If you've never read David Mamet's memo to the writers of The Unit, prepare to be amused. The author of 50 plays and 25 screenplays, Mamet is a study in why playwrights often dazzle when it comes to screenwriting. They learn to move the plot forward dramatically, scene by scene, through character and dialogue, without the help of Lizard men descending from the ceiling or massive car chases. Known for his witty, acerbic style, staccato musicality of dialogue and ability to render the dynamics of complex human emotion into nuanced, yet dramatic turns, Mamet's writing is sometimes surprising and often lovely. His dialogue is so distinctive, it spawned the slang phrase Mamet Speak. But in 2006, Mamet was working in the Hollywood Dream factory at the breakneck pace television demands, as executive producer on a weekly drama for Fox called The Unit, based on his co-producer's book Inside Delta Force: The Story of America's Elite Counter terrorist Unit. The show ran for four seasons. In this letter, David Mamet's frustration with his writer's is apparent, but between the lines … [Read more...] about David Mamet’s Memo: To the Writers of The Unit
Archives for 2013
Giant Squid: The Kraken Revealed
Below the thunders of the upper deep; Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee About his shadowy sides: above him swell Huge sponges of millennial growth and height; And far away into the sickly light, From many a wondrous grot and secret cell Unnumbered and enormous polypi Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green. There hath he lain for ages and will lie Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep, Until the latter fire shall heat the deep; Then once by man and angels to be seen, In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die. — Alfred Lord Tennyson Remember those spooky artists renderings of sperm whales battling Giant Squids? Or the 19th century illustrations of boats being pulled down into the depths by tentacled arms? Well, it turns out, those stories were true. A crew of Scientists, funded by Discovery Channel and Japan's NHK TV, just filmed a bus sized Giant Squid in its natural habitat for the first time. As a writer, this intersection of mythology and … [Read more...] about Giant Squid: The Kraken Revealed
Millennium: Song of a New Year
Tonight, the moon is divided—half loss, half hope An hourglass or a clear luminosity diving through light-flecked clouds Low and golden, the way long-ago fish broke into the air the sky is restless tonight, like a sea mourning waves tossed carelessly on an abandoned shore of tumbled shells and scuttled ships Behind me, the hills are somber milestones my car is a ghost rushing past gas pumps, cantinas and fast-food grottos past gluttonous palaces and stoic churches, past neon signs that barter lust the world is intoxicated, mad with its own reflection, As slot machines echo divinity and release a cascade of tiny moons pressed with the faces of forgotten heroes The world is senile, filled to the gullet with sentiment and butchered flesh and the promise of more trinkets—Love has become anonymous an apocalyptic lullaby, a keepsake from a mythical land the radio sings and hisses and cajoles and like an interpreter of Pythian verse I’m listening for my redemption, listening hard, the way a leper clings to … [Read more...] about Millennium: Song of a New Year