Tags: Comedy, Directors, Filmmaking, Screenwriting, Supergun Projects, The Interweb
… only to find out that like every other box, it’s filled with Styrofoam peanuts and empty hopes and dreams. What now? Only ONE possible option: Make a Box-Fort.
But while we’re incoherently ranting…
I’ve finally figured out how to open up comments so that people don’t need to register, which a few people have been complaining about. Go ahead- give it a whirl and leave a snarky comment if you dare. Just don’t inundate me with ways to increase my penis size or brainpower with experimental drugs…
Also, the design of this blog will be changing soon as well… the main Supergun Cinema site looks much better (to me anyway), so why not improve this crappy blog as well, right?
Right.
But I did kind of open Pandora’s box a bit tonight, in regards to my current screenplay projects. Over the past three years I’ve been developing 4 different screenplays in an attempt to create a “roster” of works.
The first, a sort of “last ode” to Supergun’s own Shakespeare adaptations had made it to a completed first draft… before I scrapped the whole idea due to an epiphany about the concept; mainly that it had no commercial value in it’s present state. It’s not a “dead” project, but… Long story short- I was trying to write something a bit too ‘clever’ for where my skills and resources are at, so it’s been put on “hiatus” until I’ve at least finished my other scripts.
The second screenplay, about Telemarketing is still in the “research phase”… as in, I’m working at a telemarketing company and learning some pretty downright CRAZY stuff about how the industry operates… enough to develop a FEW feature films out of, but the ideas morph almost weekly depending on what happens at work, so I’m not going any further than the concept/outline phase at the moment… By the time I leave the company I’ll have a list of possible plot-lines and characters about the same general subject which I can then sort out.
The third, with a decidedly “environmental” focus (also involving ninjas), was originally going to be a series of shorts for the internet, but I’ve decided to go all out and make it a feature film (using the ideas for the shorts as a marketing tool). Thing is, I’ve realized that it can’t be done on NO budget, so I’m letting it sit facing the corner for awhile, as I develop my more “low-budget-high-concept” projects…
Which brings me to the screenplay that holds tonight’s box of Pandora. I was talking with Amanda (my girlfriend- on the left) about the idea for the film and she told me that she didn’t feel that the concept had enough “gas” to be a feature… Thankfully, I felt this way as well and was actually probing her for feedback… and not because the IDEA isn’t strong (I think it’s TOTALLY high-concept), but because the way I was going about it, half of it was coming off more like a “parody” of another movie and the other half was almost a completely different movie altogether. They weren’t “meshing” the way they were supposed to, which would essentially make the whole thing a futile effort… if the script isn’t fucking PERFECT, why bother? Right?
Made sense to me… So I got disparaged and downed a 3/4 bottle of red wine…
But then I was cruising the internet and read an article on Indy 4 in Variety and came across this tidbit of wisdom from the great Steven Spielberg:
The script, Spielberg says, can provide the blockbuster pace. “Part of the speed is the story,” he says. “If you build a fast engine, you don’t need fast cutting, because the story’s being told fluidly, and the pages are just turning very quickly. You first of all need a script that’s written in the express lane, and if it’s not, there’s nothing you can do in the editing room to make it move faster. You need room for character, you need room for relationships, for personal conflict, you need room for comedy, but that all has to happen on a moving sidewalk.”
It literally hit me like a ton of bricks. The “Moving Sidewalk” was the perfect analogy that FINALLY un-lodged that bit of brain-clog that was killing me… though if I’m going to give credit for screenwriting advice, I can’t go without mentioning The Unknown Screenwriter, whose posts CONSTANTLY inspire me to learn more about the CRAFT of screenwriting and write a kick-ass script. Right before reading the above Spielberg quote I was reading his latest post, and here’s another quote for you:
Your hook doesn’t have to be anything other than something that gets me interested in going on with your screenplay or movie. It should be commensurate with your genre and story but it doesn’t necessarily have to be about your story.
It could be something that your Protagonist just completed from another adventure. It could be your Antagonist doing something we’ve never seen before. It could be a minor character that exposes themselves to some vague obstacle that you’ll flesh out to us later on. It could be an arrival. Somebody or something comes to town. How about a death? What about your theme? What about your Protagonist’s flaw? Hell, maybe you just want to introduce your Protagonist… It’s all good.
Can you hook us in ten pages? How about five? The sooner the better?
There’s always something good happening in Unk-land… just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, BAM, he throws a left… I had spent the last few days wracking my brain, because the problem with my script was the the HOOK was right smack at the END of Act 1…. and after reading Unk’s second last post I smacked myself on the head and said “DAMMIT, you need to start this MOVIE when the movie starts… not 20 minutes into the damn thing!” and I began searching for a way to chop out the fat and get to the point… but doing that would make the whole thing lean more towards the “parody” part and less of the “original” part I loved so dear…. starting to see my dilemma? Well, that last post cleared it up… the HOOK just has to HOOK you, and it doesn’t HAVE to be anything in particular… you know- you get to be creative! As long as the HOOK is HOOKING (not in the lady-of-the-night way) … OOooooh… that’s not hard to understand… LOL! I must be stupendous.
But thankfully, after tonight’s epiphany (I usually average two a day), I deduced from those thought-inspiring articles that there are three major problems with my script:
- I need to focus more on the MAIN PLOT and get it started EARLIER
- I need to take the “parody” aspect and “original” aspect and only keep the parts that apply to and compliment the MAIN PLOT.
- I need to have a HOOK in the first few pages
And just like that, like the snap of the fingers, I drafted up a brief new “4 Act” outline with simple paragraphs describing the ACTION in each Act, and PRESTO! It finally WORKS!
Sometimes all it takes is the RIGHT words to come along at the RIGHT time and then BOOM… suddenly, the two ideas (the parody aspect and the original part) meshed together and created a story arc that had both an inner and outer journey, a beginning, middle and end, some twists, some fun antagonists and protagonists and most importantly- FLOW. Enough gas to turn this idea into 120 minutes that people would pay to see, and I’ve figured out what the HOOK is going to be, while preserving the TWIST at the end of Act 1.
Granted, it’s not written yet (I have to start my first draft over now- hell, even the outline!), but all of a sudden, everything is clear and makes sense. I can finally SEE the movie, and most importantly, why PEOPLE would want to see the movie… all I have to do now is maintain that vision as I write. Funny enough, I just changed one LITTLE thing at the beginning and everything just rippled down through the acts like butter sliding down my inner thigh…
Oh shit… maybe I just urinated myself… checking…. checking…. nope, I’ve just been salivating on my own crotch for the past hour or so as the ideas FLY out of my skull, skipping all other brain functions as I blog this blog…
Uh-oh… I’m starting to talk about urine/butter/blogs… better end this NOW! Tomorrow, the fresh new year will be met with a fresh new screenplay! TALLY HO!
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