Writing is Cake

I recently had the awesome experience of giving a presentation entitled “Surviving The Next Zombie Uprising” at Ignite Phoenix II. The format revolves around a 20 page presentation, with the slides automatically clicking over every 15 seconds. The five minutes feels like it goes by in a blur as you hit the main [...]

I’ve started using a visual way to develop my screenplay, which is working out rather well. I’ve been working on a rather intriticate story that covers multiple timelines (past and present) that converge midway through the story.  It was driving me bonkers trying to remember what happened ” before” something else in the narrative.
I went [...]

The teenager who works behind the counter at the corner convenience store after school; the hot girl in spandex who works out at the gym in the mornings; the elderly widow that lives across the street and two houses down. What do they have in common? Well, in a zombie story, they may [...]

I was pretty sure The Dark Knight was going to be the best Batman movie yet and it was.  I wasn’t fully prepared to be quite so blown away though.  For me, Batman Begins raised the bar and The Dark Knight jumped over that bar on a souped up rocket-bike.  Pretty much left the bar [...]

I’ve been a deep fan of Alan Moore’s graphic novel for twenty years now, but I’m torn on the upcoming film version.  It was written to be a comic, and it works brilliantly in that format.  It doesn’t need to be a movie. Yet part of me would love to see these images move and [...]

Shuffling and shambling their way onto the screen and into popular culture, the zombie has gained widespread appeal as a horror film and book icon.  From their first appearance in Night of the Living Dead to the frightening (and sometimes frightful) abundance of subsequent offerings, the undead horde relentlessly propel themselves onward, seeking fresh brains [...]

I’ve been thinking about genre lately.  Specifically, what the hell is it, where did it come from, and why is something based on formula and convention so hard to define?  I saw Wanted recently and was blown away.  Good performances from the cast, great fight scenes and action sequences.  It was heavy on special effects [...]

When I heard there was going to be a new Indiana Jones movie many moons ago, I groaned.  I was not happy with what Mr. Lucas did with the new Star Wars movies, and I just couldn’t see a new Indy movie being anything other than a train wreck.
I wanted it to be good the [...]

The five part series was originally concieved as a single post.  I thought I would be able to make a few pithy comments on each movie and have a nice tight list like you see on cracked.com.  It became obvious pretty quickly that I wasn’t going to be able to do that.  Maybe I lack [...]

When I organized these movies in my head I thought I was going from the least changed to the most changed in regards to the source material. Now I realize I’m also going in reverse cronological order. The X-Men originated in the sixties, The Lord of the Rings was published in the fifties, [...]