screenwriting

That’s more like it

Maximum Z analysis, Black List, Lucy Steele, Murder of a Cat, outlines, screenwriting

It was quite a challenge, but I finally found a goal for my antagonist I’m happy with.  And even better, I didn’t have to change that much in the outline.  Sure, the opening scene is gone and now focuses on Lucy herself, but I think that’s for the best.

I had completely forgotten how both protagonist and antagonist should stand in the way of the other achieving their goal.  That really helped me figure things out.

Now it’s back into the quagmire that is the latter half of Act Two.  Good news on that front as well: I read over last week’s progress, and a lot of it still works.  So far, so good.

Once I get to the end of Act Two, and then figure out my way through Act Three, fine-tuning it may not be as difficult as I think (he typed with fingers crossed).

-As promised, a little more detail about MURDER OF A CAT, my most recent Black List script.  Like I said, I wasn’t that impressed.

It’s the story of a guy whose cat is murdered, and he works on figuring out the who and the why behind it.  I like the concept, but didn’t like the main character.  Can somebody please announce a moratorium on the now-cliched idea of an arrested development guy still living in his parents’ basement?  It’s no longer original, and I find them really annoying.

Honestly, he really reminded me of Ignatius J Reilly from A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES.  Which I didn’t like either.  So sue me.

And if I don’t like the main character, why do I care if he succeeds or doesn’t?

But that’s the problem.  Although I didn’t like him, I was interested in the mystery angle of the story.  He just happens to be the guy right in the middle of everything.  And adding to all of that, the main female character turns into a love interest.  I found her becoming attracted to him a little hard to believe.  Having them stay at odds throughout would have been much better.

I’m having a little trouble figuring out how this made it to the Black List.  The writing is…okay.  There doesn’t seem to be anything unique, original or (in my opinion) funny about it.  It wouldn’t surprise me if somebody read this and thought “Will Ferrell would be perfect!”

Who am I kidding?  Half of LA probably did.

Next up: I was going to read CHRONICLE, but I’m almost done with the book version of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, VAMPIRE HUNTER, so I’ll probably tackle the script soon afterwards.  That should be very interesting.

Getting there

Maximum Z animation, antagonist, Black List, Christopher Nolan, Lucy Steele, Murder of a Cat, outlines, screenwriting

The rain returned today, which means I worked until noon, thereby depriving me of about 2 hours of script work time, so there wasn’t much progress today.

But there was at least some.  And it may be more significant than I realize.

My problem was I had this bad guy connected to Lucy’s past.  In fact, he plays a pretty significant role.  I was trying to inject him into the story in a certain way, but kept running into obstacles of one kind or another.  And it wasn’t working.  So I tried another approach, even though I was worried it might seem a little cliched.

But it works better within the story.  So I’ll keep it for now, and see how things develop around it.

It’s supposed to rain all week, so the overall progress may be somewhat limited.  But this latest development is encouraging.

-I finally got around to reading another Black List script: MURDER OF A CAT, by Christian Magalhaes and Robert Snow.  I’ll have more detailed comments tomorrow, but for the most part, I wasn’t that impressed.

Movie of the Moment: Watched DESPICABLE ME with V.  I enjoyed it.  It was clever, original and never condescending, which I always appreciate.  And probably the first time I could actually tolerate Russell Brand.

I always find the best animation to be in the vein of the old Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons.  At first they seem geared towards kids, but a lot of jokes are there for the adults.  Surprisingly, this wasn’t nominated for Best Animated Feature.  It probably wouldn’t win, but at least it could have been nominated.

I also managed to watch INCEPTION over 2 days.  I liked it, but I couldn’t help but keep hearing a co-worker’s comments throughout in that almost everything Ellen Page’s character asks is for the benefit of the audience. “What’s a kick?”, “Limbo?”, “Whose consciousness are we going into again?” and so on.

I especially liked the whole execution of the dreams within dreams part, and each one’s relation to the one it was set inside, which I guess really was the whole second half of the film.

More than once I was thinking “How did they do that?,” but my DVD from Netflix didn’t have any bonus features, so I don’t know how they pulled off any of the special effects.  I’m fairly certain the fight scene in the hotel hallway was similar to the space station in 2001, complete with a circular rolling set.

While the story was a little hard to follow in some parts, visually it was stunning.  Christopher Nolan is definitely one of a kind, and it makes me look forward to THE DARK KNIGHT RISES that much more.

-I applied to a potential short-writing gig.  Zombies are apparently involved, which are always fun.

Thank you, inner me

Maximum Z outlines, screenwriting

I think I may have found a solution to my bad guy problem.

Even more amazingly, it came to me while I was sleeping.  Kudos to my subconscious for being a team player.

I was hoping to work on it during a rare Saturday afternoon shift, but the roads have been busy, which means I’m busy, which means I get no writing done.

But now that I know what I want, when I sit down on Monday, I’ll be able to make the necessary fixes.

And that’s cool.

Movie of the Moment:  Tonight’s planned feature is DESPICABLE ME. K & V saw it last summer, so I’m the odd man out.  It’s supposed to be good, so I’m looking forward to it.

Where exactly do you put a 300-pound Irishman?

Maximum Z characters, Lucy Steele, Netflix, outlines, screenwriting

Not the set-up for a joke, but a question that will be answered shortly.

I took yesterday’s work on the outline and inserted it into the main one today.  Still have some gaps to fill in, but it’s coming together nicely.  This is really turning into a rip-roaring adventure story, let me tell you.

But I couldn’t help but notice one thing about everything I had worked on last week, especially those scenes from page 45 to the midpoint.  There were a lot more than I remembered writing.  While it should be somewhere around 15-18, this was more like 27.  Way too much!  Some emergency editing was necessary.

As much as I hated to do it, I was going to have to get rid of the scenes involving a character I really like.  That would be the somewhat rotund fellow in the title of this post.  He and his flunkies would have to go.  One of the many rules of screenwriting: Kill Your Darlings.  So I did.  The end result is still satisfying, but not as much as it was when I had two sets of double-crosses in the works.  Now it’s back to one.

But all is not lost.

Since I’m now focusing on the next set of scenes, the midpoint to around page 75, part of those involve a mine.  I don’t know what kind, but originally it was going to be abandoned.  Not anymore.  I’m working on turning it into a kind of hideout where this nefarious band of ruffians is currently holed up, thereby increasing the level of conflict in the story.

It keeps surprising me how writing something one day, and maybe jotting down a thought or line, even just on a whim, can really pay off somewhere down the line.  I really like when that sort of thing happens.  It’s almost a kind of self-vindication.

I’m hoping to have a Movie of the Moment for tomorrow.  I haven’t had a lot of spare time lately, so I’ve had to spread my film-watching out over a few days.  Surprisingly, parts of this film are eerily similar to DREAMSHIP.  Crazy, huh?

Now entering Euphoria. Drive safely

Maximum Z Lucy Steele, outlines, screenwriting

I am in what can definitely be considered a state of giddiness. Sheer and unmitigated joy. The heavens have opened and are shining down upon me.

For today, I hit the halfway mark. And it feels freaking AWESOME!!

But it’s more than just reaching that point in the story. It’s also about how I got there. Yesterday I was concerned about the page count from where I left off. Today I was determined to reach the Point of No Return no matter what.

I had my characters in an already dicey situation, but needed to keep making it harder for them to come out ahead. A minor story point from earlier this week paid off in spades in terms of establishing more conflict. I saw an opportunity to insert another character that would create still another obstacle. The ideas were coming in fast and furious, to coin a phrase.

Sure, some of the scenes need to be fleshed out a bit, but they WORK! And at no time whatsoever was I ever concerned with page count. I knew what I wanted and needed, and followed through accordingly.

It felt absolutely incredible to fill in the blanks for something I was really stressing over just a week ago.

It would be even more incredible if I can make this kind of progress now that the latter half of Act Two is here. A little intimidating, but really quite exhilarating.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m having an absolute blast, and the best really is yet to come.