The Bones

WARNING! The next few blogs will most likely contain information specific to screenwriting.

Bear in mind, if you don't have a screenwriter (be it you or someone else), YOU HAVE NOTHING. You saw what the strike did to Hollywood ...hmm. So let's talk about screenplays, screenwriters, being a screenwriter and things of the like.

First and foremost, I am a screenwriter. I have to be. I can't take a camera and run across the street and film a bunch of skateboarders and call it a movie, can I? No, and I've done it. It was anything but a movie.

So, as a flicmaker having decided to actually film something, I had to start by writing a script. And I wrote one. I wrote two. I wrote two short scripts back to back which, in my opinion is a great way to start.

I didn't have what it takes to write a feature length screenplay my first time out. Especially if I wanted to film now. So I picked a story, a story in it's most basic form. In my case it was a story about a small boy who wanted to be bigger, wanted to be like the bigger kids. Everyone's heard that, anyone can think of it, but when YOU write it, it's yours.

Go ahead and take this very idea I've given you and go write it. Do you think it will be remotely like the one I wrote? No, way. Every story out there has been told (NOTE: I am trying to prove this wrong.) but the number of ways to tell it are infinite!

Here's an example: was my story a comedy (like "Big")? was it a drama, was it modern day or old west, was it and English speaking boy in American culture, or a Japanese boy in the 1940's?? It could be any of these. The point is pick something and write YOUR story.

Remember these points:
--to keep it short
--I didn't even worry about the 3-act structure (how could I in only 7 pages?)
--I used what I had available, locations, actors, etc.
--come up with the few points you want to make, your "outline"
--start writing, let it come out, let the characters talk to you and tell you what they want to say

Once I understood what I wanted to say and how to say it, the writing took me about an hour and I had my first screenplay! --ready to shoot.

When you're ready to start writing, meaning to start thinking about writing and what you want to write, you should be in the proper mindset. I suppose you could call it story-mode. Here are a few things that put me in story mode:

--an easy one, watch a movie. Watch a good one that you've seen a hundred times, only this time study it. Listen to the dialogue-- someone wrote it! These people aren't real, remember? They're actors reading from a piece of paper someone else wrote on. Amazing, huh!

--listen to music. I wrote my first feature because of a particular artist whose music painted landscapes in my mind. When I listened I saw images of two people from different worlds learning about one another and falling in love. The images were scenes in my movie. I wrote them on the paper. (Johannes Linstead--all instrumental acoustic guitar, no words! just images.)

--this third one builds my confidence. Helps me to believe I can really write by helping me see the screenwriters I most admire as real, down-to-earth people, Creative Screenwriting's Podcast from Itunes. I've just finished listening to Paul Haggis for the third time. Simon Kinberg told me all about writing Jumper with Jim Uhls, who also told me his tales from the pages of Fight Club. John Logan gave me some great advice about how to be a good writer (read Shakespeare) and his experience writing Sweeney Todd. Any screenwriter who inspires you is on the podcast...and you know me, I'm cheap...IT'S FREE to d/l and listen!

Find your own methods to get you writing. I'm off for the next couple of weeks with plans to finish writing my second feature. Wish me luck. I'll be on here telling you what to do and don't do based on my own adventures in flicmaking.

Keep Writing.

"Never give up, never surrender!"

...is a quote from the movie "Galaxy Quest." It is a favorite of mine. In fact, no, literally fact, I had been working on a short story that when "Galaxy Quest" came out, it could have been from the story I was writing. Mainly, the plot - guy gets abducted by aliens to help save their world. It's been a long time since, but another I can think of is I had written Sigourney Weaver's name into a line of the story...she wind's up in "Galaxy Quest!"

The point is, I haven't written in quite awhile. Nothing serious anyway. Does it matter? Not really. Though you always want to be honing your craft by writing - there's no better way. But, remember the outline I gave you on the last post? I dove back into that one and I'm off and running. During the past week, I've written 19 pages of script! Things just seem to be falling into place.

By a random chain of events, I visited a friends MySpace page, whom I rarely visit. At the bottom was a link looking for screenwriters. I'm as skeptical as the next guy, but I felt it odd that it was there (I know, cookies, blah, blah, blah; work with me here!) Long story short, I clicked it. It took me to a site that WASN'T full of hype, ad copy-type marketing or anything. It looked very professional. So I queried them to see what kind of response I'd get.

Like they said, 3 days later, I get an email saying they're interested in seeing (the particular screenplay I queried). As with any reputable agent/agency, they are not asking for money. Any real agent will only get paid if you get paid! Based on the information and professionalism from their email, I emailed them a copy of my script today. It's registered with the WGA, so I don't have to worry about them stealing it. I presume to hear from them within another few days and I'll keep you updated about it.

One thing that caught my eye was them not asking for payment. Another was that it didn't have to be a perfect script. If they see potential, they'll work with a writer on that. (Which could be where they start asking for money; we'll see) But if they think there's potential in my script, offer some suggestions, and are willing to try to sell it after that - I'll be on that program!

Their website is www.screenplaywritersagency.com if you'd like to check them out. Feel free to comment about them and/or point out things I missed - good or bad. If this agency is legit, we'll let people know, if not, we'll let people know!

Keep writing!

"Writer's Laze" - Kevin Smith

I was taking notes the other day and realized something. The more notes I took, the more notes I came up with. Which goes back to what I've been saying FOR YEARS - keep writing. I haven't written much in the past few months because, frankly, I let myself think that I had nothing to write. But once I sat down and started to jot down a few things I had been thinking of, more ideas came. Keep writing!

For nothing more than my own sake, I will get into a little detail about this particular writing incident, which, I should add, happens quite often and I, myself, often forget it. Incidentally, this will typically be in the pre-production stage of your flic.

I have a blank sheet of paper in front of me. I always start on paper, really, just to take notes. This story is one I have already started. It's a story that's been in my head awhile that I have been away from awhile. So, this isn't starting from scratch. I'm sure you have a few "incompletes" that you're not sure where to go with.

I began with a simple outline. What (little) I had for Act I, II, & III, I jotted down. Really basic.

Example:
A1 *Opening scene *Intro(s) to all characters *Plot Point, PP1 (in this case, my heroine starts to fall for the bad guy.

A2 *Bad guy, (hmmm) works for Main Villain. *They're out doing evil and heroine comes along and foils the job but puts herself in danger... *Bad guy saves her. *PP2 Saving her and reveals to her unknown knowledge of her father.

A3 *Heroine and "Bad guy" team up *Villain doing evil *They foil Villain's plans *But "Bad guy's caught...

Finale
Close

I know those notes don't make much sense to you but that's not important. What's important is that you can break down the entire flic into tiny, little pieces. From the outline, detailed little stories began to emerge and I started writing them down in more detail. Things like, "Who is my Villain and where did he come from?" "What is he attempting to do?" "How is he able to accomplish his goals?"

Answers to those questions came to me by way of little scenes materializing in my head. Write 'em down, flesh 'em out.

I don't like to call this "block". Especially when, if I just stop and concentrate a little on my story, the writing comes. That's why Kevin Smith calls it "Writer's Laze."

Don't be lazy. Keep writing.
FlicMakerScott

Get Started

Everyone starts somewhere, even a flicmaker. A flicmaker doesn't just go out there and, on their first try, film E.T., or Indiana Jones, or The Matrix. He, more likely, starts with a piece of crap camcorder and a VCR or, in this day in age, his video capturing cell phone and produces something that will probably never even get watched on YouTube. The point is to get started and keep going. You WILL learn something as you persist. You WILL get better. If it's your passion, there's no question about it.

More to come.

Attention All Screenwriters

Here's a quick post to inform those of you who aspire to one day be PAID screenwriters, Creative Screenwriting Magazine's Screenwriting Expo 6 is underway! Click the link to get more information.

Good news! They are accepting "short film" scripts this year! My project "JIMMY" which has been shelved for about 6 months will finally see the light of day again. JIMMY is a short I wrote and started production on, but experienced locational setback(s). Therefore, JIMMY will be one of my entries.

I also plan to submit my feature length script titled "Outlaw". It is completed and was entered last year into CS sponsored AAA Screenwriting Competition without much luck. Provided I can get the editing it needs finished, it will be entered as well.

HURRY, HURRY! Early bird deadline is July 1st but they will accept entries until August 14th. The Expo is in LA and the GOLD PASS is just under $300.

See you there!!

What Are You Listening To?

I wanted to drop a quick note here to let you know what I'm listening to.

I've heard this movie did not do well/people didn't like it. I don't understand why; I have an idea, but still..."I, Robot" is a great movie. Okay, checked it out; I, Robot made only $52 mil on opening weekend. Not too shabby until you consider the budget of $120 mil. Latest earnings say $144 mil, so, technically you could say it did not do well "at the box office." I still love the movie!

Anyway, you can't watch I, Robot without also going back and watching "Independence Day" aka ID4. Which, in my opinion is another great sci-fi flic.

With that said, ID4's commentary by it's director(s) takes a backseat to I, Robot's writer and director commentary. However, it does gain points for also having a technical commentary track.

I won't go into great detail here, it's late, and I've only listened to them a couple of times. Starting with I, Robot, Akiva Goldsman was the final writer for this movie. He does more of the talking than, director, Alex Proyas which, for me being more of a writer (at this point), is just fine. And it is not until now that I realize (IMDB tab open) all the mega-movies he's responsible (in some part) for writing: Practical Magic, A Beautiful Mind, Cinderella Man, DaVinci Code just to name a few! (Side note: Looks like he's doing another Wil Smith movie called I Am Legend. Gonna have to research that one.)

Back to the commentary, Goldsman, like Mann on Collateral, gives you a lot of insite into the characters. This can be quite boring unless you're a writer. However, he is telling you things, as a writer, you should know about the character but won't necessarily show up in the script. Kinda like back story, but again, it's more for the writer to allow himself to create a fuller, more believable character. The reader (or movie patron) may never know nor need to know these things about a given character, yet will benefit from it nonetheless. They also talked a lot about their idea of what a "robot" movie should be and ways they worked around cliches.

Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to rip or even listen to the technical commentary for ID4, which I'm sure is more informational (learning-wise) than the regular commentary. This (and it is a director and writer) commentary was really one of those "although you can watch it on the screen yourself, I'm going to tell you what's happening anyway" and "here's a bit of trivia for you" kinda commentaries. These were fine back in the day, but for the enthusiastic "Flic Maker" like you and me, we'll pass on it! Great movie though.

If you've listened to any good commentaries lately, let me know. I'm sure I'll edit this one with a few more specifics.

Keep listening, keep writing!

Talk is Cheap

And so should making flics be. We just wrapped a two-day shoot on a short flic sequel. Yeah, it's a sequel. In fact, the project will be a trilogy once we're finished.

The project started last year when my buddy and I formed our production company (in name only, so far) and decided that "if we're going to make movies, then we'd better get out there and do it!" We both wrote scripts and actually got excited to do one I'd written. But due to location difficulties we went with one of his.

We had a script. All we needed was equipment, actors, locations, and time. Hmm, did you see money in there anywhere? Nope. In reality, the two shorts have so far cost us about $30 bucks. The expenses being, a couple of cafe mocha's ($8), four Sony DVC tapes ($17), and one parking space ($6.50). How much is that? Oh, $31.50! And, uh, stretch that over a year's time.

How'd we do it? Let's go down the list starting with equipment. Here's what we used: Canon XL2 digital camera, lights, boom mic, cables. $0 dollars. Remember in a previous blog I stated to check with your local broadcasting channel? Ours loans equipment for FREE. There is a catch (always). We have to let them BROADCAST what we film!--I suppose I should tell you how I arranged it. I had been listening to many podcasts on flic making, many commentaries, etc. Training myself, basically. When I went in to talk about the equipment, I (at the very least) sounded like I knew what I was doing. I talked the talk. Another thing. I'm an older guy, and care about my appearance somewhat. So my maturity level probably showed through a little. If your a young flic maker and you plan on talking to older, adults about that kind of stuff, be mature about it. You don't have to dress up, but don't go in there all dirty, draggin' your skateboard.

Second was actors. We used people we knew. It just so happened that these people all want to write or act or something in the industry...or maybe they just liked movies. When you decide who your actors are going to be, my only real suggestion is, make sure they can act (at least a little). Or if they can be "directed". That will help you out as well. Okay, and obviously, work for free. Let them know up front that there's no money in it. Let them know it's for fun but also you plan to enter it into a film festival or some contest. That, in turn, gives them incentive to do it and do it well.

Locations, tricky. Our first short was cut short due to location. But for our second, we actually filmed at a major airport. I'm not 100% sure how he did it but I think it was along the lines of just calling and asking the right person. Explaining what our plan was and how many would be involved. It may have been different if we'd planned a huge action sequence, or simply running through the airport. So use your judgement. You pretty much know what you can and can not get away with. Then we used a coffee shop I'd been going to awhile and had been friendly with. Oh, and I promised them a free commercial. It helps to have something to offer, especially a small business.

On this most recent shoot we were in a public place, a ferry terminal to be exact, outside. We have a minimal crew and one cam, not alot of setup. So no one bothered us. It also worked out if people were staring since the story involved a popular actor out in public. How else would people act?! And our final location was an empty parking garage (for the torture scene, no less). It's a comedy, so there wasn't real torture. But this is where we paid for one parking stall just in case we were going to get hassled by security. Well, we didn't. In fact, I can't believe how empty it stayed for the 4 hours we were there. Hm, pick a Sunday evening to shoot there! That's probably why.

Time was probably the hardest, especially for our lead actor who lived out of town. I had to call in sick. So, I suppose it cost me a days pay...ouch! But damn! How therapeutic!! I won't miss it.

And that's it, a two part movie for $30 bucks. As an idie using digital, your biggest expenses will be your tapes and time. So get out there and start making it happen. You'll be glad you did

Keep writing, keep fliccing!