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Category: Inspiration

Sep152024

Inspiration at the Movies: Tintin

Referring to the villain named Mr. Sakharine in “The Adventures of Tintin” (2011):

“A sour-faced man with a sugary name” – Captain Haddock

“May I present Monsieur Shuggair Adetittiff” – Biance Castafiore

Ya gotta love these plays on words! They make the second layer of humour for adults in a movie whose primary audience is children. Kids enjoy other humorous elements in the story – especially from slapstick and coincidence – but the movie is layered in comedy. The witty elements, like saccharine/sugar references, connect with adults and older kids like a secret in plain sight. This witty layer adds to the movie’s marketing reach, and adds to its replayability as the audience makes new discoveries with each viewing.

Isn’t that what we do in life too: re-visit places we’ve been to before and add new layers of discoveries to our memories?

Ever been back to your old school and realized that the lockers you thought where tall are actually rather short? Ever spoken with one of your old teachers and learned a new perspective on events that happened to you or your class from years before? The new realization or perspective doesn’t replace your old memory, it adds a layer to the existing memory. You can remember it as if you were young, and you can remember it with a layer of adult insight.

Just as discovering the witty layer of humour in “The Adventures of Tintin” is like a rite of passage on our journey to maturity, so too is finding and adding layers of perspectives to old life experiences. How wonderfully complex and layered our lives!

Where are you inspired to re-visit in your life to add a new perspective?

Cheers & a good shoot to you,
Deb

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Where is Deb?

Mon. Sep. 16 – Guest Speaker at GEMS ETVP (Emerging TV Producers) Program, Vancouver BC

Tue. Oct. 8 – Guest Speaker for Telefilm at the Sustainable Production Forum (SPF24), Vancouver BC

Wed. Oct. 9 – Women in Film & TV In-Person Networking for Production Managers hosted by Netflix, London UK

Mon. Oct. 14 – Raindance’s Boozin’ n Schmoozin’ Networking for Independent Filmmakers, London UK

And FYI, the third edition of “Film Production Management 101” is coming to bookstores and online in January 2025, but available now for pre-order (e.g. on Amazon, Amazon Canada, Indigo-Chapters).

Jan102019

Inspiration at the Movies: Legally Blonde (Endorphins)

“Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t.”
– Elle Woods (Legally Blonde, 2001)

With a quote like that, Elle kinda makes you want to exercise, no?

After the excess of the holiday season, I bet a lot of us are thinking about exercise this month. I sure am, but in the dark of the winter, it’s hard to feel inspired to exercise – anything from energetic work-out, fitness class or even a simple walk around the neighbourhood. When I get that way, Elle’s quote comes to my mind to get me started. And you know? She’s right. By the end of my choice of exercise, I do feel good – about it and about myself.

Now I just have to get my husband to come out and join me. 🙂

Cheers & happy endorphins to you,
Deb

– – – – – – – – – –

Deborah (Deb) Patz is the author of Write! Shoot! Edit! for teens and Film Production Management 101 for the industry – both books are published worldwide by MWP. She’s also part of the editorial board for Prism International. She doesn’t understand how her dog can be so energetic AFTER a long walk.

WHERE IS DEB? (upcoming events and appearances)
Feb. 9/19 – Author Participant with Biz Books at Digital Media Youth Expo, North Vancouver BC
March 2019 – Emerald City Comic Con, Seattle WA
July 2019 – UFVA Conference, Minneapolis, MN

WHERE TO FIND DEB’S BOOKS?
Paperback or eBook: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, Waterstones, direct from the publisher and from plenty of other great bookstores worldwide.

Nov222018

Diving Into The Three Wells at Tea & Ink Writing Club

I was requested to mentor again at the Tea & Ink Writing Club and happily agreed. To do something a little different, this time I brought Matthew Kalil’s book “The Three Wells of Screenwriting” (a wonderful new MWP book on my bookshelf). It’s a book to get the inspiration juices flowing.

From the book, I introduced the group to Matthew’s three wells of creativity, and then we ran through the exercises to dive in and explore each one. Let me share a bit with you:

#1 – The External Sources Well –
The ideas and thoughts here are from external sources, like movies and books, etc. and from the writing exercises we noticed they were primarily visual. Tapping into this well was by far the fastest. Thoughts and ideas related to this well we found were very close to the surface and easily accessible.

#2 – The Imagination Well –
Wild and crazy ideas happened here. Some in space, some not. Wonder and personal philosophy inspired the ideas from this well, but it did take more focused thought to push past the external sources well to reach this well of uncharted imaginative ideas.

#3 – The Memory Well –
Finally, this well was the deepest and most personal. It triggered tender and teary emotions as well as memory of smells. No doubt it is from this well that we write most closely to the human experience, and it was clear that we required more thoughtful time than the previous two wells in order to access these memories honestly.

Gosh, we only tapped the start of Matthew’s book. He also highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each well so you know how far to wade in, that book goes on from there.

Now, in my book, “Write! Shoot! Edit!“ I see the creative process in three stages:

(1) Wild Inventor Brain (inspiration), followed by:

(2) Dr Structure Editor (the structural – but still creative – edit), and followed again by:

(3) Nitpicky Copy Editor (polishing)

As Matthew’s book is all about the inspirational stage of the creative process, you can (and we did) use The Three Wells to point one’s Wild Inventor Brain in a rough direction of where you want to go for a writing session and through freewriting explore, reveal and discover.

It was a wildly successful Tea & Ink session, and the range of writing from the participants was vast. No surprise there, as the group includes poets, novelists and short story writers.

So, if you need some inspiration to get yourself writing – or writing again – or if you have an active Wild Inventor Brain that needs a little direction in order for you to productive, dive into the three wells yourself.

Cheers & happy inspiration to you,
Deb

– – – – – – – – – –

Deborah (Deb) Patz is the author of Write! Shoot! Edit! for teens and Film Production Management 101 for the industry – both books are published worldwide by MWP. She’s also part of the editorial board for Prism International. As well as writing, she LOVES tea.

WHERE IS DEB? (upcoming events and appearances)
Nov. 29-30, 2018 – Whistler Film Festival
Feb. 9, 2019 – Author Participant with Biz Books at Digital Media Youth Expo, North Vancouver BC
July 2019 – UFVA Conference, Minneapolis, MN

WHERE TO FIND DEB’S BOOKS?
Paperback or eBook: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, Waterstones, direct from the publisher and from plenty of other great bookstores worldwide.

Deb at R2R Festival
Apr172018

Inspiration at the Movies: Earth: One Amazing Day

Deb at R2R FestivalThis past weekend, I went to the closing night of the R2R Family Film Festival. It’s great to see family-friendly films from around the world on the big screen… but I digress.

Sometimes in a movie there’s a line that really rings true and you know you’re going to remember it for, well, probably for the rest of your life! It really speaks to you. Well, Saturday, I heard just such a line. Apparently it’s an African saying, but for me, it’s a line from “Earth: One Amazing Day” forever in sync in my brain with a flyover of African vistas and an adorable baby zebra. Here ’tis:

If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.

Which will you choose? In the meantime…

Cheers & a great shoot to you,
Deb

– – – – – – – – – –

Deborah (Deb) Patz is the author of Write! Shoot! Edit! for teens and Film Production Management 101 for the industry – both books are published worldwide by MWP. She’s also part of the editorial board for Prism International and she really, really, really wants to visit Africa someday.

WHERE IS DEB? (upcoming events and appearances)
Apr.19 – Guest Author – Tea & Ink Writing Club, Tri-Cities BC
May 2-3 – Guest Instructor – Powell River Digital Film (High) School, Powell River BC
May 19-24 – PM Instructor – Screenwriter’s Bootcamp, PEI
Jul.23-26 – UFVA Conference: Stories Without Borders, La Cruces, New Mexico

WHERE TO FIND DEB’S BOOKS?
Paperback or eBook: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, Waterstones, direct from the publisher and from plenty of other great bookstores worldwide.

cell phone user and bike
Jan22018

Inspiration at the Movies: Time Bandits

cell phone user and bike“Your Money or Your Life!”

– Game Show Host
(Time Bandits, 1981)

What a shocking and horrible game show to play for your money or your mortality! It’s so absurd don’t you wonder who would dream up such nonsense and what kind of people would watch that kind of nonsense and be entertained? Yet the scene and show take place in a fictional comedy adventure, so you suspend disbelief for the sake of the entertainment ride of the movie.

Yet I wonder… how absurd is it really?

I have a video game on my cell phone that’s a type of world-building game. It’s bright, colourful, has entertaining animations. Upon completing quests and levelling up, I am treated to new characters and new animations – virtual prizes. There are many such games available for phone, tablet or PC, and you’ve probably played at least one. Ever notice how we are often presented with two choices?

Choice #1: spend real money to buy virtual hearts or stars or gems or whatever to speed up quests and advance to the virtual prize as soon as possible; or

Choice #2: trigger the quest and wait for it in real time for free to earn the virtual prize (noting that the more you play the game and higher level you are, the quest duration extends from a seconds to minutes to hours to days and on and on).

So, when you think about it, the choices are: (1) Your Money or (2) Your Life.

That game show on Time Bandits isn’t so absurd after all, is it?

Cheers & wise spending to you,
Deb

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Deborah (Deb) Patz is the author of Write! Shoot! Edit! for teens and Film Production Management 101 for the industry – both books are published worldwide by MWP. She’s also part of the editorial board for Prism International. She’s thinking twice about that game on her smartphone.

WHERE IS DEB? (upcoming events and appearances)
Sat.Feb.17 – Author Participant – Digital Media Youth Expo, North Vancouver, BC
Mar.26-28 – Instructor – Write! Shoot! Edit! Screenwriting Workshop for Teens – VPL
Aug/2018 – UFVA Conference – New Mexico

WHERE TO FIND DEB’S BOOKS?
Paperback or eBook: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, direct from the publisher, and plenty of other great bookstores worldwide.

Dec222017

Magic Movie Moment: The Heat

Ashburn and Mullins wrestle and compete to be the first one in the door of the tenement building before their interview with Tatiana.

Basically the scene is an establishing shot of the building and of the two lead characters going in.

Gosh, filming establishing shots with lead characters entering buildings can be soooo boring: plop down the camera for a nice, informative wide shot and have the lead characters walk through the door. It’s a functional shot that puts the characters at the location (for the interior set about to see) and establishes for the viewer the type of neighbourhood. Seen a few of these establishing shots, haven’t you?

Well, in “The Heat,” this one-shot scene is so much more. They take the opportunity of revealing character at the same time: not just ‘walk into the building’ but HOW would these two walk into the building? Based on preceding scenes, these two are seriously competing with each other about everything – to a limit that makes their competition wildly humorous, and in this scene they efficiently demonstrate their competition (to get in the door first) in the single shot, and because the physical humour of the moment is so big (adding comedy to the scene), the camera doesn’t need to be placed near the action; the establishing shot angle from across the street works perfectly. So the one-shot scene establishes location, reveals character and uses the moment for some on-screen comedy… oh yeah, and because they’re so busy competing, Ashburn misses information (again) – that this is Mullins’ building.

What a magical movie moment!

Now think about the films you make. When next you’re planning an establishing shot, what other story functions can you add to the shot to elevate it to a magical movie moment instead?

Need more ideas? Look out for other magical establishing shots to inspire you. What magic have you seen recently?

Cheers and good shoot to you,
Deb

—————–

Deborah (Deb) Patz is the author of Write! Shoot! Edit! for teens and Film Production Management 101 for the industry – both books are published worldwide by MWP. She’s also part of the editorial board for Prism International. She was already in a building when she wrote this post (and didn’t have to wrestle anyone at the door to get in).

WHERE IS DEB?
Sat.Feb.17 – Digital Youth Expo – Author Participant – North Vancouver
Mar.26-18 – Write! Shoot! Edit! Screenwriting Workshop for Teens – Instructor – VPL
Aug/18 – UFVA Conference – New Mexico

WHERE TO FIND DEB’S BOOKS?
Paperback or eBook: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Chapters/Indigo, direct from the publisher, and plenty of other great bookstores worldwide.