This very "dumb little trick" is probably what got me into all this trouble in my life in the first place. Trouble, of course, being the need, urge, unquenchable thirst for movie writing.

As a kid, prior to the advent of the BETAMAX (heh heh, had to toss in some ancient history), I would put my little MONTGOMERY WARD cassette recorder next to the TV speaker and audio record movies. When the SONY WALKMAN came out (the iPod of the 80's, for you young youngsters out there) I'd bop around the neighborhood, tuned in to my favorite movie.

Even when a reader HATES my scripts, they'll always complement me on my dialogue, which, I guess, I can directly attribute to pumping cinematic audio straight into my brain during my formative years.

Sick?

Oh you betcha'.

For the record, the first batch of movies I had taped were AMERICAN GRAFFITI, HIGH ANXIETY, and CORVETTE SUMMER. (yes, the Mark Hamill/Annie Potts, er, "classic.")

Anyway, here's a neat link to continue the grand psychotic tradition of listening to movies...

www.listentoamovie.com

It's remarkable. Audio files of ENTIRE movies. I don't know who the lunatics are who run this thing but it's an amazing thing.

Have fun!

Jeff, thanks for that story and the awesome link. It's funny, but when my oldest son was about 4-5, I made audio recordings of his favorite movies as he used to like to listen to them while playing, drawing, etc.

Now that I think about it, I wonder if that's why he became so enamored of music soundtracks. Perhaps that helps to explain why he's in a dual degree program in college, including a music composition major at the New England Conservatory.

Re: "dumb little writing tricks" - You make it too easy for us, Scott! Thank you (though I wasn't able to make the link work... Can you post the address?!)

SB

Anonymous, it's:

www.listentoamovie.com

Enjoy!

Fixed the link in the post.

Also have the link included in Resources.