Creative Principles

Australian Director Simon McQuoid got his start in the commercial world, making spots for all sorts of companies and games, including Star Wars, Call of Duty, and Halo 3. Eventually, he was asked to make the jump to film, with his debut film being Mortal Kombat. The description for the reboot reads, “MMA fighter Cole Young seeks out Earth's greatest champions in order to stand against the enemies...

Former Entertainment Weekly editor Mark Harris was an editor and journalist for publications like The New York Times, Fortune, The Guardian, and Slate, until he dared himself to submit a book proposal on his 40th birthday. These days, he’s best known for his entertainment-based books, such as Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood, Five Came Back: A Story of Holly...

Emma Needell grew up on a solar-powered cattle ranch in Colorado. While they didn’t have television, they did have movies. “They had everything from Tora! Tora! Tora! to Do the Right Thing,” said Needell about her parents’ movie collection.  “Rural Colorado is cowboy country and I’m a nerdy Jewish girl who is allergic to horses,” she joked. “I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up, but movies we...

Thanks to an early interest in film from his father, Nick Stagliano, went down a road of being a fan, then a creator of cinema. Focused on character-driven drama, Stagliano is known for The Florentine, Good Day for It, and most recently, The Virtuoso. The latest film stars Anthony Hopkins, Anson Mount, and Abbie Cornish. In this story, “Danger, deception and murder descend upon a sleepy town when...

George Gallo sold his first screenplay at age 19, despite not knowing anyone in the business. “The movie never got made,” he said about the lucky break, “but I had a possible vocation as a screenwriter. So then I just started writing a lot of scripts.” Eventually, one of Gallo’s scripts did get made. The comedy-crime movie Wise Guys, starring Danny DeVito and Joe Piscopo revolved around two errand...

Craig Zobel got started by making shorts and videos for people like Iggy Pop. Now, he’s best known for films like Compliance, Z for Zachariah, and The Hunt. Currently, he’s the Director for HBO’s new series, Mare of Easttown. Mare of Easttown stars Kate Winslet and Guy Pearce. In the naturalistic series, “A detective in a small Pennsylvania town investigates a local murder while trying to keep her...

While his Central Saint Martins classmates were learning InDesign, Price James wanted to learn to shoot on 16mm Bolex and explore more tangible film effects. Soon, he was working on dark comedy shorts like 'Action Man: Battlefield Casualties,' which stars Matt Berry, and music videos for bands like Incubus. In his latest movie, ‘You Cannot Kill David Arquette,’ the Writer-Director partnered with D...

Michael Jacobs and Joshua Z. Weinstein met on the festival circuit in 2008 where both were presenting original documentaries. Most recently, they teamed up for Marvel’s documentary, Behind the Mask. The premise? Meet the writers and artists behind characters like Black Panther, Miles Morales, Ms. Marvel, Luke Cage, the X-Men, Captain Marvel, and many other characters in the Marvel Universe, highli...

Originally, Aaron Schneider wanted to work for ILM, or Industrial Light & Magic, the visual effects company founded by George Lucas in 1975. While taking a special effects class, his peers told him everything was going to computers, so he shifted his focus to cinematography. Soon, he was working on music videos for Cypress Hill, then movies like Kiss the Girls and Simon Birch. In an effort to shif...

Early in his studies, Drew Dernavich was bewildered by the many paths to become an artist, and the many interpretations of what makes art good or bad. This led him to a more simple path: creating humorous art such as a one-panel cartoon. Recently, Drew’s work was featured in Seth Godin’s book, The Practice, which showcased his ability to be prolific, eventually becoming one of the most published c...

A few years ago, when there were 12 Blockbusters still open, Director Taylor Morden (Here’s to Life: The Story of The Refreshments, Pick It Up! - Ska in the ‘90s) approached his friend Zeke Kamm (Dexter’s Laboratory, The Weird Al Show) about making a documentary on the dying Blockbuster franchise. Coincidentally, the true last Blockbuster was in Morden and Kamm’s town of Bend, Oregon. In this inte...

“I was very lucky to enter publishing in the 90s when there was a black books boom,” said novelist Tananarive Due (My Soul to Keep, The Good House). “Genre had an easier road for me than if I had tried to enter publishing as a horror writer, as a black woman, previously.” “Comparatively, I was a Johnny-come-lately because I didn’t know I wanted to be a writer until I was about eight,” joked author...

Tiller Russell grew up spending time in courthouses, at the request from his lawyer father, which led him to a career in crime-related journalism. Thanks to a few chance encounters with Errol Morris (The Fog of War, The Thin Blue Line), Russell decided to quit his job at the newspaper and get into filmmaking. In this interview, we hop back and fourth between Russell’s most recent projects, the min...

Mike P. Nelson has always loved old horror movies. As a kid, he spent his summers making horror movies and the winters practicing stop motion. But, at the time, he was only allowed to see pre-70s horror movies, so when he reached the R-rating age of 18, his world opened up dramatically. In Nelson’s latest film, he tackles the latest installment of Wrong Turn (2021), which comes from the original w...

Daniel Willcocks is an international bestselling author and award-nominated podcaster of dark fiction. He is one fifth of digital story studio, Hawk & Cleaver; co-founder of iTunes-busting fiction podcast, 'The Other Stories';’ CEO of horror imprint, Devil’s Rock Publishing; as well as the lead host of the 'Great Writers Share' podcast, and the co-host of the ‘Next Level Authors’ podcast Willcocks...

“We jumped into this life by watching other people on YouTube who were doing it,” Taylor Cluster told me, after her boyfriend Scott proposed they sell everything and move into a van to travel full-time. While on the road, Scott also encouraged Taylor to pursue her first love: writing. The former teacher decided to give writing another shot and actually created her first novel, ‘The #Vanlife Murder...

In 2013, author James McBride published a remarkable book about Henry Shackleford, an enslaved person who united with John Brown and his abolitionist mission. The book was called 'The Good Lord Bird.' Producer Jeremy Gold (Sharp Objects) encouraged 'Hell on Wheels' screenwriter Mark Richard to read the book. “He put the book in my hands, and I read it in one sitting,” said Richard. Little did Rich...

Screenwriter/Director Anna Kerrigan grew up in a creative home. Her dad worked in visual effects. Her mom worked as a poet. After working in the theatre for a few years, eventually, Kerrigan’s journey led her back to Los Angeles in what she would describe as a “calling.” She made a handful of shorts, including The Rub, Hot Seat, The Jury, and Fridays. In Kerrigan’s film debut, Cowboys stars Steve...

Here’s the description for Body Brokers: Brought to Los Angeles for treatment, a recovering junkie soon learns that the rehab center is not about helping people, but a cover for a multi-billion-dollar fraud operation that enlists addicts to recruit other addicts. If you’re a listener of the show, you can probably tell I’m starting this episode a little different, because this story is so insane, e...

Eve Hewson, daughter of U2’s Bono and Ali Hewson, is an Irish actress who landed her first major role in 2011’s This Must Be the Place, opposite Sean Penn. Since this role, she’s been in an array of films and shows, like Enough Said, Bridge of Spies, The Knick, Robin Hood, Tesla, and The Luminaries. Eve’s most recent project is called Behind Her Eyes. Simona Brown plays Louise, a single mother who...

In the femme fatale genre, an attractive or seductive woman is often the protagonist. Her goal? To cause distress or disaster to a man who becomes involved with her. This is the underlying subject of the new dark comedy Me You Madness from Louise Linton. The film stars Louise, where she’s also the screenwriter and director. The second half of this two-hander, Ed Westwick (Gossip Girl, White Gold)...

Dana Kaye, founder of Kaye Publicity, is a life-long entrepreneur who believes in the power of storytelling and authentic personal branding. Known for her innovative ideas and knowledge of current trends, she coaches her clients on how to identify and establish their unique personal brands. Dana is also the author of two books - Your Book, Your Brand: The Step-by-Step Guide to Launching Your Book...

What separates the hobbyist writer from the prolific professional? That’s the question my new book, Ink by the Barrel, aspires to answer, thanks to a decade of research, and these 250 episodes on the podcast. Here’s a quick teaser for this audiobook sampler: For the first decade of my career, I felt like a hobbyist, posing as a professional. If you enjoy writing - or even despise it but feel drawn...

Writer-Director Mike Cahill credits his early fascination with filmmaking to the Fisher-Price Pixelvision, better known as the PXL-2000, a black-and-white toy camcorder from the late 1980s. “I totally loved it,” he joked. “It was my favorite toy of all time. No one was teaching me how movies or film, or how the medium worked, but I was discovering you hold down the button, it records, and you let...

Thomas Sadoski describes his path to acting as an “accumulation of growing up reading big epic stories.” His father read epic myths and he grew up in Texas, a natural storytelling culture. This, along with an obsession with actors like Jimmy Stewart and Charlie Chaplin guided his journey. The actor is known for roles in movies like ‘Wild’ and ‘John Wick,’ along with television work such as ‘The Ne...