Podcasts by Film School

When A Character Turns Out Amazingly (Cutting Room Floor #157) from 2022-10-05T20:01:38

How do you create a great character? We're revisiting the topic this week from a previous episode with...

Cosmos from 2022-10-03T10:00

Sounds like you chaps have had an interesting night.

This week, it's micro-budget indie to the EXTREME. These chaps from jolly old England made Cosmos on a minuscule six hundred ...

Planning vs. Execution (Cutting Room Floor #156) from 2022-09-15T22:53:21

How much time or importance should we invest in planning/learning/theory, and how much time should we invest in hands-on execution? Planning can be an endless endeavor which leads to never finis...

Solaris from 2022-09-13T02:17:27

There aren't many sci-fi films that can approach 2001: A Space Odyssey. Tarkovsky's Solaris does . . . and it might even surpass it, at least for the two of us. This week, we'r...

The Difference Between Amateur And Professional (Cutting Room Floor #155) from 2022-08-26T21:48:25

What is the difference between a professional and an amateur?

We can all agree that the two aren't the same thing, so what differentiates them? And if we are an amateur and want to be a p...

Victoria from 2022-08-22T10:00

Are you stealing?

This week, we watch the Berlin-made, one-shot sensation Victoria. And yes, the did actually shoot the entire two-plus hour film in one take. It's a love story, ...

The Danger of Not Writing What You Know (Cutting Room Floor #154) from 2022-08-12T19:04:43

Can you tell a story about a lesson that you, personally as the storyteller, haven't learned yet? Or, put another way: what are the dangers of NOT writing what you know? Can the process of story...

Hereditary from 2022-08-09T23:19:47

I am your MOTHER!

Man...this movie brings the noise. Toni Colette stars in the debut feature from newly minted scare-master Ari Aster. It's a film about family trauma, grief, and how thos...

When You're Just Not Feeling It: What To Do (Cutting Room Floor #153) from 2022-08-04T19:05:40

You're just not feeling it. You want it. You know you can do it. It might even be close . . . but you just can't finish. You can't work on it, or when you do, you hate what you've done. WHAT IS ...

Upstream Color from 2022-08-01T10:00

The water before you is somehow special...

Shane Carouth exploded onto the indie scene with the time-traveling Primer, and then kinda disappeared for a while. He roared back with...

The Time Money Quality Triangle (Cutting Room Floor #152) from 2022-07-28T10:00

In the world of hiring out work, everyone wants to spend less money, get the best quality of work, and get it in the least amount of time possible. Of course. But, here's the thing: of time, mon...

The Thing from 2022-07-25T10:00

Somebody in this camp ain't what he appears to be.

The Thing was almost universally REVILED when it first came out in 1982, but time told the true story: people just weren't read...

How To Fail Better (Cutting Room Floor #151) from 2022-07-22T16:14:14

What is your relationship with failure? Do you embrace it, or avoid it at all cost? Because failure is a necessary and important part of success, a healthy relationship with it...

The Lighthouse from 2022-07-20T19:15:07

Hurrah me yoller girls, doodle let me go!

Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson star in Robert Eggers second feature as two men stationed on an island in the middle of the ocean and tasked wi...

Pantsing vs. Plotting (Cutting Room Floor #150) from 2022-07-14T19:12:45

Are you a pantser or a plotter? Do you just sit down and write the story as it comes to you? Or do you outline and plan and plot out your story in detail before you actually write it? OR...somet...

Akira from 2022-07-11T10:00

Tetsuoooo!!!!

This week, we take a peek at Katsuhiro Otomo's masterpiece, and one of the definitive anime films full-stop, Akira. It's over thirty years old now, which is crazy b...

Ego (Cutting Room Floor #149) from 2022-07-07T10:00

What *is* "ego," anyway? How does it get in our way, and how do we need it? This episode, we dive into walking the fine line between self-esteem/confidence, and delusion/insecurity.

Also:...

Memento from 2022-07-04T10:00

My wife deserves vengeance...

This week, we watch the film that put Christopher Nolan on the map. Guy Pierce stars as Leonard, a man who can no longer make memories. His last memory is of...

What to Cut and What to Keep (Cutting Room Floor #148) from 2022-06-30T10:00

When writing/creating, how do you know what to throw into the trash bin, and how do you know what to keep and tweak until it's working right? It's the central question of editing and revising, a...

Forbidden Planet from 2022-06-27T10:00

The monsters of the id!

Easily one of the most influential sci-fi films ever made, Forbidden Planet was the standard set for space opera for an entire generation including Gene R...

How Important Is Community? (Cutting Room Floor #147) from 2022-06-24T05:01:30

How important is it to have community as a creative person? How do you choose the people to surround yourself with? Josh and Ira talk about how they've chosen their own communities, and what to ...

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night from 2022-06-20T22:16:59

Vampires in Iran!

Easily one of the 'coolest' films we've ever watched on this podcast, A Girl Walks Home is pure gothic punk rock from foot to fangs. Made in SoCal, it's set in ...

Chekhov's Gun (Cutting Room Floor #146) from 2022-06-16T10:00

If it's not going to go off, it shouldn't be hanging there. This week, we're talking about the term "Chekhov's Gun," what it refers to, and how it applies to our writing, storytelling, and just ...

Amélie from 2022-06-13T10:00

So, go get him for Pete's sake!

Jean-Pierre Jeunet masterpiece is a sweet, charming, whimsical and magic-filled romance about an awkward shut-in who turns to taking care of everyone aroun...

The Difference Between Ambition&Impatience (Cutting Room Floor #145) from 2022-06-09T19:50:38

When driving forward, it can be so easy to go go go so fast that we either burn ourselves out before we can finish, or we miss too much, skimp on the details, and what we have when we finish doe...

I Lost My Body from 2022-06-06T10:00

Imagine, if you will, you're a severed hand.

You wake up in a freezer, no memory of how you got there, just flashes of the chaotic end, where you were separated from your body. All you wa...

What is the (Real) Magic Place? (Cutting Room Floor #144) from 2022-06-02T10:00

When you need to feel inspired, creative, safe and free . . . where do you go? Where--that actually exists--can you go that fills you up with the warm fuzzies, where the memories, sights, sounds...

Cinema Paradiso from 2022-05-31T00:14

Alfredo!

This jaunt down memory lane is credited with reviving the Italian film industry in the late-80s and the 90s. Giuseppe Tornatore dips into his own history in spinning a tale about...

What Is Writer's Block? (Cutting Room Floor #143) from 2022-05-26T16:44:42

Does writer's block even exist? Some writers--a lot of writers--will tell you that it doesn't. And yet, we have a TERM for it, so...what is it then? Josh and Ira break down their experience with...

The Vast Of Night from 2022-05-23T10:00

What's the tale, nightingale?

What a gem! It's always such a rush to find a film that almost nobody else knows about, made by someone you've never heard of (because this is his first feat...

How to Identify Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3 (Cutting Room Floor #142) from 2022-05-19T10:00

Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3; how do we tell them apart? What distinguishes the beginning of our story, the middle, and the end? Ya boys talk about how to sort a story into three, neat, easy-to-use p...

Beasts of the Southern Wild from 2022-05-17T02:19:06

Once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her daddy in the Bathtub.

It was an indie darling that went all the way to a Best Picture Oscar nomination. Benh Zeitlin's debut feature, se...

How To Schedule Breaks (Cutting Room Floor #141) from 2022-05-12T10:00

Breaks are so important. So, how do you work them into a busy schedule? How do you make sure that you get the rest you need, but don't lose your momentum? We discuss!

Pusher 3 from 2022-05-09T21:01:36

So, Milo wants to go clean...

NWR wraps up his deep dive into the seedy underbelly of the Copenhagen drug world. This time, we're following the bad guy from the first film! Milo has grown...

How To Write Good Dialogue from 2022-05-05T10:00

Almost all you have in a script is dialogue. 99% of a play is dialogue. The majority of fiction prose is dialogue. It's probably the most effective way to tell a good story...so how do we do it ...

Pusher II from 2022-05-02T10:00

Nicolas Winding Refn had a hard time following up the success of the first Pusher film, so much so that he decided to dip back into the seedy Copenhagen underworld. This time we follow Tonny, pl...

How to Create and Keep a Schedule (Cutting Room Floor #139) from 2022-04-28T10:00

What makes a good schedule? Obviously, it's one where we're as productive as we want to be . . . but what about sustainability? What about when life throws its inevitable curveballs? How do we b...

Pusher from 2022-04-25T10:00

Frank Frank Frank...

Kim Bodnia stars in Nicolas Winding Refn's breakout film. It's a stark, hopeless world and YET...there are some stunning moments of tenderness and authenticity. It wa...

How to Start Again (Cutting Room Floor #138) from 2022-04-21T10:00

You fell off the horse. Your work in progress is sitting idle. You want to get started again, but you're not sure how. Josh and Ira talk tips and strategies they use to get started again.

My Cousin Vinny from 2022-04-18T10:00

You're in Ala-f---in'-bama!

Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei chew up the scenery as New Yorkers in the South, trying to solve a murder mystery. It won Tomei an Oscar. Criminally Underrated. It'...

Can You Want It Too Much? (Cutting Room Floor #137) from 2022-04-14T10:00

Sometimes we want something so much we can crush it, freeze, run away, or otherwise shoot ourselves in the foot. So...how do we keep that from happening? What tools can we use to keep moving for...

Man Bites Dog from 2022-04-11T10:00

Ah, Remy.

Josh kicks us off with a raucous, violent, hilarious, and shockingly disturbing French indie from the early nineties. It's easily one of the more controversial films we've watch...

You Gotta See This! (What's Next on Film School) from 2022-03-28T15:25:14

Dude, you gotta see this!

Next up on the podcast, Josh and Ira have accumulated a list of films they know the other hasn't seen yet that they MUST see...and now, they're going to show eac...

Swing Time (AFI Top 100 Starter Pack #10) from 2022-03-21T10:00

We decided to end the AFI Top 100 Starter Pack with some old school "class"...

Old movies feel like Disneyland. This, and many, many epiphanies are brought to you by the black and white c...

The Graduate (AFI Top 100 Starter Pack #9) from 2022-03-14T10:00

Mrs. Robinson, you’re trying to seduce me . . . aren’t you?

It’s the movie that made Dustin Hoffman a star, and rightly so. He plays the naive, uptight and awkward Benjamin Braddock who m...

The Wild Bunch (AFI Top 100 Starter Pack #8) from 2022-03-07T11:00

If any of them move, kill ’em!

It was our first Western on the AFI list, and it's a bloody, gritty, corker of a bandit heist flick. It stars William Holden, whose star power was waning at...

Jaws (AFI Top 100 Starter Pack #7) from 2022-02-28T11:00

We’re gonna need a bigger boat.

Jaws: the genesis of the summer blockbuster, and the film that launched Steven Spielberg into the stratosphere. Dude was 26 when he made this move. TWENTY....

Apocalypse Now (AFI Top 100 Starter Pack #6) from 2022-02-21T11:00

War is hell.

Any sample of the AFI Top 100 wouldn't be complete without Francis Ford Coppola, and he is the real star of this ambitious, disturbing, madness-inducing look into the horrors...

Citizen Kane (AFI Top 100 Starter Pack #5) from 2022-02-14T11:00

Orson Welles, by all accounts, was a Hollywood outsider. He knew nothing about filmmaking coming in to make Citizen Kane, and yet it's on the tippy top of the AFI’s “best” list. So, how...

The Gold Rush (AFI Top 100 Starter Pack #4) from 2022-02-07T11:00

Chaplin makes an entry on the Starter Pack, and his *second* appearance on The List as the hapless Klondike Gold Rush prospector…and he does not disappoint. We weren’t too hot on Chaplin’s previ...

Yankee Doodle Dandy (AFI Top 100 Starter Pack #3) from 2022-01-31T11:00

James Cagney is a song and dance man!

Music is in the air. Vaudeville. Romance. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It’s the 1942 classic Yankee Doodle Dandy this time around, a movie nei...

Goodfellas (AFI Top 100 Starter Pack #2) from 2022-01-24T11:00

I'm funny? FUNNY HOW?! Martin Scorsese is in the house, dropping what could arguably be considered the greatest mob/gangster movie ever made. Joe Pesci took home an Oscar for his role as Tommy, ...

Rear Window (AFI Top 100 Starter Pack #1) from 2022-01-17T11:00

We kick off the starter pack with a Hitchcock classic:

Old pal Jimmy Stewart is front and center to a possible MURDER. He's laid up with a broken leg with nothing to do, and there's a nei...

The AFI Top 100 Starter Pack: 10 Films To Whet Your Appetite from 2022-01-10T11:00

You are invited to watch along with us over the next ten episodes! 100 Films is quite the mountain to climb. We understand exactly how overwhelming watching that many movies can feel. So . . . w...

2022 Resolutions, Goals, and Intentions (Cutting Room Floor #136) from 2022-01-03T11:00

Happy New Year! 2022 is upon us. What do you want to accomplish? What did you do poorly last year and want to do better in the new year? And what did you do well that you want to continue? We're...

Christmas Vacation from 2021-12-13T11:00

The sh*tter was full!

Chevy Chase takes a turn as every-dad Clark Griswold in a John Hughes CLASSIC holiday film. One of several, actually, if you throw in Home Alone; Hughes, apparently,...

2021 Retrospective (Cutting Room Floor #135) from 2021-12-09T11:00

How was this past year? Josh and Ira take a look back over the past calendar year. While 2020 was full of external changes,  challenges, and shake-ups for both podcast hosts, 2021 was an intense...

Love Actually from 2021-12-06T11:00

Love, actually, is all around.

Ten separate stories of love, all told over the run-up to the holidays. It seems like such sprawling ensemble pieces rarely work, and yet this one does. Per...

The AFI's Top 100 Films: A Look Back (Cutting Room Floor #134) from 2021-12-02T11:00

We did it!

We have watched every one of the AFI's Top 100 (U.S.) Films. It took us three years, two moves, a new job and a global pandemic to do it, but it's done. We've watched and broke...

Citizen Kane (AFI's Top 100 Films #1) from 2021-11-29T15:41:31

Rosebud . . .

Orson Welles, by all accounts, was a Hollywood outsider. He knew nothing about filmmaking coming in to make Citizen Kane, and yet here it is on the tippy top of the...

Takeaways from the Podcast Thus Far (Cutting Room Floor #133) from 2021-11-25T11:00

As we approach the very end of our journey across the AFI's Top 100 Films, Josh and Ira look back over the past three years of recording this podcast, and reflect on what they've learned along t...

The Godfather Part II (AFI Top 100 Films #32) from 2021-11-22T11:00

You broke my heart, Fredo.

Pacino, Coppola and the rest of the gang try to get lightning to strike twice . . . We left Michael Corleone on a sinister note at the end of the first film, an...

Infodump: Friend or Foe? (Cutting Room Floor #132) from 2021-11-18T11:00

Beware of the infodump! Stay away from exposition!!! This week, we tackle the common advice to avoid dumping a bunch of information on your audience all at once. But, then again, how do you know...

The Godfather (AFI Top 100 FIlms #2) from 2021-11-15T21:15:56

I'll make him an offer he can't refuse.

It's considered to be the crown jewel of gangster films. Francis Ford Coppola changed the game by aiming to represent the mafia as a flawed, intric...

Write What You Know (Cutting Room Floor #131) from 2021-11-11T11:00

"What what you know" is timeless advice. On the face of it, it even *feels* like good advice. But, what exactly does that mean? Does it mean everything we write should be autobiographical? That ...

Casablanca (AFI Top 100 Films #3) from 2021-11-08T11:00

Here's looking at you, kid.

This movie is one of those rare old classics that everyone seems to enjoy. It's probably the peak of the studio-era. Bogart is at his no-nonsense, softie-on-th...

Plot Holes vs Mystery and Intrigue (Cutting Room Floor #130) from 2021-11-04T10:00

What is a good question to ask of a film or book, and what is a bad question? When we're watching or reading, what are the kinds of mystery and intrigue that pull us deeper into the story, and w...

Raging Bull (AFI Top 100 Films #4) from 2021-11-01T23:30:27

Hit me. Harder. Harder!

Bobby DeNiro takes a star turn as the ultimate man who could take a punch, "The Bronx Bull," boxing legend Jake LaMotta. Martin Scorsese is behind the lens. The re...

When and How to Celebrate (Cutting Room Floor #129) from 2021-10-28T10:00

Celebrate your wins. It's good advice. It can be hard to pick a "win," sometimes, in the creative process, though. Isn't there ALWAYS something next to do? When is it appropriate to stop and cel...

Singin' in the Rain (AFI Top 100 Films #5) from 2021-10-25T10:00

I’m singin’ in the rain. Just singin’ in the rain. What a glorious feeling, I’m happy again! This week, we watch Gene Kelly’s peak and the world’s introduction to Debbie Reynolds. IS this the gr...

The Limits of Story Structure (Cutting Room Floor #128) from 2021-10-21T10:00

We're big fans of story structure on this podcast. We use it to break down every movie we watch. But, how far will structure and all its tools--like genre, acts, the 5 commandments, etc--take us...

Gone With The Wind (AFI Top 100 Films #6) from 2021-10-18T10:00

Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn. By pretty much every significant measure, this film is the most popular movie ever made. That's an interesting distinction, given that it's an epic romantic...

MacGuffin: What It Is and How To Use It (Cutting Room Floor #127) from 2021-10-14T10:00

You need a MacGuffin! You've probably heard that before, or at least the term. "MacGuffin." It's such a silly-sounding word. But what exactly IS a MacGuffin? And why do you need one on your stor...

Lawrence of Arabia (AFI Top 100 Films #7) from 2021-10-11T10:00

Big things have small beginnings. Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif suit up for the roles of a lifetime in, arguably, the most epic of the epic era. Lawrence of Arabia still might have the most impr...

Art is Messy (The Evangelion Rant) (Cutting Room Floor #126) from 2021-10-07T10:00

Hideaki Anno has been making Evangelion for 26 years. 2021 saw the release of the final (?) film in his theatrical film re-make of the 1995 TV series. Ira . . . has become a bit obsesse...

Schindler's List (AFI Top 100 Films #8) from 2021-10-04T10:00

The list is life. All around its margins lies the gulf.

Unquestionably, it's Spielberg's most "grown-up" film. Even more than Saving Private Ryan--which is also very grown-up--this film i...

Tips To Hook Your Audience (Cutting Room Floor #125) from 2021-09-30T10:00

How do you hook an audience, and KEEP them hooked?

Vertigo (AFI Top 100 Films #9) from 2021-09-27T10:00

Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere . . .

Story Grid's 6 Core Questions (Cutting Room Floor #124) from 2021-09-23T10:00

This week, we break down the Editor's Six Core Questions from Story Grid.

The Wizard of Oz (AFI Top 100 Films #10) from 2021-09-20T10:00

There's no place like home . . .

How to Keep it Fun (Cutting Room Floor #123) from 2021-09-16T10:00

We do our best work when we're having a good time. But, how do you find the fun when the storytelling is hard?

City Lights (AFI Top 100 Films #11) from 2021-09-13T10:00

Tomorrow the birds will sing!

Write to Market (Cutting Room Floor #122) from 2021-09-09T10:00

How do you write/create to satisfy an audience?

The Searchers (AFI Top 100 Films #12) from 2021-09-07T07:03:46

That'll be the day . . .

How to Beat Resistance at its Worst (Cutting Room Floor #121) from 2021-09-02T10:00

When resistance is CHOKING you . . . how do you deal with that? What worked?

Return of the Jedi from 2021-08-30T10:00

It's a trap!

Sequels are hard. Endings are harder. It was probably an impossible task to out-do the magic trick Empire pulled when it outdid Star Wars, but Jedi still manages to hold its ...

What Movie Scenes Live Rent-Free in Your Head? (Cutting Room Floor #120) from 2021-08-26T10:00

You can't stop thinking about them. What scenes from movies will you never forget?

The Empire Strikes Back from 2021-08-23T10:00

No, Luke . . . I am your father. It's so rare that a sequel outdoes the original. A hundreds times moreso when the original is an instant classic, which is what Star Wars was. ...

Success: How Much Control Do We Really Have Over It? (Cutting Room Floor #119) from 2021-08-19T10:00

How much of success is effort and how much is luck? Or talent? Being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time certainly has SOMETHING to do with success...but probably far, far le...

Star Wars (AFI Top 100 Films #13) from 2021-08-16T10:00

May the Force be with you!

You know the AFI list is getting real when Star Wars shows up. For the Gen X and Millennial generations, there's no bigger film that this. It's the mos...

How Do You Learn Best? (Cutting Room Floor #118) from 2021-08-12T10:00

We all learn differently. Visually. Auditory. Verbal. Social. How do you learn best? Do you know? Turns out, Ira didn't even realize how he learned best until this episode, so it's a super valua...

Psycho (AFI Top 100 Films #14) from 2021-08-09T10:00

A boy's best friend is his mother.

In the period between 1954 to 1960, Hitchcock made every single one of the four of his films that appear on the AFI's Top 100 list. Psycho, the last of ...

Bad Habits (Cutting Room Floor #117) from 2021-08-05T10:00

What are your bad habits? We hate them. They hold us back. But, we all have them, and identifying what they are can help to keep on top of them. This week, Josh and Ira dish on their own bad hab...

2001: A Space Odyssey (AFI Top 100 Films #15) from 2021-08-02T10:00

Good morning, Dave . . .

It's hard to overstate just how influential this film is, Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, a touchstone of the 60s psychadelic movement, and arguably the best--or a...

How Flexibility Supports Consistency (Cutting Room Floor #116) from 2021-07-29T10:00

When life is chaos . . . how can you be flexible to stay productive?

Sunset Blvd (AFI Top 100 Films #16) from 2021-07-26T10:00

Mister DeMille . . . I'm ready for my closeup!

Director Billy Wilder would all like us to know: there was an era of movies before the talkies, and we did those silent stars dirty...

What Is Your Storytelling Language? (Cutting Room Floor #115) from 2021-07-22T17:41

How do you tell stories? What is the language you use on the page and in your own head?

The Graduate (AFI Top 100 Films #17) from 2021-07-19T10:00

Mrs. Robinson, you're trying to seduce me . . . aren't you?

It's the movie that made Dustin Hoffman a star, and rightly so. He plays the naive, uptight and awkward Benjamin Braddock who m...

How to Make Your Story Feel Real (Cutting Room Floor #114) from 2021-07-15T10:00

Real. That's the ULTIMATE goal for any piece of fiction. Making it feel real. So, how do we do that?

The General (AFI Top 100 Films #18) from 2021-07-12T10:00

Buster Keaton brings the ACTION!

Charlie Chaplin gets most of the attention from the physical comedy corner in silent film, but Buster Keaton was certainly a master in his own right. This...

How To Do Something New (Cutting Room Floor #113) from 2021-07-08T10:00

How do you do something you've never done before? And how does it make you feel?

On the Waterfront (AFI Top 100 Films #19) from 2021-07-05T10:00

I coulda been a contender!

Marlon Brando stars in, perhaps, his most iconic role as the washed-out boxer-turned-mob-tool Terry Malloy. He unwittingly plays a part in a murder, an old crus...

How To Use Backstory (Cutting Room Floor #112) from 2021-07-01T10:00

It can be so easy to get lost in creating backstory/worldbuilding/brainstorming/etc. for our plot and characters...but where does the rubber actually meet the road where that kind of work shows ...

It's a Wonderful Life (AFI Top 100 Films #20) from 2021-06-28T10:00

Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings!

It's become a Christmas classic, but it didn't start out that way! This film is yet another example of a movie that found second life on ...

How to Stay Motivated (Cutting Room Floor #111) from 2021-06-24T10:00

What tried and true techniques can you use to stay motivated?

Chinatown (AFI Top 100 Films #21) from 2021-06-21T10:00

Trigger warning: this podcast discusses sexual assault.

In 1977, Polanski was arrested and charged with Listen

The Trap of 'Just Write The Bad Version' (Cutting Room Floor #110) from 2021-06-17T10:00

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Some Like It Hot (AFI Top 100 Films #22) from 2021-06-14T10:00

Well, nobody's perfect!

Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon are a special kind of magic, and in '59 those two were firing on all cylinders. Lemmon and Tony Curtis are hard-luck musicians on the ...

Quarantine Postmortem (Cutting Room Floor #109) from 2021-06-10T10:00

COVID is not over . . . but with vaccinations in our arms, this may be as close as we get to the chance to look back over the past year of quarantine.

The Grapes of Wrath (AFI Top 100 Films #23) from 2021-06-07T10:00

We'll go on forever, Pa, 'cuz we're the people!

Steinbeck's novel, based on his very real experiences embedded as a reporter amongst the dust bowlers and other migrant workers in the Cali...

Advice for Starting Out (Cutting Room Floor #108) from 2021-06-03T10:00

We all have to start from somewhere...

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (AFI Top 100 Films #24) from 2021-05-31T10:00

E.T. PHONE HOME!

How to Balance Creativity and Life (Cutting Room Floor #107) from 2021-05-27T10:00

The day job. Life in general. How do we handle that stuff so we have the time and head-space to create?

To Kill a Mockingbird (AFI Top 100 Films #25) from 2021-05-24T10:00

Hold your head high and keep those fists down.

This movie might as well be called "Best Dad Ever." The book was Harper Lee's love note to her father, and the film is the same for Gregory ...

What Are You Working On Right Now? (Cutting Room Floor #106) from 2021-05-20T10:00

What's your current work in progress?

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (AFI Top 100 Films #26) from 2021-05-17T10:00

No, I will not yield!

Jimmy Stew is at his wide-eyed, loquacious, man-of-the-people best here in this film that has a heart as big as the U.S. entire. It's so earnestly idealistic about t...

Where Does Your Confidence Come From? (Cutting Room Floor #105) from 2021-05-13T10:00

When are you most confident?

High Noon (AFI Top 100 Films #27) from 2021-05-10T10:00

Hi, Noon!

Minutes after retirement into a happily married life, Sheriff Kane (Gary Cooper) has a crisis: his nemesis Frank Miller has been released from prison, and he's on his way back t...

How to Outline (Cutting Room Floor #104) from 2021-05-06T10:00

How do you take an idea for a story, and turn it into something you can write in a first draft?

All About Eve (AFI Top 100 Films #28) from 2021-05-03T10:00

Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy night!

Bette Davis fights for her heart's and career's life against the up-and-coming Anne Baxter, who's insinuated herself into Bette's life perhaps ....

Finding the Emotional Sweet Spot (Cutting Room Floor #103) from 2021-04-29T10:00

When does emotion help your creative work, and when does it hinder? Also, we recommend Sin City: A Dame to Kill For and The Last Blockbuster

Double Indemnity (AFI Top 100 Films #29) from 2021-04-26T10:00

Not an accident. Not suicide. Murder.

Billy Wilder is in peak form on this classic black & white noir starring Barbara Stanwyk as the femme fatale and the smooth-talking Fred MacMurray as...

Balancing Curiosity with Routine (Cutting Room Floor #102) from 2021-04-22T10:00

Routine is a haven for productivity, but it can turn into a rut. Curiosity can drive experimentation and growth, but it can lead to shiny-object syndrome...where's the balance in between? How ca...

Apocalypse Now (AFI Top 100 Films #30) from 2021-04-19T10:00

War is hell. Based on the novella "Heart of Darkness," Francis Ford Coppola is the real star of this ambitious, disturbing, madness-inducing look into the horrors of the Vietnam War. Starring Ma...

How to Manage Creative Energy (Cutting Room Floor #101) from 2021-04-15T10:00

Creative energy: a finite resource. Our ability to get good creative work done is undeniably limited to how much energy we have in any given day. How much energy we have varies from day to day. ...

The Maltese Falcon (AFI Top 100 Films #31) from 2021-04-12T10:00

The stuff dreams are made of! Our first dyed and true NOIR has finally arrived here on the AFI’s list, and boy howdy is it a cracking good time. Femme fatales, druggings in drinks, secret shoote...

What is Voice? (Cutting Room Floor #100) from 2021-04-08T10:00

A strong “voice.” We all want to be told that we have one in our writing. Every great writer has a “strong voice.” Okay . . . so, what even IS a “voice” in our writing? And, how do we develop on...

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (AFI Top 100 Films #33) from 2021-04-05T10:00

What do you think you are for christ's sake, crazy or something?! Jack Nicholson stars as the pedophile rapist McMurphy, and Louise Fletcher as his nemesis Nurse Ratched. He’s been sent to the l...

How to Get to Done (Cutting Room Floor #099) from 2021-04-01T10:00

How do you know when your story is DONE? When is it ready to share with the world? Or, even when it's ready to share with someone else for feedback? And HOW DO WE GET TO THAT POINT? If sharing o...

Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (AFI Top 100 Films #34) from 2021-03-29T10:00

Magic mirror on the wall! The movie that launched a studio (and two theme parks), and almost 100 years ago! Snow White is a landmark film, and just one glance at the quality of the artwork and t...

James Rollins' 7 Sympathy Builders for Characters (Cutting Room Floor #098) from 2021-03-25T10:00

There are shortcuts to getting an audience to fall in love with a character, and best-selling author James Rollins has come up with a list of 7 of them. This week, we discuss them!

Annie Hall (AFI Top 100 Films #35) from 2021-03-22T10:00

Woody Allen, by his own admission–and the definition of statutory rape–has sexually assaulted children. This very film contains a reference to such assault. His daughter has reported assault. In...

Annie Hall (AFI Top 100 Films #35) from 2021-03-22T10:00

Woody Allen, by his own admission–and the definition of statutory rape–has sexually assaulted children. This very film contains a reference to such assault. His daughter has reported assault. In...

How and When to Pivot (Cutting Room Floor #097) from 2021-03-18T10:00

Sometimes, slogging through the mud is the wrong choice. Barreling ahead with complete tunnel vision and shutting out any and all other possibilities can be foolhardy and actually hinder progres...

How to Write an Amazing Character (Cutting Room Floor #096) from 2021-03-11T11:00

Write a character you fall in love with. We've all heard that advice, but HOW DO YOU DO THAT? How can we create a character who feels real, that people will connect with, be thrilled by, want to...

How to Pick the Right Story (Cutting Room Floor #095) from 2021-03-04T11:00

How do you know if you’re writing the right story? I mean, we all know how long it takes to write something, we all know how much effort it takes. It seems like a valid question . . . why this s...

How to Write a Perfect Crisis (Cutting Room Floor #094) from 2021-02-25T11:00

A rock and a hard place. The decisions that define the arc of a character, and indeed our own lives. This is the realm of the Crisis, one of the must-have components of a scene, act, story, or e...

The Hardest Part of Storytelling (Cutting Room Floor #093) from 2021-02-18T11:00

Writing is hard. Often. Not all the time, certainly . . . writing is hard, it seems, until it’s not. For a while. And then it’s hard again. Writing is perhaps at it’s hardest when it doesn’t hap...

How to Write a Great Ending (Cutting Room Floor #092) from 2021-02-11T16:48:57

Go out with a BANG! Of the three most basic parts of a story–beginning, middle, and end–the ending probably gets the most attention. A good one will get you the most forgiveness, and a bad one w...

Is it Okay for my Story to Change? (Cutting Room Floor #091) from 2021-02-04T11:00

A left turn. Off the rails. Sometimes, our story seems to have a mind of it’s own, and it changes as we’re writing it, perhaps even dramatically. Is . . . that okay? Or, is that some kind of red...

Midnight Cowboy (AFI's Top 100 Films #43) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

Do you want to be a dog, or do you want to be a president?

Bonnie & Clyde (AFI's Top 100 Films #42) from 2021-01-31T22:10:42.023393

We rob banks!

How to Write a Great Middle (Cutting Room Floor #090) from 2021-01-28T11:00

The dreaded “muddy middle.” That’s a common term amongst script writers and storytellers in general. We all know that if a story is going to bog down anywhere, it will happen in that giant middl...

Art vs. Content (Cutting Room Floor #089) from 2021-01-21T11:00

In the age of content . . . what makes something "art?" Anyone and everyone can make anything these days. That's objectively wonderful. Inherently, that means there area a multitude of reasons w...

How to Write a Great Beginning (Cutting Room Floor #088) from 2021-01-14T11:00

Start with a BANG! Hook the viewer/reader! Your story should grab them by the throat! We've all heard the advice on what the start to our stories need to be . . . but just HOW do we accomplish t...

2021 Goals, Resolutions, and Intentions (Cutting Room Floor #087) from 2021-01-07T11:00

Happy New Year! What a *YEAR* 2020 was for all of us . . . but the page has now turned. We're no longer in the past. We're living in the future. 2021 is a new year. What do you want to accomplis...

Home Alone from 2020-12-21T11:00

Kevin!!! If you're a certain age, this movie defined your childhood. Who DIDN'T want to kick the fam, watch violent movies, eat ice cream all day, and turn their house into a labyrinth of death ...

2020 Year in Review (Cutting Room Floor #086) from 2020-12-17T11:00

2020: you were a motherf*cker.

For real, this year has been an all-timer of a year. It's challenged our perception of what a year even IS. And it's come from all sides: personal, professi...

The Bridge on the River Kwai (AFI Top 100 Films #36) from 2020-12-14T11:00

What have I done?! Alec Guinness takes a starring turn as the unbreakable WWII Colonel Nicholson. He finds himself as a prisoner of war in a work camp tasked with building the Japanese a bridge ...

When You're Lying to Yourself (Cutting Room Floor #085) from 2020-12-10T11:00

If you're anything like me, the voice inside your head that lies is so good at it, it doesn't even sound like it's lying. It sounds calm, rational, confident . . . what it's saying even FEELS GO...

The Best Years of Our Lives (AFI Top 100 Films #37) from 2020-12-07T11:00

Coming home can be the hardest. William Wyler flexes some considerable cinematic muscle in this ensemble WWII story of three soldiers who struggle to return to their normal lives after serving i...

How to Level Up (Cutting Room Floor #084) from 2020-12-03T11:00

How do you know when it's time to level up? And, when you know it's time to take whatever that next step might be . . . how do you take it? How do you break through? Josh and Ira share how they ...

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (AFI Top 100 Films #38) from 2020-11-30T11:00

The motherlode! John Huston pairs up with his own father plus Bogart to spin a tale of gold and greed. It was a big influence on Lucas and Spielberg when they were developing Indiana Jones, and ...

Drawing Inspiration From Where You Live (Cutting Room Floor #083) from 2020-11-26T11:00

Home. How often do our stories start with where we live? Why is that? What is it about “home,” or even when we visit somewhere else and it fires up the imagination? How do we get inspired by whe...

Dr. Strangelove (AFI Top 100 Films #39) from 2020-11-23T11:00

Gentlemen, there’s no fighting in here! This is the war room! Stanley Kubrick is back on the list, this time with his alternately zany and terrifying comedy (?) Doc Strange(love). Comedic genius...

The Dangers of Turning Pro (Cutting Room Floor #082) from 2020-11-19T11:00

A lot of us want to turn pro...but what are the downsides? The allure of "turning pro" is obvious: you get to do what you want full-time and get paid for it?! Omg. That's a no-brainer! And, work...

The Sound of Music (AFI Top 100 Films #40) from 2020-11-16T11:00

The hills are alive! This classic team-up of legends Julie Andrews, director Robert Wise, and composers Rogers & Hammerstein is an indelible mark in the history of musicals. We've all heard the ...

How to Fit in Writing when Life is Crazy (Cutting Room Floor #081) from 2020-11-12T11:00

Life gets crazy. All the time! And it's never ever going to go away completely. That fantasy you have of getting everything in order and things being just perfect and right is just that . . . a ...

King Kong (AFI Top 100 Films #41) from 2020-11-09T11:00

Long live the king! Almost 100 years old, and Kong still BRINGS THE NOISE. It's rather astonishing how much of this movie still delivers the thrills today that it did so long ago. The imagery is...

How to Get Back Up (Cutting Room Floor #080) from 2020-11-05T11:00

We all fall off. How do we get back up and keep going? Failure is inevitable, big or small. We all come up short of our goals or expectations. It's a normal part of life, particularly a creative...

Bonnie&Clyde (AFI Top 100 Films #42) from 2020-11-02T11:00

We rob banks! It was the rallying cry of the counter-culture movement in the 1960s, and the star vehicle that brought us Warren Beatty. Based on the all-too-true story of the Barrow gang and the...

Why You Need Breaks and How to Take Them (Cutting Room Floor #079) from 2020-10-29T10:00

Burn-out is real. So, how do you take breaks to avoid it? What does a break look like to you, and when do you need to take them? We all need to take time to re-fill our creative well during the ...

Midnight Cowboy (AFI Top 100 Films #43) from 2020-10-26T10:00

Hey, I’m walkin here! Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman star in this gritty portrait of the hustler life on the streets of late-60s, peak urban-decay New York . . . and it’s surprisingly SWEET and f...

Edit As You Go, Or Later? (Cutting Room Floor #078) from 2020-10-22T10:00

If writing is rewriting--no draft comes out perfect and immaculate on the first try--then WHEN exactly are you supposed to stop writing new words and edit the words you've written? Do you do it ...

The Philadelphia Story (AFI Top 100 Films #44) from 2020-10-19T10:00

You're the golden girl, Tracey! . . . like Bea Arthur! Katherine Hepburn bounces between other legends Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart in this classic romantic comedy. But, does it hold up to moder...

What Keeps You Showing Up? (Cutting Room Floor #077) from 2020-10-15T10:00

What keeps you showing up every day, or every week, or even sporadically coming back to something creative over and over? If you've found consistency, why did you find it, and if you haven't . ....

Shane (AFI Top 100 Films #45) from 2020-10-12T10:00

You're a low-down Yankee liar! This week, it's the film that just might be THE prototypical western, the template for so much that followed: the lone gunslinger who rides into town and tries to ...

Why You NEED 'Film School' (Cutting Room Floor #076) from 2020-10-08T10:00

Master storytellers: that’s what we want to become. So, how are we going to get there? And how does ‘Film School’ factor into that? What exactly ARE we getting out of doing this podcast each wee...

It Happened One Night (AFI Top 100 Films #46) from 2020-10-05T10:00

Thanks, professor! Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert star in the film that put Frank Capra on the map. It incidentally put Columbia Pictures, Gable and Colbert, and the “road trip” / “screwball ...

Zen and the Art of Longevity (Cutting Room Floor #075) from 2020-10-01T10:00

"If I was asked 'what was the most important advice I could give an artist starting out,' it would be 'manage your life so that you will feel as good about the industry in fifteen years as when ...

A Streetcar Named Desire (AFI Top 100 Films #47) from 2020-09-28T10:00

HEY, STELLA!!!! Marlon Brando explodes onto the silver screen as the alcoholic, abusive, barbarian of a man, Stanley Kowalski in the seminal play from Tennessee Williams. This play, and then mov...

The Rules Shall Set You Free (Cutting Room Floor #073) from 2020-09-24T10:00

Thou Shalt Know The Rules, and the Rules Shall Set You Free.

We hear this aaallll the time. But, isn’t that just bullsh*t from people who just want power and authority? Can’t I only be fr...

Rear Window (AFI Top 100 Films #48) from 2020-09-21T10:00

Old pal Jimmy Stewart is front and center to a possible MURDER. He's laid up with a broken leg with nothing to do, and there's a neighbor acting shady as sh*t whose wife is suddenly nowhere to b...

What Movie Pissed You Off? (Cutting Room Floor #073) from 2020-09-17T10:00

It pissed you off. It went beyond just disliking the film, it went beyond being disappointed, it made you ANGRY. What movie pissed you off, and why? What was it about that movie that got under y...

Intolerance (AFI Top 100 Films #049) from 2020-09-14T10:00

D. W. Griffith may have invented the "blockbuster" with Birth of a Nation, but it was this film with which he invented the epic. Intolerance is 3+ hours of sprawling story covering love...

Best of the AFI's 51-100 (Cutting Room Floor #072) from 2020-09-10T10:00

Wondering where to start with the bottom half of the AFI's Top 100 films? We've got you covered! Before we dive into the top 50, we take a look back at the first 50 films we've watched, and reco...

Do I Have To Be Poor? (Cutting Room Floor #071) from 2020-09-03T10:00

The starving artist, locked away in his tenement apartment, not a penny to his name, suffering for his art because that's how genius is made. That's what we all must strive for. Right? That's th...

Keys to Consistency (Cutting Room Floor #070) from 2020-08-27T10:00

Consistency is key. Spock would accept that as an axiom. So, if that’s a truth we all agree upon, the question naturally becomes: HOW? How do we do something with consistency? Josh and Ira discu...

The Muse: Engineering Serendipity (Cutting Room Floor #069) from 2020-08-20T10:00

The groove, the zone, where the work is sublime and it's easy and plentiful and everything is working and we are a GENIUS. Some call it the "Muse." Others call it "Inspiration," or "Serendipity....

Villains: How to be Evil (Cutting Room Floor #068) from 2020-08-13T10:00

What makes a good villain? What makes a GREAT one? From understanding that they're the hero of their own story to unpredictability and danger, we examine the villains we love to hate, and what m...

Writing is Rewriting (Cutting Room Floor #067) from 2020-08-06T10:00

What exactly do you get out of rewrites? Why do them? The term "rewrite," "edit," or "revision" can come with some negative juju, particularly when we've already spent so much time writing the f...

The First Draft (Cutting Room Floor #066) from 2020-07-30T10:00

There is nothing more terrifying than the blank page. We all know this. So…how DO we get past that? How do we get from blank page to finished manuscript? There are many steps in between, and the...

Sellout (Cutting Room Floor #065) from 2020-07-23T10:00

A sellout is a traitor. The lowest of the low. We hate sellouts. ...right? Except, what does 'sellout' really mean? Who's sold out? The Roots? Nicholas Winding Refn? The Black Eyed Peas? Who get...

Have We Forgotten How To Make Movies? (Cutting Room Floor #064) from 2020-07-16T10:00

"They don't make 'em like they used to!" That certainly seems to be a common phrase these days when talking about the film industry. But...is it actually true? ARE movies not as good as they use...

The Most Important Lesson (Cutting Room Floor #063) from 2020-07-09T10:00

What is the biggest lesson you can think of that you had to learn, and once you did, had a positive affect on you? Life is replete with lessons if we're paying attention. Ira and Josh share a co...

How to Rewrite (Cutting Room Floor #062) from 2020-07-02T10:00

“Writing is rewriting.” Was it Stephen King who said that? Or maybe Hemmingway? Or, maybe it’s something made up by english and creative writing teachers. But…it’s true. Almost nothing comes out...

Where Are You Most-Improved? (Cutting Room Floor #061) from 2020-06-25T10:00

We spend A LOT of time on this podcast talking about what, where and how we can improve ourselves as artists and people. But, where have we ALREADY improved? Identifying and celebrating breakthr...

Do Less More Often (Cutting Room Floor #060) from 2020-06-18T10:00

This is a tidbit Ira picked up from a business coach by the name of Dallas Travers, and it's all about beating burnout and staying productive long and consistently enough to actually getting tho...

The Beast Called Time (Cutting Room Floor #059) from 2020-06-11T10:00

How do you handle time? It's always moving forward, whether we're aware of it in the moment or not . . . which is kind of the heart of the discussion this week. How much time do you spend thinki...

Plot-Driven vs. Character-Driven (Cutting Room Floor #058) from 2020-06-04T10:00

What makes a great story? A great Plot? Or great Characters? The first answer we come to for this question is "both." But, what if we dig deeper than that? HOW do we create a great character? Is...

One Project At A Time, Or Several? (Cutting Room Floor #057) from 2020-05-28T10:00

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The Power of Starting Small (Cutting Room Floor #056) from 2020-05-21T10:00

Start small. Laughably small. Then build incrementally. So incrementally that you don’t even notice the day-to-day increase.

It’s a tried and true formula for success. It shortcuts the mi...

Learning to Let Go (Cutting Room Floor #055) from 2020-05-14T10:00

Hang on too tight, and we can squeeze the life out of anything. Project. Relationship. Ourselves. Thus, it behooves us to know when it's time to let something go. But, what exactly does that mea...

The Masters Can Be Intimidating (Cutting Room Floor #054) from 2020-05-07T10:00

By their very nature, we elevate the Masters above ourselves. It's inspiring to see greatness that exceeds our own. But the other side of that same coin is intimidating, and the lowering of ours...

How To Stay Sharp (Cutting Room Floor #053) from 2020-04-30T10:00

Experience and success can be a double-edged sword. How often does a writer or filmmaker we know and love that's soooo good at what they do . . . seem like they start to phone it in, or lose the...

A Good Death (Cutting Room Floor #052) from 2020-04-23T10:00

The death of a character can be one of the most powerful experiences a story has to offer. When done right, it makes us feel and think about real life, and the people we’ve lost, the experiences...

Abandon Ship: How Do You Know When To Step Away? (Cutting Room Floor #051) from 2020-04-16T10:00

Cut it loose! You're wasting your time. The project you're working isn't going anywhere, no matter how hard you try. So just let it go. At least for now. Take a break. But . . . is that just 'ob...

The Best Movies For Quarantine (Cutting Room Floor #050) from 2020-04-09T17:39:56

You're stuck. You can't go anywhere for a while . . . what movies are you taking with you into quarantine or onto that deserted island? What movies do you find yourself turning to pass the time?...

How Do You Want To Be Remembered (Cutting Room Floor #048) from 2020-03-26T10:00

We’re all gonna kick the bucket some day . . . what do we want to leave behind? What do we want to be our legacy? What we will be known for? Josh and Ira tackle this deep cut today in a very per...

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King from 2020-03-23T10:00

To the fires of Mount Doom! JRR Tolkien and Peter Jackson’s masterwork comes to a spectacular conclusion in the final installment of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Frodo and Sam must muster the ...

Handling A Crisis (Cutting Room Floor #049) from 2020-03-19T10:00

The entire world is grappling with the novel corona virus COVID-19 right now; a truly global crisis that none of us have any control over, particularly at the individual level. So . . . when pre...

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers from 2020-03-16T10:00

Peter Jackson's epic live-action Lord of the Rings continues in grand fashion. Our heroes have split up and are in danger! Sam and Frodo wrestle with whether or not to trust Gollum and how to ge...

The AFI's Top 100-51: Behind the Numbers (Cutting Room Floor #047) from 2020-03-12T10:00

We're HALFWAY THROUGH the list!!! Crazy. It's flown by. This week, we do a deep dive into how we've rated the movies on this list thus far: how have the top 50 films fared? How do Josh and Ira d...

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (AFI Top 100 Films #50) from 2020-03-09T10:00

One ring to rule them all! Peter Jackson's epic live-action series based on THE masterwork of fantasy, JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings was ground-breaking. For decades, THE masterwo...

What is your Deepest Darkest Fear? (Cutting Room Floor #046) from 2020-03-05T11:00

This can be a hard one to dig deep and engage with, but it's a really important question. Fear affects us all, and it affects us the most when we don't even know it's there. It kills creativity,...

West Side Story (AFI Top 100 Films #51) from 2020-03-02T11:00

When you’re a jet, you’re a jet all the way! One of the definitive musicals of the 50s stage takes to the silver screen in the epic-ly scaled and shot masterpiece from Robert Wise and Jerome Rob...

Entitlement and the Fruits of our Labor (Cutting Room Floor #045) from 2020-02-27T11:00

The Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Hindu epic, tells us that we are entitled only to our WORK. We are not entitled to the FRUITS of our work. So...what does that mean? And *is* there wisdom in detach...

Taxi Driver (AFI Top 100 Films #52) from 2020-02-24T11:00

You talkin to me? You talking to ME?! Martin Scorcese may have broke through with Mean Streets, but it was this classic DeNiro collab that cemented him as a cinematic force. And the sam...

Boundaries in Writing and Life (Cutting Room Floor #044) from 2020-02-20T11:00

Boundaries; the line between me and them, and I get to draw it wherever I want. But...where do I draw it? Who and what do I need to keep separation from? And how do I keep that separation when t...

The Deer Hunter (AFI Top 100 Films #53) from 2020-02-17T11:00

Russian Roulette. Historical inaccuracies aside, it’s director Michael Cimino’s central metaphor for the Vietnam War. It’s also the pillar around which he builds this epic tale of three normal, ...

How To Have A Great Writing Day (Cutting Room Floor #043) from 2020-02-13T11:00

You’re exhausted, but exhilarated. The words are done, they’re on the page, and they were perfect. Inspired. A breakthrough! We’ve all had that writing day. They’re magic. We’ve also all had the...

M*A*S*H (AFI Top 100 Films #54) from 2020-02-10T11:00

Don’t let him kiss you Hawkeye! Robert Altman’s episodic tour through the absurdity of war stars Elliot Gould, Tom Skerritt, and Donald Sutherland as army surgeons who skip seamlessly from elbow...

How close do you get to your characters? (Cutting Room Floor #042) from 2020-02-06T11:00

How close is too close? How far is too far? Just how close / invested / inside our characters should we go when we're writing their story? As with most things, it's all about a balance? Josh and...

North By Northwest (AFI Top 100 Films #55) from 2020-02-03T11:00

Cary Grant stars in (one of) his iconic roles as Roger Thornhill, the very normal, very dapper bachelor thrown into a very abnormal, dangerous game of spies and assassins and femme fatales all b...

Movie Theatre Snacks: What's Your Go-To? (Cutting Room Floor #041) from 2020-01-30T11:00

Twizzlers or Red Vines? Reese's Pieces or Milk Duds? Coke or Slushie? Butter on that Popcorn? We all have our favorite movie theater snacks, so what are yours? Josh and Ira shared theirs, plus s...

Jaws (AFI Top 100 Films #56) from 2020-01-27T11:00

You’re gonna need a bigger boat. Jaws: the genesis of the summer blockbuster, and the film that launched Steven Spielberg into the stratosphere. Dude was 26 when he made this move. TWENTY. SIX. ...

What Would You Tell Your 24-year-old Self? (Cutting Room Floor #040) from 2020-01-23T11:00

You're sitting in front of yourself at 24 years of age. What would you say to them? What have you learned that they haven't? What would you want to tell them that you know they wouldn't...

Rocky (AFI Top 100 Films #57) from 2020-01-20T11:00

Yo, Adrian! Stallone takes the turn that made him a star in one of the most successful examples of the "Performance" Genre in all of history. Rocky is a bum. He roughs people up for the mob. But...

The 5 Commandments of Storytelling (Cutting Room Floor #039) from 2020-01-16T11:00

Every story that works has 5 fundamental building blocks: Inciting Incident, Progressive Complications, Crisis, Climax, and Resolution. This week, Josh and Ira dive into the definition of each o...

The Gold Rush (AFI Top 100 Films #58) from 2020-01-13T11:00

Chaplin makes his second appearance on The List as the hapless Klondike Gold Rush prospector...and he does not disappoint. We weren't too hot on Chaplin's previous film Modern Times. Th...

2020 Resolutions, Goals, and Intentions (Cutting Room Floor #038) from 2020-01-09T11:00

Happy New Year! So...are you a resolutions kind of person? If not, do you set any kind of intentions or goals around this time of year? And if you are, welcome to the club! Josh and Ira share wh...

Nashville (AFI Top 100 Films #59) from 2020-01-06T11:00

Wait. Is that Bob Saget? Robert Altman does his thing in what's aimed as an epic, grand portrait/commentary on middle America. It has no less than twenty-four main characters, a run-tim...

Die Hard from 2019-12-16T11:00

Yippie-ki-yay motherf—er! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! This holiday season, we’re watching the film that’s become the festive touchstone of this generation, and the one that defi...

2019 Year In Review (Cutting Room Floor #037) from 2019-12-12T11:00

We blinked and 2019 is coming to a close. Josh and Ira reflect on a year of movies. For all its flaws, the AFI’s Top 100 list has DELIVERED, and ya boys discuss the highs, the lows, the takeaway...

Duck Soup (AFI Top 100 FIlms #60) from 2019-12-09T11:00

This means WAR! The Marx brothers dominated the comedy space in the early 30s, and it's easy to see why in what's considered to be their best film. Groucho is a ridiculous dictator with a taste ...

How to Social Media (Cutting Room Floor #036) from 2019-12-05T11:00

How do you handle your online platform? What social media do you use? And how do you use it? Social media and the internet in general have a massive impact on our daily lives, so these are impor...

Sullivan's Travels (AFI's Top 100 Films #61) from 2019-12-02T11:00

There's a lot to be said for making people laugh! Joel McCrea takes a wacky turn as a famously successful comedy director who wants to suffer so he can make a serious movie. His solution: hit th...

Where Do Stories Come From? (Cutting Room Floor #035) from 2019-11-28T11:00

One the most common questions storytellers get asked is 'where do your ideas come from?' And while that's a deeply personal and probably unanswerable question in any objective or concrete sense....

American Graffiti (AFI's Top 100 Films #62) from 2019-11-25T11:00

The Wolfman is EVERYWHERE. George Lucas makes his first appearance on the list with this 50s nostalgia cruising culture classic, starring Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, and a soundtrack that does...

What is the Dream? (Cutting Room Floor #034) from 2019-11-21T11:05

We all have (at least) that one big dream, the one that is hard to even think of because we want it so much. It’s scary to talk about something we’re afraid we’ll never get. But it’s also import...

Cabaret (AFI Top 100 Films #63) from 2019-11-18T11:05

Money money moneymoneymoneymoney! It makes the world go round! Liza Minelli and Bob Fosse dominate this late-period musical about love, nazi's, and a divey cabaret bar that echoes the ecstacies ...

The Joy is the Thing (Cutting Room Floor #033) from 2019-11-14T11:05

We draw from Rachael Aaron's "2,000 to 10,000" this week, a book that's ostensibly on increasing productivity. For Ira, however, it cut much deeper recently, and it turns out that one of the cen...

Network (AFI's Top 100 Films #64) from 2019-11-11T11:05

I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more! Paddy Chayefsky's script is the real star of this bonkers film. It starts out very conventionally: an aging, depressed news anchor and h...

How To Quit (Cutting Room Floor #032) from 2019-11-07T11:05

You'll only fail if you quit. We've all heard that advice. And oftentimes, that's good advice. But...what if quitting was not only okay, but absolutely crucial to success. Knowing when and what ...

The African Queen (AFI Top 100 Films #65) from 2019-11-04T11:05

Bogart and Hepburn star in this epic John Huston flick that was filmed ON LOCATION in Africa, something that was quite incredible for the time. It's WWI, the Germans are invading, and our two pl...

What Does 'Show Don't Tell' Really Mean? (Cutting Room Floor #031) from 2019-10-31T10:05

You've probably heard of the storytelling advice 'show, don't tell.' It's one of the most important things to keep in mind when telling a story. But, what does that REALLY mean? And WHY do we ne...

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull from 2019-10-28T10:05

Can you ever go home again? Spielberg, Ford and Lucas were game to try 20 years after making the last Indiana Jones film, which also wraps up our brief vacation from the AFI Top 100. The band wa...

Quality vs Quantity: How Do I Improve the Fastest? (Cutting Room Floor #030) from 2019-10-24T10:05

Should I create as much content as I possibly can? Or should I take my time to make each project as good as I'm able? It's the age-old question of quality or quantity, and it's age-old because t...

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade from 2019-10-21T10:05

I TOLD you, don't call me Junior!!! After the mixed reviews of the last Indy film, Spielberg and Lucas reached back to pull from Raiders...and the results are incredible. Adding Connery as Jones...

Gear Talk: Filmmaker and Author Edition (Cutting Room Floor #029) from 2019-10-17T10:05

Who doesn't love gear?! Equipment. Software. Electronics. Notebooks. Pens. All the tools of the trade and the creature comforts we all use to film or write or photograph or brainstorm...it's jus...

Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom from 2019-10-14T10:05

Hey lady, you call him DOCTOR JONES! If Temple of Doom does *one* thing (and it actually does much more), it gives us Short Round. If you saw this movie as a kid, who didn't want to be Indy's be...

How Do You Handle Feedback? (Cutting Room Floor #028) from 2019-10-10T10:05

Just don't panic cry, Josh. That's what our dear McClenney tells himself over and over whenever he receives feedback...and it's no different for Ira. Feedback is hard. It's haaaarrrrddddd. Our c...

Raiders of the Lost Ark (AFI Top 100 Films #66) from 2019-10-07T10:05

Indy, why does the floor move? OMG. This movie needs literally no introduction. It's the classic supernatural adventure story that gifted us all with Indiana Jones, arguably Harrison Ford's best...

Cliffhangers! How To Keep Your Audience (Cutting Room Floor #027) from 2019-10-03T10:05

How do you write a pageturner or a movie that you can't turn off? Cliffhangers. Pure and simple. Cliffhangers keep the people coming back for more. So, how do we apply that idea to our stories? ...

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (AFI Top 100 Films #67) from 2019-09-30T10:05

I swear if you existed I'd divorce you! Elizabeth Taylor and real-life, several-times-divorced husband Richard Burton are positively on fire in playwright Edward Albee's explosive family drama. ...

Imposter Syndrome: How Do You Deal With It? (Cutting Room Floor #026) from 2019-09-26T10:05

Imposter syndrome is the self-limiting belief, in whatever form it may take, that we are just not good enough. It's insidious how it can show up in our everyday and creative lives. This week, th...

Unforgiven (AFI Top 100 Films #68) from 2019-09-23T10:05

It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. Clint Eastwood stars as the aging, reformed, tea-totaling killer Bill Munny who's forced into doing one last job. Morgan Freeman rides along side him, with...

The Gap Between Taste And Skill According To Ira Glass (Cutting Room Floor #025) from 2019-09-19T10:05

Ira Glass has a very famous sound snippet about a fundamental aspect of becoming really good at something that no one ever tells you when you're starting out: that your taste, for a long time, i...

Tootsie (AFI Top 100 Films #69) from 2019-09-16T10:05

It's one nutty hospital! Dustin Hoffman tucks and dons the wig for an iconic performance as Dorothy Michaels/Michael Dorsey, a down on his luck, unemployable actor. The only problem: he falls in...

Don't Sleep On Outside Validation (Cutting Room Floor #024) from 2019-09-12T10:05

Self esteem comes from within. We're always hardest on ourselves. We all know this...but outside validation is absolutely crucial to even the hardiest of souls. We all need loving, supportive, p...

A Clockwork Orange (AFI Top 100 Films #70) from 2019-09-09T10:05

Clear as a unmuddied lake, Fred. This week, ya boys tackle the disturbing, dystopian classic from Stanley Kubrick. Center stage is Malcolm McDowell as Alex DeLarge, a teenager who's main pastime...

How Can Meditation Help My Writing? (Cutting Room Floor #023) from 2019-09-05T10:05

Ira's recently had a breakthrough with his writing process, and meditation is smack dab in the middle of it. Josh wants to know how. This week, we talk about when to meditate, how it's different...

Saving Private Ryan (AFI Top 100 Films #71) from 2019-09-02T10:05

"Tell me I'm a good man." Spielberg's war epic stars Tom Hanks as the leader of a company of WWII soldiers tasked with tracking down a man they've never met so they can send him home. It feature...

Numbers, Updates, and Changes? (Cutting Room Floor #022) from 2019-08-29T10:05

Ira digs into the numbers behind the ratings we've given the first quarter of AFI's Top 100 films and what they might mean about us, both the boys give updates on what they've been working on fo...

The Shawshank Redemption (AFI Top 100 Films #72) from 2019-08-26T10:05

Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins star in arguably the most popular movie of all time. ALL TIME. It's been #1 on IMDb for the past twenty years! It has an all-star cast, an eminently quotable scrip...

Has the AFI's Top 100 Improved Your Storytelling? (Cutting Room Floor #021) from 2019-08-22T10:05

Josh asks Ira if watching the AFI's Top 100 movies has improved his storytelling yet, and Ira asks him the same question right back. In a nutshell: yes. For both of them. But how?

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (AFI's Top 100 Films #73) from 2019-08-19T10:05

Robert Redford and Paul Newman star in the film that arguably made them icons as the shoot-from-the-hip, tight-lipped Sundance and the worrying, scheming, talkative Butch. The chemistry is unden...

How Do I Start A Writing Routine? (Cutting Room Floor #020) from 2019-08-15T10:05

Ira recently realized he didn't have a writing routine, a habit of working on his WIPs every day. So, how can he start one? And how can he KEEP one? Both of the boys talk habit forming and share...

The Silence of the Lambs (AFI Top 100 Films #74) from 2019-08-12T10:05

Hello Clarice. Anthony Hopkins turns in the performance of a lifetime as the cannibal serial killer Hannibal Lecter, as does Jodi Foster as FBI agent-in-training Clarice Starling in the film tha...

How Do We Balance Creativity and the Day Job? (Cutting Room Floor #019) from 2019-08-08T10:05

We all have bills to pay. But how do we work full time week in and week out and still get our creative work done as well? What KIND of job allows us to do both and not get burned out? Josh and I...

In The Heat Of The Night (AFI Top 100 Films #75) from 2019-08-05T10:05

They call me MISTER TIBBS. Sidney Poitier is an absolute badass and he pairs beautifully as the black master detective stuck with Rod Steiger as the racist local cop to solve a murder. This film...

What Is An Elevator Pitch? (Cutting Room Floor #018) from 2019-08-01T10:05

"You gotta have an elevator pitch!" How many times have we heard this as a storyteller? Omg. All the time. But what actually IS an elevator pitch? Both of us didn't even know ourselves until ver...

What is a Love Story? (Cutting Room Floor #010) from 2019-07-29T10:06

BONUS! For our Patreon supporters each week, we also release an episode of the Cutting Room Floor which cover topics from personal updates to storytelling deep-dives to general Creative Life tip...

The Apartment LIVE! from 2019-07-29T10:05

BONUS! Get a taste of the content we feature each week on our Patreon. This week: The Apartment, from 1960. There are so many great lines from this movie, and you can hear from the recording jus...

What Movies Give You The Warm Fuzzies? (Cutting Room Floor #017) from 2019-07-25T10:05

We all have those movies that just make us feel warm and fuzzy inside. They feel like home. This week, the boys talk about those movies for them, Josh's self-imposed project to watch more of the...

Forrest Gump (AFI Top 100 Films #76) from 2019-07-22T10:05

Life is like a box of chocolates, folks; you never know what you're gonna get. Tom Hanks plays the titular character in a film that defies traditional story structures and genre conventions. At ...

Sometimes it just takes a while to Click (Cutting Room Floor #016) from 2019-07-18T10:05

We try new things all the time. New ways of doing stuff. Be better organized. Be more efficient. Work smarter, not harder. Most of the time, though, it doesn't stick.

Well, maybe that's o...

All The President's Men (AFI Top 100 Films #77) from 2019-07-15T10:05

It's the story of how Richard Nixon's presidency came to an infamous end: Watergate. Intrepid (god, I love the word 'intrepid!') reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Berstein doggedly pursued the tru...

How To Finish! (Cutting Room Floor #015) from 2019-07-11T10:05

How many times have you started something and not finished? How many times do we ALL just jump out the gate on something creative and we have all that wonderful energy and enthusiasm, and then i...

Modern Times (AFI Top 100 Films #78) from 2019-07-08T10:05

Charlie Chaplin is on point this week with one of his most beloved appearances as the The Tramp. He can't hold down a job for his life, he's getting strapped into a homicidal auto-feeding machin...

The Wild Bunch (AFI Top 100 Films #79) from 2019-07-01T10:05

If any of them move, kill 'em! Our first Western on the AFI list is a bloody, gritty, corker of a bandit heist flick. It stars William Holden, whose star power was waning at the time, along with...

How do we apply Genre to our Writing? (Cutting Room Floor #013) from 2019-06-27T10:05

Okay, so we've gone through each of the different Genres of story. Great. But how do we actually APPLY that to our own writing? We use Josh's current work in progress as a launching point, discu...

The Apartment (AFI Top 100 Films #80) from 2019-06-24T10:05

"That's the way it crumbles, cookie-wise." Jack Lemmon and Shirley McClain star in this absolute gem from writer/director Billy Wilder. One of the movies that defined the Romantic Comedy genre, ...

All The Stories We Tell: The Content Genres (Cutting Room Floor #012) from 2019-06-20T10:05

We conclude our dive into the fundamental story types we tell by by going over the remaining external Content Genres of Horror, Crime, Western, Performance, Thriller, Society, and War, and the r...

Spartacus (AFI Top 100 Films #81) from 2019-06-17T10:05

I'm Spartacus! No, I'm Spartacus! No...WE are SpartacALLofus! :) We hit our second sword-and-sandal epic of the late 50s / early 60s. This one is directed by a very young Stanley Kubrick and sta...

The Worldview Genre: A Hero's Journey (Cutting Room Floor #011) from 2019-06-13T10:05

Our deep dive into the story content genres continues with what might be THE MOST important, ubiquitous internal genre in human history: the Worldview story. It's the foundation of the Hero's Jo...

Sunrise (AFI Top 100 Films #82) from 2019-06-10T11:05

Considered by many the greatest film of the Silent Era, Sunrise is a German Expressionist poem of a marriage on the rocks. It brings the visuals, helter-skelter sets, melodramatic performances, ...

Titanic (AFI Top 100 Films #83) from 2019-06-03T11:05

I'm the King of the World! This week, we dive into James Cameron's epic-in-the-classic-movie-sense love story. It made both Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet a star, and it features on...

What is an Action Story? (Cutting Room Floor #009) from 2019-05-30T10:05

Josh and Ira take a deep dive into the Action Story Genre. What makes an Action Story? And how similar is it to the Hero's Journey...or perhaps even the SAME THING? We go deep, this week on the ...

Easy Rider (AFI Top 100 Films #84) from 2019-05-27T11:05

1960s counterculture gets its definitive film in '69's "Easy Rider." It was a breakout film for Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda, and written and directed by Dennis Hopper...at least that's what Hopp...

What Is Genre? (Cutting Room Floor #008) from 2019-05-23T10:05

Genre. It's the absolute #1 MOST IMPORTANT THING you can ever decide for your story. It informs eevveerrryyyything else. So...what IS genre, then? And WHY is it the most important thing for stor...

A Night At The Opera (AFI Top 100 Films #85) from 2019-05-20T14:05

You can't'a fool me. There ain't no Sanity Clause! The Marx Brothers kick off their tenure of pictures at MGM with this zany musical comedy that features such classic scenes as the Stateroom Cab...

Inspiration: Where does it come from, and how to keep it? (Cutting Room Floor #007) from 2019-05-16T10:05

This week, Josh and Ira discuss the tools and techniques they use to find new ideas, and how they keep their inspiration going during the day-to-day grind. Where do you get your best ideas?!

Platoon (AFI Top 100 Films #86) from 2019-05-13T14:05

Tom Berenger IS reality, folks. At least he is in Oliver Stone's intense, over the top, disturbing take on Vietnam which was released in 1986. The 80s, man; where more was more and the cocaine a...

Comparisonitis and Balancing Ambition vs Contentment (Cutting Room Floor #006) from 2019-05-09T10:05

How can that person have done that thing we can't do? And, at such an early age?! We've all been there. Comparing ourselves to others can be so toxic...but then again, how can we improve ourselv...

12 Angry Men (AFI Top 100 Films #87) from 2019-05-06T14:05

Jury duty: it's the nightmare for every working man and woman in America. But, what if it's also the pillar of our entire justice system? Henry Fonda offers a gripping story centered around the ...

The Genius of Audiobooks and Phillip K. Dick (Cutting Room Floor #005) from 2019-05-02T10:05

Ya boys share their love of both reading books in audio form, and of the amazing writer Phillip K. Dick and his classic short novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. Audio is a GREAT...

Bringing Up Baby (AFI Top 100 Films #88) from 2019-04-29T14:05

Leopards, and loons, and lunatics, oh my! Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant star in this truly, breathlessly fast "screwball" comedy. It's all pratfalls, bits, and vaudeville; an era and a style ...

Will Time Travel Ever Exist? (Cutting Room Floor #004) from 2019-04-22T11:05

If time travel is to ever be invented, at least the time travel we imagine in our stories...would we know about it? Ira shares an epiphany he had on the subject, and Josh talks about how he's al...

The Sixth Sense (AFI Top 100 Films #89) from 2019-04-15T11:05

He sees dead people. ALL THE TIME! This week, the AFI Top 100 list brings us our first entry that could be classified as an out-and-out horror. It's M. Knight Shyamalan's classic "The Sixth Sens...

Swing Time (AFI Top 100 Films #90) from 2019-04-08T11:05

Old movies feel like Disneyland. This, and many, many epiphanies are brought to you by the black and white classic romance Swing Time with the lanky, debonaire Fred Astaire and the drop...

How Blogging Every Day Changed My Life (Cutting Room Floor #003) from 2019-04-01T11:05

Journaling, blogging, a diary; however you want to classify it, both Josh and Ira have found sitting down at the end of every day and taking a few minutes to write down their thoughts and feelin...

Sophie's Choice (AFI Top 100 Films #91) from 2019-03-25T11:05

Meryl Streep is the eponymous Nazi death camp-survivor in Sophie's Choice. It's not a good choice; spoiler alert. It never is when Nazis are involved. If you want voice over, secrets, very young...

Goodfellas (AFI Top 100 Films #92) from 2019-03-18T11:05

We're funny? FUNNY HOW?! Martin Scorsese is in the house, dropping what could arguably be considered the greatest mob/gangster movie ever made. Joe Pesci took home an Oscar for his role as Tommy...

The French Connection (AFI Top 100 Films #93) from 2019-03-11T11:05

New York Detective "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) and his partner (Roy Scheider) chase a French heroin smuggler. And believe us, it's *a lot* of chasing! Can the Hack-man and the Roy-boy get the ...

What "Write Every Day" Really Means (Cutting Room Floor #002) from 2019-03-04T11:10

“Write every day!” We’ve all heard the advice. How many of us have tried it and failed? How many of us are feeling shame RIGHT NOW because we have (or are currently) neglected the project we're ...

Pulp Fiction (AFI Top 100 Films #94) from 2019-02-25T11:10

BIG. KAHUNA. BURGER. Pulp Fiction is one of the most iconic, impactful, most-quotable movies ever made. Like few other films in history, it inspired a generation of filmmakers and screenwriters....

Depression, Anxiety, and David Lynch (Cutting Room Floor #001) from 2019-02-18T11:00

Our first Cutting Room Floor episode! This one from the recording of Toy Story covers the trials of moving (we always have 50% more sh*t than we thought we did), the pains and inspirations of a ...

The Last Picture Show (AFI Top 100 Films #95) from 2019-02-11T11:01

The boys talk growing up as a small-town country bumpkin versus a city slicker, Sam the Lion, and about that empty feeling deep in the center of all of us. Why do we love it so much? And why is ...

Do The Right Thing (AFI Top 100 Films #96) from 2019-02-04T11:00

Fight the Power! Film School smokes its first Spike Lee Joint, and it's jazzy, wacky, funny, and edgy AF. A very young Mr. Lee makes a statement with his masterpiece both behind the camera, and ...

Blade Runner (AFI Top 100 Films #97) from 2019-01-28T11:00

He's seen things us people wouldn't believe! Josh and Ira dive into one of the most influential SciFi films of all time and, amazingly enough, the first movie both of the boys have seen before. ...

Yankee Doodle Dandy (AFI Top 100 Films #98) from 2019-01-21T11:00

Music is in the air! Vaudeville! Romance! Franklin Delano Roosevelt! It's the 1942 classic Yankee Doodle Dandy this time around, a movie neither Josh nor Ira had ever even HEARD of...so...

Toy Story (AFI Top 100 Films #99) from 2019-01-14T11:00

To Infinity, and beyond! Join Josh on his own personal journey to figure out if he's ever actually SEEN this movie, and Ira's dive into the Dark Night of the Soul. It's Toy Story time!

Ben-Hur (AFI Top 100 Films #100) from 2019-01-07T11:00

Chariots, Revenge and Jesus, oh my! Josh and Ira kick off Film School with the first movie on AFI's Top 100 Films of all time with the sword and sandal epic Ben-Hur. Let's get this journey throu...