Riding the Alligator by Pen Densham

Pen Densham. Riding the Alligator: Strategies for a Career in Screenplay Writingland and Not Getting Eaten. Studio City, Ca.: Michael Wise Productions, 2011.

The author quit school in Britain at age 15 and became a self-taught filmmaker.  He present his personal guide to the filmmaking process while advising people to follow their instincts in finding what works for them.

Densham believes one needs a passion to do what they want.  He notes the Hollywood distribution system has the ability to provide an average of about one movie a day. He advises trying to make what moves your spirit into something that similarly moves others.

A part of the brain, mirror neutrons, become active when observing other humans.  The brain considers how it might respond in similar situations.  These receptors are often lacking in people with autism.  Thus, Hollywood literally is correct in calling itself a “Dream Factory”.  Movies activate brain receptors and places ourselves into what we watch.  From this, we learn the brain the brain responds to challenging situation, realism, and happy endings that allow the characters watched achieve goals.

People like heroes.  A study of six year olds had them view a film of a movie where a block helped another block climb an incline while another block pushed the block down.  When offered which block to play with, the babies usually chose the block that helped move the block up.  From birth, most humans prefer heroes over villains.

Cultural studies of myths and legends indicate there are variations of similar stories in every culture through time.  The stories relate to “primary needs” and to “experiences”.  There are about seven general plots behind all stories.  There are love stories/finding a mate, survival stories/finding food and shelter, avoid dying/murder and detective stories, avoid being eaten/fear and horror, and achieving dominance/reproduction.  These dominance tales include precautionary tales about achieving too much dominance.

Creativity expands stories to new points.  Movie scripts, due to limitations of 90 to 120 pages, are short stories.  Writer’s block can be overcome by just writing anything and then looking at what creativity exists in what was written.  Avoid being so unique that others can’t comprehend it.

A problem in the movie industry is that audience surveys indicate people most want to see new and different types of movies.  Yet, movie executives need to justify their spending based on past successes. Fox Studios expected “Star Wars” to fail. Universal Studios feared “American Graffiti” would be a disaster.

Movies have themes that teach about something that touches our basic biological senses.  Denshall calls this “hiding the medicine”.  Densham recommends providing characters with a dark, life changing past that leads to an internal journey. The external story haunts the internal turmoil.  The lead character’s world should fall apart, usually around page 28 of the script.  The lead character uses past lifelong knowledge to cope.  Things, though, only get worse.  The character discovers a new path and is reborn. This should relate to our feelings and common experiences.

A script needs an interesting beginning, a middle with conflict, and an explosive end.  Densham advises ending quickly to create a more positive feeling.

Densham recommends taking a lead character and placing the character into a situation contrary to the character’s personality.  Let the character’s voice come through, he advises.

An antagonist should attack a lead character’s weakness.  The hero overcomes the weakness to succeed.  The hero should have failure before overcoming tribulations around the third challenge.

When writing to sell a script, Densham recommends researching the background of the person being contacted. He advises personalizing the letter.  He recommends developing contacts with assistants.  He advises choosing agents, managers, and lawyers who are moral.

Use stress to your advantage, Densham advises.  It can yield insights.  It can make others care more for you.  Prepare for possible outcomes.

Densham recommends screenwriters dedicate themselves to ther career and not to one screenplay.

Not Bad for a Human by Lance Henriksen

Lance Henriksen and Joseph Maddrey. Not Bad for a Human. Canada: Bloody Pulp Books, 2011.

Lance Henriksen began painting at age 15 and threw himself into his art.  He added pottery as a passion.  He dedicates himself to his work without deciding when starting what it will be when he ends.  He then went into acting, which he handled with the same philosophy which he calls “compulsive energy”.  He went into narration and voice over work.  He feels consistent with director Sidney Lumet’s philosophy of “I don’t want life reproduced up there on the screen.  I want life created.”

Actor Charles During advised Henriksen that Henriksen’s unusual looks meant he would get more roles when he was older.  This proved correct. 

Henricksen’s father was a Merchant Marine who was seldom around.  He spent time in children’s homes where he regularly defied authority.  He didn’t learn to read.  He had only three years of grammar school.  He worked the streets as a shoeshine boy.  His uncles pleaded with him to earn more for the family by deliberately getting hit by a car, to which he refused.  He ran away from home and kept running, doing odd jobs along the way. He snuck into a theater and watched a play.  When he saw the actors swear on stage, and observed how the audience loved it, he knew he wanted to be an actor.  He walked into the Actors Studio, announced he wanted to be an actor, was told he was too young, and he was kicked out. That frustrations made him decided to become a man.  He joined the Navy, in part, to mimic his father’s life.

Henriksen was 16 when he joined the Navy, and lied by saying he was the minimum age of 17.  He enjoyed having friends and being challenged.  He was given responsibility, which taught him about himself.  His mother made the Navy give him 30 days emergency leave because she had no money during winter.  He realized he couldn’t do anything about that, so he ran away again.  He made it to Denver where he was arrested for not paying rent.  He was then arrested for being AWOL.  When in the brig, another prisoner threatened to kill him.  Henriksen decided to act first and beat the guy with wooden shower shoes.  After release, he tried to escape again, het his vehicle caught fire after going just 500 yards.  He was expelled from the Navy and given $15.

Henriksen used the money to buy funny looking clothes, in protest against the world.  He hitchhiked and was picked up by a guy in a stolen vehicle.  He spent four months in jail awaiting trial on charges he was involved in stealing the vehicle.  The Judge let him go and he went back to traveling.  He returned to art, received a commission for murals, yet they were rejected.  He then went overseas.

Henriksen was jailed for vagrancy in Tucson in 1960.  A film crew was in town filming the TV show “Sunday Showcase”.  He pleaded for help and he received $5 for being an extra.  He went to Boston and auditioned for a part as a mime.  Out of a block long line of mimes, he and a friend got two of the four mime parts. He saved an act when a foam rubber golden calf fell and he mimed as if it the fall were part of the act.  The mime artist, Claude Kipnis, was impressed and offered Henriksen work in a touring company.  Henriksen ironically played a prisoner in the play “The Brig” in San Francisco.

Until this point, the mostly illiterate Henriksen did not need to rely on written words.  His acting was being “on just being”.  He wanted to “live as the character” and not as someone else’s written words.

Henriksen won the lead role in a Eugene O’Neill play at the Masterworks Laboratory Theatre in New York.  He didn’t realize he had the lead role until rehearsals.  He would land several roles, usually as an angry person, in New York and Boston theaters.

Henriksen hung around the Actor’s Studio.  He could observe and attend meetings.  He never auditioned to become a member.  He disliked Leo Strassberg.

Henrikson studied Method acting and placing his own memories and emotions into his roles.

His first movie was “It Ain’t Easy” in 1972.  It was critically slammed. He then did some more plays.  In 1973, his next movie roles was in “To Kill the King”.  He couldn’t identify with the part.  Still, he continued during film work.  He was hired to work in the movie ”Dog Day Afternoon” with director Sidney Lumet..  Henriksen observed how Lumet directed. 

Henriksen’s next film was “Close Encounters of the Third King”, where he worked for six months for less than two minutes of film time.  The director, Steven Spielberg, didn’t like it when Henrikson suggested a plot change.

Henriksen filmed several horror films, including “Damien: Omen II”.  He was in “Piranha 2” as directed by James Cameron.  In that film, he broke his hand diving 40 feet from a helicopter, accidentally drove a boat onto a dock, and his helicopter almost collided, almost stalled, and crashed.  Cameron was impressed by the risks Henriksen was silling to take and also in his interest in the acting process.

Henriksen appeared on the TV soup “Ryan’s Hope” for two days.  He didn’t like the acting work there, which he thought was awful.  He turned down a three year contract of $50,000 for the first year, $75,000 for the second year, and $100,000 for the third year.  Instead, he had a few minor roles during that time.  He had a role as a hostage negotiator on “Cagney and Lacey” which went so well it is used in a government film for training hostage negotiators.

Henriksen appeared as Wally Schirra in “The Right Stuff”.  He then helped James Cameron negotiate approve to film “The Terminator”.  Henriksen turned down the role later given to Arnold Schwarzenegger.  He didn’t regret this.  Instead, he took the role of Hal Vukovich.

James Cameron brought Henriksen back in the “Alien” sequel.  Henriksen did conceptual drawings and hired a costume designer to give himself ideas on how the role should be played.  Henriksen reached into emotions from his youth for this part.  He lost weight the role and tried taking on the physical characteristics of the parts he had.  He would attempt to remain in character to better understand his roles,  Henriken notes that the greatest villains are not those that committed a lot of violence, but those that has a lot of power.

In playing comedy in HBO’s “Tales from the Crypt”, Henriksen was successful by not acting as it if were a comedy.  That tone worked better.

In the movie “Stone Cold”, Henriksen immersed himself into his character. He improvised his lines and the director realized Henrikson understood his character more than was in the script.

Henriksen found it difficult to empathize with his sadistic character in “The Pit and the Pendulum”.  Henriksen adopted a primal life style during the shooting by walking barefoot and having only bread and water.

During filming “Gunfighter’s Moon”, his friend Rex Rossi, a stuntman, suffered a heart attack on the set.  The cast and crew had to keep shooting during the two hours waiting for the ambulance to arrive.  Fortunately, Rossi survived.

Henriksen was on the TV series “Millennium”.  He discovered that TV work involved long hours over continuous weeks.  He found learning 60 pages of script each week for 22 weeks “overwhelming”.  His acting challenge was to bring a human touch to horrific scenes so that they would appear real.  Henrikson worked with director Thomas J. Wright on developing his character.  He wanted closure for his character and he received it when series creator Chris Carter had his character appear on Carter’s next series “X Files”.  Afterwards, Henriksen devoted more time to his family and newborn daughter.

Henriksen’s voice attracted voice over work.  He did a voice on the animated “Tarzan” movie.  Narration work followed by voiceover work in video games.

Henriksen advises low budget filmmakers not to compete with a large budget movie.  He urges finding some originality that will make the movie different and special.

Henriksen had the role of a dying man in “AVP: Alien vs. Predator”.  He smoked four packs of cigarettes a day to make his voice sound sickly.

Henriksen observed “when I’m acting, I’m admitting who I am”. He finds it difficult, after completing a film, waiting until he finds more acting work.

Film School by Steve Bowman

Steve Bowman. Film School: A Memoir That Will Change Your Life. Dallas, Tx.: Benbella Books, Inc., 2011.

Screenwriting courses teach that protagonists must overcome tribulations, the author reports in relating his coursework at the University of Southern California.  This book is the memoirs of someone who overcame difficulties of raising a family and being older than most other students to complete film school and successfully create a TV series.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences was created in 1927.  Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was President.  His first project created an awards system, which is the Academy Awards.  His second project was to create a film school.  The University of Southern California (USC) agreed and became the first film school.  The first course it offered in 1929 was Introduction to Photoplay.  Among the first teachers were Fairbanks, Mark Pickford, Darryl Zanuck, D.W. Griffith, and Ernest Lubitsch.  The USC School of Cinematic Arts has the most film school students in the world with 850 undergraduates and 650 graduate students.  UCLA opened its film school in 1939 and New York University opened its film school in 1965.

A full time USC student takes 8 to 10 credits per semester.  52 credits are required to graduate with a Master of Film Arts in Film Production.  It costs $1,500 per credit or $80,000 in tuition.  Completing film school can cost $150,000 to $200,000 total.

The Production 507 course creates a B to continue in the program.

USC offers a student designed Interdivisional Media Arts and Practice Ph.D. degree. 

The Introduction to Screenwriting course is CTWR 528.

An initial assignment was for students to film a two minute film on a digital camera, which required shooting in order as the film would be shown.

Acting class has a strong basis in acting theory, especially the theories of Uta Hagen.  In the acting class, students had to act and direct.

Film Production class required making short films with limited dialogues.  One film was allowed just one word in eight minutes of film viewing.  The next assignment allowed just one sentence.  Students were to then describe the intentions, synopses, strengths, and weaknesses of each other’s films.  Film should convey information about characters, their directions, relationships with other characters, and make an audience wish to watch.

The author calculated that a four credit course taught in a 341 seat auditorium represented $2 million in tuition for USC.

There is an informal rule that the police won’t hassle a film shoot by film students lacking a permit so long as there are three or less people involved in the shoot.

The permit office FILM MA is described by the author as being slow and ineffective.

Many film people find they may earn a good living working on film sound.

Film was useful in World War II.  16 millimeter film cameras activated when on American airplanes with the planes fired.  This could show exactly what happened.  It could also prove useful for training purposes.

The author notes that film school is very competitive.  Students want to associate with the top level students in hopes of furthering their own careers. 

Much of learning in film school is how well one learns from mistakes.

The author took a course on pitching ideas.  Industry people listened to students pitches.  The author successfully pitched an idea that became a CBS TV series, “Three Rivers”, which aired in 2009 to 2010.

USC provides students with safety guidelines on filmmaking. The author strongly advises they be followed.

Carla Laemmle by Rick Atkin

Rick Atkin.Carla Laemmle: Among the Rugged Peaks. An Intimate Biography. Baltimore, Md: Marquee Press, Inc., 2009.

Carla Laemmle was born on October 20, 1909.  She is the niece of

Carl Laemmle, who created a movie studio on 230 acres he purchased in Lankershim Township, California for $165,000 that became Universal Studios.

Carla studied dance from the age of six, attended dance school, and portrayed the Prima Ballerina in his uncle’s 1925 movie “The Phantom of the Opera.”  She also appeared in the 1931 Universal film “Dracula” as well as dancing in movies such as “Don Juan”, “La Boheme”, and “Camille”.

Before Carl Laemmle moved to California, he rented a downtown Chicago store called the White Front Theater, a nickelodeon with 120 folding chairs.  He then operated a second movie theater in Chicago called Carl’s Family Theater.  He then sold both.  Carl Laemmle had belonged to Edison Patent Company, who held a monopoly on movies by owning the production studios, camera, and film.  Laemmle wanted to create his own movies and he refused to pay royalties to the Edison Patent Company.  Laemmle instead worked with Lumiere film from France and then created the Motion Picture Distribution and Sales Company.  The Edison Patents Company fought back with 280 lawsuits.  The court dissolved the lawsuits in 1915.

Carl Laemmle started the Independent Moving Pictures Company.  Laemmle was unique then in claiming European film rights.Laemmle produced films at 53^rd Street and 11^th Avenue in New York.  “Hiawatha” was the company’s first film.  It starred Gladys Hulette.  It was first shown on October 25, 1909 in New York.  Carla Laemme was five days old at that time.

Carl Laemmle produced a film in 1913 entitled “Traffic in Souls”.  It became the first movie to be booked in 30 New York City theaters at the same time. 

Laemmle hired Erich von Stroheim to direct films.  Von Stroheim’s detailed directing style cost him his job at Universal.  He was replaced in the middle of directing “Merry Go Round” by Rupert Julian.  Julian later directed “The Phantom of the Opera” which starred Lon Chaney and Mary Philbin.  Philbin was a childhood friend of Carla’s. 

Carl Laemmle opened his Universal Pictures movie studios on March 25, 1915.  The company’s official name was the Universal Film Manufacturing Company.  This was the first common area for producing movies.  250 movies were produced in its first year.

Carl Laemmle created the star system.  Florence Lawrence was the first big film star.  She was followed by Mary Pickford. 

Carla received private dance lessons for four years. She also wrote poetry and had poems published in two different Chicago newspapers when she was six years old.  At age 15, she had a poem published in a Los Angeles newspaper.

At age 19, Carla became the personal secretary to Irving Thalberg, a studio General Manager.  Thalberg pushed to produce the movie “The Phantom of the Opera”.  Universal bought the rights.  Thalberg then left Universal to work for Louis B. Mayer Productions.

Carla and her family moved to Universal City in 1920.  Carla befriended a hermit named Pete, who lived in a shack.  Mae West also was a friend of Pete the Hermit.  Carla also enjoyed the studio back lot zoo.

Carla became the Premiere Danseuse at the Shrine Light Opera.  Her live performance won critical acclaim.

Carla appeared in a dramatic role in Universal’s “The Gate Crasher”.  Universal then loaned her to perform in MGM’s “The Broadway Melody of 1929:.  Her scene was cut from the film yet the scene was placed into the movie “The Hollywood Revue of 1929”.  Carla did not know this happened until decades later.

Carla next was in Universal’s “King of Jazz” with Bing Crosby.  She appeared in “Dracula”.  As her line opened the movie, she thus because the first person to speak dialogue in a horror film.  All previous horror films were silent films.  Her cousin Carl Laemmle, Jr. was the film’s producer.

The Depression and gambling problems facing Carl Laemmle and Carl Laemmle, Jr. bankrupted Universal.  Loans could not be repaid so Standard Capital acquired 80% of Universal common stock and took control of Universal.  Carl resigned as President and Carl, Jr. resigned as General Manager and Vice President.  “Magnificent Obsession” and “Showboat” were later released but still listed Carl Laemmle, Jr. as Producer.

Once Carla was no longer under contract with Universal, she was able to work for any studio.  She changed her professional name to Carol Lenard.  Carl danced in several movies such as Warner Brother’s “Mission to Moscow”, MGM’s “The Chocolate Soldier” and RKO’s “Step Lively”, where she danced with  Frank Sinatra.  Her 1946 appearance in “Night and Day” was her last for some time.  She danced professionally in live theater.  She left the entertainment business yet returned to appear as a vampire in “The Vampire Hunter’s Club” in 2001 with Forest Ackerman and Mink Stole.

Hoda by Hoda Kotb

Hoda Kotb with Jane Lorenzini. Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee. New York: Simon and Shuster, 2010.

Kotb graduated college from Virginia Tech in 1986 with a Communications degree. She applied to and was rejected by all three network news agencies. A friend of her uncle helped convince CBS to hire her for errands and for ripping wire. Her parents are Egyptian and she speaks Arabic. She was working for CBS in Egypt when she received an important assignment to film a Dutch ship believed to have armaments that was crossing through the Suez Canal. She helped film this and hid a tape so the Egyptian police would seize a second decoy tape. The tape made “CBS Evening News”.


Kotb then obtained a mews reporter position in Greenville, Mississippi. She became an emergency evening news anchor replacement, starting nervously greeting viewers with “good morning” for the evening broadcast. Despite several errors, she was given another chance. She improved and became the 5 pm news anchor. Afterwards, she worked in other cities’ news stations, including New Orleans, before winding up in New York.

In 1998, Kotb became a correspondent on “Dateline”. She covered anti-American protesting in Pakistan when demonstrators started chanting against her and her film crew. Her assignments took her to Turkey and Iraq. If Iraq, she handled interviews while gunfire surrounded the area during the interviews, as those being interviewed were used to it. She went to Burma and interviewed Sun Kyi, under house arrest, in Kyi’s first interview in 11 years. Since it was illegal to interview Kyi punishable by seven years imprisonment he posed as a tourist and hid the tape with Kyi in a shoe. She filmed in Afghanistan not realizing she was in an area that had land mines. Numerous assignments followed.

Kotb’s work process at “Dateline” was to cover a story, write the script, select of the parts of the taping for the segment, screen it, review, and then send the segment to the senior producers. She and staff often had to argue with the producers and their ideas for revisions. The Executive Producer would be the decision maker. The segment would get its first screening. Further revisions would be made for a second screening. The Legal Departments and Standards and Practices Division representatives would attend the second screening. Standards and Divisions would seek a sense of balance in the presentation.

Kotb began hosting a TV show “Your Total Health” in addition to her “Dateline” duties. She developed breast cancer that required a mastectomy. She decided to present her experiences with breast cancer on the “Today” show.

Kotb sought to host the final hour of the “Today” show. She made an appointment with Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal’s Chief Executive Officer, and pitched her causes. She got the job sharing hosting duties with Ann Curry and Natalie Morales. Morales became the 9 am cohost and national correspondent.

NBC decided to pair Kotb with Kathie Lee Gifford for the final hour of the “Today” show. Gifford has left television eight years prior. Gifford wanted to first meet Kotb. They had a multi-hour initial meeting.

Gifford didn’t use an IFB to hear control room advice during the live show, as she had not used one before. Gifford convinced Kotb to stop using her IFB and to stop referring to notes. The two started clicking better and the show improved with their spontaneous exchanges. They even began drinking alcohol on the air. Kotb observed that “Today” show Executive Director Jim Bell is a good manager who gets people working together.

Behind the Seen by Charles Koppelman

Charles Koppelman. Behind the Seen: How Walter Murch Edited Cold Mountain Using Apple's Final Cut Pro and What This Means for Cinema. Berkeley, Ca.: New Riders, 2005.

It is the film editor who creates a coherent film by selecting pieces of film a director selects. A film editor needs to be both a specialized technician in the editing process and a creative generalist in choosing the correct final product of beauty. A film editor has to work well with a director's lead as well as knowing when to lead the director.

Walter Murch invented the N-VIS-O splicing system. This ides splice marks from the screen.

The film business involves an unpredictable future. Predicting that future is recognized by screenwriter William Goldman who observes in Hollywood "no one knows anything". Still, studios use tools to increase the likelihood of success. Moves are screened before test audiences. Scenes and endings to movies have been changed if test audiences don't like them.

A movie may have 500 years of work placed into its creation.

Film editing begins while shooting. Otherwise editing through perhaps over 40 hours of film could place adding months into getting a movie ready for release. This means the film editor travels to where the film is being shot.

The editing process often means working late and not having time to eat properly. Murch gets himself into physical shape beforehand.

Murch worked on sound effects and mixing on "The Godfather", "American Grafitti", and others. He switched to picture editing with “The Conversation". Others have made the same switch in their careers.

Director Francis Ford Coppola, after his success with "The Godfather", got the studio to agree to let him make "The Conversation" in order to then make "Godfather, Part II." "The Conversation" had to be made on a tight schedule before "The Godfather, Part II" began work. Coppolla thus was working on "Godfather, Part II" while Murch was still editing |"The Conversation". This was challenging since 10% of the screenplay was missing because it was never filmed. Coppola asked Murch to postpone editing "The Conversation" until "Godfather: Part 11" was finished. Murch opposed his and he finished "The Conversation". Murch won two British Academy Awards for editing and sound on "The Conversation".

Murch reedited a line in a crucial scene that changed one of the film's premise in "The Conversation". Murch felt, without the editing, the audience was missing a key point. Coppola agreed with the reediting.

Murch uses many notes formed with memos to the director. These memos of Murch were often 6 ti 8 pages. Murch becomes very involved in his work and communicating with directors.

Murch went to USC and worked for Encyclopedia Brittanica Educational Films and then Dove Films. Upright Moviola editing machines were used then. This machine had foot pedals to move film back and forth and a hand brake. The view was postcardsized, much smaller than what was seen on screen. The Moviola would sometimes scratch and destroy film. Murch would later use both the nonlinear Moviloa and the linear KEM.

Computes began being used for film editing during the 1980s. Computers stored lots of information and let editing be completed more quickl. The Avid computer editing system which also converted film to video cost $80,000 to $100,000. Most feature films budgeted for two Avids, with many using just one.

Premire editing machines appeared in 1991 for video use. The Premiere could not turn 24 frames per second film tin 40 frames per second film.

The Final Cut Pro (FPC) digital editing system appeared in 1999. Apple made it and Macinstosh users such as Murch liked it. Murch decided to edit "Cold Mountain" with FPC. THis was the first feature film editoed with $995 software. FCP was marketed as something between consumer and professional use. Many antiicipated how it would work for a feature film.

Murch worked with director Anthony Minghella. Minghella's style was to shoot a lot of material and reconsider the story and make revisions throughout the filming and editing.

Murch and Coppola had created the 5.1 sound formal with an automated mixing board. This allowed sound be heard 360 degrees in a theater. Coppola added speakers or rewired theaters to accommodate this, and paid for it himself.

Digial Film Tree worked with Murch. FCP, a Mac computer, and FCP software then cost under $4,000 compared to a Fast 601 with abilities similar to Avid which cost $13,00o. Digital Film Tree used FCP. They also used a DVCAM OSR 2000, which cost $15,000, which Sony loaned them.

The film editors decided the pattern that the negative cutter uses in creating the final film. The cut points are indicated by key codes. These codes are essential, as "Cold Mountain" was an index of 114 miles of film. An EDL list of cut points is important. A computer saves times in creating the EDL line.

It is important for a film cuter to know if an adjoining frame where a cut is made is needed for another scene. If this is the case, a duplicate, or dupe negative, is made.

It was found that Avid sometimes crashed and media was corrupted or lost. FCP crashes less frequently,

Murch edited "Captain Eo". This was a $20 million George Luca film starring Michael Jackson shown only at Disneyland.

Apple released OSX as an advancement over OS9. Yet many FCP systems continued using OS9 due to a lack of software and hardware development for using OSX.

"Cold Mountain" was filmed in Romania. Murch edited in a Kodak Cinelab in Bucharest. Murch viewed dailies by himself so so could view them without anyone's input. Murch read Minghella's notes during a second viewing that happened weeks later in preparation for cutting. Murch did not go to the sets, as he wishes to view only what is captured on film.

Murch recalls an old saying that movie production occurs in six stages, 1.) enthusiasm, 2.) confusion, 3.) despair, 4.) searching for those guilty, 5.) punishing the innocent, and 6.) rewarding the non-involved.

The general rule that one part of scritp approximates one minute of a movie does not apply to Minghella. When Minghella directed "The English Patient", its 121 page script was 4 hours, 2 minutes. This was cut to 2 hours, 42 minutes.

Hitchcock and Spielberg shoot exactly according to the script. Minghella frequently deviates from the script.

Murch track film in File Marker Pro database. Murch uses a bin to track trims, in case they are needed later. There is no industry standard for tracking film.

Murch observed that 30 percent of an initial movie is usually trimmed. "Cold Mountain" would be trimmed by much more and took much longer to edit,

Murch found some problems with FCP. Some images faltered. This was easily resolved by resetting the resolution on the computer terminal from "millions of colors" to "thousands of colors". There were problems getting the color corrected editing on the fly to operate properly. Murch corrected it later, since the problem was not resolvable. The Romanian Kodak technician did a good job and little additional color correction was required.

It is also discovered it takes a minute for FCP to load. This meant to took several minutes to lead several videos. Murch realized not to put all his work into one FCP filter.

Mirimax Film had a distribution deal where they provided half the financing for "Cold Mountain". The financing casts were expected to be about $80 million total for "Cold Mountain". Murch was asked to create a promotional film with already shot iflm to be used to attract another studio financier. A 25 minute sampler DVD was created. This helped show that editing with FCP worked.

Minghella fell behind in shooting. He was legally required to be finished by a date certain. Minghella sarted filming 2.3 scenes a day, a pace that would finish on time.

The first version of "Cold Mountain" was almost four hours long. This was too long for FCP to show without often freezing. It could not be shown to others. Murch discovered that rendering the audio solved the problem, as FCP could not play lengthy media with multiple filters.

Afterwards, Murch and Minghalla edited together for three months. Newly written lines were added. Scenes were cut while maintaining continuity. 48% was cut to bring it to an initial showing of 2 hours, 37 minutes plus 6 minutes for closing credits. The audience received comment cards. A focus group was able to discuss the film. 12 of 33 participated in the focus group said it was excellent and 6 said it was good. Some of those who didn't care for it found it predictable.

Murch many sound refinements getting the sound density, reverberation, and pitch he sought. He also used editing to sharpen and clean some lighting in some scenes.

Mirimax is known for its successful marketing. $30 million was budgeted for promoting and advertising.

I'm Walking as Straight as I Can by Geri Jewell

Geri Jewell with Ted Nichelsen. I’m Walking as Straight as I Can: Transcending Disability in Hollywood and Beyond. Toronto, Ontario.: EDW Press, 2011.

The author, who has cerebral palsy, was been one of the few people with physical disabilities to have recurring roles on network TV shows. In themes on her own name, she played Geri on “The Facts of Life” and Jewell on “Deadwood”,

Jewell’s mother was hit by a car while pregnant with her. The doctors thought she had died and removed her in a premature birth. She was, of course, alive and weighed less than three pounds when born. She developed pneumonia, was not expected to live more than a day, yet survived. Her mother had cared for a child with cerebral palsy and named Geri after that child. Whether the naming was a premonition or coincidence, Geri’s mother’s previous experiences with cerebral palsy led her to recognize before doctors could tell that Geri indeed also had cerebral palsy. Her family moved to California where cerebral palsy care was known to be good.

Jewell was teased by neighborhood children for her physical condition while growing up, which made her feel ashamed. As a child, she loved reading about famous actors. In high school, she took a Drama class. In her first time of stage, she accidentally fell, ran onto stage when she wasn’t supposed to, and had her kimono costume fall off while dancing. She learned that making people laugh helps resolves some problems.

Jewell wrote poetry and sent it to her hero Carol Burnett. She went to a taping of the “Carol Burnett Show” and was surprised when Carol Burnett went into the audience to meet her and tell her that her poetry has hanging on Carol Burnett’s walls.

Jewell told her guidance counselor she wanted to be a nun, actor, or psychologist. After graduating from high school, she was placed in employment with Goodwill Industries to learn keypunching. She then went to Cypress Junior College where she loved Theater classes. The State Rehabilitation office would not let her major in Theater, so she left Cypress and later transferred to Fullerton Junior College yet failed some classes. She tried stand up comedy. She appeared in the Bely Room, the smallest stage at the Comedy Store. Female comics were mostly assigned to the Belly Room. The owner Mitzi Shore only let her perform in the Main Rom once. She loved how the audience enjoyed her performances. She got laughs wearing a t-shirt that reads “I don’t have cerebral palsey (sic), I’m drunk”. She joked the t-shirt cost 30 cents per word, so she wished she had polio instead.

Jewell learned how to respond when audiences did not respond. Jewell also found a manager who took 25% of her earnings as management fees and another 50% in a partnership clause for creating Jewell Productions. Her manager claimed he kept her earnings low so she could continue collecting Social Security disability benefits. She knew this was illegal, which frightened her into trusting her manager. Her manager was later convicted of stealing $1.5 million of funds from others.

Jewell got a role on the PBS series “The Righteous Apple”. She then got a role in the movie “Nice Dreams”. She broke a finger and thumb on the set. The cast led to her role being cut from the film. The three weeks of working on the movie earned her a Screen Actors Guild membership.

Jewell auditioned and won a role on “The Facts of Life”, She found the cast as very supportive. Lisa Whelchel helped her rehearse and worked with her on her role. Jewell ad-libbed “I love you” to Whelchel’s character, but in appreciation of Whelchel’s help. The ad lib was kept on the show. Whelchel and Jewell became friends and then roommates. Lisa, an activist in a fundamentalist religious community, and Jewell, who belonged to another religion, grew apart yet Jewell is proud of what Whelchel has done in life,

Jewell once received a $45 check for working of “Facts of Life” She learned her manager took advances of funds from her paycheck. She never got the money back.

Jewell befriended actor Charlotte Rae’s assistant. Jewell learned this assistant was a liar who stole $7,000 from Rae.

Jewell’s character name on “The Facts of Life” was changed from Geri Warner to Geri Tyler. Jewell was never told why, although she believes people on the show no longer wanted her character to be Lisa Whelchel’s character’s cousin after Jewell began a romantic relationship with Charlotte Rae’s assistant. Some gay double entendres were written into her scripts. Her character was cut back to one line in an episode. Charlotte Rae advised her they were writing Jewell off the show.

An autobiography was ghost written for Jewell, “Geri”. Jewell skimmed the book. This led to problems when she was interviewed on “The Phil Donahue Show” and had trouble answering questions about what was in the book.

Ed Simmons wrote a pilot for Jewell called “Sid’s Kid” with Sid Caesar and Jewell. Jewell writes it was a great pilot but it never sold. Ed Simmons was supportive and paid for a hearing aid for Jewell when he observed she had trouble hearing.

Being disabled meant Jewell’s acting work was always for roles centering on her disabilities. She was on “Sesame Street”. She accidentally skated in Carroll Spinney, who is Big Bird, so hard that Big Bird’s head fell off, to the horror of nearby children. Jewell found work in extremes, from children’s shows to “Good Sex with Dr. Ruth.”

Jewell faced a life of bad relationships, coming to grips with her sexuality, and depression when her career stalled. Jewell’s career revived with a role on the TV series “Deadwood” on HBO. The show’s primary actors were on contract with HBO. She was not. She was paid only on days she was filmed. She found all the cast as very supportive. The role renewed her career and more work followed.