April 10, 2012
Henry Miller, author of the novel Tropic of Cancer composed this list of writing commandments for himself while working on said novel. Though Miller is a novelist, his commandments apply to any type of writing project:
(Thanks to Treasure LA for sharing this list with me.)
COMMANDMENTS
- Work on one thing at a time until finished.
- Start no more new books, add no more new material to “Black Spring.”
- Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.
- Work according to Program and not according to mood. Stop at the appointed time!
- When you can’t create you can work.
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October 28, 2011
Script Magazine has posted this list of their editors’ top fifteen picks for Halloween horrors. Watch a few this weekend and get inspired to write your next horror script:
The Exorcist
Obviously. If you put anything else as your number-one scary movie, you’re just plain wrong. The Exorcist taps into such universal feelings about children and parents and coming of age; it terrified me when I first saw it as a kid, and now it terrifies me in whole new ways as a parent.
Rosemary’s Baby
Every time I go to a doctor … or take my car to a mechanic … or drop my computer at the fix-it store, I wonder: How do I know I can really trust these people? I mean, they could just tell me whatever they want about things that are valuable to me — I need to take these pills, fix this drive, pay them that — and I’d believe them. Rosemary’s Baby does an amazing job of capitalizing on how we trust those closest to us — our spouse, our doctors, our friends and neighbors — especially regarding matters that are most important, like our unborn children.
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September 7, 2011
This is a list of over 200 films that supposedly Steven Spielberg thinks every filmmaker should watch and study. Here’s the explanation:
This is a list that someone sent me during a conversation on Twitter. It’s unofficially referred to as “Steven Spielberg’s List of Movies You Have to See Before You Can Work With Him” aka “Steven Spielberg’s Curriculum.” Weirdly enough, I could only find ONE mention of it on Google. ONE. And it was a weird mention here: But it’s a list of 206 movies that Spielberg assembled as movies that should be required viewing for any aspiring filmmaker. And if you listen to the way Spielberg talks about cinema and the history of film, it’s quiiiiite clear he has seen more movies than anyone on earth other than Martin Scorcese. But just goes to show you how overlooked that part of your mantra is: watch. Movies. A lot of the great directors from Spielberg’s era have probably seen more than half of those movies. Maybe even 3/4. The younger filmmakers coming up now? I’d be shocked if they’d seen 30 of them. I haven’t seen anywhere NEAR half of them. Anyways. Pretty interesting list. I uploaded it as a Google document which I figure is probably easier for sharing than a Word document.
See the full list here.
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July 27, 2011
This list from The Script Lab (they have a number of these — I highly suggest checking them out) is entitled The Top 15 Movies You Should NOT Watch in Film School. Find out why by reading on:
Beginning screenwriters learn by example; in fact, it’s really one of the best ways to master the art of screenwriting. The problem is, there are so many iconic and cult classic films that end up sending the novice down a road to ruin before they ever learn to write a simple plot. The following list should not be considered a list of bad films – far from it. But it is a list of films that break rules with such skill and acumen, it’s best to steer clear before you get any bright ideas that you’re ready to do the same.
15) Troll 2 – Alright, so this is the only one on the list that’s technically a “bad” film (kind of arbitrarily put on here to piss off Leroy James King, per Preston.) That said, this movie is totally enjoyable, albeit super kitschy and poorly executed. It’s not like one of Tarantino or Rodriguez’s Grindhouse films that are trying to be terrible. So watch out film school nerds – enjoy this at your own risk.
14) Million Dollar Baby – You know the old adage “Voice over is a tool of the lazy.” MDB uses VO to frame mood and genre, but even this movie at times feels like Eastwood might have been like, “Oh shit! We’ve got Morgan Freeman – let’s add VO just because he has the voice of God.” Prove that you can describe by showing, before you fall into the lazy trap of VO.
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July 18, 2011
The Script Lab put out this list of fifteen films that had a lasting effect on the world of cinema:
The internet is littered with scores of “Best of…” movie lists; we even have a few. The angle of this list is a bit different though. These films, for good or bad, changed the course of the movie industry and forever altered how movies are made, marketed and viewed.
15. Avatar (2009)
Time will tell how truly game changing Avatar will be remembered, but it’s easy to see it’s immediate impact. 3D cinema is seemingly here to stay and Avatar made it cool to wear the glasses. Besides the amazing technical accomplishments of the film and the ground breaking way films will be shot in the future – Cameron devised a stereoscopic ‘virtual camera, allowing him to move through a 3D terrain as he shot – Cameron’s baby brought in such staggering dollars – 2.73 billion worldwide – we are guaranteed to have 3D versions of nearly every popcorn blockbuster for the near future.
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July 8, 2011
This list from the Script Lab is sure to feature some titles you’ve never heard of before. Trying to mimic one of these films probably isn’t your best bet for selling your next screenplay, but watching these movies would be a great way to up your film knowledge and see the bizarre reaches that movies are capable of:
Mind-bending. That’s how I can describe the last couple of weeks I have spent researching for this article. I always love to learn about new areas of cinema, but nothing could have prepared me for this series of weird and wonderful films that should NOT be watched so closely together when you’re in the middle of doing your finals! Some I loved, some not so much, but then that’s what I discovered cult films are all about. Films that bring a particular group of people together. Films that can be so bad that people end up loving them like a dumb, yet affectionate puppy. Films that the critics didn’t care for, and in some cases, films that have grown in popularity because it’s the fans themselves that warrant more attention that can’t be ignored.
Whether it’s the one-night drag queens of The Rocky Horror Picture Show or the plastic-spoon-throwers from The Room, it’s great to see people so enthusiastic about the movie they love! And it’s also amazing to see these films being passed down to younger generations. I’d certainly never heard of some of these before! And I’m sure I’ve missed some absolute classics here that will piss a few people off, but then what do I know, eh? Treat this list as an opportunity to feast on a few of the sideshow oddities that cinema has to offer.
10. Brazil (1985)
Brazil is often referred to as Terry Gilliam’s “masterpiece,” and I must admit, there is something unique and pretty spectacular about it. I’d certainly place it above the rather messy The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus! A science fiction black comedy, Brazil is set in a dystopian world where everything is engulfed in red tape and reliance on machines. Imagine Blade Runner but made by a member of Monty Python. Robert De Niro even makes an appearance as a renegade air con engineer. Due its dark ending and the fact that it was made three years after Blade Runner, Gilliam had a long fight with studios to get it released. He eventually held his own private screenings behind the backs of studio heads. This paid off in the end when Brazil was awarded the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Picture, and the studios finally agreed to release it. Brazil has since gained a cult status and been cited as an influence for films such as The Hudsucker Proxy, Dark City and Sucker Punch. Clearly, Brazil is a very interesting take on political satire.
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May 12, 2011
This list comes from Hal Croasmun of ScreenwritingU. Here’s what Hal had to say:
Mistake #5: On-the-nose writing.
When characters consistently say exactly what they think and feel, an audience quickly gets bored. They are being spoon fed and that doesn’t require their attention or entertain them in any way.
Instead, you need deeper meanings that adds interest, intrigue, and causes an audience to have to interpret, thus giving the audience an internal experience of the story.
BTW, on-the-nose writing is fine for early drafts of your screenplay. It serves as a place holder, but before you turn in the script, you need to make sure that each line delivers as much meaning as it can.
Solutions include pouring character into the lines, delivering subtext, creating anticipation, setting up or paying off, and others. Take the time and effort to become an expert in OFF-the-nose writing and every reader will respect you for it.
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May 9, 2011
Here’s another great article from Michael Ferris (THe NPH picture will make sense once you read the article). When you get to the end of the article you’ll notice that Michael includes his email address in each of his articles. I would highly recommend taking advantage of this resource. I once emailed Michael with a question about one of my scripts, and he got back to me within two days with a thoughtful, in depth response that was extremely helpful.
But on to the tips:
1. Make White Space Your Best Friend
In today’s spec market, unknown writers can impress by doing one thing: writing a “fast” read. Sometimes, this can compensate for lack of things like character arcs, or the occasional on-the-nose dialogue. Mind you, this won’t fix poorly plotted or structured stories, but writing a fast or “quick” read can make you seem like more of a seasoned pro than you might be. If you read scripts from the 50s, for instance, it will be light years different from the type of scripts written nowadays, and one of those key differences is how the physical pages of the script look. Back then, they looked much more like novels. Now, they look like someone took a chop shop to a novel, and left the body of the car on bricks.
Whether it’s a consequence of our shorter attention spans or not, industry people have even less time than ever to read spec scripts from unknown writers. One of the ways to set yourself apart and become their best friend is to give them a “quick” read. So what does that mean?
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May 2, 2011
Scott Myers of GoIntotheStory.com recently posted this list of ten writing tips passed down by the amazing Billy Wilder. Wilder was the scribe behind such classics as Some Like it Hot, The Apartment, The Seven Year Itch, Sabrina, and Double Indemnity, to name a few. Wilder’s gravestone reads “I’m a writer, but then nobody’s perfect.”
1. Grab ‘em by the throat and never let go.
2. Develop a clean line of action for your leading character.
3.The more subtle and elegant you are in hiding your plot points, the better you are as a writer.
4. If you have a problem with the third act, the real problem is in the first act.
5. Tip from Ernst Lubitsch: Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.
6. The audience is fickle. Know where you’re going.
7. In doing voice-overs, be careful not to describe what the audience already sees. Add to what they are seeing.
8. The event that occurs at the second act curtain triggers the end of the movie.
9. The 3rd act must build, build, build in tempo until the last event, and then…
10. …that’s it. Don’t hang around.
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April 20, 2011
This article from the Script Lab on the top ten films to utilize voice-over gives some great insight into how to approach voice-over in your own film. There are times when voice-over should be avoided like the plague and other times when it might be essential to solid storytelling, as this article will illustrate:
In Adaptation, Robert McKee (played by Brian Cox) cries, “God help you if you use voice-over in your work, my friends. God help you. That’s flaccid, sloppy writing. Any idiot can write a voice-over narration to explain the thoughts of a character.”
To a certain extent, he is correct. A lot of films use voice-over to no real effect. They tell you what you already see on the screen. Or they explain something that, with a little bit of brainpower and imagination, you could have worked out for yourself. Or they inform you about something that would have been better off left alone, for the audiences to stew on. But no. Some filmmakers just think we’re idiots and insist that every single bit of information is spoon-fed to us.
“Everything I have written is genius. I don’t want them to miss a single, clever bit of it. But they’re morons, so I’ll shove in some voice-overs to really hammer it on home.” I’m not saying that all filmmakers who use voice-over in this way are that patronizing; most of them probably don’t even realize they’re doing it. It’s just safer for them to assume that we won’t be able to figure it out.
But then there are some screenwriters and filmmakers that’ll use voice-over to compliment the work, and without it, I would argue that the film would not be as good. Their use of voice-over challenges the viewer, in some cases even upset the viewer. Either way, they will expect the viewer to do something with this narration, rather than just mindlessly breathe it in.
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