by michaelneelsen | Feb 15, 2014 | A Film Sense, Movies, Storytelling
By Michael Neelsen StoryFirst collaborator Michael Nie has been one of my best friends for many years, ever since we worked on an independent feature together in Madison, Wisconsin in early 2004. More recently, he has worked on a myriad of major film productions,...
by michaelneelsen | Sep 6, 2013 | A Film Sense, Brand Storytelling, Content Marketing, Movies, Storytelling, Storytelling For Business, Video Marketing
By Michael Neelsen Back in 2011 when I was deep in editing for my documentary Last Day at Lambeau, I realized the movie didn’t work and I was mere weeks away from film festival submission deadlines. The movie was about the relationship between sports fans and their...
by michaelneelsen | Aug 27, 2013 | A Film Sense, Brand Storytelling, Movies, Storytelling, Storytelling For Business, Trends | Best Practices, Video Marketing
By Michael Neelsen On January 24, 1978, Steven Spielberg was sitting in a writers’ room with George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. They were hard at work structuring a story about a pseudo grave-robber in the 1930s who searches for the Lost Ark of the Covenant. That story...
by michaelneelsen | Feb 20, 2013 | A Film Sense
I have recently been studying the works of the early Soviet film pioneers and their respective texts. While Sergei Eisenstein is the most remembered today, it’s important not to forget that he was but one member of an entire movement in world cinema history that took...
by michaelneelsen | Feb 20, 2011 | A Film Sense
“No scene that doesn’t turn.” Such is the motto of Robert McKee’s bible for storytellers, Story. Until I read his book a couple years ago and started hearing more and more screenwriters refer to “turns” and “reversals” and “turning left when they think you’ll turn...
