Penguin July 3rd, 2009
The Guardian has an article by Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver) on the Exhaustion of Narrative.
Writers have always known there are a limited number of storylines. Christopher Booker’s Seven Basic Plots popularised the number seven, but others have argued for three, 20 and 36 basic plots – Rudyard Kipling said 69… That’s not what I mean by the “exhaustion of narrative”. What is new is the omnipresence and ubiquity of plot created by media proliferation. We are inundated by narrative. We are swimming in storylines.
[...]
What does it mean? For a storyteller, it means that’s it is increasingly difficult to get out in front of a viewer’s expectations. Almost every possible subject has not only been covered but covered exhaustively. How many hours of serial killer plot has the average viewer seen? Fifty? A hundred? He’s seen the basic plots, the permutations of those plotlines, the imitations of the permutations of those plotlines and the permutations of the imitations. How does a writer capture the imagination of a viewer seeped in serial killer plot? Make it even gorier? Done that. More perverse? Seen that. Serial killer with humour? Been there. As parody? Yawn.
[...]
The bar of originality has been raised. The media marketplace puts a premium on anything “new” or “fresh” and, at the same time, inundates its viewers with continual and competing narratives.
I’ve been wrestling with this issue of originality as I work on The Intern Project but I try not to get too caught up with it. Because it’s easy to make excuses that become barriers to the actual writing process.
You look at the latest blockbusters, Star Trek, Transformers 2. One is a great film, the other is trash. But neither of them are particularly original. But you can still make something entertaining.
This is also why it’s so important to watch a lot of films. See what’s been done already and see what’s entered the cultural narrative. Especially in the same genre that you’re writing in.
-Penguin
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Tags: Narrative, Paul Schrader, Screenwriting, Storytelling
Penguin June 22nd, 2009
It’s been 3 weeks since I started this internship in Wisconsin and I’ve been learning a lot. One of the things I’ve been learning is how to occupy my time and keep myself from getting bored. I’m interning with 4 others who are interested in film/media/broadcasting, so I figured it’d be a good idea to get a project going.
So started ‘The Intern Project‘. The story is going to follow 5 interns at a fictional production company, all vying for the single fulltime position at the end of the stick.
Yesterday, Valaree and I spent a lot of time finishing the initial drafts of the characters and started looking at the high level plot. There’s still a lot that we have to do, but I’m really excited with what we have so far.
We only have 9 weeks left to write, shoot, and hopefully edit the planned 7 episode series. It’s a lot to do, but I think we can do it. Most of the other interns don’t have much experience, so this is as much a learning process as it is about producing something really fun.
Stay tuned.
-Penguin
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Tags: Projects, Screenwriting, The Intern Project
Penguin December 11th, 2008
Here is an interview with Dan Partland one of the writers on Intervention.
It gives some great insight into how documentaries or even “reality TV” is written. It would’ve been nice for him to go a little deeper into the process, but it’s still a great little gem.
-Penguin
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Tags: Dan Partland, Documentaries, Intervention, Interviews, Screenwriting, Videos
Penguin December 9th, 2008
I added a whole bunch of documents to the Resources page. It was formerly the “Software” page, but I expanded it to hold a bunch of really useful stuff.
Some highlights:
General Documents
Filmmaking Resources
Screenwriting Resources
-Penguin
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Tags: Budgets, Downloads, Filmmaking, Forms, Release forms, Resources, Screenplays, Screenwriting, Software, Storyboards, Templates
Penguin November 10th, 2008
Last night, I finished Save the Cat by Blake Snyder. I found this nifty tip on his blog.
The following can be used to help organize your logline or just focus your idea before you begin writing.
On the verge of a STASIS=DEATH moment, a FLAWED PROTAGONIST has a CATALYST and BREAKS INTO TWO with the B STORY; but when the MIDPOINT happens, he/she must learn the THEME STATED, before the ALL IS LOST, to defeat (or stop) the FLAWED ANTAGONIST (from getting away with his/her plan).
-Penguin
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Tags: Loglines, Screenwriting, Structure
Penguin September 4th, 2008
I was over at DVXUser the other day and read this comment:
Pick two or three dozen great screenplays and style copy them. What I mean by this is re-write them by hand–verbatim. This will help you see how the pros do it VIA YOUR OWN WRITING MECHANISM: your frontal cortex, your hand, your pen.
In 2004, after reading an article by Rob Tobin I did this exercise. I decided to make an investment in my writing career by “wasting” two months on style copying. Believe me, it works. The end result is that you take the best features of each script and create your own distinct style. Okay. Enough said.
- Kylekmd
I’ve never heard of this exercise before, but it kind of makes sense. I’m going to give it a try. I should really be reading more screenplays anyway, but find it hard to have that discipline. This will force me to sit down everyday and do some diligent homework.
If you’ve done this or know people who have, let me know how it went.
-Penguin
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Tags: DVXUser, Exercises, Screenwriting, Style
Penguin August 5th, 2008
I came across this document about story structure over at DVXuser. It’s basically a collection of notes from a variety of Truby, Vogler, Hauge, Snyder, Howard, Iglesias, Seth, Gulino, Williams, Marks & Chitlik.
It’s a great resource for any screenwriter. Not only does it go through the basics of story structure, it provides handy visuals and references. It has lists of virtues and vices, questions to ask your character, and common screenwriting vernacular. It even has a handy checklist to help you with your rewrites.
Download it.
-Penguin
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Tags: Character, Downloads, PDFs, Rewrites, Screenwriting, Structure
Penguin June 25th, 2008
Everything in movies is fake. That’s understandable considering the nature of the medium. But in order for a story to work, it needs to be believable. That’s where knowledge comes into play. This is especially true when you look at your premise.
Take Iron Man for example. The key to powered armor is energy. The solve this problem early on with the mini arc generator. They don’t even bother explaining how the arc generator works because if they did, all the engineers would be able to poke holes in it. Just by telling us, and then showing us that it generates massive amounts of energy is enough. We buy it.
Then you look at something like Untraceable. The premise is a killer who can’t be traced through the internet. Even basic understanding of how the internet works would show that it could never happen.
But “reality” is different in every movie. Something that could work in Star Wars may not work in Apollo 13 because they have different rules because they exist in different universes. Certain things like physics, math, etc, are still true because we accept them as universal. But there are aspects that we believe because we understand that Star Wars is a fantasy.
The moment your audience says, “No way!” with disdain, you’ve lost them. Any credibility you’ve built is out the window and they’ve written off the entire film. This is especially true with your premise. If no one will believe your premise, you’re fighting them the whole way.
So do your research. Make sure you stuff makes sense so your audience will believe the lie.
-Penguin
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Tags: Apollo 13, Audience, Research, Screenwriting, Star Wars, Untraceable
Penguin June 23rd, 2008
Nothing quite like a vacation to get the juices going. I hammered out a few early drafts of Irreplaceably Precious while I was in Mexico. The ending still needs a little bit of work, but the main bits are there.
I started with a rough short story that I wrote on the plane. After I typed it up, I started building the scenes and writing out the dialogue. It was hard to keep myself from editing, since my dialogue was so bad.
Then I reread it to see if things made sense and added a few more scenes in and started moving bits and pieces around. If I had my index cards, it would’ve been much easier to do this.
I showed it to my actors, and they seem to like it. It clocks in at a brisk 22 pages. The original play, which it’s loosely based off, ran 70 pages. It’s pretty much completely different from the original. But the same (if that makes any sense).
Can’t wait to shoot it.
-Penguin
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Tags: Dialogue, Drafts, Filmmaking, Irreplaceably Precious, Screenwriting
