Friday, August 14, 2009
Happy are the trees
Confident are the buffalo who, after devouring the field, feel that the grass still owes them.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
"You just don't get it."
"I attached my treatment along with my script. The script is very long and complex and I don't want you to misunderstand anything, so I thought I would tell you the stuff that people most commonly miss."
Alright, honestly, if you got an email and a script attached with that previous line as the header what would you think? Would you even bother reading the script? Would any one of you see a movie where the director had to come out from behind a curtain and explain to you what you just saw? What if he had to do it before you watched the film?
Your writing must stand on its own. It must communicate clearly. It must at all times know what the audience understands and manipulate their experience as a result. Mystery films are all about controlling the information that is fed to the audience, but any film- regardless of genre- needs to be aware of what it is saying.
Many young writers, myself included, have had the experience of giving someone material and then looking over their shoulders as they read it. We tap our fingers and cross our arms when they speak. We tell them that they didn't get it and argue with their interpretation of the material. The bottom line is: if the reader didn't get it, then the writer didn't do their job.
Whether it be a reader in a dim office, a producer with too many meetings, an actor that only reads their lines, a cynical contest judge, a director with other projects, or an audience member that just paid $14 to get in; you will have no contact with any of these people save for the words on the page.
If we don't "get it" then neither did you.
Alright, honestly, if you got an email and a script attached with that previous line as the header what would you think? Would you even bother reading the script? Would any one of you see a movie where the director had to come out from behind a curtain and explain to you what you just saw? What if he had to do it before you watched the film?
Your writing must stand on its own. It must communicate clearly. It must at all times know what the audience understands and manipulate their experience as a result. Mystery films are all about controlling the information that is fed to the audience, but any film- regardless of genre- needs to be aware of what it is saying.
Many young writers, myself included, have had the experience of giving someone material and then looking over their shoulders as they read it. We tap our fingers and cross our arms when they speak. We tell them that they didn't get it and argue with their interpretation of the material. The bottom line is: if the reader didn't get it, then the writer didn't do their job.
Whether it be a reader in a dim office, a producer with too many meetings, an actor that only reads their lines, a cynical contest judge, a director with other projects, or an audience member that just paid $14 to get in; you will have no contact with any of these people save for the words on the page.
If we don't "get it" then neither did you.
Michael Jackson
I have kept relatively quiet about that whole over covered ordeal, but this morning I had an epiphany:
Black community mourns the loss of their white icon.
Why did MJ change his skin color? For the longest time I had assumed it was a rejection of his heritage. Then, seeing Paris between what could only be ten family members vying for a spotlight, I realized that MJ wasn't escaping his culture, he was escaping his family. All of the changes, the flamboyancy, the gender bending, they stemmed from a need to escape the shadow of his dominating father and talented siblings.
This is a great example of an internal dilema creating changes in a chracter's life. Not only was MJ struggling against a demanding public and the greedy record companies, he was struggling against the complexes created by his upbringing. Often times internal conflicts breed strange symptoms in the external conflicts, manifesting themselves in 'weird' behaviors. Think of a homophobic senator that can only express his sexuality in a bathroom stall, or the desperate and lonely housewife who has no real control of her situation becoming a super control freak when given a simple decorating task.
Have these conflicts in mind when you write characters. Is there a way that this character's past could have loaded him to react in a special way to the problem at hand? Would Grant's disdain for children effect his actions towards them in Jurassic Park? Would Sarah Conner's experience with a Terminator make her distrust the one sent to help her son? Would a childhood of poverty have an effect on the richest citizen in the world?
If only we could write as well as God does.
Black community mourns the loss of their white icon.
Why did MJ change his skin color? For the longest time I had assumed it was a rejection of his heritage. Then, seeing Paris between what could only be ten family members vying for a spotlight, I realized that MJ wasn't escaping his culture, he was escaping his family. All of the changes, the flamboyancy, the gender bending, they stemmed from a need to escape the shadow of his dominating father and talented siblings.
This is a great example of an internal dilema creating changes in a chracter's life. Not only was MJ struggling against a demanding public and the greedy record companies, he was struggling against the complexes created by his upbringing. Often times internal conflicts breed strange symptoms in the external conflicts, manifesting themselves in 'weird' behaviors. Think of a homophobic senator that can only express his sexuality in a bathroom stall, or the desperate and lonely housewife who has no real control of her situation becoming a super control freak when given a simple decorating task.
Have these conflicts in mind when you write characters. Is there a way that this character's past could have loaded him to react in a special way to the problem at hand? Would Grant's disdain for children effect his actions towards them in Jurassic Park? Would Sarah Conner's experience with a Terminator make her distrust the one sent to help her son? Would a childhood of poverty have an effect on the richest citizen in the world?
If only we could write as well as God does.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
If you're sick of IMDB
Studio System is the alternative to IMDB pro. Plus, they don't relegate writers to "other credits."
http://studiosystem.com/
http://studiosystem.com/
Script Shadow
I found this neat website. It's a fellow Blogspot site. They review all of the new scripts that have been recently sold or are circulating the studios. Looks like a lot of cheap horror and comedies. So if you have those, get them out there!
scriptshadow.blogspot.com
scriptshadow.blogspot.com
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Differentiate Your Characters
I'm currently judging a script competition for Shriekfest 2009. Of the six scripts I have read so far only one had a hold on the all important skill of making each and every one of your characters stand out.
The next time you are polishing your dialogue try this: cover the names of each of your characters, preferably with white out, and read the exchanges aloud. If they sound alike then change the speech patterns, outlook, tone, end of sentence mannerism, dialect, slang, whatever- until the lines look as well as sound different.
You want your script to have such clarity that readers can skip slug lines and character names and still pick up on what is going on. When reviewing my own material I always try to read it without ever looking at the name of the character who is currently speaking.
Besides, I should know my characters so well that I recognize them by their voice.
The next time you are polishing your dialogue try this: cover the names of each of your characters, preferably with white out, and read the exchanges aloud. If they sound alike then change the speech patterns, outlook, tone, end of sentence mannerism, dialect, slang, whatever- until the lines look as well as sound different.
You want your script to have such clarity that readers can skip slug lines and character names and still pick up on what is going on. When reviewing my own material I always try to read it without ever looking at the name of the character who is currently speaking.
Besides, I should know my characters so well that I recognize them by their voice.
LEVIATHAN
Finished the new revision of Leviathan over the 4th of July weekend. Added a poem that came to me through a Unitarian church. Here goes:
I have a feeling that my boat
Has struck, down there in the depths,
Against a great thing.
And nothing happens!
Nothing . . . Silence . . . Waves . . .
--Nothing happens?
Or has everything happened,
And are we standing now, quietly, in the new life?
Juan Ramon Jimenez, "Oceans"
If you'd like to read the script email me: christopher.osman@gmail.com
I have a feeling that my boat
Has struck, down there in the depths,
Against a great thing.
And nothing happens!
Nothing . . . Silence . . . Waves . . .
--Nothing happens?
Or has everything happened,
And are we standing now, quietly, in the new life?
Juan Ramon Jimenez, "Oceans"
If you'd like to read the script email me: christopher.osman@gmail.com
Created the Blog
Decided to get back to it after I don't know how long of not posting a single iota on the internet.
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