First, my semi-big news: my one-hour pilot screenplay, The Prince: Cassus Belli, has made it to the semifinal round of the 2017 Final Draft Big Break competition. I'm tremendously excited about this. If it makes it to the quarterfinals I may just die. But my corpse will have a big smile on its face.
The thought of maybe winning this thing, or at least being able to put "semifinalist in the 2017 Big Break competition" on any cover letter I send to someone with the script, has me thinking about something every screenwriter needs to think about: The Question.
What is The Question?
Imagine this: you're in a meeting with a producer. Someone big time who can get your movie made. She's impressed with your script but this is at a really early stage, and there are an awful lot of hoops left to jump through. The meeting's almost over when she asks:
"So, what else you got?"
At this point you need to have as many completed scripts in your pocket as possible. And have treatments handy for any that you haven't completed yet. And be ready to talk about them. Let this producer know that you are a serious writer. Not somebody who got lucky and came up with an interesting script once. She wants to know if you can do it over and over again.
That's somebody she'd want to do business with.
So, I've done a pretty significant rewrite of The Prince script, and I'm banging away on another pilot script right now. I've got a script for a horror feature that I thought turned out pretty well, and a treatment for a mystery that I'm pretty happy with, too. I'm going to be writing some more treatments over the next few weeks, too, just to have them handy.
I've also had an idea for a short film that's been driving me crazy--looks like I'll have to write that one just to get it out of my system. It should be interesting, though, and might actually be something I can get made.
So, when I get The Question, I should be able to give the person who asked it a full menu of choices. You want horror? Science fiction? A whodunit? Drama? Even comedy, if that's what you're looking for--I'm about to be in a position to write one I've been mulling over for years, looks like.
Keep your fingers crossed for me, that I make it to the next round. And always be ready with an answer to The Question. You never know . . .
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Thursday, October 19, 2017
What I've been up to, staycation edition . . .
I took this week off because it just so happened a lot of personal crap came up that I had to deal with, all at the same time. I decided it would behoove me to take an entire week off.
One of my goals for this week (other than getting to the stuff I need to get to and doing what I need to do) is to apply for a writer's development program at a major movie studio.
As part of the applications process, they wanted a film treatment. If you're one of the imaginary people who actually reads this blog you've seen me talk about treatments before, and how I struggle with them.
Well, I really wanted to apply for this thing. Which means, I really needed to write this treatment.
Over the past month or so I've been hammering away on it without any luck. I finally Googled it, to see how other writers have handled it. I came across Kevin Williamson's treatment for Halloween: H2O. If you're curious about what a treatment is and how to do it, I suggest you take a look at it yourself. I found this inspiring and educational.
Before, when I tried a treatment, I sort of condensed every element of the story down to its bare essentials. Which is not really necessary, and is actually quite tedious and hard to read. All you need to spell out are the important beats in the story.
It's important that whoever reads the thing knows how you plan to set up the story, so you need to go into detail about the first act. The reader needs to know how you intend to resolve it, too, so you need to go into detail about the third act. The reader doesn't need to know all of the details about the second act. Detail the Big Picture stuff, like the major setback that almost always has to happen at the halfway point, or any other major plot points. You're writing a mystery and your protagonist eliminated several suspects? No real need to detail how those suspects were eliminated, if they were red herrings.
But the reader has to know how you intend to handle the big reveal at the end--how the hero figures out who the murderer is, for example. You also need to give an idea how you're going to wrap things up. The button at the end, before the credits roll, which is usually where your protagonist comes to a decision or realization about something important only to him or her that may only be peripheral to the main plot. So, you'll need to mention any subplots along the way that you'll be dealing with there, but don't go overboard about it.
This was a slow, laborious process for me, but in the end I think it was worth it. I chose to write the treatment about a project where I'd actually already attempted a script, and I just couldn't get it to work. The main problem I had was the ending, which felt contrived and forced. I just didn't have a way for things to click for my hero, for him to figure out who the killer is in a way that made sense.
Writing that treatment, though, sort of forced me to see it in a different way, and a solution that was there in front of me the whole time sort of trotted out in front and waved at me and finally got my attention.
Will I be selected to participate in this program I was applying for? I doubt it. They probably have thousands of applicants and I don't really think I'm what they're looking for anyway. So, even though I sat down and applied the other day and uploaded everything they were looking for, I doubt I'll ever hear anything from them.
But writing that treatment was all the payoff I needed, actually. It'll never be easy to do one, but now that I have a better idea as to what writing one entails I won't dread it quite as much. And I'll be writing more of them, now, because I now see how they can be so bloody useful.
One of my goals for this week (other than getting to the stuff I need to get to and doing what I need to do) is to apply for a writer's development program at a major movie studio.
As part of the applications process, they wanted a film treatment. If you're one of the imaginary people who actually reads this blog you've seen me talk about treatments before, and how I struggle with them.
Well, I really wanted to apply for this thing. Which means, I really needed to write this treatment.
Over the past month or so I've been hammering away on it without any luck. I finally Googled it, to see how other writers have handled it. I came across Kevin Williamson's treatment for Halloween: H2O. If you're curious about what a treatment is and how to do it, I suggest you take a look at it yourself. I found this inspiring and educational.
Before, when I tried a treatment, I sort of condensed every element of the story down to its bare essentials. Which is not really necessary, and is actually quite tedious and hard to read. All you need to spell out are the important beats in the story.
It's important that whoever reads the thing knows how you plan to set up the story, so you need to go into detail about the first act. The reader needs to know how you intend to resolve it, too, so you need to go into detail about the third act. The reader doesn't need to know all of the details about the second act. Detail the Big Picture stuff, like the major setback that almost always has to happen at the halfway point, or any other major plot points. You're writing a mystery and your protagonist eliminated several suspects? No real need to detail how those suspects were eliminated, if they were red herrings.
But the reader has to know how you intend to handle the big reveal at the end--how the hero figures out who the murderer is, for example. You also need to give an idea how you're going to wrap things up. The button at the end, before the credits roll, which is usually where your protagonist comes to a decision or realization about something important only to him or her that may only be peripheral to the main plot. So, you'll need to mention any subplots along the way that you'll be dealing with there, but don't go overboard about it.
This was a slow, laborious process for me, but in the end I think it was worth it. I chose to write the treatment about a project where I'd actually already attempted a script, and I just couldn't get it to work. The main problem I had was the ending, which felt contrived and forced. I just didn't have a way for things to click for my hero, for him to figure out who the killer is in a way that made sense.
Writing that treatment, though, sort of forced me to see it in a different way, and a solution that was there in front of me the whole time sort of trotted out in front and waved at me and finally got my attention.
Will I be selected to participate in this program I was applying for? I doubt it. They probably have thousands of applicants and I don't really think I'm what they're looking for anyway. So, even though I sat down and applied the other day and uploaded everything they were looking for, I doubt I'll ever hear anything from them.
But writing that treatment was all the payoff I needed, actually. It'll never be easy to do one, but now that I have a better idea as to what writing one entails I won't dread it quite as much. And I'll be writing more of them, now, because I now see how they can be so bloody useful.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
OK, Atlanta Falcons, here's the deal . . .
I've followed the Falcons since there's been an Atlanta Falcons. Yes, for most of those years the team was godawful. That's why this is so frustrating now.
This is a team loaded with talent, on both sides of the ball. They should be great. But they suck.
And it's the same thing we saw in the Super Bowl last year. They play great in the first half. They stink in the second half.
This is nothing new. Remember a couple of years ago, a game they played in London against Detroit? The score at halftime was 17-0, Falcons. Score at the end? 17-18, Detroit. Falcons did not even manage a field goal in the second half. This, in a nutshell, is the problem.
Guys, it's called a half for a reason. There are two of them. Two halves = a whole game. Get it? If not, just remember this--when you got into the locker room at halftime, the game is not over yet. You got another half to go.
Anyway, I think I have about had it with this crap from you guys, especially since it always seems to be the same thing, week after week, and nothing is done to address it. It's like nobody except me even realizes it. Do what every other freaking team in the NFL does: make adjustments at halftime. Make adjustments at halftime. Make. Adjustments. At. Halftime. Make! Adjustments! At! Halftime!
So, here's the deal. You go to the Super Bowl this year. And you freaking win it this time. I'll still be on board. No Super Bowl win and it's over between us.
It's for your own good.
This is a team loaded with talent, on both sides of the ball. They should be great. But they suck.
And it's the same thing we saw in the Super Bowl last year. They play great in the first half. They stink in the second half.
This is nothing new. Remember a couple of years ago, a game they played in London against Detroit? The score at halftime was 17-0, Falcons. Score at the end? 17-18, Detroit. Falcons did not even manage a field goal in the second half. This, in a nutshell, is the problem.
Guys, it's called a half for a reason. There are two of them. Two halves = a whole game. Get it? If not, just remember this--when you got into the locker room at halftime, the game is not over yet. You got another half to go.
Anyway, I think I have about had it with this crap from you guys, especially since it always seems to be the same thing, week after week, and nothing is done to address it. It's like nobody except me even realizes it. Do what every other freaking team in the NFL does: make adjustments at halftime. Make adjustments at halftime. Make. Adjustments. At. Halftime. Make! Adjustments! At! Halftime!
So, here's the deal. You go to the Super Bowl this year. And you freaking win it this time. I'll still be on board. No Super Bowl win and it's over between us.
It's for your own good.
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