The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now #337 -- Moving Pictures

Do you ever draw inspiration from movies, and 

if so, which ones have most inspired your writing?

Since this was the topic for the roundtable, I guess it's my turn to answer it now.

Lots of movies have influenced the way I write. Among them:

• The opening shot in Hitchcock's Rebecca is my standard for establishing shots in comic book writing. I almost always refer to it when working with artists I've not collaborated with before.
• The use of angles and POV for the camera in the movies Citizen Kane and Peeping Tom. These are the pinacles of what can be done with distance and with closing the distance to the extreme close ups. Again, these influenced the way I write comics.
• The dialog in almost any Tarantino flick, but particularly in Reservoir Dogs. It sings, plain and simple. Neither Carver nor Hemingway could have done better with people talking around the things actually on their minds.
• And believe it or not, The Rocky Horror Picture Show influenced me to not limit my choices for what happens next. Because of that movie, I'm far more open to left field choices when I plot.

And there you have it.