antagonist

Good to be bad

Maximum Z antagonist, screenwriting
a good villain can make all the difference

Today’s progress involved finally introducing my antagonist .  A short scene, but moves things ahead on several levels.  But it was also fun to write.  Villains are always fun.

Reveling in a sense of overall wickedness.  Pursuing their own sinister goal, which they consider perfectly sensible. Adhering to their rules and morals, which may go against those of the rest of us.  The chance to tap into one’s dark side and let loose.

And if you can create a villain with depth and personality, all the better.

This all comes back to the recurring theme of pure, simple enjoyment. For me as the writer, having a blast during the process AND getting pages done.  And if the writing part is fun, then it doesn’t really seem like work.

For whoever reads the finished product, the feeling of entering a new and exciting world. Wondering what’s going to happen next. Getting swept up in the adventure-ness of it all.

That’s what I’m striving for.

Getting there

Maximum Z animation, antagonist, Black List, Christopher Nolan, Lucy Steele, Murder of a Cat, outlines, screenwriting

The rain returned today, which means I worked until noon, thereby depriving me of about 2 hours of script work time, so there wasn’t much progress today.

But there was at least some.  And it may be more significant than I realize.

My problem was I had this bad guy connected to Lucy’s past.  In fact, he plays a pretty significant role.  I was trying to inject him into the story in a certain way, but kept running into obstacles of one kind or another.  And it wasn’t working.  So I tried another approach, even though I was worried it might seem a little cliched.

But it works better within the story.  So I’ll keep it for now, and see how things develop around it.

It’s supposed to rain all week, so the overall progress may be somewhat limited.  But this latest development is encouraging.

-I finally got around to reading another Black List script: MURDER OF A CAT, by Christian Magalhaes and Robert Snow.  I’ll have more detailed comments tomorrow, but for the most part, I wasn’t that impressed.

Movie of the Moment: Watched DESPICABLE ME with V.  I enjoyed it.  It was clever, original and never condescending, which I always appreciate.  And probably the first time I could actually tolerate Russell Brand.

I always find the best animation to be in the vein of the old Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons.  At first they seem geared towards kids, but a lot of jokes are there for the adults.  Surprisingly, this wasn’t nominated for Best Animated Feature.  It probably wouldn’t win, but at least it could have been nominated.

I also managed to watch INCEPTION over 2 days.  I liked it, but I couldn’t help but keep hearing a co-worker’s comments throughout in that almost everything Ellen Page’s character asks is for the benefit of the audience. “What’s a kick?”, “Limbo?”, “Whose consciousness are we going into again?” and so on.

I especially liked the whole execution of the dreams within dreams part, and each one’s relation to the one it was set inside, which I guess really was the whole second half of the film.

More than once I was thinking “How did they do that?,” but my DVD from Netflix didn’t have any bonus features, so I don’t know how they pulled off any of the special effects.  I’m fairly certain the fight scene in the hotel hallway was similar to the space station in 2001, complete with a circular rolling set.

While the story was a little hard to follow in some parts, visually it was stunning.  Christopher Nolan is definitely one of a kind, and it makes me look forward to THE DARK KNIGHT RISES that much more.

-I applied to a potential short-writing gig.  Zombies are apparently involved, which are always fun.

Short post; big problem

Maximum Z antagonist, characters, LA Confidential, outlines

I realized what’s been bothering me about my main antagonist.  I haven’t fully figured out his goal.  I thought I did, but turns out I was wrong.

And until I do, I can’t move forward.

This is going to be tough.  But not impossible.  It’ll take some effort, but I’ve been down this path before.

Good thing I’m running into this now, during the outline process, rather than while writing actual pages.  That would suck even more.

Time to put the creativity into overdrive.

Stay tuned.

Quick Movie of the Moment: L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, which I was reminded of while reading THE GANGSTER SQUAD.  I stumbled upon it while channel surfing.  Damn, this is a finely executed piece of storytelling.  I still cry foul that this lost Best Picture to TITANIC.

There is so much packed into each scene, even the short ones.  It zooms by.  The first act alone is almost an entire story unto itself.  There are so many subplots throughout, each one connected to the others, and easy to follow.

I’m guessing this was supposed to be Guy Pearce’s breakout film, but the spotlight shone on a very young-looking Russell Crowe.

My only complaint: the Rollo Tamasi angle.  It seems a little too fabricated and Keyser Soze-ish to me.  But other than that, I really like this movie.