Uncategorized

Wikipedia is my sister! My daughter! My sister! My daughter!

Maximum Z Civil War, loglines, research, screenwriting, script doctor eric, story, train, Uncategorized, Wikipedia

My apologies for a lack of posts the last few days. A combo of extra hours at work, family stuff and just being busy kept me away.

Progress on the second act of LUCY has been slower than I’d like, but that’s okay. Better to take my time than constantly be fixing it later.

I got some very nice feedback from a fellow writer about Act One. He’s read some of my other stuff and was quite enthusiastic about what I’ve got so far. Although he’s not crazy about the main character being a woman, I think it makes for a slightly different approach, as well as being somewhat original.

Because I’m trying to keep this story as historically accurate as I can, I’ve been using various websites as reference guides. The Civil War, trains, and so on.

And of course, Wikipedia. I’ve gotten a lot of very helpful info from it so far. It is truly invaluable.

Throughout the events of the story, I’ve been establishing that several of the characters will end up in California. This includes the love interest and the villain, who has also stolen Lucy’s train. I pictured a big finale taking place IN California. Sounds awesome, right?

The story starts in the East just as the Civil War is ending, then gradually heads west. That means the trains would need to make their way across the country, which would be 1865.

I wanted to make sure this was plausible, but Wikipedia informed me the driving of the Golden Spike in Utah was the birth of the Transcontinental Railroad. In 1869. Which is 4 years AFTER this story takes place.  Which means I need to CHANGE SOMETHING!

Either I move the time of the story ahead, which destroys that whole “end of the Civil War” aspect, or I change the locale of where the story ends.  As much as I hate to do it, it’s easier to go with the latter.  One of the many rules of writing is “kill your darlings,” so it looks like I’ll being committing murder-by-author in the next few days.  Like I said, it would be great to have the showdown in California, but it just won’t work.  Time to dive back into Wikipedia and find out where gold was plentiful before the railroad.  Denver might work.  A showdown on railroad tracks through the Rockies has potential.

I was originally hoping to be done with the outline by the end of the year, but that ain’t gonna happen.  I’ll be happy if I get to the midpoint by then.

-I sent the scene rewrite back to the director a few days ago, and have heard nothing back.  I don’t know how he feels about it, and he said he wanted to shoot the remaining scenes tomorrow (Sunday).   As always, I wish him the best of luck.

-Even though I thought I was done with it, I sent the logline to NORTH POLE NOIR to the logline contest yesterday. I don’t know what kind of a chance I have; I’ve entered it before, but with no results.  This time he seems to want more Christmas-themed ones, so maybe this time.  Fingers crossed.

That’s MY job?

Maximum Z Uncategorized , , ,

While the re-organizing of the first act of LUCY continues (including a title change to one that is sheer awesomeness), I got a call yesterday from the director of the short I wrote back in the summer.

I really thought he was going to tell me it was all wrapped up and when the party was.

Nope.

He’s shot three scenes so far, but keeps running into scheduling problems with his actors. One of them can’t be there for shooting the final scene, so he wanted to know if I had any ideas about how to fix it.

I thought it over for a few seconds. The final scene is set in a small hotel lobby and the character makes a 2-second appearance (but has a bigger part earlier in the story).

Put the guy’s headshot in a picture frame and make him Employee of the Month.

Then the director asks whether he should show it in a close-up or start on it and pan over to the hotel desk. Just have it as part of the shot; don’t draw attention to it, I say. He’s not sure.

Okay, then slap the headshot on some posterboard and make it a lobby card for the headliner in the hotel’s lounge. He asks what if I make it greenscreen and fill it in later? That’s making it way more complicated than it has to be, I say. Posterboard, a black Sharpie, maybe some gold stars and a headshot. Five bucks, tops. He’ll think about that one, too.

But we’re not done yet.

A pivotal scene is supposed to take place in a pool hall, but the hall he wants to film in is undergoing renovations. How could he get around this?

I’d like to add that the pool aspect was his idea because he had a clever way of showing trick shots through cgi. So much for that, apparently.

Again, a matter of seconds.

Make it a poker game. Cards, chips, a table, minimal lighting. Easy peasy. Again, he’ll think about it.

Even more amazing is that he wanted to be done before the end of the year so he could submit it to festivals. I hope he makes it.

The last time I saw him in person (mid-August, I think), he told me he was planning to move to LA in January to break into the industry.

I worry he may not be completely prepared. Nevertheless, I still wish him the best of luck.

How ’bout that?

Maximum Z Uncategorized , , , ,

This was supposed to go up yesterday, but didn’t. And I’m glad about that.

Because then I was working towards the end of Act One. Progress was slow, and I wasn’t happy. I needed more things to click. More to fall into place. I wanted to fill in that gap between page 17 and the end of the first act. And nothing was coming to mind.

So I stopped for the day to resume my role of dad, sans car. And in a great metropolitan city, that means public transit, which means more time getting from point A to point B. By the time we got home and had dinner, I was too wiped to write anything blog or outline-related.

Jump ahead to today. I take care of the running and laundry issues, then finally sit down with LUCY. The blank space where I left off yesterday stares back at me.

I know what I want to happen, but the words get jumbled up between my brain and fingers. I start to type. Okay. That works. Ooh, maybe not that. How about…this? Nice. And this. Hey, that’s cool. The scene/sequence that ends the first act takes up a lot of space, but it reads quickly, is chock-full of exciting adventure-type material and does a good job of showing what my hero is capable of and ends very neatly.

I might even go so far as to say I was practically giddy as I finished. Getting to the next point will definitely be a challenge, but as long as I stay focused and remember where this is supposed to go, it should work out fine.

I know it still needs a lot of work, and I wonder what the writing group will think of it this weekend, but I really think I’m off to a pretty good start.

And it was a lot of fun to write. I love that feeling.

No Movie of the Moment tonight because I’m at V’s hockey practice. But I did watch more of Season 1 of MODERN FAMILY during the laundry phase. Still hilarious.

-On a sad note, I learned today that my film teacher in high school passed away a few years ago. What a shame. He really was one of the first to open my eyes to the world of film beyond the malls and multiplexes.

Like just about every screenwriter, I dream of winning Best Original Screenplay. Part of that scenario would involve me thanking him for what an influence he was to me. Even though he’s apparently been gone for a few years, I’d still do it. He will be missed.