Yesterday, I had one of those moments where I knew that I couldn't keep coasting through life. So, I made a list of things I needed to do and then a list of things I needed to do to accomplish those goals. So, as an experiment I am putting this list to the test as something called "The September Accords". I think it sounds fancy. So, basically you'll probably hear more from me for the next month.
Anywho, I read the script for Batman today. This is an unproduced script from 1984. The whole time I was reading it, all I could think about was which era would this fit (Burton, Schumaker, Nolan), because as the Joker said in Dark Knight "But I know the truth: there's no going back. You've changed things... forever." And that's the truth, once you've established a world, people will always compare it and if you change it too much, they won't believe it. Every movie has to be a product of their time, even if it's sci-fi, a period piece, or comic book movie. In this Batman, the Joker's sidekicks had jet-packs. Now this might have worked in Batman Returns, or any of the Schumaker's, but it wouldn't work now. People want everything nowadays grounded in some sort of reality, or at least people acknowledging that it's not comporting (i.e. Superman). Everything in the Nolan Batman movies at least seems like it might possibly happen. Also, this script has the introduction of Robin, which would never (I hope) enter the Nolan universe. The idea of a man adopting a boy to train to fight crime just seems like abuse at this point in time.
Well, there's the first of what I hope are many posts during the the month.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Wow, 2 days in a row
So, I hope this means I'm back. I didn't get a lot of writing done today. I did however watch the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, which I started after my blog post last night. I also started watching 3 Days of the Condor, which I like, but I also realized that I like doing other things while I watch TV (internet, Words With Friends) and I don't always pay attention to what's going on, and for a movie like that i really need to sit down and watch. I plan on attempting again after this blog post.
I also watched two sports movies today. I like watching sports movies because they motivate me to train for curling. I'm going focus on the one I watched in morning because it had a much more complicated story than the one I watched while riding my exercise bike (The Rookie). Gracie is the story set in the 1970's of a girl who's brother was a soccer star coached by her father. After her brother is killed in a car accident, she decides that she is going to play on boys varsity team (there is no girls team) and beat the team her brother couldn't. Her father refuses to coach her because she's a girl and boys coach won't let her train in the boys gym (the only one with weights).
At this point, I was like "Okay. Here is where she decides to do it on her own and prove everyone wrong." Except that's not what happens. She decides to quit. She starts partying and sneaking into clubs. She fails her classes and eventually steals her parents car and has get pulled off some older dude by her dad. It's only when she's hit rock bottom that her dad decides to train her because that's all he can think to do because he can't talk to her. Her father goes so far as to quit his job to train her. But, when the school board refuses to let her play on the boys team, her father talks to the school and gets her on the field hockey team (essientially giving up on her playing soccer). She does the appeal herself and the school board agrees to let her try out. She tries out, but only makes JV. She wants to quit, but her dad talks her out of it. I won't ruin the end (but we can all guess what it is). There is a lot more to this movie, but it's father-daughter relationship that makes it memorable.
I guess the thing I took away from this movie is that you can have that typcial set up and even the same act breaks as every other sports movie, but make it a much more complex story if you make your characters rounded and fallible. She doesn't have the strength in the begging to keep going when everyone tells her to quit. She needs to hit rock bottom and her dad to believe in her. After all the training, her dad still doesn't believe a girl should play on the boys team. Depending on the type of movie you're making you don't necessarily need all that complexity. It's entirely possible that it was realness of the story that kept it from succeeding at the box office. But, at the end of the day I'm going to remember this movie for a lot longer than something like that football movie with Marky Mark Invincible or probably even The Rookie. When Gracie succeeds, you feel it a lot more as you have way more invested in the character.
When I inevitably write a curling script it'll probably be more The Cutting Edge than Gracie, but I'm definitely going to be thinking about Gracie while I'm writing it.
Wow, in an effort to make this even more stream-of-consciousness. I was just thinking about how in those things you see on-line "50 questions to ask your charcater" and the like, in most cases while I'm writing a movie I can answer most of those questions, but not all. And certainly after watching a movie I couldn't answer most of them. But, after watching Gracie, I could probably answer most of them, not only about Gracie, but about her mom and dad as well. None of the characters felt like throwaway archtypes.
I'm seriously rambling now. I'll leave it at this and hope to be more coherent when next we meet.
BTW: I'm finishing my 2nd pomodoro of the day right about now.
I also watched two sports movies today. I like watching sports movies because they motivate me to train for curling. I'm going focus on the one I watched in morning because it had a much more complicated story than the one I watched while riding my exercise bike (The Rookie). Gracie is the story set in the 1970's of a girl who's brother was a soccer star coached by her father. After her brother is killed in a car accident, she decides that she is going to play on boys varsity team (there is no girls team) and beat the team her brother couldn't. Her father refuses to coach her because she's a girl and boys coach won't let her train in the boys gym (the only one with weights).
At this point, I was like "Okay. Here is where she decides to do it on her own and prove everyone wrong." Except that's not what happens. She decides to quit. She starts partying and sneaking into clubs. She fails her classes and eventually steals her parents car and has get pulled off some older dude by her dad. It's only when she's hit rock bottom that her dad decides to train her because that's all he can think to do because he can't talk to her. Her father goes so far as to quit his job to train her. But, when the school board refuses to let her play on the boys team, her father talks to the school and gets her on the field hockey team (essientially giving up on her playing soccer). She does the appeal herself and the school board agrees to let her try out. She tries out, but only makes JV. She wants to quit, but her dad talks her out of it. I won't ruin the end (but we can all guess what it is). There is a lot more to this movie, but it's father-daughter relationship that makes it memorable.
I guess the thing I took away from this movie is that you can have that typcial set up and even the same act breaks as every other sports movie, but make it a much more complex story if you make your characters rounded and fallible. She doesn't have the strength in the begging to keep going when everyone tells her to quit. She needs to hit rock bottom and her dad to believe in her. After all the training, her dad still doesn't believe a girl should play on the boys team. Depending on the type of movie you're making you don't necessarily need all that complexity. It's entirely possible that it was realness of the story that kept it from succeeding at the box office. But, at the end of the day I'm going to remember this movie for a lot longer than something like that football movie with Marky Mark Invincible or probably even The Rookie. When Gracie succeeds, you feel it a lot more as you have way more invested in the character.
When I inevitably write a curling script it'll probably be more The Cutting Edge than Gracie, but I'm definitely going to be thinking about Gracie while I'm writing it.
Wow, in an effort to make this even more stream-of-consciousness. I was just thinking about how in those things you see on-line "50 questions to ask your charcater" and the like, in most cases while I'm writing a movie I can answer most of those questions, but not all. And certainly after watching a movie I couldn't answer most of them. But, after watching Gracie, I could probably answer most of them, not only about Gracie, but about her mom and dad as well. None of the characters felt like throwaway archtypes.
I'm seriously rambling now. I'll leave it at this and hope to be more coherent when next we meet.
BTW: I'm finishing my 2nd pomodoro of the day right about now.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Has it been 4 months already?
It's been one of those summers (spring/summers?). So, I'm still on the job hunt. Since last I blogged, I worked for 9 days and did a curling music video. It wasn't union, but it was still pretty legit (apparently, they showed it at the Playboy mansion). I also curled in the Hollywood Blockbuster Bomspiel (see it's sorta movie/writing/pop culture related). I curled one of the best games of my life against a team from Scotland and ended up losing on the last stone (I'm actually happy and not bitter).
But, back to the task at hand. So, I hadn't been reading much in the way of scripts nor had I been writing much. Although having been inspired by Cutaway, I "cutaway" the majority of DVD and book library. Lean and mean, that's what I'm going for. I also realized that writing (or the lottery, fingers crossed) might be the only way I can get out of the massive debt load I'm under (I mean I guess there's always the possibility that someone would hire me to do actual law work, but I'm not sure that would allow me curling schedule I aspire for). I also cancelled my cable and am contemplating cancelling the internet. Not that the internet is all that expensive, it's just kinda distracting and I have an iPhone, so I'll still be able to blog and tweet and email and stuff.
So, I'm back on the horse. I wrote for 2 pomodoros today and spent another 2 finishing up reading the thing I have been plugging away at for months now: a transcript of the story meeting between George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Lawrence Kazdan for Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's like 120 pages long. I'm not sure how far along Lucas is in the process, but it feels like he's given it more thought than the others, but it's still really raw. The two big things I got out of reading it was:
1)Your first idea is rarely the best: In this case it took them about 5 pages to realize that the Nazi should have a part of the amulet burned on his hand instead of there being an out and out miscalculation. they went through such ideas as mistranslation and not factoring in the change of the Earths orbit/tilt. None as good as what they ended up with.
2)Just because you don't use it here, doesn't mean you won't use it: There are two sequences that they initially talk about in this meeting that both appear in Temple of Doom. They're both great sequences (most of the opening through the boat going down the mountain and the mine cars through the tunnels) and I'm glad they didn't just chuck them. They kept them around and used them in the sequel and I think they actually work better there).
But, back to the task at hand. So, I hadn't been reading much in the way of scripts nor had I been writing much. Although having been inspired by Cutaway, I "cutaway" the majority of DVD and book library. Lean and mean, that's what I'm going for. I also realized that writing (or the lottery, fingers crossed) might be the only way I can get out of the massive debt load I'm under (I mean I guess there's always the possibility that someone would hire me to do actual law work, but I'm not sure that would allow me curling schedule I aspire for). I also cancelled my cable and am contemplating cancelling the internet. Not that the internet is all that expensive, it's just kinda distracting and I have an iPhone, so I'll still be able to blog and tweet and email and stuff.
So, I'm back on the horse. I wrote for 2 pomodoros today and spent another 2 finishing up reading the thing I have been plugging away at for months now: a transcript of the story meeting between George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Lawrence Kazdan for Raiders of the Lost Ark. It's like 120 pages long. I'm not sure how far along Lucas is in the process, but it feels like he's given it more thought than the others, but it's still really raw. The two big things I got out of reading it was:
1)Your first idea is rarely the best: In this case it took them about 5 pages to realize that the Nazi should have a part of the amulet burned on his hand instead of there being an out and out miscalculation. they went through such ideas as mistranslation and not factoring in the change of the Earths orbit/tilt. None as good as what they ended up with.
2)Just because you don't use it here, doesn't mean you won't use it: There are two sequences that they initially talk about in this meeting that both appear in Temple of Doom. They're both great sequences (most of the opening through the boat going down the mountain and the mine cars through the tunnels) and I'm glad they didn't just chuck them. They kept them around and used them in the sequel and I think they actually work better there).
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