I’ve been editing a hard copy of the first half of DREAMSHIP, and it’s so much easier than doing it on the laptop. Actually seeing what’s being cut, changed or moved around makes a really big difference.
And as predicted, at least one scene was completely cut, another was drastically shortened (necessarily so), and a majority have been tweaked in some manner. And I’m only up to page 24.
Sometimes while I’m out on a run, even though I’m listening to podcasts, I’ll still go over the story in my head. It’s actually quite helpful. I came up with the solution to two small subplot problems, but now need to figure out how to work them in in an effective, organic manner.
Fun stuff, believe you me.
Movie of the Moment – TANK GIRL (1995). Imagine a mega-hyperactive 5-year-old dressed in a punk rock thrift store wardrobe and armed with souped-up military hardware, then set it in the desert. That’s this movie. I think it was part of the mid-90s “let’s snatch up a semi-obscure comic book property and turn it into a movie!” mindset.
I’ve never read the comic, but this felt like they were trying too hard. It wasn’t a slog to get through, but it wasn’t fun either.
This is what I’d like to accomplish, writing-wise, between now and December 31st:
-Finish DREAMSHIP. Last week I entered Script Doctor Eric’s $3 Screenplay Contest AND hit the halfway point. Either way, it’ll get done.
-Finish the LUCY outline and at least 1-2 drafts of the actual script.
-Date and cost permitting, possibly go to a Pitchfest-type event. Any recommendations? Anti-recommendations? Nerdy as it sounds, I enjoy researching and targeting who would be a good fit.
-Seriously look into representation. I don’t see why this couldn’t happen.
-From a non-writing standpoint, do at least 2 half-marathons. I’m signed up for New Orleans and K’s planning on Portland. No idea what the other one(s) could be.
-Make baklava. So tasty and something I’ve always wanted to attempt. Fortunately, any mistakes can be taken to work because radio people are basically human piranha. They will eat just about anything, especially if it’s free and homemade.
-Movie of the Moment: HUGO (2011). V and I saw it at the Sundance Cinema in Japantown. Basically, this is Scorsese’s love letter to the early days of cinema. I thought it was charming and maybe a little long, but still had a fun time. The 3-D really added to it in some places, but the glasses were different in that you had to keep the middle of the lens focused on the screen or everything went all wobbly.
I thought it very odd that although it’s set in Paris, everybody has a British accent. To make it easier for American audiences to follow along? If you can get past that, it doesn’t become much of an issue.
Allow me a slight rant regarding my fellow moviegoers. I have no problem with paying a little more for a high-quality theater. And I think being able to select your seats is a great idea. But when you go into the auditorium and somebody’s in the seats you picked, then asked if they could move because they’re in our seats, and responds with “Does it matter?”, then I have to wonder how incredibly stupid and selfish they must be. If it didn’t matter, then we wouldn’t have picked our seats when we bought the tickets! That’s the whole point. But the show was about to start and I didn’t feel like getting into an argument, so we sat in the seats next to them, which I’m guessing were their seats. I hope the daggers I was staring at them really hurt.
It’s moments like these that make me think investing a couple of bucks in a nice home theater system might not be a bad idea.
Sometimes when you’re working on a story, you get into this groove or rhythm where everything seems to mesh together in just the right way that you experience what could possibly be described as the writer’s equivalent of a runner’s high. Before you realize it, you’ve completed X pages and time has passed in the blink of an eye.
This is one of those good things about the writing process. It really helps make up for the days where you get absolutely nothing done, or spend a lot of time accomplishing not much or something you’re not happy with.
Although I haven’t had a lot of time to write the past few days, when I have, the results have been quite exhilarating.
I’m inching my way through three separate storylines, each dancing around each other until they finally converge in one important story-changing moment.
It’s also forcing me to edit on the fly because my outline had a lot of scenes that went on longer than necessary, but as I work my way through the pages, I’m able to cut a lot of those down to scenes of 1-2 sentences, and maybe a line of dialogue. And each one is pushing the story ahead.
So overall, lookin’ good.
-Movie of the Moment, Two-fer edition: SUPER 8 (2011). I made sure to watch this at night so it recreated the theatre atmosphere. It helped. This was definitely a throwback to late 70s/early 80s Spielberg, and a lot of fun. Nothing fancy; good solid storytelling. It was also a refreshing change to have unknown actors in the kid roles, all of whom seemed well-suited to their characters.
Just two things I thought about during and after: 1. How were they able to drive off the military base? and 2. Why did the monster eat certain people but kidnap others?
I couldn’t help but wonder if this would have gotten made if JJ Abrams wasn’t involved. I was also thinking if the monster was going to look like the one in CLOVERFIELD, albeit much smaller.
And…THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN (2011). Also a Spielberg joint. We introduced V to the Tintin books last summer and she loves ’em. The plots may be a little over her head, but she seems to get the gist of it. She was quite psyched to see the movie.
Turns out she loved it. I also enjoyed it, maybe not to the same extent, and thought the writing was well-done (which it should be, especially with Moffat and Wright as 2 of the 3 writers). The action sequences were great and definitely kept things moving. As always, I liked how it didn’t talk down to the audience. The filmmakers assume you have a brain and can follow along with any hand-holding.
I didn’t have a problem with the motion-capture format, but wondered if this could have been done in the style of Herge’s art style. Though the 3-D may have been harder to pull off. It’ll be interesting to see if they move ahead with a sequel.
-Happy holidays to one and all. Here’s to writing success for everybody in 2012.
Despite a busier-than-usual weekend, I managed to crank out a kinda-sorta decent revised outline. It’s far from perfect, but hopefully the director will find it acceptable. When your subconscious is screaming at you to wake up and get to work, you tend to listen. Especially when you only have so much time to work with.
Sometimes a tight deadline can make you come up with things from completely out of nowhere. For a while I thought I was stuck, but took a step back, considered “how about…?” and out it came. It’s nice when your brain cooperates.
-This is the director I wrote a 10-minute short for last year. I got a pair of DVD copies of the finished film, but it’s also on YouTube here. Overall, not too bad for a first produced effort. Only problem is he cut out a key scene in the middle that really tied all the subplots together. He included it on one of the discs; I’ll see if I can post the entire film in the Portfolio section. Give it a look-see and let me know what you think; feedback is always welcome.
-I found another motivator to finish DREAMSHIP here. The logline always seemed like it was almost perfect; this is the chance to make it so and see how the script fares.
-Movie of the Moment – WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (1988) This was playing at the movie theatre I worked in after graduating high school. We were the only theatre playing it for what felt like the entire tri-county area, and had the crowds to show it. I’ve seen this more times than just about any other movie that doesn’t involve Jedi Knights or flying DeLoreans and can jump right in to any spot in the dialogue and follow along. Some of the luster and novelty has worn off, but it’s still a tight story and definitely told in an original way. It’s also better enjoyed in a theatre, rather than at home.
K suggested V and I watch it. One thing you should know about my child is that at the end of a busy day (i.e. school, or in this case day camp), she tends to slow down. Significantly. Not to the point of actually falling asleep, but darned close. She wasn’t as full of questions while we watched, but sometimes would ask why something was happening. I don’t think she has a full understanding of what constitutes a traditional cartoon, so a lot of the jokes and gags went right over her head. Maybe we’ll try again in a few years.
This post was originally going to be called “Sad Face” because I’d been struggling to get the outline for the short done before tonight, and didn’t think I was going to make it.
My original idea wasn’t panning out. The one after that was becoming too complicated. The more I tried to figure things out, the deeper my self-dug metaphoric hole of frustration was becoming. It got to the point that I was having dreams about it, and that’s just scary.
Would I have to accept the fact that I wasn’t going to make it? Well, maybe. But I wasn’t going down without a fight. I just needed that one spark of creativity to get me going again.
And that spark came to me in the shower, of all places. I already had a lot of the story elements in place. What if I tried a different approach in tying them all together? But how? How about if the question of what happened is an absolute unknown? That’s it! Brilliant!
Oh, wait. That sounds like THE HANGOVER. Okay. Don’t want to seem like I’m completely ripping that off. Maybe a variation on that.
And I was off. Two and a half hours of writing, editing, researching and double-checking later (occasionally saving to prevent heartbreak if it accidentally got erased), I had the outline for what I think is a pretty good story. It has now been happily sent to the director. I hope he likes it.
-Movie of the Moment. THE LOVE GURU (2008) aka The Movie That Almost Destroyed Mike Myers’ Career. Bad doesn’t even begin to describe it. Non-stop, rapid-fire jokes that aren’t funny. Despite a running time of 1 hour, 27 minutes, we zipped through it in about 45, and it still seemed too long.
This seemed like another case of a megastar project where nobody wanted to say ‘no’. How else to explain a Morgan Freeman vocal cameo, or Sir Ben Kingsley making an ass of himself?
Only high points: Stephen Colbert and Jim Gaffigan as hockey announcers. Sorry to say their scenes were the funniest parts.
If you value your time and sense of humor, DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE! And if this wasn’t proof that Myers has gone to the ‘throw every joke at the wall and see if anything sticks’ well more than once too often, I’d forgotten that there’s another Austin Powers movie in development.
I’ll do my best to rectify this situation with my next scheduled Netflix delivery: SUPER 8.
Maximum Z 