It's the oldest movie they've ever covered since they started doing the box office game, so it was the first time Box Office Mojo didn't have a weekend chart. Demme will be interesting, because he has six movies that predate BOM's weekend charts. I'd recommend an investment in this: https://www.amazon.com/Weekly-Box-Office-Charts-1970s-ebook/dp/B071GPPSGR
Eric Heisserer's 150 Screenwriting Challenges (Amazon)
I'm an advocate of daily creative writing exercises to build and maintain excellent craft. If you don't have a your own list of exercises, why not borrow from an Oscar-nominated screenwriter?
(edit: grammar)
https://www.amazon.com/Call-Me-Your-Name-Touched-ebook/dp/B07FQ4Z3TG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1533227881&sr=1-1&keywords=mirell The Kindle edition is out on Amazon. By Barb Mirell; Call Me By Your Name: How a Little Film Touched So Many Lives.
No, just people who agreed to submit reactions. :) It runs about 150 pages. https://www.amazon.com/Call-Me-Your-Name-Touched-ebook/dp/B07FQ4Z3TG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1533227881&sr=1-1&keywords=mirell Kindle version on Amazon.
This book might help address what you're discussing. I think it's terrific. It has a lot of outstanding advice and insights.
The Idea: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage or Fiction
by ~ Eric Bork
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H3DDND3/ref=dbs\_a\_def\_rwt\_bibl\_vppi\_i0
Here's a paragraph from the book description:
Most screenwriting books tend to focus on story structure, scene writing, navigating the business, and other parts of the craft that come AFTER the initial choice of the central concept for a story. Multiple Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning writer/producer Erik Bork (HBO’s Band of Brothers) takes a different approach. His experience in the industry and as a screenwriting professor and coach have led him to recognize that it's the selection of the initial idea that is the most important part of the process -- with the most impact on the project's chance of success.
For pre-70s box office David has been using box office charts available for purchase on Amazon and they do go back to the 1920s.
I believe they are mostly sourced through issues of Variety but not sure if that's the case that far back or where they get that info.
Thanks for sharing. I'm another musician trying to make sense of libretto, book writing and story ideas. There's as much theory there as there is in music, which makes it a heavy lift for outsiders like us. Tonight I am reading Erik Bork's The Idea and what comes to mind is this passage I just read an hour ago:
"Writers often create main characters that are not so likable—who are selfish and not good to others—with the idea that they will “arc” them to someone who learns to be nicer in the end. Because aren’t main characters supposed to grow and change over the course of a movie? It’s true that the best stories often (but not always) tend to have a significant growth arc for the main character. In the end, they have somehow become a better version of themselves, as well as having solved some big problem in their world. And yes, this means they have to start the movie as the “not-best version of themselves.” But if the “not-best version” of your main character is a selfish jerk who hurts others in some way, readers will tend to not bond with them enough to want to stay with the story."
This sounds exactly like the issue you're starting to head into. Would I, as a reader or watcher, have the patience to watch this jerk in the hopes that he matures?
You might consider re-centering the story on a sympathetic actor who is being victimized. Make them the protagonist. You can still have the jerk director and his/her arc. Just don't make them the main character.
Disclaimer, I am a rank amateur.
>1930s
His book "I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie" is filled with similar reviews.
Sipis pero acuerdate que el critico siempre es subjetivo a pesar de que tiene que ser profesional, de hecho parte del exito de Roger Ebert era cuando de atiro destaba el kraken contra las peliculas malas si no lo has leido te lo recomiendo ampliamente
They skipped the box office game, but for those curious, here's the Top 5 for the week of December 12th, 1979 when Star Trek: The Motion Picture came out:
1) Star Trek: The Motion Picture
2) 10
3) Apocalypse Now
4) And Justice For All
5) Starting Over
You can get ebooks with weekly top 10s going back to the 1920s!. They do not include weekly $ numbers, but there's a different book that does have totals for every movie that made some minimal amount of money
I remember reading a thread here of how people of different age and sexual orientation share their love of the movie/book. And there is also this companion book on amazon, so i'm sure she'd appreciate it as a gift! Even if she doesn't like it in the end, it is still an experience -- would be nice also for her to think why she didn't like it ;)
edit: didn't mean to suggest giving the other book as well..it was meant as evidence that people who appreciate the book are a diverse group. 😀
Its the 36th challenge from the book "150 Screenwriting Challenges" by Eric Heisserer (Bird Box), I'm just trying to do them all
https://www.amazon.com.br/Screenwriting-Challenges-English-Eric-Heisserer-ebook/dp/B00GKNFPGK Here if you wanna check it out
I only act as a hobby but I really enjoyed this book by Michael Caine -
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CKNWAM6/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
And of course Stanislavski -
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1780938438/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr=
Good luck!
The free Kindle version of The Filmmaking Terms Glossary Pocketbook [Referral Link] might be helpful. .