Video from Rancho Mirage Q&A
Synthian Sharp, one of the nicest folks I met during the strike, took it upon himself to tape my Q&A in Rancho Mirage. He now has it online at Vimeo, where you can also download a much beefier 934MB version.
This talk was very much geared towards a general audience. While there were some film students, most of the crowd was over fifty. We spoke more about the career than the craft of screenwriting.
I showed five clips. Weirdly, I didn’t pick one from The Nines, but I did show one scene from Scott Frank’s Minority Report that had my fingerprints on it.
At 112 minutes, it’s quite a time commitment. If you’re skipping around in the video, here’s the rough order of what I talk about:
- How I got started
- Go
- DC
- Charlie’s Angels
- Minority Report
- Big Fish
- Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- God (the short film on The Nines DVD)
- The Nines
- Audience questions
Thanks to The Friends of the Rancho Mirage Public Library, Palm Springs International Film Society, and moderator Deborah Dearth. And of course Synthian for putting this up.
Articles
April 27th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Hi John,
I’ve been reading for quite some time and this is my first post. Your site is bar none my favorite screenwriting site.
These last couple of videos that have been posted (this one and the TED creativity one) have been fantastic sources of inspiration.
It is great to have a place to come when we brush against tough times. Your site has helped ease me into the right mind set on more than one occasion to deal wit the problems that have arisen in my journey.
Just wanted to say thanks and to keep it up.
April 27th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
112 minutes of you? Jeez, that’d be like following your blog for several… years… riiiight.
Also, Synthian Sharp has the awesomest name ever in the history of everything.
April 27th, 2009 at 6:06 pm
I’m not seeing any place to download the video on the Vimeo site. Any idea where it is?
April 27th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
Download in lower right corner of this page: http://vimeo.com/4287066
(Must sign in blood before downloading :) )
April 27th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Great idea, posting this. Always good to hear this/see you again John. Keep creating and I will keep watching….and I hope your library of 50+ scripts will all get made! Best, Lisa. (Synth, thanks for taping this, i like the ‘cleaned’ type/photo/video inserts see you soon, Lisa)
April 28th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Nicely done, John. You knocked it out of the park!
I always hoped you would do a podcast with the Creative Screenwriting Series..or perhaps an interview with DeLuca’s “The Dialogue” series.
In a way, I got my wish! Haha..
RESPEKT
April 28th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Thanks John. — Honored like friggin Ronin.
Thanks guys :)
Thanks Chris.
I actually shot this for Lila and Grant who live in UK & Oregon – So anyone else who can benefit even a tiny bit is all just icing. & its over 1,100 plays now. Which in fragmented-writing-distraction-time, is a lot of friggin icing.
Mathematically we’ve just prevented two complete “average screenplays” from being written this week. :) (And maybe even made some next passes a little better.) Hell we just did the slush-pile a statistical service.
Next time I’ll use a lav mic guys I promise.
-Synthian
May 3rd, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Thanks for posting this and for your site in general, it is such an awesome source of information and inspiration!
May 4th, 2009 at 1:25 pm
@ Synthian
Nice work… John’s humble magick is well captivated.
When do we get to watch your classroom allocution on Tibet & the seal hunt? Please post!
May 5th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Didn’t know the rolling ball scene in Minority Report was you! You out Jurassic Parked Jurassic Park. Pound for pound the best exposition reveal I’ve ever seen.
May 11th, 2009 at 8:11 am
It just dawned upon me that San Francisco’s Golden Gate is literally the bridge between STAR WARS and the gay community.
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:43 pm
John, Your site is such a great resource – thanks for sharing your path with the rest of us. I spent $60,000 on 3 years of film school and learned more from you in 112 minutes. Writing has never been an obstacle for me – following a career path is what I really need to work on so the movies in my head can someday make it to the screen.