Wednesday, July 29, 2020 at 11:57AM Congrats to my ex-student/alumna of NU's MFA in Writing for Screen+Stage program Jenny Hagel for her 2020 Emmy nomination for writing as part of Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Jenny Hagel on a panel at Northwestern, moderated by Dave Tolchinsky
Tuesday, July 28, 2020 at 1:33PM My son sent me this piece that samples SEVEN. “What’s in the Box??”
https://open.spotify.com/track/6krePyBjPsnPH5AkHzylJx?si=ez7OeKqmQ2WCuXexvLCT9g
Which lead to our conversation/thoughts for the day:
Horror and thrillers are both about opening a box. In fact ALL drama is about that. If you don’t have a box or a door that needs to be opened, something is missing.
Horror though may be that you open the box at the beginning of the movie and then have to deal with the consequences. The Ring for example.
Thrillers you don’t open the box until the end; earlier you’re trying to figure out where the box might be and what’s in it. So What’s in the box?? IE Silence of the Lambs getting to the house at the end.
New wave of horror: They never opened the box. They’re dealing with the consequences of someone else’s fault/opening a box. Us – they’re dealing with a box someone else opened. So more on the edge of science fiction/institutional. Or no reason for the horror, so no one opened any box, horror just happens. . .
Your thoughts?
Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images
Friday, July 24, 2020 at 11:59PM Humbled by this 5 star review of my film. “ From its simple yet fluctuating premise to its omnipresent haunting score, from the impressive practical effects to the believable performances, from some truly original designs to thrills that feel earned, the film hits every beat and does so with aplomb. Tolchinsky has created a piece of horror that scares you, makes you think and leaves you amazed. ” Thanks to critic Alexander Erting-Haynes.
The whole review is here:
Wednesday, July 15, 2020 at 8:52PM Interesting to come across an older interview, to see what I was thinking about and working on a few years ago. Some things have changed, but what hasn't:
Be fearless. Be persistent. Be a nice person in real life, but be a total monster in your writing. Write monsters. Write monstrously. Write the scene you can’t see in real life but it would be great to see. Write a dark wish. Write something that will change the world. Write something that you get up in the middle of the night to reread. And reread and reread. And don’t let the bastards get you down.
https://portlandshakes.org/interview-with-playwright-david-e-tolchinsky/
