Behind the Scenes Storytellers - Part III: Richard Price

All right. So thank you very much for your patience and support yesterday. I know you guys have been loving this series, and I'm sorry I had to interrupt it, but I'm obligated to my incredible peers over at Project Mayhem.

Anyway, let's get back to work. I'm going to cheat a little bit this morning. I know. I'm sorry, but I think you'll find you're willing to forgive me. Today I've selected Richard Price as my behind the scenes storyteller. The reason I call this cheating is that Richard is actually a relatively famous "crime novelist," which is certainly not a behind the scenes role, but he is also pretty well unknown for being an incredibly talented screenwriter, which is a position that almost never gets the glory.

Mr. Price wrote the scripts for a few famous films like Sea of Love, and The Color of Money, but the way I discovered his talent was through the HBO series, which may be the best television show ever written: The Wire.

Before I get to the reason I'm actually featuring Richard toady: his screenwriting, I want to share with you one of the greatest interviews I have ever had the pleasure to witness in my personal pursuit of understanding writing. Richard Price was interviewed by Terry Gross, from NPR's Fresh Air, in 2008, about his then new novel: Lush Life. It's technically a crime novel, but IMHO it's also one of the greatest modern character studies in English Literature:



It's pretty long, but if you have time, PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS INTERVIEW. It's one of the best discussions of writing I've ever heard. The interview is mostly about the novel, but if you listen to the whole thing, you'll find he talks a lot about writing for the HBO TV series, The Wire, as well.

Another great discussion of the novel is available, in one of Evil Editor's book chats, here.

So. That's a lot about Richard Price's novel writing. I promised this post wouldn't be about that, and I suppose I've failed, but I do want to talk about his screenwriting. I've obviously never written a script, and I've never been to film school, but I imagine writing for TV is as different from writing for film as writing a Picture Book is from writing a novel. Not to imply that any of the four should be considered as less than any of the others, just that they're different.

Yeah. That's all beyond my scope of understanding, but I will say this: I know a powerful scene when I witness one, no matter what the medium, so I want to share with you a scene from near the end of The Wire, which Richard wrote, in which the policewoman, Kima, who happens to be gay, and has just ended her relationship, is reconnecting with her young son, who cannot sleep. The scene is not quite as powerful taken out of context, but I consider it an interesting, and surprisingly contemporary, take on a classic story:



And that, I suppose, is that. I could go on, but I'm sure you'd all get bored, so instead I'll just say this: anyone who is interested in discovering a great writer you might have never heard of should look into Richard Price. Here are a few resources:

Price interviewed by the City Paper.

Richard Price in the LA Weekly.

Richard Price in New York Magazine.

Thanks for reading, everybody. Happy Thursday!

NOTE: I've been asked to link back to Presentation Geeks, which is a useful site with a lot of tools and lessons for presenting information to fans and readers. Please check them out, and in particular, their article Captivate Your Audience With The Art Of Presentation Storytelling.

Behind the Scenes Storytellers - Part II: Roger Deakins

In case you missed yesterday's post, this week I'm blogging about the people who take part in telling great stories, but work behind the scenes, and are not often well known by the public.

Today I'm writing about Roger Antony Deakins, ASC, BSC. Roger is a Cinematographer, which is sometimes also referred to as a Director of Photography. I'm no film major, so it's possible the two terms are not exactly interchangeable, but they're basically the same thing as far as I know.

Anyway. Roger is mostly known (or unknown) for his collaboration with the Coen brothers, and has been the cinematographer on almost every one of their feature films. But he doesn't only work with them. Deakins was born in England, and studied film at both the Bath School of Art and Design and the National Film and Television School.

He got started as a camera operator not long after school, and his early career consisted mostly of documentaries about Africa. Who doesn't love a good documentary? After that he moved into films about music, working on "rockumentaries" and music features like Van Morrison in Ireland and Sid and Nancy.

Deakins' first American feature was Mountains of the Moon, in 1990, but he worked with the Coen brothers soon after, on the 1991 film, Barton Fink. Deakins received his first major award from the American Society of Cinematographers for his outstanding achievement in cinematography for the internationally praised major motion picture, The Shawshank Redemption. In 2008, Deakins became the first cinematographer in history to receive dual ASC nominations for his works, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and No Country for Old Men.

He received the 2011 American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Lifetime Achievement Award.

Roger has been nominated for no less than 9 Academy Awards, but for some reason unknown to god or man, has never won.

Here is a list of some of his most famous films:

• Barton Fink
• The Hudsucker Proxy
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Fargo
• Kundun
• The Big Lebowski
• O Brother, Where Art Thou?
• The Man Who Wasn't There
• The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
• A Beautiful Mind
• Intolerable Cruelty
• The Ladykillers
• Jarhead
• No Country for Old Men
• The Reader
• Revolutionary Road
• A Serious Man
• True Grit

Here are some clips of his work.

Here is a video of him discussing a scene in The Shawshank Redemption with NPR's Melissa Block. The audio is great, but somehow they ruined the video:



Here's another video from the same interview, where the video isn't ruined:



And here's a great featurette about True Grit:



Another unsung hero of behind the scene storytellers. I have to take a break from this series tomorrow, but please still come back!

Behind the Scenes Storytellers - Part I: Sly and Robbie

This week I'm going to be focusing on storytellers that ply their craft behind the scenes. Many of these people may be people you've never heard of, but I'll bet you're familiar with some of their work.

I don't know if many people would count music producers as storytellers, but I do, and this is my blog.

Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare are probably the most prolific recording artists in the history of music, and most people have never heard of them. They've produced more songs than The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, and even Rick Rubin. It's estimated that they have performed on, or helped produce, over 200,000 songs.

They started out as the rhythm section of drummer Lowell Dunbar (nicknamed Sly after Sly Stone) and bass guitarist Robert Shakespeare, but have since evolved into a production team making all kinds of music from Dancehall and Reggae, to Rock, Pop, and R&B. They are known for a distinctive drum and bass, reggae swing sound, and make some of the best beats and basslines I've ever heard.

From Wikipedia:

Far from restricting themselves to the Jamaican scene, (in which they have played for virtually every prominent Jamaican musical artist from Beenie Man to Sean Paul to Peter Tosh, Black Uhuru, Gregory Isaacs, Dennis Brown, Ini Kamoze and others), they have been one of pop music's most sought after rhythm sections, playing for and producing superstars such as Ben Harper, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones, Grace Jones, Joan Armatrading, Gilberto Gil, Joe Cocker, Matisyahu, Serge Gainsbourg, Simply Red, Michael Franti, Sting, Khaled, Mey Vidal, Naniwaman, Tricky, Doug E. Fresh, Carlos Santana, Sinéad O'Connor, and many more.

I don't think I've ever come across a song that Sly and Robbie had a part in making that I didn't like. They don't get a lot of recognition for their work, even though they work hard, but they've played a big part in making a lot of great songs for a lot of great artists.

Here are a few songs you probably didn't know they made:

Matisyahu - Jerusalem (Out Of The Darkness Comes Light)

Mick Jagger - She's the Boss

Michael Franti and Spearhead - Say Hey (I Love You)

Madonna - Supernatural (Remix)

Herbie Hancock - Rockit (12 inch maxi-mix)

No Doubt - Underneath It All ft. Lady Saw

Chaka Demus & Pliers - Murder She Wrote

No Doubt - Hey Baby ft. Bounty Killer

Please come back tomorrow for another unknown taleweaver.