Category: Producing

Producing Raves

Masterful Filmmaker (from the Far Side of the World) Peter Weir receives Lifetime Achievement Oscar

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

This past Monday, I shared an article about the allure of the film Master and Commander: But Wait, There’s More Title, directed by Peter Weir. This Sunday during the main Oscar ceremony, I learned that said director, now 78, received a special lifetime achievement award last November. And it got to me thinking that, apart from one or two of his films I haven’t seen, all of his films are always in my sort. Peter…

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Producing Various and Sundry Writing

Public Domain Day, 2023 Addendum

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I have a new source to look for regarding Public Domain Day every January… that is assuming Steve Shives returns for more merriment next year. I’ve already enjoyed his Star Trek commentaries and now I learn how much of a classic film buff he is — and he doesn’t mind singing. Truly, he contains multitudes. His phrasing is occasionally delightfully NSFW at moments, so be warned for when you watch.

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Producing Various and Sundry Writing

Public Domain Day, 2023

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

I plan to do posts on public domain every year and I really should have last January for this clip alone, but the year got away from me early. Now that was last year, and most of you already know about the Winnie the Pooh horror movie soon to be out in the world? So what’s in store for 2023 and all the goodies from 1927 now in the public domain in the U.S.? As…

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Producing Various and Sundry

The Optimization of Boring?

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

For my work, I’m often focused on continuous improvement — and the silver lining of broken processes means there’s always room for improvement. On the one hand have you ever met those people for whom 99.9999% just isn’t close enough to 100%? Can more optimization be too much of a good thing? Derek Thompson over at The Atlantic feels that might be the case, starting, with that most American of statistics obsession: baseball. If you…

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Producing

The Big Media Landscape of Fall 2022

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

For whatever reason, I get a lot of hits for my “Future TV” posts especially the one about the future of Netflix in the Fall of 2017. Well it’s a whole new world out there in media-land these days because Netflix is far from the only streaming game in town. Heck, traditional Big Media aren’t the biggest of companies in media these days either. To learn more, check out the graphic below and the article…

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Producing Writing

The Showrunner Role in Transition

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Thinking of Monday’s post regarding Rod Serling, I’m continuing to read up about showrunners and industry trends in the wake of COVID. And if you’re wondering what a ‘showrunner’ of a TV show actually is, well, that’s changing too — as covered in this very long form article for Vice by Katharine Trendacosta. Perhaps from my time studying anthropology and perhaps my dayjob role of analyzing business processes, but I love detailed articles like these…

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Producing Various and Sundry

The Hollywood War Machine

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Top Gun: Maverick performed some “best of the best” box office maneuvers when it opened Memorial Day weekend and continues to do well. The original film proved to be as much a recruitment commercial as popcorn movie… and this sequel’s premiere aboard an aircraft carrier, Midway (now a museum ship), hints that this newest film will perform similarly. As a cinemaniac who’s seen more than a few military-themed movies over the decades, Hollywood’s connection to…

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Producing

Casting Based on What Characters Do & How They Do It

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Thanks to several area theaters offering ridiculously good deals for students, I started regularly attending theaters in the 1980s. Almost from the get-go, I was exposed to what is generally termed “non-traditional casting,” including a production of Macbeth with a cast that included actors who, at the time, I would not have instantly guessed as “Scottish.” Any preconceived notions I might have had of what the Scottish characters “ought to look like” were retired by…

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Producing Various and Sundry

Why the Spice Flowed the Way it Flowed in Dune

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

While it seems that not everyone liked the latest screen version of Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel Dune, it’s the first film in a long time that I finished watching and wanted to immediately watch again. I’m up to seeing it five times now, so it’s safe to say I’m a fan (I find much to love in the other two screen versions as well, but that’s for another post). One of the most striking…

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Producing Writing

Fast. Cheap. Good. Pick Two.

By Bjorn Munson | by Bjorn Munson

Many of you have seen the sentiment expressed in the title above, but it’s always worth remembering… and remembering we, as a species, will likely figure out how to go faster than the speed of light before we break the above constraints. A post by writer Mark Evanier reminded me of how these constraints can often come into play in the writing world, which led to a good musing on his part: How does one…

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