Dan Decker

Author of "Anatomy of a Screenplay"

Personal Details

Name: Dan Decker

Last visit: Oct 12, 2007

Interests

Shakespeare: Sometimes am I king, then treasons make me wish myself a beggar, and so I am. Then crushing poverty persuades me I was better when a king. Then I am kinged again. But what e'er I be, nor I nor any man that but man is, with nothing shall he be pleased till he be eased by being nothing.

de Toqueville: When all professions are open to all, and when one can reach the summit of each of them by oneself, an immensse and easy course seems to open before the ambition of men, and they willingly fancy that they have been called by great destinies. But that is an erroneous view corrected by experience every day.

I get these, so that makes me part nihilist, part cynic, but in a nice way.

Movies

In our film discussion group at The Writers Store, we take on all kinds of films and deconstruct them to the commas without ever declaring if we like them or not. I'm guessing this section of the profile is asking what I "like" in the way of movies. I'm drawn to the small romances such as Groundhog Day, Casablanca, Don Juan de Marco, The Secretary...

About Me

I host the Film Discussion Group at The Writers Store. When I'm not doing script-related things, I'm lost somewhere in London around 1600. I'm a big fan of W. Shakespeare. I'm currently producing a series of short films from scripts written by my students. They are posted on YouTube.

"Anatomy of a Screenplay" introduced new concepts for the study of screenwriting such as the use of a "Character Structure" instead of plot as the way to develop and drive the movie. These ideas found broad acceptance and are the standard for teaching in many colleges today.