Author: Maximum Z

Still going strong

Maximum Z Movie of the Moment, My One and Only, Netflix, rewrite, screenwriting
Yeah. Kind of like that...

Except for the very last scene, I’ve made it through a revamped outline of Act One.  I know I’ve said this before, but the scenes really do seem to move along at a somewhat brisker pace.  I also noticed how a lot of extra, unnecessary action has been cut.

There’s always this feeling of…accomplishment when I rewrite something in a completely different way. Not only does it still work, but it works better.  That’s kind of how it feels with this.

The goal now is to get the actual pages done, which may not take as long as I think. At least that’s how it seems.

Since I’m working extended shifts this week and next, my “get it done at work” mode has been severely inhibited.  I’ll try to make some progress with tightening things up for at least the first half of Act Two during that time. My editing hat sits at the ready.

-Movie of the Moment – MY ONE AND ONLY, a drama about well-tanned actor George Hamilton’s mother, before he was famous. K put this on our Netflix queue, but I had heard about it.  Renee Zellweger plays the lead, and does a formidable job portraying a beautiful woman past her prime who leaves her philandering bandleader husband (played by a leathery-faced Kevin Bacon), and takes her two teenage sons across the country, looking for a husband, or at least somebody to support her financially.

For such a specific story that you know has a happy ending (George becomes an actor), it was the literal journey the characters took that was so interesting.  For the most part, they work their way west from New York to Los Angeles, stopping wherever there may be a chance for help.  Throughout it all, Zellweger keeps the mother’s attitude positive, despite the obviousness of how desperate she’s becoming.  It was nice to see her really work her acting muscles.

Although this looked like a small production, there were several well-known actors in small parts, primarily those of the mother’s potential suitors.  Even more interestingly, the real George Hamilton never appears whatsoever. But there is a line of dialogue soon after they get to LA where George is told to get to the beach and get some sun because he’s so pale. I couldn’t help but wonder if that was intentional.

So much better

Maximum Z Captain America, Movie of the Moment, rewrite, screenwriting
sometimes it's necessary...

After some intense plotting and structuring, I re-tooled the opening scenes of DREAMSHIP so it focuses more on my protagonist.  Using the concept of as few descriptive words per scene as possible in the outline, I was able to produce a completely different yet more functional first three pages today.

I really like how they turned out.

I had to keep reminding myself that how events developed in the previous draft was not written in stone. I could knock the whole thing down and rebuild, this time letting myself feel free and uninhibited, and put it together so the end result is not only better, but significantly so.  It felt great.

I’ve got everything up to around page 16 plotted out, and may alternate between writing pages and moving ahead on the revamped outline to the end of the first act.

Believe me, this is very exciting stuff.

-Movie of the Moment – CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER. Loved it! SOOO much better than GREEN LANTERN. A real popcorn adventure story.  I really liked how it never talked down to the audience.  Just a well-written superhero movie.

I couldn’t help but think that this is what director Joe Johnston was hoping for when he did THE ROCKETEER back in 1991. Wow! 20 years ago. Boy, do I feel old.

I was concerned that some parts might be too scary or intense for V, but she was a real trouper throughout. She really liked it.

Getting back to the Green Lantern comparison,CAP took the concept and really ran with it.  There was no blatant hitting you over the head with the hero’s character flaw. Maybe it helped that this had two writers, while GL had four (some of which were from TV, which also didn’t help).

Two added bonuses – loved the post-tease AVENGERS tease. Hopefully Whedon knocks this one way out of the park. The other was the silent reference to the original Human Torch at the World’s Fair. V asked what I was chuckling about, but there was no time to explain.  Maybe I’ll get around to it some other time.

Summer movie season seems to be winding down, so all that seems to remain is COWBOYS & ALIENS and RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES.  Would like to see the former in theatres, but will probably see the latter at home.

Time won’t let me

Maximum Z Harry Potter, screenwriting, scriptshadow
>Insert time pun here<

I may have overcome my opening pages dilemma. I thought things through, figured out what I needed to show, and took it from there. It’s different than what it was before, and I think a little stronger this time around.

I’ve been working a split shift this week (4:30-9am, then 3-6pm), so my available writing time has been short. As you can imagine, there just hasn’t been much time to work on my own stuff.  Sure, this will push back my target end date, but that’s just the way it is.

On that note, I read this earlier today.

I paid particular interest to his comment that he set about writing eight hours a day, seven days a week as he could manage.

Wow.  I wish I had that kind of time available to write, but I don’t.  I don’t know if he ever got out of the house or spent all his off-the-job-time writing.  I can’t do that. Not because I don’t want to, but I have other stuff that needs to get done.

I really hope this doesn’t come across as sounding whiny or jealous. I may be a little jealous of his success, but not in a “why this guy and not me?” way; more of a “that’s great; hope that’s me someday” way.

I wish I could get more writing done each day, but for now, I work with my schedule and just do the best I can.

-V and I saw HARRY POTTER PT 2 last night. It was fun, but don’t feel like I need to go out of my way to see it again.  Maybe the next time it’s on TV. I’m also feeling a little burned out by the whole series. I read the books, which I really hope V will be motivated to actually read herself someday, and we own the first 6 films, which have been watched many, many times.

V grabbed my arm tightly a few times during the more intense parts, but she enjoyed it.

It was hard not to think about JK Rowling and how she came up with all of this. Really impressive. I’m almost tempted to skim through some of the later books again.

Almost.

Round peg, square hole, etc

Maximum Z 13 Assassins, Movie of the Moment, rewrite, screenwriting, Takashi Miike
Fit, damn you!

I honestly didn’t expect rewriting the first ten pages to be this frustrating.  Trying to set up the whole story in a different way than the previous version, which is more or less solidly planted in my mind, is much harder than I originally anticipated.

I jotted down some potential scenes that would work with how I want things to go. Some of them seem pretty good, but after I write them down, I wonder what the hell I was thinking.

It’s also an effort to try to incorporate story elements into these scenes that will pay off later. Always important.

Once I come up with scenes that I not only like, but feel best show the sequence of events, I’m really hoping the rest of it falls into place.  But for now, I still work on setting the whole thing up.

It’ll happen.  I’m just impatient about wanting to move on.

-Movie of the Moment – 13 ASSASSINS by Takashi Miike. Imagine the Seven Samurai (plus six) assigned with the top secret mission of liquidating the Shogun’s psychotic brother.

Not as gory as I’d been led to believe, especially considering Miike’s background, but a genuinely rousing samurai adventure story.

My only complaint – a little hard keeping track of some of the title characters. A few are more prominent than the others, so it’s easy to follow their stories. The rest? Not so much.

Apart from that, just a lot of fun. Apparently his next film is called NINJA KIDS, about pre-tweens learning how to be ninjas. I hope it’s family-friendly. V would probably love it.

Probably a good thing

Maximum Z Back to the Future, rewrite, screenwriting

It has been crazy-busy around our house the past few days, so writing activity was basically nil.

But even though I got the first three pages done since earlier this week, I noticed something rather important: they’re not what I need.

Since the story revolves around this one character, the way the story’s written now, it focuses on somebody else. Not the way I want it to go.

Imagine BACK TO THE FUTURE starting with scenes about Doc, rather than Marty. Sure, Doc plays an important part of the story, but the story ISN’T ABOUT HIM.

So now it’s back to the drawing board to at least reset the way it starts. It shouldn’t be that hard.

Then I get back to moving forward.