Films @ Dave’s Info Cafe

I watched Clint Eastwood’s “Unforgiven” last night again and marvelled at the screenplay by David Webb Peoples. There are many things to admire about it.
As most of you will know the premise of Unforgiven is that a killer comes out of retirement after 11 years to do one last killing for money when he hears [...]

I haven’t really posted anything about genres so far so I thought I would start with one of my favourite genres – the western. Genres are a way of categorizing films that have a loose set of similar characteristics. They are inevitably vague with flexible boundaries but include sets of conventions that recur in many [...]

A film lives or dies by its beginning. If you haven’t hooked the audience within the first twenty minutes it is an uphill battle from then on. The first twenty minutes of a film are crucial to its success artistically and, no doubt, financially. A brilliant beginning can make a good film great or a [...]

Many people have read the books by Thomas Harris that introduced the serial killer, Dr Hannibal Lecter, to an unsuspecting world. Who can forget Anthony Hopkin’s performance in Silence of the Lambs when that story was transferred to the silver screen.
However, his first appearance was several years earlier in a small but pivotal cameo role [...]

In a previous post, I did a brief survey of screen writing software and made some recommendations. Well, I have just come across a new piece of software that purports to be the complete pre-production package taking your work through story development, screen play, shooting schedules etc. Even more important – it’s free and comes [...]

We all know a great film when we see one don’t we? Well not always. What is a great film to someone may be awful to someone else. Films are very subjective. Citizen Kane leaves film critics in raptures but today’s teenager will wonder what all the fuss is about (and probably hate it to [...]

In the last couple of weeks I have been musing again about maybe starting some screenplays. Being the person I am, I do like to prepare everything beforehand and have everything I need before I start. (This is also a convenient excuse when I don’t start or finish something – “I haven’t got the right [...]

I have recently been working on a free toolbar specifically designed for film enthusiasts. And now I have one to launch to the world! It’s fairly basic at the moment but I will continue developing it and adding whatever features I can to it, hopefully, with your help.
As I said it is designed with film [...]

I bought a boxed set of the recent Clint Eastwood movies about the battle for Iwo Jima earlier this week from the local supermarket. I had wanted to see them at the cinema but missed them because there was such a short theatrical release for them particularly in the North East of England.
First and foremost, [...]

There are many books on screenwriting that give you a formula or set of rules to build (and sell) your script. Having read a number of them over the years, the one I go back to for a little inspiration from time to time is a “How to Write a Movie in 21 Days” by [...]