Dear Becker Film: Lunatics: A Love Story Hello, I hope this message finds you well. I am a big fan of Ted Raimi and Lunatics: A Love Story, and I have been searching the internet for months now for any leads that could help me get a copy of the movie on DVD or VHS. […]
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Earlier today, I was on TGIF! with Pop Culture Minefield & Friends hosted by Gerry Kissell and Keith Moncrief. They had a fun panel that included not only Keith & Gerry, but also Fat Steve Segal, Deleted Scenes, and The Dork Knight. We discussed my career from working with Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell on
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I’ve both seen and heard a number of pieces about what to watch on TV when you’re stuck in the house, as most of us are at this moment, but no one has recommended my approach, which I believe is at least somewhat unique. Big film critics (if there are such a thing anymore) from
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Dear Fellow Union Members: Financial-core, or fi-core as it is known, is a quiet conspiracy. The unions absolutely don’t want their members to know that they can do this, and very easily, because it’s not in the union’s best interest; but it is in the members’ best interest. And who is more important? The union
…Or Lack Thereof Most people are afraid of dying and will openly admit it, even knowing that it makes them appear childish and weak. The concept of death scares the shit out of most people. Many people try to never think about it, ever, as though denial will cause it not to occur, although there
“Unbreakable,” or The Unbelievably Dull Adventures of Sentryman Since I quite liked The Sixth Sense (although, after seeing it a second time, I never need to see it again in my life), I just hope that writer/director M. Night Shyamalan dug the script for Unbreakable out of his file drawer and immediately got it financed.
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Irony & Theme I believe that most screenwriters (as well as wannabe screenwriters) are thinking about the wrong issues when writing these days. If your mind is swirling with surprising plot twists, clever story revelations, or, God forbid, what you assume the audience wants to see, then you’re thinking about the wrong things. I say
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The Rejection of Older Forms There was an art exhibit in 1999 at the Brooklyn Museum of Art entitled “Sensation.” One of the highlights was a sculpture by Damien Hirst that is actually a cow sliced vertically into twelve pieces in glass cases filled with formaldehyde. This same exhibit also has a piece by Chris
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Action Movies As I continually spout the gospel of story structure, the one argument that I keep hearing against it is: You can see the structure so obviously in the big action movies, and it’s boring. Well, as Jeremy Collier said in 1698, “The abuse of a thing is no argument against the use of
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We Are Our Own Worst Enemies I was taught in high school that there are three forms of drama: Man against man, man against nature/society, man against himself. That was back in the early 1970s before things were cleansed for PC. Now it would be (and more appropriately, too): Person against person, person against nature/society,
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There is a little coffeehouse/used-bookstore near Venice Beach where a lot of young screenwriters show up with laptop computers and work on their scripts. Several times I have seen some of these young writers actually bring a three-foot square corkboard, pushpins, and index cards with all of their scenes listed on them then play musical
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