Friday, November 09, 2007

No Flash in the Pan

It should come as no surprise that my husband loves the Movies. He can toss off the names of most B-Movie actors and the plots of obscure movies. He is amazing with his ability to quote dialog from movies, along with nuance and accent. He will sit in his seat in the dark movie theater and read all the credits, looking for the name of that actor that appeared in one brief scene just because....

So, it was no surprise to me when he calls me late Tuesday afternoon and asks me to meet him downtown to listen to a "talk" by the screen writer Robert Moresco (co-authored Crash) being hosted by Spalding University as part of their "Festival of Contemporary Writing".

I am so glad I went and I am so glad that I always carry around my Moleskine in my purse! I ended up taking three pages of notes.

Some of my scribblings.......

" Set up an idea.....like "I need to protect my family"...need to test an idea with the character.

We are all driven by the things that own us....

Attempt to understand what demons the characters have propelling them..

Four ingredients for a story 1) story structure 2)plot 3)characters 4)theme

Writing is ability to ask the questions and come up with the answer...

Emotional price paid...."

Fascinating stuff.

More fascinating was the battery of questions "Bobby" took (please call me Bobby, he requested after being addressed as Mr. Moresco) related to the movie "Crash". People really and truly wanted to know about the Matt Dillon character, his take on racism, dialog questions and "how do I get my script read??"! I must admit, after seeing the movie I understood why it won the Oscar that year (this year? how time flies)because it touched me and made me ask questions of myself. And this crowd of people, around 200 of us, had lots of questions for him.

I've been up since 3am because of a bad dream! The story line was this....I got caught with illegal drugs and had to flush them down a sink. I was not taken to jail, but I was so worried about being hunted down on the "grid" because my heart was racing and beating so fast.

Pancakes anyone?

4 comments:

Lisa :-] said...

I wish I had the time to go see lectures like that. I wish I had the time to do anything not related to the cafe.

Sigh! Italian Night calls....

nonizamboni said...

Scary dream!
But thanks for sharing your notes taken. Meaty stuff.
'We are all driven by the things that own us....'
I'm glad you like old photos too! I agree they're expensive and its always difficult for me to make up my mind, on a budget, but wow did you make a find.
I see too that you like the Saw Doctors. I had forgotten how much I like their music--first heard them on 'Waking Ned Devine.'
Have a 'restful' weekend and thanks for visiting.

Kelly said...

That sounds like it was a really intersting lecture! Thanks for sharing your notes!

Chris said...

Sounds like a very interesting night. Quite motivational as well, I would imagine. Thanks for sharing your notes, I got to attend vicariously through you;)