Quite an eventful week, in between long moments of boredom.
Went to an idependant cinema to watch Submarine by Richard Ayoade, that was a cool experience. Nice to see something different to the usual ilk of British or American films. Had a guest lecture by a woman who focuses on the continuing drama side of the BBC and the BBC Writer's Room. In the first five minutes, she convinced me that my elitism over soaps would hurt my career than do it any good, so many talented people have started there and alongside radio, is the easier way to break in. I felt sorry for her. The first and second years were not so good at realising what she does, putting down soaps, asking about animation or documentary, mingled with talking between themselves.
Our course leader dragged us to the pub for a drink, instead of staying in Uni and having nothing to do. Got a new pair of glasses, thick frames which help build up my pretentiousness, something that is required if you're a writer.
Handed in the first 24 pages of my tv drama. Man, I barely got it in on time. About two hours before the cut off for handing in work, I decided to do a third draft. There were minimal changes, but the way I operate is: start from scratch, type it up, don't copy and paste. I think I improved it, then legged it to Uni to print it out and hand it in, with 20 minutes to spare. My heart was pounding. This is probably the first time in a long time, that I am happy with what I handed in and almost exactly a year since I've handed in a script to be marked.
Yesterday, we were celebrating birthdays and getting drunk at a house part; there was some live music, a bonfire in a trolley and green paint. I drank a lot, had a good time and then almost automatically at some point, decided to leave. Why? For some reason, I realise when I have drank too much and go home, there I shall go through a routine of throwing up in the sink or toilet, this time both and then I fell asleep in the shower and then threw up there, then went to bed. No hangover! Always a plus. Can't be bothered to go and buy some more food, but I only have two apples and a sandwich to last me until tomorrow, also my room reeks of smoke, can't get rid of it, opened windows and everything.
Now I have three assignments in for May, lots of time to prepare and since I am spending two more weeks before two weeks at home, I think I can get the stuff prepared. Tomorrow will be the continuation of the screenplay's second draft, do that over the next two weeks and then depending if people are around, a read through and then a third draft, another read through. I also have to get round to drawing, I'm planning on some posters for a portfolio of my work. I like that side of it, Mad Men has that affect on me.
I now have a week of uni, without any lectures, go figure. But for now, I'll just go on X-Box Live.
Sunday 27 March 2011
Sunday 20 March 2011
[working title]
I wonder what seperates this blog from other blogs. That is once you exclude spelling mistakes, and grammar that is bludgeoned to death comma after comma. It probably has little difference, Imitation comes first,
Looking over the past week, it's been another slow one. With four hours of lectures, I always think that my loan is going towards lecturers going to their regular lunch of champagne and cavier. I have little to do. Most people average about ten pages a day, and that should only take an hour and a bit, so it is easy to get bored.
Tuesday, I did a readthrough with people in my writing tv drama class. Some people didn't know what they were in for and it was fun, the night before I had been agonising about everything, it would sound terrible when real people say my lines. That was not the case and it was well received, laughs were where I wanted them to be and some people got into it (I got into it more than anyone). There was a byproduct of the read through which I feel never does me any good, and that is being told that something you have done is good and other compliments. Don't feed the ego. I always do or say something stupid because I get a high from it. It is the reason why I write, I suppose, I like to show people what I am capable of. It did remind me that I can make it. Several days later and I am back in my seat, having thoughts of insignificance. Despite knowing I am much better than others.
There were a few things to work on and now I have a few pages until I hit page 20, ready to hand in for this friday. Then I can finally focus on my screenplay, that I have been neglecting like a tramp. I want to write it but I have invested so much of my thoughts to my TV drama, that is just seems stale and I want to work more on the drama. Once I've got the pilot handed in, then I'll roll up my sleeves and get stuck in. Meanwhile, I've gone to writing lines for my characters in the film, to make them more interesting and less run of the mill. Not something that I normally do, but I've exhausted all my plot ideas and it is primarily just the characters that need to be sorted.
Other than that, I've been planning a play and having some more ideas about my sitcom, that will be written over Easter, in time for a read through before Uni breaks up for good.
Spending most of my time watching films as usual, recently watched Dark City which has opened up my mind for a few of my old ideas and flooding me with inspiration.
Writing is going to be a bigger challenge when I move back home, but it has to be done.
In other news, I'm planning on learning how to draw, to prepare for writing and drawing a web comic. Maybe more than one, just to get my name out there. Comic books is an area that I am keen to get into. Less to do with the Marvel and DC superhero stuff and more to do with Powers, Blacksad, Criminal, Hellboy, Conan etc. I just love the art of all of them, differing in styles drastically and the storylines are gripping.
Looking over the past week, it's been another slow one. With four hours of lectures, I always think that my loan is going towards lecturers going to their regular lunch of champagne and cavier. I have little to do. Most people average about ten pages a day, and that should only take an hour and a bit, so it is easy to get bored.
Tuesday, I did a readthrough with people in my writing tv drama class. Some people didn't know what they were in for and it was fun, the night before I had been agonising about everything, it would sound terrible when real people say my lines. That was not the case and it was well received, laughs were where I wanted them to be and some people got into it (I got into it more than anyone). There was a byproduct of the read through which I feel never does me any good, and that is being told that something you have done is good and other compliments. Don't feed the ego. I always do or say something stupid because I get a high from it. It is the reason why I write, I suppose, I like to show people what I am capable of. It did remind me that I can make it. Several days later and I am back in my seat, having thoughts of insignificance. Despite knowing I am much better than others.
There were a few things to work on and now I have a few pages until I hit page 20, ready to hand in for this friday. Then I can finally focus on my screenplay, that I have been neglecting like a tramp. I want to write it but I have invested so much of my thoughts to my TV drama, that is just seems stale and I want to work more on the drama. Once I've got the pilot handed in, then I'll roll up my sleeves and get stuck in. Meanwhile, I've gone to writing lines for my characters in the film, to make them more interesting and less run of the mill. Not something that I normally do, but I've exhausted all my plot ideas and it is primarily just the characters that need to be sorted.
Other than that, I've been planning a play and having some more ideas about my sitcom, that will be written over Easter, in time for a read through before Uni breaks up for good.
Spending most of my time watching films as usual, recently watched Dark City which has opened up my mind for a few of my old ideas and flooding me with inspiration.
Writing is going to be a bigger challenge when I move back home, but it has to be done.
In other news, I'm planning on learning how to draw, to prepare for writing and drawing a web comic. Maybe more than one, just to get my name out there. Comic books is an area that I am keen to get into. Less to do with the Marvel and DC superhero stuff and more to do with Powers, Blacksad, Criminal, Hellboy, Conan etc. I just love the art of all of them, differing in styles drastically and the storylines are gripping.
The fourth post
Note: This was composed on the 11th.
Wait a second... where's the third post? Well, I wrote it but my computer crashed on me as I was watching streamed episodes of HIMYM. It was getting me in the mood to start the second draft of my tv drama, but since it buggered up, I spent my time before going off to see Battle: LA (it was okay) working on a beatsheet in order to get my head in the game.
Now, I'm seven pages in of twenty pages. Progress is occuring, good times. A few weeks ago, one of our lecturers at uni asked us how we wrote characters, whether we take aspects of other people or throwing ourselves into the situations our characters go through and taking those thoughts into creating a character, I said the latter. It's true, but I think I will conciously make an effort to include the former as well, particularly of my downstairs neighbours who are ****, they're ******* *****. When they play their club music, loud enough, it might as well be a club. My room because of the acoustics, means that I hear the crap music and can feel the vibrations from the floor. Battle: LA for anyone who sees this at the cinema, that is how it feels to live where I currently am. In the weeks prior to me moving out and returning home, I am going to give them so much music to moan about, bringing Dragonforce and Disturbed , putting my speakers on the floor and blasting it out. Just to get them to feel what my third year was like, they're at it again. The amount of times they have awoken me from sleep and they've stepped it up by shouting things to each other at night. I tried being nice, but now I don't care if I make enemies. Suffering a bad club remix of a bad song by a bad singer (Mika) from 3am to 8am, is like putting a hex on someone.
Is it fair that they can do this. The short answer: No. The long answer: No. I honestly hope that the person downstairs goes deaf, he's put a lot of work into it. I will eviscerate him in my fiction, not in a good light and I will probably use variations of his name. The funny thing is, I've never met the guy, but if you're using an asda trolley to put all your dirty clothes, it's probably for the best that we don't meet. I've suffered because of this person, and I have a dissertation to hand in. I might bring my other speakers back to Uni and buy a splitter especially for my audio onslaught.
As you can tell, it is something I feel strongly about. Even complaining to the people that lease out the houses.
Anyway, Battle: LA was alright, it had some bad spots, like how it opens with chinooks of the soldiers going into LA and then goes for a 24 hours earlier bit, with a cityscape of LA and California Love blaring out. Ick. It was okay, but they should've thrown the characters in there, I don't really care for exposition in this film. That and the music, I know it's American military and needs all that blaring music, but come on, it would still be powerful without the music. Where were the bloods and crips? No rage against the machine (An album of theirs is Battle for Los Angeles). The action was okay, Michael Pená and the refugees were pretty boring in my opinion. A part that annoyed me was when the alien dissection was taking place, the female refugee said "I'm a veterinarian, not a doctor.", obviously she forgot that she has to be a doctor first, I guess those years just flew by. Also she could say "I'm a veterinarian, not an alien doctor", that wouldn't have worked, but neither did the original line.
It was dumb fun action though. Documentary style camera work is boring now. Everybody does it, what is wrong with the camera techniques of yore. Pan, still camera or using a dolly. The alien designs were just average. What elevated the film was the earthquake and tsunami of Japan, so it already felt like the world was falling apart before I'd sat down, when the V.O. says "We've lost tokyo..." I just thought, you aren't half wrong there. As long as you're interested in something that clinches onto film clichés then you will probably enjoy this. For being a Black Hawk Down, with aliens, it didn't feel that scary. Probably because of all the horns blaring through the speakers for the entire film. If you do go to see the film, imagine it without the music, how much more powerful it would be. I don't see many soldiers going into war with an OST by Brian Tyler.
I watched the film and thought, it would be far more interesting to see the British military fight for survival. We don't see it enough, in any films of the past few decades. At least the soldiers in Dog Soldiers felt real where as the wooping americans just felt like they were without character, it doesn't matter who dies, young virgin, out of the academy leader, nigerian doctor, black, white, latino, asian. It would be fantastic if we learnt a little bit about them on the fly, but the cop out of an opening for me let me down. Seriously, it sets the pace and then they slow down it all in order to characterise these people. One of the Scotts or Neil Marshall should have directed this.
That said, I would still watch a sequel. It had potential, got tangled up in the 'confines' of a studio's guide to screenwriting and the hip cinematography.
Note: Found my third post. Makes the opening a bit null. It might mess with the pace, but I'm not changing it.
Wait a second... where's the third post? Well, I wrote it but my computer crashed on me as I was watching streamed episodes of HIMYM. It was getting me in the mood to start the second draft of my tv drama, but since it buggered up, I spent my time before going off to see Battle: LA (it was okay) working on a beatsheet in order to get my head in the game.
Now, I'm seven pages in of twenty pages. Progress is occuring, good times. A few weeks ago, one of our lecturers at uni asked us how we wrote characters, whether we take aspects of other people or throwing ourselves into the situations our characters go through and taking those thoughts into creating a character, I said the latter. It's true, but I think I will conciously make an effort to include the former as well, particularly of my downstairs neighbours who are ****, they're ******* *****. When they play their club music, loud enough, it might as well be a club. My room because of the acoustics, means that I hear the crap music and can feel the vibrations from the floor. Battle: LA for anyone who sees this at the cinema, that is how it feels to live where I currently am. In the weeks prior to me moving out and returning home, I am going to give them so much music to moan about, bringing Dragonforce and Disturbed , putting my speakers on the floor and blasting it out. Just to get them to feel what my third year was like, they're at it again. The amount of times they have awoken me from sleep and they've stepped it up by shouting things to each other at night. I tried being nice, but now I don't care if I make enemies. Suffering a bad club remix of a bad song by a bad singer (Mika) from 3am to 8am, is like putting a hex on someone.
Is it fair that they can do this. The short answer: No. The long answer: No. I honestly hope that the person downstairs goes deaf, he's put a lot of work into it. I will eviscerate him in my fiction, not in a good light and I will probably use variations of his name. The funny thing is, I've never met the guy, but if you're using an asda trolley to put all your dirty clothes, it's probably for the best that we don't meet. I've suffered because of this person, and I have a dissertation to hand in. I might bring my other speakers back to Uni and buy a splitter especially for my audio onslaught.
As you can tell, it is something I feel strongly about. Even complaining to the people that lease out the houses.
Anyway, Battle: LA was alright, it had some bad spots, like how it opens with chinooks of the soldiers going into LA and then goes for a 24 hours earlier bit, with a cityscape of LA and California Love blaring out. Ick. It was okay, but they should've thrown the characters in there, I don't really care for exposition in this film. That and the music, I know it's American military and needs all that blaring music, but come on, it would still be powerful without the music. Where were the bloods and crips? No rage against the machine (An album of theirs is Battle for Los Angeles). The action was okay, Michael Pená and the refugees were pretty boring in my opinion. A part that annoyed me was when the alien dissection was taking place, the female refugee said "I'm a veterinarian, not a doctor.", obviously she forgot that she has to be a doctor first, I guess those years just flew by. Also she could say "I'm a veterinarian, not an alien doctor", that wouldn't have worked, but neither did the original line.
It was dumb fun action though. Documentary style camera work is boring now. Everybody does it, what is wrong with the camera techniques of yore. Pan, still camera or using a dolly. The alien designs were just average. What elevated the film was the earthquake and tsunami of Japan, so it already felt like the world was falling apart before I'd sat down, when the V.O. says "We've lost tokyo..." I just thought, you aren't half wrong there. As long as you're interested in something that clinches onto film clichés then you will probably enjoy this. For being a Black Hawk Down, with aliens, it didn't feel that scary. Probably because of all the horns blaring through the speakers for the entire film. If you do go to see the film, imagine it without the music, how much more powerful it would be. I don't see many soldiers going into war with an OST by Brian Tyler.
I watched the film and thought, it would be far more interesting to see the British military fight for survival. We don't see it enough, in any films of the past few decades. At least the soldiers in Dog Soldiers felt real where as the wooping americans just felt like they were without character, it doesn't matter who dies, young virgin, out of the academy leader, nigerian doctor, black, white, latino, asian. It would be fantastic if we learnt a little bit about them on the fly, but the cop out of an opening for me let me down. Seriously, it sets the pace and then they slow down it all in order to characterise these people. One of the Scotts or Neil Marshall should have directed this.
That said, I would still watch a sequel. It had potential, got tangled up in the 'confines' of a studio's guide to screenwriting and the hip cinematography.
Note: Found my third post. Makes the opening a bit null. It might mess with the pace, but I'm not changing it.
Creativity stilted by creativity
Note: This was composed on the 10th.
The latest step in my tv pilot is interesting. I came to a point where I didn't have anything left to write and for what should be fourty to fourty five pages (even though we are only graded on the first twenty). My first (first) draft weighed in at twenty seven pages, not great. Usually I skip over redoing a first draft and leap into a second draft, but this time, I thought unless it is very different, then there is little need to do a second draft yet. So I went over my work, reading it outloud, cutting and throwing in a couple extra ext's and int's whilst coming up with new scenes and figuring out the ad breaks/act breaks.
It is tough trying to keep on this one thing, no matter how many times this week I have told myself this week that I would be working on my final script and the tv drama, I don't think any work has come from it. I look for some sort of way to procrastinate, but I think everyone does that now, too many options. Thanks to some criticism on monday for the opening of my final script, I have got different ways to write scenes from my first (and terrible) draft and making them operate in a more original way.
Still suffering a bit of the cold I had from last week. Making me take a few steps back on everything. I'm growing weary of not being able to go to the gym.
There is a certain mood I have to be in to write well, the only thing I want to do is to write. So far I haven't had that since last week, which was a burst of energy in screenwriting that I haven't had for some time. This hasn't returned. This blog helps my mind prepare to write scripts, a warm-up. None of this is probably interesting.
I have been wondering for a while what person decided to come up with that compliment for writers, the "ear for dialogue" comment, because I've heard this thrown around by ‘critics’ for writers who are very different in their styles of writing dialogue. Tarantino, Sorkin, Mamet and Iannucci have differing styles when it comes to talking heads, but they've defiantly been given this compliment. But none of their styles fit together, so is this just a preference or do people talk like they're constantly popping "pick me ups" in Sorkin's neighbourhood? Tarantino is surrounded by people who like long philosophical conversations that include the odd interest in comics, music or film in order to bring across a person’s views? Mamet's neighbourhood is full of people repeating what they just said two more times?
As far as I am concerned, people write dialogue how they want the world to be, I write because it would be cool to talk like my characters (bar me not being quick witted enough), something exciting, writing something dramatic. We even take pieces of dialogues from films in order to freshen and give our lives some meaning. Possibly, because for some people, the people around them are fucking boring and too similar to them. Thus when they need to understand another person's views, they must have it made sense on the screen. Last night I watched Good Night and Good Luck, and that did the same thing for me, I had an experience because of what the characters had to say and how it is relevant to life today.
"It is my desire if not my duty to try to talk to you journeymen with some candor about what is happening in radio and television, and if what I say is responsible, I alone am responsible for the saying of it. Our history will be what we make of it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred year from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes of one week of all three networks, they will there find, recorded in black and white and in color, evidence of decadence, escapism, and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. We are are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable, and complacent. We have a built in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information; our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses, and recognize that television, in the main, is being use to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture, too late."
The latest step in my tv pilot is interesting. I came to a point where I didn't have anything left to write and for what should be fourty to fourty five pages (even though we are only graded on the first twenty). My first (first) draft weighed in at twenty seven pages, not great. Usually I skip over redoing a first draft and leap into a second draft, but this time, I thought unless it is very different, then there is little need to do a second draft yet. So I went over my work, reading it outloud, cutting and throwing in a couple extra ext's and int's whilst coming up with new scenes and figuring out the ad breaks/act breaks.
It is tough trying to keep on this one thing, no matter how many times this week I have told myself this week that I would be working on my final script and the tv drama, I don't think any work has come from it. I look for some sort of way to procrastinate, but I think everyone does that now, too many options. Thanks to some criticism on monday for the opening of my final script, I have got different ways to write scenes from my first (and terrible) draft and making them operate in a more original way.
Still suffering a bit of the cold I had from last week. Making me take a few steps back on everything. I'm growing weary of not being able to go to the gym.
There is a certain mood I have to be in to write well, the only thing I want to do is to write. So far I haven't had that since last week, which was a burst of energy in screenwriting that I haven't had for some time. This hasn't returned. This blog helps my mind prepare to write scripts, a warm-up. None of this is probably interesting.
I have been wondering for a while what person decided to come up with that compliment for writers, the "ear for dialogue" comment, because I've heard this thrown around by ‘critics’ for writers who are very different in their styles of writing dialogue. Tarantino, Sorkin, Mamet and Iannucci have differing styles when it comes to talking heads, but they've defiantly been given this compliment. But none of their styles fit together, so is this just a preference or do people talk like they're constantly popping "pick me ups" in Sorkin's neighbourhood? Tarantino is surrounded by people who like long philosophical conversations that include the odd interest in comics, music or film in order to bring across a person’s views? Mamet's neighbourhood is full of people repeating what they just said two more times?
As far as I am concerned, people write dialogue how they want the world to be, I write because it would be cool to talk like my characters (bar me not being quick witted enough), something exciting, writing something dramatic. We even take pieces of dialogues from films in order to freshen and give our lives some meaning. Possibly, because for some people, the people around them are fucking boring and too similar to them. Thus when they need to understand another person's views, they must have it made sense on the screen. Last night I watched Good Night and Good Luck, and that did the same thing for me, I had an experience because of what the characters had to say and how it is relevant to life today.
"It is my desire if not my duty to try to talk to you journeymen with some candor about what is happening in radio and television, and if what I say is responsible, I alone am responsible for the saying of it. Our history will be what we make of it. And if there are any historians about fifty or a hundred year from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes of one week of all three networks, they will there find, recorded in black and white and in color, evidence of decadence, escapism, and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. We are are currently wealthy, fat, comfortable, and complacent. We have a built in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information; our mass media reflect this. But unless we get up off our fat surpluses, and recognize that television, in the main, is being use to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture, too late."
Sunday 6 March 2011
Almost there
Day 4 into the illness and I'm feeling very different to the version of me that wrote the first blog on Thursday. I have however had a maximum of four hours sleep each night since, which is fantastic for energy as I spent Friday tidying up my room, bathroom, and bit of the kitchen. The place hasn't been this clean ever, even when I moved in. Trying to maintain it though is going to be another story and who gives a crap about that.
I've been making steps into writing more over the past few days, I felt terrible at some points but carried on. Got flooded with different ideas, that could easily become similar. I will have to grow them slowly and focus on the scale that the works will be told. I have a habit when I make notes to make loads of them which start with 'perhaps', these are followed by more 'perhaps' until I have an epic on a grand scale. This means I'll have to remind myself that I'm English, and scale it down a bit.
Earlier today I started reading a blog called Project Waldo, I came across it because a beautiful looking comic called 'Nonplayer' out next month is being released (by Image, I think). The cool thing is that the auteur of the comic decided to blog his process of creating the book, I never buy singles comics but this will have to be the exception to the rule. The blog opens with the first two blogs about self doubt, more or less. That made me feel better about my worries, they seem to be equally shared between creative minds (Yeah, this sounds egotistical) and although he is successful in the sense that he has sold the project and I am just sitting in my room, no work produced. Ever. I think I can do this, I find it hard to be honest, but I truly believe I can achieve my goal.
So, I've been doing some writing by grabbing all my notebooks that I've used since first year and going through them for sketches and stand-up material. There were a few nuggets of gold, but my god, do not let me do stand-up comedy. Seriously, it isn't even funny bad. I've now got a notebook specifically for sketches and some stand-up that I guess my characters can do, terribly, especially for my sitcom that I am itching to write, but only after I have concluded work on the drama pilot. I know I can write funny, just can't say it, I'd love to be able to do what comedians like Bill Hicks, Eddie Izzard, Ross Noble, Stewart Lee and Jack Dee can do, but I guess I am a pseudo-intellectual, well I considered myself kind of smart (my friends would piss themselves at the idea that I am even that), I'm just not smart enough. Just the case of know your limits. I am considering writing all the sketches and filming them at Uni and uploading them on youtube or sending them off to a sketch show. The problem is, there are not many sketch shows that are good anymore, this area is in a coma, plus my ideas are alienating, they do have messages. Catchphrases can fuck off.
I've moved forward on my drama pilot script that is for Uni. I'm happy to be writing something again, it is so much fun for me, but I wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't. I've so far jotted down eight pages, making it twenty five pages. One problem that frequently occurs when I am writing a first draft is that the page count is not enough. I mean I am on page twenty five and a couple more scenes and I have finished the first draft. I am never sure if this is how other people write scripts or I have found a way to do this the hard way. Treatments really don't have any place in my writing, if I have to write prose-y descriptions, I get bored. These people should be yelling and making snide remarks, actors can figure out the rest of it. I realise that this is not the best approach as treatments are the preferred approach to pitching a script, I'll work on it. A common occurrence in my scripts is character with bit parts get more of a personality than I'd expect and they're only there for a minute, that is a minute for the entire character. That and characters that have been planned out change completely, one of my characters has a difficult relationship with the protagonist because of their history working together, but when you end up with references of Alice the Goon and The Wire, you know they don't have the stink-eye for one another, they are still good friends who just drifted apart. I can emphasise with this aspect, my subconscious knew better than I did and I like it. That is the magic of scriptwriting for me, sometimes it just writes itself.
I've returned to the second draft of my screenplay which is my dissertation for Uni, I've got two months to write it and as soon as I typed the start of this paragraph, fear just seeped in, man. I can do it; I just did three pages, which works, maybe not as an opening but it will stay there until I've finished the first draft of the second draft. I threw on the original opening of the movie straight after it, it is rewritten but fundamentally nothing has changed. The dialogue is better, not great. I am just grasping the characters. The original draft could never be made, you have no idea how bad it is. What surprises me was how much of a smug little bastard I was when I finished it, when in actual fact I took short cuts and didn't plot or structure it (yeah, structure isn't my strong point either). I have consolidated it into one manageable three pages of plot points to refer to. Which is refreshing. I expect the new draft to come in at one hundred pages, then I'll edit and go scene by scene working over it and making it tick, do a read through with my mates and then start a third draft. At the end of this paragraph, I am excited. This is like some kind of story arc.
Outside of writing, I've started fine tuning my life. Cutting down on telly, I've been watching some really bad shows. Using the Uni library as a blockbusters, quit running after seven or eight years (a recurring injury from last summer, I thought enough is enough. My body needs time to recover.) I am planning on returning to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu after many months off, because I suck and being able to only go to one class a week made me feel bad, people who had the ability to get to the other classes (which are in another city) were beating the shit out of me and I kept having to start all over again and that is too much like when I studied Kung Fu for four years in my teens. Thankfully there is a gym about thirty minutes walk from my house that has one or two classes a day for five quid more than the four classes I could have done per month at the other clubs. As a result of this, I'm going to have to start figuring out how much I spend a month and cut down on luxuries if I don't get a job straight after Uni, because I am staying here until my tenancy ends, which is last day of Junes midday (it sounds like checking out of a hotel).
I'm trying to think what I want to do after Uni, get a job at somewhere like at a pub, but I'll take anything. Learn how to play an instrument (watching Treme wants be to pick up the Trombone). Continue doing BJJ, but it will be much more expensive back home. I want to see if there is a theatre 'scene' as well (I have no idea, if there is), if not, I'll try to start something up. I'll make the mountain come to me.
I've been making steps into writing more over the past few days, I felt terrible at some points but carried on. Got flooded with different ideas, that could easily become similar. I will have to grow them slowly and focus on the scale that the works will be told. I have a habit when I make notes to make loads of them which start with 'perhaps', these are followed by more 'perhaps' until I have an epic on a grand scale. This means I'll have to remind myself that I'm English, and scale it down a bit.
Earlier today I started reading a blog called Project Waldo, I came across it because a beautiful looking comic called 'Nonplayer' out next month is being released (by Image, I think). The cool thing is that the auteur of the comic decided to blog his process of creating the book, I never buy singles comics but this will have to be the exception to the rule. The blog opens with the first two blogs about self doubt, more or less. That made me feel better about my worries, they seem to be equally shared between creative minds (Yeah, this sounds egotistical) and although he is successful in the sense that he has sold the project and I am just sitting in my room, no work produced. Ever. I think I can do this, I find it hard to be honest, but I truly believe I can achieve my goal.
So, I've been doing some writing by grabbing all my notebooks that I've used since first year and going through them for sketches and stand-up material. There were a few nuggets of gold, but my god, do not let me do stand-up comedy. Seriously, it isn't even funny bad. I've now got a notebook specifically for sketches and some stand-up that I guess my characters can do, terribly, especially for my sitcom that I am itching to write, but only after I have concluded work on the drama pilot. I know I can write funny, just can't say it, I'd love to be able to do what comedians like Bill Hicks, Eddie Izzard, Ross Noble, Stewart Lee and Jack Dee can do, but I guess I am a pseudo-intellectual, well I considered myself kind of smart (my friends would piss themselves at the idea that I am even that), I'm just not smart enough. Just the case of know your limits. I am considering writing all the sketches and filming them at Uni and uploading them on youtube or sending them off to a sketch show. The problem is, there are not many sketch shows that are good anymore, this area is in a coma, plus my ideas are alienating, they do have messages. Catchphrases can fuck off.
I've moved forward on my drama pilot script that is for Uni. I'm happy to be writing something again, it is so much fun for me, but I wouldn't be doing it if it wasn't. I've so far jotted down eight pages, making it twenty five pages. One problem that frequently occurs when I am writing a first draft is that the page count is not enough. I mean I am on page twenty five and a couple more scenes and I have finished the first draft. I am never sure if this is how other people write scripts or I have found a way to do this the hard way. Treatments really don't have any place in my writing, if I have to write prose-y descriptions, I get bored. These people should be yelling and making snide remarks, actors can figure out the rest of it. I realise that this is not the best approach as treatments are the preferred approach to pitching a script, I'll work on it. A common occurrence in my scripts is character with bit parts get more of a personality than I'd expect and they're only there for a minute, that is a minute for the entire character. That and characters that have been planned out change completely, one of my characters has a difficult relationship with the protagonist because of their history working together, but when you end up with references of Alice the Goon and The Wire, you know they don't have the stink-eye for one another, they are still good friends who just drifted apart. I can emphasise with this aspect, my subconscious knew better than I did and I like it. That is the magic of scriptwriting for me, sometimes it just writes itself.
I've returned to the second draft of my screenplay which is my dissertation for Uni, I've got two months to write it and as soon as I typed the start of this paragraph, fear just seeped in, man. I can do it; I just did three pages, which works, maybe not as an opening but it will stay there until I've finished the first draft of the second draft. I threw on the original opening of the movie straight after it, it is rewritten but fundamentally nothing has changed. The dialogue is better, not great. I am just grasping the characters. The original draft could never be made, you have no idea how bad it is. What surprises me was how much of a smug little bastard I was when I finished it, when in actual fact I took short cuts and didn't plot or structure it (yeah, structure isn't my strong point either). I have consolidated it into one manageable three pages of plot points to refer to. Which is refreshing. I expect the new draft to come in at one hundred pages, then I'll edit and go scene by scene working over it and making it tick, do a read through with my mates and then start a third draft. At the end of this paragraph, I am excited. This is like some kind of story arc.
Outside of writing, I've started fine tuning my life. Cutting down on telly, I've been watching some really bad shows. Using the Uni library as a blockbusters, quit running after seven or eight years (a recurring injury from last summer, I thought enough is enough. My body needs time to recover.) I am planning on returning to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu after many months off, because I suck and being able to only go to one class a week made me feel bad, people who had the ability to get to the other classes (which are in another city) were beating the shit out of me and I kept having to start all over again and that is too much like when I studied Kung Fu for four years in my teens. Thankfully there is a gym about thirty minutes walk from my house that has one or two classes a day for five quid more than the four classes I could have done per month at the other clubs. As a result of this, I'm going to have to start figuring out how much I spend a month and cut down on luxuries if I don't get a job straight after Uni, because I am staying here until my tenancy ends, which is last day of Junes midday (it sounds like checking out of a hotel).
I'm trying to think what I want to do after Uni, get a job at somewhere like at a pub, but I'll take anything. Learn how to play an instrument (watching Treme wants be to pick up the Trombone). Continue doing BJJ, but it will be much more expensive back home. I want to see if there is a theatre 'scene' as well (I have no idea, if there is), if not, I'll try to start something up. I'll make the mountain come to me.
Thursday 3 March 2011
The first monlogue.
This is hopefully the first of many blogs. It is a way to write my thoughts out, to realise what I am thinking more clearly. Or as it is more commonly known my dear diary *cough* *cough*... I mean blog, my manly manly blog.
I'm currently a univeristy student in my final year, studying screenwriting. Ever since my final year has begun, I've started thinking "what happens after Uni?" and "will I just give up when it is all over?", fears that stem from a potential future of being too lazy to do anything with my life. That explains why I've moved so far away from home, it feels like comfort, somewhere to escape to and do nothing. I decided to throw myself into the deep end. Yet, I forsee my constant inaction pushing me into a life of mundanaity. Success is scary, failure is scary, achieving nothing is scary. Overwhelmed by a looming future of nothing.
I have decided, that I have until 2015 to become a successful writer. It is not going to be easy, but what is. I have no idea what will happen if I do not achieve this by my deadline which will probably be the four year anniversary of graduating from university. Top myself? Give up? Just feel disappointed as I get through the future bin sized ben & jerry ice cream tub? Join a cult? Start a cult?
...Actually the last one doesn't sound too bad...
I'm currently going through this bout of doubt, being ill at this particular moment does not help me with a clear mind either. I just have to tell myself one step at a time. I honestly want to be a great writer and over the course, I have improved drastically, putting much more thought into what I write. Making progress but it is hard to keep going, I'm not a believer in such things as "a good writer, writes every day". That kind of comment is certified bollocks, perhaps this is a true statement, good writers do this, perhaps great writers do not write every day. It is admirable that someone can write, day in, day out. It does not work for me though. My interest in writing comes and goes and my self-belief constantly withers and resurrects. Tuesday was the first time I had written anything in a script format since November (that I care to think about.)
Never in short supply of ideas, some nutty, some less so. The same can not be said for American cinema. Quite honestly I am bored of most American films, the only films that interest me this year are Attack the Block (UK) and Animal Kingdom (Australia). Originality has jumped out the window across the pond, and product placement and "built in audiences" are the new chairmen of film. The king is dead, the new king can fuck off for all I care. Irony of "high concept" still simmers as we get our latest heeps of tentpole films, the latest flavour is aliens and It's already past its sell by date. Feel free to blame District 9 and Cloverfield for that.Great films but will leave a bad legacy, it's not their faults. Poor, defenceless fillms.
Aristotle said that imitation comes before originality, or maybe he didn't. I might've imagined it whilst I was reading The Poetics, my mind does wander. Sadly, this does not seem to apply to Hollywood, the holy grail of cinema, and the holy grail hasn't been shiny in a while. Too many people sipping from the cup in order to stay relevant, modern, but we all know that there is plenty of plastic.... This analogy was found on a side of the road, hungry, please find it in your hearts to give it a home.
Not the best start but a start none the less, it comes across like your uncle's drunken ramblings on boxing day. Hopefully the next blog will make more sense. I doubt it, I seem to be sipping on the looney juice in order to banish whatever ails me.
I could edit this, or maybe not!
I'm currently a univeristy student in my final year, studying screenwriting. Ever since my final year has begun, I've started thinking "what happens after Uni?" and "will I just give up when it is all over?", fears that stem from a potential future of being too lazy to do anything with my life. That explains why I've moved so far away from home, it feels like comfort, somewhere to escape to and do nothing. I decided to throw myself into the deep end. Yet, I forsee my constant inaction pushing me into a life of mundanaity. Success is scary, failure is scary, achieving nothing is scary. Overwhelmed by a looming future of nothing.
I have decided, that I have until 2015 to become a successful writer. It is not going to be easy, but what is. I have no idea what will happen if I do not achieve this by my deadline which will probably be the four year anniversary of graduating from university. Top myself? Give up? Just feel disappointed as I get through the future bin sized ben & jerry ice cream tub? Join a cult? Start a cult?
...Actually the last one doesn't sound too bad...
I'm currently going through this bout of doubt, being ill at this particular moment does not help me with a clear mind either. I just have to tell myself one step at a time. I honestly want to be a great writer and over the course, I have improved drastically, putting much more thought into what I write. Making progress but it is hard to keep going, I'm not a believer in such things as "a good writer, writes every day". That kind of comment is certified bollocks, perhaps this is a true statement, good writers do this, perhaps great writers do not write every day. It is admirable that someone can write, day in, day out. It does not work for me though. My interest in writing comes and goes and my self-belief constantly withers and resurrects. Tuesday was the first time I had written anything in a script format since November (that I care to think about.)
Never in short supply of ideas, some nutty, some less so. The same can not be said for American cinema. Quite honestly I am bored of most American films, the only films that interest me this year are Attack the Block (UK) and Animal Kingdom (Australia). Originality has jumped out the window across the pond, and product placement and "built in audiences" are the new chairmen of film. The king is dead, the new king can fuck off for all I care. Irony of "high concept" still simmers as we get our latest heeps of tentpole films, the latest flavour is aliens and It's already past its sell by date. Feel free to blame District 9 and Cloverfield for that.Great films but will leave a bad legacy, it's not their faults. Poor, defenceless fillms.
Aristotle said that imitation comes before originality, or maybe he didn't. I might've imagined it whilst I was reading The Poetics, my mind does wander. Sadly, this does not seem to apply to Hollywood, the holy grail of cinema, and the holy grail hasn't been shiny in a while. Too many people sipping from the cup in order to stay relevant, modern, but we all know that there is plenty of plastic.... This analogy was found on a side of the road, hungry, please find it in your hearts to give it a home.
Not the best start but a start none the less, it comes across like your uncle's drunken ramblings on boxing day. Hopefully the next blog will make more sense. I doubt it, I seem to be sipping on the looney juice in order to banish whatever ails me.
I could edit this, or maybe not!
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