Mystery Man posts #1

Here are some of the posts by Mystery Man I’ve featured over the years:

And finally Mystery Man on Film links to a Slate article that explains various producing titles [2/26/09]:

The top post of “producer” is just the tip of the iceberg, as anyone who’s watched the opening credits of a movie knows well. Although Slumdog Millionaire, for example, credits only one producer, it lists two executive producers and two co-executive producers, along with a co-producer, an associate producer, and a line producer.

At Mystery Man on Film.com, MMOF has completed his analysis of unproduced Hitchcock scripts [3/5/09]:

As many of you know, I just wrapped up my series on the Unproduced Screenplays of Alfred Hitchcock and I thought I’d repost links to all of the articles for those who may be new to the blog. There’s a lot of great material here. A study of Hitchcock is absolutely crucial to every screenwriter. Hitch will change the way you write and view cinema.

Mystery Man on Film gets a gold star this week for providing a link to a screenwriter’s ‘Holy Grail’: The transcript of five days worth of story meetings between George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Larry Kasdan about what would become Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first Indiana Jones movie. Not only that, MMOF provides 10 lessons he learned from these amazing story sessions [3/12/09]:

1) Before they ever considered the plot, they figured out who and what their hero-protagonist is and how he’d be similar and different from other heroes in cinema.
2) A character arc? What’s that?
3) A racy backstory can keep a plot moving.
4) Consider the debate about un-sympathetic protagonists.
5) Consider how tension was always foremost on their minds when they laid-out their plot.
6) Consider their approach to exposition.
7) No idea is a bad idea when you’re brainstorming.
8) Consider their approach to budget.
9) Consider their approach to the ending.
10) Consider the transcript as a whole, the sheer volume of thought, discussion, analysis, questions, and debate about the story before they ever sat down to write the script.

This is one of the best blog posts I’ve ever read. Highly recommended. And for God’s sake, download the story meeting transcript (while you can).

The last post is classic MM. Who else would have thought to go through the entire transcript of proceedings between Lucas, Spielberg, and Kasdan with an eye toward analyzing it to see what could be learned re the craft of storytelling — then share it for free with readers?

NOTE: Beyond the two emails with MM’s presumed assistant, I have found no concrete info to confirm MM’s death. If anyone knows anything, please add info to comments or email me. In all honesty, I’d much prefer that this was a sick joke rather than accept the possibility that MM is, indeed, dead.

UPDATE: Karel at The Story Department, the last site where MM posted any original content, has this remembrance.

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