action

Color me pleasantly surprised

Maximum Z action, adventure, characters, creativity, ideas, outlines, plot, screenwriting, story, subplot, westerns, writing
Totally wasn’t expecting that

Since figuring my way through the climactic portion of Act Three is still stressing out my creativeness, I did what any good writer would do in this situation: go back to the beginning and edit like a madman.  This will give my creative muscles a good workout while subconsciously working out the end.

Overall: the opening definitely needs some reworking, and there are a few places here and there that could stand a little adjustment, but for the most part – a lot more fun than I remember. Trying really hard not to sound egotistical, but I had to occasionally remind myself this was something I wrote.

Me.

Gosh.

Not working on this for so long enabled me to take a really good look at what I have so far. Interestingly, even though I knew what was coming, there was still a lot in there to make me want to keep going and see what happened next.

In all honesty, I’d also forgotten how much I wanted to utilize a lot of elements that make up the thrill-generating, pure adventurousness of the Western genre.  Those are definitely in there, with a lot of potential to be built up even more, but for now it’s all about the story. If that’s not rock-solid, then everything else is irrelevant.

The whole time I was looking this over, I found myself focusing less on ‘would it look cool on the big screen?’ factor, and more on making sure the characters were being proactive and realistically moving the story forward (especially the title character), and that each plotline was being established.  Maybe this is my brain quietly telling me my storytelling and writing skills are improving.

Something also very important to work on as this whole project moves forward – that the story grabs you from the start and doesn’t let go. But I suppose that should go without saying…

Thank you, gods of creativity – surefire hit #2!

Maximum Z action, adventure, animation, creativity, Disney, screenwriting, writing
Do you know how hard it is to find a picture of these guys looking badass?

After the debacle that was the recent THREE STOOGES feature, I’m not holding my breath for the studios to come a-runnin’ and embrace my much, much better idea.

But my muse has once more slapped me upside the head, resulting in…

A Disney cartoon version of DIE HARD set in the Magic Kingdom.  I know!  Brilliant, right?

Initial thoughts: The traditional Disney villains, tired of always losing, have taken over the park, and it’s up to Mickey, Donald and Goofy to save the day. Mickey as the John McClane-ish hero, Donald as his Justin Long-type sidekick (but without the whole computer angle), and Goofy as the Reginald VelJohnson cop.

Tell me the public wouldn’t flock to this. The possibilities are endless!

Why hasn’t anybody thought of this before?  It practically screams “MONEY-MAKING MACHINE!”

Disney execs, you know how to reach me.

When all else fails, go to DIE HARD – or – Thank you, John McClane

Maximum Z action, Die Hard, rewrite, screenwriting, story
An action film done right

Unusually busy this week, including initial prepping for a potentially huge project, so not much progress on the rewrite front.  I also feel like I’ve been ignoring LUCY, so I brought the trusty notepad to last night’s hockey practice in an effort to see what I could come up with.

I’m up to around the page 75 mark, and need to get to the end of Act Two.  The action and stakes have to be ramped up, and just about everything in that part of the initial outline wasn’t going to work.  Simply put, I’m starting over.  Sometimes that can be good and inspirational, but looking at that blank page didn’t help.

My good guys need to reconnect with the bad guys. The situation has to be progressively harder for them, with the title character driving things forward.  But how to make this happen?  Ding! The light bulb appears.  Pick ’em off, one by one, leading to the showdown in Act Three! That’s it! Wooo! And what better an example of this than DIE HARD?

*Side note – you gotta admit it’s incredibly cool that DIE HARD is now considered a Christmas classic, right up there with A CHRISTMAS STORY and IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE.  No holiday season should be without watching it.

While there have been numerous copies, some done right, some not, this is a great blueprint to follow for a solidly-constructed action story.  Hard to find any big flaws in it.

For an entertaining analysis/review, click here.

Now that I have an idea of how to move ahead, I can work out the details of how to break up each sequence into 2-3 scenes per scenario, all of which will lead into the “all is lost” moment at the end of Act Two.  I still have a few gaps to fill, but confidence is running high.

Gotta tell ya – feels pretty good to overcome a seemingly insurmountable obstacle.

Fasten your safety belts

Maximum Z action, Bill Murray, Movie of the Moment, mystery, outlines, rewrite, screenwriting
The Thunderbolt at Kennywood Park in West Mifflin, PA

After some nice progress on fixing problems at both ends of the first act, I ventured into Act Two and was able to make some good changes there as well.  A lot of on-screen action takes place, and I want to make sure it really grabs you and doesn’t let go until absolutely necessary.  I think I was able to do that, and made it to the midpoint as a reward.

I opted to stop at another point that’s been giving me trouble. My hope is that I’ll be able to get past that and continue on to at least the end of Act Two.

I’ve noticed when trying to convert a scene from the outline to the pages that it’s really easy to say in the outline what I want to happen, but things suddenly get a lot harder to translate into something on the page. I know in my head want I want to say, but have trouble getting it out the way I want to say it.

We’ll see how it goes.

-Movie of the Moment – THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO LITTLE (1997), a clever pseudo-homage to Hitchcock-style mysteries.

Bill Murray is a video store clerk who pays a surprise visit to his wealthy brother in London.  But the brother is hosting a dinner party to finalize ‘the biggest deal of his life’, so sends Bill off to an audience-interactive show, where scenes are played out throughout town.  But he intercepts a call meant for a secret agent, and follows the trail of clues, thinking the whole thing is part of the act.

Only got about halfway through it, but really looking forward to finishing it.

I was worried it would be more like WHAT ABOUT BOB?, but it’s actually smarter than you might think.  What’s really fun about it is how something is set up, followed by a payoff, but there’s also a twist in interpretation or context, thereby giving even more effectiveness to a well-structured double plotline: the one Bill sees as the theatre experience, and the one we the audience know is the actual secret agent storyline.

All that and Joanne Whalley’s gams.  What more could a film geek want?