Creative Principles

Bill Bye, a self-described tinkerer, likes to make things. At an early age, he became a mechanical engineer, worked at Boeing, but was obsessed with comedy. When Warner Brothers had a Steve Martin lookalike contest, he entered the contest and won in the Seattle contest. Best known as Bill Nye the Science Guy, from his 1993 series, is a scientist and comedian who explored various aspect of science...

“That’s the moment I realized how powerful words can be,” writer Cole Schafer told me. Cole lives by the phrase “Live fast, write often.” As such, he’s somewhat of an all-around writer, with multiple focuses, such as a blog, books, poetry, copy, and spoken word. In this interview, we talk about concrete imagery in Cole’s work, thinking in metaphors, why he recommends specializing but doesn’t do it...

Sharlene Royer got her start as a dancer in Canada when she was discovered for the film, The Adventures of Pluto Nash, as a stand-in for actress Rosario Dawson. The person who discovered her was stunt coordinator Alan Oliney (Mod Squad, Armageddon). In this interview, Sharlene talks about her lists of skillsets as a stunt woman, changes in the industry, the importance of relationships in the busin...

in ‘How Basketball Can Save the World,’ NYU Professor and Author David Hollander takes us out of the classroom to present a beautiful new philosophy with contributions by many of his past guests and based on values inherent to basketball, such as inclusion and the balancing of individual success with the needs of the collective. These principles move us beyond conflict and confusion toward a more...

In ‘When Your Mind Screams,’ filmmaker and lifelong personal growth enthusiast Christopher Glatis explores anxiety from the lens of a creative, demonstrating how anxiety makes us feel fearful and stressed in an effort to help, though it’s actually doing anything but. In fact, the instinct to run from anxiety’s uncomfortable sensations does more harm than good. Glatis explains how reworking your re...

Jesse Atlas is a writer/director that crafts high-concept, character-driven genre thrillers. His feature debut "Assassin" hits theaters in the spring of 2023. Previously, Jesse's mind-bending sci-fi short films "Record/Play" and "Let Them Die Like Lovers" have played at Sundance, Tribeca, Fantastic Fest and countless other festivals, racking up dozens of awards and accolades. Both films were picke...

“We were interns together at A Band Apart Productions, which was Quentin Tarantino’s production company,” says Justin Halpern, about his partnership with Patrick Schumacker. “We worked in commercials and music videos…we never saw Quentin, ever. Ever.” Back then, Halpern wanted to be a screenwriter and Schumacker wanted to be a commercial and music video director. “I always enjoyed writing, but I t...

From an early age, Nic Brown was interested in writing and playing the drums. If you listened to 90s alt rock, you’ve probably heard the song “What I Didn’t Know” from a band called Athenaeum, which Nic helped form while he was just in the 8th grade. These days, Nic is a professor at Clemson and the author of three novels. That said, somewhat haunted by his previous musical life, he decided to wri...

“I think if you’re a writer, you’re just hard-wired to be one,” said author C.J. Box. As a kid, C.J. said he would imagine his name on the shelves of the library as different Librarians gave him more and more difficult books to read. C.J. Box is the #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of more than thirty books, including the iconic Joe Pickett series. His latest book, Storm Watch, Wyoming Game Wa...

Watching movies, reading graphic novels, going to DisneyLand… these things made a heavy influence on Chris McKay, the Director of films like Robot Chicken, The Lego Batman Movie, The Tomorrow War, and now, Renfield. Nicholas Hoult stars as Renfield and Nicholas Cage plays Dracula. The description reads, “Renfield, Dracula's henchman. and inmate at the lunatic asylum for decades, longs for a life a...

'One Day as a Lion' stars Frank Grillo, Scott Caan, and J.K. Simmons. The plot reads, “Jackie Powers will stop at nothing to prevent his son from following him into a life of crime. With his mob employer in pursuit, a chance encounter at a roadside diner charts a new path.” In this interview, John talks about working with Frank Grillo on four films, what enticed him about his script from Scott Can...

Anna Katherine Clemmons has always loved writing. Anna Katherine (Clemmons) Clay is a freelance writer and an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia. She is a 17-year veteran writer, reporter and producer for ESPN, where she wrote everything from 5,000-word features for ESPN’s Outside the Lines to technical breakdowns for ESPN the Magazine....

“I was an economics major and I thought I was going to get into investment banking,” says Lee Sung Jin (who also goes by Sonny Lee). “Didn’t feel right at any point of my entire college career,” jokes the screenwriter. “I was really flailing about, unemployed, temping a lot, and I had gotten into the NBC page program.” If you’ve ever seen 30 Rock, this is somewhat the same job Kenneth the Page had...

“My father’s life was a very visible one,” says writer/director Timothy Scott Bogart, son of 1970s record producer Neil Bogart, the co-founder of Casablanca Records. “That was my playground. I grew up, literally backstage at these concerts.” Neil Bogart signed such artists as Donna Summer, George Clinton, KISS, the Isley Brothers, the Village People, and Gladys Knight. “The storytelling I saw bein...

While working at a restaurant in Boston, as somewhat of a chef’s apprentice, Matt Ruskin decided he really wanted to pursue film. Coincidentally, the Manager of the restaurant knew Darren Aronofsky. One phone call later, Ruskin was interning on Requiem for a Dream. “It was the first movie I ever worked on it,” says Ruskin. “Just to be around such an incredible group of filmmakers and learn from th...

Fascinated by Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Tim Roth and a friend auditioned for Dracula Spectacula. Despite being terribly nervous during the first performance, Roth fell in love with the pursuit of acting. “I was utterly terrified and then I loved it,” said the actor. Known for Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Rob Boy, Lie to Me, and Planet of the Apes, Roth has starred in over 100 films and...

“I was not destined to be a writer,” said author Annette Lloyd. She discovered the work of silent film star Harold Lloyd at age 17 and has since written about her “hero” in a multitude of books, including ‘Harold Lloyd - Magic in a Pair of Horn-Rimmed Glasses.’ Part of the description reads, “From birth to death, Harold grew and evolved because of the things that were happening around him, and he...

Michael Maren started his career as a journalist in Africa. Inspired by movies like The African Queen, Jason and the Argonauts, and Beau Geste, Maren followed an unclear dream, eventually learning to write, getting a book optioned by HBO, and then coming back to the US with a passion for filmmaking. Based on the book, Shriver, A Little White Lie stars Michael Shannon, Kate Hudson and Don Johnson....

Scott Andrew James is an instant poet. About ten years ago, Scott felt disconnected from the world, which led him to poetry, thanks to the advice of his wife. Now, he’s written over 10,000 instant poems in the last decade. In fact, in this episode, Scott actually creates an instant poem on the spot. The subject? We discuss an idea from Seth Godin about the Icarus Myth. Daedalus says to Icarus, "Do...

When James Traylor and Max Collins found out that they were both writing a book about author Mickey Spillane, they decided to collaborate rather than compete. For the first time ever, Traylor and Collins have completed the first biography on Spillane. The description reads, “Beginning in 1947 with I, the Jury, and continuing with his next six novels, Spillane quickly amassed a readership in the te...

“I was a rugby player and a ballet dancer,” said Lesley Paterson, triathlete and co-screenwriter of the Oscar nominated All Quiet on the Western Front. Dabbling in acting and producing, it wasn’t until she met her eventual writing partner Ian Stokell that she felt like screenwriting could be a path to a career in filmmaking. “To be able to act, you have to be able to write and produce your own fil...

“Honestly, I pursued acting and standup at the same time, but I never really got as many opportunities in acting. In standup, you have a little more control over your own destiny,” said Jim Gaffigan, one of the most well-known comedians alive today. “But also, the most fulfilling characters to portray, end up being dramatic roles. So, over the years, finding creative fulfillment in stand-up, writi...

Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka met in the Graduate program at Columbia Film School. Gatewood says, “We weren’t friends. We didn’t really hang out, but we had our first screenwriting class together and we liked each others’ writing.” “We started to talk and found we had an uncanny similarities in terms of taste, what movies we liked, writers we liked, and in our second year, we started to wri...

“Growing up, I thought I would be either a professor of cultural anthropology or a non-fiction, long-form writer, but then I fell in love with cinema.” Combining these childhood dreams into one career, Sara found herself behind the camera on films like The Last Season, The Seer and the Unseen, and most recently, Fire of Love. In college, Sara was active in economic justice groups and saw a documen...

“I grew up watching horror films,” Christopher Landon said. “I started at a pretty early age, inappropriately so, probably when I was about six. And, I was just obsessed. It was never a doubt or question it was what I was going to do.”  Landon followed the traditional route, making shorts in high school, working internships as a young adult, and pursuing the path to screenwriting. “The great benef...