Buster Keaton

Striding boldly into Phase Two

Maximum Z Buster Keaton, comedy, I Love Lucy, JRR Tolkien, parenting, podcasts, representation, screenwriting, script, slapstick, writing ,
Might as well make it a nice-looking door, right?
Might as well make the way in look nice, right?

I had to work New Year’s Day, starting at 5am. It wasn’t as bad as you might think.

It meant holiday overtime (always nice), the roads were extremely quiet, so there was a lot of downtime, which provided me with the opportunity I was hoping for: to hack and slash my way through the script, cutting out anything unnecessary.  Turns out there was about ten pages’ worth, including an excessive amount of adverbs.

But it’s all gone now, and the script is that much better for it. Tighter, smoother, a faster read.  114 pages of potential cinematic goodness.

The professional feedback will have to wait for now, but notes from trusted colleagues are proving to be just as helpful.

Apart from a few tweaks, this script could officially be considered READY TO GO.  A minor celebration will be held in the form of a trip to the comic book store.

The next few weeks will be split between researching and contacting potential reps and continuing the fine-tuning of the western outline (gotta keep the creativeness going).

-Awaiting delivery of my equipment to get the podcast up and running, so add contacting potential guests to the aforementioned list.  More details as they develop.

-Movie of the Moment – THE HOBBIT (2012). Enjoyable, but way to0 long. Why exactly did they feel this had to be a trilogy? Two movies would have been fine.  This is not the epic tale that LOTR is, and suffers for it.

Saw it with V. She liked it, and was genuinely surprised at the end because she thought it would be a single, self-contained story. She’s already stated her interest in seeing the next one. I can’t help but wonder how much Smaug will be featured in Part 2, and Benedict Cumberbatch doing the voice is an added bonus.

-V was also off for winter break, so there’s been a lot of crashing/vegging out in front of the TV. I’m happy to say she’s outgrown some of the inane kids programming she used to watch, and has discovered I LOVE LUCY. It’s easy to see why this still holds up today. She’s already watched the Vitameatavegamin episode three times, laughing hysterically each time. HuluPlus only provides parts of each season, so we’ll have to try Netflix to track down the candy factory episode.

When your 21st century child develops an appreciation for Buster Keaton and Lucille Ball, you must be doing something right.

Show. Don’t tell

Maximum Z Buster Keaton, screenwriting, silent films
A feast for the eyes. In a good way.

One of the most important rules of screenwriting, yet lots of writers have trouble putting it into effect.

The organizer of my first writing group always suggested writing each scene so the audience would have an idea what was going on if the sound went out.  Not easy to pull off, but it is possible.

I got my first taste of silent films in high school. We watched Griffith’s BIRTH OF A NATION and Buster Keaton’s THE GENERAL, which remains one of my all-time favorites.  It was on the other day on Turner Classic Movies. We caught the second half. V loved it.

*Side story – Earlier this year, I posted on TriggerStreet looking for help with my original logline for LUCY, describing it as combining THE GENERAL and THE SEARCHERS. Somebody commented that they’d never heard of either. I want to say I was shocked, but reminded myself not everybody has my kind of appreciation for older films.

It’s oh-so-gratifying to listen to V laugh her head off while we watch these. I like Chaplin, but Keaton is an underappreciated genius.  Last summer, we finally got around to catching some of Harold Lloyd’s work, including SAFETY LAST (the one with the clock face, which was okay), THE FRESHMAN and THE KID BROTHER, which is a masterpiece.

What’s great about silent films is that apart from the dialogue cards, everything else is told visually, so it’s easy to follow along.  The actors, with only their bodies and facial expressions, convey what’s happening.  The Silent Era was especially effective for newly-arrived immigrants who spoke no English. They understood what was going on.

When I write a scene, I try to make it as visual as possible so it’s more than just somebody talking.  This goes beyond describing what we see in a physical sense, but how a character acts or is reacting.  I’m also working on punching up this kind of writing so it doesn’t read or sound boring.

Some writers make the mistake of describing something that can’t be seen, such as what a character is thinking.  I’ve also heard this labeled as “How do we know?”  You may describe somebody as reflecting on their past, but if we’re watching the film, all we see is a person sitting there, doing nothing.  HOW DO WE KNOW they’re reflecting?

Get the idea?