As my lack of recent Writing Week updates may have indicated, I have not been doing a ton of writing recently. Actually, I've not done any at all. I began entertaining thoughts about a children's book I think I'd like to write, but beyond putting a few rhymes down in a Word document, I've hardly touched it. And I have done nothing on any of my scripts.
Part of the inertia stems from the fact that my writing partner and I are awaiting a second round of notes from our producer on the sci-fi spec we've been working on. I haven't touched it in over a month, because I was out of town. Our producer had other commitments, but she read, and we're all talking tonight. I go out of town again for two weeks this Thursday, so it's anyone's guess when I'll get back to work on it - unless, of course, she loves the new draft and has only minor suggestions that I can implement on Wednesday.
A large part of my lack of momentum, though, is just that - a lack of momentum. Theoretically, I should have treated the month since we sent the script out as a time to break my back getting new (or old) projects ready to outline and write. But I needed a break. The day job got slow for me, and while that maybe should have been a great reason to fully invest in my writing, it had the inverse effect of dulling my motivation outside the office, as well. I'm not self-flagellating here, though. I think every writer needs a break now and then. I just have to make sure that mine ends with the conclusion of my vacation.
In the meantime, the League met last week. We didn't have any scripts to read, so one of the group members suggested a different homework assignment: read a Nicholl winning script. Not just a Nicholl winner, the one we chose had actually been developed through a mentorship project with the WGA. We wanted to see how we all responded to it and, because let's be honest, how we stacked up against it.
To be honest - and hopefully neither smug nor arrogant - I felt like each member of the League could hold his or her own against the script we read. Perhaps we're not as strong in the particular genre (historical noir/thriller), but I didn't see the Nicholl winner as obviously better in any major way than any of our best projects. In fact, there were some sloppy elements throughout that made me wonder what it takes (luck?, the right reader?, the promise of greater talent yet to come?) to place in the competition. Granted, I can't truly compare, because none of us submitted a competing script that year, nor have any of us read any of the other submissions, winning or not. But my faith in us was unscathed by the read through. Was it a good script? Sure, but with work, I believe any of my writers group members could achieve a similarly strong product.
We likely won't have pages next meeting, either, so we'll probably read another winning script from that year, to further the experiment. I hope that read, too, will support my hypothesis that, after four years of training in college and six years of writing since, we're just as competitive.
IndieWire recently put out a few Best Of lists worth checking out.
First, they have a list of 19 of their favorite films from 2012 that are now streaming on Netflix. Load up your queue and wear some serious butt grooves into your couch with these suggestions.
And, for more recent (or not yet released) films, check out the Best Films of the Year (So Far). Not all of the inclusions on this list have distribution yet, but we can only hope they'll all be available in the coming months, or at least by year's end.
What have some of your favorite flicks of recent months been?
Deadline Hollywood today posted a worthwhile article on how struggling actor, Jason Hall, became an "overnight" screenwriting sensation. (Note - there are few to none actual overnight major screenwriting success stories. All writing takes time, deliberation, and, usually, defeat. Hall's story is no different.)
Give it a read, but keep in mind - no two writers break into the industry in the same fashion. My climb, which is far from over, has been a long one with many near successes, and more rejections. As you'll see from Hall's mini history, he was at it for years before he "made it."
Moral: keep at it, no matter what.
WGA writers have recently voted on the Top 101 Best Written Television Series of all time. (If the WGA site list won't load, you can check out the full list - with some write up - at Deadline Hollywood.)
What are your reactions? Any omissions? Any that shouldn't be on there?
There are thousands of brilliant filmmakers out there. Netflix, Amazon, iTunes - all these services offer us ways to view the latest (and classic) cinematic offerings. However, it can be hard, or downright impossible, to discover new talent, new voices, and new visionaries through services like the aforementioned ones. For those of us interested to see what independent filmmakers are working on - what our peers are working on - the options have been scattered and few. Until now.
IndieFlix is a new, subscription-based streaming service that focuses entirely on independent cinema. Founded by filmmakers, the site allows users to search for films to view by genre, length, country, even by what festivals they've shown in. Check out the offerings for yourself and see what catches your eye.
The site isn't solely concerned with garnering a film viewers. This is, after all, a business. To that, Indieflix has a unique Royalty payment system called RPM - Royalty Pool Minutes - to share the money made through subscriptions with the filmmakers themselves. Every minute you watch helps fund more independent films. And you can stream on platforms you're already using; IndieFlix already has apps on Roku and xBox.
As a special promotion, The Screenwriters League is giving away 10 2-month subscriptions for our readers. First come, first serve - just email info@screenwritersleague.com if you'd like to give IndieFlix a try.
So get out there and treat yourself to an immersive experience in the world of independent cinema.
I've been away. Could you tell?
I busted my back to get the script revised and off to my collaborator, W.A., before heading on vacation on the 15th of this month. This latest draft became a patchwork quilt of colored revisions - blue, pink, and finally yellow - leading up to me submitting it to him again. While it might seem a bit unnecessary to keep adjusting the revision color, doing so made it extremely easy for W.A. and I both to track the most recent edits.
(In case you have yet to use revision mode, scripts keep track of edits in chronological order by assigning a color to them. A page with "blue" edits, for example, is one that has only been revised once. "Pink" is second, "yellow" third, and so on. Ultimately, you get weird colors and double colors. Especially in the past, studios actually printed the various versions of the script on multi-colored paper to the degree that it wasn't uncommon for a script to come out looking like a rainbow by the time it was done. In Final Draft, you can alter the color of the text with each revision mode, which I recommend doing so that your producer/collaborator/manager/whoever can see where the edits are. However, the header of each page also gets labeled with the most recent color and applicable date. For example, if you finished the first draft on 4/1/13, then did a pass on 4/4/13, all pages you made edits on will have "Blue 4/4/13" for a header. If you do another revision a week later, pages that get revised again read "Pink 4/11/13" at the top. A final pass on April 14 will yield "Yellow 4/14/13" on edited pages. The draft I turned in to my writing partner had all of the above color pages. That way, he could see where something had been fixed on the first round of edits, what was address on the second, and what I had finally resolved on the most recent pass. I had set a different color text for each revision mode, so he could immediately call out the changes.)
As we discussed and re-revised, three or four scenes stuck out as being problematic, hence the numerous revision modes. Each subsequent edit was less involved than the one that had preceded it, but the dialogue still wasn't right. Or the scene wasn't working properly. Or something that happened first should have happened second. I kept whittling away at the script, dropping a cumulative 12 pages and chipping away at what wasn't working. Finally, on the night before I flew out, I wound up spending three near-uninterrupted hours at the computer, putting all the pieces into order, touching up the script with "yellow." I thought it was working, but I also felt like perhaps I was starting to lose the forest for the trees.
Off the script went.
W.A. called me the next morning as I was finishing my packing. He liked the edits and, other than one line of dialogue I had meant to cut but forgotten about, had no notes that merited immediate attention. He sent to our producer, and I boarded a plan for Belgium.
We will get her notes this week.
LinkConnector Validation
There are a lot of serial killers in the world these days, and so many of them seem to live on television. Take a look at this season's offerings: The Following follows a questionable quasi-FBI agent trying to track down a collective of killers; Bates Motel tracks a young Norman Bates, as he grows into a wig and dress wearing murderer; Hannibal, based on The Red Dragon, is an earlier look into the rise (and, one assumes, incarceration) of Hannibal Lecter. The characters In the above shows have a lot of blood on their hands. And they're not the only ones. (Throw in the veteran Dexter, and the body count rises by at least three figures.)
With so many serial killer offerings, it is inevitable that the series draw comparisons to one another. (Let's ignore the question of WHY we as a society want so many programs about such evil people, for fear of where that might lead us.) Which shows hold up? Which were worth getting excited about?
I was most excited about The Following's premier. A series about a cop trying to fight his way through a band of serial killers to find the most nefarious one, one he has history with? Awesome. It reminds me of one of Neil Gaiman's Sandman trades, which was a great read. But The Following quickly succumbed to three major problems: poor character development, shoddy writing, and some of the worst police work in recent television history. It probably comes as little surprise that the cops andolice procedures in a show about a federal agent necessitates strong detective writing. The Following showcased the worst in cop abilities. The FBI was a never-present entity, only around at the end of each episode to examine crime scenes. Kevin Bacon's somewhat alcoholic, somewhat physically injured, somewhat psychologically demented protagonist was never consistent in any of his flaws. The only thing he did regularly was ignore procedure, fail to call for backup, and lead his colleagues into danger. Even when his adversaries were sloppy and exposed, Bacon and his FBI cohorts were unable to track them. Some of the most interesting characters wee part of the following, but their bickering soon became petty and uninteresting. Or, they died. There was so much to get jazzed about leading up to the premier of The Following. Unfortunately, by the third episode, the show proved to be not worth caring about.
Bates Motel - frankly, I only watched the first two episodes, and for the second, I was doing work on my laptop for most of it. The rest of the season to date is on my DVR. Perhaps I'll get to it some day. I mildly enjoyed the first episode, but it didn't seem to know when it was set, and neither did I. Norman Bates spoke and acted like he was from the 50s or early 60s, but he had an iPhone. His mother was... interesting, and their relationship was far more incestuous than any I would ever want with my mother. But I also didn't really care about any of it. I'd glance at the screen periodically - oh look, someone is on fire - and then back to my laptop. Has anyone watched? Does anyone care?
I'll be honest - I really like Hannibal. I think it is by far the best of the three. Oddly, what I like most about it is how it handles the police shooting its protagonist is forced to commit. Like I. the Following, the protagonist in Hannibal is a sort-of FBI agent called back into duty to catch a killer. Like in The Following, he is forced to shoot a suspect. This is where the similarities end. In The Following, Kevin Bacon kills more people on screen than any of the "serial killers" do. In fact, he shoots some of them when making an arrest would just take too much time. It gets absurd. When a suspect was killed in Hannibal, I thought, "Here we go again. Should I just cancel the series recording now?" But a ton of time is dedicated to the nightmares and fears the protagonist has as a result of the shooting. He is clearly troubled by what he's done, which is incredibly refreshing. The show is also smartly written. It looks good. The characters are three dimensional, unlike in the above examples. And actions have ramifications. What more could you want?
Interestingly, another show I've taken to this season is Arrow. I am a comic book guy and watched Smallville from start to finish, so there s little doubt that I would subscribe to a show, also on the CW, about the Green Arrow. I did not expect the level of violence it broadcasts each week. According to a recent episode, the hero (the agrees Arrow) has killed 26 bad guys on the show. 26! That's serial killer numbers. The show's writers hint at guilt over the deaths, but it doesn't really factor into play too much. Sure, it's not psychological the way Hannibal is, but with so many deaths on its hero's hands, it seems plausible that Arrow would address the killing more than it does. Lackadaisical treatment of murder aside (...), Arrow is entertaining and a fun watch.
Perhaps it bears mentioning that three of the four shows referenced are based on existing characters. But, maybe not. That just goes to show that original programming is rarer these days. And there's no obvious connection to draw between the success of existing content versus established properties. The only conclusion to draw is, no matter where the idea for the show comes from, there is nothing that can make it successful (or unwatchable) more quickly than the quality of the writing.
