screenwriting

Oh so close

Maximum Z Dreamship, James Cameron, rewrite, screenwriting

I haven’t posted in a few days because I’ve been in ‘focused writer’ mode, concentrating on getting through Act Three.

And after much thought and consideration, I’m happy to say that for the most part, it’s done.  (Insert cheers and applause here)

There are still some little things to take care of, such as handling the notes to myself like “Work on this,” “Expand!”, or “How about/What if…”, as well as fleshing out some scenes here and there, but I don’t expect that to be too hard.  I’m hoping to get something workable out of it by this time next week.  Fingers crossed.

It was also nice to give the whole thing a quick read-through.  It moves a little quicker than the previous version.  And parts I thought would be hard to take out weren’t really missed at all.  I guess that’s the benefit of the streamlining process.

No set deadline for finishing, which may actually be helping me make this kind of progress.

-No actual Movie of the Moment, but we started watching THE KING’S SPEECH. Really like it so far.  I also can’t help but think of Helena Bonham Carter when she did the upper class voice in WALLACE & GROMIT’S CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT.

I caught some snippets of TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY on AMC.  It’s easy to forget what a great writer Cameron can be.  It’s definitely one of those movies you can watch from any point and be entertained.

I’ve never read the scripts, but I suspect this and ALIENS are good blueprints for how to properly put an action movie together.  Couldn’t hurt to at least use them as examples.

Something to keep in mind for this and when I start back up on LUCY.

Taking care of this and that

Maximum Z rewrite, screenwriting, Tron: Legacy

It was a busy weekend, what with the 100th running of Bay to Breakers. I ran/walked with V, who was quite the trouper.  Time: 1:57:49. Not too bad.

Suffice to say, I didn’t get to do much with the rewrite.  Just a little development around the end of Act Two and working into Act Three.

Although I did come up with two possible significant developments.

First – slightly changing the rules of how this world works.  I’d been very stubborn in trying to come up with something different I liked, not that I wasn’t trying.  But I think I may have found a solution that works for me and for the story.  I’ll have to see if it fits.  Sure hope so.

Second – I forget where I read it, but the article was about how a mentor character usually has to be gotten rid of in order for the hero to show growth.  As much as I hate to say it, I think I know which character is going to have to kick the bucket.  Which is a shame, because I really like this character a lot.  But they go down fighting – literally, and for a very good reason. Oh well.

Movie of the Moment: TRON: LEGACY. Man, what a disappointment.  I can see why it bombed.  It was a great concept – updating the ‘inside the computer world’ for the modern digital age, but oh-so-poorly executed! Why couldn’t they have spent as much time on the script as they did on making it look good?  A quick check of imdb shows that this had FOUR writers on the story, two of which did the screenplay.  Four?  Four guys and it still sucked?

And don’t get me started on this whole ‘computerized Jeff Bridges face to look younger’ thing.  That was awful AND distracting.

There were just way too many plotholes and inconsistencies to make it really work. What was stopping Clu from finding where Flynn was hiding?  What was stopping him from getting to that outgoing message-beam-thingy?  Where did all of his soldiers come from?  I thought Sam was changed by that laser cannon thing in Flynn’s office into digital information, so then why was he bleeding on the Grid?  How the hell did Quorra become real when they got out of there?  How did Flynn know that Rinzler was really Tron? How did Tron survive getting killed by Clu?  Why didn’t they ever show his face (probably blew the budget on youth-ifying Bridges, so they couldn’t afford to do Boxleitner as well)?  I really thought the snotty ENCOM guy in the boardroom was going to play an important role, but was just in that one scene.

These are just some of the things I was thinking while watching this.  Once again, too much hype, and a big fat fail on the execution. I suspect this will not become the cult classic the first one was.  While that had its fair share of story problems, at least it wasn’t on the same level as this.

Did I mention the cg was good?  Probably the only good thing about it.

About…that much

Maximum Z Dreamship, rewrite, screenwriting

Act Two is slowly drawing to a close, but something feels a little off.  There doesn’t seem to be that same sense of momentum from last week.  It feels weird.  I’m going to put that getting-out-of-the-house thing to the test next week and see what happens.

I may do some fine-tuning on what I have so far, but I only have a few gaps to fill and then it’s on to Act Three.  This whole restructuring of the previous draft has caused a slight shift in some plot points, but I think it’s for the better.  In theory, it should help wrap things up faster.

I like to think that at the rate I’m going, I may actually have a more-or-less solid outline done by the end of the month, followed by a hopefully short editing and tightening-up period.  And then…on to pages!

But for now, one step at a time.

No Movie of the Moment today. Sorry.

I also realized I haven’t read a Black List script in way too long, so I’ll try to get back on that train in the near future.  Probably once the rewrite’s done.

Fitting the pieces together

Maximum Z 500 Days of Summer, Dreamship, Movie of the Moment, Nicholl Fellowship, plot, rewrite, screenwriting, ScriptQuack

While I was working on the last quarter of Act Two today, I realized I didn’t have any hard copy of the previous draft: outline OR script.  Which means I didn’t have anything to really reference as part of this rewrite.  I know how I’d like to move forward, but once again find myself streamlining how that’s being accomplished.  A lot of unnecessary fat is being trimmed away. For the better.

An interesting side note  to all of this is that I took a look at my notes from the fine folks at ScriptQuack and discovered I’ve put a lot of their suggestions into play, which in turn renders a lot of their notes irrelevant.  I should probably X out all the parts I don’t need anymore, which would enable me to focus on what I haven’t used yet (or may not need at all).

This heading toward the end of Act Two is really presenting a challenge: how to best have the situation increasingly worsen so that all definitely seems lost for my hero.  I’ve got a few ideas to work with, but I’m not in a rush, so this can be carefully planned out.

-Nicholl deadline has come and gone. I’m glad I didn’t try to rush through this; it would not have yielded good results.  Better to give myself more time for next year.  Very interesting to see some critique comments on Facebook.  Who couldn’t read those and hope it was their script being praised?

I’m sure a lot of people enter only one or two contests a year, if that often, the Nicholl probably being one of them. Have winners of less prestigious contests ever gone on to fame and fortune?  Not that I know of, but I don’t research them that much.

-Just wondering – I get more done on a script when I’m where I really shouldn’t be working on it (read: actual paying job).  Does this happen for other writers?  I can get some work done at home, but the creative juices really flow when I can spare a few minutes between on-air reports.  Again, just wondering.

-Movie of the Moment: 500 DAYS OF SUMMER.  We watched it over 2 days, despite it only being 95 minutes long.  I didn’t really know what to expect, and that I’d heard good things about it.  One line in particular stood out for me in the beginning: “This is not a love story.”  Boy, ain’t that the truth.

I liked it, despite how sad it is.  Like they set out to make an anti-romcom.  It was kind of refreshing to jump past the meet-cute and avoid any kind of wacky hijinks and cut straight to the beginning of the end.  The whole jumping-around-in-time aspect was also well-executed.  I had a little trouble keeping track of things when the jumps were significant (Day 348 to Day 22, etc), but it was better than just letting it all happen in a traditional linear way.

Another benefit to that is how it doesn’t treat the viewer like an idiot, which is always important.

Ain’t no stoppin’ me

Maximum Z Dreamship, rewrite, screenwriting, seminar

Today was quite the milestone. While I didn’t actually advance past the page 75 twist, I did type up everything from the midpoint to there, and I really like how it’s coming along.

It seems a lot more…streamlined than the previous draft. Things happen much quicker, there’s less lagtime, and I like to think it’s showing my hero in a more active role.

All that remains is getting to the end of Act Two and the whole of Act Three.  The former may be somewhat similar to earlier incarnations, but the latter may have to be totally redone.  At first, that sounds a bit intimidating, but that’s how I felt about this whole project since the beginning.  Happy to say my expectations have been a bit overestimated.

We’re supposed to go away for a few days near the end of June. I’m really hoping to have some kind of rough draft for K to read on the plane.  She enjoys doing that, and I appreciate her feedback.

-If you’re a screenwriter in the Bay Area and are free next weekend (May 21 & 22), click here for what sounds like a great opportunity.  I can’t do it because I’ve got prior commitments.  I don’t know if it’s still available, but it couldn’t hurt to check it out.

-No Movie of the Moment today, but THE KING’S SPEECH, 500 DAYS OF SUMMER and TRON: LEGACY are due up next. Always welcome to comments on any of them.