AFI film school #31: Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Satire

Four years before he made what’s commonly regarded as the best science fiction movie of all time and sixteen years before he made what’s commonly regarded as the best horror film of all time,…

AFI film school #30: 12 Angry Men— And justice for yourself

This AFI list I’ve been covering is specifically looking at the greatest American films of all time. And because of that, many of the movies have been about America, either explicitly or at least thematically…

Improv Block: How to Get Unstuck in Scenes

I recently wrote an article on writer’s block, writing being one of my passions, and it led me to think about the parallels between that and an issue faced within another one of my passions: improv…

Pulling Premises: How to find the funny in anything

How do you make a codependent relationship funny? Or someone needing medical marijuana? Or an impoverished…

The Secret about Writer's Block

As both a writer and a teacher of writing, the topic of writer’s block has found its way into my thoughts and conversations many times.…

AFI film school #29: E.T.— A touch of empathy

Lots of these movies are famous, but most are not as famous as this one…

Comedy Come Easy: How to effortlessly incorporate humor into your script

If a drama with no comedy relief is painful, then a comedy without it is a session in an iron maiden…

AFI film school #28: Raging Bull— I felt things

Scorsese is so often associated with gangsters and gritty killing…

AFI film school #27: Annie Hall— Crashing through the fourth wall

Movies might not necessarily have rules, but there’s a helluva lot of guidelines…