a policy split shown on TV. In 1984, Democratic nominee Walter Mondale did the same thing by conceding platform policies to challengers Jesse Jackson and Gary Hart rather than having the policy fights televised. By 1988, the Democratic Party had cut its platform to where there was little to be disputed.
ABC in 1968 did not broadcast the convenient. It kept its regular programs on. Instead, beginning at 10 pm, it presented a show summarizing that evening’s convention events.
At the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley limited mobile TV units to a few sites where his advisors thought protestor would be least visible. Instead, protestors sought out and deliberately protested where the TV cameras were concentrated. 16,000 police and National Guard and barbed wire protected the convention. A “police riot” was shown on TV. Members of the media, including Dan Rather of CBS, were physically hit, manhandled, or maced by police or the Guard. Walter Cronkite declared famously to Dan Rather as he was being dragged away by security “I think we’ve got a bunch of thugs there, Dan.” Mayor Daley was upset, believing the coverage was slanted and that protestor taunts were not broadcast.
The 1972 Democratic Convention showed convention and platform fight. This hurt the Democrats.
The 1980 Democratic Convention featured platform fights between Jimmy Carter and Edward Kennedy forces. The failure of the two sides to visibly unite afterwards hurt the Democrats.
Republicans in 1972 deliberately preset every aspect of their convention. CBS found this out and reported on the orchestration.
In 1992, NBC aired its regular programming for much of the conventions and allowed NBC reporters to broadcast for PBS. CBS didn’t show the entire evening of a convention and presented the All Star baseball game instead. While there was less coverage of these conventions, the author believes the public was not denied any information as the nominations were settled prior to the conventions.
Both political parties moved to prevent airing any political dissent at their 1996 conventions. Ted Koppel of ABC declared the conventions were “more infomercial than news event”. The Democrats polled who would draw ratings as speakers at their convention and picked paraplegic actor Christopher Reeves as a convention speaker. Overall, the networks decided that the $10 million and 300 staff they used to broadcast the 1996 convention would not be necessary for the 2000 conventions.
In 1952, CBS and NBC used computers to correctly predict that Dwight Eisenhower would win. ABC added a computer in 1956. The networks upped the ante when CBS predicted its computer would predict the 1960 winner by 7 pm election night. ABC claimed its computer would predict a winner by 6 pm. ABC missed its deadline but predicted at 6:54 predicted that Richard Nixon had defeated John Kennedy. CBS also missed its deadline but its computer predicted that Nixon would win at 7:16 pm. Kennedy defeated Nixon. The networks started using more sophistical polling techniques.
The 1970s saw the introduction of exit polling. CBS found them useful for explaining how categories of voters were voting. Soon after, they were used for election predictions.
In 1980, the networks made early projections that Reagan had won. Polling places were still open on the West Coast when the projections were announced. It was claimed that voter turnout declined in the later hours on the West Coast after these predictions were announced. Others could find little evidence this actually caused many people not to vote. The author states not one voter who didn’t vote because of the forecasts has even been found. Others argued this may have affected the outcome of several close local elections. Network executives promised not to project Presidential winners until after all the mainland polls had closed.
CBS, ABC, NBC, and CNN combined exit polling and computer operations. All used the Voter Research and Surveys (VRS). This saved each network approximately $10 million. In 1994, ABC made its own independent polls without telling the competition that remained reliant on VRS. ABC correctly made major election projections before the others. CBS and CNN responded by jointly investing $1 million to improve their own forecasting abilities that would cover more precincts.
The increased use of polling made both the public and politicians more aware of polling results. Some pundits such as columnist E. J. Dionne feared there was more concentration on polling results than debating or analyzing issues.
The first Presidential debate on radio was in 1948 on NBC, ABC, and Mutual radio networks between two candidates for the Republican nomination, Thomas Dewey and Harold Stassen. The debate covered one topic, “should the Communist Party be outlawed” with each candidates speaking for 20 minutes with each having 8 minutes of rebuttal. There was no moderator. More people considered Dewey the debate winner and Dewey narrowly won the following primary and eventually received the Republican nomination.
CBS and NBC considered holding debates between the Presidential nominees Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson until they realized that Federal Communications Commission rulings required equal time would have to be given to all minor party nominees. In addition, neither Eisenhower nor Stevenson appeared interested in debating in either 1952 or when they met again in 1956. Stevenson, noting that the candidates spent $7 million (or $40 million in 1999 dollars) on TV commercials in 1956, proposed TV provide free broadcast time to candidates. A bill was proposed that two hours per week over eight weeks be provided for major party Presidential candidates. Stevenson then suggested changing the FCC rules so the two major party candidates could debate. This idea was agreeable to the two 1960 candidates, John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. President Eisenhower, who perceived Nixon was wrong to agree to debate, still approved removing the FCC rules so the debate could occur. The 1960 Presidential debate was the largest viewed TV show to that date. The debate helped elect Kennedy.
Later televised Presidential debates were considered influential in helping Jimmy Carter defeat Gerald Ford in 1976 and Ronald Reagan defeat Jimmy Carter in 1980. In 1984, according to polls, Walter Mondale won the first debate yet lost the second to Ronald Reagan who delivered his famous line “I will not, for political purposes, exploit my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Mike Dukaks lost support during the 1988 debate with his debate performance when he failed to show emotion on a hypothetical question concerning his opposition to the death penalty should his wife be murdered. The 1992 Vice Presidential debate hurt Ross Perot when his running mate James Stockdate declared “who am I? Why am I here?”
Candidate website are becoming more common. In 1998, 89% of Governor and U.S. Senate candidates had a web site.
The author concludes that the press should follow the words of John Milton and St. Paul of “prove all things, hold fast to what is good” and then adds “and leave the choice to each viewer’s discretion.”
The author, former CBS News Director Martin Plissner, writes a history of how the TV news determined the coverage of Presidential candidates.
In 1916, the first broadcast of a political event was by Lee DeForest using a ham radio. DeForest announced to a few local listeners that Charles Evan Hughes had been elected President. Thus began a long history of broadcasts getting the news wrong. This would include 1948 when H.V. Kaltenburn of NBC mistakenly announced that Tom Dewey had defeated Harry Truman.
When the TV networks broadcast their first political convention, the 1952 Republican National Convention, the Republican National Committee Chairman at first thought the network should pay his party for the broadcast, as the networks do for sports broadcasts.
Not every candidate appreciated national TV coverage. In 1964, Nelson Rockefeller did not want TV cameras covering his speeches. By 1976, candidates were mostly planning their speeches according to obtaining network coverage.
In 1964, both CBS and NBC changed their evening news from 15 minutes to 30 minute programs. In 1963, had surpassed newspapers as the public’s primary source of political news. Presidential campaigns have increasingly strategized on how to obtain network news coverage.
The author states, from experience, that networks seek news coverage to reach the greatest number of viewers at the lowest costs. TV networks seek to find material that shows they have a broadcasting advantage to viewers over the other networks. Ratings are important, and ratings help determine the showing of national political conventions in accordance with lead in shows that may benefit or highly rated shows that may be shown instead of convention coverage.
TV news coverage has changed the political process. TV coverage of Presidential primaries caused more states to adopt primaries.
Networks began creating benchmarks for candidates to achieve in primaries. This made the races more interesting for viewers as all candidates were given benchmarks that news reporters expected them to achieve. The “expectations game” became a feature of TV coverage.
Networks created tiers of candidates. The first tier is a front runner and a primary challenger. The second tier is candidates with a potential to shine. The third tier is candidates consider to have no chance at winning. These designations are fluid, as John Connally in 1980 and John Glenn in 1984 were first tier candidates who quickly collapsed during their first primaries.
In 1975, network news began conducting and reporting “straw votes” at political gatherings to raise viewer interest in the upcoming elections.
Candidates can use network interviews to turn their campaigns around. In 1988, when Dan Rather of CBS challenged that George Bush has to have known about a controversial arms sales, Bush improved his image by attacking back at Rather.
Coverage of the 1992 Presidential campaign faced network financial cutbacks due to increase expenses networks faced covering the 1991 Iraq War as well as declining general network revenues.
The networks viewed campaign coverage during the 1960s as something that gained viewers. During the 1990s, campaign coverage was seen as something that lost them viewers. It became viewed as more of an obligation that as a ratings booster.
Gennifer Flowers’ accusation but inability to prove an affair with Bill Clinton soaked up much of the early 1992 campaign coverage. Voters stated they had no problem with a candidate who may have cheated on his marriage. Ironically, the Clinton scandal provided more coverage and acceptance of Clinton. The Clinton campaign gained while other candidates found they received relatively less coverage.
Convention broadcasting can affect news programming. When CBS failed to get its radio broadcasting star Edward R. Murrow to cover the 1952 Republican National Convention, a young reporter Walter Cronkite rose to fame when he provided the coverage. CBS received $3 million from Westinghouse for sponsoring the 1952 conventions from “gavel to gavel”.
TV coverage impacted the 1952 Presidential race. The 1952 Republican Convention began with Robert Taft having the most delegates. A Credentials Committee meeting was held where Taft supporters held a majority in determining controversies over seating delegates. The committee meeting was closed to cameras yet Taft supporters quickly realized the negative effect this closed door meeting had on viewers as Eisenhower supporters were shown demanding letting cameras to be brought in. A CBS technician was able to listen in to the committee’s closed proceeding and Cronkite reported what was happening. The committee hearings were then opened to cameras and the Taft supporters backed down on their planned maneuverings that would have seated more Taft delegates. Eisenhower wound up winning the nomination.
NBC devoted 152 hours while CBS provided 139 hours of coverage of the two 1953 national conventions.
CBS wanted to make speakers appear better on TV. CBS held candidates’ TV training classes led by Walter Cronkite. The classes included tips of diction, clothing, and makeup. Sen. John Kennedy was one of the attendees. Kennedy would narrate a 30 minute film at the 1956 Democratic Convention that ABC and NBC showed but CBS did not.
The 1956 convention featured fewer contests compared to the 1952 conventions as both opened with their Presidential nominees as certain. Two little known broadcasters, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, won praise for their NBC convention coverage that included humor and insightful stories. NBC then made Huntley and Brinkley the anchors of their network news. In 1960, NBC overtook Douglas Fairbanks of CBS in the network news ratings. CBS News had led the ratings since World War II.
Huntley and Brinkley’s NBC coverage of the 1960 conventions had more viewers than CBS, which used Cronkite and Murrow. A CBS news executive was fired. When NBC outdrew CBS at the first 1964 convention, CBS removed Cronkite from covering the second convention. NBC increased its spending on convention coverage by four times.
CBS had an advantage in that they polled delegates. They declared that Barry Goldwater had wrapped up the 1964 Republican nomination after the California Primary. In 1968, CBS announced that Richard Nixon had 689 delegates when he needed 667 delegates for the Republican nomination. This helped Nixon win the nomination as Ronald Reagan’s campaign claimed there were delegates desiring to switch from Nixon to Reagan but they wouldn’t switch as they had already made their commitments known to CBS.
In 1976, CBS was on the verge of declaring a week before the start of the Republican convention that their survey of delegates showed Gerald Ford was going to win the nomination. Ronald Reagan then announced his selection of Richard Schweiker as his running mate. It took CBS that final week to repoll delegate to ascertain that Ford retained his lead despite the Reagan selection of a running mate. Thus, though, had the impact of keeping Reagan in the race until the convention.
Network presentations of disorderly and divisive political conventions led to what has been labeled Donilon’s Law, from a quote from Democrat Tom Donilon who stated “a party’s chance of winning the Presidency varies inversely with the length of the time it takes it’s nominee to clinch the nomination”. Republicans transformed this law into what they called their 11th commandment, which is “thou should not makes news” or attack other Republicans in public. Ford’s campaign in 1976 gave up a convention fight over platform points to Reagan’s camp rather than have a policy split shown on TV. In 1984, Democratic nominee Walter Mondale did the same thing by conceding platform policies to challengers Jesse Jackson and Gary Hart rather than having the policy fights televised. By 1988, the Democratic Party had cut its platform to where there was little to be disputed.
ABC in 1968 did not broadcast the convenient. It kept its regular programs on. Instead, beginning at 10 pm, it presented a show summarizing that evening’s convention events.
At the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley limited mobile TV units to a few sites where his advisors thought protestor would be least visible. Instead, protestors sought out and deliberately protested where the TV cameras were concentrated. 16,000 police and National Guard and barbed wire protected the convention. A “police riot” was shown on TV. Members of the media, including Dan Rather of CBS, were physically hit, manhandled, or maced by police or the Guard. Walter Cronkite declared famously to Dan Rather as he was being dragged away by security “I think we’ve got a bunch of thugs there, Dan.” Mayor Daley was upset, believing the coverage was slanted and that protestor taunts were not broadcast.
The 1972 Democratic Convention showed convention and platform fight. This hurt the Democrats.
The 1980 Democratic Convention featured platform fights between Jimmy Carter and Edward Kennedy forces. The failure of the two sides to visibly unite afterwards hurt the Democrats.
Republicans in 1972 deliberately preset every aspect of their convention. CBS found this out and reported on the orchestration.
In 1992, NBC aired its regular programming for much of the conventions and allowed NBC reporters to broadcast for PBS. CBS didn’t show the entire evening of a convention and presented the All Star baseball game instead. While there was less coverage of these conventions, the author believes the public was not denied any information as the nominations were settled prior to the conventions.
Both political parties moved to prevent airing any political dissent at their 1996 conventions. Ted Koppel of ABC declared the conventions were “more infomercial than news event”. The Democrats polled who would draw ratings as speakers at their convention and picked paraplegic actor Christopher Reeves as a convention speaker. Overall, the networks decided that the $10 million and 300 staff they used to broadcast the 1996 convention would not be necessary for the 2000 conventions.
In 1952, CBS and NBC used computers to correctly predict that Dwight Eisenhower would win. ABC added a computer in 1956. The networks upped the ante when CBS predicted its computer would predict the 1960 winner by 7 pm election night. ABC claimed its computer would predict a winner by 6 pm. ABC missed its deadline but predicted at 6:54 predicted that Richard Nixon had defeated John Kennedy. CBS also missed its deadline but its computer predicted that Nixon would win at 7:16 pm. Kennedy defeated Nixon. The networks started using more sophistical polling techniques.
The 1970s saw the introduction of exit polling. CBS found them useful for explaining how categories of voters were voting. Soon after, they were used for election predictions.
In 1980, the networks made early projections that Reagan had won. Polling places were still open on the West Coast when the projections were announced. It was claimed that voter turnout declined in the later hours on the West Coast after these predictions were announced. Others could find little evidence this actually caused many people not to vote. The author states not one voter who didn’t vote because of the forecasts has even been found. Others argued this may have affected the outcome of several close local elections. Network executives promised not to project Presidential winners until after all the mainland polls had closed.
CBS, ABC, NBC, and CNN combined exit polling and computer operations. All used the Voter Research and Surveys (VRS). This saved each network approximately $10 million. In 1994, ABC made its own independent polls without telling the competition that remained reliant on VRS. ABC correctly made major election projections before the others. CBS and CNN responded by jointly investing $1 million to improve their own forecasting abilities that would cover more precincts.
The increased use of polling made both the public and politicians more aware of polling results. Some pundits such as columnist E. J. Dionne feared there was more concentration on polling results than debating or analyzing issues.
The first Presidential debate on radio was in 1948 on NBC, ABC, and Mutual radio networks between two candidates for the Republican nomination, Thomas Dewey and Harold Stassen. The debate covered one topic, “should the Communist Party be outlawed” with each candidates speaking for 20 minutes with each having 8 minutes of rebuttal. There was no moderator. More people considered Dewey the debate winner and Dewey narrowly won the following primary and eventually received the Republican nomination.
CBS and NBC considered holding debates between the Presidential nominees Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson until they realized that Federal Communications Commission rulings required equal time would have to be given to all minor party nominees. In addition, neither Eisenhower nor Stevenson appeared interested in debating in either 1952 or when they met again in 1956. Stevenson, noting that the candidates spent $7 million (or $40 million in 1999 dollars) on TV commercials in 1956, proposed TV provide free broadcast time to candidates. A bill was proposed that two hours per week over eight weeks be provided for major party Presidential candidates. Stevenson then suggested changing the FCC rules so the two major party candidates could debate. This idea was agreeable to the two 1960 candidates, John Kennedy and Richard Nixon. President Eisenhower, who perceived Nixon was wrong to agree to debate, still approved removing the FCC rules so the debate could occur. The 1960 Presidential debate was the largest viewed TV show to that date. The debate helped elect Kennedy.
Later televised Presidential debates were considered influential in helping Jimmy Carter defeat Gerald Ford in 1976 and Ronald Reagan defeat Jimmy Carter in 1980. In 1984, according to polls, Walter Mondale won the first debate yet lost the second to Ronald Reagan who delivered his famous line “I will not, for political purposes, exploit my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Mike Dukaks lost support during the 1988 debate with his debate performance when he failed to show emotion on a hypothetical question concerning his opposition to the death penalty should his wife be murdered. The 1992 Vice Presidential debate hurt Ross Perot when his running mate James Stockdate declared “who am I? Why am I here?”
Candidate website are becoming more common. In 1998, 89% of Governor and U.S. Senate candidates had a web site.
The author concludes that the press should follow the words of John Milton and St. Paul of “prove all things, hold fast to what is good” and then adds “and leave the choice to each viewer’s discretion.”
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
By Any Means Necessary by Spike Lee
Spike Lee with Ralph Wiley. By Any Means Necessary: The Trials and Tribulations of the Making of Malcolm X. New York: Hyperion, 1992.
The main author, Spike Lee, produced the movie “Malcolm X”, stating it was his desire to make this film that drove him to become a filmmaker. Lee had read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” while in elementary school. Malcolm X became his life inspiration. Malcolm X urged Blacks to respect themselves and to improve their lives. He declared that Blacks should defend themselves and have pride in what they do. Both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X had similar goals, which was to obtain rights and dignity for Blacks.
Lee began studying filmmaking as a mass communications students at Morehouse College.
Marvin Worth, who knew Malcolm X, had the film rights to Malcolm X’s life, having obtained them from Malcolm X’s widow, Betty Shabass, and from Alex Haley, who co-authored “The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Norman Jewison was going to direct the film for Warner Brothers. Marvin Worth wanted Lee is direct it. Lee was upset that Jewison had been selected. Letters of protest objecting to Jewison directing the film were sent to Warner Brothers. Jewison stated he didn’t like the script and withdrew from the project.
Lee believes Warner Brothers was willing to do a movie on Malcolm X only after he had been dead for awhile. His memory was not at threatening to Caucasian audiences yet many Blacks still identified with him.
Lee fears major studios only makes Black-oriented films about drug dealing or Black oriented music, such as hip hop. Lee wanted to present a different aspect of Black films could be made.
Lee points out that the studios want profits. They like earning $57 million for Lee’s “Boyz in the Hood” that cost $6 million to make. Yet, they fear venturing far from films that appeal to mainstream audiences. Lee also notes there is racism throughout society and this includes the film industry. He notes there are few Black executives who have the authority to approve which films to make. Further. Few Black films give creative control to Black filmmakers.
Lee began publicizing the movie by selling caps with an “X” on them.
Lee submitted a budget for “Malcolm X” at $38 million. Warner stated they would not approve more than $18 million. Lee left the meeting knowing he wanted to do the movie correctly and he knew it would take more than Warner was willing to approve.
James Baldwin had written the first script with Arnold Perl helping to finish the script. Subsequent scripts were written by Calder Willingham. David Mamet, David Bradley, and Charles Fuller. Lee felt the Baldwin-Perl script was the best but felt it failed to delve into the subject of the split of the Nation of Islam between Minister Louis Farrakhan, who followed the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhamed, and Wallace Muhammed, Elijah’s son, who formed the American Muslim Mission. Malcolm X’s murder resulted from the split. Malcolm X had accused Elijah Muhammed of adultery which he considered a serious sin against their faith.
Lee looked at the scripts. He rejected one that had Alex Haley as a character as Lee felt Haley was irrelevant to the story. Malcolm X’s life was the story. Lee chose the Baldwin-Perl script and had it rewritten. Lee also chose cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, who was known for taking his time to do a good job.
Lee went to Warner Brothers to attempt to convince them that “Malcolm X” deserved to be a three hour epic film. Theaters don’t like long movies and they have to have fewer showing per day to present them which means fewer ticket sales per day. As Lee put it, “let’s be honest. Hollywood is predominantly male and Jewish, and all they think is that Malcolm X was an anti-Semite who hated white people and advocated violence”. Lee sensed a lack of enthusiasm amongst Warner Brother executives for promoting this movie.
Lee notes Universal gave him more independence and was easier to work with, especially since he made them profits. Warner Brothers was more intrusive into his filmmaking. Lee wanted Warner Brothers to sell the “Malcolm X” project to Universal, and Universal wanted to buy it, but Warner Brothers refused.
Lee had a clause in his movie contracts prohibiting them from being shown in South Africa, which then practiced apartheid. Lee used a foreign rights sale to boost the budget for filming “Malcolm X”, although the price was adjusted downwards by $500,000 as the distributor was not at first aware of the South Africa clause. Warner still refused to increase the budget and insisted they would sell the foreign distribution rights.
Lee conducted his own research for the film and interviewed people in Malcolm X’s life. He also reviewed Malcolm X’s assassination. He met with Minister Farrakhan, who was concerned how Elijah Muhammed would be presented and how the assassination would be handled. Farrakhan admitted he assisted in creating the climate the contributed towards Malcolm X’s shooting but denied any involvement in the murder.
After nine months of preparation, Lee began filming the movie even though some worried he wasn’t completely ready to film. Yet, Lee felt he had momentum going for him and he wanted to keep that momentum, even if it meant shooting and planning simultaneously.
Denzel Washington, who had portrayed Malcolm X on Broadway and had a physical resemblance to Malcolm X, had been hired to portray Malcolm X before Spike Lee took the project. Washington made helpful suggestions regarding his role throughout the project. Lee was very happy with Washington’s performance.
Shooting in Peekskill, N.Y. was done for scenes representing Omaha and East Lansing, Mi. A Manhattan building was used to represent a Boston home.
Lee had to deal with personal problems during the shoots. His girlfriend broke up with him, his father was arrested for having heroin, an extra was murdered, and a car with a brick tied to the accelerator crashed onto the set. The extra’s murder was not related to the movie yet the press placed her role in the movie in their headlines. Betty Shabazz objected to the script. Protestors appeared on the set claiming Spike Lee had no right to make the film. An actor quit on him during a filming in a rainstorm at 2 am.
When the filming costs whet over budget, the Completion Bond Company threatened to take control of the shooting. Lee went to film in Cairo and South Africa in defiance of the bond company.
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington took pay cuts to get the movie finished. Lee is upset that Warner Brothers did not provide extra money to satisfy the bond company for going over budget, as they have done for many other films. The bond company was also upset when Lee stated it would take ten weeks to edit the movie. The bond company threatened that the Directors Guild would have taken over the editing from Lee, except Lee wasn’t a Guild member. Lee then went public with his desire to make a quality film rather than a rushed film. Warner Brothers was upset over the negative publicity this generated for them. A first cut deadline was met by requiring the editors to work 12 hour days, seven days a week. Fortunately, the first screening went well and the Warner Brothers executives were happy with the movie.
The movie was released in 1992. As Lee summed it up, “nothing in the world gives me the feeling I get from the cinema.”
The main author, Spike Lee, produced the movie “Malcolm X”, stating it was his desire to make this film that drove him to become a filmmaker. Lee had read “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” while in elementary school. Malcolm X became his life inspiration. Malcolm X urged Blacks to respect themselves and to improve their lives. He declared that Blacks should defend themselves and have pride in what they do. Both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X had similar goals, which was to obtain rights and dignity for Blacks.
Lee began studying filmmaking as a mass communications students at Morehouse College.
Marvin Worth, who knew Malcolm X, had the film rights to Malcolm X’s life, having obtained them from Malcolm X’s widow, Betty Shabass, and from Alex Haley, who co-authored “The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Norman Jewison was going to direct the film for Warner Brothers. Marvin Worth wanted Lee is direct it. Lee was upset that Jewison had been selected. Letters of protest objecting to Jewison directing the film were sent to Warner Brothers. Jewison stated he didn’t like the script and withdrew from the project.
Lee believes Warner Brothers was willing to do a movie on Malcolm X only after he had been dead for awhile. His memory was not at threatening to Caucasian audiences yet many Blacks still identified with him.
Lee fears major studios only makes Black-oriented films about drug dealing or Black oriented music, such as hip hop. Lee wanted to present a different aspect of Black films could be made.
Lee points out that the studios want profits. They like earning $57 million for Lee’s “Boyz in the Hood” that cost $6 million to make. Yet, they fear venturing far from films that appeal to mainstream audiences. Lee also notes there is racism throughout society and this includes the film industry. He notes there are few Black executives who have the authority to approve which films to make. Further. Few Black films give creative control to Black filmmakers.
Lee began publicizing the movie by selling caps with an “X” on them.
Lee submitted a budget for “Malcolm X” at $38 million. Warner stated they would not approve more than $18 million. Lee left the meeting knowing he wanted to do the movie correctly and he knew it would take more than Warner was willing to approve.
James Baldwin had written the first script with Arnold Perl helping to finish the script. Subsequent scripts were written by Calder Willingham. David Mamet, David Bradley, and Charles Fuller. Lee felt the Baldwin-Perl script was the best but felt it failed to delve into the subject of the split of the Nation of Islam between Minister Louis Farrakhan, who followed the teachings of the Honorable Elijah Muhamed, and Wallace Muhammed, Elijah’s son, who formed the American Muslim Mission. Malcolm X’s murder resulted from the split. Malcolm X had accused Elijah Muhammed of adultery which he considered a serious sin against their faith.
Lee looked at the scripts. He rejected one that had Alex Haley as a character as Lee felt Haley was irrelevant to the story. Malcolm X’s life was the story. Lee chose the Baldwin-Perl script and had it rewritten. Lee also chose cinematographer Ernest Dickerson, who was known for taking his time to do a good job.
Lee went to Warner Brothers to attempt to convince them that “Malcolm X” deserved to be a three hour epic film. Theaters don’t like long movies and they have to have fewer showing per day to present them which means fewer ticket sales per day. As Lee put it, “let’s be honest. Hollywood is predominantly male and Jewish, and all they think is that Malcolm X was an anti-Semite who hated white people and advocated violence”. Lee sensed a lack of enthusiasm amongst Warner Brother executives for promoting this movie.
Lee notes Universal gave him more independence and was easier to work with, especially since he made them profits. Warner Brothers was more intrusive into his filmmaking. Lee wanted Warner Brothers to sell the “Malcolm X” project to Universal, and Universal wanted to buy it, but Warner Brothers refused.
Lee had a clause in his movie contracts prohibiting them from being shown in South Africa, which then practiced apartheid. Lee used a foreign rights sale to boost the budget for filming “Malcolm X”, although the price was adjusted downwards by $500,000 as the distributor was not at first aware of the South Africa clause. Warner still refused to increase the budget and insisted they would sell the foreign distribution rights.
Lee conducted his own research for the film and interviewed people in Malcolm X’s life. He also reviewed Malcolm X’s assassination. He met with Minister Farrakhan, who was concerned how Elijah Muhammed would be presented and how the assassination would be handled. Farrakhan admitted he assisted in creating the climate the contributed towards Malcolm X’s shooting but denied any involvement in the murder.
After nine months of preparation, Lee began filming the movie even though some worried he wasn’t completely ready to film. Yet, Lee felt he had momentum going for him and he wanted to keep that momentum, even if it meant shooting and planning simultaneously.
Denzel Washington, who had portrayed Malcolm X on Broadway and had a physical resemblance to Malcolm X, had been hired to portray Malcolm X before Spike Lee took the project. Washington made helpful suggestions regarding his role throughout the project. Lee was very happy with Washington’s performance.
Shooting in Peekskill, N.Y. was done for scenes representing Omaha and East Lansing, Mi. A Manhattan building was used to represent a Boston home.
Lee had to deal with personal problems during the shoots. His girlfriend broke up with him, his father was arrested for having heroin, an extra was murdered, and a car with a brick tied to the accelerator crashed onto the set. The extra’s murder was not related to the movie yet the press placed her role in the movie in their headlines. Betty Shabazz objected to the script. Protestors appeared on the set claiming Spike Lee had no right to make the film. An actor quit on him during a filming in a rainstorm at 2 am.
When the filming costs whet over budget, the Completion Bond Company threatened to take control of the shooting. Lee went to film in Cairo and South Africa in defiance of the bond company.
Spike Lee and Denzel Washington took pay cuts to get the movie finished. Lee is upset that Warner Brothers did not provide extra money to satisfy the bond company for going over budget, as they have done for many other films. The bond company was also upset when Lee stated it would take ten weeks to edit the movie. The bond company threatened that the Directors Guild would have taken over the editing from Lee, except Lee wasn’t a Guild member. Lee then went public with his desire to make a quality film rather than a rushed film. Warner Brothers was upset over the negative publicity this generated for them. A first cut deadline was met by requiring the editors to work 12 hour days, seven days a week. Fortunately, the first screening went well and the Warner Brothers executives were happy with the movie.
The movie was released in 1992. As Lee summed it up, “nothing in the world gives me the feeling I get from the cinema.”
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The Measure of a Man by Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier. The Measure of a Man. San Francisco: Harper, 2000.
This is a book about life, not necessarily about one man’s life, as it is meant to be a spiritual book with much questioning of what one does in life. Sidney Poitier notes the common frames of references that movies create for all to discuss their messages and their applications to life. People form common bonds in viewing, learning from, and raising questions collectively from their film viewings. This is a book about finding and living one’s values.
Poitier was born of parents from the Bahamas in a premature birth while his parents were selling tomatoes in Miami. He weighed less than three pounds and his parents, having already experienced still born and diseased children who died after birth, were concerned he wouldn’t live. His mother went to a soothsayer who told his mother that he would live and carry the family name worldwide. His mother, inspired by these words, fought to keep him alive.
When Poitier saw his first movie at age six, he was determined at the point to become an actor. His parents, though, didn’t quite understand movies. When they went to see his first movie “No Way Out” and watched a scene where he gets pistol whipped, his mother started yelling, inside the theater, “hit him back, Sidney! Hit him back. You never did anything to him.”
Poitier grew up a simple life on Cat Island in the Bahamas. He grew up in poverty in a family of tomato farmers in a place with nice beaches, climate, and native plums, grapes, and bananas. He grew up as child free to roam the island, where they were no paved roads, but many paths.
At age 10, the island’s tomato farming business collapsed. He and his family moved to Nassau. He recalls as a child the thrills and fears of taking risks, such as crawling through an underground ditch where he could have drowned. At age 15, he moved in with his brother in Miami to seek a living.
Poitier found Miami oppressive and he fled to New York on a one way bus ticket. He didn’t know about winter. The cruelty of not having proper clothing to survive the winter drove him to join the Army. There he didn’t understand military discipline and he throw a char at an office and was placed in a psychiatric ward. He observed if he acted as if he was crazy he could avoid prison and he was discharged from the Army.
Returning to New York, Poitier saw an ad for actors at the American Negro Theatre. He could barely read, had no acting training, had a thick Bahamian accent, and he failed his audition, being told to “get yourself a job as a dishwasher or something”. That comment tore at him. He made it his goal to prove to them he was an actor. He studied English from another waiter where he worked. He went to a second audition and was hired. He, though, was upset to only receive a role as an understudy to another Caribbean actor, Harry Belafonte. Fortunately, a casting director saw him on a night he was filling in for Belafonte and he was offered a Broadway role.
Poitier suffered from extreme stage fright. Yet the reviews for his performance were good. This led to a job with a road show followed by off-Broadway roles and then his first movie, “No Way Out”. The film director Joseph Mankowicz recommended him to producer Zoltan Korda who hired him to appear in London theater.
Poitier was offered a movie role where he didn’t like the script and he turned it down. An agent Marty Baum noted the part paid well, wasn’t racially demanding, and that Poitier felt an integrity in turning down a bad role. He offered to represent Poitier, telling him “anyone as crazy as yet, I want to handle him.”
While filming movies, Poitier noted that of cast and crew of almost a hundred people, he frequently was the only Black. From this, he felt very much as if his work was representing millions of Black people.
It was hard for Blacks to get acting jobs, get acting jobs, and be recognized for them. Poitier in fact would become the first Black to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. Poitier and others raised the issue with Actors’ Equity only to find themselves blacklisted from getting parts. Poitier believes that Leigh Whipper, the leader of the Negro Actors Guild, was a sell out who did not fight for more acting roles for Blacks. Whipper told him to accept the system and showed that he had a gun he would use on Poitier or anyone else who messed with him.
Poitier fortunately did win a role in the movie “Blackboard Jungle”. He was asked to sign a loyalty oath because he knew Paul Robeson, Canada Lee, and other Blacks actors “of questionable character”. Poitier refused to sign a loyalty oath. Shooting began. They never asked him again to sign the oath.
While doing publicity for “Blackboard Jungle”, Poiter went into a restaurant in Georgia only to learn that, by law, a Black person could only be served if a screen was placed around him. He left.
Poitier received a role on a David Susskind TV show. NBC asked Poitier to sign a loyalty oath and again he declined. David Susskind told Poitier to go to work and ignore NBC. Again, no one challenged his not signing the oath.
Poitier did a TV film in 1955 “Edge of the City” where Hilda Simms played his wife. Simms, who was a fair skinned Black, looked white on TV. Many viewers objected to what they thought was a presentation of an interracial couple and they jammed the TV station phones and sent letters in protest.
Poitier writer how Hollywood had been unfair to Black actors for movie roles. He believes Hollywood was insensitive towards Blacks and how this disservice has been captured on film. He feels he does owe a debt to Black film actors before him, knowns how much it pained them to perform roles that demeaned Blacks, and notes that many of them were able to show some good active as positive signs.
1968 was a good year for Poitier. He starred in the that year’s top three box office successes, “To Sir, With Love”, “In the Heat of the Night”, and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”. Poitier was applauded for his strong roles that better represented Black culture. He was criticized by some for not being angry enough Poitier sees his roles as a teacher as one demonstrating virtue, his role of a police detective as one showing intelligence and courage, and his role as doctor as showing courteousness. He believes he helped show that Black society has accomplishment, education, and refinement that deserves recognition.
Poitier notes that Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Paul Robeson, and Nelson Mandela made advances without being angry. Poitier sees anger as being a destructive energy that instead should be channeled into positive energy.
While preparing the filming of ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, people involved in the film delayed telling Columbia pictures the controversy of interracial dating that the movie would show. Instead, they assured the studio that he, Katharine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy were all onboard and that it would be a funny and warm script. Columbia began to have doubts and then stated they could not get insurance for Spencer Tracy due to his age. Tracy then stated he wouldn’t take any pay until filming was complete. Poitier notes the real world parallels when he was invited to dinner by Hepburn and Tracy and felt that while they believed in the ideals of the movie, that even Hollywood liberals in the 1960s were not used to having Black men over for dinner.
Poitier observes we have memories and he advises actors should reach a sense from their experiences to convey a character’s emotions. When audiences can see that, the actor has a “presence” that shows “a camera likes that actor”.
He strives to learn from other actors. Acting is more than pretending to be someone else. An actor prepares at length to objectively explore a character, then subjectively examine the role, and then focus so the character remains that person through the entire role. He recommends an actor intensively immersing the actor’s self into the role. This is what he learned from Rod Steiger.
An actor must know what life is about and know about causes and effects. Acting requires discipline. An actor should realize that human emotions are similar for everyone. The audience knows this, and the actor should recognize these universal traits. Effective acting is being real and being in the moment. An actor should learn to avoid portraying an unbelievable character. A sense of life can be found from doing good work.
This is a book about life, not necessarily about one man’s life, as it is meant to be a spiritual book with much questioning of what one does in life. Sidney Poitier notes the common frames of references that movies create for all to discuss their messages and their applications to life. People form common bonds in viewing, learning from, and raising questions collectively from their film viewings. This is a book about finding and living one’s values.
Poitier was born of parents from the Bahamas in a premature birth while his parents were selling tomatoes in Miami. He weighed less than three pounds and his parents, having already experienced still born and diseased children who died after birth, were concerned he wouldn’t live. His mother went to a soothsayer who told his mother that he would live and carry the family name worldwide. His mother, inspired by these words, fought to keep him alive.
When Poitier saw his first movie at age six, he was determined at the point to become an actor. His parents, though, didn’t quite understand movies. When they went to see his first movie “No Way Out” and watched a scene where he gets pistol whipped, his mother started yelling, inside the theater, “hit him back, Sidney! Hit him back. You never did anything to him.”
Poitier grew up a simple life on Cat Island in the Bahamas. He grew up in poverty in a family of tomato farmers in a place with nice beaches, climate, and native plums, grapes, and bananas. He grew up as child free to roam the island, where they were no paved roads, but many paths.
At age 10, the island’s tomato farming business collapsed. He and his family moved to Nassau. He recalls as a child the thrills and fears of taking risks, such as crawling through an underground ditch where he could have drowned. At age 15, he moved in with his brother in Miami to seek a living.
Poitier found Miami oppressive and he fled to New York on a one way bus ticket. He didn’t know about winter. The cruelty of not having proper clothing to survive the winter drove him to join the Army. There he didn’t understand military discipline and he throw a char at an office and was placed in a psychiatric ward. He observed if he acted as if he was crazy he could avoid prison and he was discharged from the Army.
Returning to New York, Poitier saw an ad for actors at the American Negro Theatre. He could barely read, had no acting training, had a thick Bahamian accent, and he failed his audition, being told to “get yourself a job as a dishwasher or something”. That comment tore at him. He made it his goal to prove to them he was an actor. He studied English from another waiter where he worked. He went to a second audition and was hired. He, though, was upset to only receive a role as an understudy to another Caribbean actor, Harry Belafonte. Fortunately, a casting director saw him on a night he was filling in for Belafonte and he was offered a Broadway role.
Poitier suffered from extreme stage fright. Yet the reviews for his performance were good. This led to a job with a road show followed by off-Broadway roles and then his first movie, “No Way Out”. The film director Joseph Mankowicz recommended him to producer Zoltan Korda who hired him to appear in London theater.
Poitier was offered a movie role where he didn’t like the script and he turned it down. An agent Marty Baum noted the part paid well, wasn’t racially demanding, and that Poitier felt an integrity in turning down a bad role. He offered to represent Poitier, telling him “anyone as crazy as yet, I want to handle him.”
While filming movies, Poitier noted that of cast and crew of almost a hundred people, he frequently was the only Black. From this, he felt very much as if his work was representing millions of Black people.
It was hard for Blacks to get acting jobs, get acting jobs, and be recognized for them. Poitier in fact would become the first Black to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. Poitier and others raised the issue with Actors’ Equity only to find themselves blacklisted from getting parts. Poitier believes that Leigh Whipper, the leader of the Negro Actors Guild, was a sell out who did not fight for more acting roles for Blacks. Whipper told him to accept the system and showed that he had a gun he would use on Poitier or anyone else who messed with him.
Poitier fortunately did win a role in the movie “Blackboard Jungle”. He was asked to sign a loyalty oath because he knew Paul Robeson, Canada Lee, and other Blacks actors “of questionable character”. Poitier refused to sign a loyalty oath. Shooting began. They never asked him again to sign the oath.
While doing publicity for “Blackboard Jungle”, Poiter went into a restaurant in Georgia only to learn that, by law, a Black person could only be served if a screen was placed around him. He left.
Poitier received a role on a David Susskind TV show. NBC asked Poitier to sign a loyalty oath and again he declined. David Susskind told Poitier to go to work and ignore NBC. Again, no one challenged his not signing the oath.
Poitier did a TV film in 1955 “Edge of the City” where Hilda Simms played his wife. Simms, who was a fair skinned Black, looked white on TV. Many viewers objected to what they thought was a presentation of an interracial couple and they jammed the TV station phones and sent letters in protest.
Poitier writer how Hollywood had been unfair to Black actors for movie roles. He believes Hollywood was insensitive towards Blacks and how this disservice has been captured on film. He feels he does owe a debt to Black film actors before him, knowns how much it pained them to perform roles that demeaned Blacks, and notes that many of them were able to show some good active as positive signs.
1968 was a good year for Poitier. He starred in the that year’s top three box office successes, “To Sir, With Love”, “In the Heat of the Night”, and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”. Poitier was applauded for his strong roles that better represented Black culture. He was criticized by some for not being angry enough Poitier sees his roles as a teacher as one demonstrating virtue, his role of a police detective as one showing intelligence and courage, and his role as doctor as showing courteousness. He believes he helped show that Black society has accomplishment, education, and refinement that deserves recognition.
Poitier notes that Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Paul Robeson, and Nelson Mandela made advances without being angry. Poitier sees anger as being a destructive energy that instead should be channeled into positive energy.
While preparing the filming of ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, people involved in the film delayed telling Columbia pictures the controversy of interracial dating that the movie would show. Instead, they assured the studio that he, Katharine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy were all onboard and that it would be a funny and warm script. Columbia began to have doubts and then stated they could not get insurance for Spencer Tracy due to his age. Tracy then stated he wouldn’t take any pay until filming was complete. Poitier notes the real world parallels when he was invited to dinner by Hepburn and Tracy and felt that while they believed in the ideals of the movie, that even Hollywood liberals in the 1960s were not used to having Black men over for dinner.
Poitier observes we have memories and he advises actors should reach a sense from their experiences to convey a character’s emotions. When audiences can see that, the actor has a “presence” that shows “a camera likes that actor”.
He strives to learn from other actors. Acting is more than pretending to be someone else. An actor prepares at length to objectively explore a character, then subjectively examine the role, and then focus so the character remains that person through the entire role. He recommends an actor intensively immersing the actor’s self into the role. This is what he learned from Rod Steiger.
An actor must know what life is about and know about causes and effects. Acting requires discipline. An actor should realize that human emotions are similar for everyone. The audience knows this, and the actor should recognize these universal traits. Effective acting is being real and being in the moment. An actor should learn to avoid portraying an unbelievable character. A sense of life can be found from doing good work.
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