story | Two Handed Warriors

Why Story Structure Matters, Even If You Don’t Want It To, by Christopher Riley

Monday, April 30, 2012

Without a sound structure a two-hour film collapses under its own weight. Here’s why. by Christopher Riley Beginning screenwriters hate structure: Structure chafes. Structure kills creativity. Structure is for paint-by-the-numbers hacks, mindless, slavish screenwriting hordes laboring in the sweatshops of Snyder, Aristotle, and McKee. Structure is a four-letter word. Count ‘em. Str-uc-tu-re. Four toxic letters that spell [...]

What Will Smith’s Personal Script Consultant Can Teach You About Story

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Moral Premise Workshop: 21 Secrets to Successful #Story Structure for Motion Picture and Novels, by Stanley Williams The Greenhouse Arts and Media is pleased to present an incredible one day seminar 21 Secrets to Successful Story Structure for Motion Picture and Novels led by author and story consultant, Dr. Stanley Williams. Dr. Williams is an author, filmmaker, screenwriter, [...]

Ideas Have Consequences: The Power and Limits of Existentialism, Dead Poets Society 2

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Part 2 of Dead Poets Society Series: Bungee-Jumping to Eternity! “No matter what anyone tells you, words and ideas can change the world.” —Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) in Dead Poets Society by Gary David Stratton, PhD A worldview is a lot like an iceberg in at least two important ways: First, only their uppermost levels are [...]

Bungee-Jumping to Eternity: The Existential Angst of Dead Poets Society, by Gary David Stratton

Monday, April 9, 2012

Carpe Diem and the Escape from Physicalism! What if the world has meaning we can’t reach through the physical senses alone? “Carpe Diem! Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.” —Mr. Keating (Robin Williams) in Dead Poets Society by Gary David Stratton, PhD Dead Poets Society, 1989 Oscar winner for best original screenplay (Tom Schulman), [...]

Story Failure: Why We ‘Lose it’ in High Stress Environments, Like Hollywood

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The stories we develop to survive life’s most painful experiences are usually the same stories that fail us in high stress environments (Follow Up to Spiritually Thriving in a High Stress Environment, Like Hollywood!) “People who are caught up in the pursuit of excellence are particularly vulnerable to stress-related disorders.” - Psychologist Archibald D. Hart Like [...]

Casablanca and the Four Levels of Worldview: Why Everyone Meets at Rick’s

Sunday, February 26, 2012

. Here’s Looking At You, Kid Casablanca — MOVIECLIPS.com .. . Casablanca, 1942 Academy Award-winner for Best Picture (originally entitled, Everyone Meets at Rick’s), provides a clear example of how character (both cinematic and moral) is “constructed” from the ground up. Our unexamined presuppositions about reality form a worldview that guides our life in ways [...]

It’s a Wonderful Life and the Courage to Live (and Create Art) Idealistically

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Few of us will ever get an invitation to an early screening of our life’s work like George did. Yet we will all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. To be a two handed warrior is to live for that heavenly red carpet affair, not its pale imitation at the Kodak theatre.

Capra’s Tale of a Depressed Idealist: It’s a Wonderful Life, Part 2

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) provides a wonderful expression of the complicated interplay between modern Physicalism and Idealism as life-interpreting stories in the life of its main character, George Bailey.

It’s a Wonderful Worldview: Frank Capra’s Theistic Masterpiece, by Gary David Stratton

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais’s atheism joke and his holiday message in the Wall Street Journal, “Why I’m An Atheist,” provide a perfect backdrop for examining one of Hollywood's most famous attempts to defend Theism–It’s a Wonderful Life.

You Shall Not Pass! The Supernatural Power of Two Handed Warfare

Monday, June 20, 2011

Expertise in faith and culture rarely go hand-in-hand. Leaders adept at culture making—whether in Hollywood or the Ivy League—are rarely trained in the disciplines of faith building; whereas leaders with strengths in faith building—whether in a local congregation or an international relief agency—are rarely trained in the art of culture making.