dead red eyes

In 2013, there is a movie titled “In The House”. But I didn’t quite understand why they needed to call it that, other than for consumer convenience.  “Dans La Maison” (its original title in 2012) was fine. The 2013 release in the US is in French with English subtitles and that’s fine with me, in fact I’m glad they didn’t try a full on revision (and gone are the days of dubbed over movies). Still, why remarket the title when having the title in French might help broadcast the movie name a bit better.  “In the House” just sounds cheesier too (as if one of those dance-off movies from a few years back!)

However, this post isn’t about the movie above, which has done well in film festivals around the world. I haven’t really seen any of François Ozon’s movies, but have heard some hype and wouldn’t mind checking this film out.

Instead, it reminded me of two things (and a need to keep posting even though time is a hot commodity). One was a friend of mine who over the years loves to say “Dans la Maison”. Secondly was the annoyance behind movie titles finding the need to be translated. Unless its “that” bad a translation, where you find it amusing.  Such as this excuse for making another top 10 list.

Top 10 Amusingly Translated Movie Titles:

The English Patient = Do Not Ask Me Who I Am – Ever. (China)

As Good as it Gets = Mr Cat Poop (China again, where allegedly the main characters name sounds like the word for Cat Poop)

Grease = Vaseline (Venezuela)

Never Been Kissed – Because She’s Ugly (Philippines)

Bad Santa – Santa is a Pervert (Czech republic)

Pretty Woman = I Will Marry a Prostitute to Save Money (also China, where they like to make the title very descriptive)

Die Hard – Mega Hard (Denmark), in fact several countries have odd translations for this series.

The Full Monty = released as “6 Naked Pigs” or “Six Stripped Warriors” in China based on language (Cantonese/Mandarin)

Dodgeball – Full of the Nuts (Germany)

Dr No = We Don’t Want a Doctor (Japan)

Kept this pretty slack, as it turns out there are loads of lists of these around the web, so if you’re looking for more, check out http://www.denofgeek.us/movies/13782/50-movie-titles-that-got-lost-in-translation or http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/films/50-funniest-movie-title-translations - though you’ll see some of these might even be made up.  For instance, “Matrix” in France was not what some of these people say it is.

Or for example, some say, Lost In Translation was translated to “Meetings and Failures in Meetings” over in Portugal.  Not True.  It was “o Amor É um Lugar Estranho” or “Love in Translation”.  http://cinema.sapo.pt/filme/lost-in-translation/poster/73d1df369f0a10498386771da63e853d

In fact its weird where some of these came from, I guess its the whole ability to make up stuff online! Anyway, let us know any other good ones (real or rumoured) that you know of.

Ok, end of quick break, back to writing again.

So I did the outline as per the post http://www.deadredeyes.com/how-to-write-a-screenplay-in-one-day - practicing what I preach of course – and it technically took a month, but also took only a day if not less when going by time.  Over the past month I had an hour here and an hour there at best, and so this added into the time I took to do an outline.  Overall, I spent about 10-12 hours on it total, which I think is a decent day’s worth if you can pull it off.

I’m happy with the story, its a light hearted comedy, so quite flexible too and probably comes in at a relatively short 90 minutes.  Originally I wanted to use a more dramatic and semi-personal idea, but it got the best of me and added negative vibes to an already stressful schedule.  So I reverted to comedy to relieve me in this case.

I ended up with just about 80 scenes laid out in an Excel Spreadsheet, with the columns of :

- Scene Number (which explains itself, though for some continuous sequences I would do 1a, 1b, etc)

- Outline (whats the scene doing, whos’ what, etc)

- Location (slugline in some ways, INT, EXT, that sort of thing)

- Main characters (who’s this scene focusing on)

- Estimated duration (when acted out in my head at least, rounded to the nearest 10 or 15 seconds, many scenes would be 30 to 90 seconds for instance, while faster sequences 15)

- Notes (more for me to notate in the scene if relevant)

So now is the next part.  How does this transition into a full length screenplay?  Will it be something I can easily churn out pages from and not worry about the outline, because I have already connected the loose ends?  Any guesses on how long it could take?  Hopefully equal to or less than this stage.

And I made sure it answered the common questions for writing a screenplay… such as:

- Do you characters have a reason to be there?

- Does each scene / line have meaning or relevance to moving the story?  Hmm, maybe not “meaning” if its a comedy, but you get the idea.

- Is there the right level of background and transition (not every scene has to lead through and onto the next for instance)?

- Did you come up with an idea for storyline (including the end) before you started writing it?

- Would you watch it?

Anyway, a bit of an interim post, but figured I’d document how its progressing, whether anyone is listening or not.  Hopefully will have an update soon.

I read an article this week at http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/edelstein-documentary-is-better-than-filmmaking.html - and wanted to do more than drop a mention and a tweet, however time was slim, as somehow this week’s been action packed.

Still, the thought lingered for more than a minute, so I was convinced it had me wanting to open it up for discussion. Why are documentaries somewhat hip now, where they used to make people cringe back in the days?  My thought was that not only are the stories more in depth, but visually because the gap has grown between how documentaries and mainstream films look – that the visual feel of these movies have that natural sort of comfort to it.

Films at home on DVD or in the theater are “sharp” these days.  Too sharp perhaps.  But VHS tapes with a slight decay to the visual sharpness were just as captivating too.  Film tries to look too refined, too real these days.  The art has perhaps transitioned from story line to presentation and technique.  But who’s really buying all this CGI “that” much more than handcrafted effects in the past (you could fit the blade runner city on your desk and it may look amateur now but did it affect the movie that much?  would it have been that different if they replaced that with a fully customized effect with a living population?). Has it changed the experience of the movie that much? If so, please chime in. Personally though one of the great things about documentaries is that it has a bit of a blur to it. Its not as sharp visually or audio-wise.  Plus the storylines are pretty good too these days.

PS: Warmth in these documentary images below was taken from the article pic, linked above and also in New York magazine, though I couldn’t find their version online. If so, I’ll link to that too.

Almost 6 months to the day, we thought about finally getting our act together, taking things a bit more seriously perhaps. We always had an interest in film and writing, but couldn’t quite get it off the ground. Life got in the way.

We had to make ends meet, we weren’t quite ready for the critique yet, confidence fluctuated, ideas came and then became blurry. Time flew by. The latter continues to keep going at an increasing pace – backing my firm belief in how life is proportionate. For those that don’t know, its the whole theory that when you’re 10, a year is 10% of your life and thus seems like quite a long time (even summer breaks took a while).  Where as when you are 33, each year is just over 3% and things become a bit more blurry.  When 50, this drops down to 2% and so on.

However, that’s perhaps best reserved for another post. This is more for Dead Red Eyes, which was started in late October 2012. For some background, its probably no shock that I’ve always been inspired by writing, inspired by film. At least I used to be. The last few years were not the case, and very little was written once other immediate requirements occupied my life. So perhaps this is about putting that effort, making it count this time.  Only problem is some things haven’t changed since my early 20′s, other than I can actually pay my rent and not have to crash around and move all the time, yeah that’s probably a plus! I may have gained experience work-wise in a completely different industry, thus my writing and film knowledge has receded – or has it. Perhaps more experience in any manner of life helps, if you have the time to harness it.

Several things inspired these last six months for me.  While I can’t fully speak for everyone else, here’s what I think kicked things off.

Motivation and People. I’m glad to be working on this with people who are motivated (somehow managing to squeeze in acting on stage, filming, writing and multiple jobs), especially when I might not be at times (my day job takes up the biggest cut of my time, but there are other factors too – whether personal or creative) and need to keep things on track, or at least a reminder. Props to all those that can go it alone, however I’ve recently realized I am not one of them. Especially nowadays, when other aspects of your life are fighting for time, you need to manage things as well as you can.

Unfortunately, if its not as pressing, you push things back. That’s why I think we’re all grateful for the collaboration element. Sometimes you need others to push things forward. Back in October, I was able to help Justin finish off a screenplay he had been working on for a while, but perhaps wasn’t quite ready to let go of.  Later on in the year, Bryan and Justin were able to collaborate on getting a couple of short scripts and film them in very quick succession with the help of some great actors and people overall. The least I could do was help out where possible with the scripts and the soundtracks to them (as per my other current push with music, which I also couldn’t do by myself, as much as I used to once think so). Have also had a hand in getting the word out there, whether with this site, or by testing the waters of various film festival events.  Pushing the name is certainly something I want to be able to dedicate more resource in the coming months too.

So far we’ve fared ok. Nothing spectacular, but a start. We’ve submitted the two short films – “Alphabet Soup” & “The Torment” to just a few festivals, however its a slow turnaround, and some of these are several months away still – so I guess we’re in suspense for the most part.  Going against the unwritten rules, we’ve also been rejected a couple of times.  Of course, we’ve also pushed the screenplay, in this case “The Havenots”.  It’s early days, and we’d be naïve to think we’re going to rack up awards from the get go – and so some of it is to build a bit of a portfolio.  We had some positive feedback including The Havenots making it as a finalist (but missing the cut on the top 10) at the Richmond Film Festival, which was a nice tease for the first stage perhaps.  A few years ago it might have hit home a bit more, but instead it felt like we finally shook off the rust and could improve on it – and thus we’re working on a few different screenplays, some of which I’m pretty much narrating how the process goes for, as per my recent obsession with outlines for instance.

Without sounding too cheesy, that’s the main lesson we’ve learned. It takes a while to establish oneself, and we’ve only just begun. That said, we’re looking forward to turning things up a notch in the next six months, and then likely realizing 6 months later that we still have a ways to go.  But we’ll get there.

P.S: Other miscellaneous learnings include:

- Over 1,100 visitors have been on this site, which might not be saying much, as I’ve worked on sites that get way more.  But considering we had nothing a few months ago, its a start.

- Feb was our biggest month for overall visits, which is when the films went live on site too I think.  Though April has already brought more search traffic than any other previous month.

- 90% of them are from the US, 4% from the UK, then its pretty evenly split with one or two visit each amongst 19 other countries

- We get a fair bit of search traffic for “baseball movies 2013”

- Twitter brings us more traffic than Facebook

- We made 32 posts in 26 weeks

- There are two short films on the site, though more people went to the trailer page than the full length

We often hear about how Hollywood is churning out sequels left and right more so today than ever before. Even movies that were not that big are getting sequels these days (example: Grown Ups 2), or even movies that were full on flops (Smurfs 2?!), or sequels that should have long been killed (Scary Movie 5, Fast and Furious 6 – and part 7 is set for a 2015 release, Bourne 5, etc). But it’s not ending any time soon, because the business is of playing it safe and releasing “sure shots” when it comes to movies generating revenue even if the actual movie is crap.

Interesting list of sequels in the works at http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/24211/111-movie-sequels-currently-in-the-works

Even movie sequels you left for dead “The Last Exorcist, Part II”, let alone “Bill And Ted 3” and “Blade Runner 2” are looking to cash in. And while “A Good Day To Die Hard” would technically be Die Hard 5, they’ve already planned a part 6!!! Or 21 Jump Street 2 (which isn’t even based on the TV show, but taking the branding of it as a marketing chip). This lack of creativity in Hollywood perhaps?! Even first parts are based on existing stories such as comic books or novels. And while many of these blockbusters are not my thing, I’ve seen a few of these in the cinema thanks to various friends of mine convincing me its worth a shot. Perhaps there are a couple that I didn’t mine, but then again, some of these movies that people loved, I felt were horrendous. Even the special effects looked too much the C in CGI. This used to really frustrate me when I was younger. WTF is with these movies, where’s the plot, etc.

It doesn’t bother me anymore though and I attribute a good portion of it to a couple of people telling me (on separate occasions but within the same month) several years ago that its mainly because when they go see movies, they want to “escape”. They want to veg out, escape their day and be entertained. Upon hearing this, it clicked. Not everyone is a film snob, wannabe writer, director, actor, etc. Most people don’t mind playing it safe and seeing a sequel to something that they know they liked, or seeing a movie because a one-liner and some special effects that make fictional things come true on the big screen looked cool and can compensate for any bad acting. Movies don’t always have to be memorable or meaningful I learned. So I thought and realized, yeah sure, I like a lot of comedies that in many people’s eyes are pretty stupid perhaps. However, its unique, it’s focusing on the acting, the delivery. But there’s more to it than that. Escapism indeed is a big source of why people watch these movies. And that factor peaks more at certain times. When times are tough, more people want to escape. When attention spans are short, more people want to escape. And both of these were factors recently.

When the economies are good, more descriptive flicks make it to the big time. Think about the wave of documentaries that crashed ashore in 2004-2008 (actually there still is a lot of strong documentary films out there, but its reverted to a more artist/critic based fan base). Or how movies transitioned in the 80’s to 90’s and then blew up into more of a business model. Thinking about compiling research on this, I looked around for info and things that could back up or counter this argument: and for the former, things like this piece from the LA Times – http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/26/entertainment/ca-chocano26

Or this detailed research piece at http://akinokure.blogspot.com/2012/07/sequels-and-adaptations-in-popular.html – where he “went through every year from 1936 to 2011 and tallied how many movies in the box office top 10 were a sequel or adaptation”. Though this can be misleading, as a top 10 list does not a market overview make, however still a great start (and way more time spent than I could pull off, so much thanks to this person, who has a few really good reads on his blog overall by the way) – and this graphic shows the recent explosion of sequels.

However, the level of adaptations (usually a book that gets made into a movie, so still more unique than say a sequel) has been around for a while. The study and blog post around it, compares movie sequel trends and escapism to some extent with homicide rates rather than economies, however traditionally crime and bad economies do go hand in hand, so I felt that this was a good resource of info when looking to get some data myself. And it backed up my thoughts about creativity in movies correlating with “boom times”, such as the 60’s and 80’s, and lack of during down times like the 70’s, early 90’s, and the 2008 wave when the economy took a hit (which in years prior such as 2004-2007 was a big documentary run).

Despite the recent recovery, there was been a down trend in box office revenue, as feeding sequels out one after another seems to be running out of gas. And maybe people want substance sometimes, or at least the right mix of it. As per this quote on http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/17/movie-attendance-economy-recession_n_1097904.html – where “Stephanie” a woman in her 20’s commented “The end product doesn’t have to be a mishmash of expensive stunts and large explosions. If there’s something a little more interesting happening underneath the surface with that script and with the main characters, I’m going to walk away from the theater much more satisfied and likely to return” – so perhaps its not just me after all?

Overall, its a piece I’d like to build on when I get more time, but the thing is, its not a surprise to see that film is a business like many others, and like in other industries, it takes a few standout pieces to revolutionize it and push things forward within that industry. Do we think we can contribute that? We hope so, and that drives us. But unlike when I was in my youth, I know not everything has to have that message and there are many reasons people will like something. Good acting, good stories, good scene/visuals that feel real, and most importantly good delivery, that’s something we want when putting down money to see a film whether as a means of escaping or not.

Note: This post was tweeted with the hashtag #2013movies - and I discovered that there’s a lot of enthusiasm for this summer’s crop of movies, mainly commenting about the more anticipated sequels.  One guy even commented that movies need not be good for this summer’s crop, just get them out in 3D. Escapism is in full swing I guess!

So, one thing I’ve been working on with the three screenplays currently in progress is efficiency. Outlining, writing when you are in a good flow, a good state of mind is key. Some days I am full of ideas and hooks that come from every direction. Some days I am useless. However what used to happen is when I was on the wave of creativitiy, I’d start writing, and a few scenes and pages later, it might fade or the time may have passed and I’ve got to leave/go/sleep/work/eat/acknowledge others. And while I’d be happy that I fit in a couple of hours and got some ideas down, I wish I could get more value for that.

I’ve already gone on about how outlining a screenplay is so important and the element of modern convenience is useful too, in an age and time where we seem to have a lot of the former but none of the latter. As I am still a long way away from developing an iOS app for screenwriting, let alone testing out the competition – I am still concentrating on what I’d want it to do in the first place. And I found an odd candidate for doing this. Microsoft Excel! I hate Excel, as what it stands for is something that eats up a fair bit of my work day, but at the same time, I see myself use it in more and more non-work scenarios.

The other day I had a couple hours to spare. And this was rare. So I knew I needed to make the most of it. One of my recent screenplay ideas was scribbled on a piece of paper. This is the first tip on how to write a screenplay in one day HAVE AN IDEA IN THE FIRST PLACE. So anyone expecting some magical trick here is out of luck. You need to know what you’re going to write about, how it will start, what sort of story it is, and how it will end.

But lets say you have an idea and you know how it will flow, how it will start, end and some main character elements. Open MS Excel. Create a spreadsheet with the following columns in the first row. Scene number, Outline, Location, Characters, Estimated Time, Notes, Hook Relation. Don’t worry, this isn’t advanced Excel 101, just some basic ways you can use it to your advantage.

So in this chart, we show how writing is a business and an art.

The “scene number” explains itself, the first one is 1, and so on. Outline is basically a summary of what the scene is, what’s the message, who’s in, and maybe a snippet of dialogue or how the vibe of that scene is overall. Then for Location we are looking at the traditional Location line, such as “EXT. PARK – NIGHT” for a outdoor scene in the park at night time.

“Characters” – this is where you list the main characters of the scene, so you can track who is involved where. Estimated time is a column formatted as a number where you indicate how many seconds you think the scene might take if you imagine it. No need to be too specific, think 15 for quick transitions, 30 for visual layouts, 45 for regular scenes, 60 for longer scenarios, 90 for large scale transitions with scenery/dialogue/interaction – use your judgement. Set yourself a total number of seconds as a target and put this as an equation on the sheet if need be. I do something like =SUM(E4:E150)/60
Where I total up the time estimates and divide by 60 to see an automatic update on how long into the plot I am.

“Notes” are more for you, if you have an idea of what should be in the scene or what should be referenced, put it here. Last but not least “Hook relation”. Every scene has to mean something in the plot. And sometimes its hard to keep track of a scene you wrote in page 7 when you are up to page 77. So desginate a hook note if its something you want to parlay into the script later – so as you build your plot, you can reconnect the hook into a loop, and thus layer your plot lines accordingly.

When you are in the flow, this is a great way to get your ideas moving and when you have a 2-3 hours with the creativity flowing, I was able to get close to 40 minutes of the story in place, as well as loose ideas for later scenes, open hooks that I need to close and how the ending will work out. I figure if someone gave me a whole day for this or a couple more 3 hour sessions, I’d be done with the outline. Then when I have less time and less creative flow, I can write out according to the outline.

Moving back to the spreadsheet though, there are other ways it can help you with establishing the outline and thus making the write up much smoother. Remember when I mentioned to make each column a different element, such as location? Highlight that top row and in the top menu of Excel (in the home menu tab on Excel 2007 at least) go to “Editing” and select “sort filter” and then “Filter”. Little arrows will go next to each of your column headers. Click on it and you can sort each column by location, character, scene number, etc. The filter option allows the rest of the columns to follow suit when shuffling up the spreadsheet. This way you can see which characters are getting more usage, which locations you have overused, etc. And to reset it back to “Scene order” just order by the first column of “scene number” and we’ll be back to the order of the scenes. I didn’t even really need to use this till after I had 30+ scenes in the spreadsheet, but its useful if you have a full length layout and need to polish up some aspects and/or make sure your plot hooks are closed up before doing your final write up.

Then from that, doing the final write up in proper screenplay format – well, its going to be faster than you’ve ever written up a screenplay before. And you’ll be able to freshly reference the excel sheet (which perhaps you have printed as reference for when you write the full version) in a way that you’ll remember each little bit about the plot, and make it more layered and cohesive overall. Was able to write up 20 pages from it in a 2 or 3 hours, so given a long day, it could be done. However, you will probably need to give it another final look at a later day, and read through, act it out accordingly (if you’re lucky enough to have a co-writer, that is one huge benefit). So its more like outline day 1, write up day 2, review day 3 and you’ll be pretty exhausted, but it can be done, and if you have that great idea, you dont want to let it fade. I’ve heard of books that say how to write a screenplay in 10 days. This method will at least reduce that.

Disclaimer: In reality, these days are spread out. Most people are only lucky enough to have an hour here and there to spare (as is the case with me doing insane hours at work, trying to have a life and not annoying the wife). So when saying a day or two, I mean two sets of 8-10 hours. If you have full 12+ hours to spare every day, well…. make the most of it! And obviously the question of a screenplay being “done” is another discussion.

Note: Some people don’t have Excel nor are willing to pay for it. However, Google Docs or Open office offer similar programs for free. I haven’t used them in a while, but for the basic spreadsheet layout, I assume these would suffice too.

Forget March Madness and good luck finding 10 Easter movies anyway. Spring is here, though it sure doesn’t feel the case and its been way too long since we did an old fashioned top ten post. So, in time for opening day tomorrow, here are a top 10 of Baseball Movies. We also realized that some baseball movies are pretty bad. Other than these.

1) The Natural (1984) – It’s quite a slow paced movie, which makes me wonder how I was more suited to watch it and enjoy it 20 years ago, but it was “that” good. I tried not to commit an order to this list, but its hard to find a baseball movie better than this one. And, from a voting perspective, this was an easy winner.

2) Moneyball (2011) – Solid movie, and though Pitt and Jonah Hill get all the credit, I think Philip Seymour Hoffman was pretty good in this movie too, even if the person he played in the movie (Art Howe) was furious about it and hasn’t had a job since (hopefully happily retired at least).

3) Major League (1989) – Comedy, baseball, late 80′s, uh-oh, likely a movie that I’ll like. Plenty of useless banter too for an Indians franchise that hasn’t won much in recent years in reality either.

4) Field of Dreams (1989) – If you build it, they will come. Everyone knows this line. It’s also Kevin Costner’s best movie, take what you want from that statement. Ray Liotta and James Earl Jones also were good in this movie too. Haven’t seen it in a while though, and perhaps some stories are best left as is.

5) Road to the big Leagues (2008) – Hats off to the 2013 WBC Champions. Great documentary about baseball in the Dominican Republic, and not like that other baseball documentary in 1994, which was 18 hours long.

6)The Bad News Bears (1976, certainly not the 2005 remake!) – Classic movie that I enjoyed as a kid, but for them to try a 2005 remake was pointless. Things are too politically correct now. Which is a shame, because the 1976 one had some gems in it.

7) Brewster’s Millions (1985) – More of an off-field movie perhaps, but I have to admit, nostalgia plays some role here, as I found this movie hilarious when I was a kid. Plus it had Richard Pryor and John Candy. What says mid-80′s better than that? The downside is that you realize years later some athletes actually spend just as irrationally.

8) Unknown / Kokoyakyu (2008?) – I saw a random Japanese baseball documentary while on a plane from Japan. It made no sense verbally, yet I still was captivated by it and watched it (perhaps because all the other channels were in Japanese too, except some CNN nonsense). And it is not Kokoyakyu, though that seems to have a similar perspective and that one is worth a mention here too. Only difference is the one I saw on the plane had big league teams like the Seibu Lions in it. Hoping someone tells me the name of it!

9) The Sandlot (1993) – Two movies that are similar in some ways, but totally at other ends of the spectrum in some ways too. The Sandlot take you back in the era when movies for nostalgia circa generations past were quite upbeat (was released in 1993, but could have passed for a movie done earlier).

10) The Rookie (2002) – Yes its cheesy, but its a true story, disney-fied to some extent perhaps. Perhaps I’m giving credit to the actual story behind the movie rather than the movie though? However, what could have easily been “made for TV” style, was actually a decent showing.

11) Baseketball (1998) – Damn, this was 15 years ago? I put this at number 11, as I know plenty of people won’t count this as a baseball movie. But I don’t plan on making a base-ketball list!

Honorable mentions, movies I haven’t seen and other people’s suggestions: Bull Durham (which I know a lot of people would put on their own top 10), The Babe, A League of Their Own, Bang The Drum Slowly, Eight Men Out.

Missed anything? Probably, but there are 3 strikes allowed. Either way, enjoy opening day. If movies had any say, those Hollywood teams would win one this year.

In between working on various screenplays and short films, there’s somehow time for acting on-stage as well. In particular, The Marowitz Hamlet, which is a free adaptation and an alternate take of Shakespeare’s Hamlet from a different standpoint. This version unfolds in a stream of consciousness, like the glimpses of rapid memory flashes in Hamlet’s final moments.

Marowitz has drastically shortened Hamlet for this version, from a traditionally five-act, four-hour story down to about 90 minutes, inter-cutting characters, scenes, and events with one another, while leaving the plot intact and providing the viewer with a modern remix that brings familiarity along with new insights and emphasis on the sub-plot.

Featured in this adaptation of Hamlet is our own Justin Mejia (playing the part of Fortinbras). The production will run March 27-30, 2013 at Common Ground Theatre – 4815b Hillsborough Rd. Durham, NC 27705
Performances are Wednesday through Saturday at 8:00 pm and Saturday at 2 pm.

For map and ticket information as well as more details on the rest of the case – http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/283144

Tickets are $15 general admission, $12 for seniors, students, and children. For more information about the production, please call 919-339-1558.

Over the years I’ve had many an idea for a screenplay (often while intoxicated though). And I start it eager to plow through what I think is an awesome scene here and there, profound or hilarious or sometimes a combo of the two dialogue wise, a cool character mix and a story that has that right level of everything. I’ll burn through the first 10 or so pages that night and think, damn, this will be the shit. And then it fades out. Suddenly the script of many dreams has reached a dead end, or it goes off on a tangent that makes no sense. You try to keep going with it, catching occassional inspiration and rewrite motivations – to the point where the story was nothing like your initial idea. Not too long later, the story becomes another half script casualty. You’ve lost the plot, the scene transition is non-existent, its missing the hook and you have no idea how it was supposed to end anyway.

Yeah, I’ll admit, I’ve written a fair few screenplays where I either had no idea what the ending would be, or completely lost my way there. I just had a great idea and ran with it, and then one day wondered where the hell I was running to. And I know other people that have done this too over the years. In fact, not too long ago I thought thats how they all did it.

Now I know that this is also why people have unfinished screenplays. So here’s my advice, what I’ve learned (told you this blog would take you through the learnings too after all….). If you plan on writing a screenplay based on an idea one day and start writing dialogue, scenes, etc…. you are in trouble. It will usually fade out. Not always, as I’ve definately finished a few this way…. but the odds are against you.

Nowadays I have much less free time on my hands, and so sitting down and writing up loads of scenes is something that I rarely am able to do. However, I still manage to get some ideas every now and then, and scribble them down like old times. Instead of writing out a script, it made sense to just outline the scenes for now. Make this easier to convert into a full length, figure out what the plot is in the first place, figure out how it will end, get an idea of the structure overall before digging deep into character specifics like dialogue quirks. Then, when I have some time, yet not feeling too creative, I can churn through scenes quite fast and develop the properly structured screenplay. An outline takes much less time and allows you to get the most from your creative flow as well – those moments where you just have inspiration and ideas a plenty.

because we still print them out?

Either way, this is what I’m experimenting on a current screenplay, and it is working well. Very efficient time-wise too. Hopefully it will be converted relatively fast, and due to the outline (which was done very quickly), easy to keep track of what and where regarding plot and characters. It’s interesting to be able to write this way and I feel more confident with building the story idea while the creative juices are flowing – then finalizing and tweaking as I lay it out as a full length. It all makes sense. It’s also odd that they don’t really tell you to do this when you learn about screenwriting. But they should.

And perhaps to some slight disappointment (as its not some first time discovery that will revolutionize screenwriting, just something I feel like I was late to learn on), its also referred to by various other people. Such as this one at http://www.writersstore.com/outlining-your-script-or-story/ – quote: “writing a long, complex piece, such as a novel or screenplay from an outline will make the entire process easier, less angst-ridden, and — except for those of you with masochistic tendencies — far more pleasurable and satisfying. And, as with the Great Ones, your finished story will be better.”

And there are various tools to help you manage your outline a bit better when you have that idea.

So yes, I’m sold on outlines, not just its convinced me that the next one I write will require less “rewrite time”. However I still have ideas that will make this faster and even more efficient when translating thoughts and ideas to screenplays. I’ll save that for a later post though. Time to write up the current outline for now….. after all, its not going to write itself up, yet.

Read the commentary about the making of the movie here (opens in new screen).