Creative Principles

Latest Episodes:

Ep302 - Neill Blomkamp, Writer-Director Demonic, Elysium, Chappie, & District 9 Aug 17, 2021

Show notes

Neill Blomkamp grew up in South Africa before he moved to Canada to work in VFX, and found his natural path into filmmaking. Known for the science fiction fable, he’s created iconic movies like District 9, Elysium, Chappie, and most recently, Demonic. In District 9, an extraterrestrial race is forced to live in slum-like conditions on earth. In Elysium, the wealthy live in a man-made space station while the poor live on a ruined earth in 2154. In Chappie, crime is controlled by a mechanized police force. In his latest film, Demonic, “A young woman unleashes terrifying demons when supernatural forces at the root of a decades-old rift between mother and daughter are ruthlessly revealed.” In this interview, he talks about leaving Hollywood to create Oats, his interest in sociopolitical topics, the importance of creative limitations, rules more important than structures, and making films for hyper specific audiences. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Follow us on Instagram: @creativeprinciples 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!

Ep301 - Tim Long, Screenwriter ‘The Exchange,’ ‘The Simpsons,’ & ‘Late Night with David Letterman’ Jul 30, 2021

Show notes

Tim Long got his start writing for magazines where he eventually landed a job writing for Bill Maher on ‘Politically Incorrect,’ and then ‘Late Night with David Letterman,’ where he eventually became the head writer. Today, Long is best known for writing for ‘The Simpsons’ and he’s just created a movie about his life as a teenager. In ‘The Exchange,’ the fictionalized Tim Long is played by Ed Oxenbould and the movie directed by Dan Mazer (Da Ali G Show). The plot is described as, “Hoping to find friendship with a French exchange student, an awkward teenager discovers that the student is not as sophisticated and cultured as he assumed.” In this interview, Long talks about the mistake of firing people too early in television, how to write 40-50 “passable” jokes in an hour, what it means to create a “hot sheet” for monologue jokes, how to eradicate self-consciousness as a writer, and the evolution of his latest movie ‘The Exchange.’ If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Follow us on Instagram: @creativeprinciples 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!

Ep300 - Bruce Miller, Creator ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ & Screenwriter ‘ER,’ ‘Eureka’ & ‘The 100’ Jul 27, 2021

Show notes

Bruce Miller spent the first part of his career penning movies that rarely got made, until he started writing television movies. All of a sudden, his stories were coming to the silver screen and then he moved to television. Today, Miller is best known for writing on ‘ER,’ ‘Everwood,’ ‘Medium,’ ‘The 4400,’ ‘In Plain Sight,’ Alphas,’ ‘The 100,’ and now, he’s the creator of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale.’ On Hulu’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ the story opens in a dystopian future, where a woman (played by Elisabeth Moss) is forced to live as a concubine under a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship. In this interview, Miller talks about the quick feedback of television, the importance of “writing well fast,” writing emotionally difficult scenes, learning curves in television, misconceptions within the industry, and how he fills the Writer’s Room. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Follow us on Instagram: @creativeprinciples 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!

Ep299 - Alena Smith, Screenwriter ‘The Newsroom,’ ‘The Affair’ and Creator ‘Dickinson’ Jul 25, 2021

Show notes

Alena Smith got her start as a playwright, which she believes “uniquely prepares you for what it takes to be a creator and show runner of a television show.” This background, of being a collaborator and visionary, helped Smith and many of her Yale peers transition to television work. She’s known for working on Aaron Sorkin’s ‘The Newsroom’ and fellow alum Sarah Treem’s ‘The Affair.’ In her most recent project, she’s the creator of Apple TV’s ‘Dickinson.’ In the Hailee Steinfeld-led series, Smith invites audiences to see an inside look at the world of Emily Dickinson. In this interview, Smith talks about the unique perspectives of ‘The Affair,’ how ‘Louie’ inspired the style of ‘Dickinson,’ her take on a contemporary Emily Dickinson, her unique writer’s room for this historical fiction piece, and her recipe for being a prolific writer. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Follow us on Instagram: @creativeprinciples 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!

Ep298 - Jeffrey Paul King, Creator The CW’s ‘The Republic of Sarah’ Jul 24, 2021

Show notes

Jeffrey Paul King’s creative pursuits came from an interest in opera at an early age. While in boarding school, he spent time writing and in college, he had a play accepted to the Fringe Festival in Scotland. Then, he moved to LA, worked his way up from being an assistant, and eventually interning at ‘Grey’s Anatomy.’ King’s first gig was on the series ‘Elementary,’ where he worked for seven seasons writing for Johnny Lee Miller (Sherlock Holmes) and Lucy Liu (Dr. Joan Watson). He then wrote a TV movie called ‘Republic of Sarah,’ which he later turned into a series. In ‘The Republic of Sarah,’ the description reads, “Faced with the destruction of her town at the hands of a greedy mining company, rebellious high school teacher Sarah Cooper utilizes an obscure cartographical loophole to declare independence.” In this interview, King talks about various stepping stones in a screenwriter’s education, the logistics of being a writer-producer, how to creatively solve problems, when leaders should follow, his obsession with cartography, intellectually discussing politics through character, and how to deal with premise landmines. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Follow us on Instagram: @creativeprinciples 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!

Ep297 - Rachel Dickinson, Author ‘Falconer on the Edge’ & ‘The Notorious Reno Gang’ Jul 22, 2021

Show notes

Rachel Dickinson writes about travel, history, bits of science, and anything else that interests her from her home in perpetually cloudy Upstate New York. One non-fiction book took her to the wilds of Southern Indiana to research ‘The Notorious Reno Gang,’ an account of the world's first train robbers. In ‘Falconer on the Edge,’ she followed a hardcore falconer through a hunting season in Wyoming. In this interview, Rachel talks about pitching to editors, advice that transformed her writing, researching historical non-fiction versus first-person non-fiction, structuring books, the value of “lost time,” and how to work with agents to discover marketable ideas. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Follow us on Instagram: @creativeprinciples 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!

Ep296 - Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, Screenwriter ‘Friday Night Lights,’ ’Southland,’ & ’S.W.A.T.’ Jul 20, 2021

Show notes

As a kid, Aaron Rahsaan Thomas could be described as the good kid living vicariously through his bad kid friends. Essentially, he took this perspective with him to the page. Thomas, who has worked on shows like Friday Night Lights, Numb3rs, CSI:NY, Southland, The Get Down, and S.W.A.T., says he has a love/hate relationship with human beings, which comes alive in his silver screen characters. Thomas’ series S.W.A.T comes from intellectual property but has a new spin on it. The description reads, “Follows a locally born and bred S.W.A.T. sergeant and his team of highly-trained men and women as they solve crimes in Los Angeles.” The series stars Shemar Moore, Alex Russell, and Lina Esco. In this interview, Thomas discusses auteur filmmaking moving into television, nurturing creative pursuits, lessons from iconic showrunners, a skillset collection from Kobe Bryant, doing your research for entrepreneurial climbs, and his hopes for future proteges. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Follow us on Instagram: @creativeprinciples 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!

Ep295 - Robin Block, Producer & Founder “Community-Powered” Creator VC Jul 13, 2021

Show notes

At Robin Block’s company Creator VC, the company focuses on “community-powered entertainment.” The independent producers work on crowdfunded content for superfans. ‘In Search of Darkness’ is described as “An exploration of '80s horror movies through the perspective of the actors, directors, producers and SFX craftspeople who made them, and their impact on contemporary cinema.” ‘In Search of Tomorrow’ is described as “A nostalgic journey through '80s Sc-Fi films, exploring their impact and relevance today, told by the artists who made them and by those who were inspired to turn their visions into reality.” In this interview, Block talks crowdfunding $1 million dollar campaigns, fair use complications and attorney fees, accepting risks on projects, the “3 C’s” of fan entertainment, and why he feels like he’s pioneering a new industry. Listen to our interview with Director David Weiner (‘In Search of Darkness’ & ‘In Search of Tomorrow’) in Episode 294. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Follow us on Instagram: @creativeprinciples 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!

Ep294 - David Weiner, Writer-Director ‘In Search of Darkness’ & ‘In Search of Tomorrow’ Jul 08, 2021

Show notes

David Weiner originally moved to Los Angeles to get involved with filmmaking, where he mostly worked as Assistant Director. Soon after, he started writing and found journalism, where he worked for Entertainment Tonight, The Hollywood Reporter, and he even ran the Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine. There, Robin Block recruited him. At Block’s company Creator VC, the company focuses on “community-powered entertainment.” The independent producers work on crowdfunded content for superfans. Weiner’s job is to interview, write, and direct. ‘In Search of Darkness’ is described as, “An exploration of '80s horror movies through the perspective of the actors, directors, producers and SFX craftspeople who made them, and their impact on contemporary cinema.” ‘In Search of Tomorrow’ is described as, “A nostalgic journey through '80s Sc-Fi films, exploring their impact and relevance today, told by the artists who made them and by those who were inspired to turn their visions into reality.” In this interview, Weiner talks about how to cold contact subjects, how to percolate new stories with subjects, how to hang on to creative control, and what it means to be a nostalgia curator. Stay tuned for our interview with Robin Block in Episode 295. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Follow us on Instagram: @creativeprinciples 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!

Ep293 - Daniel Minahan, Director ‘Halston,’ ‘Game of Thrones,’ & ‘House of Cards’ Jul 07, 2021

Show notes

Originally a painter, Daniel Minahan wasn’t a fan of the solitary nature of painting, which led him to documentary filmmaking and then television. He’s best known for working on ‘Six Feet Under,’ ‘Deadwood,’ ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘House of Cards,’ and most recently, ‘Halston.’ The 5-episode series ‘Halston’ stars Ewan McGregor. The story follows a man who leverages his single, invented name into a worldwide fashion empire synonymous with luxury, sex, and fame, defining an era. In this interview, Minahan talks about exploring museums with Cinematographers, limited series versus long-form dramas, difficulties in making period pieces, letting actors inspire camera movements, advice directors should ignore, and how creatives should think about their imprint. If it’s your first time listening, make sure to subscribe and visit my new website for information on the YouTube channel, the blog, this podcast, and my new book ‘Ink by the Barrel’ which takes advice from these 200+ interviews at the link below… Follow us on Instagram: @creativeprinciples 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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