Side Characters

I don't know why my brain produces these, but for some reason it creates side characters who have just one scene and disappear. Perhaps it is freeing to do this. Build up a character in a matter of a few actions and lines of dialogue with no expectation or real bearing to the story.

Perhaps it is my way of saying in a script to the protagonists that the world doesn't fucking revolve around them, despite it actually revolving around them. Take them down a peg or two.

PTSD

It's been a week and I can't get over what I learnt and experienced. The problem is I now hate my job. For all the inane thigs that didn't bother me, now piss me off. I've seen what is possible and this job is dragging me down. 

It is clear to me, that it is not possible to obviously find a job in the industry I want, but also to find a way to grow. However, as things go on I have noticed I usually slow down for a bit, then get back on track. The problem is that I do not have a map to guide me in the areas I want to grow. 

The only logical next step is to come up with a map to become who I want to be, to figure shit out. Let it be said that the "perfect me" is not an assortment of magazine articles formed into a mesomorph on a conveyor belt in a really nice suit, oh no. It is in fact an abstract avatar as I do not know what the end product might be... In a really nice suit.

I've figured out the categories and now I have a syllabus to construct. I have signed up at the university of me, where I shall be studying for a bachelors, a masters and then a PhD. Then I can pretty much get  a job there as lecturer. Get tenure. All that kind of crap.

Thoughts on film school

If I could afford the money to do just a year at film school, I would throw myself into it. I would sacrifice a lot of today's expectations: three meals a day, Internet, TV all that just to learn and grow.

We wannabe screenwriters write way too much action for them actors. They'll be happier to find their own interpretation of punching someone that isn't:

"Earl throws a hookercut onto Steve, a hybrid of uppercut and hook. It lands directly onto his chin"

They can figure it out for themselves.

If you're getting used to filmmaking and don't have much time, don't sweat the small stuff. All those fancy angles and shots that you want, will probably not happen, just shoot the fucking thing quickly and move on. 

Everything should be planned out. Rehearse, prepare.

If you are using a camera that records digitally, then you don't need two takes of the same angle. I tint works, it works.

The editing phase really is when you get to control the story.

Sound is king, get the sound right and everything else can kind of suck.

Have fun.

Please don't tell actors how to do things and explain the "subtext".

When I asked the actors to show me how they would do the scene, they did it their own way. Better than I would direct them, so I said "okay, let's do that". Because I could not make them better, but worse and the weather was bound to take a turn. I am not an acting teacher, it would be like stories of script meetings where a person in pr or some other department begins to make inane suggestions.

Man, I wish I could go to film school.

Failure #4

I had the chance to direct a scene yesterday. My direction worked in ways and failed in knowing what I wanted exactly, then missing some coverage shots of the area, due to rain.

It came together quite smoothly in the editing though.

Wow

I am exhausted from a weekend of film school. Almost 18 hours of non-stop work, and I loved every second of it.

It was actually the best weekend of my life, I learnt so much that gives me enough confidence to become a filmmaker. I am floored by what the actors could do with what seemed like a very simplistic script. 

I wish I had the money to go back to film school next week and start a one year course.

There is so much I could write about the experience. So much.

It would be pathetic to go back to my job and not do anything with this new training, wouldn't it?

Failure 3

The failure to act. To endure procrastination in the works or other people. To not progress, to grow stagnant.

That is my chief failure. That is everyone's chief failure.

I always know what I am going to do, but I never act upon it. A shame for the sperm and the egg that "won".

I

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I.

That is the entirety of the blog, no need to read anymore.

The Larry David Method

Pretty sick of writing scripts for today. Slowly getting to another point in my life where it is time to change... Again. Because changing is fun, and I'm a little bitch with change, so it proves interesting and provides material where I can write characters in funny situations and pretend I came up with it. This is known as The Larry David Method.

The Larry David Method is the writer's version of the Stanislavsky acting method. You go out, fuck up in abundance, feel stupid. Go home, laugh at yourself, and then try to sell someone fucking up in the same way as you did.

I think more people would read this (not that I care) if I put more pictures in it.

First Draft

Lars

(Breathlessly)

Thanks.

Lars looks around and notices a RECEPTIONIST in her forties and another fifty something man JULIAN. 

Receptionist  

Does it smell?

Lars

Yes.

Receptionist

God's green earth! Do you see what I mean? Some people need to sort out their diet.

Receptionist pulls a can of air freshener from beneath her desk and walks around it and out of the reception and closes the door.

We can see through a tiny pane of the door and hear the "SHUHHHH!" of the air freshner and it sprays out white gas.

Receptionist (CONT’D)

(Muffled)

It bloody stinks out here!

Receptionist opens the door and walks back to her desk.

Receptionist (CONT’D)

How are we supposed to make a good impression to clients if they walk into a cloud of that?! I swear Julian, this is going to cost so much in aerosols. You need to talk to security.

Julian

I did. The building is responsible for the toilets, not the companies. As such anyone on any floor can use any toilet on every floor. We can't stop them. Some people are so boring they play toilet bingo, trying to use the facilities on every floor.

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Just working through my first draft as of Monday. I was so happy to be done with the treatment that came to 26 pages. The funny thing is I didn't include the end sequence, because that would've took 26 pages. 

As I continue, I don't need to look at my treatment as I know the piece intimately now, and just look back at it now and then. Spending all this time on it, writing on index cards and all other things, I must've written 90 pages on it, before I even started.

However, now I have started and it is good to be back. Writing screenplays feels good. It's not perfect, but it's the first draft. 

The beginning of the piece was the hardest, I just hit a wall straight away. Now I am almost knee deep in it and have hits my stride as the screenplay is going in the direction it is supposed to. A lot of foreshadowing at the moment. 

I 'm at page 34 at the moment. I have about another hour of writing left in me today. The thing I am struggling with is finding the main character's voice and the fact that he seems to be a victim or witness to things, rather than an instigator. I know events change this in the screenplay, but I get the feeling if someone read this, they would chuck it away quickly.

I should finish the draft somewhat soon. Then in two weeks, off to film school to learn the basics of filmmaking.