Does swearing mean you’re unintelligent?
I don’t typically think about how often I swear. However, recently a friend of mine commented on it. “You’re better than that,” he said. It bothered me. While he didn’t know it, he basically just said, “I’m better than you. Be more like me.” Dick move. I don’t begrudge my friend. He didn’t really think about what he was saying. In fact, it turns out he was repeating something someone had told him. I’m sure it was meant to be a pep talk. A motivator for me to strive to be a better person. But it wasn’t. It was a judgment.
Not more than a week later I was engaged in a conversation in which someone told me that he or she viewed people who swear as less intelligent. This flipped my pancake. Once again, with a smidgen of subtlety, someone insulted me to my face.
“I swear. Do you think I’m unintelligent?” Turns out she did. The finer point was that cursing makes you sound unintelligent. It doesn’t matter whether you are; the perception is there.
To me, this judgment is narrow-minded. Swearing should have no bearing on the perception of one’s intelligence. But it does. I realize I can do little to influence people’s perception of this. But since there are dozens of blogs out there telling us to stop swearing, it only seemed fitting to have a counterpoint.
Back that thing up
When I was a young lad I wrote my first screenplays using Microsoft Word and saved them to a floppy disk. One day I tried to open one of my precious works of art and the file read as corrupted. Meaning the script was gone. Forever gone. This was my first experience with file corruption. But with God as my witness I vowed I would never go hungry again. Or something like that. My point being computers crash, files can get corrupted, iPads can get stolen or broken, but we live in a world of options for ensuring your work doesn’t get lost. So here’s a few simple tips on how to save your work. Read More
Making a trailer for nothing
It’s a very popular practice for independent filmmakers to shoot a trailer, just the trailer, in hopes of using it to raise money for the full film. The idea is to show what the movie will look like once completed. You know, once you give them money to make it.
Nice idea. Except for two problems. I’ve never actually seen this work and it still takes a huge amount of work to shoot a trailer. A trailer is a great marketing tool. But it doesn’t show you can properly and compelling tell a story. I think we’ve all experienced a promising trailer, only to be disappointed by the actual film.
Before committing one minute or one dime to making your trailer I have a couple of ideas that might help.
Courier Little Foot
Are you tired of writing screenplays in that archaic Courier font? Looking for something fun, new, and marginally different? Well rest those weary eyes on Courier Little Foot; a brand new font that feels pretty much the same!
DOWNLOAD HERE
Courier For The People
It’s Courier. Just betterer.
Since the creation of time our monkey ancestors have written screenplays using the Courier font. The predictable nature of the monospaced font allows for filmmakers to guestimate screen time based on their page count.
Screenwriting programs such as Final Draft have created their own respective variation on the Courier font. But wouldn’t it be nice if there were some more options? Though all Couriers are monospaced they don’t all have the same metrics. This means swapping your font out for another can sometimes lead to unexpected changes in your page count. No bueno!
So I took a stab at creating a Courier too.
I call it Courier For The People.
DOWNLOAD HERE
How to give notes and not alienate friends
Giving notes on your friends’ screenplays can be a tough gig. If you’re too critical you may damage the relationship; if you’re too soft you’re not providing the help they need. I’ve come up with a few things to keep in mind when providing feedback on your friends’ scripts. Read More
