Good question, my apologies for not posting for the past few months! Instead of my usual ramblings I'll make a handy list of what I've been working on:
1. Finished the outline and am working on a first draft of a traditional ghost story
2. Wrote a short (15 minutes or so) drama that I plan to film in late November or early December.
3. Started a business developing iPhone apps Direct purchase link and you can follow us at twitter.com/sinecureind there's also more info on our website at Sinecureindustries.com
5. Had my romantic comedy viewed by Village Filmworks, Big Picture Studios, Crandall Productions, LA Feature Film Academy, Ryan Spindell and Sunipa Pictures. Unfortunately I haven't heard back from any of them but you never know.
6. Ling Pan has had 350 views on youtube without me really pushing it, so that's kind of a cool feeling, I should really look into getting that in a short film festival somewhere
7. Today's my birthday, yay.
I'm hoping this new business venture will pan out so that I have both the free time and money to keep filming my own films. Why focus on selling a screenplay (though it would be nice) when I can make the films myself exactly how I envision them? Ling Pan was such a wonderful experience that I'd love to keep doing it. Here's hoping! And hey, for $0.99 you can contribute to my dream :p
P.S. - I'll be looking for actors for my drama in the next month or so; if you're in the NJ area, like working for free and keep weird hours, drop me a line
Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
Showing posts with label film. Show all posts
Friday, October 9, 2009
Monday, September 29, 2008
The Pangs of Withdrawal and the Agony of Defeat
The other day I just realized I had not done any writing for the past two months. That's a bad thing. The feeling I had started as kind of an empty feeling, deep down in the pit of my stomach, then it kind of worked its way into my extremities and finally settled into my brain. I felt sort of... off. It's somewhat hard to describe but it is kind of a jittery, not finished feeling. As if there is something to do and I cannot remember what it is - but it's driving me mad.
That's what I put two and two together and sat down to do some writing. I knocked out fifteen pages of my comedy script (which I'm debating whether to start over on) and came up with two new ideas. Another horror film, this time not a slasher, and a romantic comedy of all things. the romantic comedy sort of stems from my own screenwriting issues so I can draw from a lot of real life instances with that.
The more I thought about writing and the more I wrote things and came up with ideas the more settled I seemed to feel. Of course now I need to keep up with it. I woke up today in a rather melancholy mood, bordering on severely blah. It being Monday certainly cannot be helping but I feel an underlying dissatisfaction with the way things have been going lately.
Behind Suburbia has not placed in any screenplay contests even though it has gotten unanimously positive feedback - in fact - all of the feedback thus far has said to make no story or dialogue changes whatsoever (I'm still "off" on my visual/descriptive action lines though, not bad, could be better). So what's the problem?
I'm thinking the slasher genre is not something that wins screenplay awards. Even horror screenplay contest awards. Mind you I'm not copping out on this one, but reading the log lines and summaries of the winners it's apparent that I did not create a screenplay that was innovative enough to merit an award. It's a solid story, the dialogue is great, it stays within the genre but promises to go above and beyond story wise (which I've been told it does) - but when it comes down to it, it's a slasher movie. I think it's good, reviewers think it's good, it's just doesn't have that genre-breaking completely innovative never-been-done-ever feel that they want to showcase as winners.
Maybe I'll throw in an M. Night Shaymalan ending and have the kids be already dead. Oh! Or the kids are being killed because THEY are the monsters. Yeah! Cop-out! No! No! The kids are dead monsters that-
If this were the 80's perhaps I'd have a leg up on the competition but then again I was 8 years old in 1990, so that may have been rough. Maybe I can invent a time machine, go back, and reinvent the slasher genre when it was more popular - thus making it so the future me wouldn't write the screenplay because it was already finishing making it so I don't invent the time machine and and and *explodes*
I am getting a lot of views on inktip, so that's something. I have a good log line but so far there have been no contact from anyone that has downloaded the screenplay. After Dark films has looked at my synopsis and log line four times. FOUR TIMES! If a low budget slasher isn't perfect for that horror fest, I don't know what is. I went to that festival last year, I liked Bordertown (Borderland?), Tooth & Nail and The Many Deaths of Ian Stone was interesting but the rest were pretty bleah. I think Behind Suburbia would be a good fit simply because you can low ball the budget and not come out with special effects that look like something Troma would put out. Nothing against Troma, they put that stuff out on purpose, that's all. All I need is gore, in fact, go buy a bucket of entrails from a butcher and mission accomplished!
AT ANY RATE - I'm sprucing up the visual descriptions (again) with more adverbs. I'm gingerly adding adverbs. Or furtively. All that science in college did not leave much room for visual descriptions aside from "it turned red" so this is really something I have to work on. Maybe I can saunter to the bookstore and nonchalantly skim a few books before hunkering down to sadistically tap away at my keyboard. I think.
Once I do that I'm going to resubmit it for Script P.I.M.P. development to see if I can bump it up a notch. Maybe I can have some more people look at the script and garner some more interest from people that want a slasher movie. Heck, I'll give the thing away if it means it will actually get filmed - because once you have a credit to you, you have it, darn it.
Oh! In other news, my film (well, my short film) Finding David is nearly complete. I took some seminars on editing, got a sound editor, did a lot of work and the craptacular piece of garbage Snubbing David Cross has been transformed into something I'm actually kind of happy with. Maybe I'll be able to get it into a festival and someone will say, "hey, this guy should get a budget to make a real movie" and I will squeal with delight.
As long as I'm dreaming I'd like to also hit the lottery - but we'll see.
Now that business school has started (I'm working on my MBA to see about making more money to fund my screenwriting/film endeavours) I'll be looking for ways to avoid homework so expect some more updates, well, relatively speaking.
That's what I put two and two together and sat down to do some writing. I knocked out fifteen pages of my comedy script (which I'm debating whether to start over on) and came up with two new ideas. Another horror film, this time not a slasher, and a romantic comedy of all things. the romantic comedy sort of stems from my own screenwriting issues so I can draw from a lot of real life instances with that.
The more I thought about writing and the more I wrote things and came up with ideas the more settled I seemed to feel. Of course now I need to keep up with it. I woke up today in a rather melancholy mood, bordering on severely blah. It being Monday certainly cannot be helping but I feel an underlying dissatisfaction with the way things have been going lately.
Behind Suburbia has not placed in any screenplay contests even though it has gotten unanimously positive feedback - in fact - all of the feedback thus far has said to make no story or dialogue changes whatsoever (I'm still "off" on my visual/descriptive action lines though, not bad, could be better). So what's the problem?
I'm thinking the slasher genre is not something that wins screenplay awards. Even horror screenplay contest awards. Mind you I'm not copping out on this one, but reading the log lines and summaries of the winners it's apparent that I did not create a screenplay that was innovative enough to merit an award. It's a solid story, the dialogue is great, it stays within the genre but promises to go above and beyond story wise (which I've been told it does) - but when it comes down to it, it's a slasher movie. I think it's good, reviewers think it's good, it's just doesn't have that genre-breaking completely innovative never-been-done-ever feel that they want to showcase as winners.
Maybe I'll throw in an M. Night Shaymalan ending and have the kids be already dead. Oh! Or the kids are being killed because THEY are the monsters. Yeah! Cop-out! No! No! The kids are dead monsters that-
If this were the 80's perhaps I'd have a leg up on the competition but then again I was 8 years old in 1990, so that may have been rough. Maybe I can invent a time machine, go back, and reinvent the slasher genre when it was more popular - thus making it so the future me wouldn't write the screenplay because it was already finishing making it so I don't invent the time machine and and and *explodes*
I am getting a lot of views on inktip, so that's something. I have a good log line but so far there have been no contact from anyone that has downloaded the screenplay. After Dark films has looked at my synopsis and log line four times. FOUR TIMES! If a low budget slasher isn't perfect for that horror fest, I don't know what is. I went to that festival last year, I liked Bordertown (Borderland?), Tooth & Nail and The Many Deaths of Ian Stone was interesting but the rest were pretty bleah. I think Behind Suburbia would be a good fit simply because you can low ball the budget and not come out with special effects that look like something Troma would put out. Nothing against Troma, they put that stuff out on purpose, that's all. All I need is gore, in fact, go buy a bucket of entrails from a butcher and mission accomplished!
AT ANY RATE - I'm sprucing up the visual descriptions (again) with more adverbs. I'm gingerly adding adverbs. Or furtively. All that science in college did not leave much room for visual descriptions aside from "it turned red" so this is really something I have to work on. Maybe I can saunter to the bookstore and nonchalantly skim a few books before hunkering down to sadistically tap away at my keyboard. I think.
Once I do that I'm going to resubmit it for Script P.I.M.P. development to see if I can bump it up a notch. Maybe I can have some more people look at the script and garner some more interest from people that want a slasher movie. Heck, I'll give the thing away if it means it will actually get filmed - because once you have a credit to you, you have it, darn it.
Oh! In other news, my film (well, my short film) Finding David is nearly complete. I took some seminars on editing, got a sound editor, did a lot of work and the craptacular piece of garbage Snubbing David Cross has been transformed into something I'm actually kind of happy with. Maybe I'll be able to get it into a festival and someone will say, "hey, this guy should get a budget to make a real movie" and I will squeal with delight.
As long as I'm dreaming I'd like to also hit the lottery - but we'll see.
Now that business school has started (I'm working on my MBA to see about making more money to fund my screenwriting/film endeavours) I'll be looking for ways to avoid homework so expect some more updates, well, relatively speaking.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Motivation. AKA: Please don't kill me, I have to feed my fish!
I've just finished the 3rd rewrite of "Behind Suburbia" today based off of the notes I received from Script P.I.M.P ... I wrote the 2nd version immediately after receiving the notes and have spent the past week and a half pondering if the changes really had the desired effect. After having someone re-read it yesterday (and being helpfully super-critical)... no, they didn't.
Hence my 3rd rewrite. As mentioned in the notes it's important to show the reader (or viewer) the genre of the film in the first five or ten minutes. If they're in a horror movie, it's best that they know it soon, otherwise they'll learn to like the characters too much and be really upset when some guy starts hacking them apart. It's also important that all of your characters have significant motivation.
What is motivation? I always though that in a slasher film, it was the desire to live. It's your life! What more is there than that? Well... lots. I gave my characters a semblance of depth in my first version but now I have "raised the stakes" so to speak. Living is one thing, but having a reason to live is a whole new ballpark, and a whole new level of story telling as well.
Let me give an example of what I mean by this:
Fred is 23, fat, watches a lot of television and is an unfortunate college dropout. He is a recently unemployed copy machine repairman, lives in a cheap apartment (he thinks he's too good for mom's basement) and has frequent midnight runs to Wawa for a meatball sub. This, in Fred's mind, is the pinnacle of life. He comes and goes as he pleases, doesn't have anyone to answer to, sleeps late and has no drive to fix any of his flaws.
Johnny is 22, average build, and a senior in college, class of 2008. He is majoring in microbiology and plans to go to graduate school. Doing so would make his parents proud but, more so, it would make Johnny proud of himself. He hopes to one day settle down with a nice girl (or guy), but that's in the future, and he'll take one day at a time as he works towards his goal.
So... what's the difference between these two guys? On the superficial level, Johnny is goal-oriented and Fred is a loser. Johnny has purpose in life and Fred just kind of bumbles along taking whatever comes. Johnny has a reason to live and it's obvious to everyone around him, and no one would miss Fred except Fred's goldfish.
Poor Fred, right? Not so fast.
We're just superficially looking at these people, they're fairly one dimensional as described. To make a true character they need to have depth and complex relationships... as I've mentioned in previous entries they must be multi-dimensional.
If we put both of these characters into a story I think Johnny might sound a little boring at first. He studies, goes to bed early and is pretty cookie-cutter. But what exactly is Johnny researching at school? Is he studying under a professor (Dr. Ezra) that is actually working for the department of defense, making a new bio-weapon with the unwitting Johnny as his loyal lackey? That adds quite a bit of depth, no? Let's take it a little farther. What if Johnny stumbles on his professor's notes and figures out what he's working on. If he takes a stand against this, Johnny has transcended into protagonist, and someone we want to know... what's his ultimate decision?
Now Fred is bumbling through life, as I've mentioned, but he has a lot of free time. What if one night he sees a panicked young man at the Wawa, suffering from some sort of terrible illness? Fred, although a little self-centered is not a complete bastard, and stops to ask the man if he's okay. The man thrusts a small vial into Fred's hands and tells him that this is the only known cure, and that he has to take it to... Dr. Prentiss in Walla Walla, who will know how to replicate it and make sure that no one gets hurt. Dr. Ezra's not evil... just... not well... and the poor man drops dead at his feet, leaving Fred holding the vial.
Fred receiving the vial is the first scene of Fred's story. All of the other stuff mentioned about Johnny and Fred is their past, it's what makes them who they are... but what we want to know is, what does Fred DO with the vial? Suddenly this loser has the fate of the world in his hand and the question becomes not only will he do it... but CAN he do it? Fred on the top level has the world in his hands, but his is actually a story of redemption, to prove to everyone, and especially to himself, that he's not a loser after all.
Knowing where your characters are coming from is important in understanding the decisions they make at that crisis moment... and it was that little bit of background that was lacking from a few of my characters in "Behind Suburbia" which I believe has now been fixed.
These characters have to want more than the live, they have to have something to DO with their lives should they get to keep it! That's what makes them interesting, dynamic and of course... watchable.
Whew. I'll be resubmitting as soon as I talk my editor into looking for all the tiny little errors I seem to miss. Stay tuned.
Hence my 3rd rewrite. As mentioned in the notes it's important to show the reader (or viewer) the genre of the film in the first five or ten minutes. If they're in a horror movie, it's best that they know it soon, otherwise they'll learn to like the characters too much and be really upset when some guy starts hacking them apart. It's also important that all of your characters have significant motivation.
What is motivation? I always though that in a slasher film, it was the desire to live. It's your life! What more is there than that? Well... lots. I gave my characters a semblance of depth in my first version but now I have "raised the stakes" so to speak. Living is one thing, but having a reason to live is a whole new ballpark, and a whole new level of story telling as well.
Let me give an example of what I mean by this:
Fred is 23, fat, watches a lot of television and is an unfortunate college dropout. He is a recently unemployed copy machine repairman, lives in a cheap apartment (he thinks he's too good for mom's basement) and has frequent midnight runs to Wawa for a meatball sub. This, in Fred's mind, is the pinnacle of life. He comes and goes as he pleases, doesn't have anyone to answer to, sleeps late and has no drive to fix any of his flaws.
Johnny is 22, average build, and a senior in college, class of 2008. He is majoring in microbiology and plans to go to graduate school. Doing so would make his parents proud but, more so, it would make Johnny proud of himself. He hopes to one day settle down with a nice girl (or guy), but that's in the future, and he'll take one day at a time as he works towards his goal.
So... what's the difference between these two guys? On the superficial level, Johnny is goal-oriented and Fred is a loser. Johnny has purpose in life and Fred just kind of bumbles along taking whatever comes. Johnny has a reason to live and it's obvious to everyone around him, and no one would miss Fred except Fred's goldfish.
Poor Fred, right? Not so fast.
We're just superficially looking at these people, they're fairly one dimensional as described. To make a true character they need to have depth and complex relationships... as I've mentioned in previous entries they must be multi-dimensional.
If we put both of these characters into a story I think Johnny might sound a little boring at first. He studies, goes to bed early and is pretty cookie-cutter. But what exactly is Johnny researching at school? Is he studying under a professor (Dr. Ezra) that is actually working for the department of defense, making a new bio-weapon with the unwitting Johnny as his loyal lackey? That adds quite a bit of depth, no? Let's take it a little farther. What if Johnny stumbles on his professor's notes and figures out what he's working on. If he takes a stand against this, Johnny has transcended into protagonist, and someone we want to know... what's his ultimate decision?
Now Fred is bumbling through life, as I've mentioned, but he has a lot of free time. What if one night he sees a panicked young man at the Wawa, suffering from some sort of terrible illness? Fred, although a little self-centered is not a complete bastard, and stops to ask the man if he's okay. The man thrusts a small vial into Fred's hands and tells him that this is the only known cure, and that he has to take it to... Dr. Prentiss in Walla Walla, who will know how to replicate it and make sure that no one gets hurt. Dr. Ezra's not evil... just... not well... and the poor man drops dead at his feet, leaving Fred holding the vial.
Fred receiving the vial is the first scene of Fred's story. All of the other stuff mentioned about Johnny and Fred is their past, it's what makes them who they are... but what we want to know is, what does Fred DO with the vial? Suddenly this loser has the fate of the world in his hand and the question becomes not only will he do it... but CAN he do it? Fred on the top level has the world in his hands, but his is actually a story of redemption, to prove to everyone, and especially to himself, that he's not a loser after all.
Knowing where your characters are coming from is important in understanding the decisions they make at that crisis moment... and it was that little bit of background that was lacking from a few of my characters in "Behind Suburbia" which I believe has now been fixed.
These characters have to want more than the live, they have to have something to DO with their lives should they get to keep it! That's what makes them interesting, dynamic and of course... watchable.
Whew. I'll be resubmitting as soon as I talk my editor into looking for all the tiny little errors I seem to miss. Stay tuned.
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