Split Screen is an irreverent, sly magazine format show which takes an inside look at the tremendous diversity of filmmaking in the United States. Created, written and hosted by long-time producer/talent scout John Pierson, this half-hour series breaks through all the highbrow stuff to illustrate why independent moviemaking is so much fun. Pierson travels all over the country with noted filmmakers, many of whom he helped discover and wrote about in his recent book Spike, Mike, Slackers & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema, and talented unknowns, some of whom will comprise the next wave.

On Split Screen you will see:

  • Spike Lee admit he believes half of what he says.
  • Kevin Smith forget the price of milk at the Quick Stop convenience store where he shot Clerks.
  • Roger Ebert suggest that after Sundance, Slamdance, and Slumdance the next festival in Utah should be called Shitdance.
  • John Lurie go ice fishing with Willem Dafoe.
  • a young filmmaker crash his car to collect the insurance to finance his film while another wannabe repeatedly smashes his lead actor's head through an unyielding cabinet door.
  • Bob the Mailman deliver undiscovered film gems like Direction "Bam" Man.
  • an inexplicably popular screenwriting teacher explain his "brainstorming computer."
  • John Waters confess that he never got over the vomit bag given out at the drive-in where he first saw Herschell Gordon Lewis' Blood Feast.
In short, Split Screen is the place where the independent film elite and offbeat meet.



Disclaimer: Do not send scripts! We won't read them because we don't produce films from the script stage.

© 1997-1998 Grainy Pictures, Inc.