Ugh.

This is just a quick post to let you in on a little lesson I learned last week:  Don't make notes if you're not going to look at them.

On Tuesday or Wednesday last week I was going over my notes for my zombie script (tentatively titled "Ship of Ghouls") and I realized I had already solved the problem of fast vs. slow zombies, in a (I hope) new way that I really like and that makes a lot of sense to me. 

Oh well, at least I found the notes and am happy now.

Slow and steady wins the race

After some thought last night, I realized I had already given myself a way to have "patient zero" be fast and the rest be slow.  But, after talking with Matt and Disco, and really thinking about why I chose the location I did for my script, I realized that slow zombies are the best choice.  With narrow hallways and no real escape, there is no need for fast zombies.  Sure fast zombies are scarier, but you kinda lose what makes zombies what they are: the living dead. 

 I may end changing my mind and just making them fast "infected".   But, for now, slow and steady wins the race.  

BTW: I got back into the treatment for this script that I had started months ago and put down.  It's interesting to see all these ideas I had, that I had completely forgotten about (as well as some pretty terrible character names). I'm hoping that by the end of the week I have my treatment done and then I can start working on a beat sheet/outline (possibly right in Final Draft).

Also, since there is no reason why this script should be more than 80-85 pages (a lot of action; less dialogue as we go; keeping that level of tension), I am also going to write a spec for Community.  It will of course involve curling.  More updates on that when I ahve an actual plot in mind.

How fast do you like your zombies?

I should have realized that once I started playing Left 4 Dead that it was a foregone conclusion that I would select my zombie script to write for Script Frenzy.  I debated my ninja script, my panda script and my horror-noir script (and for a moment I even debated my "illegal cross-country road race" script).   But, in the end, the fact that I already had a lot of idea on post-its covering one side of my bookcase (and the fact L4D is so intense) caused it to win out.  Quite frankly I was beginning to wonder if I would ever write it.

Now comes the fundamental question all modern zombie writers have to answer: Fast or slow zombies?

My initial inclination is to make them slow - in my mind it just makes sense.  These people are dead.  There muscles and brains are no longer receiving nutrients.  The inflection is what is keeping them alive.  But, on that same note, there's no rule saying that the infection couldn't be supercharging everything.  And, fast zombies are in many ways scarier than slow zombies.

What I am debating doing is making most of them slow and just a handful fast.  The problem is how do I explain it?  I mean my protagonists are college kids, not biomedical engineers, so any explanation must be readily apparent to them.   Do I even have to explain it?  The problem is that I don't want my screenplay to come off like a video game, where you have a lot grunts to kill and then bosses.

Let me know if you have any ideas.

SCRIPT FRENZY

So, as you may have ascertained, I have not been writing a lot as of late.  Between stressing out about not working and working, I just haven't been getting a lot of writing done.  So, when my friend Matt emailed me about Script Frenzy, I was instantly hooked.
Now, Script Frenzy is brought to you by the same people who do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), but instead of writing 50,000 words (I think), you have to write 100 pages of script.  It can be comic book, screenplay, teleplay, or play (I think I got them all).
It starts 4/1 and goes to 4/30.  It may seem like tons of time until it starts, but in actuality, it's not much time at all, when I think about everything I have to do before then:
1) Finish the draft of Heisty that I am working on and probably do at least one polish on it.
2) Figure out which story I want to do next - I guess it's a good problem to have, having a lot of ideas for stories to write about, but I need to pick one and stick with it, which is the hard part.
3) Once I pick the idea I need to quickly write the story, then a treatment and then a fairly detailed outline, because when it comes time to start, 3+ pages a day is not easy when you don't know exactly where your story is going.  This is problem I had with Heisty - I just had a basic idea and started writing, so when the script came out to 60 pages, I just started randomly filling stuff in, and not really thinking about the story.

I've got the notecard app for the iPhone, as well as the screenplay app, so I'm going to go through both of those and my Moleskine, over the weekend and try and figure out which story will be the best, easiest, but most importantly, the story I will be the most excited about writing hardcore for a month.

I'll try and give you an idea as to what kinds of stories I'm considering over the weekend.  Here's a sneak peak: They're pretty much all genre films.

I am returned

I have been gone quite awhile. I know, like children, you're wondering: "What did he bring me? Script reviews? Tomatoes? Some other halfassed ideas?"
The answer is....I have brought you nothing. Certainly, I have read scripts (and I will be discussing them soon) and I have been attempting to get around this problem in my script (without the help of tomatoes, which may or may not be a good idea).
But, in fact, I come to you empty handed. This is only a harbinger of things to come.
I am returned. And you will be hearing from me.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I got two tomatoes, one for the both of you!

So, I read the first (of what I asusme will be many) of the scripts off of the Blacklist, The Gunslinger by John Hlavin.  I heard described as a western meets Taken, which is pretty much what it it.  It's a revenge movie pretty straight up.  This script could have easily just been cliche, which it is in sections, but because it was so well written, it doesn't matter.  The script moves so well you don't want to stop and think about what you've read, you just have to know what happens next.  It just keeps racheting up the tension and stakes until the end where you're on the edge of your seat and you can't wait to see how it ends.  I defintely got a lot of out the action lines, which were short, but detailed.  You knew everything that was going to happen, which made seeing it in your head much easier.

Next, on to the Pomodoros:  As of 6:30 on 12/19, I am at 63 Pomodoros.  So, unless I am completely worthless, I will be able to hit my goal of 65 Pomodoros before I leave for TC on Monday.  Since I am going to be spending a lot of time sitting on planes on Monday, my goal is to have 72-75 Pomodoros when I land in TC.

Whoa, we're halfway there.....

So, I hit Pomodoro's 50-52 tonight.  A day or two behind scheudle, but who's counting (well, besides you gentle readers).  What seemed impossible only a few days ago, now just seems highly unlikely.  My screenplay is grinding along.  I realize that I hate starting writing, once I get going I rather enjoy it, but the prospect of sitting down and actually starting seems huge.  I think part of it is that I know the tremendous amount work it's going to take to rewrite my script the way it should be.  Oh well, I soldier on.  Since I'm unemployed, I'm basically paying myself to write and I should think of it more like that.  Hopefully that will be more inspiring.

Anyways.  So, I watched Inglorious Basterds and read the script yesterday.  The big thing I noticed (other than the scenes that were cut), was QT's setting something up with no pay off (in the script).  In the script after the massacre in the bar, the Jew Hunter finds a solider still alive who tells him what happened, instead of the way better finding the autograph.  You had this great set-up her signing an autograph and kissing it, and then completely forgetting it.  Thankfully he realized his mistake.  It reminds me of that screenwriting saying that's about if you see a gun in the first act, someone better use it (or something like that).  I feel like once I deleted that one character from my script I realized that I had set all this great crap up and I just needed to that character out of the way to see it.

Well, I continue path with blood in my wake.  I'll give the week end update as always on Saturday.

PS: I'm going to start working my way through this years Blacklist, so if you have any suggestions let me know.