movies

Our campouts were never like this

Maximum Z analysis, Black List, Boy Scouts vs Zombies, characters, comedy, horror, movies, screenwriting, story, zombies

Finally got to read BOY SCOUTS VS ZOMBIES, a horror comedy that ranked on the Black List.

The concept: A troop of Boy Scouts on their weekend camping trip must protect an island town after a zombie outbreak and save the local girl scout troop.

Personally, I’m getting a little tired of the whole zombie thing (although ZOMBIELAND was fun), this sounded interesting.  Seeing as how I was a Boy Scout (big surprise, right?), I wanted to see what the writers, Carrie Evans and Emi Mochizuko, would do with it.

First and foremost: A really fast read.  I zipped through this thing in about 90 minutes.  The whole thing really moves along.

I was also surprised how just about all the characters veer into stereotypes. The somewhat bland main character who’s too shy to tell the girl he likes her, the too-cool friend, the fat slob other friend, the mama’s boy, the overenthusiastic scoutleader, and so on.

It was a little difficult keeping track of all the characters, especially since the first half really focuses on the boys, then really adding the girls into the mix around halfway.  It was also pretty easy to tell which characters were going to be the token redshirts.

Once it settled into ‘will they survive or won’t they?’ mode, I was trying to figure out which characters would be the surprise death.  Surprisingly, that didn’t happen.

And the subplot about the top-secret lab where the whole thing starts seems to disappear after they decide to send out the commandos to neutralize the situation.  Some kind of follow-up would have been nice.

I’d also like to add that technically, the zombies here are the “infected with a virus that simulates zombie-like characteristics” type rather than the truly living dead.  This seems to be the go-to reasoning behind a lot of recent zombie stories.  I guess that’s easier than figuring out how to really raise the dead.  George Romero used radiation, so why not something similar?  But I digress.

Some of the jokes fell a little flat, but there were a handful that made me laugh out loud.  I especially liked the line after one girl turns zombie and tries to eat her friends, one says “Jenny! No! You’re a vegan!”  I also liked how even as everything around them is going to hell, the scouts try to take care of things via the Scout Handbook.  Again, I’m biased.  I don’t know if the guys in my troop would have been able to keep their heads like this.

I wasn’t crazy about when the wide margins would say something about the characters that should really come across in their actions and dialogue (“Matt’s dad has great expectations for his son, and they don’t involve fat slackers and comic books.”)  I always thought this sort of thing was frowned upon, but these two writers were in Disney’s Writing Program, so maybe there are exceptions.

I also wasn’t sure about the idea that a zombie can do the same things they did when they were alive, like a rock climber who turns into a zombie remembers how to climb a cliff.  It seems a little weak.

I really think with a little tweaking here and there, this thing could be fantastic.  It’s already been picked up for production, so it’ll be interesting to see what they do with it.

Would I pay to see it in the theatre?  Probably not.  But I’d definitely put it in the Netflix queue.

This is my last post for 2010, and since I haven’t seen that many movies in the theatres this year, I don’t have a list of my top 10 picks.  I’m just happy to be able to watch so many good flicks, and still plan on my own stuff being part of that someday.

Have a great 2011, and feel free to drop a note once in a while.

p.s.  Almost forgot.  If you’d like to take a look at any of these scripts, let me know and I’ll forward it to you.

And that was the easy part!

Maximum Z Harry Potter, movies, outlines, plot, Richard Curtis, screenwriting, story, train, westerns

I must have gotten more done on the first act of LUCY last week than I thought, because I didn’t have to spend much time on it today, and for the most part, it’s done.

Hooray for me.

While I’m extremely happy with the way everything’s working out so far, I’ve also been mulling over what happens in Act Two, aka the vast wasteland.

It is somewhat daunting to be starting on the bulk of the story, which is why I’m really glad to be fine-tuning everything now.  I can figure out what works and what doesn’t.  I’m also really glad I set up those plot point milestones, which will help me get where I want to go.  That western and train checklist has also come in handy.

I’ve started plotting out what happens as Act Two gets underway, but still need a plausible way to get to my page 45 twist.  Somewhere in there I’d like to introduce my bounty hunter character (and I already have his name ready).  What would be even cooler is to somehow tie him in to what we’ve already seen, but I think I can do that too.

Movie of the Moment:  I took V to see HARRY POTTER 7 yesterday.  A little long, but seems like a nice start to wrapping the whole thing up.  I remember when the book came out, a reviewer commented on “HP and the never-ending camping trip.”  Which was on full display.  Despite the occasional question (“What did he say?,  What does that mean?, etc”), V seemed really enjoy it.  I’m sure we’ll see part 2 next summer.

There was also the requisite GREEN LANTERN trailer, which V was very excited about.  I am also guilty about that, despite Ryan Reynolds still being better for the part of Barry Allen rather than Hal Jordan.  But that’s what they get for not asking me.

I did watch PIRATE RADIO earlier today.  It was a blast.  I didn’t realize Richard Curtis wrote and directed it; he wrote FOUR WEDDINGS & A FUNERAL, NOTTING HILL and wrote and directed LOVE, ACTUALLY.  After I learned that, I could see similarities between some of the films.  Multi-character storylines with one main character tying the whole thing together.  And he collaborated with Rowan Atkinson on some of the later Blackadders, so you know his comedy skills are top-notch.

But getting back to PIRATE RADIO.  Lots of funny stuff, most of it possibly true, and just a fun story.  It also had the requisite happy ending, but I won’t say how.  Suffice to say, what led up to it was unexpected, but it all fit together very nicely.

So long, rules!

Maximum Z adventure, jobs, movies, outlines, plot, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Roger Corman, screenwriting, story

One of the first things I learned about screenwriting was when something had to happen.

Page 3 is statement of theme.  Page 10 is your inciting incident, and so on and so on.

I mention this because today was about reinforcing what I already have for the first act.  I opted to start with my thrilling opening sequence.  All I had written down was ‘rousing action sequence,’ which really doesn’t grab you.  So I jotted down some notes about what I wanted to happen and got to work.

After a few false starts, it started to come together.  I keep going back to RAIDERS, with Indy and Alfred Molina in the temple, followed by the escaping-the-natives/introducing-Belloq sequence.  So much info and detail about each character in a space of minutes. Incredible!  Could I pull off the same feat?  Maybe.

It’s a little different when your main character is a train engineer.  What can they do besides drive a train?  One of many things I had to figure out.  But then the mental reminder that this is still the first outline, so things will change down the line.  But for now, she can drive a train and is pretty good with a gun.

As I worked on ramping up the conflict, I couldn’t help but notice that this was growing well beyond the original 3-page limit I had set up.  It was reaching at least 6.  Possibly 7.  And all of that would really mess up having the inciting incident on page 10.  Yikes!

But the more I thought about it, the less it mattered.  I was trying to have a thrilling introduction to my main character (plus her sidekick), and if it went beyond 3 pages, then so be it.

I’m also trying to figure out how to end the whole sequence.  I have a pretty good idea of what it will be.  It’s working out the details that’s the hard part.

-Something somebody at the writing group said last week also struck a nerve, and I’m really glad I wrote it down:  What’s at stake if Lucy fails?

This has been bothering me ever since.  What WILL happen?

What I have now under the ‘what she wants’ label is: to catch the real thieves.  Which is okay, but seems like it should be bigger.  Something a lot of people can relate to.

Again, working out the details is pain in the butt.

No Movie of the Moment tonight, but we did watch the original DEATH RACE 2000 the other night.  Wow, was that cheesy.  Once you suspend disbelief about everything going on, there are some funny moments.  Unfortunately those were few and far between.

As K pointed out, it was more interesting during the race and less when they were off the road.  Interesting early performance from Stallone.

All things being equal, we may put the Jason Statham-starring one on our Netflix queue.  For purely academic curiosity, of course.

That’s more like it

Maximum Z adventure, movies, outlines, plot, Sherlock Holmes, Star Wars, story

After spending more time worrying about whether or not I’d make progress with the LUCY outline, I managed to punch out a good portion of the first act over the past 2 days.

My mantra for the time being is ‘just keep going!’  What I have now is chock-full of action and excitement, and while it was supposed to end around page 17, it doesn’t.  And I feel oddly fine with that.

Of course, the group may have something to say about that on Sunday, but that’s okay too.  I doubt they’ll be too much in a snit about it, anyway.

As always, this is still a rough draft of the outline and will need a lot of work when it’s done, but it was a great feeling of excitement being able to write like this again.  Thinking of a scenario, plotting it out, making it sure it’s logical and realistic, while also inserting the fantastic into it to make it cinematic.

Boiled down to one statement: It’s what I live for.

And tomorrow, I get to do it again.

The weird thing is as I make progress, the way the story is developing keeps changing.  While I work on the story, I have to try and stay on track in terms of keeping it along what I want it to be.  It feels like it would be too easy to let the events drive what happens, but I have to really make sure I stay in control.  I hate when I don’t.

But as long as I know where it it I want to go, it should be fine.

Tomorrow – the push towards the end of Act One.

Movie of the Moment: not a movie, but a fantastic show from the BBC.  SHERLOCK, the incredibly re-imagining (a word I hate) of Holmes and Watson in modern London, courtesy of Stephen Moffat (spelling?), who was also a big part of the relaunching of Doctor Who.

The writing is crisp, the acting is great.  Overall, mind-blowingly great.  It is such a pity that American writers can’t be this good.  American TV would be an entirely different animal if they could.  Thank God the British have such higher standards.

-As part of her birthday, I took V and a friend to see MEGAMIND.  It was also well-done and a lot of fun.  I also got to thinking about how kids movies today are so much better then when I was that age.  All we had back then were crappy Disney movies.  At least until STAR WARS came along.

Then it all changed.

Slow, steady and all that

Maximum Z birthday, comic books, movies, outlines, plot, screenwriting, story, Uncategorized

No post yesterday because I was completely spent.  Wiped.  Totally pooped.  There wasn’t much to write about anyway, since I didn’t get to do any writing.

Today, which also happens to be my birthday, saw a little progress on LUCY.

I tightened up the first 10 pages, and am now moving on into that 10-17 range.  I have to keep reminding myself that everything is still in the ‘putting together’ phase, and not to stress out about it.

It’s easy to forget that this is one of the harder parts of the whole process.  Almost a ‘throw everything at the wall and see what sticks’ method.  Seeing what works and what doesn’t.

Most of all, I can’t get discouraged.  That would be too easy, but it’s also not an option.

Movie of the Moment:  I finished THE LOVELY BONES earlier today. I watched it over the course of three days.  At 2:10, it probably could have been about 20 minutes shorter and still worked.

I liked the concept, but there was a little too much ‘Hey, check this out’ in terms of what was going on with the dead girl in the afterlife.  Also a lot of expository narration and odd metaphoric images.

I didn’t read the book, so can’t compare them.  The subplot about the mother running away didn’t really seem to accomplish much, and it’s a shame they wasted Susan Sarandon in such a comedic way.  I do recall Stanley Tucci was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and I guess that works.  His character is really creepy, but I don’t know if it warrants a nomination.

SUPERMAN is on Encore, and Glenn Ford just died. How can you not get choked up at that?  But in the scene where Clark tells his mom he’s leaving, Phylis Thaxter’s makeup looks awful and unrealistic.

That being said, this really is an outstanding template for what a comic book movie should be like.  Too bad Bryan Singer blew it with SUPERMAN RETURNS.  Man, that was boring.