He credits the novel, which he read at the age of 10, with making him aware of how to structure plot.
Sayles visited the Writers Institute on February 27, 2012. Read More......
Showing posts with label sayles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sayles. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
John Sayles on "The Black Stallion"
He credits the novel, which he read at the age of 10, with making him aware of how to structure plot.
Sayles visited the Writers Institute on February 27, 2012. Read More......
Friday, March 9, 2012
Undergraduate Meets Legendary Director
UAlbany sophomore Marisa Mazart (pictured with maverick movie director John Sayles) writes about her experiences at the John Sayles events on February 27th:
Hi readers! My name is Marisa Mazart and I am a volunteer at the Writers Institute. I had the pleasure of meeting the independent film director, screenwriter and novelist John Sayles after the seminar on February 27th. The seminar was question-and-answer based. It was housed in the Campus Center of the University at Albany, and was open to the public. John Sayles was able to captivate the audience with every answer he gave, and his intelligence and sense of humor shined. After attending the seminar I was extremely eager to meet him. Interested in pursuing a career in film, I immediately grasped the opportunity to discuss film production with John. My main passion is film editing. I asked John how he edited his own films. And to my surprise he started editing films before they became digital. He wrote, directed and edited most of his films, like the 1980s movie Return of the Secaucus Seven which focuses on a the reunion of a group of college students. With no previous experience, he had to learn how to edit his film right on the spot. Even though this might have been a limitation in how his early works were edited, he spoke about his early movie career with a big smile. His advice to me was to look into film school. Unfortunately, this option is costly so he also advised me to make sure I am familiar with the new editing softwares that are now available like Final Cut Pro, and to also seek out internships in order to get my foot in the door.
John Sayles is very friendly, and responded to my question about why his movie Passion Fish is named what it is with the utmost honesty. Towards the end of the movie one of the characters cuts open a fish and calls the smaller fish inside its stomach “passion fish.” What an odd name! I had to ask John why it is called passion fish and why the movie is called the same name. I mistakenly thought there might have been a symbolic meaning, but when John revealed the name was chosen because it was the winner of a contest I was presently surprised. I couldn’t help but chuckle at his response. Importantly, he emphasizes that naming a movie is a very difficult process and sometimes the best way is to collaborate.
I learned a lot the night I met John Sayles, and not just information relating to film. Being a novelist he also divulged how he is able to get into the minds of his characters not just in film but in novels as well. He said it is because of his acting experiences in college. Being able to play many characters and get a feel for how they act in certain situations influenced how he portrayed his characters in his recent novel A Moment in the Sun.
I am extremely happy I was able to meet John Sayles, and as my friends can report I was jumping up and down all night with the adrenaline rush from meeting such a respected and experienced director and writer.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Thanks Grayce!
We wish to thank Grayce Burian and the Jarka and Grayce Burian Endowment for helping to make possible yesterday's amazing events with John Sayles, and for endowing the Burian Lecture Series.
Other leading personalities of stage and screen who have come to the Writers Institute under the sponsorship of the Burian Endowment have included John Patrick Shanley, Rita Moreno, A. R. Gurney, Michael Mayer, Wally Shawn, Ruby Dee, the late Mary Henderson, the late Harold Gould, John Lahr, John Simon, Tina Howe, and a number of others.
Picture: John Sayles and Grayce Burian.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Sayles: Racial Military Coup in North Carolina, 1898
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now interviews John Sayles (who visits today) about his new novel, A Moment in the Sun, which features many forgotten events of late 19th century history, among them the seizure of power by white militants from duly elected Black officials in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1898.
AMY GOODMAN: There are so many stories in this. I mean, how does Wilmington, North Carolina, relate?
JOHN SAYLES: Yeah, Wilmington was, in 1898, a city that was probably two- or three-to-one African American to white. Because African-American men could vote—women of no race could vote at that point—they had city councilmen who were African American, firemen, policemen, who had the right, even if they didn’t exercise it very often, to arrest white people. And that didn’t sit well with the kind of old bourbon Democrats, who planned a secret coup that started with intimidating black voters from coming out. Eventually, they purchased a Gatling gun. It was demonstrated to the leaders of the black community, and then told, "Tell your people not to vote tomorrow." On the day after election day, the Gatling gun was kind of wagoned around town. A lot of people were killed. And pretty much anybody they didn’t like, black or white, was put in handcuffs, put on a train, and sent into exile. And after that, a new government was sworn in that day. So it was a racial military coup, that was countenanced by the federal government, because, by this time, they really had decided, "OK, we want Southerners to vote for us. We’ve already pulled our troops out." You know. And I think, in certain cases, just, "Well, things must have been out of control there. I’m glad the white people got them back under control." More.
Friday, February 24, 2012
John Sayles: The Script Doctor
John Sayles, who visits Monday, is best known as an independent filmmaker, but he also happens to be one of Hollywood's most sought-after script doctors, renowned for his ability to make characters come alive with just a few lines of dialogue.
Much of his script work is uncredited, especially if he decides he doesn't like the project. Films he has worked on include The Fugitive, Apollo 13, Mimic, The Quick and the Dead, Piranha 3-D, and The Spiderwick Chronicles.
In 2004, Sayles was asked to do a rewrite of the as yet unreleased Jurassic Park IV.
Picture: The Spiderwick Chronicles.
John Sayles School of Fine Arts
In case you didn't know, Schenectady High School has a School of Fine Arts named (since 1998) for its most famous filmmaking alum (who visits the Writers Institute on Monday 2/27).
The John Sayles School of Fine Arts
Awarded the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts National Schools of Distinction in Arts Education
The John Sayles School of Fine Arts (SSFA) is a smaller learning community of approximately 650 students at Schenectady High School. We carry the name of one of our famous district graduates internationally known filmmaker, John Sayles. The school provides an integrated Regents high school curriculum with an interdisciplinary focus in visual art, music, theatre, and dance. Schenectady High School, with an enrollment of approximately 2900 students, is divided into five communities, including the Sayles School. The Sayles School of Fine Arts provides unique arts opportunities in the region. The John Sayles School of Fine Arts was recently awarded the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts National Schools of Distinction in Arts Education and its students performed on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center.
More.
John Sayles: A Tornado of Voices
John Sayles, who visits Monday, is interviewed by Alec Michod of The Rumpus about his new historical novel, A Moment in the Sun.
The Rumpus: Your new novel, A Moment in the Sun, is written in—I wouldn’t say English, exactly, because you’ve taken and twisted the language to make it your own. It reads like a tornado of voices.
John Sayles: Every character has their own language, voices and styles. There’s a chapter from the point of view of a correspondent, and it’s written like the correspondence of that time. I read a bunch of those guys, Richard Harding Davis, and picked up on their locutions, which aren’t locutions we use anymore. More.
Picture: American writer Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916)
Thursday, February 23, 2012
John Sayles on Bill Kennedy's "Chango"
In case you missed it back in September, here's John Sayles's review of William Kennedy's latest novel, Chango's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes, which appeared on the front page of the New York Times Book Review.
Sayles visits Monday, February 27th.
"Changó’s Beads and Two-Tone Shoes, is his most musical work of fiction: a polyrhythmic contemplation of time and its effects on passion set in three different eras, a jazz piece unafraid to luxuriate in its roots as blues or popular ballad or to spin out into less melodic territory."
More.
Friday, February 17, 2012
An Old-Fashioned Narrative on Film
"Although John Sayles’s new film Amigo is set in what seems to be a remote time and place — a hamlet called San Isidro, in the Philippines, around 1900 — it bridges the gap in a hurry. This is not the kind of movie, and Mr. Sayles is not the type of director, to linger in the picturesque past, savoring antique details and restaging bygone conflicts."
Read A. O. Scott's New York Times review of Amigo by John Sayles, who visits Albany on Monday, 2/27. Amigo will be screened 2/24 at the Performing Arts Center uptown.
Honeydripper, another Sayles film will be screened tonight, PAC uptown, 7:30PM.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
A Character Walks Out of a Short Story
[Elston Gunn]: HONEYDRIPPER is based on your short story "Keeping Time," correct?
[John Sayles]: I consider HONEYDRIPPER to be an original screenplay, though it is inspired by a character who appears in "Keeping Time," just as MATEWAN was inspired by a character who appears (in about four pages) of my novel UNION DUES. The only time I've adapted a short story I've written into a movie was CASA DE LOS BABYS.
Elston Gunn of Ain't It Cool News interviews director/screenwriter John Sayles about the sources of inspiration for HONEYDRIPPER, his film about the birth of rock and roll in the American South.
HONEYDRIPPER will be screened this Friday, Feb. 17 at the Performing Arts Center uptown. John Sayles himself will visit on Feb. 27.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Thinking in Pictures
John Sayles, who visits 2/27, wrote one of the bibles of independent filmmaking in 1987-- Thinking in Pictures after making the movie Matewan. Here's an excerpt:
"It's like there's this house you want to build and you know certain specifications you want, sometimes very specific, like the kitchen counter should be 45 inches high, and others more vague, like the living room should be comfortable and--you know--have a lot of light or something. You raise a certain amount of money to build this house and maybe you draw a picture of it or tell somebody who can draw what to put down, and then you hire people who know about plumbing and wiring and roofing and windows and all that. You know you want the tub here and the sink here and maybe the plumber tells you it would work much better here and here, and maybe you do it his way or maybe yours. When the house is finished you hope it feels like the one you imagined way back when, but of course the oak was too expensive and you had to go with yellow pine and they don't make kitchen counters that height and customizing was out of the question, but then the woman who put in the windows had this great idea--you never would have thought of it in a million years. The closet on the second floor is always going to be a problem and you try not to think about it when you think about the house. After a bit the house takes on its own character, and though you had a lot to do with how it is, it exists as this thing and it's hard to imagine it any other way." More.
Picture: A scene from Matewan.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
A War No One Brags About
"Saturday marks the anniversary of a war America won — but doesn't care to crow about. When the memory only produces shame and regret, you can understand why."
"Such is the fate of the Philippine-American War, otherwise known as the Philippine Insurrection, which began on Feb. 4, 1899. It's a reminder of a time when America's dreams of imperial greatness got in the way of its democratic values."
Emil Guillermo writes about the war, and about John Sayles's film Amigo in a commentary piece in Tuesday's Times Union.
Sayles visits Monday, Feb. 27th. Amigo will be screened prior to his visit, Friday, Feb. 24 in the Performing Arts Center uptown.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)