Ninja vs Penguin

Penguin January 19th, 2008

This Savage Art:

All the bullshit about how you can’t trivialize your story by clarifying it into one sentence is just that, bullshit. If you can’t crystallize your story into a line or two you have a problem. Even if it’s just a very surface take on it, it needs to start with some core thesis.

Just like any good term paper or essay, you have to have a thesis statement. One sentence that tells your audience what the paper is about. More importantly, your thesis is for you, the writer. The thesis statement is your compass. With every paragraph you write, ask yourself “Does this advance my thesis?”

The difference with screenwriting is instead of using paragraphs to advance your thesis, you’re using scenes. Instead of arguments and facts, you have characters and situations. Instead of a position you take with your thesis, you have a theme, point of view, message, or whatever else you want to call it.

What’s your story about? The answer is your thesis.

-Penguin

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Penguin January 16th, 2008

Seth’s blog has an interesting take on titles:

1. You can pick a completely descriptive, generic, boring name that precisely describes what’s inside. Like “Shredded Wheat” or “12 Ways to Get Traffic to Your Blog” or “Installing Linux on the 8088 Platform in 24 Hours”. The advantage of this approach is that Google likes it, and so do people who are quite goal directed.
2. You can pick a more clever name that’s designed to entice the reader to read the subtitle, or the first few lines of your post or the back of the cereal box. You can imbue the name with some attitude, like BlogWild, or you can pick a name that just begs to be researched, like Join the Conversation.
3. The third approach is to pick a name that gets talked about. To create a phrase that you hope will enter the vocabulary.

When it comes to something creative, like a movie or a story, there are additional challenges to coming up with a good title. Here are my 3 rules for writing titles.

1. The title should be interesting. I scour YouTube for interesting shorts to post about. The first thing I look at is the title. Especially as an indie filmmaker, your title is going to be an important marketing tool.
2. The title should relate. A lot of movies tend to pick titles that are reflective of one aspect of the movie. Good titles will have titles that fit the whole thing. Almost like a thesis statement.
3. The title should illuminate. This one is the hardest. The strongest titles add more meaning to your story. It should be an extension of your theme that brings insight to your work.

These 3 rules can work in conjunction with what Seth laid out.

-Penguin

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Penguin January 13th, 2008

From Turning Writer’s Block Into Stepping Stones:

The reason WB is such a killer is that most of us have done far more reading than we have writing, and spend far more time in critical analysis of finished, polished work of the masters than in experiencing our own early drafts. So when we try to create text, we measure our first draft efforts against the polished work of the world’s great writers. Immediately, that “this is garbage!” voice goes off in your head, and you have a block.

I believe that a big contributor to writer’s block is typing. Specifically, the computer. Not to say that there’s more writer’s block now, than there were ages ago, but it’s easier to get blocked. Don’t get me wrong, the computer is amazing and word processing is wonderful. Especially for us who have terrible hand writing. But here’s the problem.

As writers, we have two modes. The creative writer mode and the critical editor mode. When we type things out, it’s so easy to edit as we type that it breaks us out of the creative mode. Word tells us when things are misspelled or grammatically incorrect. Instead of moving forward, we go back to change these things. Our minds are broken out of the creative stream and shift into editor mode.

The article gives a few good suggestions, I would like to add some more. I love tip 1:

Alternate days (or work sessions) between flow and editing. If necessary, wear different hats, or sit in different chairs for each. NEVER DO BOTH IN THE SAME SESSION

But I would take it further. I would suggest writing on paper, yes, with a pen, during the writing session. Spend the next day typing it up and editing as you go along. There’s something about the physical action of writing that helps you get into the flow of writing. You’ll also find that you won’t be correcting spelling mistakes either.

Another idea is to go out where there are people: subways, parks, malls. If the noise bothers you, bring an mp3 player with some noise canceling earphones. There’s something about movement and being around strangers that gives you that spark.

Keep writing!

-Penguin

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Penguin December 28th, 2007

I saw this Character Development Sheet over at Mystery Man on Film and thought it was really helpful. I’ve reproduced it below or you can download the Word.doc.

————
Character Sheet for NAME

SECTION 1

Backstory:
Character Goals or Wants:
Inner Conflict:
Character Arc:
Character Depth:
Cast Design:
Physical Appearance:
Character’s Voice:

SECTION 2

Kiersey Temperment Sorter (I prefer the 16PF):

Which means:
Characteristics:
How others may see this person:
Areas for growth:

DISC Pattern:

Which means:
Judges others by:
Influences others by:
Under pressure:

SECTION 3
Dimensions of Characterization:

A. Physical
Why?

B. Sociological
Why?

C. Psychological
Why?

D. Spiritual
Why?

E. Philosophical
Why?

F. Neuroses
Why?

G. Freaky Habits
Why?

Character Mood Intensity:

A. Temperament
B. Heartbeat
C. Breathing
D. State of Perspiration
E. Muscular Tension
F. Stomach Condition
G. Sensory Condition
H. Intelligence — Kind
I. Major Frustrations
J. Insecurities
K. Paranoia

Research:

———-

That’s it!

Hope that helps.

Links
Character Development Sheet

- Penguin

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Penguin December 23rd, 2007

A few weeks ago I discovered Wordplayer. It’s a great little site filled with writing screenplays and the industry. If you’re an indie, you’ll want to read this. It covers a lot of basic screenwriting knowledge and how the system works. Coming from someone on the inside, it’s great to have something available to us.

Wordplayer.

- Penguin

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Penguin December 19th, 2007

I read this roundtable with a few feature screen writers the other day. The writers taking part were (pictured from left): Ben Affleck (who wrote “Gone Baby Gone” with Aaron Stockard for Miramax), Ronald Harwood (Miramax’s “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and New Line’s “Love in the Time of Cholera”), Diablo Cody (Fox Searchlight’s “Juno”), Paul Haggis (director and screenwriter of Warner Independent’s “In the Valley of Elah,” from a story co-written with Mark Boal) and David Benioff (Paramount Classics/DreamWorks’ “The Kite Runner”).

One quote that particularly stuck out was the following:

Harwood: I was very lucky. When I was writing novels, I knew Graham Greene, and he gave me the best piece of advice ever given to any writer. He said, “Always stop when it’s going well.”
Cody: Because you’ll feel compelled to return to it?
Harwood: No, because you know what to return to. So you don’t have those sleepless nights.

That’s a wonderful idea. To stop when the writing is just flowing because you have a sense of direction and purpose to where the script is taking you. So, when you come back, you know exactly where to pick up. This should also help with the cyclical aspect of writer’s block.

Writer’s block can come from being creatively drained, writing yourself into a corner, or just sheer laziness. Each of these has their own issues, but by forcing yourself to sit and write, you can usually just blow through these things and end up on the top of the cycle.

I haven’t tried this myself yet, but I think it’s a great idea. You still need the discipline to sit and write and to ignore the distractions of email, IM, and phone calls, to really get in the flow.

I’m interested to hear people who have tried this and its results in the comments.

- Penguin

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Penguin December 14th, 2007

Over at John August’s blog, he’s posted a great little tip about plot structure and how to make it seem natural:

Screenwriting books make everything seem so tidy, when actual screenwriting is gory and difficult. Plot and structure are really just the answer to a single question: what happens when?

Look at your story from your main characters’ perspectives. What are is they trying to do at each moment in the script? What do they know, and what do they learn?

Then look at it from the audience’s perspective. What do they know, and what do they expect will happen next?

A good plot keeps surprising both the main characters and your audience. Probably the reason your plots feel contrived is that you’re trying to drag your characters through some pre-determined series of structural benchmarks, rather than focusing on what’s interesting and surprising right now in this scene.

It’s a great mini-lesson for all you budding screenwriters out there. Remember, your story has living breathing characters. Don’t drag them through the mud of your story, instead, have them react to them. How do the events and circumstances that you create for them get in the way of what they want? How does it change them? And once you’re happy with it, you’ll make something you’ll be happy with.

-Penguin

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Penguin November 29th, 2007

For those of you who don’t know, the Writer’s Guild of America is on strike. As an aspiring filmmaker and writer, I’m 100% behind them.

Watching this video really opens your eyes to the realities of screenwriting in America. If you have dreams of making it rich, this may not be the profession for you. But these writers show just how much they love doing it and will pursue that dream. It’s definitely a career of passion.

- Penguin

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Penguin July 25th, 2007

1. Have an idea. I’m not trying to be stupid. The key here, is that YOU have to find the idea interesting, otherwise, you won’t want to make the movie. Regardless of what other people say about it being cliche, or boring, make the piece that you want to make. Isn’t that the whole reason we got into this? Oh right, the millions of dollars. That’ll come one day. For now, write what you love.
2. What are you trying to say? Now you have an idea. It’s a seed, a starting point. Sure, it may be exciting, but does it matter? There are plenty of movies that don’t say anything, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But think about your favourite movies. Think about those movies you consider the cream of the crop. Even if they don’t explicitly “say” something, there’s some sort of theme that drives the movie. Does your story have a theme? Is it trying to say something?
3. Write a treatment.  You have the idea, start writing out all the scenes and action that you want to see.  If there would be dialogue, just leave a note for yourself that “// dialogue goes here”.  The idea is that you want to get the structure of your movie down on paper.  Now is the chance to look at the pacing and move scenes around or shore up plot holes.
4. Write the script.  Now, find all your “// dialogue goes here” notes, and replace them with real dialogue.  Think about your characters, model them after friends, family, enemies, just give each one a unique voice.  Give them something fun or interesting to say and try to stay away from exposition.  If you’re finding that you’re explaining the plot, then write a scene that SHOWS what’s happening.
5. Take a vacation. Done with the script? Save it! Put down your pen, or whatever media you’re using to capture your thoughts, just, step away. Your natural inclination is to go back and make edits and to think about your script all the time. But you’ve just spent all this creative energy making your masterpiece. You need to rest and rejuvenate. Just like runners need to rest after a marathon, you need to rest as well.  Go somewhere warm, preferably, with food.
6. Rewrite. How was your vacation? Sunny? Fun? Relaxing? Wonderful! Now open up your script, pick up your pen and reread what you wrote two weeks ago. Doesn’t it suck? Now rewrite it. Make your characters stronger. Make your plot more interesting. Make sure what you’re trying to “say” with your script is clear.
7. Let people you trust read it. Now is your opportunity to start sharing it with your trusted cabal. There should be a set of people who you trust to give you honest and fair feedback. People who care about you and want to see you succeed. Some of the things that say will be mean. Your favourite scene may end up being trash in their eyes. That’s perfect! You know why? Because now, you can go back and go through that scene and every other scene and try and prove to them why it’s not garbage. In doing so, you may realize that there are things in your head that you didn’t get down on paper. Or maybe they’re right. It is garbage and it should be cut. The script is more important than your ego.
8. Rewrite. Armed with the knowledge of your trusted cabal, go back and rewrite. Again. At this point, you should WANT to rewrite it. Because you care THAT much about your script.

Next, pre-production.

Happy writing!

-Penguin

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Penguin July 15th, 2007

I hope you’ve all been enjoying my little adventure on making Love Angle. We’ve had our ups and downs, and the script has been in a state of flux. But the script has come a long way.

Attached, you can find the current shooting script that we will be using from this point on. You’ll see that there are some pages with letters in the page number. That means that there were changes made and they moved beyond the page they were on. In order to keep the other page numbers accurate, they had to be locked. To differentiate, letters were added.

Additionally, you’ll see that some scenes were omitted. Instead of just deleting the scene heading, it was modified to, again, preserve the scene numbering.

All this stuff is a bit tedious, but it makes sense. It’s just hard to keep track of all this and make all the changes manually.

Here’s the script:

love-angle-_s4_.pdf

Thanks for your comments!

It’s 4:39 a.m. Time for bed.

-Penguin

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