outlines

Fasten your safety belts

Maximum Z action, Bill Murray, Movie of the Moment, mystery, outlines, rewrite, screenwriting
The Thunderbolt at Kennywood Park in West Mifflin, PA

After some nice progress on fixing problems at both ends of the first act, I ventured into Act Two and was able to make some good changes there as well.  A lot of on-screen action takes place, and I want to make sure it really grabs you and doesn’t let go until absolutely necessary.  I think I was able to do that, and made it to the midpoint as a reward.

I opted to stop at another point that’s been giving me trouble. My hope is that I’ll be able to get past that and continue on to at least the end of Act Two.

I’ve noticed when trying to convert a scene from the outline to the pages that it’s really easy to say in the outline what I want to happen, but things suddenly get a lot harder to translate into something on the page. I know in my head want I want to say, but have trouble getting it out the way I want to say it.

We’ll see how it goes.

-Movie of the Moment – THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO LITTLE (1997), a clever pseudo-homage to Hitchcock-style mysteries.

Bill Murray is a video store clerk who pays a surprise visit to his wealthy brother in London.  But the brother is hosting a dinner party to finalize ‘the biggest deal of his life’, so sends Bill off to an audience-interactive show, where scenes are played out throughout town.  But he intercepts a call meant for a secret agent, and follows the trail of clues, thinking the whole thing is part of the act.

Only got about halfway through it, but really looking forward to finishing it.

I was worried it would be more like WHAT ABOUT BOB?, but it’s actually smarter than you might think.  What’s really fun about it is how something is set up, followed by a payoff, but there’s also a twist in interpretation or context, thereby giving even more effectiveness to a well-structured double plotline: the one Bill sees as the theatre experience, and the one we the audience know is the actual secret agent storyline.

All that and Joanne Whalley’s gams.  What more could a film geek want?

Did it again

Maximum Z Movie of the Moment, outlines, rewrite, screenwriting, scriptshadow
Kinda, sorta feeling like this...

After days of working extra hours, thereby not being able to do much/anything on the outline, as well as agonizing over whether or not I’d be able to properly fill in some small plot holes, I sat down and started to work. Fear be damned!

Turns out I didn’t have to worry too much. I was able to make some pretty good changes. Nothing phenomenal, but slightly better than I was expecting.

Don’t know how much I’ll get done next week, since it’s the last week of summer vacation and Mom & Dad Camp will again be in session. I’ll do what I can.

It’s also helped that I read three scripts this week, including two from ScriptShadow, each of which I made a point of commenting on, and a spec from 6 years ago that was really impressive.

I didn’t realize until I was finishing that last one that it was a great model to work with if/when I ever redo my Christmas Noir script.

-Movie of the Moment – THE NAME OF THE ROSE. K and I have been watching it little by little over the past few days.

A murder mystery set in a 14th century Italian monastery, with Sean Connery as the investigating monk and a very young Christian Slater as his assistant/protege.

A little slow, but a clever premise, and fun to watch detective story tropes used throughout (primitive glasses with magnifying lenses, deducing from clues, etc.).

Only complaint – spotty sound quality, but this was DVR’d off TV, so you might have better luck on video.

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.