Creative Principles

Latest Episodes:

Ep382 - Clare Niederpruem, Director Justin Long-Brittany Snow Comedy ‘Christmas with the Campbells’ Dec 03, 2022

Show notes

“Having been in acting class for as long as I did, you learn the vocabulary, how different actors approach character and that gave me a foundation. One of the things I love about Directing is what actors respond to…” Clare Niederpruem is best known for directing holiday movies for the Hallmark Channel, such as You Light Up My Christmas, The Christmas Bow, Holiday for Heroes, One December Night, and A Royal Corgi Christmas. Because of this talent to show movies with “Christmas in every frame,” Clare was approached to direct a less traditional Christmas movie. In Christmas with the Campbells, “Jesse (Brittany Snow) gets dumped right before the holidays by her boyfriend Shawn (Alex Moffat), his parents convince her to still spend Christmas with them, and Shawn's handsome cousin (Justin Long), while Shawn is away. In this interview, Clare talks about making Hallmark movies, working with Vince Vaughn on a raunchy comedy, following your inner voice as a female director, why young creators have to constantly prove themselves and the difficulties of filming on location. Subscribe for video interviews on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/CreativePrinciples?sub_confirmation=1 If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Ep381 - Alfred Gough and Miles Millar Return, Creators Netflix’s ‘Wednesday’ Nov 29, 2022

Show notes

“Wednesday, for us, from concept until now, has been a three and a half year journey,” said Alfred Gough. “We came up with the initial idea which was teenage Wednesday Addams in boarding school. We had to track down the rights and then we pitched it to the Addams Foundation.” As screenwriters, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar are known for Shanghai Noon, Smallville, I Am Number Four, Spider-Man 2 (2004), and Into the Badlands. Their latest creation is perhaps most similar to the creation of Smallville, the Superman origin series. Listen to our conversation about Into the Badlands in Episode 52. Miles Millar said, “Tonally, this is in the pocket of Smallville. Often times, the studio comes to you, but this time, it was our idea. We put together a 15-page series treatment with photographs, descriptions, log lines for episodes, and that led to a meeting. We had to do the legwork, write the spec treatment, but we felt passionate about the project and fell in love with the idea of doing this.” “From there, we wrote the first episode, that’s when the pandemic hit. We sent the pilot script to Tim Burton’s agent, even though his agent said he’s never been interested in television,” he continued, “but the agent liked it and sent it to Tim. Four days later, we got a call, he loved it and wanted to meet.” Tim Burton told Alfred Gough and Miles Millar that he “loved the script” and “would have dated Wednesday Addams in high school.” They shot the series in Romania about a year later. Subscribe for video interviews on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/CreativePrinciples?sub_confirmation=1 If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Ep380 - Noah Segan, Actor ‘Blood Relatives,’ ‘Looper’ & ‘Star Wars The Last Jedi’ Nov 16, 2022

Show notes

“I loved movies. I wanted to be on set. I wanted to be in the mix,” said Noah Segan, who is perhaps best known for being in every Rian Johnson movie (Brick, The Brothers Bloom, Looper, Breaking Bad, Knives Out, Star Wars - The Last Jedi). Currently, Noah is the star-writer-director of Blood Relatives. The story follows “a vampire's loner lifestyle is thrown into disarray when a teenager shows up claiming to be his daughter, and she's got the fangs to prove it. On a road trip across America's blacktops, they decide how to sink their teeth into family life.” In this interview, Noah talks about lessons from Rian Johnson, his love for genre filmmaking, why actors like short scripts, why screenwriters struggle with over-exposition, and how writers can fast-track their stories with bullet outlines. Subscribe for video interviews on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/CreativePrinciples?sub_confirmation=1 If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Ep379 - Lorcan Finnegan, Director ‘Without Name,’ ‘Vivarium,’ & ‘Nocebo’ Nov 14, 2022

Show notes

“I made a fake trailer as a collage project — a remake of the shoemaker and the elves, with these evil puppets — and I think that’s when I realized I didn’t need to describe my process.” This led him to becoming a film director. Finnegan is best known for Vivarium (Imogen Boots, Jesse Eisenberg) where “a young couple looking for the perfect home find themselves trapped in a mysterious labyrinth-like neighborhood of identical houses.” His most recent project, Nocebo (Eva Green, Mark Strong) is about “a fashion designer suffering from a mysterious illness that puzzles her doctors and frustrates her husband, until help arrives in the form of a Filipino carer, who uses traditional folk healing to reveal a horrifying truth.” In this interview, Finnegan talks about doing his own visual effects early in his career, why he hates “smash cuts” in screenplays, why some directors hate “over description,” how novice filmmakers can make interesting contained thrillers and how to make a good movie with the budget you have. Subscribe for video interviews on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/CreativePrinciples?sub_confirmation=1 If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Ep378 - Harry Bradbeer, Director ‘Enola Holmes 2,’ ‘Killing Eve,’ & ‘Flea Bag’ Nov 10, 2022

Show notes

“I wanted to be an actor at first,” said Harry Bradbeer. “Then I was directed with some great directors in school and the way they would direct us on stage made me start to see things in frames and shapes, then I directed a play. One day I just took a left turn and made a film.” As a Director, Bradbeer is known for working on Killing Eve, Ramy, and Fleabag. But after he landed the job of directing Jack Thorne’s Enola Holmes screenplay, he fell in love with the character and started writing the story for the sequel. In Enola Holmes 2, Harry is the Director and has a story by credit for the film that gives writing credit to Thorne (The Aeronauts, Wonder) once again. The description reads, “Now a detective-for-hire, Enola Holmes takes on her first official case to find a missing girl as the sparks of a dangerous conspiracy ignite a mystery that requires the help of friends - and Sherlock himself - to unravel.” “Films sort of crept up on me and grabbed by the throat when I wasn’t expecting it. American films from the 70s — Chinatown, Midnight Cowboy, French Connection, The Exorcist — those four movies just obsessed me. The level of reality of cinema at that time made me excited about portraying veracity. It turned me off of theater actually. I wanted to take the camera to the streets.” This led to somewhat of a natural interest in television, where character-based stories live. “I started working on cop shows that were shot like a documentary or legal shows about kids living in a f flat. They weren’t bright and shiny, but gritty in real. I felt completely in my zone there. It was about performance and speed of work.” Subscribe for video interviews on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/CreativePrinciples?sub_confirmation=1 If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Ep377 - William Indick, Author ‘Psychology for Screenwriters’ Nov 04, 2022

Show notes

Psychology professor William Indick was teaching theories of personality when he realized his students simply weren’t getting it, so he started doing film analysis in his classes to explain these dense topics with examples from the silver screen. This led to a handful of books including Psychology for Screenwriters, Movies and the Mind, Psycho Thrillers, and Ancient Symbology in Fantasy Literature. “I wrote a book about film analysis and then Ken Lee suggested I do the same thing, but flip it. Instead of analyzing films, take these ideas from films and project them onto screenwriters. You can use these techniques other filmmakers use in your films to make more psychologically complex characters.” These books are meant to showcase an art rather than a science. “Analysis is an art. It’s the art of interpretation, so there is no truth in analysis. Psychologically is largely a philosophical field, so the attempt to make it scientific has merit but those merits are not apparent in the filmmaking process.” Indick’s first book, Psychology for Screenwriters, is about to have a 2nd edition published. “The first edition was about taking these classic theories — from Freud, Erikson, Jung, Campbell, Adler, May — and applying these to the process of screenwriting.” Each chapter uses films to explain psychology. Subscribe for video interviews on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/CreativePrinciples?sub_confirmation=1 If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Ep376 - Mali Elfman, Producer-Writer-Director ‘Next Exit’ Nov 04, 2022

Show notes

“I used to be a professional horseback rider and professional horseback rider trainer,” said Mali Elfman. This all changed when one of her students — Missy Stabile (Ghostbusters, The Fault in Our Stars) — told her she would make a good Producer. These days, Elfman is known for being a producer, a writer, and director. In her feature debut, Next Exit, stars Katie Parker and Rahul Kohli. The plot follows “Two unhappy strangers find themselves on a road trip across the U.S. to partake in a scientist's radical experiment with the afterlife.” In this interview, we talk about being present both with horses and on set, making 31 short films for Halloween (Fun Size Horror), how to sneak drama into genre, why she believes in ghosts, and why she wants to “spread some blood all over the place” in her next horror film. Subscribe for video interviews on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/CreativePrinciples?sub_confirmation=1 If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Ep375 - Steve Blackman Returns, Screenwriter ‘Umbrella Academy,’ ‘Legion,’ & ‘Fargo’ Nov 02, 2022

Show notes

“My socialization was by television,” said Steve Black, “the television of the 70s and 80s. As a lawyer, Blackman really wanted to be a writer, so following the “write what you know” model, he wrote an original pilot called The Young Attorneys. Over the past two decades, Blackman has written for shows like Wild Card, Bones, Las Vegas, Private Practice, Fargo, Legion, and Altered Carbon. He’s also the creator behind Netflix’s Umbrella Academy. You can listen to our first conversation in Episode 233. In this interview, Blackman talks about everyone writing West Wing scripts back in the day, pitching David E. Kelley in a lobby, how he landed on Fargo, where he starts the research phase, how to flex writing muscles, and why writers have no limitations. Subscribe for video interviews on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/CreativePrinciples?sub_confirmation=1 If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Ep374 - Thomas Jane, Actor ‘Slayers,’ ‘The Punisher,’ ‘Boogie Nights,’ & ’The Mist’ Oct 29, 2022

Show notes

Thomas Jane got his start by working on sets in high school, when one particular teacher inspired him to step on stage and giving acting a shot. These days, he’s known for ‘The Punisher,’ ‘Boogie Nights,’ ’The Mist,’ ’Deep Blue Sea,’ ’The Thin Red Line,’ and ‘Hung.’ Most recently, he’s starred in two films under Director K. Asher Levin (Episode 368) called ‘Dig’ and ‘Slayers.’ In Dig, “A widowed father and his daughter whose house is up for demolition, are taken hostage by a dangerous couple, who won't stop until they retrieve what lies beneath the property.” In Slayers, “A group of superstar influencers are drawn to a reclusive billionaire's mansion only to find themselves trapped in the lair of an evil vampire. The only way out is to be saved by a famous online gamer and an old school vampire hunter.” In this interview, Thomas talks about training with a vaudeville actor named Ralph Tabakin, why you can’t have a Plan B, why he loves genre, co-writing his comic book Bad Planet, and the problem with cancel culture taking over the independent voice. Subscribe for video interviews on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/CreativePrinciples?sub_confirmation=1 If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

Ep373 - Scott Adkins, Actor - Martial Artist ‘Accident Man - Hitman’s Holiday’ & ‘John Wick 4’ Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

As an actor and martial artist, Scott Adkins is known for starring in Avengement, along with the Undisputed Series and the Accident Man series, including the latest film, Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday. Adkins has also been featured in Day Shift with Jamie Foxx, the Ip Man series, American Assassin, and will soon be in John Wick 4 alongside Keanu Reeves. Adkins also hosts The Art of Action, a stuntman interview series on YouTube. In this interview, Scott talks about co-writing films he wants to get made, influences in action, working with the Kirby Brothers, the problem with shaky cam, and what it means to be an entrepreneur in the stunt world. Subscribe for video interviews on YouTube: www.youtube.com/c/CreativePrinciples?sub_confirmation=1 If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts? It only takes about 60-seconds and it really helps convince some of the hard-to-get guests to sit down and have a chat (simply scroll to the bottom on your iTunes Podcast app and click “Write Review"). Enjoy the show!

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