Some linkage for the long weekend

FreeWilliamsburg has their July movie preview posted.

Because we're the last remaining blog not to post about Michael Jackson: the Thriller video remade in Legos.

Something else Hollywood is putting money into that's NOT your spec script: Asteroids: The Movie, based on the gripping Atari video game.

The Writing Week (Vol. 2) part 78 - Make (and Meet) Deadlines

Even though I'm not a "professional" writer yet - though I did get to deposit the first check I've received for my writing since a competition in high school this week - I treat my writing as though it is a job. As with any job, there are deadlines that I have to meet. Only, in this case, most of the deadlines are made by me.

Treating your writing, from the outline you've just started to the re-write of draft number five, as a project that you're getting paid for (even if you're not) can actually be a great motivator. I've found that since I adopted the "every script is a job" mentality, I've become more focused in my writing, sharper and more professional. The writing is of a higher caliber, from a more experienced writer. All too often, I fell, when there isn't a concrete drive to deliver a high quality product, quality can inadvertently fall by the wayside. That's not to say that I want to write an inferior script, but by treating the work as something that someone is waiting for and expecting a high quality result from, it helps me focus on delivering.

Deadlines are, so far, mostly up to me still. The producer and manager I'm working with on the post-Apocalyptic spec are pretty loose on when they want the rewrite done by; we're hoping to go out in September. That said, if I claim to be able to get a new intro to them by the end of the weekend (which I did last week), then I'll be damned if I don't do that. Even though the deadline didn't come from them, it's been planted. And at this stage in my "career," the last thing I want to do is come off as someone who makes claims and never follows through. As a young writer with no production history, it's crucial that I deliver on time.

If you don't work with self-imposed or other deadlines, consider giving it a try. The key is to acknowledge that no deadline can be broken. Hopefully, not only will the crunch keep you writing, but it will help you deliver high quality pages, since you know you might not have time to go back and rework them as much. It's an exercise that might help. And, down the road, when you are writing for that major studio, it'll be practice that paid off.

Academy to Nominate Ten for Oscars?

I just clicked over to imdb for part of my daily work avoidance and saw the following breaking story:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has just announced in a small blurb the Oscars this year will be bumping their Best Picture nominees from five to ten beginning with the upcoming 2010 Oscars President Sid Ganis announced today at a press conference in Beverly Hills.

“After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year,” said Ganis. “The final outcome, of course, will be the same – one Best Picture winner – but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009.”

The move is an obvious response to the recent discussion concerning The Dark Knight’s absence from the nominees for more art house style films such as The Reader and I would expect we can now look at Up as a serious contender for a Best Picture nominee when previous Pixar favorites Ratatouille and WALL-E were left in the cold.

“Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize,” commented Ganis. “I can’t wait to see what that list of ten looks like when the nominees are announced in February.”

You can read the full article at Rope of Silicon.

Not sure how I feel about this. I guess in some ways it's appropriate, but the Academy could also just get more selective with its nominating, rather than just expand the category. Then again, I also just don't like change. What's your take on this?

The Writing Week (Vol. 2) part 77 - When to Seize the Opportunity

If you ask an unproduced writer what opportunities he or she should seize, the answer will probably be, "All of them." For the most part, this is true. With nothing to lose, everything is a gain. Yet, there are two things that we emerging/new/unproduced (or whatever other word you want to use) have to be on guard against: shady "opportunities" and not being ready.

One of the things I most worry about in terms of my writing career is not being able to deliver. If there's a deadline, I have to meet it. If there's a page count someone's requested (no more than this or no less than that), then it goes without saying that I hit that mark. And if I pitch an idea (as I did to my manager on the post-Apocalyptic spec on Friday), then I had better be able to follow it up with the physical pages.

Not long ago, as you know, I optioned a script. In addition to getting a producer to back that project, it also landed me a manager, at least as far as this once script is concerned. On Friday, Kevin (the manager) and I spoke about what our relationship is exactly, both in relation to the post-Apocalyptic spec that he's repping me on and in the future. Unlike many managers - and in a testament to his seriousness about finding quality material and writers - Kevin said that he does not immediately sign up any writer who might come along. Though we're working together on one script, he wants to familiarize himself with my writing style and ability to work with notes before we agree to work together more long term. That time also allows me to gauge how well I can work with him and whether we're on the same page about my projects. All of that is actually pretty great to hear - I haven't had the best working relationship with managers in the past, so I am happy for the trial period.

However, at one point in the conversation, Kevin asked what else I had. I pitched him two ideas, one of them the Roman army spec that I have a first draft of, the other a smaller character study that I have just a few pages of. Of course, he jumped on the character study. I regretted having to admit that the project was still very much in the development stage, as his enthusiasm about it was encouraging. As for the Roman army idea, he agreed to read it, despite knowing that there were going to be some major changes made to it. I tweaked a few small things in that draft and sent it off to him, yet still wished I'd been able to deliver on the other. Granted, in other situations, writers frequently pitch ideas that are just that - ideas. (I've even heard of people querying ideas just to see what kind of response they get.)

Nonetheless, I feel that, especially for writers who are just starting out, it's best to be able to back up anything you pitch. Onyx, 'Backer, and I have all talked about making the move to LA, but we all acknowledge that it's not necessarily worth doing until we have a solid body of work to back up our pitches and carry us through meetings. Luckily, Kevin understood that I have ideas and multiple projects in the works, but the call with him was more proof that if you're going to pitch or try to break in, have the scripts to back the talk up.

What, When, Where this Weekend - Dead Snow, $9.99, Whatever Works

What, When, Where is a weekly guide to select screenings, discussions and events in the NYC-area of interest to screenwriters. Have an event you'd like to see listed here? Give us a heads-up at info@screenwritersleague.com.

Opening this week...

DEAD SNOW, written by Stig Frode Henriksen and Tommy Wirkola, dir. by Tommy Wirkola


Premise: A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.

Playing: IFC Center

Zombies. Zombies, I say! Nazi Zombies!

$9.99, written by Etgar Keret, dir. by Tatia Rosenthal


Premise: A stop-motion animated story about people living in a Syndey apartment complex looking for meaning in their lives.

Playing: Landmark Sunshine

WHATEVER WORKS, written and directed by Woody Allen


Premise: An eccentric older man encounters a Southern belle and promptly falls in love. But how will the couple, her family, and his New York City friends mix?

Playing: All over.

This was made from a shelved script Woody wrote in the 1970s, and from the early reviews it sounds like it was better off hidden away. But, it's Woody Allen, so I'll see it eventually. The logline, though... old man, young girl. And this was written before Soon-Yi?

What are you doing/seeing this weekend?

The Hangover: Ahh, the Dangers of Alcohol

I was pretty excited to see The Hangover. I am a twenty-four year old male, who enjoys drinking and has experienced more black-outs than I’m proud of. The day after a black-out includes me sheepishly calling a friend, recounting my few memories, and subtly trying to inquire about my post-blackout actions. Then, after the initial laughter, I am forced to reconcile said actions with who I am as a person. This movie was made for guys like me.

It's not uncommon for guys to take their buddies to Vegas for a last hurrah, drink too much, and do stupid things they don’t remember…stupid, meaning, going $400 over budget or getting thrown out of a casino. What the fine gentlemen in The Hangover get into is beyond surreal. Their night begins innocently enough with three friends (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis) toasting their soon-to-be buddy Justin (Doug Billings) atop a Vegas rooftop. And then…they wake up. They can’t remember a thing, but with the room trashed, they guess they had a good time. Until they discover the groom is missing.

This begins the arduous process of piecing together the previous night which includes – but is not limited to – the following discoveries: a bed atop a Vegas hotel; a baby in their hotel room; a tiger belonging to Mike Tyson; a missing tooth; a valet ticket which gets them a police car instead of their convertible; a Chinese gangster inside said convertible. Though incredibly random, the movie is able to make it work within a logical timeline (which is the only logic necessary, given that most drunken behavior is illogical).

And yet, I left the theatre pretty under whelmed. It’s a pretty basic story, held above water by the reveals and the jokes that go along with them. I feel like most of the action in the now was not spent paving over the previous nights' events, and that we were treated to a slew of characters saying variations of, "Oh, you don't remember what happened? Oh, you were so wasted..." I didn’t love the cast, nor did I feel that they would have actually been friends (Galifianakis is a HUGE exception; everything he says is gold). And the Chinese gangster bit, though initially funny, gets tiresome.

I still liked it, in that I can remember and laugh at certain jokes and moments. But I definitely expected more. If we judge the movie from the box office, it was insanely successful. I don’t know…maybe after X years of drinking, I’m a bit desensitized to this sort of stuff?


(PS - Sit through the credits)

The Writing Week (Vol. 2) part 76 - How Things Do Change

(Speaking of change, this Writing Week has the pleasure of appearing on a Tuesday. Ooops.)

Anyway, as we all know, writing is a process of evolution. Not only do we evolve as writers, honing our skills and abandoning amateurish tendencies, but our projects evolve, as well. That gem of an idea you had evolves from an indie, two character drama set in a beach house to an ensemble shoot-em-up that takes place in Manhattan. It happens. Different drafts often mean different movies altogether. It's not something that necessarily meets with resistance; often these developments go unnoticed as we make them. Notes come in and the script goes a completely different way.

Take, for example, Simon Kinberg's "Mr. and Mrs. Smith." We all remember the action flick about a couple who find out that neither is what the other thought. But look at these two very different loglines that I found on Done Deal Pro.

A bored married couple discover they are enemy assassins hired to kill each other.
Logged 2/26/2003

and

A couple forms a bond while escaping a coup in Colombia.
Logged 1/15/2002

Obviously, Kinberg's script evolved. But where did the changes come from? Who influenced them? In re-working my post-Apocalyptic spec, I am incorporating notes from my new manager and from the producer who is trying to set the picture up. Luckily, the changes don't create such a drastic re-inventing of the script as Kinberg's loglines make it seem that he experienced. Nonetheless, what was merely an interesting, albeit briefly visited location in the draft I sent out is now becoming a much larger focus of the script - to the point where I've been encouraged to work it into the title. My character's arc now ends with triumphing over forces in this location, whereas before, any obstacles he faced there were merely hurdles before his greater goal.

Similarly, I've been mulling over a new idea recently. I haven't bothered to put anything down on paper about it, because there are some very large, very obvious questions I have to address first. I've spoken to Onyx at some length about it, and his suggestions have already started to reshape my original idea. I'm not displeased with where it's going - I actually like it a lot - but I can definitely see the differences. It's funny, considering that there isn't a whole lot to it at this point, either. The basic framework is largely the same, but some of the fundamental ideas woven into it have been altered.

Writing is evolutionary, there's no doubt in my mind. I think that's one of the things I like most about it. And who knows, the superficial action that my post-Apocalyptic spec is becoming to help its sale along will hopefully evolve into something deeper and more meaningful, something I had envisioned for it initially.