Interview with the founder of BlueCat - Gordy Hoffman

Labels: general, ideas, industry, interview, market, scribosphere

Posted by scribosphere @ 12:58 AM

Some Posts For Your Consideration

Labels: characters, general, ideas, scribosphere, structure

Posted by scribosphere @ 3:28 PM

How do your characters handle conflict?

But before I go back to characters… LOL.

A big thanks to those of you posting links to articles at Screenwriting Scoop!

Almost 4,000 unique visitors so far and the tracker has some pretty impressive internet connections taking a look but I want to thank everyone for checking it out… I hope it doesn’t take ANYTHING away from your writing. By the way, if you can think of a category we might need, just let me know.

And to answer the 20 plus emails to those of you who keep wondering what my ulterior motive is for tossing up the site…

There isn’t any.

Geez. I don’t need money. I’m not selling anything. So suspicious! But that’s okay… I still thank you for the thought… LOL.

Kay. I’ve been up all night on this rewrite and I really don’t have time for a huge post but while I’ve been working, I keep wondering about the things my characters keep doing… Some surprise me… Some don’t. The ones that don’t are because these are the things I want my characters to do.

By the way… Let me get a little off track… Great stuff in the Scribosphere lately and a lot being blogged about on characters! Love seeing that!

Real quick before I head back to rewrite Hell…

I have a word processing document that I add to every so often when one of my characters handles conflict in a new way than any of my characters have handled it before…

Some of you might think it’s kinda stupid… If so, please feel free to stop reading. LOL.

On the other hand, I thought it might actually be of some help to those of you that just can’t get your characters out of BORING MODE.

The following list is by no means exhaustive… Please feel free to add your own to the comments section… I think we can all benefit from different perspectives.

One of the things that I’ve done with MY list is to develop it into OUTLINE style. This makes it real easy for me to add new bullets under specific headings or categories.

What I like about having a list at hand is that every once in a while, you get stuck, right? Okay, maybe not. I sure as hell do — and when I do, I like breaking out my list because it helps me brainstorm even more ideas…

So… Without further delay… Here’s the list:

Labels: action, characters, ideas, plot, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 2:37 PM

Give it a name…

First a quote:

Going to call him ‘William’? What kind of a name is that? Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is called William. Why not call him Bill? - Samuel Goldwyn

Naming characters is often a very personal thing with screenwriters… Some writers give it SO MUCH THOUGHT that you can immediately pick that up when you read the script. Others seem to open up a random page from the phone book and simply pick a name.

I’ve done both and guess what?

They both work.

I don’t think there’s necessarily a right way or a wrong way to name your characters… Do what your gut tells you is probably the best advice I would give someone but before asking your gut what your character’s name is, you just might want to ponder the following…

YOU’VE GOT TO KNOW YOUR CHARACTER(S).

I think too often, many of us jump right into a character name without really knowing the character. I know I’ve been guilty of that in the past. Sometimes we just KNOW the character’s name before we know anything about the character.

I’ll eventually end this rant on characters with a final post that includes all the demographics and questions I ask of my characters as well as what I refer to “backstory bits.” For now however, let’s assume that you do SOMETHING to get to know your characters. It could be creating an extensive (or not) bio or it could be that you just think about your characters all the time and while there is no right or wrong, I for one can testify that my characters became a hell of a lot more authentic almost OVERNIGHT — simply by creating an extensive bio on them.

No matter what you do to name your characters, I think the one thing we can all agree on is that your characters gotta have a name even if the name is something forgettable.

Ah… Forgettable. Hmmm. Do we really want to give our characters forgettable names? We’re writing spec scripts aren’t we? I would think that creating a forgettable name is exactly what you DO NOT want to do to your characters and yes… Not even your minor characters.

I always prefer to read a character name like FAT COP instead COP #2. Give me an image!

I’ve managed to STUMBLE on names when doing extensive research on the utilities of my plot. I’ve seen screenwriters create bios on their characters that come right out of their imagination which is fine but I’ve seen many MORE AUTHENTIC characters come out of research for the utilities of the story plot.

More authentic because the bio of the character includes the research of the utilities… By utilities, I mean the world that your story plot consists of. There may be several different kinds of WORLDS that you’re blending together in your story… So instead of creating a character out of thin air and your imagination, consider creating your character out of the research you do on the worlds that will ultimately be in your script.

I know it may seem obvious and to many it is and that’s great… You already know what you’re doing. Outstanding! For others, it’s one of the mistakes I’ve seen quite a bit i.e., they more or less have the premise of their script and based on that crumb of a premise, they start creating characters.

Again, I would say there is no right or wrong way and certainly, one could come up with some outstanding characters this way but consider creating an “open bio” on your characters… Keep it open while you do research on the different worlds that will end up in your script. The more you research, the more you’ll find those interesting backstory bits as well as style of clothing, type of car, address, habits, etc. of real-life characters already inhabiting those worlds.

Something else to ponder and keep abreast of is people in the news… Especially with all our new and upcoming celebrity “socialites” that are always in the news these days, you might want to think twice before naming one of your main characters Lindsay or Paris. LOL. By the same token, watch out for names that might help DATE your script and please please please… If your script is a period piece, make sure that any name you use was actually a name that was in existence within that time period.

MAKE IT EASY TO PRONOUNCE

Wow. This seems so obvious yet I can’t tell you how many scripts I’ve read with character names where I’ve wondered if I was pronouncing the name correctly. Talk about something that will take you right out of a story while you’re reading… Often, it might even be better to phonically spell out your character’s name instead of the usual spelling. I remember a script I wrote a few years back where one of the main character’s last name was MOTACEK – pronounced MO-TAH-CHECK.

I had a couple of meetings and more than a few telephone calls where 90% of the powers that be that I spoke with pronounced the name as: MOT-A-SECK.

What did I do?

I immediately went through the script and respelled the character’s name: MOTACHEK and then even had another character call the guy MOTORCHECK just to make sure there was no confusion.

BE CONSISTENT EVEN IF YOU’RE INCONSISTENT

I’m not gonna get into ethnic names other than to say be consistent… Do the research of the world(s) you’re going to show us and give us realistic, consistent names but be sure you’re not infringing on the names of EXISTING PEOPLE or you’re sure to get yourself in trouble later on.

Read the following article to see what I mean:

What’s in a name?

Labels: action, characters, ideas, Unk

Posted by scribosphere @ 8:50 AM

Writerly Insanity

Labels: action, general, ideas, Write Here Write Now

Posted by scribosphere @ 3:06 AM

REPRINT: You Can't Walk Into An Office Building

Writing is freedom, or so say people who don’t write. We who ply the live action screen trade are all-too-familiar with the concept of restraint. Our limitation is that annoying little aspect of life known as “reality”. I used to think the choke collar of reality would tug the hardest when I was trying to dream big.

Hah. Totally wrong.

Reality’s endless jabbing annoys the most when I haven’t been dreaming at all.

Case in point: you cannot walk into an office building.

Try having a character “walk into an office building”. That’s fine for now. It’s fine ten drafts from now. But if you’ve done your job well and the stars align, you’ll find yourself sitting across a table from the 1st Assistant Director in the production offices of the film of your movie, and he’s going to ask you what the hell you mean.

“Now, are we talking skyscraper, suburban office complex, three-office law firm type thing, is it nice, run-down, art on the walls, cheeseball, full of doctors or large businesses or crappy accountants, does it have marble on the floors, receptionist, elevator or walk-up, is it imposing, diminished, old, new, light, dark, clean, dusty, crowded, empty…”

And no matter what you end up answering, the first answer in your head…the real answer is…”Umm, I don’t know.”

Gentlemen and women, the rubber has hit the road. Welcome to production.

While it’s true that all the niggling questions of production will ultimately be determined by the director, that doesn’t mean we can’t help guide the director and the production as they create the world of the film.

No, I’m not suggesting that we write all of this stuff into a script. That would be awful. What I am suggesting is that before you find yourself face to face with the 1st A.D. (the person who’s really the field marshal of the shooting set), you prepare yourself with the answers.

There are lots of ways that we screenwriters can find ourselves disappointed with the rendering of our stories. One of the most common is the “that’s not how I imagined it!” syndrome. Oh? And how did you imagine it?

If you imagined it specifically, and by “specifically” I mean that you could have supplied the 1st A.D. or the producer or the director with a document describing in detail your imagined locations, costumes, hair styles, car makes, and all the other tiny flecks of color in your neural painting…then yeah, you get to be disappointed.

If you didn’t, then one of two things is true. Either you knew everything but decided not to speak up, in which case…your fault. Or, as is more often the case, you hadn’t really thought it through.

I am obsessive about “watching” my scenes before I write them. That’s how I’m able to prattle at length when the 1st A.D. asks me for those details. Still, he catches me every now and then, and I’m forced to say something like, “Dammit.”

It’s a scary “dammit”, by the way. It’s like someone asking me where I was yesterday, and there’s a two-hour period I can’t account for. We’re supposed to know our stories inside and out.

The point is not that we must do this to prepare for production. We must do this because it’s what makes a screenplay worth producing. No one will make a movie that seems like it could be shot anywhere with anyone wearing anything. The more you know about your world, the more it affects the story you set in that world. Do yourselves a favor. Go through your scripts like they were someone else’s, and your job was to actually go and shoot it. The only information you have is what’s on the page.

Make a list of questions.

Answer them.

And when it’s your time to sit down across the 1st A.D., make me proud, wouldja?

Labels: Artful Writer, ideas, industry

Posted by scribosphere @ 3:39 AM

Make A Successful No Budget Movie - Think S.A.N.T.A.

I’ve been trying to find a simple way for people to remember the basic principles of $1000 Movie making — the ideas we believe will allow us to make a commercially successful movie on a $1000 budget.

Then when I was busy hanging up my Christmas stocking, it hit me! Santa! Santa would help me explain.

S - Start with Story

The key to having a successful movie is about having a great idea for a story, a story people will want to see — so forget about genres, forget about what camera you’re going to shoot it on and concentrate on coming up with the perfect idea. When you’ve got that perfect idea — write a logline and test it out.

When you’ve got your story, make sure you write an outstanding Script.

A - Assess your resources — Before you start writing your script, start planning your production and this starts with a list of the resources you currently have — you’re going to need a camera, sound recording equipment, a way of controlling light, a few skilled people to operate the equipment, locations, actors, editing equipment and music for your sound track.

Your list will try to cover as many of those items as you can — and then will extend to people you know who may be able to fill in the holes.

Play to your strengths, you may not own any film making equipment or know any film makers, but maybe you know great musicians or your friends are great actors.

Then when you’ve worked out what you’ve got, Acquire the things you don’t have.

The way you do that is by inspiring the people who have the resources you need to make the film, to come on board and help. By far the best way to do this is to have a great story idea and a stunning script — nothing brings in resources faster than a hot project.

N - Never compromise, Never settle for second best, Never assume how much your film can achieve

The worst thing a $1000 film maker can do is assume that because of their budget, they’ll have to make a product which is substandard and that won’t be able to compete in the market place.

This is utter nonsense — There is absolutely no reason at all why a $1000 movie can’t achieve global cinema distribution or be the toast of Sundance.

But the only way to achieve that is to Never, ever make a decision to produce a lower quality film, based solely on financial necessity.

Which leads us neatly onto

T - Turn your disadvantages into advantages.

At the heart of $1000 movie making is this one simple idea, be creative and keep a positive attitude — and by this I don’t mean a Polly Anna “everything is rosy” kind of denial of the realities of a situation.

My experience is that every situation that occurs can be turned to a film makers advantage if they constantly ask themselves “How can I get this to work for me?”

When my first feature film bankrupted me, I thought it was the end of the my career as a film maker, instead I’ve managed to take being penniless and turned it into an advantage.

and finally

A - Advertise your movie and build an Audience

Don’t expect to be discovered, don’t expect to become an overnight success, don’t expect to get distribution for your no-name, no-budget movie if you can’t create a buzz about it.

Right from day one successful film makers think about how their movies is going to be sold — they create a demand for their movie.

So, there you have it — if you want to create a successful movie on $1000 just think S.A.N.T.A.

Story, Assess and Acquire, Never compromise, Turn adversity to your favour, Advertise to build your Audience.

//Clive Davies

Labels: $1000 Spielberg, action, ideas, plot, structure

Posted by scribosphere @ 4:44 AM

The Seven Deadly Sins of Horror (300th post)

Okay. I tried to play nice. Said I wouldn't slag off other movies. But enough is enough.

No more bad horror movies. I won't stand for it.

It is not the 1950s anymore. It's 2006. There are things you can NO LONGER DO. You don't see UFOs on wires in science fiction movies anymore, so why should we put up with the horror equivalent? We've all seen a lot of horror movies, we don't fall for the same shit that we used to. And yet writers and directors persist in treating us like fucking kids who've never seen a slasher movie before. Come on. We're adults. We're not stupid. So today, I bring you the Seven Deadly Sins of Horror, the sins that must never be committed again. I know, I know, there are many more horror movie sins than these, ones you really shouldn't be doing - but the ones here are the absolute worst of the worst, sins that there can be no excuse for. Filmmakers, consider yourself put on notice - you are all now expressly forbidden from putting ANY of the following in a horror movie:

7 - The grabbing hand: How many times have you sneaked up on a friend, walked silently right up behind them, and then suddenly grabbed their shoulder? Without intentionally trying to freak them out? And then been surprised that you scared them? Never. And yet it happens in horror movies all the time. There are no deaths coming up, but it's been 7 minutes so they have to insert a fake scare. Oh my God! A killer! Oh, wait, it's just his friend grabbing his shoulder. It's ridiculous. Same goes for the cat scare, although I really shouldn't have to say that in this day and age. Sure, sometimes we still need the fake scare trick, to build up the tension, keep the real horror off screen for a while, but you've got to do something different.

6 - Sudden attacks of deafness: If you're in a building with someone, and they wander out the door, they will still be able to hear you if you call out to them. Especially if you then go wandering around, panicking, and screaming out their name at the top of your voice. They *won't*, however, completely fail to hear you, then suddenly appear out of nowhere and make you jump, usually by grabbing your shoulder (see above). Unless they're deliberately trying to scare you. If someone vanishes and doesn't respond to shouts, then they'd better be dead or unconscious.

5 - Magic, psychic killers: Oh thank goodness, the large breasted girl has managed to put some distance between herself and the killer. Oh look, she's found a car - and it's unlocked! And the keys are in the ignition! And the engine has started, first time! Hooray! She's going to escape! I hope that the killer hasn't somehow magically teleported into the back seat, where he will suddenly pop up to stab or garrotte her. I'm sure that won't happen though, because he'd need the aforementioned teleporting skills, plus the ability to psychically predict which car she would choose. And it would make no sense to hide in the back seat, wait until she starts driving, and *then* attack her. So he probably won't do that. Oh. He did.

4 - Cars that get scared: Oh dear, the car suddenly won't start - how inconvenient, being that I am, at this very juncture, being chased by a monster. Yes, the same car that drove me ALL THE WAY UP the fucking mountain, and has been working for YEARS, has chosen THIS PRECISE moment to break down, just as I'm trying to escape - as opposed to, say, Act One, for example. How come the car never breaks down just *before* the horny, doomed teenagers leave for their road trip? If a previously healthy car suddenly won't start, it had better be because the killer has mangled it, or stuffed a dead body into the engine.

3 - Sudden attacks of clumsiness: Run! Run like the wind! Run from the killer! Oh, you fell over. Well done. Because able-bodied adults fall over ALL THE TIME, don't they? Yes, I know you need the killer to catch up for the sake of the plot, but do something else. Throw a locked door, a trap, a speeding car in the way, anything. Just don't have them fall over. It's lazy and stupid. Same goes for someone hiding, trying to stay quiet, who just happens to knock over a display stand filled with 500 metal plates. If I ever need to hide from a killer, I'm going to be as careful as I possibly can, thanks. If the character who falls over is female, you lose even more points. If she is subsequently helped up by a male character, then your bus to the 1950s is leaving shortly, be on it.

2 - Miraculous recoveries: Can we please retire this one? Please? "He's dead... oh no, he's alive!" Having the killer pop back up was a genuine surprise when Michael Myers did it in Halloween, but guess what? That was nearly 30 years ago. It's finally time to end that tradition, it's been done way too often. Come on. We need a new thing. Just leave it alone. Right, I'm finished with this paragraph. No I'm not! Booga booga booga! Okay, I am now.

And the NUMBER ONE thing that you must NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER use in a horror movie again, ON PAIN OF DEATH:

1 - Characters who don't kill the killer when given the chance: I really, really thought we'd laid this one to rest, but apparently not. Imagine you're in a real life situation, and some crazy guy has repeatedly tried to kill you. It's terrifying, your life is in danger, he WILL kill you if he can, probably torturing and raping you beforehand, perhaps wearing your skin, perhaps eating your internal organs. But oh happy day, you get a lucky break and manage to knock him out, or immobilise him. When he wakes up or frees himself, he will continue trying to kill you, and will probably succeed. But right now, you have a few minutes. Do you (a) kill him, or (b) run away, giving him a chance to come after you again? The answer is, of course, (a). You kill him. By ANY means necessary. Your gun's out of bullets? Smash his face with it. Gun too small? Sharpen it and stab him with it. No gun? Hit him with a chair. Drop heavy objects on him. Set him on fire. Run him over. If you have nothing nearby, just fucking jump up and down on his head until the skull cracks, then keep jumping until it splits all the way open, then keep jumping until it's a bloody stain on the ground. You're fighting for your life, wouldn't you do whatever you could to save yourself? Sure, the killer can have the upper hand all the way through the movie, more weaponry, traps, that's fine. But if a character gets a chance to kill the killer, they had better fucking kill him, and make sure he's dead, preferably by decapitation, head-smashing, dismemberment, or exploding. No excuses. None. End of story. This is an INSTANT movie destroyer, because it yanks you out and makes you realise that it's just a plot contrivance to keep the story going for longer, while the whole audience is screaming "kill him!" in frustration. But some filmmakers are under the mistaken impression that it's okay, that we won't notice the glaringly stupid thing the main character has just done. We will though, and the second you do it, I'm walking out, and there is NOTHING you can possibly say to me to explain yourself, so I don't even want to fucking hear it. If you think I'm that much of a fucking retard that I'll sit there and happily accept your sloppy, slapdash, half arsed piece of shit of a movie, then you can Go. Fuck. Yourself.

And there we have it. If you have the gall to allow any of these in your movie, then you obviously have no respect for us or yourself, and we will be within our rights to hunt you down and gut you like a fish. People like you are responsible for horror's bad reputation, for review quotes like "of course, we don't go to horror movies expecting a sensible plot". Don't think to yourself "oh, it's only horror, it doesn't matter", or "it doesn't need to make sense", or "only horny 12 year old boys will see it" - it DOES matter, it DOES need to make sense, and although the audience is made up of a wide variety of people, young and old, even the horny 12 year old boys won't fall for your shit. Times have changed. You'd better change with them, or make romantic comedies instead. Don't say you weren't warned.

Labels: action, characters, ideas, James Moran, plot

Posted by scribosphere @ 9:20 AM

Good Adaptations

Labels: action, Alex Epstein, ideas, plot

Posted by scribosphere @ 10:56 AM

Screenwriting Essentials

Labels: Danny Stack, general, ideas

Posted by scribosphere @ 2:19 PM

How To Market Your Film Virally

Indie film makers suffer from a serious disorder, that I call “Field of Dreams” syndrome.

“If we build it, they will come.”

Quite often film makers don’t even think about how they’ll build an audience for their film until they’ve finished post production — and when they think of it at all they tend to think in terms of finding a distributor, rather than finding an audience.

The common assumption they make is a distributor will find an audience for their film — all they have to do is make a good film and the distributor will do the rest.

It’s a hard lesson for many film makers when they discover that their film has little or no market value, simply because distributors look at their no-name, no-budget movie and say “I can’t take this on, because there is no market for it.”

But what a distributor is actually saying when they say “There’s no market,” is it would cost them more to build an audience for the movie, than they would make back in sales.

This is because film distributors think in traditional marketing terms, and traditional marketing costs money. They don’t have the time and resources to build an audience for every film that crosses their threshold - so instead they buy safe genre films, they know have the right D2DVD credentials (horror, naked women, blood, martial arts and guns).

However, any producer can change the power relationship between themselves and the distributors, simply by creating an audience for their movie before seeking distribution.

These days there are lots of opportunities for indie film producers to create audiences for their movies, but what the $1000 film maker really needs to understand it takes more than just throwing up a website and making a few “come see my film” postings on the indie film making forums.

The $1000 film maker constantly ask themselves

“How are we going to build an audience for this movie?”

Viral marketing in essence is just “word of mouth” for the 21st Century.

However, to successfully use it, you need to understand the basic principles behind it.

I think the basic principles are as follows:

* Have a high concept movie idea, one that excites people

* Find a niche interest group and target them as your core audience

* Create an interesting story about production of the film

* Start building your audience before you start your film

* Figure out what excites the audience and give it to them in your marketing

* Don’t think about marketing as a scam, give the audience value for their money

Labels: $1000 Spielberg, general, ideas, industry, market

Posted by scribosphere @ 4:31 PM

Multi-Antagonist Screenplays

I do my character development on an Excel spreadsheet, with a column for each of the key roles:

* Protagonist (good guy),

* Antagonist (bad guy),

* Mentor (wise friend),

* Stakes (non gender specific damsel in distress),

* Ally (someone to kill off at the end of the second act! LOL)

* and then several columns for supporting characters.

I then have a list of about fifteen topic areas down the left hand edge, which I use as prompts. Things like

* appearance,

* core negative beliefs,

* skills,

* motivation,

* desires,

* back-story etc. etc.

There are a lot of advantages to doing character development this way — but one of the key benefits is it makes sure you actually identify which characters in your film fulfils which role.

Most people are pretty good at picking their protagonist, but I’ve read any number of scripts where the other key roles in story-telling were far from clear.

However, recently I’ve added an extra antagonist column, because I’ve become a real advocate of the multi-antagonist screenplay.

Even when I’m writing a movie with a single protagonist I’ve discovered you can create a much better movie if you put in two completely different bad guys.

The reason I do this is because I really want to drag my protagonist through the mud — I want to make my hero suffer — and the best way to do that is give them two different bad guys to deal with.

What I’m aiming for when I do this, is to put my protagonist in a position where they are caught between a rock and a hard place. They are caught in a dilemma, a position where doing one thing may get them off the hook with antagonist “A” but will land them in even hotter water with antagonist “B.”

Having multiple antagonists is an easy way to achieve this.

Remember the greater and more hopeless the situation your hero finds themselves in, the more heroic their eventual victory, or the more tragic their eventual failure.

If you really want to increase the tension and conflict in your screenplay, then the best thing you can do is create another antagonist.

Double trouble makes for better films.

Labels: $1000 Spielberg, characters, ideas, plot

Posted by scribosphere @ 5:21 AM

You're a Lazy and Arrogant Writer

Labels: ideas, market, plot, structure, taZ

Posted by scribosphere @ 8:25 AM

Script Reading Commandments