The Faulty Writer

Need to get over the hump

2010-04-06T19:45:00.000-05:00

I shoot my production 1 in a week and a half. I'm not at all ready.

But that's because I don't really care. I wasn't sure how much of a director I was coming into this semester. At this point, I'm pretty sure I'm not a director. I'm a writer. I love writing. I hate all the preproduction, casting, logistics, blocking, shot lists, etc.

So, enough about that. What do I get to write next?

Well, I'm throwing down the gauntlet. Once this production is shot, then a weight will be lifted off my shoulders and I can look at writing again. I have three things I want to focus on, in no particular order.

1. 47th degree.

We shot our first skit. I think it will be good. I want to make more. Nuff said.

2. Feature.

Not much to elaborate on this one. I want to write another feature (it will be my second). This one will be a marketable dramatic comedy. Something in the vein of Swingers.

3. A novel.

This one's probably the most surprising to the 1.5 people that read my blog. I've joked about writing a novel for a while, but my friend recently finished the first draft of a novel, and it struck me as something I could do. Add that to the fact that there's a science fiction idea I had that I couldn't figure out how it would fit into a screenplay, and bam. I think I'll start a novel next month. We'll see.

Anyway, those are just weighting on my mind, slightly, as I'm slightly dreading my shoot next weekend.

The thing about music

2010-03-22T14:33:00.000-05:00

Warning: random and probably nonsensical post to follow.

I'm not really a music aficionado. I'm the guy who copies music taste from my friends rather than being the cool guy that discovers new bands. I'm fine with that. It's strange, because I consider myself relatively on the cusp of new trends when it comes to films, sports, science, etc. But music, I'm definitely below average / mundane. But I acknowledge, and somewhat enjoy, that.

I'm not sure if it's because of that aspect of my personality, or if it's a normal feeling, but I tend to hear music in different ways at different times.

I'm in a crappy mood today for reasons I won't get into, but I put my iTunes on for some background music, and I swear the first four songs all seemed to relate to my situation in ways I'd never heard before. It was weird. It's like music forms a bit of a Rorschach test to my mind, with my mind filling in the blanks and backstory to the lyrics based on what's going on in my life.

Now, the thing is, the reason this works is because songs don't try to give you the entire story (usually). They jump right into an emotional state, tell it like it is, and then get out. That's what films should do. I'm a huge fan of jumping into the middle of a scene. Get in late, and get out early, that's a common piece of advice on writing that I find people don't follow. I think the audience appreciates and actually enjoys filling in the blanks themselves. Let them feel smart. They like that.

Short, fun script

2010-03-13T16:01:00.000-06:00

Knocked out a short, five page script in about 25 minutes this afternoon. Felt great. It's called "Donut Day," and hopefully we'll shoot it in the next couple weeks, just for fun. It's nothing extraordinary. It's basically written with youtube in mind. Short and funny (hopefully).

Also, I'm going to give 750words.com the credit for my recent jolt of inspiration in writing. Boo yah. I mean, seriously, two posts in one day? Ridiculous.

A fun moment

2010-03-13T10:39:00.000-06:00

I work at the front desk at Watkins right now as a side gig on Friday nights and Saturdays during the day. One of the byproducts of this is that I get to ~~deal~~ interact with other students fairly randomly. This is a slight perk since, as a certificate student, I hardly ever meet/interact with non-film students.

Anyway, today a girl came to the front desk needing help with her key to the dorm. I wasn't really able to help (oh well), but I sort of knew who she was and asked if she was the person doing make-up for "Traveler." She said she was, and (not knowing who I was) immediately starting telling me how much she liked the script and how excited she was. I then got to have the awesome moment where I said, "oh, I actually wrote that script." Pretty much made my morning.

A new thing to try.

2010-03-11T00:48:00.000-06:00

Sorta.

I'm going to try to do 750words.com. I did it just now and it was surprisingly helpful. I feel like it let me stretch my writing brain a bit. How's it different than this blog? Well, I was able to write it knowing nobody would read it. We'll see how long this lasts.

On the plus side, it made me want to come here and post something. So... yeah?

If I can, I'll see if I can follow it up with blog posts. If that works I'll be a blogging rockstar in no time.

P.S. This weekend we shoot "Confessions on a Tin Can Phone." I wasn't planning on having a job on set, but I got ~~suckered~~ talked into being Assistant Camera on Friday. Oh well.

Locked scripts and looking ahead

2010-03-04T16:36:00.000-06:00

Well, it's been another two weeks.

I promise, I'm not trying to neglect you, oh loyal three readers.

The last few weeks have been slightly busy as I finally reached locked status of "Confessions on a Tin Can Phone" and near-locked status of "Traveler" (still hasn't been renamed. Blah).

A quick note on the final version of "Tin Can." Remember that stuff I said a few posts back about how I had that opening I was sooo proud of? Turns out the director wanted it changed. Sigh. This semester's been a lot different than the projects last semester with the heavy rewrites, but I think it's making me a better writer. Or at least I hope it is. But now that those projects are done, it's time to look forward to what's next.

So what is next? Well, turns out that "Tell," the script I wrote for the Doorpost Film Project got into the top 55 and is now facing online voting. Kind of exciting! You can watch it here. Go ahead and vote, if you have a chance. That was a slight challenge of a script. I partially challenged myself, by forcing myself to use voiceover, which is a technique I normally don't like in a script. But I like the way I ended up using it. Hopefully you do too.

Anyway, if we get selected into the top 20, then we make it to the next round and I get to write another script. And the next round of judging is based solely on the script. Pressure! But I look forward to it. I'm already brainstorming...

Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite

2010-02-17T01:02:00.001-06:00

More on this coming soon, but I'm posting because I haven't posted (if that makes sense).

I'm in the middle of a slight hiatus from the "Tin Can" and "Traveler" rewrites ("Traveler" will have a new title soon, dammit). I got the weekend off and am waiting to meet with my favorite professor to discuss both scripts... hopefully we meet soon so I can knock these out and get near-final drafts done so I can move onto writing the script for my Production I film that I'll be shooting this semester. yeah, it's been a low priority, but I got a new idea yesterday and might be shooting some test footage on Wednesday with Nick (acclaimed director of "Runt!").

Did I mention I got an imdb page?

Action verbs

2010-02-05T16:27:00.005-06:00

Note - I will blog more. Book it. Done.

Quick post as I'm in the midst of two simultaneous rewrites ("Traveler" and "Confessions on a Tin Can Phone.")

Verbs. You can always do better.

Here's my original opening to "Confessions on a Tin Can Phone."

Afternoon sunlight pours through dusty mini-blinds. A hand pulls the drawstring, ripping them upward and filling the barren living room with light.

First off, I love that opening line. "Pours" is a really strong verb, and it paints a good opening image (it reminds me of the opening image to "After Last Night," for the seven people out there that saw that film that I wrote haha).

The second line... well, it's okay. I hate having gerunds in there, though. Here's what I just rewrote:

Afternoon sunlight pours through dusty mini-blinds. A hand yanks the drawstring and the blinds rip upward. The barren living room fills with light.

Most of it might just be a personal preference, and really, it's subtle, but I think the second version is stronger. Also, compare in the first version I had "A hand pulls" and in the second, the hand "yanks." Yanks > pulls, IMO. And then, the obvious - ripping becomes rip, filling becomes fill. Better better better.

So, no more gerunds, stronger verbs, broke up the second sentence into two sentences... paints a strong picture of what I think the opening image to the film should be. And one of the biggest tricks to writing is tricking the director into shooting exactly what you, the writer, thinks should be on the screen.

First draft of "Parched" complete

2009-11-01T01:45:00.002-05:00

Just finished a new short film screenplay titled, "Parched."

It might be the weirdest script I've written. I can't decide if I like it or not. I hope to do a rewrite or two before Friday's class. I want to make a good impression with this script because the last script of mine that we read in class was kind of fluffy. This one definitely isn't.

Halfway through "Runt"

2009-10-19T12:58:00.005-05:00

After four intense shooting days, I'm exhausted. We probably have two or three days left, but what we've done looks amazing.

Can't wait for the finished product!

Excitement

2009-10-15T01:42:00.002-05:00

It's technically Thursday, so later on today we begin shooting "Runt," one of the scripts I wrote this semester. It's probably the most ambitious of the three I wrote. It's about 13 pages, but will probably end up being 15-18 minutes long. We'll be shooting all weekend. I'm excited.

Non-visual exposition? Bah.

2009-10-07T02:35:00.002-05:00

Yeah, it's been a while since I've posted here. I'll ignore that.

So, I've started trying to read more screenplays. I read a lot of fiction, but not as many screenplays as I should. I always struggled with reading the screenplays of films that I'd seen, because I'd always picture the actors who played the parts and picture the scenes as they were filmed. I wasn't learning as much as I should from them.

Lo and behold - reading scripts in development! Genius!

One of my new, favorite blogs is Scriptshadow. The dude does pretty good reviews of interesting scripts. I've read a couple. The one I read tonight (this morning?) was Buried.

I pretty much agree with what Carson said about the script. That really isn't the point of my post. What I noticed a lot in "Buried" (and in "Untitled Vanessa Taylor script" that I'm 12 pages into) is a ton of non-visual exposition. This is one of the main tenants that screenwriting professors have bashed into my head. So, if it's so bad, why am I seeing it in these scripts?

My thought - One thing that I tend to over-do that I'm not seeing in these scripts is a lot of small character actions. For example:

JON

I miss you.

Jon sighs.

JENNIFER
I miss you, too.

They smile as Jon brushes a strand of hair from Jennifer's face.

Typical "Chris" moment in a script. But I'm not seeing it so much in these "professional" scripts (and I'm not putting professional in quotes to be a dick, I don't really know the status of the authors, but they're probably more "professional" than I am). I'm guessing these writers use non-visual exposition as a way of getting their characters established early, so they don't have to use little moments that the director will most likely ignore anyway.

Or maybe I'm wrong and non-visual exposition is totally fine and I should just use it. Even though it'll make me feel dirty.

My first feature screenplay

2009-04-28T01:35:00.001-05:00

About two hours ago (11:45 PM CST, April 27, 2009) I wrote "FADE OUT" on my first feature screenplay.

Feels kinda good.

Not great, because it still needs work. I'm not sure if it will ever really feel "finished."

But it does feel good to know that I can justifiably call myself a screenwriter. Boo yah. Next step is to do some proofreading, then have my friend Julian read it, then get it printed off and hand it in in about 12 hours.

Too bad I don't have a title yet. Whoops.

Two scripts down this week, one to go.

One down...

2009-04-27T01:48:00.003-05:00

I finished my second draft of "How I Wrote to Toby" today. I think it will be my last draft. Not because it's done by any means, just because I'm really not happy with how it came out.

If nothing else, I at least learned what not to do for an adaptation. The two main problems were that I chose an original source material that's very driven by an internal conflict. This is really hard to depict on screen. The other, somewhat related problem, was that I tried too hard to stay loyal to the original material. I ended up with a bloated, 27 page script that I hated by the end. I still love the original short story, but my script is a slight disaster. It's probably my least favorite thing I've written since I've come to film school. Oh well.

But enough about that debacle. I'm on page 92 of my feature script (due Tuesday). So I'll be finishing that within the next 24 hours. Exciting!

I was three feet from fame today

2009-04-18T19:39:00.002-05:00

Warning: Non-writing related post ahead.

I volunteered at the Nashville Film Festival today. It was kind of fun. I mostly ushered (tore tickets and handed out the ballots for voting). On the plus side I got to hang out with a couple of my Watkins buddies, so the time didn't drag at all.

One of the films I got to see a large portion of was The Other Side of the Lens. It was a really hard film to watch, but pretty well made. I thought some parts of the voiceover were a little heavy-handed, but since the subject matter was so close/important to the filmmaker, I have a hard time holding it against him. Kudos to him for making the film. It's hard to argue with their slogan, "Be Happy Every Day."

Anyway, toward the end of my shift I did get to see a celebrity. I was only three feet away from Nicole Kidman. She's really tall and really skinny. I wasn't star-struck at all. It was more just, "hey, that's Nicole Kidman." Kind of cool, though.

I typed FADE OUT about 40 minutes ago

2009-04-16T02:15:00.004-05:00

Surprisingly, the FADE OUT came in my television pilot.

After weeks and weeks of hating my script and my concept, apparently it took my friend and screenwriting BFF Julian to read my first 13 pages and tell me that it was funny and that I should keep going to get me motivated. Six hours later, I'd written 27 pages and finished my (very rough) first draft of "Welcome to Heck," my first television pilot script.

I guess I should have been a little more motivated last week when I pitched my concept to Anne Beatts, a former SNL writer (among other things). She seemed pretty positive about my idea. Well, as positive as you could expect a former Emmy winning writer to be about a pilot pitch from a college student. You can see a pic of me in class with her, I believe mid-pitch, right here.

So the first draft of my pilot is due tomorrow at the end of class (1:00PM). We have from 10AM until then to work on it, so I'm hopefully going to do a minor rewrite and make sure everything's working okay. I'm still kind of baffled at the writing zone I got in tonight. I'm going to credit it to my new Keurig coffee maker that my boss (and friend) Jim got me as a belated birthday present. Caffeine always helps my writing.

There's a light at the end of the tunnel

2009-04-12T23:45:00.003-05:00

Unfortunately I've been in the dark so long that light has now blinded my dilated pupils.

Feature script is at 71 pages. Got feedback from my class last Tuesday. Basic consensus was... "I don't like musicals." Lame. So far I've had three friends read it who loved it, though. I'm hoping you don't have to know me to "get" it. We'll see.

Anyway, feeling good on the still-unnamed feature script. Should get that done by the end of the semester. "Welcome to Heck," my television pilot... not looking so great. I'm on page 12 and need to have a rough draft by the end of class on Thursday. Bleh. I have off work Wednesday night so it will probably be a late night at the writing lab working on that.

I worked on my last set last night. I was the AC (Assistant Camera) and also acted! Granted, it was one, MOS, tiny scene where I get punched in the face, but it was acting nonetheless. I think I'm getting typecast as "Guy who gets punched" at Watkins. Strangely, I'm okay with that.

Completely random side note: I think I should start keeping track of all my terrible attempts at flirting with girls. That in itself should make a decent script.

Whew

2009-03-30T20:40:00.003-05:00

So, yeah, I know it's been a while. But March has been pretty hectic here in Nashvegas. Side note: I hate the term Nashvegas.

Anyway, I've worked on five student films in the last two weeks. Ridiculous! And I script supervised for... four of them. Also slightly ridiculous. I'm getting pretty good at it, though. Last night a random dude told me I was the most meticulous script supervisor he'd ever seen. Granted, he was a random freshman and had probably been on like three sets, but I'll take any compliments I can get.

I finally got feedback from my professor on my feature screenplay and it was mostly positive. I'm totally rejuvenated again! I completely rewrote the beginning of my script, adding a new song and putting in some minor details that matter for the ending I more or less came up with. As I write this post I'm on page 66, so I'm pretty much right at the 2/3 mark. Which is good, except that I think my first draft has to be done in about a week and a half. Hm.

This might not be a problem except that I'm pretty sure the rough draft of my TV pilot is due in... a week and a half. And I've written, oh, five pages of that. Five terrible, terrible pages that I don't want to let see the light of day. Oh, and it contains maybe one joke (it's a sitcom). Argh.

Aside from that life is good!

I signed up for classes for the fall. I'm taking Production I, Directing Workshop, Screenwriting Workshop, and Writing the Short Screenplay. I will once again have no life. It's kind of nice to have school as an excuse for having no life. Before I just felt lame about it.

How does my story end?

2009-03-16T22:50:00.002-05:00

I literally mean the story of my feature. That blog title isn't meant to be an emo whining about my life in general. Though I do sometimes have that emo-esque thought.

I'm on Spring Break right now, so I went to the writing lab for about four hours today to try and work on my screenplay. I think I wrote two lines. Sigh. I'm having a hard time getting going again and am still stuck on wretched page 42 because I don't know how the story is going to end. When I wrote the treatment I had an ending in mind, but the more I think about it the more I realize it isn't epic enough.

When we talked about Comedy in class Steve (the prof) talked about how in Comedy things are supposed to be extreme. Events are supposed to be over the top. While my inciting incident is definitely over the top, and I definitely have over the top moments, my ending was not nearly over the top enough. I feel like I need the "chase scene" and I need the big "everyone comes together and all the solutions fit together" scene. I just need to figure out what those two scenes are. Hm.

Anyway, probably back to the writing lab tomorrow to pore over the screenplay. If I can't completely figure out the ending I think I'm going to force myself to write, because as I was writing a new treatment today I came up with the next couple scenes after where I'm at now. I think the big problem is that I just need to get something down. It's just a first draft!

Adapt or die

2009-03-08T23:24:00.003-05:00

... or come up with an original idea.

I think I'll choose the latter.

I finished the first draft of my adaptation tonight. The short story ("How I Wrote to Toby" by E. Lockhart) is sixteen pages. My script came in at a full twenty-five pages.

Ugh.

I'm not all too thrilled with how it came out, but that might just be my natural I-hate-everything-I-write-the-first-time-I-write-it mode. I tried to stay true to the original work, I really did, but I had to rework some stuff to avoid using voiceover (well, narration voiceover, I do sort of use V.O. at one point, but it's what Paige, the protagonist, is writing, I think. I don't remember exactly (and it was only three hours ago! (Lay off me, I'm sick))).

I really just wanted to nest a bunch of parentheses.

Anyway, I sent the script to my class and to my two favorite friend/critics. We'll see what everyone thinks.

Script Supervising

2009-02-24T12:20:00.004-06:00

My first question from a reader!

Kevin from Virginia asks:

What does a script supervisor do? Make sure people are not making up lines on the fly?

Well, that's a part of it. When working on a Watkins student film, the responsibilities of a script supervisor are usually:

1. Continuity. Make sure if Actor A picks up a cup with his right hand in scene 5A, when we film 5C, he also picks up the cup with his right hand. That's obviously a simple example, but it gets the point across.
2. Lines. Make sure the actors are saying the lines correctly, tell the actors the correct lines if they flub a line, etc.
3. Coverage. Line a script when filming to show what's filmed for a given scene, then make sure that when an entire section of a script is done being filmed, there's enough coverage for that scene. For example, make sure each line, action, reaction, has been filmed at least once. This can also be used by the editor to know which scene covers what.
4. Organization. Make sure that the Assistant Camera (or Second Assistant Camera, depending on the film) and the Sound person has the correct information for their slate and logs, respectively.
5. Production Reports. We don't completely do this for student films (or at least I haven't), but we do time the takes, record any relevant information (like take 3 had a boom mike in the shot), take down any notes from the director (Actor C flubbed her line), etc. These can be useful to the editor if the editor is someone who wasn't on set.

That's a quick overview on the position. I'm probably leaving out some stuff that "real" script supervisors do in the "real" world, but that about covers the responsibilities on student films here. If any Watkins kids read this and I left something out, feel free to comment.

I forgot how great sleeping in is

2009-02-21T13:00:00.006-06:00

Side note: even though I'm pretty sure it's grammatically correct, ending a sentence with "in is" just sounds weird.

I finished reading "Silence of the Lambs" last night for my Adaptations class. It was pretty good, though I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn't seen the movie. I have to write a paper on it by Monday - that'll probably be a Sunday night project.

Worked on a student film yesterday... it was sort of a debacle. The big hangup was that we were having severe camera issues related to the UV filter. It was causing a weird double image thing in the top right corner. That slowed us down about three hours as we tried to fix it, remove the UV filter, and eventually ended up taking the camera back to the school and switching it out for another one. It sucks too, because I really like the script for what we're filming and I hope that it all turns out okay. I'm missing tonight's shoot because I have to work (blast!) but I'll be on set again tomorrow.

I let someone read the first 40-ish pages of the script I've been working on and got almost all positive feedback. The one big suggestion was that the beginning was kind of slow, which I knew and I'd been planning on rewriting the beginning anyway. Realistically, I probably won't get to work on it again until Monday afternoon. The new beginning will be more along the lines of setting up the "Ordinary World" rather than the weird flashback thing I have in there now. The Hero's Journey strikes again.

I had a rockin writing day

2009-02-18T20:50:00.003-06:00

So I went to the writing lab at school today and worked from 2:00-5:00, had a half an hour break for a production meeting, then worked from 5:30-6:30. In those four hours I wrote... 14 pages! I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm fully entrenched in the "Test, Allies, and Enemies" portion of the Hero's Journey in my screenplay. I'm done 34 pages and I need to be at 40 by 4:00 tomorrow. Considering I have a built in lab time from 1:00-4:00 I think I'm in decent shape.

The production meeting was for a student film I'm working on as a script supervisor. I seem to have been pegged as a script supervisor guy, which I guess is good considering I haven't taken the Tech class yet and I'm trying to build a reputation as a script guy. I'll take what I can get.

Another chance at a first impression

2009-02-17T00:21:00.004-06:00

Starting the blog over. I'll dive in and pretend like everyone knows me so I don't have to do a stupid intro post.

I'm already behind on my feature script for Advanced Screenwriting. I'm at the top of page 21 and we're supposed to have 30 pages done by now. In my defense I was out of town for two days last week and my professor said it was okay if I didn't turn in my pages last Thursday. Mistake on his part to let me know that I could slack.

So right now I'm plotting out each of my character's arcs through the Hero's Journey. I wasn't happy with the second half of my plot treatment when I wrote it so this is helping me figure out how I want the latter half of my script to work out. I can definitely see the benefits to outlines/plotting out the beats/etc.

My pilot for Writing for Television isn't coming along at all. I have my premise but don't know the beats for my episode. I need divine inspiration by Wednesday. We'll see how that goes.

I chose my short story for Adaptations. I'm going to adapt "How I Wrote to Toby" by E. Lockhart. It's from the collection of short stories, 21 Proms. (If I was a super savvy blogger I'd have a thing where if you clicked on the link and bought the book I'd get a cut, but I'm entirely too lazy to do that.)