I’m always keen for a good movie-watching recommendation, especially if it’s something I’ve never heard of, or at least heard of but haven’t seen. We all know a few of those.
So here’s your chance to shed a little light by a film (or films) that you’ve always enjoyed, but a lot of people may not be too familiar with.
Here are three of mine:
The Kid Brother (1927) An amazing piece of work from Harold Lloyd. Worth watching for the boat sequence alone. Plus it has a monkey in it.
ffolkes (1979) Roger Moore at his most un-James Bond-iest. A somewhat dated but still very entertaining action-thriller.
Whip It (2009) A charming and fun story that combines equal parts comedy, drama and women’s roller derby. Features a lot more name actors than you realize, and Drew Barrymore’s directing debut.
It doesn’t have to be a classic, nor does it have to be “a cinematic masterpiece”. You get a kick out of it, and think the rest of us would too. Just write down the title and what you like about it in the comments below.
One of the most important rules of screenwriting, yet lots of writers have trouble putting it into effect.
The organizer of my first writing group always suggested writing each scene so the audience would have an idea what was going on if the sound went out. Not easy to pull off, but it is possible.
I got my first taste of silent films in high school. We watched Griffith’s BIRTH OF A NATION and Buster Keaton’s THE GENERAL, which remains one of my all-time favorites. It was on the other day on Turner Classic Movies. We caught the second half. V loved it.
*Side story – Earlier this year, I posted on TriggerStreet looking for help with my original logline for LUCY, describing it as combining THE GENERAL and THE SEARCHERS. Somebody commented that they’d never heard of either. I want to say I was shocked, but reminded myself not everybody has my kind of appreciation for older films.
It’s oh-so-gratifying to listen to V laugh her head off while we watch these. I like Chaplin, but Keaton is an underappreciated genius. Last summer, we finally got around to catching some of Harold Lloyd’s work, including SAFETY LAST (the one with the clock face, which was okay), THE FRESHMAN and THE KID BROTHER, which is a masterpiece.
What’s great about silent films is that apart from the dialogue cards, everything else is told visually, so it’s easy to follow along. The actors, with only their bodies and facial expressions, convey what’s happening. The Silent Era was especially effective for newly-arrived immigrants who spoke no English. They understood what was going on.
When I write a scene, I try to make it as visual as possible so it’s more than just somebody talking. This goes beyond describing what we see in a physical sense, but how a character acts or is reacting. I’m also working on punching up this kind of writing so it doesn’t read or sound boring.
Some writers make the mistake of describing something that can’t be seen, such as what a character is thinking. I’ve also heard this labeled as “How do we know?” You may describe somebody as reflecting on their past, but if we’re watching the film, all we see is a person sitting there, doing nothing. HOW DO WE KNOW they’re reflecting?
Maximum Z 