Snakes!!!

Snakes on a Plane! Yee-hawww! The title alone evokes visions of pure hilarity. You know, the only kind of hilarity there would be when you get a plane full of venomous snakes. How many snakes? A crate full!

I had to comment on this movie when I saw this post. Before that, I hadn’t even heard of it. Apparently there are some that question whether this movie will actually be serious, or some kind of spoof. It's become an Internet phenomenon. Check for yourself.

I, for one, can’t wait to see it. But, not until it’s on DVD. I anticipate it as the kind of movie that will bring forth many laughs, though, that not being the intent. Perhaps it’ll replace Anaconda as one of my favorite “comedies.”

Art of the Rewrite

One of the things I've never been terribly good at as a screenwriter is the rewrite. Don’t get me wrong…I always rewrite, and I do find it to be a valuable tool. But it hardly seems that I completely fix all of the problems in a screenplay when I do the rewrite. There always seems to be a few scenes or part of an act that just doesn't seem to work. And the entire work suffers because of it. As nearly any screenwriter will tell you, pro or beginner, those scenes stick out like a sliver in your brain.
Just recently, I planned on handing over one of my screenplays, "The Madcap Armament", to Rebekah so she could proofread it. I've left that screenplay sitting around for so long that I figured it was time to make sure it was as good as it could possibly be before I let it be covered by time and other stories.
One major problem with the screenplay however, was that it had been written in as a word document. You see…I now realize, with the aid of Final Draft, how poor some of my formatting attempts were. It's not a pretty looking script. So, I decided to transcribe the whole thing over to Final Draft and fix a few minor issues before I sent it off to Rebekah.
Upon re-reading it however, I came across a series of scenes in the second half of Act II that left me with a nagging feeling. Like a dull ache, those scenes stuck out in my mind as being off-key, out of place...just all-together bad. I couldn't place my finger on the reason why they felt that way; they just nagged at me. I decided to wait on sending the screenplay, at least until I could puzzle out the reason why that section of the story felt wrong. In fact, it is a weird thing when something feels off in a screenplay. It doesn't just feel wrong...it feels fuzzy.
Act II, Part II of "The Madcap Armament" felt fuzzy. As a result, I started to let the act simmer in my mind. I even read that portion of Act II over and over again, trying to pinpoint the exact spot in which things started to feel fuzzy. After some careful reading, I found it. The second I located the point at which everything began to fall apart, I realized what my problem was.

The main character disappeared.

Almost literally. There is a point in the second act where the main character, Leonard Chaplin, disappears off the page, only to be replaced by secondary characters that are more lively and unique then he is. And then, when the second act ends, the story begins to pick up again. Why? Because Leonard reappears and starts making drastic decisions about how he is going to end all of the problems facing him. Leonard begins to be the protagonist again.
Once I realized this, I was blown away. It was a pretty dramatic problem, one that gradually got worse as the screenplay moved along. And the funny thing is that the second half of Act II doesn't read badly...it doesn't move slowly...it just feels terrible. Just to be sure however, I began to read a book that I had purchased and left sitting on my shelf for months. That is Syd Field's book on Rewriting.
All I can say is that I should have read this book sooner. Already I've begun to appreciate the fine art of rewriting. Not only that, I've realized why my approach to rewriting constantly fails, why problems like the Leonard Disappearance continually crop up in my screenplays. I simply do not know how to rewrite. But I am changing that.
After reading the first 4 or 5 chapters in the book (and jumping around through several others), I learned that my problem definitely stemmed from the disappearance of Leonard. The protagonist had in essence lost control of the story. He ceased to take action and now only knew how to react. And I pinpointed the exact spot in which the seed of this problem was planted. It took several scenes before the problem began to show however.
That is the diagnosis. The cure? A complete rewrite of the second half of Act II. Old scenes will be dropped. New ones will be written with Leonard as the focus. The remaining scenes will be crafted to fit to his character arc. It will take at least a couple of days, but when it is complete, I will be able to rest easy when I send the screenplay off to be proofread.

I might add that my foray into this untouched arena of screenwriting couldn't have come at a better time - the rewrites for our screenplays are due in Screenwriting III. I spent the majority of my afternoon today working on the first act of "Sin of the Opiate". Unlike Madcap however, I have an entire class of screenwriters to point out mistakes and help me rewrite. After collecting their notes together in addition to my own qualms, I began to refashion Sin of the Opiate. While I still have a plethora of tasks to complete before I can turn in a polished draft, I can at least say that the screenplay is beginning to take some kind of shape.

Here's a new download for you of 6 rewritten pages from the screenplay. I never posted the originals, but I didn't want to post something that you had already read. Enjoy.

Festival Madness

Tomorrow, Gabe, Rebekah/Zoe (I presume), Josh, Angie and myself will be heading down to Tucson to check out the TucsonFilm.com Short Fest, 06. As you’ve probably read on Try Avoidance, we’ve got two short films in the main festival this year plus three others in the online segment of the festival. As you can imagine, this is a real treat for us. Plus, we get to hang with our local film buds, Bruce and Max and watch their film “The Intervention of Brad”. Everything is shaping up for a good weekend.

Shifting gears for a moment here, I cannot wait to get out of school. I mean it; things are really starting to drag. I have all of these projects I’m working on, but there simply isn’t enough time to do everything properly. And so, everything I want to do gets put on hold while I take care of everything I have to do. The second school ends however it’s anyone’s game. I don’t know if that makes sense, but whatever.

Wildlifeless update

A very exciting development has been the lockdown of the cast for Wildlifeless. I gotta tell you…this project is shaping up to be amazing. Why? Well, these actors…and I won’t drop names for the moment…but these actors are phenomenal. Probably some of the finest actors we’ve ever had onboard. They really “get” it. There were so many different, interesting slants to the character that the other potentials tried to cover…and I was delighted by the variety, but the ultimate selections knew what made these characters tick. There is a comment in a book I have on directing, entitled Friendly Enemies (a book I have been referencing continually over the last few weeks) which basically says: always keep your character in mind during the audition. Understand who your character is. Once you know that, casting the role is incredibly simple. It’s simply matching up the actor with what you envision for the personality.

And believe me, I did not believe the book until the audition. Now, I absolutely hold faith in that publication. If the director knows the characters and knows the story, then the actual selection of roles is incredibly easy. The hard work is about to begin though…the actual directing of the actors. I must say that I am a little frightened. This is the first time I’ve directed a kid. I’m confident that I can pull it off, but it’s going to be an interesting and probably harrowing journey before I arrive at that next level. The actors are putting themselves through a plethora of hoops to pull these characterizations off though, so I believe that it is my duty to go on this journey with them and see what comes our way.

Cinematography wise, I’m not worried. As long as we practice the shots, I’m confident we’ll be able to pull it off. I mean come on…this is Josh we’re talking about here. He knew the score about this film before he even took on the role of DP. The visual aesthetic is as much his baby as it is mine.

So that’s that.

First of all

Congrats to Kirby Sodderberg for his involvement with Pantomiming and the subsequent nomination for Tuscon Fest. Hurrah, eh? Secondly, congrats to my friend and partner in crime for Leonardo, Joshua J. Provost. Leonardo is paying off my friend, so let's enjoy it, eh?

In honor of Pantomiming's first ever festival selection, I feel the need to hold some kind of a contest - something to reward the legions of fans clamoring for some sweet Kirby action. Ahem.

1st Prize - A Pantomiming DVD, signed by Kirby and Brock
2nd Prize - A Pantomiming DVD signed by Chad Einwalter
3rd Prize - A Pantomiming slip case
4th prize - A screenplay for White Bread, the upcomming Matter of Chance film
5th Prize - a contenental lunch on the Disney Jungle Cruise with Brock H. Brown and the cast of Wildlifeless

Other prizes to be announced soon.

Get Off Your Fat Surplus

...the elaborate structure of networks, advertising agencies and sponsors will not be shaken or altered. It is my desire, if not my duty, to try to talk to you journeymen with some candor about what is happening to radio and television...I am seized with an abiding fear regarding what these two instruments are doing to our society, our culture and our heritage...during the daily peak viewing periods, television in the main insulates us from the realities of the world in which we live. If this state of affairs continues, we may alter an advertising slogan to read: LOOK NOW, PAY LATER...Editorials would not be profitable; if they had a cutting edge, they might even offend. It is much easier, much less troublesome, to use the money-making machine of television and radio merely as a conduit through which to channel anything that is not libelous, obscene or defamatory. In that way one has the illusion of power without responsibility...One of the basic troubles with radio and television news is that both instruments have grown up as an incompatible combination of show business, advertising and news...and when you get all three under one roof, the dust never settles...Sometimes there is a clash between the public interest and the corporate interest. A telephone call or a letter from the proper quarter in Washington is treated rather more seriously than a communication from an irate but not politically potent viewer. It is tempting enough to give away a little air time for frequently irresponsible and unwarranted utterances in an effort to temper the wind of criticism...I am frightened by the imbalance, the constant striving to reach the largest possible audience for everything; by the absence of a sustained study of the state of the nation. Heywood Broun once said, "No body politic is healthy until it begins to itch." I would like television to produce some itching pills rather than this endless outpouring of tranquilizers...But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.

-Edward R. Murrow, October 15, 1958

How so much more true today. Kudos to George Clooney and Grant Heslov for bringing back to light what Mr. Murrow heralded in regards to news and television. You can read his entire speech to the RTNDA Convention here: http://www.rtnda.org/resources/speeches/murrow.shtml

See picture

You're telling me these guys didn't get the audition notice?!

Attention Deficit

"I don't get it!"

The previews for the movie Stay Alive just utterly disturb me. No, not the imagery, but the marketing tactic. "Hey, dumb people, watch this movie. Here's what it's about. In case you didn't get it the first time, here it is again." How many times in the preview was it mentioned that if you die in the game, you die in real life? At least a couple.

Happy belated anniversary to this blog. Three years last month. I wanted to do a celebratory post with Brock, but time passes by like the wind. We've gone from two readers (ourselves), to something like, five to seven! Amazing. Maybe if we could have some consistent, engaging material... Hey, we don't have time for that.

Turban-O-Matic

Amazing new technology teaches lazy Sikh kids to tie turbans correctly.

Bout time.

The Best of 2005 - Visual Effects

War of the Worlds

David Blitstein, Gintar Repecka, Alan Scott and Daniel Sudick

War of the Worlds was a terrible movie. It was absolutely horrible, poorly conceived and terribly executed.

With regards to story.

Visually, it was a real treat. If there’s one thing the film succeeded in doing, it was in conveying the enormity and reality of these alien tripods in relation to their human prey. While I would have liked to have given this award to Star Wars, the fact of the matter is that War of the Worlds succeeded in conveying computer imagery that appeared realistic, threatening and plausible. One brilliant stroke has to be their keeping the alien craft enshrouded in fog, darkness and trees for most of the film. As a result, the inadequacy of the computer imagery was negligible…instead, one couldn’t help but be overwhelmed and frightened by the very big, very real machines stalking our heroes through the night.
What’s also interesting is Spielberg’s use of these effects and computer visuals in relation to his ornate and fluid camera movements. Instead of being burdened by them, he allows them to free up his camerawork even further. One fancy shot had Spielberg looking at a horrific scene of violence through the viewfinder of a consumer digital camera. Other shots had him spinning and panning around a moving van in a fashion that would be either extremely expensive or near impossible to achieve with a camera car.
Letting his digital creations slip into the night, he presented imagery that seemed solid, concrete, real. And because of that, it was much more frightening. You may not feel the emotion between Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning. But when that tripod set its foot down right in front of her, my heart skipped a beat. I wasn’t thinking of how great the digital effects looked. I wasn’t awestruck by the visuals. I was terrified. And that’s when I knew the effects worked.

The Best of 2005 - Makeup

Revenge of the Sith

Nikki Gooley, Charmaine Fuller and Colin Ware

If there is one nomination I completely understood at the Academy Awards, it was Star Wars Episode III, Revenge of the Sith’s nomination for makeup. Did it deserve more nominations? I tend to think that’s up to you personally to decide. Did it deserve the makeup nomination? Absolutely.
The makeup in Revenge of the Sith was outlandish and unrealistic. And that’s why it was so great. Palpatine’s utterly melted, reptilian appearance post lighting must have taken a tremendous amount of time to apply. And it looks utterly repulsive, right down to the little details such as the crevices in his face, or the pallid skin-tone. The tremendous bags under his eyes might as well be canyons, and the fine wisps of hair on his head practically seem to go transparent against his wrinkled scalp. It’s a stunning and unappealing visual.
On the flip side we have Anakin, who ends up looking very dark and disturbed when he finally turns to the dark side. His eyes don’t quite have the bags that Palpatine’s does, but they do appear deeply set. You could argue that Hayden Christensen’s acting fails to convey the troubled emotion Anakin is experiencing at this point in his life. But I found myself hard-pressed to understand why he failed to relate those emotions…the makeup makes him look so troubled that the rest should have come naturally. Even the tiny scars on his face hint at battles he’s been through but that we haven’t been privy to see.
The extreme on Sith’s fantastic makeup is of course Anakin’s final transformation: a charred corpse. It is said that this contributed to the film’s PG-13 rating. I find that easy to see, as he looks absolutely horrid, like burnt chicken on the barbecue. And that’s a beautiful thing.

Hail to the Hoff

When I saw Brock's post title, I thought he was going to write about the importance of make-up in a movie. Speaking of not posting in a while... Hello! Where have I been???

Philip Seymour Hoffman, greatest actor of our time? Quite possibly, and I've been a fan of his for a long time. Congratulations to him!

So, I actually watched the Oscars from beggining to end. I think I've only done that once before. That time being when I was in Hollywood, not too far from the Kodak Theatre. Jon Stewart received mixed reviews, but I thought he was great, and was probably the factor that kept me watching. The skits were well done too.

I have about five pages for a mocku-docu-mentary on a local, inspirational short film. Mocku, because part of it is made up, and Docu, because it centers around a real film. But if the filmmaker of this short is not down with it, it becomes all for fun. I plan on approaching him soon about it.

Make up

I have neglected to post lately because of school and a number of other pressing tasks. My apologies. To make up (in a rather poor fashion), here is a download to the first 5 pages of my new script. If you want to kill 5 minutes, by all means...

-Brock

Updates

-In Avid class right now...tonight is project night; turning in my photomontage.
-The first 5 pages of a new script are in hand..."The Sin of the Opiate". Scary. The first official feature-length since "The Madcap Armament".
-New short film..."Honeytrap". I'm specifically writing this one for someone I know who is running a writing competition, but maybe I'll get around to posting it.
-Will not be posting Filmic for the general public to read...sorry folks.
-Working on Wildlifeless director's notes..."Friendly Enemies" was right, the writer part does try to smother the director part of you.

That is all.

Done

The 48-hour film competition is complete. My only comments? I never want to act again. Next year, we'll find someone skilled enough to be alongside Gabe.

Flies are buzzing round my head

Big fish eat the little ones...big fish eat the little ones

not my problem, give me some

new script

More best of stuff tomorrow...in the meantime, I went location scounting with Josh over the weekend, and on the ride over managed to do some research for the screenplay I will write this semester. I posted a tid-bit for my last few scripts, so here's one for this - Clicky.

The Best of 2005 - Art Direction and Costume Design

King Kong - Simon Bright and Dan Hennah/Terry Ryan

Upon viewing Ron Howard’s Cinderella Man, you will see a cold and realistic portrayal of the Great Depression, as it really was – grimy, desolate, tattered and patchy. When he set out to direct King Kong, Peter Jackson took a different approach. Taking these images of depression and hard times, art directors Simon Bright and Dan Hennah fashioned an image of 1933 that was less about reality and more about grandeur. From the obnoxiously yellow taxicabs, to the street-corners packed with boarded-up theaters, King Kong is a film with an artistic flair that aims to create a cinematic filter for our viewing of that time. With the Lucas/Spielberg stylized jungle and the rickety old steam freighter, Kong’s visual atmosphere practically screams “ADVENTURE!” It’s more about the serialized version then the correct version. And yet, in artistically defining the look of this film, Jackson sought out a few key items that rooted the fantastic nature of the film in a dose of reality. The camera used by Black’s Denham is an authentic Bell & Howell 2709 – the same camera used in the original Kong film. Look closely at the movie posters on the New York streets and you will see original one-sheets for “East of Borneo” and “The Mummy”. Even when the good guys break out heavy weapons, they break out Tommy guns that might as well be missing from the set of Dick Tracey. Every minor detail, set and object was directed to lean to a more fantastic, colorful slant.

And so was the costume design. The costumes in this film fit their particular characters, and each makes a statement about those characters. Brody’s drab vests and herringbone coats define him as a playwright. The freighter crew’s raggedy frock and black overcoats (with sailor caps) speak of their mercenary nature. And Black’s shyster fedoras complement his wheel spinning as much as his mischievous eyebrows do.
The art direction and costume design of King Kong is remarkable because it set out with a very specific goal in mind – one that clearly benefited the highly visual nature of the film. It set out not just to recreate an era, but also to create the director’s vision of that era.

The Best of 2005 - Sound Design and Sound Editing

Batman Begins - David Evans, Stefan Henrix and Peter Lindsay

There is a fantastic moment in Batman Begins where Bruce Wayne faces off against his trainer and quasi-sensei, Henri Ducard, on a frozen lake. It is a sequence that works because you can literally “hear” the ice moving underneath them. The sound of the earth changing, a deep rumble, stands as a sonic complement to the change Wayne himself is going through. Later on, less subtle sound effects come into play. We have the sublime “poof” of the shadow organization’s gunpowder, the echoed and scattered rasp of the Scarecrow’s drug enhanced voice and the thoroughly satisfying roar of the Batmobile. The sound in Batman Begins excels because it creates an atmosphere that builds upon Nolan’s concept of hyperrealism. Very few sound effects in the film are inconceivable. Most are simply augmentations of sounds that exist in the real world. But their lush, enhanced bombast helps bring the world of Batman into a realm that is just out of reality’s grasp. And yet each sound is designed to complement the story.
Additionally, the sound editing complements these sounds, making full utilization of them at the most appropriate moments. When the Batmobile revs into and out of frame, the roar of its engines passes us by as well. The horrific screech of bats, the sound of Wayne’s secret fear, only cuts in at the most unexpected of moments. And it is sharp enough to unnerve the audience, as Wayne himself is unnerved.
While other films also succeeded in creating unique soundscapes (War of the Worlds in particular), Batman Begins succeeded in creating a colorful, defined atmosphere that was articulated in every shot, every breath. Plug some earphones in and close your eyes, because Batman Begins is a fine accomplishment in both sound and sound editing.

School

Today was my first day back at the school since last semester. Should be a good year. It did get off to a rocky start...but the routine will smooth itself out. Hopefully it is interesting. I did see many members of my "SCC crew", and they were happy to see me around the campus. Many of the regulars (Jayme from 'Outside In', Chad from 'The Subject', Brandon from 'Pantomiming') want in on Filmic, so that's cool. I told them it was a war film, and they all lit up. And then I told them, "it's not about war though". So now they're confused. When they read the screenplay, they won't be.