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On Saturday the 28th screenwriter Warren Lewis ("Black Rain" "13th Warrior") regaled a group of 50 filmmakers and writers with stories about his life, career and opinions on the future of the industry he helped shape.
Warren is both 'old school' and new school. He harkens back to a different time when A-list movies were ubiquitous; where a writer could create something spec and sell it in a market filled with opportunities. But Warren hasn't kept still - he's moved with the times and adapted both his marketing and his writing to today's realities.
Talking unabashedly about his love affair with westerns, prominently mentioning "The Searchers" and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" Warren discussed how all films owe allegiance to those epics of yesteryear. Although he's too young to have worked with some of the greats of that era like director John Ford and actors Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne and Lee Marvin, Warren parsed and deconstructed the times and the storylines of classics that shaped film and still resonate even 60+ years later.
"Black Rain," Warren's first notable film, sparkles with those classic sensibilities and continues to entertain and amaze - even to a recent showing in L.A. in a "real" theater with 70mm film stock. Not digital - film, with all its flaws and imperfections and gorgeous cinematographic scope.
Far from waxing nostalgic, Warren had the audience on the floor in laughter with unique takes on today's industry which he both loves and embraces, and is highly-amused by. He mentioned "twittering" at one point and didn't mean Twitter. He also talked about his current role as producer and how he is always looking for the one script that moves him as much as the films on which he cut his writing teeth.
The room was upbeat and energetic due in no small part to Warren's incredible sense of humor, sense of the absurd, and at varying times, his true, unabashed love of the industry he's worked in for over 25 years. His anecdote about his father and his first VCR clearly showed the power and ability of this superb storyteller. He was, in all ways, a perfect speaker for the people hungry to hear the how, whys and whens of this business of film because he had a foot in the past but spanned the present and had an eye to the future.
The audience ranged from octogenarians to teens in high school and from amateur to professionals. The smiles on everyone's face told the story the way a good film does - with non-verbal cues. No one was ever un-amused or uniformed by Warren's presentation.
We hope to continue to bring these types of events to our membership but to a great degree it's up to the membership to support and spread the word. We hope to do 6-7 per year starting in 2014 but we also are planning one more for 2013 - in October/November.
Many thanks to the OC Screenwriters membership and it's board of directors: Lorenzo Porricelli, Victor Phan, Toby Wallwork, Robert Rollins and Joe Becker for helping make this a great event.
And a huge thank you to all who took time out of their busy schedule to attend, network, and hear a fun and informative speaker.
