Thumbnails 7/23/2014

1.

"Establish a solid foundation right away. The world is rife with stories of freelance writers making over $100K, but that is hallowed ground and not the norm, particularly when you’re just starting out. DO NOT LET THESE RICH PEOPLE GET YOU DOWN. I’ve been writing for a while but only freelancing for a few months, and the only way I’m able to do this job at all is by lining up regularly paid gigs, like TV recaps. I have writer friends who do technical writing, editing, and copywriting just to ensure they can pay their bills every month. You’re not going to wake up and be Joan Didion —there’s no shame in getting a solid gig that gives you room to write for other publications while you expand your resumé."

—Danielle Henderson, writer

“Few filmmakers understand the interplay between music and emotion quite like Cameron Crowe. When he kicked off 2001’s Vanilla Sky with Radiohead’s glitchy, ironic, and vaguely dadaist 'Everything In Its Right Place,' his use of the song wasn’t instructional so much as it was destabilizing. The film, an ultimately prescriptive but admirably bizarre remake of Alejandro Amenábar’s Open Your Eyes, may have tried to piggyback off of the digital tabula rasa provided by Kid A’s opening track, but an invitation to reset is hardly the same thing as a linear path to feeling. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Crowe explained that he used the song because 'It’s just rich and multi-layered... like you’ve ripped open the human mind and it’s the thoughts and sounds of what goes on in the psyche. That’s what we wanted Vanilla Sky to feel like. And it’s also fun. I find Radiohead to be fun as well as challenging.' It’s precisely because the cue challenges viewers, rather than simply pandering to them, that it is so memorable, and imbues the first passages of the movie with a sense of ambition and wonder that the screenplay struggles to sustain.”

“While outright calumny doesn’t do anyone any favors, having one’s failings pointed out certainly can, especially if you happen to be inclined towards Maoist–style self-criticism. And if nothing else, being on the receiving end of an occasional dousing in Haterade or throwing of shade is palpable evidence that people are paying attention to what you’re doing—though it’s not necessarily evidence, as is often assumed, that you’re doing anything right. It is also a reminder, should any be needed beyond one’s own self-regulation, to keep your writing, your facts, and your ideas as tight and orderly as possible, lest any opening be provided for those who wish to see you face-plant.”

"After all, a director who demands 95 takes could be exacting—or conversely, he could be ill-prepared and uncommunicative. Cruise’s overpreparation had served him well in the past. Not here. He got an ulcer, and tried to keep the news from Kubrick. At its core, the Cruise/Kubrick combination seems cruel: an over-achieving actor desperate to please a never-satisfied auteur. The power balance was firmly shifted to Kubrick, yet to his credit, Cruise has never complained.”