outlines

Working my way forward & backward

Maximum Z Let Me In, Lucy Steele, Movie of the Moment, outlines, Raiders of the Lost Ark, screenwriting

That’s how the development of the last quarter of LUCY’s Act 2 is working out.  I had the beginning and the end, and am slowly filling in the blanks from each end.  So far, so good.

Once again using RAIDERS as a template, I’m trying to ramp up the action while also making sure it ties in with the story, rather than just having it for action’s sake.

It’s also letting me test my screenwriting muscles by forcing me to find the best possible conflict in each scene.  Always a good idea.

Late hockey practice last night, so we’ll work on finishing LET ME IN tonight.

The reverse-engineering approach

Maximum Z District 9, Let Me In, Lucy Steele, Movie of the Moment, Netflix, outlines, screenwriting

I’m not calling it writer’s block, because I have a general idea of what I want to put on the page.  Problem is, I need to come up with something I like AND that works for the story.  There are blanks that need to be filled in and the challenge is finding them.

I’m thinking of starting at the end of Act 2 and figuring out what happened before that.  How did Lucy & Co get to where they are?  Since I know what happens in Act 3, I can try to piece together the events leading up to it.  Or at least try to.

Time to break out the idea list again and see what my brain can come up with.  That seems to always trigger something.  Hope it can do it again.

Movie of the Moment: a 2-for-1 day!

While my computer was being stubborn again earlier today, DISTRICT 9 was playing.  I saw it on the tail end of its theatre run about a year and a half ago.  What a great movie.  An intelligent original alternate take on a sci-fi staple.  See it if you haven’t already.

I remembered parts of it, but what was pleasantly surprising was the filmed footage portion of the beginning.  I didn’t realize these were taking place after the main portion of the story.  It was also great to see how the stakes kept getting raised in each scene, and for the most part, how every scene led into the one following it.

I really hope they don’t make a sequel.  It doesn’t need one.

The second movie is LET ME IN, the US remake of the Swedish vampire flick LET THE RIGHT ONE IN.  K and I liked the latter and we’re still working on the former, but so far it’s not too bad. It’s hard to not keep going back to the original while watching this.

Some of the scenes are a little slow, but it’s that kind of movie. And because I know what’s going to happen, that heart-quickening sense of anticipation isn’t as strong as during the original.

Put both on your Netflix queue, but watch the Swedish one first.  With subtitles.  It’s better that way.

Streamlined and ready for action

Maximum Z Lucy Steele, outlines, screenwriting

Nice progress on LUCY over the past few days.  First and foremost, I’ve reached the page 75 twist, so all that remains is the rest of Act 2 and all of Act 3.  Not surprisingly, the former is more daunting than the latter.  I know what to put into Act 3; it’s what comes between where I am now and there.  But I’ve made it through seemingly impassable impasses before, so I’ll keep reminding myself to be patient and sally forth.

I also decided I had too much going on, so I took what I had and started hacking and slashing what wasn’t absolutely necessary to the story.  I took out more than I expected, including a sequence I really liked, but went against everything Lucy herself represents.  I think that section is a little stronger for it.

It also helped reduce the number of scenes per quarter in Act 2, so now it doesn’t seem as cluttered or drawn-out.

What’s really great about this kind of rewriting process is that while I may get rid of something I thought fit perfectly, I try to figure out what would also work, possibly even better, in that same spot.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  As long as the script is better for it.

Movie of the Moment:  Western fan that I am, I was hoping to take V to see RANGO this past weekend.  She wanted to stay home, so we ended up renting DIARY OF A WIMPY KID.  V really liked the books, and the commercials upon its theatrical release were all over our TV at the time, plus she had a 6am hockey game earlier that morning, so I figured I would sleep during the show.

No such luck.  The movie was fun, especially the younger you are.  It adhered to the general tone of the books, which is basically that the main character is a selfish but well-meaning jerk during his first year of middle school.

If you have pre- or tween-aged kids, or want to relive the hell that was junior high, then you should probably give this a try.

Like my dad always says: persevere!

Maximum Z Lucy Steele, movies, Oscars, outlines, screenwriting

I didn’t get to do a lot on LUCY today, but what I was able to do got me to the equivalent of page 75.  Which is really encouraging.

The remaining quarter of Act Two and the whole of Act Three still loom, and they’re looming large.  Humongous, even.  But this has been a few-steps-at-a-time process, and will continue to be so.

Even better, not only did I find a place for the character I created a few weeks ago, but I figured out how to incorporate him into the villain’s subplot AND use him in a way that it helps move Lucy’s storyline forward as well.

It looks like there may be a few kinks here and there to straighten out, but everything’s starting to tie together.  Which is what I’ve been working towards since Day One.

-I didn’t get to see it myself, but a genuine Academy Award was at V’s school today.  INCEPTION won for Best Sound Mixing, and one of the three winners has a daughter in the other 2nd grade class.  V said the Oscar was about 2 feet tall and heavy.  The mom who brought it in said it’s already falling apart, which I find hilarious.

Like just about every other screenwriter out there, I like to daydream about winning Best Original Screenplay someday.

Don’t laugh.  It could happen.

I excel at multitasking

Maximum Z Lucy Steele, outlines, screenwriting, zombies

(I wrote this on Saturday, but didn’t get to edit it until Sunday.  Apologies for the delay.  Since I haven’t seen a lot of the nominated films, I won’t have an Oscar post, but do plan on watching the ceremony.)

I did the midday traffic shift yesterday, which gave me the opportunity to work on LUCY. Some of my most productive days are when I can work between reports.

I wanted to streamline the current section, which is basically everything after the midpoint. I also wanted to see if I could fit in my Irishman subplot a little sooner, resulting in payoff either by page 75, or into the final quarter of Act 2.

I was able to cut 3 scenes, for a tentative total of 24. If that seems high, keep in mind that more than a few are less than a page long. I have a tendency to overwrite during the outline phase. I throw it all out there: action, dialogue and a lot of notes to myself (Why does she do this?, what happens next?, expand!, etc)

A member of my old writing group once asked how I was going to get everything I had in the outline onto the page. I see the outline as a guide with nothing written in stone. And if I think a scene is too long, I’ll edit it down until I think it works.

My goal for this week is to get past the page 75 twist. Fingers crossed.

Movie of the Moment: K is a huge fan of zombie flicks. For those unaware, she grew up near Monroeville, PA, where the mall is from the original DAWN OF THE DEAD. She even has a Monroeville Zombies t-shirt from Kevin Smith’s company.

We watched the French horror THE HORDE, courtesy of Netflix. It has a great premise: a team of cops go into a gangster’s high-rise hideout to exact revenge for a fallen colleague. Then the building is attacked by zombies. Both sides team up to get out alive.

It was…okay.  Generous helpings of overacting, angry acting, repetitive dialogue and too-fast editing. I was under the impression there was lots of gore, but there wasn’t (at least for me). I was more squeamish when one guy kept slamming a zombie’s head against a cement post. That was due more to the sound effects than the visual.

They never really explain how the zombies came to be, but there are some mysterious explosions off in the distance soon after the beginning. Our theory was it was some kind of virus bomb-detonation thing.

I enjoy a good zombie flick, but there really seems to be an overabundance of them lately. We need a new genre!

Go Into The Story wrote earlier this week about the sale of ZOMBIE PET SHOP, which would be animated and family-friendly. Seriously? Wouldn’t it be easier to just make a new batch of SCOOBY DOO episodes?