Horror and comedy - it's the timing

I just realized recently that there isn't all that much difference between a horror screenplay and a comedy.

Both of them rely on timing, and if the timing is off, they won't work. That's why they are both so difficult to write. It's also why we've been seeing all those horror/comedies over the past few years.

Think about a joke you heard that you thought was hilarious. First time you heard it, you probably figured out the punch line about a half-beat before whoever was telling the joke said it. The punchline confirmed what you thought. And that's what takes something from kind of amusing to riotously funny.

It's also what makes something extremely scary--you figure out what's about to happen and, if it's something really bad, you've got a couple of seconds of dreading it before actually seeing it. It makes it even scarier than if the moment had come completely out of nowhere.

For example, I saw a movie a few years ago where a woman was staying in a hotel and noticed a peep-hole in one of the walls. The second she saw it I thought, "she's going to look through that peep-hole, and not see anything for a second, then an eye will appear, looking back at her."

Which is exactly what happened, two seconds later, and which caused everyone in the room with me to gasp. We all saw it coming, which made it even more effective.

A truly effective horror movie or a truly funny comedy rely heavily on timing, and it's difficult to get right. That's why the masters of both genres are so awe-inspiring. It ain't easy, and if it's even a little off the comedy goes from being a laugh-riot to mildly amusing and the horror movie goes from terrifying to kind of "meh."

Hostiles - a review

Find the info on this film here, if you're interested.

This is the new Christian Bale film, written and directed by Scott Cooper. It's a Western, much on the order of Eastwood's Unforgiven.

The premise is army Captain Joseph Walker (Bale) is given command of a detail to escort his old enemy, Apache Chief Yellow Hawk (Wes Studi) back to his old homeland in Montana before he dies of cancer. The story is Walker and Yellow Hawk hate each other, and both of them have good reasons for it, but Walker knows the Apache dialect, knows the territory, and is the only person for the job.

There are a lot of things I love about this movie.

I love that it isn't "quotable." There aren't any zingers or one-liners. There shouldn't be. That sort of thing trivializes a movie.

I love Christian Bale's understated performance. He was amazing. I love Wes Studi, as well, but that almost goes without saying.

I loved the way the film deals with raw, fresh, still bleeding grief. That's one of the most intense things about it, and made some scenes difficult to watch. Again, I loved it, even as I was squirming in my seat, wanting to look away but unable to make myself do so.

I love how the violence in this film was not gratuitous. You know most of the people who get hurt or killed, and each time, it resonates. Again, no quips, no one-liners. Just sudden, deadly violence that sometimes comes out of nowhere.

I love how the fight scenes and gun battles don't look stylish and choreographed. It's just people who have decided to try to kill each other. They ain't dancing. That's real violence--ugly and unpredictable as it is.

I loved the score, by Max Richter--understated or missing entirely for the most part, but rising to the occasion when necessary.

I loved how Rosalie (Rosamund Pike) could differentiate between Yellow Hawk and his family, and the Comanche raiders who attacked and massacred her family.

Some things I didn't love so much:

I wish more of the focus had been on the relationship between Walker and Yellow Hawk. I get the feeling earlier drafts of the script did have more of that but as rewrites happened the scope broadened until that became a little bit secondary. There's still a lot in there, but I wish there were more.

The very last scene--I hated it. To me it was the worst thing in the movie. I won't give details, but it's something that was inevitable, considering the events of the movie, yet Cooper's screenplay tried to toy with audience expectations to make it seem like it wasn't going to happen. It's just a missed opportunity, I think.

There's a story arc in the second act involving some trappers that I think was added late in the revision process. Certainly seems that way. It could have used a little more work, too. It felt like it was grafted on, almost like it was written by someone else.

Overall, I can recommend this one. I'll give it a B+. Had to give it a ding for that ending. Other than that, great film. Go see it.

Championship Sunday writing and football

I'm spending my Sunday working on my two projects.

Face The Day will be a full-length feature film, horror, about a world where humanity no longer rules the night.

"Showdown at Nebula 7" is a short film about space outlaws attempting to bust one of their buddies out of a space station jail. Yes, it's as silly as it sounds. Though my hope is it'll also have some depth to it that'll hit you in the feels. We'll see.

I'll be alternating between the two of these for the foreseeable future. I'll probably get through with the short one first--natch--and then focus my remaining resources on finishing the feature film. At this point I'd say I'm about halfway through the short film, and maybe a third of the way through the feature.

Of course, that's first drafts for both. They'll be rewritten several times.

I'm happy, though, with what I have so far. The words on the page reflect what I'm trying to convey, and I think they both read well. Maybe somebody out there will like at least one of them enough to option it. There are options available for grants, as well, for short films, and I'll be looking into those, too.

We'll see. I'm sort of working at a feverish pitch on both of them right now. Hopefully, I'll get done with them before my enthusiasm wanes.

Football predictions for today:

New England over Jacksonville: 20 - 38
Minnesota over Philadelphia: 35 - 21

So, we'll have a Patriots vs. Vikings Superbowl, and for the first time in its history the game will be played on one of the participants' home field.

Either way, I'm looking forward to the games today, regardless.

This is why I do what I do . . .

For the first time in a long time I'm actually terribly excited about a project.

I mentioned it here previously--Face the Day. It's a horror movie about the end of the world as we know it.

I've done the first act and reread it a few times and I think it's really good. Even if it is only a first draft. I'm looking forward to writing several scenes coming up, and what I've done so far reads well and I think sets the appropriate tone. There's a lot of action and a menacing quality with a mysterious threat that demonstrates how effectively nasty it is. Plus, a sympathetic protagonist and an interesting subplot.

For the first time I think I'm writing a horror movie that's really, truly scary.

Yes, I'm excited about it--so much so I sent what I have to a friend for her to read it over and let me know if I'm just imagining things or if it is as good as I think. I never let people read my first drafts, not even my friends. That shows you how excited I am about it.

I have some unexpected, weather-related time off, so I'm going to use that to bang away on this thing some more. I hope to make a good start on act two, and, at this rate, be at the halfway point by next weekend.

Nothing like making progress on something that matters to lift one's spirits.

A post about The Post

I finally got around to seeing The Post today.

I've never been a huge Spielberg fan, and there are lot of his older movies that I've never seen because I know I wouldn't care for them. I did want to see this one, though, because of the buzz it's getting, and because it looked interesting.

I really enjoyed it, I'll just say up front. Streep and Hanks were perfectly cast, along with all of the supporting players, like Deidre Lovejoy and Sarah Paulson. It tended to drag a bit in a couple of places--you would expect a movie like this to develop slowly, but sometimes it was a tad too slow. I think a big part of that was a reluctance by the editors to cut any dialog between Hanks and Streep.

Which is understandable, but still, it could have used a little trimming. Not much, just a little.

It poses some difficult questions--like, if you're a journalist who is dear, close friends with a powerful politician, at what point does that politician become "former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara" instead of your long-time buddy, Bob.

Even more--what if you find out that your dear friend is in on something that you find repugnant and, if he weren't  your close friend Bob you wouldn't hesitate to at least look into it with an eye towards writing about it?

Then there's the whole "freedom of the press" issue, which has been becoming relevant yet again.

There were still a couple of what I consider Spielberg moments--the ending, in particular, is done in the way that he likes to do his endings and I find it overdone and unsubtle. But I enjoyed the movie so much I can forgive him here.

I'll give it a B+, and look for Streep and Hanks to get nominations this year. Go see it. It's a fascinating story, and well worth your time.

MLK Day

I'm reluctant to get into my thoughts about MLK today, mostly because so many other people have said what I feel so much more eloquently than me.

Suffice to say, I am in awe of the man and his legacy. I am also aware that he was a human being, flawed and sometimes ruled by his emotions. This does not sully his legacy with me.

RIP, Dr. King, and may your dream finally, truly be realized. The sooner the better.

I've been mired in depression and despair over the past several days, for reasons I won't go into here. So, I did what I usually do when I get into that state--I started writing.

I've been unable to get Gorgon to come together so it's back on the back burner. I had two projects I had been thinking about working on for a while now, though neither of them were developed much beyond the initial idea stage. I couldn't decide which one I wanted to dive into, so I started a first draft of both of them.

This is without creating an outline or a treatment, by the way. This is the way I used to do it.

Both projects were inspired by dreams I had years ago.

One was a ridiculous dream that was so freaking silly I couldn't forget it, with a 'cowboys-in-space' kind of theme. I'm calling that one, "Showdown at Nebula 7" for now--I may change the title. It's going to be a short, though it keeps getting longer as I work on it. Some serious cutting will be in order, methinks. I'm pretty much sticking with how the dream went, for the most part. Hey, it works! Seems to work, I mean. Unfortunately, the dream was so damned silly I woke myself up laughing at it, so I don't know how it ends.

The other was a nightmare about monsters emerging from underground to wipe out humanity. I'm calling that one Face the Day, and it will be a feature-length horror film. This one will be significantly different from the dream I had, because the dream itself would not work as a movie. As I was working on it I figured out it could serve as kind of a sequel to Walks Like a Man, which is cool with me. It'll stand alone from that project.

And yes, I'm aware of the Angel City song "Face the Day." That's what inspired the title. If this thing gets shot I'd love for the score to be various bands covering that song in various genres--just that one song, over and over again, in a metal version, a country version, a big band version, a blues version, a rap version . . . you get the idea. Though without Great White's hair metal cover, which I thought was soulless and uninteresting.

I'm really happy with the ideas for both projects, and, as I've been working, I think "Showdown . . ." is calling to me a bit more strongly. I've reread what I have so far and it's coming along exactly like I wanted it to, so far. So, I'll probably concentrate on that one for the time being, jumping back to Face the Day when I get stuck on it just for a distraction.

I think I'll slip away to see a movie in a bit. I want to see Spielberg's The Post, though, holy bathroom breaks! It's two and a half hours long! I think it'll be worth it, though.

If I do see the movie I'll post a little review here.

First post of 2018

I guess I need to say something, since it's been 2018 for almost a week now.

I've just been working on rewriting some scripts and developing a package I can send to anyone who wants it for each of them. This will consist of:

• a query letter
• a synopsis
• a treatment
• the script

I'm writing a generic query letter for each project that I can tailor to a particular producer/agent/whoever just so I can get it to anyone who wants to see it quickly.

The synopsis is a very short--around 500 words or so--description of the project. Give the story in broad strokes, and don't forget to include the resolution of the issue the project is about.

A treatment is a bit more detailed synopsis--no more than five pages--where you give the major story beats and a bit more about the characters and more detail about the plot. Sort of medium-strokes at this point. But keep it short!

I should also mention that neither the synopsis, the treatment, nor the script should have any paragraphs that are longer than five lines or so. I know, people think that's ridiculous, but trust me--people who read scripts are busy. If they open your treatment or synopsis or query letter or whatever and see this huge block of text, they're going to stop reading. Break it up into chunks. It makes it much easier for them to read it, and, more importantly, makes it more likely that they'll read it.

You also need to come up with a log-line, a two-sentence description of the project. I've discovered that it is most helpful to come up with the log-line first, before you even start developing the project, so you can keep the scope and theme in mind as you work. It'll prevent you from wandering down blind alleys and areas that might be scenic but are totally irrelevant. You'll want to use the log-line in your query letter, and your treatment. Maybe write it out and post it somewhere you can see it while you work just in case you need a reminder.

On my hard-drive I created a folder specifically for scripts I'm ready to start showing around, with a subfolder for each project. In that subfolder is the script, along with the other items above. If I send a query letter to somebody I'll save a pdf of that letter in that subfolder so I'll have it, along with a time and date stamp.

Plus, I'm still developing my space-based horror movie, Gorgon.

So, I'm keeping myself busy, until the NFL playoffs get started, anyway.

How is your 2018 going so far?