Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 104th installment of Saturday Hot Links!
Today: The Beatles Deconstructed Music and Documentary Edition!
Toronto: Todd McCarthy previews the Festival.
Toronto: How did last year’s films do.
Toronto: Jeff Skoll foresees massive growth for Participant Media.
Toronto: Day 2 roundup (Studio System News)
Alex Billington (FirstShowing): Wrapping up 5 days in Telluride.
2013 Austin Film Festival conference slate unveiled.
Julian Assange named to Raindance Film Festival jury.
The Dissolve: Why should anybody care about film festivals.
How people reacted to computer viruses in 1988 [video].
Metacritic: The best 2013 summer movies.
Summer’s record-breaking box office by the numbers.
Summer box office fallout: Studios’ new fear of the $200M tentpole.
Coconut detained in Maldives over vote-rigging claims.
From DVD to EST: The studios latest hope for increasing movie revenues.
Got a kid prepping to apply to college for next year? Read this.
NYT: 2o young movie directors to watch.
According to Indiegogo: The top 10 myths about crowdfunding.
Film Independent sets 2013 Screenwriting Lab fellows.
Watch a nervous Steve Jobs prep for his very first TV interview [video].
WSJ: Secrets of effective office humor.
Variety: Announces 5th annual Power of Women honorees.
Artificial muscles lift 80 times their weight. Here comes Robot Superman!
Nikki Finke wants Deadline back.
Using summer’s end to boost your creativity.
LAT: In ’12 Years a Slave,’ Steve McQueen juxtaposes beauty, brutality.
Watch 12 years a Slave cast and crew in this featurette [video].
Amando Pendolino and Rob Pilkington: How to pitch a movie or TV show.
How to start a fire without matches.
Salinger Telluride press conference [video].
6 secrets to cooking a better burger.
Why Burger King’s french fry burger is a bust.
17 of the world’s oldest films, captured by Thomas Edison.
How Netflix’s bet on originals is already paying off.
33 unusual majors your college probably didn’t offer.
Alec Baldwin to host Friday night show on MSNBC.
7 signs your job interview is going well.
Hollywood recycling: 30 reused movie props.
Ira Glass on storytelling [video].
Back To School: 10 great movie teachers.
In defense of the semicolon.
How digital conversion is killing independent movie theaters.
Chuck Wendig: 25 steps to becoming a self-published author.
Evidently Jack Nicholson has not retired from acting due to memory issues.
10 things to get over about L.A. and 1o things to love.
8 hilariously awesome movie disclaimers.
New short story from Ted Chiang: “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling.”
6 filmmaking tips from Robert Altman.
David Frost’s best interview moments [video].
New report: Women making strides in TV.
The 20 big questions in science.
Q&A with the professor behind the good science in “Breaking Bad”.
How did the movie Clue go from forgotten flop to cult classic.
7 bizarre pre-game rituals from around the world.
The Coen brothers are writing a film about an opera singer.
The 10 indie films you must see this September.
Vimeo offering indie film makers $10K to distribute their movies via Vimeo first.
Q&A with Paul Brickman who wrote and directed Risky Business.
As a bonus, a bunch of documentaries about The Beatles:
Finally Poets House in New York is having a tribute to my dear friend Kurt Brown who recently passed away. For information, go here.
Screenwriting Master Class tip of the week: Here is the schedule of classes for the rest of September:
September 9: Core III: Character (Scott Myers)
September 16: Core IV: Style (Scott Myers)
September 23: Prep: From Concept to Outline (Scott Myers)
September 30: Core V: Dialogue (Scott Myers)
As you can see, we are thick into the Core curriculum which I am only teaching once in 2013. The first two classes have been outstanding as this testimonial notes:
Scott’s classes are a breath of fresh air, immersing the student, be they novice, or professionally active, in the essential waters of the process of screenwriting. Far removed from the typically flat landscape of the basic theoretical systems, his thought-provoking insights inspire both debate and creativity, while simultaneously anchoring the content in the reality of an insider’s view of today’s screenwriting industry. — John Hörnschemeyer
And don’t forget this opportunity:
October 17: The Quest: 4-Day Writing Workshop (Scott Myers)
That’s right, I’ll be live and in-person to lead this workshop in which you will take your story from concept to outline as well as learn the guts of character-based screenwriting. Only 2 slots left for this event in Santa Monica. Act now and get the early bird discount good through September 15.
As always, I look forward to work with you.
Onward!
P.S.: If you’re wondering where Tom is, he was invited to Ann Arbor to teach at the University of Michigan this fall semester, so he is on a lighter schedule for the next four months.