Bumping Around The Blogs
Mystery Man on Film gets a gold star this week for providing a link to a screenwriter’s ‘Holy Grail’: The transcript of five days worth of story meetings between George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Larry Kasdan about what would become Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first Indiana Jones movie. Not only that, MMOF provides 10 lessons he learned from these amazing story sessions:
1) Before they ever considered the plot, they figured out who and what their hero-protagonist is and how he’d be similar and different from other heroes in cinema.
2) A character arc? What’s that?
3) A racy backstory can keep a plot moving.
4) Consider the debate about un-sympathetic protagonists.
5) Consider how tension was always foremost on their minds when they laid-out their plot.
6) Consider their approach to exposition.
7) No idea is a bad idea when you’re brainstorming.
8) Consider their approach to budget.
9) Consider their approach to the ending.
10) Consider the transcript as a whole, the sheer volume of thought, discussion, analysis, questions, and debate about the story before they ever sat down to write the script.
This is one of the best blog posts I’ve ever read. Highly recommended. And for God’s sake, download the story meeting transcript (while you can).
Mike at Being Charlie Kaufman.com takes a trip down YouTube’s memory lane with the Charlie Kaufman’s last episode of the TV series “Ned & Stacey”:
“Where My Third Nepal is Sheriff”was the last episode Charlie wrote for Ned & Stacey; it was also the last episode aired before the series’ cancellation. Because the world was not ready for Charlie!
Billy Mernit at Living the Romantic Comedy.com is back (thankfully!) after some family health issues of the parental kind (but all is well!) with a must-read post “The Genius of Bad Writing:
Paraphrased for emphasis: The most important task a screenplay must accomplish is to get whoever is reading it to identify with the lead character. It’s really that simple, although often tricky to pull off. If you can’t get an executive, an actor, a whoever the hell is reading the thing to see the story through the eyes of its protagonist, to experience your story’s emotions as they’re experienced by the person in the starring role… then you are dead in the water.
Christian Toto at What Would Toto Watch lets his excitement show in his post “What a Week for DVD releases”:
This week’s DVD release schedule is jammed with great choices — from Oscar winners to rauncy comedies.
Christian spotlights Role Models, Milk, Rachel Getting Married, Let the Right One In, and Transporter 3.
Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood gets a great video catch with “Oliver Stone on Wall Street Then and Now”:
The filmmaker visited USC’s Annenberg School for Communication on March 3rd to talk about his Wall Street, suddenly all too relevant again.
As expected, Stone has enormous sympathy for bankers and stock brokers — not!
I’ve been so far behind on my magazine reading, I’m glad that John August caught this:
The New Yorker has a terrific article by D.T. Max about screenwriter Tony Gilroy, whose films range from Dolores Claiborne to The Bourne Identity to Michael Clayton (a personal favorite).
I particularly liked his discussion about the challenge of writing a thriller:
Gilroy believes that the writer and the moviegoing public are engaged in a cognitive arms race. As the audience grows savvier, the screenwriter has to invent new reversals — madder music and stronger wine. […]
“How do you write a reversal that uses the audience’s expectations in a new way? You have to write to their accumulated knowledge.”
Patrick Goldstein at The Big Picture weighs in on the “Media uproar over Endeavor-William Morris merger talks”:
But now that the New York Times has weighed in on the possible Endeavor-William Morris mind meld, I guess something must really be happening. Or not. The Times story lays out a credible motivation for a deal, noting that all of Hollywood’s talent agencies are being forced to adapt to the industry’s economic woes while also reacting to the rapid shift in power between agencies, studios, management firms and corporate financiers.
In the midst of talking about how she keeps a little notebook in which she writes movies she really means to finally see, Julie at The Rouge Wave comes up with a fun list:
A friend and I were discussing this very topic yesterday evening and we made a list of movies that screenwriters really should be embarrassed if they have not seen. Now, of course this list is subjective and I have not seen every single one of these movies (we’ll count up the exact number) but here’s the scenario: You walk into a screenwriting writers’ group and you are asked if you’ve seen one of these movies and you haven’t — and you turn beet red. Because the movies on this list are accessible and available. Because they are often discussed. Because they feature unforgettable, iconic performances or were in some way seminal, instructive or innovative. Because they are part of the history and trajectory of film (say noir or screwball).
Anne Thompson at Thompson on Hollywood reminds us it’s just not a real Hwood movie unless somebody is suing somebody:
Call it rookie producer syndrome. New kids on the block raise money and enter the entertainment business. They buy up a hot property. They think they will make a killing. They bring in experienced people to help them. And something goes terribly wrong. Veteran producer Moritz Borman (W.) doesn’t just go and sue someone, long before a movie gets close to its opening date. But he is suing young producers Derek Anderson and Victor Kubicek of Halycon for fraud to the tune of $160 million, reports Variety.
Todd Alcott has discovered another movie blog, this one with a really unique angle:
Kriota Willberg, choreographer, anatomist and creator and co-director of The Bentfootes
, now has a blog
, in which she painstakingly analyzes movies from a medical perspective, with an accent on the fantastic. Could the events of Face/Off
really happen? If so, how? What are the realities of the science of Fantastic Voyage, Young Frankenstein or Mr. Sardonicus? Only The Cinematologist knows.
I’ll be adding that blog to my blogroll.
And finally Robin Kelly at Writing for Performance uncovers a video interview with a screenwriter in “Research is the enemy of cliche”:
“Pro screenwriter Jonathan Fernandez talks about how research can elevate a script.”
Blog on!
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