Sure. Sizzle can't overcome a bad story (well, sometimes it can, see Transformers and F&F) but a great story is often lost due to lack of sizzle.

I enjoyed all of those examples. Paul Newman's speech gave me a craving to shoot pool. I didn't see one that I thought carried the right balance of conviction and confidence.. I did find one that I thought was a good example. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KXtspnYt...

>Hi Eco. Haven't talked to you in a while. How have you been?

Greetings! I've been scratching notches in the woodwork, obsessively counting the days until zerobama and his merry band of nincompoops are gone. Otherwise, I've been fine.

>Actors often play characters that are different from their own age.

True, but I'm not sure how that applies to AS-3. Are you claiming that Almeida (cast as Francisco), who is about 57, will play a character who is 37 onscreen?

I don't think so. I think the producers cast a 57 year old in order to play Francisco as a 57 year old. I'm assuming that Francisco was written as a 57 year old in the screenplay, too. If so, then it means they've omitted any backstory having to do with Galt and Francisco's college days together. Francisco, in this installment, simply becomes the transmitter of Galt's strike message to those who produce.

Their thinking would have to be something along those lines, otherwise the casting doesn't make any sense.

>With the novel "Atlas Shrugged," what made it work (if you agree it worked) was the way it put human faces on what would otherwise be abstract Nietzschean principles.

There's plenty of lecturing in the novel, but a reader can skip it if he wants. I understand that's what the economist Friedrich Hayek did — he liked the novel (as did Mises, by the way) but apparently skipped over all the philosophical speeches.

You can't do that, of course, as an audience member in a movie theater, and it becomes awkward (and absurd) to fast-forward on a DVD or streaming version.

Speeches in screenplays can be deadly, and have to handled very carefully. In general, they should be short; they should relate to something of personal importance to the character making the speech; and one technique used often in Hollywood is that the speechmaker is often portrayed as someone who is "over the top", i.e., a bit crazy, daft, evil, completely consumed by some idea that is motivating his speech. Some examples:

1. The big speech by Ned Beatty toward the end of "Network". See here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKkRDMil0...



2. The speech by James Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6UbYHCko...



3. There's a beautiful, short, low-key speech made by Paul Newman to Piper Laurie in the movie "The Hustler" in which he speaks about how important it is for a man to find that one thing he does better than anyone else, to pursue it, and succeed at it. Perhaps it's more of a monologue than a speech, but the content touches on some abstract ideas relating to self-esteem. See here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx3BVozrr...


4. Finally, see this famous speech made by Charles Laughton in the 1935 film "Ruggles of Red Gap." Laughton ("Ruggles") is a gentleman's butler in England. The gentleman is losing at poker to an American from the midwest, and having lost his money, finally bets his butler. He loses, of course, so Ruggles ends up coming to the US where he slowly learns the virtue of self-reliance and standing on one's own feet. In this saloon scene, none of the American patrons can remember "what Lincoln said at Gettysburgh". Ruggles, however, has studied his US history and recites the famous Address to a stunned audience. The speech itself is quite short, but what's interesting is the way the scene was directed and edited: most of the shots are reaction shots of patrons listening intently, or moving in closer to look more closely at the speechmaker. Compare that technique to Ned Beatty's speech in "Network" above, where most of the camerawork is on him, not on the single audience member (Mr. Beale).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHIjrZCAY...


In sum, Galt's speech should be kept short, with most of the shots played off the reactions of the listeners (assuming the director can have an interesting variety of them). The scene will die if there's just a camera on Galt reciting a speech into a radio.

We are brainstorming all Ideas are welcome in the Gulch.

Hermann was one of the very best, with a great stylistic range. Compare some of his earlier symphonic scores to a late one like "Taxi Driver" (his last score, I think); a very bluesy saxophone solo. You can listen to it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAGSoti_e...

Like I said, freshman attempt. But I think some marketing whiz could jazz up the sentiment.

It's not catchy,

You're probably right, that would take someone that pays attention to politics and able to think of the big picture. It does says more than " Who is John Galt?"

Interesting.

No. Most people under about 35 have never heard of AR or AS.
I think something more along the lines of "All the rich titans of the world have disappeared, John Galt is the main suspect. Watch "Who is John Galt" to watch the radical fate he has in store for them.
Just my freshman attempt at marketing copy.

Oh, absolutely. Now he's a real film connoisseur. Taught me some things about lighting and camera angles - big things in the digital enhancement side of the business.

Let's see if Scott sends me a PM.

Did he like the story?

Oh, I don't think so. Audience expectations on content, what I call sizzle, is dramatically different today. It's a factor of all the other stimulus in the environment.
I once tried to get a group of Boy Scouts in our troop to sit through Citizen Kane. They were bored silly. One of those boys grew up to become a film digital effects wizard. I asked him about a year ago if he ever had to watch Citizen Kane in his film classes and he said that he had. From a perspective of one critiquing the film for things like lighting, camera angles, use of pause and musical score, he agreed that it was one of the best crafted movies ever made. But the same presentation would fail today.
On the upside, we rewatched it last year and I really enjoyed getting his perspective on what Orson had done and how he would do things using digital technology.
Rosebud...

Ha! Knocked you out of first place for the week! I doubt that the powers that be have the intestinal fortitude to name a non-paying "producer" - for I think that my postings have provided value - Producer of the Week.