A sequel by definition is unoriginal, so movie sequels already have one strike against them. Strike two comes from studios saddling them with unoriginal titles. Cars 2 The Expendables 3 Paranormal Activity 4 Final Destination 5 (If they’re on the 5th film, then how final is this destination? Just saying.) Humdrum titles like these do […]
Archive for the ‘THE PROJECTION BOOTH’ Category
SEQUEL-TITLE-ITIS part 2: How to Improve Sequel Titling
November 26th, 2014 
Steven D'Arcangelo 
Posted in 
SEQUEL-TITLE-ITIS part 1: The epidemic of giving bad titles to good (and not-so-good) sequels.
August 28th, 2014 Steven D'Arcangelo UrbanDictionary.com defines Sequelitis as, “A medical condition propagated by a combination of commercial success and creative ineptitude.” This epidemic has plagued Hollywood for nearly a century, starting with The Fall of a Nation (1916), the forgotten follow-up to D.W. Griffith’s popular The Birth of a Nation (1915). This inspired sequels in every genre, from historical […]
COFFEEHOUSE SCREENWRITING 102: Caffeinated Writing on a Budget
June 5th, 2014 Steven D'Arcangelo If you’re looking for how to make passive characters active or how to cram writing in between day jobs and kids, then you’re in the wrong place. For help with that, I recommend a great book with a title similar to this article — The Coffee Break Screenwriter by Pilar Alessandra. This article isn’t about how […]
COFFEEHOUSE SCREENWRITING 101: An Intro to Caffeinated Writing Culture
March 27th, 2014 Steven D'Arcangelo I spend a lot of time in coffee shops, yet I don’t like coffee. I didn’t used to like coffee anyway. Until I spent a lot of time in coffee shops. Does that sound jittery? Blame caffeine because I’m typing these words in a coffee shop. As a freelance writer determined, like the vast majority […]
MASTERS OF THE SHARED UNIVERSE
February 28th, 2014 Steven D'Arcangelo Marvel’s The Avengers, which assembled heroes established in previous solo films, earned $1.51 billion worldwide. It’s the third highest grossing film of all time. Ever since its massive success, Hollywood has gone cray cray for the shared universe concept. World-building has been replaced by universe-building in hopes of riding the trend all the way to […]
THREE IS A MAGIC NUMBER
January 30th, 2014 Steven D'Arcangelo You don’t need Schoolhouse Rock to know that 3 is a magic number. It’s in our sciences with Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion and Asimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics. It’s in our religion (some of our religion) with the 3 Wise Men and the Holy Trinity. Three trimesters of pregnancy could yield triplets that all […]
DIAGNOSIS: THE CHRISTMAS BENDS!
January 3rd, 2014 Steven D'Arcangelo Suicide rates are allegedly the highest of the year during the holidays. Winter’s shorter daylight hours afflict people with Seasonal Affective Disorder (*). Elvis Presley sings about having “a blue Christmas without you.” These conditions, the unfortunate by-product of such a happy time, should be taken seriously. Yet no one ever talks about the hidden […]
