maybe he’s from the arctic circle

reuters has an excellent article about the “overnight” success of michael arndt, the screenwriter of little miss sunshine.

i thought that arndt’s talk at the screenwriting expo was one of the highlights. it was about “endings: the good, the bad, & the insanely great,” and he broke down the endings of star wars, the graduate, and little miss sunshine and showed how they resolved the three levels of conflict (external, internal, philosophical) in under a minute.

i only really attended the pixar storytelling day at the expo, and the lunch sessions and a couple of free panels on the other days. besides arndt’s talk, the session by andrew stanton, the director of finding nemo was also really amazing. the other panels weren’t as good, but part of that impression may stem from being relegated to one of the satellite rooms where the sound sucked. i think they forgot to pipe in the right channel, and during one session i think they had the in-room microphone turned on so it was feeding back just enough to be nauseating. (and don’t get me started on the lunches.)

my reason for being at the conference, besides getting to spend time with my fiancée celia and create hilarious memories, was to learn a little bit more about screenwriting so i could be a more useful sounding board. it was also interesting to go and feel the vibe at a non-tech conference.