Lukas Kendall
No More Paying for Reads?
I had a column here about paying for reads on scripts in progress. I just deleted it because I felt it was too grumpy. Sorry folks! But I did save it in case I change my mind.
Lukas Kendall, Writer/Filmmaker/Producer
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 30
- 1 min
The Stone Killer Playlist
There’s a Roy Budd crime score I’ve always loved, The Stone Killer, a 1973 Charles Bronson film. It was directed by Michael Winner, who was working with Jerry Fielding a lot at that time (The Mechanic, Chato’s Land). For whatever reason, Budd did this one, and it sounds like his version of Fielding (with a helping of Lalo Schifrin). I love all the 1970s Roy Budd crime–action scores: Get Carter, Fear Is the Key (that epic car chase), The Black Windmill, The Carey Treatment (on
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 29
- 1 min
Intrada Unreleased Cue Guessing Game
My friend Roger Feigelson at Intrada has been posting a fun game on the Intrada message board. I only recently discovered it when he shared it on Facebook. It’s a selection of unreleased cues from cool scores, ripped right from the movies (with sound effects)—and you can guess the title and composer. (Answers are provided in the thread.) There’s a Road Warrior cue in there, and I forgot how much I liked this Brian May score. But I was always told the complete score masters no
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 28
- 3 min
The Empire Strikes Back: The Illustrated Edition
I am watching the Disney+ documentary Light and Magic, about the formation and early years of visual-effects powerhouse ILM, and loving it! I’m halfway through so I’ll comment when I’ve finished it. But revisiting that initial Star Wars era, and the genius VFX artists who brought it to life, reminded me of my favorite book when I was a kid: the novelization by Donald F. Glut of The Empire Strikes Back. But not just any edition—specifically, the slightly oversized edition illu
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 27
- 3 min
The Roddenberry Archive
The big annual Creation Star Trek convention is going on this weekend in Las Vegas. Although I think they lost the Star Trek license so it’s just the “56-Year Mission,” wink wink. The last time I was at one of these was, wow, ten years ago, when La-La Land was publicizing their then-upcoming TOS 15CD box set. I remember going through security at the Burbank airport and seeing Connor Trinneer (Trip from Enterprise), who was, of course, going as well. I made conversation with h
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 26
- 1 min
There’s No Happiness in Showbiz
“There’s no happiness in showbiz. There’s only relief.” My friend said that to me, and I’m pretty sure he got it from somewhere else, but I can’t find out where at the moment. And I don’t feel like texting him. Well...it’s true. I actually had good news within the past week. Potentially great news! But it reminded me of this adage. If you’re a sports fan, you watch your team play the big game, they’re winning late—and they won! It’s over! Yay! Maybe there’s a last-second repl
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 25
- 3 min
5455 Wilshire
Earlier this week I drove through Culver City, for the first time in years. The Film Score Monthly office was located at 8503 Washington Blvd. from 1999–2005, so I spent a ton of time there. Recently I learned that the whole building was evidently turned into the offices of the massive Hollywood management–production company, Anonymous Content, which amuses me to no end. I drove past it, but it still seemed cordoned off, so maybe they haven’t moved in, yet? Well, not my probl
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 24
- 2 min
Get a Life?
Recently I posted an essay about the appeal of Star Trek. I’m glad it was generally well received. At the time, I got a question—how exciting! J. Daniel Flatball asked, re: “Failure to Launch”: If Star Trek is for children, does that explain the at-least-perceived-to-be-strong correlation between Star Trek fans and the “Living in the parents’ basement” phenomenon? Well...to some extent, sure. Above is a link (via DailyMotion, not YouTube, so I hope it works) to the famous Wil
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 23
- 2 min
Idiocracy Script
I remember an incident in gym class some time in elementary school. Good ol’ West Tisbury Elementary—and Pat Schofield, a nice woman who was the gym teacher forever. Her husband, Jay Schofield, was the gym teacher at the high school. Good folks. We were playing basketball. The ball bounced out of bounds. I chased it—and was mere feet away as it bounced up against the wall— Smack in the middle of a fire alarm— And, of course, triggered the fire alarm to go off. “Everybody line
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 22
- 3 min
House of the Dragon
I was barely even aware that the new Game of Thrones prequel was coming out already. I watched the premiere of House of the Dragon last night and, no surprise, it is beautifully made: great cast, stunning production. It reminded me why Game of Thrones was so beguiling in the first place: the combination of swords and sorcery with grounded, medieval brutality was like nothing we had ever seen. And yet the new show had a certain familiarity that made me think, “Not this again.”
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 21
- 1 min
Junket Delirium
This Sunday, please treat yourself to Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling losing their minds when surprised by an irreverent British talk-show host while promoting Blade Runner 2049 in 2017. Press junkets are so tedious, repetitive and ultimately preposterous that it’s like decades of frustration erupts into anarchy when they realize the woman cares even less than they do.
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 20
- 1 min
Farewell to Tom Palmer
The great comic book artist Tom Palmer has died at 80. I was an avid comic book reader in the mid-1980s, at the peak of the “Marvel Age”: when a new generation of creators was making amazing storylines, but before the 1990s collectibles lunacy imploded the business. One of the first books I consistently read was the Marvel Star Wars, and Palmer was the inker for pretty much all of the consequential issues in its glory days. Remember, between The Empire Strikes Back and Return
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 19
- 2 min
My Screenwriting Piece
Above is a random page—and I mean random, I just went to anyplace in the pdf—of Tony Gilroy’s script to The Bourne Supremacy. I DID NOT WRITE THIS! I wish I did. Gilroy is maybe my favorite screenwriter to read. His pages are like literature. Yesterday I finished a three-part piece with what I thought were some insights about screenwriting that would help aspiring writers. I was proud of it, but got cold feet when it came time to post...what if it’s wrong? That would be embar
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 18
- 7 min
The Secret to Screenwriting, Part 3
QUICK GUIDE: Secret of Screenwriting 1, 2 and 3. Misc. Tips 1, 2, 3, 4. When we left off, we were talking about coming up with a great CONCEPT... CONCEPT EXPRESSION Next comes the real magic. I never read about this, but to me it’s the single most important, confounding, but also exciting thing in screenwriting. That is, not just having a cool concept, but finding the particular EXPRESSION of it that truly works. This is the pinch point—not just for amateurs, but for everybod
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 17
- 5 min
The Secret of Screenwriting, Part 2
QUICK GUIDE: Secret of Screenwriting 1, 2 and 3. Misc. Tips 1, 2, 3, 4. THE ACTUAL METHOD (TO WRITING AN UNDENIABLE SCREENPLAY) If you want to write an undeniable screenplay, step one is accepting that (almost certainly) nothing in your portfolio is anywhere close to that level. So this means, most of the time, you need to write a new script from scratch. You might be able to take an existing script and rewrite it—but be prepared to change it so drastically that it might as w
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 16
- 5 min
The Secret of Screenwriting, Part 1
QUICK GUIDE: Secret of Screenwriting 1, 2 and 3. Misc. Tips 1, 2, 3, 4. I am a writer and filmmaker who has spent a lot of time and money to get to the cusp of barely breaking into this crazy business. I have learned a lot of things the hard way and would like to help others do it with less anguish and, ahem, money. This is not a sales pitch! I’m not selling a course or service. It is FREE advice, take it or leave it. There is no gimmick for being a professional screenwriter.
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 15
- 1 min
Paul Verhoeven Loves Columbo
I want to thank Jeff Bond who pointed out a Guardian piece by Paul Verhoeven, of all people, about the joys of watching Columbo. I completely agree! (UPDATE: Apparently this is not the RoboCop Paul Verhoeven, but a journalist with the same name. Use your middle initial, dude!) Not only that, but I discovered a 1978 performance by Falk, in character as Lt. Columbo, where he absolutely kills for 10 minutes at a roast of Frank Sinatra. Watch Dean Martin and Don Rickles in hyster
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 14
- 1 min
Illustrated Man Music Timing Notes
Did it ever feel like Jerry Goldsmith’s scores were so good, and sometimes the movies were so bad, that it was as if he was scoring a much better movie in his own imagination? In the old days...that’s sort of how all composers had to operate. No MIDI, no video playback. At best, they had a noisy flatbed editing machine to rewatch footage. For the most part, they worked off of timing sheets—like the above. This is from a page for The Illustrated Man, which I picked up in my tr
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 13
- 2 min
Hot Potato John Barry Homage
I only recently discovered a 2012 Guy Farley score to a 1960s-era caper comedy, The Hot Potato. I was listening to it cold (long story) and thought it was an actual piece of vintage 1960s film music. I had not heard of Guy Farley and thought, “Wow, this guy was really doing a John Barry act back then—why had I never heard of him?” (Is there not a more perfect 1960s English composer name than “Guy Farley”?) If you listen to the above—yeah, it’s The Ipcress File. (And The Knack
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Lukas Kendall
- Aug 12
- 1 min
Outlander–Space Seed
This is sort of funny. My wife and I have been watching Outlander. We affectionately call it “Hunky and Chickie.” Good show. There seems to be a lot of getting-captured-and-rescued. But we enjoy it, and we’ve even been able to turn off the subtitles (which helped with the Scottish accents). We reached the season three premiere where the above exchange happens. The sound is bad, but the dialogue is, “Go. Or stay. But please, do it because it’s what you really want to do.” Of c
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