Designing problems to solve creatively
It’s About Time - Hossein Eidi Zadeh shares a list of films that take place in real time. YouTube channel A Million Movies syncs up the clocks in High Noon with the film’s runtime. Director Hans Canosa reveals the inspiration behind near-real-time split screen film Conversations With Other Women.
This Must Be The Place - Marsha Kinder digs into The Exterminating Angel, a film where a dinner party devolves into chaos when the guests find they can’t leave. Duru Alp looks at four of Hitchcock’s contained thrillers and how they relate to the modern experience of living through pandemic lockdown. Scott Myers talks with Chris Sparling about the structure of the exteremely contained thriller-in-a-box Buried. Jo Light explains how Blumhouse films use a single location to create low-budget horror. Tristan Young explores how Green Room’s use of a single primary location creates a visceral political story.
Setting the Tone - On Scriptnotes, Chris McQuarrie describes how a focus on single-take oners lead to changing how scenes were written for Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. Bryn Chiappe explains the Dogme 95 Vow of Chastity and asks if it was ever a serious manifesto. Rebecca Ver Straten-McSparran shines a light on The Five Obstructions, where Jørgen Leth remakes his own short film with different constraints. Shore Scripts hosts a collection of TV show bibles, explaining the constraints creators imagined for their shows in progress.
In Case of Emergency: Find A New Constraint
The Writer Emergency Pack cards each come with a set of prompts to help you choose a new way to look at what you’re writing.
Each one suggests potential constraints to use to find a way out of whatever writing hole you’ve dug yourself into.
What if the characters in this scene couldn’t speak? What if the backup your hero’s waiting for doesn’t show up? What if this is the moment you needed to reveal a big secret?
For more on what you’ll find in the Writer Emergency Pack, check out the site, or follow for more examples on Instagram and Twitter!
Likes & Retweets
Previously on Inneresting…
In case you missed it, in last issue’s most clicked link the writers of Better Caul Saul explain how they write an episode:
Other Inneresting Things
Joe Fassler summarizes the best writing advice from 150 authors.
YouTube channel Now You See It looks at the common themes that made the movies of 1999 all feel the same
And that’s what’s inneresting this week! If you’re new to us, welcome! We hope you’ll subscribe and join us again next week.
Inneresting is edited by Chris Csont, with contributions from the entire Quote-Unquote team.
Come across something you think other readers will find inneresting? Reach out to Chris on Twitter @ccsont or email us at inneresting@johnaugust.com.