I got a good question the other day while talking to some film school students. They asked what they’d be expected to know about the business in order to work in it. I’m going to apply this more specifically to TV writers. When you’re networking or interviewing with potential employers, do you really need to know everything about every show on the air, past and present? No. They won’t know all that either. But I do recommend that TV writers try to watch at least one episode of every show currently on the air - at least in your area (comedy or drama). At the…
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What It's Like
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What do you know?
25 Jun 2009 | 4:52 pm -
Two years
15 Jun 2009 | 4:37 pmWow. I’ve been writing this blog for two years this month. Honestly, I thought I would have run out of things to say a long time ago. Many thanks to my readers. Keep those questions coming - they often bring up topics I wouldn’t have thought to cover. In the ongoing spirit of blogosphere solidarity, let me refer you to a couple of interesting posts on other blogs. John August had a good guest post a few days ago from a showrunner’s assistant. Also, “Living the Romantic Comedy” has some good insight in this post about the value of a shitty first… -
Lemonade from lemons
29 May 2009 | 5:50 pmFirst, let me direct you to an interesting article in the Storylink e-zine, written by my friend, former teacher and former boss Bill Rabkin. He advises budding TV writers to creatively “go big or go home” in their episodic specs. The TV writing market is so competitive right now, he argues, that to stand out, you’ve got to do something unconventional. I generally agree, with one caution: Keep in mind that a spec of an existing show is supposed to demonstrate how well you can imitate another writer’s voice. So however you choose to experiment with structure,… -
Finales
21 May 2009 | 3:54 pmSo here’s my problem with the “Lost” season finale (spoiler alert for anyone even more behind than me): I didn’t understand anyone’s motivation for wanting to detonate or not detonate the bomb, especially because those motivations seemed to change a lot. Jack wanted to risk everything to reset the past because he’s still hung up on Kate? Really? Not because of all of the other people who died on the island? Or to escape from the 1970s? I could kinda buy Sawyer still being in love with Kate, but Jack? Anyway, then there’s Kate, who is so… -
ABC Production Associates Program
14 May 2009 | 12:08 pmThe ABC Production Associates program is more production-oriented than writing-oriented, but a foot in the door is a foot in the door. Here are some snippets of their website - check it out yourself for more at http://abctalentdevelopment.com/programs/programs_production.html About the Program The one-year program offers access to entry-level positions within television production management for individuals from diverse backgrounds. Candidates work closely with ABC Studios personnel and executives who mentor the associates and take a personal interest in their progress. The ultimate goal…
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Jane in Progress
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Monday: Taking a Break...
Dear Gentle Readers,As you have probably noticed, the frequency of these posts has declined in the recent months. I have been telling myself that I will recapture the fire and drive that powered this blog for these last several years, but I suspect that it is now time to face the truth:I simply have said almost everything that I have to say about writing for television.It used to be the case that every time I wrote a scene -- or watched a scene -- a little nugget of writing advice would occur to me. But now I find that I'm consistently being reminded of points that I have already made,… -
Feverish Comic Book Thoughts
I promised a very long time ago that I would talk about the process of comic book writing. I've already mentioned that comic book scripts vary enormously from author to author and publisher to publisher, so it's possible that the process I'm going to describe is only one way that these things are accomplished, but this is how I've experienced it.First, I come up with a story, remembering that it generally has to be quite simple. You can't get a lot on a page, so you have to keep that in mind. I also try to make the story more action-packed than I normally would do in a similarly long stretch… -
Previous Entries
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Complications Ensue: The Crafty TV and Screenwriting Blog
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People in Glass Houses Shouldn't Be...
3 Jul 2009 | 9:37 amMy friends Lara Azzopardi and Julia Cohen's pilot is airing on the CBC:Throwing Stones is a half-hour drama (with a healthy dose of comedy), about the lives of five remarkable working class women who belong to a local curling club in Winnipeg. Starring Academy Award winner Patty Duke, Lolita Davidovich, Caroline Neron, Barbara Radecki and Stephanie Anne Mills, directed by Mario Azzopardi (ZOS: Zone of Separation), written by Lara Azzopardi and Julia Cohen. Produced by Original Pictures and Curling Productions. Airing Wednesday, July 15th, at 9pm EST.Great cast! Alas, it didn't get picked up. -
1959
2 Jul 2009 | 6:42 amI've been reading 1959: The Year Everything Changed by my good friend (and Slate columnist) Fred Kaplan. The '50's is sort of an underserved period in popular history. We think of it as white bread, surburban, conformist, a period of unchallenged American dominance. But there was a lot of turmoil under the covers. The Beat Poets were the '50's, and jazz was going haywire, and the first mass market computers were coming in. Oh, and the modern Civil Rights movement really started up in the '50's. Meanwhile everyone was living in serious fear that there would be an all-out nuclear war. Fred's… -
Get Invited Back
2 Jul 2009 | 6:11 amFrom a brief interview with Steven Bochco:One of the things I’ve always said to a new director who we hire -- somebody who’s doing it for the first time -- I always say, Your only job is to get invited back. Don’t try to win an Oscar; don’t try to win an Emmy; just get invited back. Because that’s how you progress in life. I don't think you can usefully try to win an Oscar. You try to do your best work. You try to take the job seriously, and throw yourself into it. And most of all, you try to listen carefully to the people you're working with, and take their feedback seriously… -
Magical World, Meet Mundane World
1 Jul 2009 | 7:40 amThere's a genre of kid's show where the kid lives in both a magical world and the mundane one. The kid has a door to the otherworld and uses it, but doesn't stay there. The narrative problem is relating the stakes in the magical world to the stakes in the mundane world. If he becomes king of Erewhon, but stays a picked-on kid at school (he's always picked on at school), what has he really gained? Because, after all, even kids know that Erewhon is really Nowhere spelled backwards. So traditionally, the structure of this kind of show is: kid has a Problem at School; escapes into the magical… -
If You Did Not Enjoy Transformers: Return of the Fallen
28 Jun 2009 | 1:25 pmMaybe it's because you didn't realize Transformers:ROTF is an art movie.
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johnaugust.com
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Variant cover artwork
3 Jul 2009 | 9:59 amSince you released “The Variant” independently, how’d you get the nifty cover art? – Michael Washington D.C. The image comes from stock.xchng, a photo by Marja Flick-Buijs of the Netherlands. I did the type myself. The face is Myriad. Because Amazon scales the artwork incredibly small for some views, I fattened the type used on the Kindle version so that it would remain legible. -
Cablevision and the Supreme Court
2 Jul 2009 | 12:09 pmIn January, I wrote about Cablevision and the Infinite TiVo, a plan by a cable operator to shift recording of TV shows from users’ boxes to a central server: Cablevision wants to offer DVR as a service instead of a device. Rather than recording 30 Rock on the box attached to your TV, the show will be recorded at Cablevision’s headquarters. Then, when you want to watch it, Cablevision will send the show to your television. If it works right, it should feel just like a normal DVR. Only without the cost of the DVR. I thought it sounded great if you were a consumer, or Cablevision. And… -
On rich plumbers and eggheads
2 Jul 2009 | 6:41 amThis New York Post editorial by Jack Hough got links by provocatively claiming that a university education is “a bad deal for the average student, family, employer, professor and taxpayer.” Sure: it’s easy to pick numbers that show how a plumber who saves diligently will out-earn an egghead saddled with student debt. (How did plumbers became the Everyman, anyway? In the U.S., there are more lawyers than plumbers.) The second half of the article raises a more important point: before you can say whether a college education is “worth it,” you need to measure what is… -
On adaptations and picking projects
2 Jul 2009 | 12:10 amMakingOf has an interview up with me in which I talk a bit about my writing process, the challenge of adaptations, and why one’s career is often as much about the scripts you didn’t write. -
I’d like to thank the Academy
30 Jun 2009 | 10:26 amI’ve been invited to join. Many thanks to the folks who nominated me, and the committee who selected me. Again: Really sorry about Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.
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The Artful Writer
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The WGAw Credits Dept. handles IMDB
2 Jul 2009 | 1:37 pmI just received word from Lesley Mackie McCambridge, who runs the WGAw Credits Department, that the issue with IMDB has been resolved. She and her department were on this one before any of us in the blogosphere even knew about it, and IMDB will not be moving forward with any plan to relocate writers’ credits from their rightful position. All of your letters and feedback definitely supported the Guild’s efforts. Thanks to all of you and Lesley for winning this one. -
Let IMDB know how you feel…
1 Jul 2009 | 12:32 pmSome people, depending on their platform or browser, have noticed that IMDB is no longer including WGA-determined screenwriting credits at the top of the credits list along with the director. Instead, they’re appearing below the jump, as an “additional” credit. When I check on an IMDB page, it appears the way it usually does, but someone else has confirmed via IMDB that they are trying out a new way of displaying credits, and some users may get the version where screenwriters are demoted to the “and all the rest” section. I urge you all to let IMDB know that this… -
Wells, Gould and Keyser to run for WGAw governance
22 Jun 2009 | 3:31 pmPlenty more on this to come, but I think it’s a great opportunity for our union. While some people may be stuck in the old way of thinking (i.e. strikemongers vs. corporate sellouts), this is a chance to get the best of both worlds: thoughtful, pragmatic, but very unafraid leadership that puts logic and results ahead of ideology. It’s also a chance to finally achieve the holy grail of negotiations…the one that always seems to evade us…an honest, balanced, strategic and effective negotiations partnership with another creative union. Anyway, like I said…more to… -
Some WGAw news headed your way…
19 Jun 2009 | 3:28 pmI won’t break it here. I’m more of an analysis guy than Toldja! guy. But I think it’s a very good development. More once it’s out. -
SAG Ratifies Contract: Is Sanity Cool Again?
9 Jun 2009 | 7:11 pmThe word is that SAG’s membership ratified their contract to the tune of 78% in favor–a stunning repudiation of Alan Rosenberg, Doug Allen and the Membership First faction. Obviously, for all of us who work in this town and depend on film and television production for our livelihoods, this is excellent news. If the contract were bad, I would say otherwise, but it’s not bad. It’s not mind-blowingly great, but it’s adequate. I’m happy that the large majority of voters at SAG saw through all of the nonsense being fired in their direction. Does this…
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Screenplay Europe
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Brussels festival showcases new European directors
28 Jun 2009 | 9:29 amEvery year at the same time, the Brussels Film Festival competes with hot weather while hosting a selection of first and second films from European directors. This year, there are some 60 films being premiered, with free open-air screenings and concerts.The official competition consists of:AWAYDAYS, Pat Holden (UK, 2009, 105')LA CASA SULLE NUVOLE, Claudio Giovannesi (Italy, 2008, 96')COUNTRY WEDDING, Valdis Oskarsdottir (Iceland, 2008, 95')DONNE-MOI LA MAIN, Pascal-Alex Vincent (France, 2009, 80')THE HIGHER FORCE, Olaf de Fleur Johannesson (Iceland, 2008, 80')IN YOUR VEINS, Beata Garderler… -
L'Aquila movie festival to go ahead
21 Jun 2009 | 2:14 pmDespite the huge damage caused by the recent earthquake there, the Italian town of L'Aquila has decided to go ahead with its annual festival. This third edition has been made possible by the support of hte festival of Salerno. The competition is open to short, medium and feature films, with a deadline on July 15, 2009.For details, visit Idea de Cleves.Get more scriptwriting news on Screenplay Europe now. -
ScriptBase launches European script competition
18 Jun 2009 | 1:53 amScriptBase, the online screenwriting community that was set up by writers from the Fade In group in Hungary, is launching a free online screenwriting competition. The site acts basically as a writers' group, with people reading and commenting on each others' work. As they are now adding a rating system, they are also starting a competition with a €1,000 prize. The basic idea is simple: post your project, get people to read it and hope that it gets a great rating. ScriptBase and Fade In are both writer-driven initiatives.A quick glance revealed a strong number of entrants from Eastern Europe… -
Stephen Fry: UK TV writers "treated like dirt"
27 May 2009 | 11:44 pmCelebrated British actor and writer Stephen Fry has spoken out against the British TV production system, claiming the writers are "treated like dirt". He particularly points to the fact that writers are generally dispossessed of their work when production starts. In a report in The Stage, he is quoted as saying, “Occasionally, if there’s a good relationship, a writer can come and visit the set, but their job - if they know anything about the etiquette of a set - is to sit very quietly in a corner and is certainly not to talk to an actor about anything but gossip and it is certainly not to… -
Screenwriting conference in Dublin in June
12 May 2009 | 6:26 amThe Jameson Dublin Film Festival is organising a major scriptwriting conference in June, that will bring together four very different writers: Shane Black (Lethal Weapon), Shane Meadows and Paul Fraser (A Room for Romeo Brass, SomersTown), Eran Kolirin (The Band's Visit) and Conor McPherson (The Eclipse). Other guests are planned. Dates June 4 & 5. "Give Me Direction" will be an opportunity to champion great and original writing for the screen and to deepen the Irish Film Board’s engagement in addressing industry concerns. The conference will follow an informal, mixed format of sessions…
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Scriptwriting in the UK
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Story Vault: Intercut?
29 Jun 2009 | 9:06 amHello new readers to the blog! How are you? You look very well, if you don't mind me saying so. Have you been out in the sun? Smashing. Now that you're here, don't be afraid to dip into the archives, or the 'story vault' to give it its poncey name (link on the right there, just a little bit down). We've covered a lot of ground on the blog over the last few years so if there's a particular screenwriting subject or area you're interested in, chances are there's a post on it. If there isn't, please feel free to shout and I'll do my best to oblige. If anyone has any questions or screenwriting… -
Origin Website & Trailer
23 Jun 2009 | 4:18 pmLet me introduce you to the trailer and official website for Origin, the short film I've been putting together since the beginning of the year.The website has been kindly provided by the one and only Steve Andrews. The full list of Associate Producers, Special Thanks & Thanks credits are listed in the Cast & Crew section. A huge thanks to YOU and everyone involved in the Twitter Short Film Fund. These fund raising initiatives are now closed but my thanks again for your amazing generosity and support. It made such a huge difference to just about everything.For more fun and photos, don't forget… -
Free Ticket: William Akers Talk
20 Jun 2009 | 4:37 pmYou may have seen that William Akers is coming to London to give a talk about the "Fatal Errors Beginning (and experienced) Writers Make". William's a produced screenwriter and author of "Your Screenplay Sucks! 100 Ways To Make it Great" and, by all accounts, seems like one of the good guys. More details on William and his book can be found here.Fancy going along to his talk FOR FREE? Yes, a blog exclusive for you (and because you've been so kind with the short film fund), I asked William if he'd give a freebie to attend his two hour intensive discussion where he will cover such topics as:-… -
Credit When It's Due
14 Jun 2009 | 2:44 pmA lot of producers and execs won't consider a new writer who doesn't have a credit (often referred to as "an unknown quantity") but how does someone get their first credit if no-one is willing to give them a break? It's a catch-22 similar to trying to get an agent (the agent’s not interested until you’ve got some work but it’s incredibly difficult to get work without an agent). So what do you do?Dedicate yourself to achieving that first credit, wherever you can get it. Forget about big Hollywood sales*, creating your own TV series or nabbing a commission on the next series of Ashes to… -
Film Fund Update & More
9 Jun 2009 | 1:12 pmThe Twitter Short Film Fund has been a great success! A huge thank you to all those who pledged, most of whom doubled the basic request of £5, and some who went well beyond. I am well and truly gobsmacked, and I can't tell you the difference it makes to the final stages of post-production. But of course, I can tell you. It stops me from going further into debt or tapping even more of my meager savings (I say meager; non-existent would be more accurate, especially as the production budget hoovered it up in a blink).To change your pledge into actual wonga, simply make a Gift payment at PayPal…
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Cyber Screenwriter
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Writing Your Screenplay - Show Don't Tell by Susan Hart
3 Jul 2009 | 10:16 amAs you sit down every day to work on your screenplay, the foremost thought in your mind should be -- write what is to be seen on the screen. There is no point in putting down "Her inner turmoil reminded her of a lost childhood". All that's needed is "She looks at the old photo and starts to sob".Write your screenplay as if you are in the audience, watching the movie. Every word in a script should advance the story. There's no need to add fluff. If the storyline is not viable and complete, then the screenplay won't fly.When I write a screenplay I usually see scenes whole, like little… -
Outline For a Screenplay - Writing an Outline For a Hollywood Screenplay by Melody Jackson
29 Jun 2009 | 6:19 amWriting a screenplay is a very complex process and will end up as a 100+ page document. So before you write it, it is very helpful to create a blueprint of what you are going to write, starting first with a treatment, and then writing the outline. You should first create a treatment of your story and work that out. (See related article.) Once you have the treatment worked out, then you could write the outline.An outline should contain heading for every scene in your script. It doesn't have to have all the establishing shots yet, but it should outline and note every major scene that will… -
Using Theme to Develop Screenplay Structure - A Thematic and Structural Analysis of Drag Me to Hell by Jacob Krueger
22 Jun 2009 | 7:38 amOne of the most common questions that come up for screenwriting students is about how to use theme to help develop the structure of your movie. The film "Drag Me To Hell" provides a great example of masterful writers (Sam and Ivan Raimi) using theme to craft a profound journey for their protagonist, within a fun, entertaining and highly commercial aesthetic.Spoiler alert: If you haven't watched this movie yet, this might be a good time to dash out and see it. Then come on back and read all about it...The theme of "Drag Me To Hell" is pretty simple: selfish desire leads to the soul's… -
Palms for Life Fund Launches Young Filmmakers' Competition to Document Hunger in the United States
15 Jun 2009 | 7:17 amA new national film contest, Faces of Hunger in America, will award prizes to young filmmakers, 25 years of age and under, who document in their own communities the increasingly widespread problem of hunger in America. The top three winners will receive cash prizes of $5,000, $3,500 and $1,500; they will get exposure to a vast audience in a full-length compilation of the prize-winning works."Over 36 million Americans are living in food insecurity - 12.4 million being children - and we want to bring this alarming reality to the attention of the public and the nation's leaders," says Hannah… -
The Myth of Three Act Screenplay Structure (Or, Why Am I Lost in My Second Act?) Jacob Krueger
8 Jun 2009 | 4:49 amFor about as long as there have been screenwriting books, young writers have been taught that movies have a three act structure. Each act is viewed as 30 to 60 page chunk of the plot and when they're all assembled together, they provide a beginning, middle, and an end for your story.Countless script doctors, critics, teachers, and producers have used this structure to break down great movies, and analyze how they are put together.But while this may be a great way of looking at a finished script from a critical perspective, it's not particularly useful to screenwriters. When you're beginning a…
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Twitter / screenwriting
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screenwriting: Jenny Deller wins Showtime's Tony Cox Screenplay Competition with her script "Future Weather." http://is.gd/1bsh3
23 Jun 2009 | 8:38 pmscreenwriting: Jenny Deller wins Showtime's Tony Cox Screenplay Competition with her script "Future Weather." http://is.gd/1bsh3 -
screenwriting: @wefollow #screenwriting #screenwriter #movies
19 Mar 2009 | 5:08 pmscreenwriting: @wefollow #screenwriting #screenwriter #movies -
screenwriting: Brad Ingelsby has been hired to script the comic book film adaptation Sleeper for Warner Bros. http://twurl.nl/pyckc7
22 Oct 2008 | 11:59 pmscreenwriting: Brad Ingelsby has been hired to script the comic book film adaptation Sleeper for Warner Bros. http://twurl.nl/pyckc7 -
screenwriting: Two writers from The Office, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, are writing the Ghostbusters 3 screenplay. http://twurl.nl/wri8tf
16 Sep 2008 | 9:30 pmscreenwriting: Two writers from The Office, Lee Eisenberg and Gene Stupnitsky, are writing the Ghostbusters 3 screenplay. http://twurl.nl/wri8tf -
screenwriting: The screenwriting team Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith talk about their latest comedy, House Bunny. http://twurl.nl/vxycuf
26 Aug 2008 | 8:43 pmscreenwriting: The screenwriting team Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith talk about their latest comedy, House Bunny. http://twurl.nl/vxycuf
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BBC - writersroom
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CBBC Competition
3 Jul 2009 | 6:51 amSo the deadline for our CBBC competition passed on Wednesday and we have received more than 700 submissions! Our crack team of readers are sifting through scripts as I blog and we will be contacting writers selected for the masterclass by the end of next week... -
Out to play in Somers Town
3 Jul 2009 | 2:46 amWhen we ran the last Sitcom Talent scheme in 2004, we received an outstanding entry, set in a school. It had strong characters, an organised story, was extraordinarily funny, and came with a strongly worded letter saying that it would be age discrimination if the writers were ruled out of the competition for being 12 years old. Sadly, we had to discriminate, but I had a meeting with the girls and their parents, where we talked through the script and what they needed to do to add an extra ten minutes. They went away, it went quiet for a bit, and then they wrote to say that, all things… -
Excellent advice from Merlin Mann (via John August)
1 Jul 2009 | 5:52 amWas just checking out John August's blog, and he's got a post featuring a podcast by Merlin Mann (of 43 Folders) talking about creativity and writing, and whether or not your work's good enough. Well worth a listen - the good stuff starts at about twelve minutes in - but if you can't be bothered, here's the secret. Start. Check it out. -
Windsor Fringe Marriott
25 Jun 2009 | 9:26 amJust a quick note to say that the 6th Windsor Fringe Marriott Award for New Drama Writing, as previously plugged in our opportunities section, has now been awarded. Two of the three winners entered via the writersroom opportunity page, and three of the six people on the shortlist as well. Not too shabby. To all the winners and shortlisted writers: well done. -
Interview with Steven Andrew and Elly Brewer
22 Jun 2009 | 3:40 amAttention if you're planning on entering the CBBC New Writers Competition. We've got a new interview with the head of CBBC Drama Steven Andrew and Children's writer Elly Brewer live on the site. Our very own Paul Ashton also pops up in the middle to answer a couple of format questions, and to answer the question that these competitions are all very nice, but has anyone ever got something on the telly off of one? He's good like that. Anyhow, there's lots of good stuff in there. Check it out.
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MovieBytes - Screenwriting Contests & Markets Online
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TWP Announces Contest Winners
1 Jul 2009 | 9:00 pmThe Writers Place has announced the winners and honorable mentions of their November 2008 - April 2009 screenplay contest. -
Script Savvy Announces May, 2009 Contest Winners
1 Jul 2009 | 9:00 pmSheri Davenport's Kiss Me Lucky has been named the winner from amoung 142 entries to the May, 2009 Script Savvy Screenwriting Competition. -
British Feature Screenplay Competition Announces Contest Winner
1 Jul 2009 | 9:00 pmKaos Films has announced THE LEGEND OF NEW YORK PIZZA by John Paul Sheerin as the winner of their 2008 competition. -
WriteMovies.com Announces Finalists
30 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pmWriteMovies.com has announced the finalists of their International Writing Competition #21. -
PAGE Announces Quarterfinalists
30 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pmThe PAGE International Screenwriting Awards have announced their quarterfinalists for 2009, representing the top 10% of all entries in this year's competition.
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ScriptLinks Updates
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Competitions - Current
29 Jun 2009 | 11:25 pm114 competitions listed, includes 4 Canadian and 22 new competitions. Call for: Arizona, New Jersey, beach, horror, Gay, holiday, Florida, contest winners, Saskatchewan, class, webisode, women. -
Services
29 Jun 2009 | 11:25 pmUpdated page with 7 new links. -
Other Services
14 Jun 2009 | 11:27 pmUpdated page with 9 new links. -
Producers - Canada
12 Jun 2009 | 11:20 pmUpdated page with 9 new links. -
Bulletin Board
12 Jun 2009 | 11:20 pmBC Film Project Development Fund * Free Teleseminar: 21 Professional Rewrite Strategies
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Suite101: Writing for Stage/Screen Articles
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Selecting a Script for the Fringe
29 Jun 2009 | 10:30 pmA brief look at how to select a script that is appropriate for production at a Fringe Theatre Festival. -
Approaches to Structuring a Screenplay
29 Jun 2009 | 10:54 amThe fun of structuring a true story can be found in manipulating time, characters, and scenes according to timeless, universal models of structure. -
Buiding Character Arc in a Screenplay
22 Jun 2009 | 12:08 pmUsing theme as a guide, studying the plot, and charting growth on the page all help a writer build a strong character arc that will make the story unforgettable. -
An Interview With Lisa Barrass
20 Jun 2009 | 1:15 amScriptwriting competitions are a great way of making waves and showing off new talent. Lisa Barrass, finalist of the Red Planet Scriptwriter competition, tells her story. -
Elements of Screenplay Revision
11 Jun 2009 | 6:38 amA well-written screenplay contains many elements, such as plot, character and dialogue, and each of these needs to be focused on separately during a rewrite.
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Writing for Performance
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Back Up Your Data Day
1 Jul 2009 | 5:11 amIt's the first of the month which means it's Back Up Your Data Day (although it should be done day-to-day!).We can also use this day to delete stuff we no longer need and defragment our hard drive(s) to keep our machine lean and clean, do you know what I mean?Windows guide to defragmentingMac users don't have to defragment, apparently____________________________________________________________________Many of us have CBBC scripts that need to be copied but I'm also typing up and backing up the ideas I rejected, which may come in useful later. It doesn't take long to do and if...no let's be… -
Checking what they've written
30 Jun 2009 | 8:14 amThe venerable Stephen Gallagher says on his blog: "The downside is that there are a lot of books, courses and how-to's out there that ain't worth a bucket of warm spit." Which is very difficult to argue with but then he says "when somebody's telling you stuff about writing, check out what they've written. " Which is very easy to argue with as I've learnt loads from critics for a start.Mr Gallagher goes on to plug William Akers course/book promotion on Thursday. If, before buying the book or taking a ticket, I decided to check what Akers had written, here on IMDB, I wouldn't give him the time… -
Deadline
27 Jun 2009 | 5:31 pm -
CBBC/ writersroom information
23 Jun 2009 | 5:11 amNow I've finished my first draft for the CBBC comp, I'm looking to see what I need to do in the rewrite.There are obvious things that I've spotted myself like lack of clarity and lack of emotion which needs to be dealt with but it's also a good time to pause and look at what the CBBC/writersroom actually want. I have done printer-friendly pdf versions of the following writersroom pages:CBBC Q & AThis is the transcript for the event. (original web version"The Perfect 10" by Paul Ashton, writersroom bossThis was a series of 10 blogs over a several months covering every aspect of writing a… -
Finish the Frakkin' First Draft
21 Jun 2009 | 3:11 amLisa Klink:"You know you’ll have to rewrite the thing, many times, so don’t kill yourself trying to make the first draft of your script brilliant."Article in full(via Chris Chibnall**********************************************************Billy Mernit:"It was a continual perplexity to me, how many obstacles got put in the way of writing a first draft. Outlining was a tooth-pulling process in itself; some not only wanted their ducks in a row, they wanted to count the feathers on each duck. Don't get me wrong: I believe in outlining, to a point, and doing character bios and all the rest of…
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By Ken Levine
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Who was the last customer on CHEERS?
2 Jul 2009 | 8:55 pmThanks for your Friday questions. Here are four more:From Bob Sassone:Who was it who played the last customer at Cheers, the one who Sam told the bar was closed? I have a friend who insists it was someone famous but I say it was just part of the crew/cast/behind the scenes people.That final customer was agent Bob Broder. He represented the Charles Brothers, Jimmy Burrows, and more importantly, me and my partner. Bob was instrumental in getting the show on the air and keeping it on the air. Also, he was (and still is) the best agent we ever had.From another Bob -- Summers:Do networks really… -
100 things...
1 Jul 2009 | 8:55 pmI’m working on my new book, 100 ‘100 THINGS TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE” BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU DIE.I’m still researching but here are some:100 Suicide Notes to Write Before You Die100 Paula Marshall Pilots to Watch Before You Die.100 Doorbells Jehovah’s Witnesses Need to Ring Before They Die.100 “Best of Sinatra” Albums to Buy Before You Die.100 Episodes of SILVER SPOONS to Watch Before You Die.100 Lines to Wait On at Disneyworld Before You Die.100 Wedding Gift Crock Pots to Return Before You Die.100 Susan Boyle YouTubes to Watch Before You Die.100 HBO Channels To Order Before You… -
Attention mourners: Michael Jackson will have public viewing!
30 Jun 2009 | 8:03 pmThis just in, the Michael Jackson show continues, even in death.The family is reporting that there will soon be a public viewing at his Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara. I’m sure it will be a tasteful affair. No one would be so crass as to sell t-shirts, jackets, posters, candles, CD’s, silver gloves, post cards, hyperbaric oxygen chambers, DVD’s, memorial baseball caps, webkinz, Captain EO masks, Michael Jackson action figures, Michael Jackson as California Raisin action figures, authorized biographies, Michael Jackson Mastercards, Wiz soundtracks, Jackson 5 lunch pails, underwear,… -
TEN Best Picture nominees. Really????
29 Jun 2009 | 8:50 pmHey, good news! There’s now a chance TRANSFORMERS II can be nominated for an Oscar as Best Picture of the Year! Same for LAND OF THE LOST. There will now be ten nominees for Best Picture instead of five. Hollywood is still reeling from this “bombshell” (as Academy President Sid Ganis put it).Why the change?Ratings for the Oscarcast suck. The all-important young people aren’t watching. So the Academy is changing their long-standing policy to be more like the MTV Movie Awards.The argument of course, is moviegoers don’t care about the Oscars because the nominees are all art films,… -
Sky Saxon
28 Jun 2009 | 8:55 pmOkay, it’s been a lonnnnng weekend of non-stop Michael Jackson articles, tributes, debates, speculation, and those damn helicopters over my house. But it’s time we take a moment to remember the other rock notable who passed away last Thursday as well. Sky Saxon of the Seeds.No, he wasn’t the King of Pop but he was the King of the L.A. Garage Band and a kingdom is a kingdom, right? The Seeds had one big national hit in the mid 60s, “Pushin’ Too Hard”. But in L.A. they had several more including “Can’t Seem to Make You Mine” and “Mr. Farmer”.I have to admit I loved this…
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Tales from the Cube V.3
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Quonset Air Show 2009…
29 Jun 2009 | 6:36 amThe Quonset Air Show and the Collings Foundation Spring Open House falls on the same weekends every single year like clock work. Collings Foundation had overcast Saturday that cleared up. Small crowds and two planes flying around. This made for a perfect Saturday, nice weather and something to ogle. Quonset had a great Saturday; unfortunately, I was in Littleton, MA at Knights and Ladies at Fort Pond for a wedding. I can highly recommend the location if you’re looking for a nice cozy, small, place for a wedding. The entire wedding was nicely done, laid back and as I mentioned above, a… -
Ron Moore’s Virtuality is on FOX tonites…
26 Jun 2009 | 4:09 amI read the script and it’s pretty good and thankfully it’s getting good reviews from the critics, the problem is: It airs tonight at 8pm and I haven’t heard one Ad for it… -
Movie Trailers…
24 Jun 2009 | 6:02 pmRichard Kelly’s The Box: The Last Airbender: Zombieland: Sherlock Homes -
Whiteout Trailer…
17 Jun 2009 | 3:42 amSo, the Whiteout Trailer popped up on the Internet, the same trailer that is supposed to appear before SDCC and a heinous looking movie called Orphan then WB sent out the C+D Orders to everyone to take it down. Why is it when something cool like say the Tr2n’s proof of concept Trailer debuted at last years SDCC appears no one latches onto that synergy? Least someone grabbed it and put it onto Youtube. Whiteout the movie is based on the Oni Press Graphic Novel of the same name by Greg Rucka and Steven Lieber. -
Collings Foundation Open House this weekend…
16 Jun 2009 | 5:28 pmSo long as the weather cooperates Collings Foundation Open House is this weekend.
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A Bucket of Love
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quick thought upon returning to the civilized world
28 Jun 2009 | 9:04 amLiving for a week out of a two-man canvas cabin tent during days where the heat index tops 110 degrees with high humidity and no breeze can be a rather non-thrilling ordeal.God bless return flight tickets and air conditioning....B -
doldrums
19 Jun 2009 | 9:54 amBeen a rough week in terms of useful writing.Where I seemed to have some momentum and energy (at last) for a few weeks there, now I sit at the keyboard and just... sigh. Every time I put eyes on something I'm trying to write I suddenly feel like mowing the yard or sorting silverware or cleaning the office or driving to sit and stare at traffic driving past the McDonalds.This is not good.I leave for Boy Scout summer camp in a few days, which means I'll then have basically zero computer access for a full week. Sure, I'll take some printouts of stuff in progress and I'll lounge around under some… -
Greatest Song Lyrics Ever, vol. 79
30 May 2009 | 10:58 am"Pinball Song," from SlobberboneSix weeks on the road now, I'm feeling kind of spent There's a few things I need and ones a friend A few good games of pinball and a double whiskey sour I'll rinse it with a beer and repeat again You know I couldn't find you in the place you used to be I'm a sucker for the old times, that's me But I asked around the bar and they said you were gone for a couple of days On a vacation in the drunk tank so they'd say Seems you were walking down the street, looking for relief Your bedroom seemed a hundred miles away, The dark side of a dumpster seemed the perfect… -
[meme] Ten First Verbs (again)
7 May 2009 | 10:33 amHere's one for the writers out there:The task is simple: open your current/newest writing project and then list the FIRST TEN VERBS which appear in that project.I learned this trick/game back in college when a writing prof was trying to drive home the point of active aggressive forceful writing versus limp and lazy passive writing. If you do this and find yourself listing a bunch of "is" and "are" and "seems" and such, maybe it's time to go back and turn up the heat and add some more sizzle,I have a new project I just started toying with, and as usual I like to scribble out an opening and… -
the greatest song lyrics ever, vol. 39
5 May 2009 | 8:29 amSometimes a song sideswipes your brain and ends up becoming a permanent part of your life's soundtrack. I loved the movie CLERKS (perhaps too much...) from the opening few minutes, and the end credit song from Soul Asylum has been one of my favorite and most-played iTunes tracks since day one.[File under "primal scream goodness"]Can't Even Tell(Soul Asylum, from the CLERKS soundtrack)I may never get what I want But I'm happy to just die trying And I hope I ain't done nobody wrong But I miss you smiling And I'm looking for a cure cause I'm bored to tears And I'm stuck in here, stuck out here,…
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ALLIGATORS IN A HELICOPTER
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Weekend Box Office #140
26 Jun 2009 | 10:00 amSo TRANSFORMERS 2 is already jaw-droppingly huge; it did some $60 million on Wednesday (best Wednesday ever; second best day ever for a movie) and another $28 million yesterday. Imagine if it had gotten good reviews?Ironically, Michael Jackson died yesterday, and something similar happened -- suddenly he was viewed as this tragic icon, the king of pop cut down in his prime. But imagine the reaction if he hadn't been a weird little pervert.Even pop culture successes are never quite as big as they could have/should've been.Opening wide today:TRANSFORMERS 2 (4234 theaters). I didn't see the… -
Weekend Box Office #139
19 Jun 2009 | 9:47 amI'm swamped this week, which is great -- I'm not complaining. Not sure if I'll have time to go to the movies this weekend, though, and I'm starting to fall behind.Not that this week's offerings are all that thrilling:THE PROPOSAL (3056 theaters). Though it's nice to see Sandra Bullock out in a movie that's getting some decent reviews, at the same time I've seen the trailer and I feel like I've seen the whole movie, and don't want to see it again. Call it $13.4 million for the weekend.YEAR ONE (3022 theaters). It looks like dumb fun, and it could click with audiences, though then again… -
Weekend Box Office #138
12 Jun 2009 | 11:23 amOne interesting, one not:THE TAKING OF PELHAM 1 2 3 (3074 theaters). I haven't seen the original in a while; it's one of those classic 70s movies that never seems to be on TV much. But you can't beat the cast here, they are making it seem exciting, and the reviews I've seen have been solid. Let's call it $34.5 million for the weekend.IMAGINE THAT (3008 theaters). Oy. It's hard to believe that anyone would want to see this, except maybe little girls, but even then not really. But they are advertising the heck out of it. I smell a big flop. $5.5 million for the weekend.**********Last weekend,… -
Weekend Box Office #137
5 Jun 2009 | 9:48 amYuck, it's raining. It's not supposed to rain in Los Angeles in June.Opening this weekend:LAND OF THE LOST (3521 theaters). It's a good time for a movie that looks like dumb fun, and it it should grab the family audience. I'm going to take a wild guess and say $46.5 million for the weekend, though I could be way off.THE HANGOVER (3269 theaters). I gave the makers of this some notes along the way, and though I'd like to take credit for making it the funny movie it apparently is, it's likely I really had little to do with that. Still, see it, so they can keep paying me to read other things. -
Weekend Box Office #136
29 May 2009 | 12:06 pmTwo fairly big movies opening today, and I have no real idea how well they might do. Which of course won't prevent me from taking a guess.Plus it's my birthday today. For some reason, I'm getting older every year. There's gotta be some way to address that.UP (3766 theaters). On the one hand it's Pixar, which is a big plus. On the other hand, it features a kid, a dog and a crusty old man, and seems to skew a little young to really grab the adult audience. Still, it should do fine. My guess: $56 million for the weekend, and it'll hold well.DRAG ME TO HELL (2508 theaters). On the plus side it's…
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clarkblog
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MOVIE POSTER PARADISE
2 Jul 2009 | 1:48 pmI've spent hours browsing the fantastic vintage B-movie posters found at The Wrong Side of the Art.Here's but a sampling of the high-rez goodness you'll find there: -
VIRTUALITY: GO OR NO-GO?
25 Jun 2009 | 10:32 pmI hate the holodeck. Never been a huge fan of TV characters confessing directly to the camera. So why the hell do I love Virtuality, airing Friday at 8 pm on Fox? Because it’s terrifically smart and engaging sci-fi, which is no surprise given the creative team behind the project. Ronald D. Moore (Battlestar Galactica) developed this near-future space adventure with one of BSG’s best writers, Michael Taylor. It's a two-hour back-door pilot for a series that may or may not happen -- but once you see how imaginative and eerily it plays, you'll want to let the network know that… -
A LITTLE CATCH UP
5 Jun 2009 | 3:19 pmAfter a 1+ year absence from blogging, Josh Friedman returns to document his own personal ending of his recently cancelled Fox show, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It was sometimes uneven, but I enjoyed this show and its cast a helluva lot more than the recent movie Terminator Salvation.Here's veteran TV writer/creator Vince Gilligan, with spoilers, on the finale of Breaking Bad, the best show currently on TV.Clarkblog is four years old this month. Posts are less frequent these days not because I'm lacking for things to say but because I'm increasingly focused on… -
CONTAINS SCENES OF KICK-ASS ACTION
29 May 2009 | 12:52 pmThis is gymnast Damien Walters and he will rock your damned world. No wires, no CGI, just an athlete who's blending parkour with traditional gymnastics and a cocky "hell, yeah, I can do that" attitude. This guy needs a movie where it's just non-stop chase.I had to shrink this video down to column-width. Please take four minutes and watch it in full-screen mode. -
TEAM PLAYERS
28 May 2009 | 6:53 amLast Tuesday, writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman revealed how they wrote the new Star Trek movie while creating Fox's TV show Fringe and penning the upcoming Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, among other thingsThey work hard. It's that simple.The duo spoke at the Writers Guild Foundation. John August has posted some good notes from the event.
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Scriptwriting in the UK
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Story Vault: Intercut?
29 Jun 2009 | 9:06 amHello new readers to the blog! How are you? You look very well, if you don't mind me saying so. Have you been out in the sun? Smashing. Now that you're here, don't be afraid to dip into the archives, or the 'story vault' to give it its poncey name (link on the right there, just a little bit down). We've covered a lot of ground on the blog over the last few years so if there's a particular screenwriting subject or area you're interested in, chances are there's a post on it. If there isn't, please feel free to shout and I'll do my best to oblige. If anyone has any questions or screenwriting… -
Origin Website & Trailer
23 Jun 2009 | 4:18 pmLet me introduce you to the trailer and official website for Origin, the short film I've been putting together since the beginning of the year.The website has been kindly provided by the one and only Steve Andrews. The full list of Associate Producers, Special Thanks & Thanks credits are listed in the Cast & Crew section. A huge thanks to YOU and everyone involved in the Twitter Short Film Fund. These fund raising initiatives are now closed but my thanks again for your amazing generosity and support. It made such a huge difference to just about everything.For more fun and photos, don't forget… -
Free Ticket: William Akers Talk
20 Jun 2009 | 4:37 pmYou may have seen that William Akers is coming to London to give a talk about the "Fatal Errors Beginning (and experienced) Writers Make". William's a produced screenwriter and author of "Your Screenplay Sucks! 100 Ways To Make it Great" and, by all accounts, seems like one of the good guys. More details on William and his book can be found here.Fancy going along to his talk FOR FREE? Yes, a blog exclusive for you (and because you've been so kind with the short film fund), I asked William if he'd give a freebie to attend his two hour intensive discussion where he will cover such topics as:-… -
Credit When It's Due
14 Jun 2009 | 2:44 pmA lot of producers and execs won't consider a new writer who doesn't have a credit (often referred to as "an unknown quantity") but how does someone get their first credit if no-one is willing to give them a break? It's a catch-22 similar to trying to get an agent (the agent’s not interested until you’ve got some work but it’s incredibly difficult to get work without an agent). So what do you do?Dedicate yourself to achieving that first credit, wherever you can get it. Forget about big Hollywood sales*, creating your own TV series or nabbing a commission on the next series of Ashes to… -
Film Fund Update & More
9 Jun 2009 | 1:12 pmThe Twitter Short Film Fund has been a great success! A huge thank you to all those who pledged, most of whom doubled the basic request of £5, and some who went well beyond. I am well and truly gobsmacked, and I can't tell you the difference it makes to the final stages of post-production. But of course, I can tell you. It stops me from going further into debt or tapping even more of my meager savings (I say meager; non-existent would be more accurate, especially as the production budget hoovered it up in a blink).To change your pledge into actual wonga, simply make a Gift payment at PayPal…
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Dead Things ON Sticks
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Reprint: Conversations With Writers Part XXV: Why Why Why?
3 Jul 2009 | 5:14 amOriginally published 01/09/2009NOT A LOT of blogging time today -- I have to bounce between jetlag and pitch-shaping. But I've had two separate conversations this morning with writers complaining that they've reached the "why why why" notes part of their development projects. A little serendipitous considering the repost I chose to go with the other day. One other thing to come out of these discussions has to do with story real estate.In the world of the 20 minute half hour and the 40 minute hour the problem with the "Why" obsession is that when execs insist too much on the explanation, the… -
Reprint: The Difference
3 Jul 2009 | 4:00 amTHIS ONE'S JUST for ironic counterpoint. And because right now I'm working with the great Mike Clattenburg, Guru of the Trailer Park Boys. Question for discussion: how much really has changed? Is Flashpoint really a change? Does the Yankee cut-dollar interest change the equation of the L.A. versus the Toronto meeting I speak of here? Oh and here's the final punchline -- the projects I speak of so lovingly and promisingly here all died horrible deaths, save one, which I wound up leaving in Post and spent a year on the shelf before entering the Canadian TV Witness Protection Program. Happy… -
First One Over The Top!
2 Jul 2009 | 3:45 amSMELL THAT? It's the sound of a brand new TV show having its first script reading. Today, the cast and crew of Republic of Doyle gather to hear the first two scripts read by actors.It's a thrilling and relieving time for a writer. The theoretical finally becomes practical. You hear something on its feet, and the story department sits and hears the metre and the awkwardness and makes little tsk marks and tic marks and scribbles alt lines in the margins; and the writer who always hated this one thing takes their last, desperate gasp at trying to change people's minds. And hopefully the actors… -
Canada No Way Day
1 Jul 2009 | 5:00 amWELL, TORONTO, you don't get fireworks. You get stinky garbage.Here in Newfoundland, the Republic of Doyle crew is working. We took a Holiday Monday. Or I have it on pretty good authority somebody did.Today we're having our first production meeting, at 8am NT. How's that for early, bird?Happy Canada Day to Y'all. Please feel free to leave any and all comments about how you're a proud Canadian that hates Canadian TV below.More repeat posts follow. I'll write something new, I swear. Just as soon as I have a moment where I'm not redrafting, typing an email, sleeping or ... uh ... I don't know. -
Reprint: "Mom, Dad, I Have Something To Tell You, I'm A Writer..."
1 Jul 2009 | 4:30 amTHIS ONE'S REALLY OLD, but appropriate.Originally published 11/04/2005I've mentioned a couple of times before that I teach a class at a local University here in Toronto. This year, the class isn't very onerous. It's got the vaguely pretentious course title of"Master Writers Workshop." In reality, the class pretty much boils down to "Professional TV writers come in and bare their souls about how and why the hell they do this."I don't teach for the money. (Thank Dog, because it's like, beer money at best.) But it's extremely useful, because it gives me a weekly window into what a bunch of 20…
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Living the Romantic Comedy
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Blogoversary # 4
27 Jun 2009 | 9:18 amFour years on and self-re-elected for another term, apparently -- think of it as the benign island dictatorship of romantic comedy -- Living the RomCom refuses to die.Threat or menace? You be the judge. Meanwhile, to benefit both suckers for punishment and curious virgin visitors, here in convenient categorized form is our Best of the 2008-09 July-to-June season (w/links to Blogoversaries #1, #2, and #3).WRITINGStructureThe Genius of Bad WritingHalf the Rules You Know Are WrongWriting Characters That Don't SuckThe PracticeWriting When You're Not You and Your Shitty… -
Re: Vision
20 Jun 2009 | 8:24 pmGenius begins great works; labor alone finishes them.--Joseph JoubertHaving previously pontificated on the necessity of plowing through a first draft, no matter how awful it may be, it seems only fair to look at how a good draft gets written, as opposed to a shitty one. Here's a few thoughts born of personal experience.1) Put it away first.I don't know if you go through this, but I almost always encounter Last Night's Me. Last Night's Me wrote something and went to bed thinking it was great. This Morning's Me reads it over and can't believe that… -
You and Your Shitty Draft
13 Jun 2009 | 10:38 pmThe first draft of anything is shit.--Ernest Hemingway...Shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts... I know some very great writers, writers you love who write beautifully and have made a great deal of money, and not one of them... writes elegant first drafts. All right, one of them does, but we do not like her very much.--Anne LamottIn my nine-month master class in screenwriting at the UCLA Extension Writers' Program, eight students wrote drafts of features. I learned a… -
Writing When You're Not
7 Jun 2009 | 12:09 amAlways surprised on those days when the mind makes her shotgun, metaphoric leaps for reasons I've never been able to trace. Remembered that Wang Wei said a thousand years ago, "Who knows what causes the opening and closing of the door?"--Jim HarrisonThere's a story told about James Thurber at a dinner party, caught by his daughter staring into space while the rest of the guests were in the midst of conversation. "What's the matter with Daddy?" she asked, and her mother assured her, "Don't worry, honey, he's just… -
The Practice
31 May 2009 | 9:10 pmStay open for business.--Gordon LishYou have never felt more uninspired. You don't have the energy, you don't have the will, you don't have... it. The temptation to avoid the blank page is so powerful that anything -- watching reality TV, scraping poop out of parrot cages, even going to the gym -- seems a vastly more meaningful pursuit. Surely you can skip the hour or two you've set aside to write, just this once. You'll make up for it tomorrow. What could you possibly write, right now, that could be worth the effort? So you close…
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INDELIBLE FRECKLES
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dfmamea.com: Year Three
1 Jul 2009 | 12:32 amOkay, I’ve met one deadline, I’ve pushed another, and this website is three years old. Because my hair length is kinda tied to the pushed deadline, the silhouette has left George Hamilton territory and is moving at pace into Farrah Fawcett Land. Ten days. Piece of piss. And yes: three years. Two hundred and thirty posts. One hundred and eighty nine comments. A small but growing New Zild online community of screenwriters. Over half a million hits to date (granted, a lot of the spikes were when the @dfmamea.com addresses and blog comments were being offered se xxi al nite lonnng). -
Murh
25 Jun 2009 | 11:59 pmFinal page count: 56 pages including cover page. Wrote through the night and flicked it through at 8:32 this morning. Yay. The Goddess is heading out this evening so I could collapse into bed at oh, 7pm or something ridiculous, or, in anticipation of the premiere of Tom Fontana’s The Philanthropist, I could sneak an ep or three of Oz. … Nope. Started this post at 6-ish and… fell asleep at the keyboard. It’s almost seven already. -
Pages
24 Jun 2009 | 4:15 amTo borrow from the lovely Daily Screenwriter (and a nod to Phill Barron): 16 June – Receive email from producer about a one-hour concept I pitched oh, almost a year ago: If you’re able to get me a first draft by June 26th…. Collapse to floor laughing/crying.* 17 June – Rearrange workload. Start outlining (current fashion is to write in block letters on recycled paper). 19 June – 22 pages of handwritten notes. Count ‘em and weep. 20 June – 4 pages (plus title page). 21 June – 6 pages. 23 June – 22 pages. 24 June – 42 pages. I only… -
Finger Drumming
18 Jun 2009 | 8:40 pmAnother live update from Planet DFMamea. Finished a draft earlier this afternoon, saved it, did a quickie back-up of all my working directories and documents to a flash drive – and the Powerbook had a bit of a kernel panic: Time for a full backup. Forty-five minutes, it said. That was an hour ago. In that time I’ve played fetch with The Dog, re-upped The Chickens, and picked up WALL-E for some family Friday night viewing. (The children have seen it, us adults haven’t – and since we adults are paying, we choose.) I also reported an idiot on a Vespa. Meantime, the… -
Point & Click
16 Jun 2009 | 11:00 pmOkay this isn’t post-dated. I’ve got fifteen minutes spare. How quickly can I cut and paste and make sense? How about ten best film endings? (Fedora-tip: Infinite Monkeys by way of The Incomparable.) I’ve been a fan of Dylan Horrocks since Hicksville (a phase of forcing myself to try some homegrown comics fare). He’s got a blog. With serials and stories, too! Recommended for civilians and comic aficionados alike. PhD student Gareth James is very generously sharing some of the fruits of his research into the history of HBO original programming, 1997-2007 at Gareth…
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Running With My Eyes Closed
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Showrunners Speak: Vince Gilligan
29 Jun 2009 | 2:54 pmBreaking Bad’s creator and exec producer Vince Gilligan on his series: -
Psychoville
26 Jun 2009 | 12:38 pmPsychoville looks pretty cool based on the teasers I’ve watched on YouTube. More genre from the Beeb, this a sinister sort of horror-comedy mashup from the look of things. Here’s how the website describes the series: After creating the kind of northern town nightmares are made of, The League Of Gentlemen’s Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton are looking for a new place to settle down… welcome to Psychoville. Written by the Leagsters for BBC Two, Psychoville is a dark character comedy mystery featuring characters from all over the UK, who each receive a mysterious… -
The Prisoner
23 Jun 2009 | 2:04 pmIn November, AMC will air a “reimagined” miniseries called The Prisoner. It is based on the 60s Brit series which starred Patrick MacGoohan and was apparentally created by him as well. The Premise : A man, known as “Six,” finds himself inexplicably trapped in “The Village” with no memory of how he arrived. As he explores his environment, he discovers that his fellow inhabitants are identified by number instead of name, have no memory of any prior existence, and are under constant surveillance. Not knowing whom to trust, Six is driven by the need to… -
New Screenwriting Software
22 Jun 2009 | 5:34 amWill someone please check out Celtx and give us a review? Here’s what the website says about it: Celtx is the world’s first all-in-one media pre-production software. It has everything you need to take your story from concept to production. Celtx replaces ‘paper, pen & binder’ pre-production with a digital approach that’s more complete, simpler to work with, and easier to share. It’s downloadable screenwriting software that offers pre-production tools as well. It looks pretty good but I haven’t had time to use it yet. If you have, let me… -
Lost in Lost
20 Jun 2009 | 7:10 amOne of my dirty little secrets is that I never watched Lost. I missed the first season and then people weren’t that enthused about the second and by the time the third rolled around I was hopelessly behind. I couldn’t just jump in. Besides, everyone said I had to start at the beginning. Do you know how many episodes that is?! And by now it’s even more. But, alas, not enough. Recently, feeling desperate for drama I rented Lost Season 1. I devoured it in 8 days. Yum. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Although I’m sure it was a different experience than it was…
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Mystery Man on Film
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I love that.
1 Jul 2009 | 9:00 pmThis will be quite the strange post, I’m sure, but here’s a collection of fabulous quotes about characters I’ve read recently in other articles.First, The Hurt Locker, which has been on my radar for some time.I loved A.O. Scott’s review of the film and in particular, his character descriptions. That he gets the characters so well and feels compelled to articulate excitedly the distinctive differences in the personalities of the characters already tells me that the writer has done a good job: “The Hurt Locker” focuses on three men whose contrasting temperaments knit this episodic… -
The Darabont Collection
26 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pmHey guys,Below are links to my somewhat recent reviews of Frank Darabont’s latest screenplays. I must say, Fahrenheit 451 was such a fabulous experience, probably the best read of the year so far for me, that the other scripts didn't quite measure up.This brings to mind an interesting topic, something that all writers go through. What do you do when you write something everyone loves and then you follow up with scripts that don’t quite measure up? Everyone goes through this. Friends will tell you, “I liked this one, but it’s not as good as that last one you wrote.” There’s a… -
Script Review – “Law-Abiding Citizen”
25 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pmI knew what I wanted to say about Law Abiding Citizen long before I ever finished the story, probably in the mid-60-page region.First, the script. I’m looking at a September, 2008, shooting draft by Frank Darabont (previous revision by Kurt Wimmer). This script was also in the hands of Sheldon Turner and David Ayer. Apparently, the story has changed dramatically over the last few years. The version I have concerns Nick (Jamie Foxx), an assistant D.A. who must deal with a victim-turned-vigilante-but-actually-a-twisted-criminal-mastermind (Gerard Butler). His name's Clyde. He wreaks havoc on… -
Script Review – “Mine”
17 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pmHey guys,I was so exhilarated by Darabont’s Fahrenheit 451 that I thought I’d read some of his other scripts I have lying around here beginning with his February, 2008, adaptation of Mine. This story is based upon the book of the same name by Mr. Robert McCammon, who claims on his book cover and website that Mine “rivals Thomas Harris’s The Silence of the Lambs for sheer, riveting storytelling power.”Come, come, Mr. McCammon. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.This is the story of Laura Clayborne, a journalist who gives birth to a baby boy and has her child literally stolen out of… -
“Synecdoche, NY” Revisited
16 Jun 2009 | 9:00 pmTo my loyal readers,Thanks so much for your patience with my rather infrequent blog posts of late and kind words of encouragement in e-mail, as I try to finish this film project that took up WAY more time than expected.But on to the subject at hand! To this day, I get curious e-mails referencing my script review of Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York and politely wondering if I’ve finally seen the film.Yes, I’ve seen it. God help me, I’ve seen it.I kept putting it off. I finally had to ask myself, “Why are you so scared to watch this film?” So I tried to articulate the reasons:…
