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Melva McLean

Writing Wrongs in Fiction

September 6, 2016 by Melva McLean | 1 Comment on Writing Wrongs in Fiction

Last month, Paul Cipywnyk wrote here about plausibility and continuity in novels. But what about in screenwriting? Realistic, plausible details and continuity are equally — sometimes more — important on screen, but it can be challenging to ensure them. Now, it doesn’t matter what you’re writing about or in what time period — the research […]

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Movie Review: Genius

July 12, 2016 by Melva McLean | 4 Comments on Movie Review: Genius

Genius is a movie about the relationship between writer Thomas Wolfe and editor Maxwell Perkins and is based primarily on A. Scott Berg’s biography, “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius” (Riverhead Trade). Perkins worked for Charles Scribner’s Sons for over 30 years. Like Canada’s Ellen Seligman, Perkins was an exacting editor. Like Seligman, his meticulous attention […]

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It’s Our Turn at the Box Office

August 4, 2015 by Melva McLean | 2 Comments on It’s Our Turn at the Box Office

It’s called Genius, and it stars Colin Firth, Jude Law and Nicole Kidman. Due for release just before Christmas (and award season), the film, touted as “the bio-pic of the year,” is about a book editor.  Yup. You read that correctly. An editor. Colin Firth plays Charles Scribner’s Sons fiction editor Maxwell Perkins in a […]

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The Envelope, Please

January 16, 2014 by Melva McLean | 7 Comments on The Envelope, Please

I was at a film event the other night, and someone asked, “So what do you do for a living?” I, of course, answered, “I’m an editor.” They asked, “What movies have you worked on?” It happens all the time. But the other night, for the first time, someone asked me if I saw any […]

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Continuity in Film and Fiction

June 4, 2013 by Melva McLean | Leave a Comment

Movies are usually shot in location order, not narrative order, which makes physical continuity important. Last week I was watching my favourite crime show, and the female lead wore a blue shirt in an interrogation scene. The camera caught the cop’s dialogue in close up, then cut to a close up of the bad guy, […]

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LIGHTS, CAMERA, ACTION: A Book Editor in the Land of Cinema

December 4, 2012 by Melva McLean | Leave a Comment

(The first in a series on working as an editor in the film industry.) In 1966, my older sister snuck me into the Windsor Theatre to see an R-rated movie, A Man and Woman, starring Anouk Aimée as a script girl and Jean-Louis Trintignant as a car racer. After that, whenever someone asked me what […]

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