December is the "Month of 100 Tomatoes"

So, I was going to announce my next project on Thanksgiving, but as you know, that didn't happen.  It was going to be me watching all of the James Bond movies in order on a daily basis and then blogging about it.  I still may do it.  But for now, the project which will start tomorrow is something I call "The Month of 100 Tomatoes".  As the year closes and I still don't have a version of either of my screenplays that is ready for people to see, I have decided that my goal will be get  100 Pomodoros (or an average of 3+ a day) of writing done this month.  While an hour and fifteen minutes a day isn't that much, and I will be counting the time I spend the 2 screenplays I will be reading and blogging about a week, it should allow me to finish at least one more draft on my heist movie and possibly another polish on it or another draft on my dark thriller (or possibly a first draft of something completely new).

Wish me tomatoes!

I hate TONY

So, Time Out New York just did their Top 50 movies of the decade (http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/film/80947/the-tony-top-50-movies-of-the-decade/2.html).  What a load of crap.  First off, way too many movies I haven't seen and no inclusion of what I think could be the best film of the decade: "The Dark Knight".

So, I've decided to do a preliminary top 50 the decade.  This is just my off the top of my head, with a little poking around the internet list.  PLEASE remind of things I left off.  At the end of the year I'll rank my top 50 and do a little write up.  This is by no means the BEST FILMS, this is just the 50 I can see myself watching for the next years to come.

Here is the preliminary list:

Anchorman

Batman Begins
Dark Knight
Kill Bill I & II
Lord of the Rings
Casino Royale
Royal Tennenbaums
Lost in Translation
American Psycho
Zoolander

Donnie Darko
Brick
Grindhouse
Man on Fire
Snatch
Wonder Boys
Almost Famous
Sin City
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Once Upon a Time in Mexico

Amelie
The Bourne Identity
The Incredibles
United 93
Eastern Promises
Shaun of the Dead
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Serenity
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
City of God

28 Days Later
Inglorious Basterds
Unbreakable
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Million Dollar Baby
About a Boy
Little Miss Sunshine
In the Loop
History of Violence
Pan's Labyrinth

Traffic
Memento
No Country for Old Men
Gran Torino
300
Being John Malkovich
28 Days Later
Team America: World Police
School of Rock
Black Dynamite

Day 30 - Sunflowers in the window

Sunflower by Mischa Green

So, it's the last in the series and I had anticipated going out on a big blockbuster movie or something really personal to me.  Instead, I chose this little unproduced script called Sunflower that Kristy from The Matriarchial Script Paradigm blog (http://mscriptparadigm.blogspot.com/) recommended to me last night on Facebook.

The script is ridiculously tense.  The author does a great job setting everything up and introducing us to the characters before we realize the horror of what's going on in the story.  The overwhelming sense of dread and betrayals in the script make for an amazing read and show how a script can really come to life on the page.

One of the big things I got out of it, just from a technical point, was that even when there was a lot of text on the page she broke it up well, making most paragraphs 3 lines or less and using ALL CAPS to draw us to the really important parts when your eyes glaze over.

Well, this experiment is over, thanks for following me through these 30 scripts.  I think in the future I'm going to try to do 2-3 a week and make sure to include some sort of rating system.  Let me know if there is anything else you'd like to see.

Sunflower http://www.mediafire.com/?w2ndzmtmfwm

The countdown and next project

So, I have one script to go and I will have finished my 30 scripts in closer to 40 days.  But, I was sick for a lot of it, so I'm cutting myself some slack on this first one.

I will be announcing the next project on THANKSGIVING, so keep watching the blog to see how I'm going to be filling my days next.

On, another note, the Pomodoro Technique is still going relatively strong.  I used it to clean the majority of my apartment (between yesterday and today).  I still have a lot of cleaning to go, but it's looking way better.  I'm going to start setting a goal of 8-12 Pomodoros a day (starting on Friday), I'll keep you updated on that.  (BTW: I did 9 Pomodoros yesterday and 3 today)

Tomatoes...Really?

So, in my never ending quest to find the easy way to get things done, I have started using a new time management system called the "Pomodoro Technique" (http://www.pomodorotechnique.com/).  Basically, the way it works is you assign a certain number of 25 minute "pomodoros" ("pomodoro" is Italian for "tomato" a reference to the tomato-shaped kitchen timer the author developed the system around) to completing a certain task.  At the end of each pomodoro you take a 3-5 minute break and then at the end of 4 pomodoros you take a longer 30 minute break.  Now, obviously this technique really only works for people who 1)Don't work on a hourly basis and 2)don't have rigid structure at work (I can only imagine the heart surgeon who stops as he's attaching a bypass for his mandated pomodoro breaks).  I instituted the technique on Friday and so far it seems like the right technique for me.

The main reason it works for me is because of the essiential rule of the Pomodoro Technique: The pomodoro is indivisible!  Basically what this means is that in order for the pomodoro to count, you have work continuously for the entire pomodoro.  If you are interrupted for any reason and have to stop working, the pomodoro is void and doesn't count, therefore you have to restart the pomodoro at 25 minutes.  There is no such thing as half a pomodoro - the pomodoro is indivisible.  The breaks are also mandatory, which is nice.
So, basically when I'm in a writing pomodoro, I don't answer the phone, I don't check my email - I just do writing.  I know that I have a 5 minute break coming up and I know that I can read my email or read my blogs during that time or the longer break coming up.
Now, obviously, as with any system, you can cheat.  I was cleaning my apartment today when a call came in that I had to take.  Now, I assumed that the phone call would cause my Pomodoro app (I'll talk about this later) to close on my iPhone.  It didn't, so I had the option of just continuing to clean and still counting the pomodoro.  But, I decided to be honest and restart the pomodoro and keep cleaning, so in essence I got about 15 more minutes of work done than I would have had I not restarted the pomodoro, but I was ensured of the getting the 25 minutes in that I had budgeted.  The only thing I do cheat at is if I know I'm going on a longer break and i only 5 minutes left of work, I'll just push through which is a violation of the rules, but I don't want to waste an additional 20 minutes on something I can have done in less time.
The other great thing about the Pomodoro Technique is the cost: FREE.  Yep, that's right, nada.  You can download the book in .pdf for free off the website.  I found a free program for windows (which I haven't tried) and I think there are like 4 apps (the most expensive being $.99) for the iPhone.  They're not perfect, but they're good enough to get the job done.  I would like more customizability (differing break times [only 5 minutes] and the inability to assign multiple pomodoros to tasks [which is an important part of the system]), but for the cost you really can't beat them.

I'll give updates on how well the system is working for me periodically.  Likely, I'll give up on it as soon as the novelty wears off....Hopefully not.

Day 29 - And the fanboys shall inheirit the Earth

Vampocalypse by Brian Lee Johnson

So, I'm pretty sure this script is not only unproduced, but I'm not sure if it's even been sold yet.  It was recommended by Simply Scripts, so I gave it a shot.  The things I got out of it were a couple things I've discussed previously  but now that we're on the precipice I'm going to break it down again and then add one new thing.
1) The reader - The description is definitely written with the reader in mind.  It moves really well and more imporantly it's fun to read.  On page 1 the author describes the main vampire as "This is KASDEYA, bald,
pale skinned, thin, well muscled -- a DEMONIC version of Iggy Pop."  You immedaitely get the picture of what he looks like and you know what kind of movie you're in for.  It's going to be fun like Zombieland and Shaun of the Dead (which is exactly what the tone of this is).  You know it's going to take the subject matter seriously, but it's not going to take itself seriously.

2)Too quirky - I'm sorry, your main characters favorite expletive can't be "Jesus tits".  I don't buy it.  And also, while making a character clumsy is one thign, having him trip over (i'm guessing) 5 things in the course of 3 scenes is too much.  I understand the author is trying is foreshadow somethign important at the end, but it's too much.

3) FANBOYS RULE - This movie revolves around characters who work at a RPG/Comic Book/Memorabilia store.   Guys who hangout and do fanboy stuff.  And since the rise of ComicCon, every knows that the fanboy audience is critical for this type of film.  This is a fanboy movie from beginning to end.  Even the read is geared towards fanboys, with pop culture references peppered through the descriptions and dialogue.

This script is not perfect but it's a fun read.

Vampocalpyse http://www.simplyscripts.com/scripts/Vampocalypse.pdf 

Day 28 - The films of Richard Guy

Rocknrolla - Guy Ritchie

Since I am writing a comedy-caper movie, I can't not read more Guy Ritchie.  Rocknrolla may be my favorite of the Guy Ritchie caper movies.  I'm not sure why?  It's probably the characters, which is what Ritchie does so well.  His scripts are alwyas thick with atmosphere, you learn everything you need to about these characters relatively quickly sometimes through their actions, but usually through dialogue.  Guy Ritchie (like Tarantino) is not one to shy away from the monologue, but the difference with Ritchie is that his monologues are shorter and the pop culture walkabouts he takes never last longer than page.  He doesn't have the Tarantino thing where girls sit around a table for pages talking about something on the radio, or the like.  Ritchie has the "cool" dialogue, without letting it slow down the pace.  And that's the key with dialogue, it can be cool, but not at the cost of pace and story.

Rocknrolla - http://warnerbros2008.warnerbros.com/hfpa/assets/images/RockNRolla_Script.pdf

Days 26-27 - The Boy who Stopped Blogging

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson

So, I've been sick for the past few weeks and it finally caught up with me.  So, I didn't do this for few days.  But, I did read two novels, so I figure I can use those for 2 of the days and only have 3 to go and probably only end a week late.
I'm not going to go into the plot of the books because there is just too much going on.  The big thing I got out of it, is that if you have compelling characters that the reader cares about, you can get away with murder.  The books are very well written and you really care about the characters.  After I finished both books, I walked away thinking about how much I liked them, but also how many coincidences occur and how while I was reading I didn't care.  In both cases also it took along time to get into the stories, but you don't care because the the charcters grab from go.
Als, in both cases I ended up reading over 400 pages in one day.  One of the ways that it kept me going was either short chapters or the setting would change mid-chapter, so it would be like a new scene.  I kept thinking "well, it's just another 5 pages" or "the end of the section is only 40 pages away" or "well, I wonder what Lisbeth is doing" and so I just kept reading.  Also, if there was a section I didn't like, I knew it was only going to be another few pages, so I could just push thorugh to get to the sections I wanted to read.

So, just like all the books say: Compelling characters and keeping the story moving are the keys to good storytelling no matter the medium  

Days 23-25 - Forget it Thing, It's Twlight!

I spent all last night reading "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson, and as such, didn't take the time to do this.  I also missed last Sunday.  So here's 3 days rolled into one.  I decicded to look at an outline, a step sheet, and a treatment.

Twilight (outline) by Melissa Rosenberg
It's better on the page than it is on the screen.  What's interesting about this is that all the scenes and some of the dialogue is there.  It's 29 pages long and it's almost all text.  You really do get a sense of the main characters and some of the secondary characters.  I was really surprised to see that the scene headings were there.

Chinatown (step sheet) by Robert Towne
This seems to be organized around important dialogue in that particular step.  This was only 10 pages long, so obviously it wasn't nearly as detailed.  It's basically the story broke down into steps.  In the margins are handwritten numbers which I am assuming are the page count for that step.  One of the step is of course called "She's my daughter...She's my sister."

The Thing II (Treatment) by Garry A. Piazza
It's basically the story, with a cliffhanger ending.  It's 6 pages long.  The story would be fine, if it didn't add the character of the alien bounty hunter.  The thing that that made The Thing so great was that it was humans against a superior alien force and the only reason the alien didn't win, was because they were in the middle of the arctic, so it had no where to go without a host.  If you add an alien with super-technology, you kinda miss the point.

http://www.mypdfscripts.com/treatments/twilight-outline
http://www.mypdfscripts.com/treatments/chinatown-step-sheet
http://www.mypdfscripts.com/treatments/the-thing-ii-treatment

Day 22 - It's all in the details

The Adventures of Luke Skywalker as taken from the "Journal of the Whills" - Saga 1: STAR WARS  by George Lucas

The script is 151 pages long.  Of those 151 pages nearly 50 pages of it is the final battle with the Death Star.  That's how meticulously choreographed that final sequence is.  It has camera movements and positions, which are distracting.  I never realized how intricate that sequence was until I saw it spelled out.  It's a compelling battle sequence, but I think in that level of detail, it's sometimes hard to keep track of everything that's going on.  Also, Lucas seems to use the names "Piggy", "Porkins" and "Blue Pig" interchangably for the fat pilot.

The big difference between this  draft and the final product is how much more developed Luke's relationship with Biggs is.  Lucas was probably wise to cut the scenes out because otherwise it's another 3-4 scenes until we meet Obi Wan, and thereby getting into the actual story.  We already know Luke wants to get off the planet.  We don't need more scenes of him talking about it with a friend.  The only thing it does is personalize the rebellion for Luke, as Biggs confesses in secret that he plans to join.  But, this is unnecessary because when the empire kills the only family he has, the battle is personal enough.


The Adventures of Luke Skywalker as taken from the "Journal of the Whills" - Saga 1: STAR WARS http://www.mypdfscripts.com/screenplays/star-wars-1976-03-15-draft

Day 21 - It's cool

Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day by Troy Duffy

The big thing to learn from this is that it's possible to be too cool.  Too many characters know just what to say all the time;  Too many people are just too cool.  You can have one or two characters that are clever and funny, but when every is dropping bon mot's, everyone's just seem too contrived.  Tarantino is probably the root cause of this because all of his characters sound cool, but they all sound different.  They're not all clever and quirky; individual, yes - Smooth talkers, not always.

Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day http://www.mypdfscripts.com/screenplays/the-boondock-saints-ii-all-saints-day

Day 20 - Reaction time is a factor

Blade Runner (Early Draft) by Hampton Fancher

Well, there are two big things to discuss with this early draft.  The descroptions are perfect.  there are no "We see"s or camera movements, but you see it all with the text.  He draws you from detail to detail without taking you out of the story.

The other big thing is big mistake of this draft is not making the replicants (or androids) likable.  You like Rachel, but she when she learns she's a machine, she doesn't even question it.  She just goes with it.  In the later drafts where she tries to convince Deckard that she's human, are some of the best scenes in the movie.  Next, Batty doesn't save Deckard at the end, you don't have that moment where you really feel for Batty.

http://www.mypdfscripts.com/screenplays/blade-runner-1980-07-24-draft

Day 19 - Do you know what time it is?

24 "Pilot" - Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran

So, my trip through TV scripts continues.  It's really amazing how fast this pilot moves.  You find out everything you need to know about Jack Bauer in this hour of TV.  It's start off at home - he's family man trying to put his family back together.  Next CTU - he may have had an affair with a woman he works with.  He turned in coworkers, even though he knew it would hurt his career.  He tranq'd a superior in order to buy time to get information to blackmail him with.
We learn that JAck Bauer is willing to bend the rules for the right reasons, but will not countenance someone breaking them for the wrong reasons.
The other thing is that they don't have the big clock at the act breaks, instead are forced shots showing clocks in a room, or phone recordings stating the time.  I think this would have felt forced, whereas the clock at the commercial breaks with the split screen works well, and reminds us that other things are going on while this is happening.
This may actually be why this series has survived so well.   When one story waxes, the other wane.  Nothing happens in a vacuum.  Jack still has to deal with family stuff, while he's trying to prevent an assassination.  In the later seasons, we even see the villains family lives, giving us a much more well rounded story then if we just saw Jack, and he didn't have a family or friends and he just was solving the mystery.

Day 18 - Mother, tell you children not hear my words; What they mean; What they say. Mother.

Alias "The Enemy Walks in" by J.J. Abrams

This is a weird episode, because it moves the story forward, but because it was the first episode of season 2 (and they were hoping for new viewers) there was A LOT of recap.  But, what they did that was smart was some of it was done by Sydney talking to her CIA therapist and mixed in with new action.  I guess the thing I learned was if you have to have a huge amount of exposition (some of it not new to the audience) mix it into the action and parse it out.  Don't try to do it all at once.

Hopefully, I'll feel better tomorrow and I'll do a better post then

Day 17 - You don't have Jack!

Big Trouble in Little China II (Unproduced MOW) by Charles Prosser

Wow, that sucked.  I was superexcited to read it too.  I guess this biggest problem here is NO JACK BURTON.  That's right, no Pork Chop Express and no Jack Burton.  I just saw the original last night, and the biggest thing I noticed was how the crowd reacted to Jack Burton.  They loved him.  His character is what makes the movie.  The reason I wanted to read this script was that I wanted to see what happened next with Jack.  I guess the big thing I learned reading this is when you create a character people love, don't do a sequel without him.  This is probably why this was never made.  Egg Shen is not enough to bring me back.
The other good thing about this script is that it explicitly sets out the 7 acts breaks and the hour break, so if I ever want to know how to structure a MOW,  I guess I'll look at this.

Big Trouble in Little China II http://www.mypdfscripts.com/unproduced/big-trouble-in-little-china-2

Day 16 - Live from the Pork Chop Express!!!

True Romance by Quentin Tarantino

Well, I'm sitting here in the New Bev waiting for the "Big Trouble in Little China" and "They Live!" double feature, and I thought I would take this opportunity to try out my blog app ( name escapes me) instead of using "Notes" and then emailing to myself and posting when I get home.
So here we go:
Elvis- the use of Elvis is brilliant. The first time Clarence mentions him, he talks about, while he's not gay, he would totally have sex with the King. He wears Elvis sunglasses. Now QT could have used voiceover to illustrate Clarence's inner thoughts, but instead he decided to personify this inner dialogue. And after we see Clarence's obvious obsession with the King, it makes perfect sense that this would be the sounding board he would use. Sort of a WWED? He tells Clarence to ok to kill Drexel. He gives Clarence that extra bit of confidence to get him through the drug deal. He is that voice that all we need from time to time.
The most amazing part of this, is that I never once thought that Clarence was crazy. Sure he married a prostitute, killed her pimp and talked to the ghost of Elvis; but, his sanity never seems to be questioned. Clarence just seems like a hopeless romantic with a vivid fantasy life.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Day 15 - You did what to my mom!?!?!

Man on Fire by Brian Helgeland

I love this movie.  But, it would have been ruined if they had made the mistake of the script.  In this draft Crease has sex with Pinta's mom (Lisa).  While it made sense in the story and added a scene where Lisa wanted Crease fired, the audience would have ended up not liking Crease nearly as much.  That's the whole point of the the first half of the movie is Crease's redemption.  If he sleeps with Lisa, than he isn't redeemed.  It's almost disrespectful to Pinta.
This is a mistake I made in a draft of a screenplay a while back.  I wanted the hero to get drunk and cheat on his wife to show he had hit rock bottom.  A friend told me that she wouldn't be able to like him again if he did this.  And after about 2 drafts of that sequence, I realized she was right.  So, now he comes close and then realizes what he'd be giving up.

Man on Fire - http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/manonfire.pdf

Day 14 - What a novel treatment

Brick (treatment/novella) - Rian Johnson

Since November is National Novel Writing Month (http://www.nanowrimo.org/), I thought I would take a quick look at the Brick treatment.  In a preface he talks about the reaosn he wanted to do it this way was because he was intentionally trying to get a Dashiell Hammett feel and he thought a prose pass would be the best way to do it.  I think it worked.  I wish I had read it prior to seeing the film, but the tone is there as is most of the unique dialogue traits.  The treatment is 76 pages long, so it's way longer than a traditionally treatment, but for a project like this that relies so much on tone and feel, it's was probably the way to go.
I had never really thought about using a treatment like that.  I had always thought they were tools for getting the story out.  Sorta like a fleshed out outline.  But, this is something more, this allowed Johnson to get the the feel of the story.  So, now I'm wondering if I should be using this as a way to get into the story.  Since it is National Novel Writing Month, I'm seriously considering trying to write one of my scripts as a novella, just to get the tone and feel right.  If nothing else it would be an interesting experiment.

Brick (Novella/Treatment/Screenplay): http://www.mypdfscripts.com/treatments/brick-treatmentnovella