My articles for Screenprism are now part of The Take

In 2016, I had the pleasure of contributing to a site called Screen Prism where I conferenced in with the creators of the site and they spoke with film writers to create content that answered an FAQ  about film or television with a deep dive. The essays were a great mix of academic and popular in style and I'm extremely proud of my articles for them.

The site morphed into The Take and eventually focused solely on video content so some of my work got buried under the new site design.

Were Movies in the 1950s as White-Washed as Pleasantville Suggests?

https://the-take.com/read/were-movies-of-the-1950s-as-white-washed-as-later-films-like-pleasantville-suggest

Hint: No. This essay was precipitated by noticing that films in the 1940s and 1950s were extremely risque. I often say "Duck Soup" or "Double Indemnity" are great exhibits for how classic movies used to go places that screenwriting often can't today.

How does Mozart in the Jungle Reflect Amazon's New Business Model?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-does-the-pilot-of-mozart-in-the-jungle-reflect-amazons-business-model

I noticed when watching this show that the pilot and the second episode had inconsistencies that got me thinking of Amazon's cross purposes in the creations of the pilot and the rest of the season.

Why don't Characters Never Change in Arrested Development and Seinfeld?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/do-the-characters-of-black-comedies-like-seinfeld-and-arrested-development
This one explored the concept of black comedy. I had never seen "The Peep Show" but the editor kept wanting to add that in.

What is the real-life story of the Hollywood Blacklist Depicted in Trumbo?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-did-the-real-life-hollywood-blacklist-shown-in-trumbo-affect-the-histor

As a student of film history, this one was fairly simple to write up and topical because of the release of the film at the time

Did the Writers Initially Intend for Mac of It's Always Sunny to be Gay?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/has-the-character-of-mac-on-its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-always-been-ga

There have been long discussions on message boards that inspired me to want to talk my own stab at writing this with both my own pet theory and a collection of what a lot of internet contributors were saying about the topic.

How does Ball of Fire Reveal the Themes of a Classic Screwball Comedy?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-does-ball-of-fire-reveal-the-themes-of-the-classic-screwball-comedy
I was recently reading about screwball comedies and class in an old college textbook so this fit right in.

Who really wrote Citizen Kane?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/who-really-wrote-citizen-kane-why-was-there-controversy-over-the-screenwrit
I was fascinated by the fact that Herman Mankiewicz's descendants felt the need to take up the mantle in defense of him decades later. I checked out three books from the library and wrote an article for Nostalgia Digest and reused some of the material here.

How did Cleopatra Destroy a Director and a Studio?
http://screenprism.com/insights/article/how-did-hollywood-disaster-cleopatra-almost-destroy-its-director-and-20th-c
This was from the same Mankiewicz brothers article as above as it was Joseph Mankiewicz who directed "Cleopatra".