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Sam is a multiple award-winning writer and founder and co-president of
The Screenplayers, a cooperative organization of writers
and filmmakers. Sam was commissioned by Treschic Films to write the pilot script, series bible and business proposal for CHIC, a
drama/crime/mystery TV series set in the world of fashion. Previously, along with several other "Screenplayers,"
he was involved in writing a five-episode crime drama
mini-series for
German television. In late 2009 his short script, Babysitters,
was filmed in Chicago.
Past accolades include being a winner in the Texas Film Institute (TFI) and Telluride Indiefest screenwriting competitions, a CineStory finalist, a top three American Zoetrope screenwriter (three times), and a semi-finalist in the Don & Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting, Moondance, and American Accolades competitions. He has been interviewed for ScreenTalk magazine and AbsoluteWrite. Sam is a member of The Writers Building, and the Nicholl Scribes, membership in which is restricted to writers who have placed in the prestigious Don & Gee Nicholl Fellowships competition as sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He is represented by Patricia Miller of White Orchid Literary & Talent. His interests include photography, mass media & pop culture, communications, sociology, and political science. He is fascinated with the Cold War era, Chinese culture and the monsters living under his bed. Lisa Rymer, former model turned news director, journalist and talk show host, describes him as "calm and practical, though whimsical" (an entirely accurate if seemingly contradictory depiction). For photographs, blogging and more glide on over here |
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PROJECT A headstrong American security specialist forms a tense alliance with a beautiful and unpredictable Russian Special Forces operative as they try to stop the deployment of "Red Mercury," a psychoactive gas that turns ordinary people into raging killers.
Don & Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting Semi-Finalist
When a brilliant physicist hides his time machine from a sinister tontine, a hard boiled private detective must travel back to 1947 to save the scientist's rebellious daughter and stop the cabal from changing the course of history. American Zoetrope Top Three (first draft)
A beautiful Serbian thief, who has inadvertently stolen millions of dollars of Mafia money, and a principled businessman must outsmart the INS and the Serbian secret service to stay out of jail and gain the ultimate prize; each other.
Texas Film Institute Winners Circle
A stressed out cable installer on a routine job finds himself caught up in diamond smuggling, kidnapping, and foul play when he falls prey to a pretty courier who works for the mob.
20/20 Contest Second Round
Spell Bound When she inadvertently releases a devilish lawyer from his tomb, a teenage girl finds that to save herself and the town of New Faerehaven from a baneful eternity she must overcome a bizarre curse, defeat a horde of evil minions, and return a roguish demon to his resting place.
Telluride Indiefest Winners Circle
A little girl must save her family by outwitting two desperate jewel thieves who have taken refuge in her home.
American Zoetrope Top Three
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J.J. Abrams Tom Stoppard Audrey Wells Robert Ludlum Dashiell Hammett John LeCarre Len Deighton Martin Cruz Smith |
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Casablanca (USA - 1942)
1920-1929
1930-1939
1940-1949
1950-1959
1960-1969
1970-1979
1980-1989
1990-1999
2000-2010
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| Fleur (Frank Langella) enters a room where the circus
artists have gathered in a circle. He draws a white chalk line on the red
carpet. Then he looks around for Sassy (Elena Lev). Fleur: Sassy. Where's Sassy? Ah, there you are. Come here. (He sits on the carpet as Sassy walks up to the chalk line.) Fleur: Will you step across the line for me. (She does. He motions her forward and takes her hands in his.) Fleur: You know what you just did? Sassy: No. Fleur: You stepped from the dark into the light. And what happens when we step from the dark into the light? Sassy: We do the show. Fleur: Yes. Come. (Sassy turns and sits in front of him.) Fleur: We do the show. We do the show for the people. They need us. You know, life is very tough, life is hard, it's very cruel. When you step over that line and into the light you have a certain responsibility to the people in the dark. You've got to be strong. You've got to take all your pain and you've got to bury it inside your costume. For twenty-two hours you can be just like them. You can moan and worry and cry and sleep and eat and drink and make love...and suffer and grow old and die like everybody else. But for two hours of every night...you're not allowed to let life in. Alegria - by Rudy Barichello.
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| COIN Falling, hitting the boards, spinning on the wood.
THE PLAYER
THE COIN SPINNING GUILDENSTERN: Do you know any good plays? PLAYER: Plays? Oh, yes. GUILDENSTERN: One of the Greeks, perhaps? You're familiar with the tragedies of antiquity, are you? The great homicidal classics? Maidens aspiring to godheads, and vice versa? Your kind of thing, is it? PLAYER: No, I can't say that it is, really. We're more of the blood, love and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, but we can't do you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see. GUILDENSTERN: Is that what people want? PLAYER: It's what we do. Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead - by Tom Stoppard |
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From: Styles of Thinking: Strategies for Asking Questions, Making Decisions & Solving Problems
Synthesist Only about 11 percent of the people who have taken the InQ show a preference for the Synthesist Style. It is the least frequently found of the five Styles of Thinking. To "synthesize" means, essentially, to make something new and original out of things that, by themselves, seem very different from each other. Combining different things - especially ideas - in that way is what Synthesists like to do. Their favourite thought process is likely to be speculative. Synthesists are integrators. They like to discover two or more things that to other people may appear to have little or no relationship, and find ways to fit them into a new, creative combination. Synthesists are apt to appear challenging, skeptical or satirically amused, even when you can see no cause for any of that. Synthesists enjoy speculative, philosophical, intellectual argument, so long as it doesn't get too somber and the silliness of the act of argument itself is acknowledged. They engage in digressions that sometimes seem to have no relevance to the matter at hand. But if you listen carefully, they usually have relevance; though you may have to grope for it. When you hear someone expressing a well-argued, philosophical, profound idea, and then the very person suddenly breaks off and pokes fun at his or her very own idea, you are hearing a Synthesist. The strategies favoured by Synthesists can add an enormous amount to the richness and variety of anyone's thinking. Synthesists can be exciting people to have around. Situation where the Synthesist is likely to be most effective: The Mind-Boggling Mess Pragmatist The motto of the Pragmatist is: "Whatever works." They verify what is true or false in terms of immediate personal experience. This gives them a freedom from consistency that lends itself to experimentation and innovation. Pragmatists enjoy lively give-and-take, brainstorming, clever conversation, and light-hearted scheming, especially on tactical issues. Like Synthesists, they enjoy playing with ideas, though usually at a less philosophical, more down-to-earth level. They grow easily bored with conversation that seems too analytical or nit-picking. In short, Pragmatists are often good people to have around. Their enthusiasm and experimentalism tend to liven things. In problem-solving and decision-making situations their skills can be immensely valuable, if they can be properly utilized. What that means is: Pragmatists have to be given room, loose reins, and to be kept interested. Once you have allowed Pragmatists to become bored, you have lost them. Situation where the Pragmatist is likely to be most effective: "Where Do We Go From Here?"
Persons with a creative pattern display opposite forces in their behaviour. Their desire for tangible results is counterbalanced by an equally strong drive for perfection and their aggressiveness is tempered by sensitivity. People with a creative pattern tend to seek unique accomplishments and innovative solutions. When confronted with a crisis they often display quick thinking and an ability to react rapidly. Along with a talent for fast thinking, "creatives" often show great foresight. |
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