The Russian Cosmonaut

To follow up on yesterday's post, I thought I would provide a link to the Russian cosmonaut scene from Another Earth. Everything about this scene is beautiful. The writing. The acting. The music. The editing. It's scenes like this that remind me why I want to be a filmmaker.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

 

Honourable Mentions 2011

Every year I put together a list of my favourite films. Last year was an extremely difficult year, as there were a lot of great films to chose from. It's also inevitable that some great movies will get missed out.

Before I put together my 2012 list, I thought I should mention some of the films that I didn't manage to see in time to make it into last year's list, but would almost certainly have broken into the top 10.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Director: Tomas Alfredson
Writer: Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a film that improves with each viewing. I've watched it about twenty times now, and each time I find something I hadn't noticed before. Yes, it's a slow film, but that's what makes it great. Alfredson is a master of atmosphere.

A Separation

Director: Asghar Faradhi
Writer: Asghar Faradhi

I hated A Separation the first time I watched it. I couldn't understand why the director allowed so many important narrative developments to happen off-screen. I felt like I was watching an Iranian soap-opera. But then I realised that A Separation is one of the best screenplays ever written, no exaggeration.

The whole film is about subjectivity, and about how people lie and decieve, not because they are bad people, but because they are human.

Kung Fu Panda 2

Director: Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Writer: Jonathan Aibel & Glenn Berger

I'm not trying to be ironic with this choice. I genuinely think Kung Fu Panda 2 was one of the best films of 2011. It managed to retain all the charm of the original, without feeling tired or repetitive.

Weekend

Director: Andrew Haigh
Writer: Andrew Haigh

Weekend is a touching love story about identity and self-discovery. It is about two men who fall in love, but it has nothing to do with being gay. It is simultaneously sad and uplifting. The director allows the audience to project their own experiences onto these characters and identify with their struggles. I challenge anyone, man or woman, gay or straight, to not fall in love with these characters.

Another Earth

Director: Mike Cahill
Writer: Mike Cahill & Brit Marling

Another Earth was my second favourite film of 2011 (after Drive), but I didn't manage to see it until this year. It raises important and thoughtful questions about life (What would you say if you could meet yourself?) and has an interesting relationship at its core.

It also has one of the most beautiful, elegant and touching scenes I have ever witnessed. The Russian cosmonaut scene. It's just incredible.

21st December 2012 - I survived the apocalypse!

This year has been an exciting year for me. I graduated from university, I got my first real job, I was commissioned to create my first promo, and I worked as an edit assistant on a feature.

But the best thing about 2012 has been the discovery of an online screenwriting community, who provide constant support and encouragement for each other, as we all endeavour to become better writers.

I would like to personally thank Claire Yeowart (@ClaireYeowart), who has provided me with valuable feedback and encouragement on all my projects. (She's also an extremely talented writer, check out Dreamland, I loved it.)

Unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to meet my self-imposed deadline on January 1st, as I've been preoccupied with other projects. I have some ideas how to develop The Major and the Beetle into a returning drama, but I'm putting it aside for a while to work on some other projects.

I'm currently developing two short scripts -- one about a retired boxer, the other about a break-up -- which have received some interest from directors. I'm also collaborating with another writer to develop a comedy web-series. Hopefully I'll be able to return to The Major and the Beetle with a fresh perspective in 2013.

Just to prove that I've actually done some writing this year, I'm going to post a short script I wrote in November for Collabor8te. It's called 'Not Yet the End'. (Appropriate title, considering we managed to survive past the end of the Mayan calendar. Who'da thought it?) I hope you like it.

Top 10 films of 2011

Just found this old post from last year. Still very few films this year which have surpassed any on this list.

10. Submarine

Director: Richard Ayoade
Writer: Richard Ayoade
Starring: Craig Roberts, Sally Hawkins



9. Attack the Block

Director: Joe Cornish
Writer: Joe Cornish
Starring: John Boyega, Jodie Whittaker, Alex Esmail



8. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Director: Rupert Wyatt
Writer: Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
Starring: James Franco, Andy Serkis, John Lithgow



7. Tomboy

Director: Céline Sciamma
Writer: Céline Sciamma
Starring: Zoé Héran, Malonn Lévana, Jeanne Disson



6. We Need to Talk About Kevin

Director: Lynne Ramsay
Writer: Lynne Ramsay
Starring: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Jasper Newell



5. Tyrannosaur

Director: Paddy Considine
Writer: Paddy Considine
Starring: Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman



4. Carnage

Director: Roman Polanksi
Writer: Yasmin Reza, Roman Polanski
Starring: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly



3. Melancholia

Director: Lars von Trier
Writer: Lars von Trier
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland



2. Blue Valentine

Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writer: Derek Cianfrance
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams



1. Drive

Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Writer: Hossein Amini
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston

Day 100

The day is here! 100 days into my experiment and sadly, I have been unable to reach my target. Rather than looking at this as a failure, I am going to reflect upon this experience and look at everything I have gained. First of all, I have managed to surround myself with a community of talented, motivated and inspirational screenwriters. I have learnt so much just from reading their blog posts and tweets. I have also recently started a full-time job, so I am slowly learning how to balance writing with everyday life. This has given me so much respect for people who can write 5-10 pages a day after they get home from work.

I have decided to set myself a new deadline: January 1st, 2013. This will give me enough time to work on my script over the weekends, with a short break over the Christmas holidays to finish up. I have also decided that I will post my finished script here in its entirety for everyone to read when it's done. So keep an eye on this space!

Day 82

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to post for a long, long time. This is partially due to my long working hours, but also, I'm trying I dedicate any free time to writing my script, not procrastinating on my blog (whoops).

I'm about 15 pages away from finishing my first draft, so hopefully I'll meet my self-imposed deadline on October 11th. When I've finally finished, I intend to put the script aside for a couple of weeks and focus on something else, so that I can return to it with a fresh perspective. I already have a couple of ideas for future projects, the first, a supernatural horror set in Japan, and the second, a biopic of Brandon Lee, the son of Bruce. For now, I'm going to try and resist thinking about those projects until I've finished the first draft of 'The Major and the Beetle" (working title). One thing I've learned recently, is to AVOID EDITING BEFORE THE FIRST DRAFT IS COMPLETE. There's nothing more demoralising than a static page count, which is something I've been suffering with for the past couple of weeks. For every page I write, I edit one out. When I accepted that the first draft doesn't need to be faultless, I stopped worrying about about  whether my dialogue was cliched, or whether my characters were memorable enough, and I was able to write more freely.

"Don’t be afraid to write the bad version, the weak character or the wrong plot twist. If it exists and you know it’s wrong, you can fix it. If it doesn’t exist, you can’t do anything with it." Screenwriting Tips... You Hack

Additionally, since I realised the material was better suited to the television format, I decided to divide the script into four acts, which has also benefited the writing process. I am able to separate the work load, which at first may seem intimidating, into manageable sequences, each with their own beginning, middle and end.

I'm sure many aspiring screenwriters face the same issues and fears as I do, so I hope that my individual story will be helpful to some of you in some way. I'm not in any position to offer solutions to these problems, but at least you know you're not alone.

Day 42

Since I started my new job at Clear Cut Pictures, I haven't been able to post anything on here. Any spare time has been dedicated to writing my feature script and developing a wonderful '50 Kisses' script, written by Marc Lockier (@m_lockier), which I intend to direct at some point in the near future. If I am allowed, I will post my shooting draft on here. I'll need to check the competition rules first. I'll try to post on here more regularly, but due to my long hours (12-hour days!!) any days off are likely to be dedicated to screenwriting.

In the mean time, here is a great film-making article by Film School Rejects. They have a series of articles featuring six film-making tips from the world's most prolific writers and directors, including Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder and Martin Scorsese.

Also, here is another fantastic article about the 85 movies Scorsese referenced as inspirations during an interview.

Page Count: 34

Script Reader Interview - Claire Yeowart

Claire Yeowart is a UK-based script reader who recently provided me with some extremely valuable feedback on my first ten pages. When I found out she was starting Script Oddity, her own script reading service, I knew I had to interview her while I could still afford her advice!

I recently read Dreamland, her television pilot about a British doctor who is recruited by a secret military hospital to care for the casualties of an intergalactic war. This script proved that she's not only a fantastic script reader, but also an extremely talented screenwriter. There's loads of useful advice here, so I hope everyone enjoys the interview.

First of all, tell us about yourself. How did you get into screenwriting?

I’m a 24 year old script reader and writer from the sleepy city of Durham. I first got into screenwriting thanks to the BBC writersroom website. When I was 13 they had a competition and the medium intrigued me. At that clueless age, my script was terrible. I did, however, receive a very kind and encouraging letter from writersroom urging me to continue writing. I forgot all about it and it was only discovering that letter lost in a drawer many years later that I rediscovered my passion for the craft of screenwriting.

What’s your writing method? How much do you outline? 

My method varies from script to script. Pre-writing can often involve more writing than the actual script. Sometimes I write diaries from the POV of the characters as well as an outline and tons of research. Other times, I just use index cards for a first draft and then write a treatment after. For television episodes though, outlining is the number one rule. For those, I create a detailed outline and a series bible and usually have notes stacked everywhere.

How do you balance writing with the everyday demands of life?

I’m quite lucky that I have plenty of time for writing due to only part-time work commitments. Learning the craft takes time and a lot of new writers fail because they don’t put the time in or give up before they reach the end. So I’m quite lucky I've had the time to write.

Tell us about Script Oddity, your new script reading service. How did you get into script reading?

I’ve been reading scripts for years and giving feedback to fellow writers and was told adamantly by several that I was really good at it. I mainly wanted to shift to reading in a more professional manner to improve my writing. Reading produced and unproduced screenplays is nothing compared to reading for a production company where I provide coverage reports. My eyes were truly opened in this area. As for Script Oddity, I wanted to provide a professional and affordable service and writers are always welcome to contact me for advice.

You’ve read hundreds of scripts. In your experience, what’s the biggest difference between amateur scripts and professional scripts?

Here’s the thing – quite often what is amateur and what is professional is muddled. There are so many great writers out there but so few great scripts. I look more for passion than whether it looks amateur or professional. One of the worst scripts I’ve read was by a screenwriting guru. Quite often the scripts by amateur or first time writers lack consistency; they start out strong, or have a unique premise but lack of understanding for plot and structure is often what lets the script down.

In your opinion, what makes a good script? 

Passion to tell the story. It always shines through. I can forgive spelling mistakes and clichéd characters if the story is told with passion and conviction. Passion for what you do will always shine through because if you’re passionate about the story and the story is worth telling, then that in itself is worth its weight in gold.

What does the future hold for Claire Yeowart?

A career in screenwriting, hopefully! I’m about to sign my first option on a horror called Hell’s in Store, so fingers crossed it goes all the way to the big screen. One can only hope.

Finally, do you have any advice for aspiring screenwriters?

There’s loads of advice out there and I could talk forever about my own experiences but the two things I would say are:

1. Don’t stop learning.
2. Never give up.

To find out more about Script Oddity, visit the website, or contact Claire via twitter @ClaireYeowart.

Scriptwriter Interview - Sandy Nicholson

As an aspiring screenwriter, I created this blog as a platform to communicate and interact with new and seasoned scriptwriters, to share advice, tips and stories, and to discuss the craft of screenwriting. It is through this blog that I discovered Not Long Now (@NotLongNowUK), an interactive zombie theatre project, who are currently looking for potential writers. Sound cool? That’s what I thought. Creator, Sandy Nicholson, has written for theatre and film, as well as television and web series, so he is an extremely informed scriptwriter. I interviewed Sandy to promote his theatre project, and to simultaneously acquire some free scriptwriting advice! I hope everyone finds this as useful as I did.

First of all, tell us about Sandy Nicholson? How did you get into scriptwriting?

Those of you who know me will already be steeped in the certainty that this will contain rants. Those of you, who don't know me, will find that certainty now.

Well I got into scriptwriting the way I think a lot of people do. I did a degree in Creative Writing at London Met, the 107th best university in the country, and from there I did what every writer does. I wrote loads and I shouted loudly. I got myself a group of people who I trusted and liked the writing of, and through a combination of meeting the right people and going out and doing things myself, things started to happen. Since then I've written for radio, theatre, the web and television, and I've lectured around the country on characterisation and dialogue.

Tell us about Comfort Food, your award winning web series? Do you think the web series is a good format for aspiring screenwriters?

I think anything is a good format for aspiring screenwriters. The spectrum of creativity stretches from Game of Thrones epics to fucking LOLcats, but for a new writer the important bridge isn't going from demotivational posters to features, it's going from nothing to the spectrum. As long as you are doing something, you're doing something right.

A web series is an affordable way to tell a long form story, but it all depends on the idea as to whether it's going to be worth it. I don't believe a web series should be just a feature chopped into bits. If you have a story which not only can but should be told over several weeks, then a web series is a terrific way of getting your writing out there in an easily ingestible format, but so is a short.

In the end my ambition is to write for television, and spec TV pilots don't get passed around with anywhere approaching the vehemence of spec features. So, as I wanted to get stuff seen, a web series was perfect for me. It involved finding the right crew, marketing it and raising the money, but it worked out. However, I've also gained a lot of extremely useful contacts and general mileage out of preposterously low-fi animated poetry videos.

There's a line in a Futurama episode where one of the characters says: “This is by a wide margin the least likely thing that has ever happened.” This is a writing term called “lampshading” which is where you eliminate a problem by calling attention to it. The right idea will lend itself gracefully to any road blocks you may encounter. The limitations of what you can do with the resources and industry clout you have are all at the mercy of the right idea. The Poimtry videos are about my having no skill as an animator. Comfort Food is about being simple, sweet and just a bit nice.

The show itself is about a long distance couple who decide that every week they'll call each other up and bake something together. It's essentially a cooking show with a plot. Each week you meet up with the same characters and watch how they deal with the difficulties of being apart, while also learning how to make desserts. It's simple and gentle, and very much rooted in showing how they make it work, rather than wondering if they will. The pilot is available online at www.comfortfood.tv and the remaining episodes are being edited together as we speak for release at the end of this year.

Tell us about Not Long Now? It’s such an exciting and original idea. How did you come up with it?

For those who don't know, Not Long Now is an immersive theatre project set during the early hours of a zombie apocalypse. The audience can roam the building, choosing to follow any of several groups of survivors, and follow their interweaving plots as the creatures start to break in.

As for the idea, Aaron Sorkin said “Good writers borrow from other writers; great writers steal from them outright”. I watched an incredible film called Pontypool about a few people stuck in a radio booth trying to report on the bizarre, violent events happening outside. It's a zombie film that features very few zombies, it's all about not knowing what's going on, not knowing what to do and not being able to see any of it, and it's fascinating in about eight other ways only spiders have names for.

From that I took the idea of setting a play during the zombie apocalypse where the prime minister and several other high up politicians are stuck inside Number 10, forced to concede that there's really nothing they can do. At the end I wanted the audience to storm the stage as though they were the zombies. I pitched this idea to the writing group I run, and one member said: “Or you could set it in a house, and have the audience wandering round with them?”

I can't emphasise enough how important surrounding yourself with people you trust and admire is. Make them people who are different from you, who write different stories. Most of all make them people who aren't afraid to bury you. Good writers don't want to be told they're good; they want to be told how to be better.

I took his idea and ran with it. I scrapped there being no zombies, and turned it into a platform not just for me, but for new writers all around London. There are so many great ones, and it’s such a difficult industry to sneak your way into, so I wanted to be able to offer these people chance to be part of something.

You’re currently looking for a team of writers to join this project. I’m sure many aspiring scriptwriters – including myself – would be extremely interested in this opportunity. What are you looking for in potential writers?

I'm looking for good writers. And by good of course I mean: “I like them”. Hard as we try there's still no better definition of the word good. Any genre is fine, scripts, prose, poetry, I don't mind, I just want something that shows me how you write and that shows me you're coming up with things that are interesting. I want to be surprised. I would rather see a good writer trying something new than an immaculately put together script on a well worn subject.

I'm very much a beginner in the writing world, and I can't tell you what will sell or be popular, I can only tell you what I want to see, and that's something with good characterisation that surprised me.

What’s the main difference between writing for film, television, theatre and the web?

The difference between TV and film is easy. TV is long-form, and it's separated into chunks. Each of these chunks has to have a cohesive plot that has an appropriate ending. For the most part web series' are much the same, only on a smaller scale, there has to be an element of something self contained to each episode. With most of this kind of writing you won't be thinking about an end to the story, it's a setting in which multiple stories can take place. Comfort Food actually didn't follow that rule, we wanted it to end after six episodes, but almost all other web series' out there are looking making ongoing stories across multiple series'. Comfort Food didn't lend itself to that, but if your idea does I'd recommend it as a much better way of approaching it.

Film and theatre is harder. There are general rules, but they exist to be beaten and ignored, and many of them contradict each other. Some say film has to be bigger because there's more scope for locations and characters, some say theatre has to be bigger because there are no close-ups, so all emotion has to be visible from a distance. But theatre has leant itself to spectacle just as much as film has, and since theatre often takes place in smaller venues the limitations of what can and can't be seen are very much space dependant. There aren't really any bedrock principals to live by. Certain ideas lend themselves more to one medium or the other but this is entirely case by case.

The one thing I do try to incorporate with my theatre writing is the one thing which is fundamentally different: the audience. I'm not suggesting all theatre shows have to be interactive, site specific or anything close to either of those things, but your audience is sitting there. They're part of the story whether you acknowledge it or not, so have some fun acknowledging it. Many shows feature actors coming out of the audience. You can include smells, atmosphere. You can create surround sound in a way that's far in advance of what film can. The actor/audience dynamic is there to be played with. In the past I've done shows where the audience was being addressed as if they were a mute character. I wrote a show where one of the actors sat in with the audience and heckled the performance, eventually becoming part of it as the actors were forced to respond.

Theatre is cheaper than film, and can afford to be more daring. If the lights go out, the audience is in the dark. They can't turn the lights back on. If you want them to be cold, you can make them cold. This is the difference between theatre and film, and it's there for you to make all the mischief you can.

What else are you working on besides Not Long Now?

I just finished a romantic comedy feature about what it's really like to be a bit on the side. That's being workshopped first, until it's ready to be sent out. I'm about to start a new horror feature about people trapped at a sexaholics anonymous meeting. I'll be continuing with performance poetry and terrible animations, I'll be doing press for Comfort Food and Not Long Now, and I just started up a band playing swing songs about flirting. It's a busy time but I'm excited about everything I'm involved with.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. Do you have any final words of advice for aspiring screenwriters?

There's boat loads of great advice out there from people much smarter, more accomplished and articulate than me, so I won't tell you the generic advice (although just because it's generic certainly doesn't mean it isn't true, entirely the opposite). Instead I'll tell you the things that have helped me that I haven't heard other people say yet.

1: No genre should be off limits. You might not like romance films or zombie films but it's your job as a writer to make anything interesting. You're in control of making your work great; the conventions of that genre are slaves to you. Try everything.

2: Always be learning. Not just about writing, always be learning about psychology or philosophy or science or bees or cakes or clouds or maths or music. If you look deep enough at anything you will find something fascinating you never knew before. Everything is cool deep down, and the more engaged you are in the world around you, the more your writing will show that. Ignorance is not bliss, ignorance is shit.

3: Listen to pop music. And I don't mean the general term popular music meaning anything that isn't classical, I mean listen to fucking Girls Aloud. An enormous amount of time and effort goes into the structure of pop. Pop follows trends, it follows 3 act structure, it peaks and it troughs and the songs have climaxes and aftermaths. You can talk about how shit it is and you'll be entirely within your rights. Worse, you'll be telling the truth. But like it or not, you're in the maths game now.

Art is not emotional, art is intellectual. If we wanted to listen to pure emotion we'd listen to people screaming their lungs out unintelligibly. By turning that scream into words you are ascribing a structure to it and packaging it in a way that is relatable to an audience. Then you're going to put that package within the context of sequences of events. You're writing equations. Emotion is not enough. That song you love doesn't make you cry because the person writing it meant it, it makes you cry because a) the person writing it knew how to write something that made you cry, they knew the formulae, and b) you ascribed something to it. You are the emotional centre, not it.

Listen to Girls Aloud. You don't have to like it and you certainly don't have to go away and write like it, but there is something important to understanding the precision involved in crafting something specifically designed to stick in the heads of as many human beings as possible. Write your terrifyingly obtuse masterpiece, I'll read it, I really will. But a greater understanding of the mathematics behind taking that scream and turning it into a song is infinitely more valuable to you as someone whose job it is to craft emotion.

Thanks for reading, you marvellous people! (I just realised I've been spelling marvellous wrong for about six years).

You can contact Sandy via twitter @Sandy_Nicholson or his blog. 

To find out more about Comfort Food or to watch the pilot, visit the website. For updates and behind-the-scenes footage, check out Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. 

For more detailed information about how to get involved with Not Long Now, visit the website or check out Twitter and Facebook.

Day 23

Why 'The Dark Knight Rises' wasn’t as good as 'The Dark Knight'.

Now, I don’t want anyone to assume I didn’t like The Dark Knight Rises. I really enjoyed it. Like many people, I just had extremely high expectations after The Dark Knight. This article is merely a suggestion as to why such an excellent film left many people slightly disappointed.

TOO MANY CHARACTERS: Christopher Nolan prides himself on his ability to manage a large cast of complex characters, with conflicting goals and desires. However, in The Dark Knight Rises, many of the supporting characters contribute nothing to the plot. In a 164 page script, the first things to loose are the insignificant characters. A substantial portion of the film’s running time was dedicated to John Blake, who was extremely likeable, yet insignificant to the story. He only seemed to exist for that final twist. NOTE: A twist should not function to make an uninteresting character more interesting with hindsight. The most complex, interesting, engaging and charismatic character in TDKR was Catwoman, yet the story would remain essentially the same if she was removed. Like John Blake, she contributes nothing towards the plot.

COMMISSIONER GORDON SPENT HALF THE FILM IN BED: Gary Oldman is a phenomenal actor, but in The Dark Knight Rises he is severely underused. Commissioner Gordon was arguably the best character in The Dark Knight, yet, in TDKR, he spends months in a hospital bed, while Bruce Wayne recovers from a broken back in weeks.

THE TIME SCALE WAS TOO LONG: After Bane activated the nuclear bomb, he ordered Gotham to restructure society without law. The problem was, nobody was aware that they only have five months before the bomb killed them anyway. Bruce Wayne was the only character aware of Bane’s plan, so he was the only character with any sense of urgency, yet Nolan dedicated a large portion of running time to Commissioner Gordon, John Blake, Lucius Fox and Catwoman, who were all trapped within Gotham, even though their actions had no influence on the plot. In The Dark Knight, The Joker threatened to blow up a hospital unless someone killed Coleman Reese, forcing Commissioner Gordon and Batman into action. The Joker’s threats created a sense of urgency that forced the characters into action, whereas, in The Dark Knight Rises, the characters had nearly five months before a sense of urgency was even established.

BANE WAS NOT AS GOOD AS THE JOKER: I’m sad to say it, but it’s true. As much as I admire Tom Hardy, Bane failed to meet my expectations established by one of the best villains in cinematic history. If a psychopathic villain acts without a goal, then the audience will feel cheated and manipulated when he acts unexpectedly. This is the reason why Bane was a less compelling villain than The Joker. The Joker had his own warped sense of morality. He would do whatever it took to prove that humanity is inherently bad. He followed his own set of rules. Bane, however, acted like a tsunami; causing destructing, then sitting back to admire the carnage. He wanted to torture humanity by giving them a false sense of hope, before destroying them anyway. As soon as he activates the nuclear bomb, he becomes an inactive villain, watching society deteriorate around him. NOTE: An inactive villain is an uninteresting villain.

Page Count: 25

Day 21

Updates:

• I sent my first 10 pages to script-reader, Claire Yeowart (@ClaireYeowart), who gave me some extremely helpful feedback. I highly recommend her reading services.
• I decided to divide my script into two television episodes. Firstly, the material and genre is much better suited to television, secondly, the story has two natural conclusions; an upbeat ending, and a downbeat ending. I was excited by the opportunity to explore these different emotional climaxes.
• I typed: "FADE OUT". By writing my final scene, I have been able to work backwards, constructing the best route to reach this climax.
• I read 'The Imitation Game' by Graham Moore. This script recently sold for over $1m, with Leonardo DiCaprio attached to play Alan Turing, the British mathematician who cracked the Enigma code during WW2. I loved this script. It was beautiful, moving and tragic.

Page Count: 23

Day 14

Documentary: Dreams on Spec (2007)

I recently watched a fascinating documentary about screenwriting and wanted to share it with other aspiring screenwriters out there. Dreams on Spec follows three scriptwriters as they try to break into the industry, revealing the highs and lows of the profession. It is both depressing and inspiring.

You can watch the whole film here, totally free:



Page Count: 19

Day 13

How to begin your screenplay: know your ending.

I discovered this fascinating article on The Script Lab website. It is extremely useful to aspiring screenwriters, especially those in the outlining stage. It suggests that an ending cannot simply be 'discovered' by the characters, in order to produce closure, the ending should dictate the correct beginning.

"If you know that your hero finds the treasure, beats the bad guy, and gets the girl in the end, it makes sense for him to have none of that in the beginning. He should be down on his luck, alone, and beaten.

Think of Indiana Jones in ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’. In the film’s opening sequence, Indy is all alone somewhere deep in a Peruvian jungle, facing eminent death by the hands of a tribe of Hovitos warriors, his traitorous companions have been killed, and the idol, which he risked life to obtain, is taken by his arch rival, Belloq. This is the perfect beginning to Lawrence Kasdan’s screenplay because in the end Indy again faces eminent death - this time by the hands of the Nazi’s - but he’s not alone. He has Marion. And Belloq is destroyed. And Indy comes home with his prize: The Ark of the Covenant.

So if the ending is the key, what makes a good one? Happy endings are for story book princesses, not necessarily for a movie. Film endings can be happy but also tragic, bitter sweet, hilarious, etc. What is important is that the ending is satisfactory and believable.

In the end of Randal Wallace’s 1996 award winning screenplay ‘Braveheart’, our hero William Wallace is tortured in London square: hanged, drawn and quartered, emasculated, and disemboweled, only to cry “Freedom!” with his last breath before being beheaded. Clearly, this is not the happiest of endings. But it is satisfactory. If all of his Scottish mates hiding in the crowd came rushing out of the woodwork at the last possible moment to rescue him, battling their way through throngs is English soldiers, the ending would become trite and unbelievable, and more importantly, the theme of freedom and the power of martyrdom would be fleeting."

You can read there full article here.

Page Count: 15

Day 12

What is theme?

"Theme" is a term used by screenwriters to describe the essence of a story. The term is ill-defined and occasionally frustrating to aspiring screenwriters.

Rather than trying to define theme, I am going to direct aspiring screenwriters to this article written by John August. He defines theme as "the underlying idea that informed every moment and every character in the script".

He applies this definition to his own screenplays, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Nines and Go, describing the ideas that informed his scripts. It's a fascinating article written by an extremely articulate screenwriter.

As an aspiring screenwriter, my favourite line of advice was:

"Once you feel confident what your unwritten movie wants to be, you make sure every scene and character and line of dialogue services that ideal."

Page Count: 13

Day 9

Screenwriter, John August, created a series of screenwriting lessons, which he uploaded to YouTube. They offer practical solutions to improving scene descriptions, action sequences, and entering scenes with more impact.

Here are the videos:

Scene Descriptions

Action Sequences

Entering Scenes

Page Count: 12

Day 7

Everybody has a reason to live.

"Everybody has a perspective. Everybody in your scene, including the thug flanking your bad guy, has a reason. They have their own voice, their own identity, their own history. If anyone speaks in such a way that they’re just setting up the next person’s lines, then you don’t get dialogue: you get soundbites. Not everybody has to be funny; not everybody has to be cute; not everybody has to be delightful, and not everybody has to speak, but if you don’t know who everybody is and why they’re there, why they’re feeling what they’re feeling and why they’re doing what they’re doing, then you’re in trouble." Joss Whedon

Page Count: 10

Day 5

Every year, The Hollywood Reporter releases a series of interviews with screenwriters, actors, actresses and directors. This year featured Aaron Sorkin, Steve Zaillian, Pedro Almodovar, D.L. Black, Oren Moverman and Eric Roth.

I am a huge fan of Zaillan's work, particularly Schindler's List and, more recently, Moneyball. I had no prior knowledge of baseball, yet he managed to write an engaging and moving script, which, to be honest, had nothing to do with baseball. The script undoubtedly benefited from Sorkin's contribution, however, it is unfair to assume he "saved" the movie.

This is an interesting interview with some talented writers. It's definitely worth watching.

I would also like to direct aspiring screenwriters to another fascinating ScriptShadow article. In 2010, Carson reviewed a series of unconventional screenplays, including American Beauty, Star Wars and Shawshank Redemption. Follow the links to the individual reviews.

Page Count: 7

Day 4

Goals. Stakes. Urgency.

Those are the three elements that script reader, Carson Reeves, highlights as the foundations of a good screenplay. His blog has provided me constant source of screenwriting advice since I stumbled across it in 2009. In fact, it was probably the reason I started taking screenwriting seriously. I cannot recommend it enough. It is a must-read for any aspiring screenwriter.

Goal - "The character goal is the heart of your story. A character must be going after something or else that character is doing nothing."

Stakes - "Once you have a character goal, you can establish your stakes. You do this by asking two very simple questions: "What does my character gain if he achieves his goal?" And "What does my character lose if he fails to achieve his goal?" The bigger the gains and losses, the higher the stakes."

Urgency - "One of the biggest problems I see in amateur screenplays is glacial pacing. The writers don't understand how to infuse urgency into their story. The most common way to do this is via a ticking time bomb, that point of no return by when your character needs to achieve his goal. You can throw ticking time bombs all over your screenplay so that the pace is always quick."

Here's a link to Carson's post about GSU.

Another quick tip: kill your babies.

"If something isn't working, if you have a story that you've built and it’s blocked and you can’t figure it out, take your favourite scene, or your very best idea or set-piece, and cut it. It’s brutal, but sometimes inevitable. That thing may find its way back in, but cutting it is usually an enormously freeing exercise." Joss Whedon

Yesterday, I removed three scenes and two characters. It was difficult, but it worked.

Page Count: 6

Day 2

The basic rules of drama: intention and obstacle.

"Somebody wants something; something's standing in their way of getting it."

I recently discovered this interesting interview with Aaron Sorkin. I love his writing style. He follows the "basic rules of drama" to strengthen his plot and story. Obstacles create conflict, which produces tension and drama, which entertains the audience. For example, in The Two Towers, Faramir stands between Frodo and his goal. He captures the hobbit and, upon discovering the Ring, refuses to release him. He becomes an obstacle for Frodo to overcome. In the book, however, Faramir is completely immune to the Ring's power. This character would strip away the Ring's credibility, which the screenwriters dedicated so much time to establish. Although it caused some controversy amongst Tolkien purists, this screenwriting decision undoubtedly created more tension and drama.

Here's the interview:

Page Count: 5

The Biopic

My script is based on real-life events in post-war Germany. Structuring the biographical screenplay is particularly challenging, since the events of a real person's life rarely fit into distinct acts. The narrative trajectory is clearly identifiable, however, it is important to also identify the emotional journey.

"The internal drive is why your central character wants to achieve the goal. He or she wants to feel worthy, validated, loved, complete, healed, forgiven, etc. These are universal internal drives that every person has experienced on some level. It is the internal emotion that drives what the protagonist wants to achieve externally." Gideon's Screenwriting Tips: So Now You're a Screenwriter...

22 Storytelling Tips from Pixar

Last month, Emma Coates (@lawnrocket), a storyboard artist at Pixar, shared 22 insightful tips on "storytelling basics." I've found this list extremely useful, my favourite is: "If a perfect idea stays in your head, you'll never share it with anyone." Here is Emma's list:

Day 1

FADE IN:

"Writing means waking up every morning and forcing yourself to fall in love with your story again. Do this every day until it’s finished." Scriptwriting Tips... You Hack.

One of the greatest challenges faced by aspiring screenwriters, is the inability to finish a script. I have an entire folder filled with unfinished screenplays, not because I'm lazy, but because it is easy to lose confidence in my own ability. This blog enables me to approach my script with a deadline in sight. I am currently writing a feature drama set in post-war Germany. It will be completed by October 11th, 2012. I will update my progress as regularly as I can, posting script reviews, interesting articles, and occasionally snippets from my own script.

Writing is a marathon, not a sprint.