outlines

That’s almost that

Maximum Z Dreamship, Eating Raoul, Fido, Movie of the Moment, outlines, rewrite, screenwriting, zombies

Except for a few tweaks and added-in details, I think the latest outline is done. Still not entirely sure the last few scenes are a little rushed, but for the most part, I like what I’ve got.

Looking at all that text makes me wonder if I tightened this thing up that much, if at all.  But my initial overall feeling is it’s better than it was before.

I’ve also been wondering about some of the set-up scenes; are they good enough?  Do they explain enough? Will the reader be able to follow along?  I’ve been guilty of writing with information the reader may not have, so I’ll have to be careful about that.

Because I think it may be time to move on to the next level:

Pages. Which I’m pretty excited about.

My s.o.p. in the past has been at least 3 pages a day. Seems doable.

Ideal situation – done by the end of August/Labor Day. Again, seems doable.

Into the abyss.

Movie of the Moment  – K and I watched FIDO, a much better-than-expected zombie flick from about 5 years ago. Imagine WWII was against zombies, and they lost. Now the living dead are outfitted with collars inhibiting their flesh-eating tendencies, so now they function in society as a kind of subservient, manual labor.

This particular story is about a loser kid who at first treats the family’s new zombie as a pet (hence the title), but soon kind of sees him as a sort of surrogate father.

Set in a well-presented 50’s setting, the film takes the subject seriously but adds equal amounts of camp.  Not as gory as you would think, but an interesting take on a subject near and dear to K’s heart.

Added bonus – comedian Billy Connolly in the title role.  He never says a word, apart from the standard grunts and growls, so his acting is all expression. Very impressive.

-I started watching EATING RAOUL, which I remember Siskel & Ebert reviewing way back when on Sneak Previews, which aired on WHYY in Philadelphia.

I knew Paul Bartel co-wrote and directed, but had only seen clips, and even those were a long time ago.

Even though I’m about halfway through, everything so far has been freakin’ hilarious. Extremely dated, especially with the whole swingers lifestyle subplot, but just a smart little comedy that still generates laughs.  Can’t wait to finish it.

-Still don’t know if I’ll get to X-MEN or SUPER 8 in theatres. I’ll try, but looks like they may be sentenced to Netflix while HARRY POTTER and CAPTAIN AMERICA get closer.

Benefit of working ridiculously early hours – catching the first show of the day at the local AMC theatres. ticket price – $6! Makes my bought-at-Walgreens-and-smuggled-in M&Ms taste that much better.

Been down this road before

Maximum Z Movie of the Moment, outlines, rewrite, screenwriting, True Grit, westerns
Seeking out the right road to a workable outline

It’s been a busy past couple of days, including lots of work on that other thing I’ll reveal next week, as well as more work on the rewrite.

Good news on the latter – hit the end of Act Two today.  Looking at the previous draft, Act Three needs to be severely streamlined. Way too much going on.  I don’t think it’ll be too hard.

I’ve been making a point of trying to make sure everything ties together. Seems to be working so far.

*side note – didn’t get to the movies at all this week, due to all the above-mentioned work.  Still hoping to catch X-MEN, SUPER 8 and GREEN LANTERN in theatres before it’s too late.*

I don’t know how much I’ll get done over the next week, since we’ll be visiting K’s family back East (as well as reclaiming custody of the two-weeks-absent Ms V).  I always bring my notes and notebook in an attempt to work on the plane.  Sometimes it’s productive.  Hoping that’s the case this time.

As long as I have an outline I’m happy with by the time we return.

Movie of the Moment – TRUE GRIT. I knew there was another Best Picture nominee I wanted to see.  This was it.  And it should have won. Hands down.

I loved it, despite being a sucker for a quality Western.  Phenomenal writing by the Coen Brothers. Excellent acting by all three leads, especially Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld.  I saw the John Wayne version years ago.  This is just so much better.  Easily re-watchable.

Wheeeee!

Maximum Z Dreamship, outlines, screenwriting

It’s amazing how accomplishing just a little bit more than you originally anticipated can make you feel pretty darned good. That sums me up quite nicely today.

I’m working on the third section of Act Two, between the midpoint and the page 75 twist. I have a target amount of about 18 scenes, with 13 or so being the current tally.  What’s great about this is not only do I remember some of what happened in the previous draft, but without those actual pages in front of me, it’s a lot easier to pick and choose from that and keep what I think still works.

And I can’t explain why, but it’s also getting easier for me to figure out how to raise the stakes in each scene.  Almost as if I remember what I had before, but now I’m able to take the underlying question – how can this be harder for my hero? – and really run with it.  In all honesty, I’m having a blast.  Color me giddy.

It would be great to finish Act Two by the end of the week, but I think I’ll be happy with what I have no matter what the result.

-Still working middays, so still too pooped to watch anything.  Expecting to resume the usual routine next week.

Feedback, Inc.

Maximum Z outlines, rewrite, screenwriting, writing gigs

I’m really proud of how the end of the first half of Act Two developed today. I managed to make my hero more proactive, which was somewhat of a problem in the previous draft.  I like how things are progressing.  Tomorrow – moving beyond the midpoint! Whoo!

-Despite wanting to put it off, I bit the bullet and told my rewrite client what I thought of her script.  And to be honest, it was what needed to be said.  But I wasn’t mean about it.  That benefits nobody.

I focused on the elements I had problems with, most of which are easy to fix with a more solid outline, a better comprehension of what a script should look like, and a general familiarity and knowledge about screenwriting basics.  Armed with those, and the time and effort put into consecutive drafts, this script could show a lot more potential.

A lot of writers trying to break in think they can crank out a draft, maybe one or two rewrites, and it’s perfect. Not so. Even worse, when you try and point what needs to be fixed, some can get very defensive.  How dare I even suggest such a thing?  Then they’ll wonder why the rest of the world doesn’t recognize their genius.

Hopefully this writer won’t curse my existence too much.  Now I’m wondering what the response will be to my comments.

-No Movie of the Moment today. Doing the midday shift cuts into my movie-watching time.  That and it is totally exhausting.

That’s something, I guess

Maximum Z Dreamship, Movie of the Moment, Nicholl Fellowship, outlines, screenwriting, zombies

As I’ve mentioned before, when I do the midday traffic shift, it usually results in some good output.  Something like that happened today.

I’m working my way through the first part of DREAMSHIP’s second act, and was trying to figure out how to approach a sequence from a different perspective. I think I may have reached a solution, so that’s good.

Not so good is a problem just like the one I was having while working on the LUCY outline: what does my antagonist want?  My ScriptQuack comments ask the same thing.  I thought I had an answer to that in previous drafts, but now I’m not so sure.  Once I can figure that out, putting more of this together should be easier – I hope.

I’m doing the midday again tomorrow, and the noon-to-6 shift on Saturday, so here’s hoping those are productive shifts as well.

Movie of the Moment: We started watching THE WALKING DEAD.  Wow.  Great stuff.  I especially like the ever-present feeling of ominous dread.  I’m dating myself, but I like how this is the same station that years ago played nothing but black and white films and their first original series was set in Pittsburgh during the Golden Age of Radio.  My, how times have changed.

There was a trailer for some set-in-space video game or something before it got to the menu page.  It got me thinking: somewhere out there has to be a spec script about zombies in space.  Think about it.  They don’t need air, but that whole vacuum-of-space thing might need a little planning.  The hard part would be to avoid having it come across as too cheesy.

But then again, that could be part of the fun.