Secondary Headings and Other Advice

While scrolling around the internet on various movie sites and screenwriting blogs today on my "lunch break," I stopped by the read the Unknown Screenwriter's newest post. Worth reading, especially if you're gearing up to begin sending your script out to producers and agents, the post is a short guide to ensuring that you don't screw yourself over with avoidable red flags in your spec.

One of the things that Unk talks a lot about is Secondary Headings (as in, use them). (If you don't know what these are, Mystery Man on Film did a great summary of the ins and outs of Secondary Headings just over a year ago). I'll admit, I didn't know these by name, so I had to do a quick search to see just what he was talking about. I was pleased to see that this is one of the screenwriting tools I developed a while ago, so I didn't freak out about something I should have been doing differently. However, since I now know them by name and from experience, I can tell you that they make a HUGE difference.

If you have particularly long scenes - or chase scenes, especially chase scenes - you'll find that these babies do an excellent job of breaking up the page and helping you highlight the key action and dialogue, without burying it with other text. As a quick example, say you have a chase scene through a supermarket. While it'd be easy to just begin with INT. SUPERMARKET - DAY and write a two or three page scene of people running after one another, that much uninterrupted action will bog down your script and the reader. Try it this way instead:

INT. SUPERMARKET - DAY

Bill spies Dale in the checkout line. Dale catches sight of Bill and takes after him. Bill flees down the

CONDIMENT AISLE

Arming himself with ketchup and mustard bottles as he goes. He chucks them backward as Dale takes off after him. Bill turns the corner. Dale follows.

BAKERY DEPARTMENT

The men sprint past fresh bread and an endless shelf of cakes. Dale grabs a PIE off of a rack and hurls it at Bill.

The pie nails him in the back of the head. Bill trips and falls headfirst into the

FROZEN FOOD SECTION

He grabs a 5 pound bag of ice and waits for Dale to round the corner.

In this (ridiculous) example, CONDIMENT AISLE, BAKERY DEPARTMENT, and FROZEN FOOD SECTION are the secondary headings. See how they break things up and keep the fast pace necessary for action scenes?

Do you use Secondary Headings?

The Writing Week (Vol. 2) part 58 - Writing An Epic?

Normally, I am a huge supporter of the 100-105 page script. Especially for an action spec, 105 is an ideal length. Anything done in that amount of pages (or fewer) that has a strong plot and characters is nearly untouchable, if you ask me. Nowadays, the industry seems to be looking for shorter and shorter scripts, too. In a time when money is on everyone's mind, productions slates are being cut by close to 20% sometimes, and everyone is looking on how/where to save in a budget, the 105 page trumps the 120 almost any day of the week. (OK, before you run off trying to find Variety articles on this, I'll clarify that it's my own opinion. But at least humor me and think about it.)

The past two things I've done, my comic book spec and the post-Apocalyptic one, rang in at 100 and 105 pages, respectively. Despite the shorter page counts, I still follow the conventional, 120-page, three act structure pretty closely. I don't know why, really, but I'm hard pressed to write a first act that doesn't end right around 30. The midpoint of two is negotiable, coming in somewhere between 55 and 60. Act three is where I tend to shave most of the time off, often bringing it in under 20 pages. I know it might seem a bit rudimentary to talk so much about page numbers and act structure, especially since the sequencing method has recently taken the writing industry by storm (from what I read). Nonetheless, act structure and adherence to page count "guidelines" is a big part of how I write, so it'd be foolish not to include it here. It is a safe way for me to write, a method that I understand and feel I can work pretty comfortably in.

However, something happened this week. My Roman army spec (which I'm more excited to be writing than I have ever been when writing from an outline) is coming out a bit longer than I had anticipated. At first, I was worried that my first act was going to be too short, and that my targeted 105 page count would be a stretch, at best. That's not looking like the case. I'm coming up on that beautiful, yet terrifying midpoint right now - terrifying because I find that pages 60-70 are THE WORST PAGES EVER to have to write - and I'm still not quite ready to deliver that big, midpoint jolt yet. I'm dealing with a lot in this script, so I'm not worried, but it begs the question: am I writing an epic?

Epics are interesting to me. I haven't studied them nearly enough as I should have, perhaps because I never planned on writing one. Even epic action movies (Dark Knight, Batman Begins, and pretty much anything else that came in over 2hours and 15 minutes in my opinion) are a category unto themselves. Movies like Gladiator, Braveheart, and even Last Samurai (that one was for you, Onyx) fly by because they're done so well. And they fit a certain structure. But what exactly is it? Are acts one and three still only half an hour, while act two fills up the bulk of the screen time? Or is everything proportionate to the higher page count? Guess I'll have to do a lot of script-reading and movie-watching to find out. In the meantime, does anyone think they know?

IMDB Lists the 25 All-Time Box Office Winners

Here's an interesting read, in case you haven't seen it yet. Imdb released today the 25 highest-grossing box office movies ever, adjusted for inflation, ticket price, etc.

Interesting to see where certain movies fall. While it's no surprise that The Dark Knight is on there, its ranking might catch you off guard. Of course, the #1 box office success should not be a surprise, but you might be interested to see that 8 of the top earners are Disney animated features (with a 9th being non-animated Disney). That Disney did so well with so many of its features is actually really understandable. Kind of interested that no animated/children's' movies past 1967 are on the list (with the exception of E.T. in '82).

Hopefully this list will have to be altered to reflect your movie someday.

Kim's Video: 1987 - 2009

New Yorkers and cinema fans, grab your tissue box. New York Times writer Sophia Hollander's account of the end of the legendary Kim's Video on St. Mark's Place will certainly bring out a tear or two. Businesses come and go, but this is the first one that's truly made me sad - Kim's was always the ultimate source for obscure, foreign and independent cinema during my first years in NYC.

Trailer Trash XXXIII: Ator the Invincible (1982)

"In an age of innocence, before the dawn of fear, two special people found each other."

The above quote says more about the movie Ator than I ever could. The word "special" is only ever used to describe two kinds of people: children and those with the, um, minds of children. In the trailer you're about to watch it's used to describe two Conan-style barbarians. Is that a flub? Nah. These two barbarians ARE special.

Caution: This trailer moves quick. Blink and you might miss the tarantula, several swordfights, a bathing beauty, deer, a bear, multiple explosions, a man in gold eyeshadow, or a dude who just straight-up explodes.



At 0:01 - Deer!
At 0:03 - Bear!
At 0:08 - Ator had his hair done by Motley Crue's stylist.
At 0:18 - Boom!
At 0:22 - THAT GUY JUST EXPLODED THE HELL UP

The movie itself even more ridiculous, managing to work all kinds of wacky flourishes (from incest, to witches, to zombies!) into one 98-minute PG-rated film. For an exhaustive, in-depth plot analysis, check out Cool Cinema Trash's rundown. (It's better than actually seeing the movie!)

Cool Cinema Trash was even kind (or do I mean cruel?) enough to include an MP3 of the movie's awful, awful theme song. Hate music? You'll love this.



"The birth of a new legend, a new hero, a true heroine: AAAAAAAAATOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRR!"

Trailer Trash is a weekly tribute to oddball, cheesy and often just plain terrible movie trailers. Writers: These movies got made... so can yours! You can read through our archive by clicking here.

What, When, Where this Weekend - Coraline, Fanboys, He's Just Not That Into You

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.

- New York Comic Con hits the Javits Center this weekend. Check out all of the film, TV and comic programming at their website.

- The IFC Center is showing a marathon of 2009's Oscar-Nominated short films.

Opening this weekend...

CORALINE, written by Henry Selick and Neil Gaiman, dir. by Henry Selick


Premise: A secret door in her family's new house offers a passage way to an unusual parallel world for young Coraline.

Playing at: Clearview Ziegfeld, Union Square Stadium 14 (in 3D)

Almost every poster, trailer or commercial I've seen for this movie boldly advertises two things: 1) it's made by the director of Nightmare Before Christmas, and 2) it's based on a book by Neil Gaiman. And that's really all it took to sell me. I haven't read this particular book, but the premise (involving sewing buttons into your eyes in order to fit into a new world) is bizarre enough to draw me in.

Plus, it's in 3D!

FANBOYS, written by Ernest Cline and Adam F. Goldberg, dir. by Kyle Newman


Premise: Four guys and their galpal plan a cross-country trip in order to steal a print of Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace from Skywalker Ranch so their dying friend can see it before its world premiere.

Playing at: All over.

I have a hunch I need be a bigger fan of Star Wars to really get behind this.

HE'S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU, written by Abby Kohn and Marc Silverstein, dir. by Ken Kwapis


Premise: Romantic woes affect an interconnected group of Baltimore singles and marrieds.

Playing at: Everywhere.

Jennifer Aniston, Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore - this cast is an Angelina Jolie away from a wet dream for the Us Weekly crowd. This really isn't my type of movie, but the reviews I've seen so far seem to point at it being pretty decent. I'll trust Onyx's opinion once he sees it.

Dear Ms. Connelly - Has it really been almost 25 years since Creepers? You wear it well.

Dear Ms. Johansson - I really liked Vicky Cristina, but I still can't forgive you for the Tom Waits cover album. Never. Never, ever, ever.

What are you doing/seeing this weekend?

Screen Alert - Donkey Punch (written by Oliver Blackburn & David Bloom)

Donkey Punch is a smart movie with an even smarter title. The moniker is outlandish enough that it sticks with you; I don't remember where I first read about the movie, but its name and premise stuck with me long enough that I was excited to see it opening here in NYC.

The title, of course, refers to a raunchy, ridiculous and ultimately fake sexual maneuver. (If you don't know what it is, ask a seventh grader to describe it to you.) The title is perfectly naughty and straight forward - you're not going to forget it.

The plot itself is simple. Three girls are on holiday when they meet three guys that are looking to party. Long story short: the guys get the girls onto the yacht they crew, get 'em out to sea, load up on drugs, and then one receives a fatal donkey punch. THIS is where the plot thickens.

The sexy-kids-end-up-with-a-dead-body is becoming a common subgenre in the horror section, but Donkey Punch manages to handle it differently. The kids react BELIEVABLY to the accidental death ("What do we do??" "Our whole lives are ahead of us!") and the tension perfectly builds through their interactions when their methods of resolving the situation are at-odds. None of the characters know each other that well, and everyone must look out for their own best interests. This was where the film excelled - in its relatively slow build to further bloodshed. When the film inevitably takes its horror turn in the later half, it's at least handled creatively. Filmseekers looking for a good thriller/suspense flick have a lot to be happy about here. Horror fans should stick around for the end - you won't be disappointed.

Blackburn's past as a music video director absolutely shines through in Donkey Punch; one of the most outstanding aspects of the film is its use of sound and music. The soundtrack is great, properly setting the tone of the scene with each piece of music. Particular standouts are the drug scenes at the beginning of the film - they're properly otherworldly and disorienting. The music pulses coldly and electronically. The soundtrack reminds me of Trainspotting's, but Donkey Punch is able to convey that messed-up feeling without resorting to New Order and ceiling-crawling babies.

I've seen a lot of critics draw comparisons between this film and Polanski's Knife In the Water - which I think is apt, and not just because they both take place on boats. They're both claustrophobic little thrillers well worth the price of admission.

**** out of *****.