Friday Links - Dec 4, 2020

Caption: Tips to Spark Your Creativity

• Buy-local has some businesses pushed to their limits
• Hellvetica
• NPR’s Book Concierge
• 96 Minute Masterclass Interview with Alfred Hitchcock
• Warner Brothers Releasing it’s 2021 Slate of Films in Theatres and HBO Max Concurrently.
• ″ I have personally explained the process to you, Debra.″ A woman on a Nora Roberts discussion thread throws plenty of shade at the publishing industry and Nora about why books aren’t being released faster. Then Nora Roberts shows up to respond.
• Cats behind pixelated doors .
• Annick Press has a call out  for Trans/nonbinary/Two-Spirit/genderqueer/gender creative/gender noncompliant writer submsission for a YA Anthology.
• My friend Trey released his new psychological thriller A State of Despair today. I’m still reading it (I’m a slow reader while teaching), but I like it’s layered narrative about a drug bust gone wrong. Buy it and support a fellow indie author.
• I was a fan of The Endless, so I’m excited to see the new film from directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead: Synchronic.
• The trailer for Coded Bias.
• The Art of Noticing shared this story from Washington Post: 5 Tips to spark your Creativity while working alone, from artists who do it all the time . But if you can’t access it (like me), take this quote from TAoN:

“A lot of bad art is going to come out of this nightmare — including my own — and that’s okay….This is funny, but it’s also really smart. Now is a great time to experiment creatively without worrying about “getting it right.” Give yourself permission to just do something different, something you’ve never done and frankly lack the skills or training to attempt.

• Because I had to look it up: COVID or Covid? The comfort of pedantry at a time of national crisis.
• And from Seth:

We can learn to be the ‘authentic’ version of ourselves that we’d like to live with….It takes habits, learning and feedback. And the commitment to become a better version of ourselves.

• The Hidden Sitcom Formula
• What Makes a Hero
• Improving Tron Legacy with Deep Fakes
• The Beauty of the Dinner Scene
• Steven Spielberg: Setting the Table
• The Simpson’s 8 Ball : Although this video is about setup and payoff, the section about the Simpsons is interesting in how an object is given meaning that holds to the story arc.
• Why Hollywood Makes Bad Movies
• How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler
• I’ve always loved this video about Trey Parker and Matt Stone explaining how the simple words ‘therefore’ and ‘but’ are important to storytelling (and how, “and then” is not).
• Content Warning: this is discussing Season 20 of the show South Park, so it may likely offend. (To be honest, I don’t watch the show, but I find Matt Parker and Trey Stone’s production process fascinating). The reason I’m sharing this video is it is a good discussion of how the creator’s writing process that is discussed in Part 1 above works—and  how they forgot it.
• Prisoners: Symbolism Done Right - This video essay on Denis Villeneuve’s film, Prisoners that I would may be interesting viewing for you.
• The Art of Over-Analyzing Movies
• Chaos Cinema: Part 1 | Part 2
• Movie Galaxies - Social Networks in Films