Talking About Movies
Okay so I think you know this by now. I love talking about movies. I mean I love movies but what's love if you don't talk about it? So for tonight (for the script class) we had to think about our favourite films and pick a scene to show to the class and discuss. I picked the final scenes from Leon, mainly because it's an awesome movie, but also because it's got a fantastic transition at the end and some really nice contrasts between Leon and Mathilda. I showed the clips, we talked a little about the scenes. What made it even better was the discovery that our tutors were really into the movie too. Add to that a discussion about famous last words has given me an idea for a thirty minute movie due near the end of term. Yay me.
She Raged, She Blustered
My prose tends to contain a lot of implied action. When it works this is a good thing since it saves me having to waste words, while still catering to the lowest common denominator. Does that sound arrogant? Whatever. It's something I'm working on. But it's different in screenwriting. I want my script to describe exactly what is happening in a given scene. This tends to result in a hell of a lot of sentences that begin with "He curled", "she did", "he shot", one after another. It feels like I'm reeling off a shopping list of actions. It feels artificial. It feels as if it lacks drama. And we all know I like my drama.
There's also the whole word count issue. I mean script is meant to be minimal. It's meant to convey the action in a concise and efficient manner. I know prose is meant to do this too, but with script you're crystalising. I wonder if this is an intermediate stage. I mean I'm learning another form of writing, pretty much from scratch. Perhaps at some future point my scripts will grow from bulleted lists to nicely flowing scenes. We shall see.
I think it's time to dig out some examples and see how the experts do it. All I can do is observe and practise.
Script Choices
So I'm working on my script. I dunno... It seems a little generic. I play a quick game of spot the cliché and pick up on a few. The next question I ask myself is "are these really clichés or just things common to the environment my script is set in?". The question after that was "does it matter?". I then decided this entire line of questioning (myself) didn't really matter anyway.
So this is what I've got...
- An angry character who is dissatisfied with their job because they don't see the point.
- A shy character who is the target of unwanted romantic advances from their manager.
- A creepy manager disliked by the first two.
- Colleagues who don't want to help either of the first two.
I need to decide what gender each of these characters is going to be. Should I go with the obvious (man, woman, man) clichéd cast? Should I try and reverse the clichés (woman, man, woman)? How would it change if every character was male? What if they were all female? Is it a cliché to have a manager as an antagonist? Would basic plot (#1 and #2 discover weird secret and disrupt the office to escape their jobs) work if the manager is a friend instead of a villain? Is portraying the manager as a monster/villain fair? Is there a way to turn the story around at the end and have the two main characters success be the cause of a catastrophe? Would this remove any redeeming features from the two "good" characters? Would this end up turning the manager into a sort-of anti-hero?
Script Class Ongoing
Last night's script class was probably the most useful so far. We discussed sub-plots and how they are created by through the relationships that characters share. It was very interesting to see how two simple tools can help you to create and manage your sub-plots.
The first was what I call a plot-blob-diagram (I'm sure there's a proper term...). You draw a line representing your rising action and along it you place blobs that represent events and developments in plot. You use a different coloured blob for each of your plots and vary the size of the blobs depending on how much time is spent there. This can be very useful for judging if your sub-plots are underdeveloped or if they're in danger of overwhelming your main story thread. If your rising action is more of a jagged line it can help you judge whether each plot is receiving enough attention at the peaks.
The second was the relationship diagram. By writing the names of the characters in your story and drawing lines between them that represent their relationships, the dynamics between them can become a lot clearer. This visual representation can also enable you to see relationships that you weren't previously aware of and create new plots between those characters. We applied the relationship diagram to two people's stories and I think the ideas it generated were extremely useful (and they weren't even my stories!).
We also went through our stories and talked about/brainstormed ways in which they could be improved. I found this extremely useful and have a lot more material to work with now. I really enjoy workshopping!
Script Timing
Things that don't work (for me)...
- Counting seconds in my head.
- Sitting down.
- Reading it flat.
- Attempting to use a stopwatch while simultaneously trying to read a script in my head.
Things that sort of work (for me, on my own)...
- Reading out loud and in the case of dialogue reading it in the way I intended it to be spoken.
- Using my hands to act out scenes (stops working when more than two people are in a scene).
- Walking around and acting it out.
- Timing an entire script all at once.
Things I'd like to try...
- Getting someone else to time it for me.
- Getting a few people together to actually act the script out.
- Have other people act it out so that I can observe.
The Difference
We're now at the point in the script class where we're editing each other's step outlines. It's hard. It's not like editing prose, where you can comment on word use, sentence flow and other such things. I have to assess things as a whole, work out what information is available and when, think about the logical order of events, how things would look on screen... It's at this point I realise that I do this with prose too... It's just that that's wrapped in a nice layer of something I think I'm semi-good at.
One thing this is forcing me to do is to read an entire piece before commenting. I'm not tempted to stop and make notes on how I think a sentence could be improved because at this stage it just isn't important.
Anyway. Onward. Blogging is complete. Now I've just got to comment on two step outlines, write up last night's lecture notes and get to work on that bastard essay!
Ideas Crisis
All I need is an idea for a film. It's got to be ten minutes long and heavy on the visuals. How hard should this be? So far I've come up with three ideas.
- A story I was quite into where the main plot device has (rightfully so) pointed to be the "lynx effect"
- A ghost story come action film come statement about violence that was just plain bad.
- A workplace story that ended up being so abstract as to be silly.
Ugh. All I want is an idea that I like and could make work.
Script Exercise (WSF Ch.1)
Script exercise from the end of chapter 1. This exercise relates to the short film Life Lessons released as part of New York Stories.
1. Identify the underlying concept of the film.
The film is the story an artist and his assistant who have just come to the end of a relationship. The events of the film show how their breakup has affected both of their lives and the work of the artist.
2. Identify the main conflict for the protagonist.
The main protagonist in the story is the artist played by Nick Nolte. For the duration of the film we are lead to believe that he wants to rebuild his relationship with the assistant or at the very least take care of her. His art and the gradual removal of his "artists block" the more she hurts him appears to matter less to him than having the girl accept his care. The main thing standing in the way of his relationship with the girl is his erratic behaviour. At the end of the film, when he offers another girl the job of the assistant, we are presented with the idea that the destruction of his relationship with his assistant was merely a tool in his "artistic process". The fact that he's recruiting a new one leads us to believe that he may have done it in the past and his earlier mentioning of his four failed marriages makes sense in this new context. What he really wants is to continue to be a successful artist.
3. Jot down a few sentences describing the basic story conflict.
The assistant tells the artist she wants to break up.
The artist attempts to win back the assistant.
The assistant rejects the artist.
The artist pursues the assistant with greater intensity and guile.
The assistant still rejects the artist.
The assistant taunts the artist.
The artist realises he's lost the power in the situation.
The artist fails to stop the assistant leaving.
The artist gets a new assistant.
Tough Homework
Tonight's homework from the script writing module is to write a one page outline for a ten minute film we'd like to work on. At first I was really pleased with the task but now I'm actually trying to decide on an idea I'm finding it really difficult. I've been going through my story ideas and those of stories I've written in the past. The problem I'm having isn't that my prose isn't visual, rather that I'm not sure how to get enough of my idea across without resorting to hideous amounts of dialogue. This is hard. But also quite awesome.
Subscribe
Tweets
- The Ghoul Game is unexpected and merciless! Much like its namesake. MERCILESS!
- She beat me because I was sitting working at my computer and didn't even realise she was raising her arms.
- Ghoul Game Instructions: If you can get your hands to their highest before your opponent pinches you in the belly then you win.
Now Reading
}
Music
Photos
Links
- Bookworm Blues
- Dark Fiction Magazine
- Floor to Ceiling Books
- GavReads
- Gentle, Parochial Horror
- Mulholland Books
- NanoWriMo
- NextRead
- Only the Best Sci Fi
- Schizopolitan
- Scrivener
- The Eloquent Page
- Walker of Worlds
- Words and Pictures
Bluster
Categories
Archive
- November 2011 (3)
- October 2011 (1)
- May 2011 (2)
- April 2011 (2)
- January 2011 (1)
- August 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (1)
- June 2010 (1)
- May 2010 (1)
- April 2010 (2)
- March 2010 (2)
- January 2010 (2)
- December 2009 (1)
- November 2009 (2)
- October 2009 (3)
- September 2009 (8)
- July 2009 (2)
- June 2009 (1)
- May 2009 (5)
- October 2008 (2)
- September 2008 (2)
- August 2008 (2)
- June 2008 (4)
- May 2008 (6)
- April 2008 (4)
- March 2008 (12)
- February 2008 (12)
- January 2008 (16)
- December 2007 (16)
- November 2007 (17)
- October 2007 (42)
- September 2007 (36)
- August 2007 (21)
A Much Needed Dunking
So far in the script classes we've looked at structure and technique. While we had shared our work, we'd not yet received detailed criticism of our work. This left me feeling as if I was "doing okay" and "getting better". Last night provided exactly what I really needed. Our new script tutor went through our work and told us exactly what was wrong with it. I guess thinking about it now it's exactly what I'd wanted all along. Learning structure and technique is great and I wouldn't be here without it, but now we come to the meat course. I always do best with a harsh task master and I'm really going to have to raise my game. The feedback was sobering yet ever so slightly awesome. It's so on!