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I come to screenwriting late in life as the product of parents who
were in the entertainment industry their entire working lives. My dad worked
for MGM and was later a key player in bringing CINERAMA to the world. My
mom was a dancer. From the time I was about six, I spent half of every
year wandering the sound stages at Metro. I knew what a swizzle stick was
before I could do fractions. Think about it. It'll make sense in a moment
or two.
I used to make films in the back yard with an old Kodak 16mm camera
and a truly ancient tape recorder. I would edit by hand -- cuts only --
scraping and glueing. I would press my dwindling number of friends into
service as cast and crew. We built sets. We had miniatures. We faked "bullet
hits to the chest" with flour inside balloons inside shirt pockets.
It looked really terrible. Once my dad borrowed a giant smoke machine for
my WWII picture. Next day, just after filming for several hours, he contributed
$1000 to the Bronxville Firemen's Pension Fund as an apology. That was
a lot of money in 1957.
First screenplay I ever wrote made it to Disney.
So I figured, "How hard can this stuff be?" Ha!
Email: Hank Isaac
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