Saturday Hot Links
Time for the 142nd installment of Saturday Hot Links!
Today: The 50s Refreshing Snack Commercials Edition.
The 2014 Emmy nominations in all their glory here.
Related: TheWrap with the Emmy’s 16 biggest snubs and surprises.
Related: Tim Goodman hacked off over Academy’s “atrocious snubs”.
22 movies we’ll be talking about for the next 6 months.
25 literary classics to binge on this summer.
The 10 most profitable movies of all-time.
Music sales: Down for digital downloads and albums. Up for streaming and vinyl LPs.
Related: Pink Floyd to release first album in 20 years.
July 4th weekend box office suffers worst B.O. drop of the year.
Related: Why Hollywood isn’t sweating summer B.O. slump.
12 predictions Isaac Asimov made about 2014 in 1964.
9 TV shows that were total downers but still worth it.
Fireworks filmed with a drone [video].
6 surprising things that can influence your dreams.
Comic-Con 2014: The complete TV lineup.
How to edit your Facebook/Twitter history.
V.O.D. really is the Wild West nowadays.
C.S. Lewis reflects on writing for children.
‘Dr. Who’ scripts leak online, BBC begs Internet to avoid spoilers.
25 perfect drinking songs for lazy summer evenings.
How ‘Pretty Little Liars’ gets teens to watch the TV series.
Find out why some conservatives are purposefully making their cars spew black smoke.
Related: It’s illegal.
Aereo might be dead, but the disruption of television is inevitable.
Publisher’s Weekly book deals of the week.
Turn old movie ticket stubs into awesome pillows for any cinephile.
20 things you never knew about chocolate.
How about star charts based on science fiction and horror movies.
Evidently the future of Kickstarter is… potato salad!
Related: Interview with the potato salad dude [video].
Related: 10 bizarre food-related Kickstarters (that aren’t potato salad).
This fake leaked Star Wars film footage is even better than the real thing.
World’s first dictionary of chimp gestures created by scientists.
MPAA reports most moviegoers are women, but most movies are by and for men.
20 signs you are succeeding in life even if you don’t feel you are.
Tom Perotta on 7 ways ‘The Leftovers’ has diverged from the novel.
The 2 questions that could determine if you have an alcohol problem.
5 facts you didn’t know about Disney.
Psychologists have uncovered a troubling feature of people who seem nice all the time.
10 ways A Hard Day’s Night (the movie) changed the world.
Want the reality behind reality TV? Read this.
Ken Roberts who oversaw KROQ becoming a behemoth radio presence, dead at 73.
British Film Institute ties funds to diversity goals.
J.K. Rowling writes a new short story updating adult lives of Harry Potter and gang.
The 1984 movie “Nothing Lasts Forever” starring Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd has never been released, but you may be able to see it here [video].
12 wonderful quirky words with no English equivalent.
William Friedkin to be involved with “True Detective: Season 2”?
Tom Hanks busts a move at Scooter Braun’s wedding [video].
Do people really only use 10% of their brains.
Investors say they have evidence of Paramount Pictures financing fraud.
Good news for non-subscribers to the New Yorker per their new online policy.
LEGO Movie parody is a terrifying protest against oil companies [video].
Taylor Swift writes WSJ op-ed piece about the future of the music industry.
A fun short film: “Toy Wars” [video].
BBC’s ‘Danger Mouse’ remake: Some male characters to be turned into females.
Jimmy Fallon doing a spot-on impersonation of Neil Young joined by Crosby, Stills and Nash [video].
The 7 most evil corporations in movies.
Here’s what George R.R. Martin has to say to people who doubt he will finish the ‘Game of Thrones’ series: “Fuck you.”
Disney is making a live-action Dumbo movie.
Seven barons behind famous beers.
Watch a 30-minute feature on the making of The Royal Tenenbaums [video].
8 African-born writers you should be reading.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes has scenes directed over Skype.
21 things you didn’t know your iPhone could do.
Interview with famed film critic and writer David Thomson.
The rom-com is dead. Long live the rom-com.
World Cup 2014: Missed Dutch penalty almost went in while nobody was paying attention [video].
World Cup 2014: Cheering Belgian fan scores modeling contract.
Related: She loses her modeling contract because of this.
12 very North Korean quotes about Seth Rogen’s new movie.
Colorado selling over 10 tons of pot each month.
The NYT asks two writers: Is there anything you did as a writer starting out that you now regret.
Voyager 1 probe is actually in interstellar space.
“True Detective”: Season 2 now with 4 lead characters.
How much does a cloud weigh.
12 creative ways to eat corn this summer.
Snowpiercer’s VOD strategy while movie is still expanding in theaters is creating a mixed bag of reactions.
David Kwong TED Talk: Magic and Puzzles [video].
The 10 hardest film genres to write.
How 3D printing could end America’s prison food crisis.
25 delightful Roger Ebert quotes about movies.
11 jokes from the world’s oldest jokebook.
11 classy insults with classical Greek and Latin roots.
And the Dude weeps: America’s vanishing bowling alleys.
David Duchovny has written a book… that sounds bananas.
Details emerge on the controversial “Seinfeld” episode that never aired.
7 language habits that reveal your age.
11 ways big cats are like domestic cats.
Finally a great video tribute to the late Paul Mazursky [video].
Screenwriting Master Class Tip of the Week: Most professional screenwriters and virtually all TV writers spend a significant amount of time ‘breaking’ their story in prep. Yet through the years, I discovered that many aspiring writers not only spent little time developing their stories before typing FADE IN, which often left them lost and the project abandoned, they also had little idea what to do in terms of prep-writing. Furthermore, I was shocked to learn nobody was offering a prep-writing workshop online.
So I created one. In fact, it was the very first class I offered when we launched SMC, and it has proved to be one of the most popular courses in our curriculum. Why? Writers not only take a story from concept to outline, they also learn an approach they can adopt and adapt for all future writing projects.
It is a 6-week online workshop. Each week, you read a lecture written by me providing you a set of writing exercises. You have a full week to complete each assignment. Each one builds on the other and engages you with your story, digging into it, working with your characters, everything you need to be doing in prep-writing. Weekly due dates give you a structure within which to write and motivation to get the work done.
Plus there’s this: Feedback. From other writer participants. From Tom Benedek or myself. Every week, we review your writing exercises in a teleconference, and those sessions can be amazing, dozens and dozens of reactions, thoughts, and perhaps most importantly suggestions.
I have taught these prep-writing principles and techniques to beginners, intermediate and advanced writers. In fact, several pro writers have worked privately with me and continue to use this approach on their writing projects.
Some testimonials:
“‘From Concept to Outline’ is a course I wish I had known about a couple of years ago. I would recommend this whole-heartedly for anyone who is about to embark on their first script or ANY script. This lays the foundation stone to your story.” — Camilla Castree
“This has been an outstanding class. I’ve taken a few from other sources and most don’t live up to their promises (they shall remain nameless). But here, I’ve learned so much and gotten way more than my money’s worth.” — Daniel O’Donahue
We have two sessions of Prep coming up:
July 16: Tom Benedek
August 18: Scott Myers
If you have never had the experience of really digging into your story in prep, I strongly encourage you to do so. You can figure it out on your own. But if you’d like to learn a proven approach, consider enrolling in one of our upcoming Prep workshops.
For more information, go here.
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