Jason Hellerman

1 week ago | nofilmschool.com | Jason Hellerman

When I'm not writing, I often try to relax and take my mind off work. Since movies and TV make up most of my life, my evenings are spent watching a lot of sports and stand-up comedy. Los Angeles is a great city for both. But with all the LA teams playing so well and tickets getting expensive, I frequently find myself at the Improv or the store ready to laugh. The more and more I watch stand-up, the more I think every writer should be turning out and doing the same.

1 week ago | nofilmschool.com | Jason Hellerman

The fires at the start of 2025 were devastating for Los Angeles in general and its dominant industry, film and TV. With houses and businesses burnt down, work was scarce as people put their lives back together. This was a bummer for many reasons, one of them being the fact that at the end of 2024, production in LA rose around 6%, which was a promising sign for 2025. But in the world, post-fires, numbers are down.

1 week ago | nofilmschool.com | Jason Hellerman

Fans of HBO's The Last of Us rejoiced on Sunday when the show returned for a triumphant second season. While the show briefly diverged from the game, it promises to stay true to adapting the story from the second game. Series co-creator Neil Druckmann and writer Halley Gross (who also co-wrote the game The Last of Us Part II) recently chatted with IndieWire, where they shed light on the adaptation process and what viewers might expect. Making a video game adaptation is hard in Hollywood.

1 week ago | nofilmschool.com | Jason Hellerman

Just the name Ernest Hemingway conjures up ideas about some of the best and most succinct writing of all time. But you can't compare yourself to legends. These pillars of writing are people just like us. They may not have sat in front of laptops with YouTube low-fi beats playing, but they had to pound out their ideas no matter what. In fact, Hemingway had a three-step exercise he used to crack ideas. And it wasn't sitting at home and hoping the words flow. It was getting out into the world.

1 week ago | nofilmschool.com | Jason Hellerman

There's something about a Michael Mann movie that you just want to swim in the images; They're so vibrant, so singular, they take you into worlds and then never let you go. You feel immersed. Today, I want to go over some of the big lessons you can get in writing and directing from watching those movies and see how they can help your career. Let's dive in. I actually had a pretty big Michael Mann blindspot until a few years ago, when my buddy Justin told me he was his favorite director.