Hi Gang. Craig here again, breaking rules left and right. I’m surprising my colleagues today, because I’m supposed to pick apart a book cover. We have assignments on Fridays, and I don’t feel like it today.

We can learn a lot from covers, but I think that knowledge is finite. We’ve talked before about the rule of thirds, the S curve, and other visual elements. Besides, I have something else I want to talk about today.

I rewatch a lot of movies with an author’s eye. In other words, I dissect them to learn things. This got me to thinking some of you might appreciate bits of what I look for. Films are like the Cliff’s Notes of stories. A lengthy work is depicted in a short time frame on the big screen.

A few weeks ago I re-watched Sherlock Holmes. This is the 2009 version with Robert Downey Jr…