Senior Thesis- Part Eight

This week I began the editing process because I felt like I needed some time off from writing the actual screenplay. The way it is right now, I’ve written the first 50 or so pages, and now I’m editing what I have. Looking back on it, I’m not sure this was necessarily the smartest approach to editing my screenplay, especially not for someone as lazy as I am.

From all the professional writers that I’ve spoken to, it seems like people prefer to write 2-3 pages a day, and edit those before they continue. That way, you get the writing and the editing out of the way in one sitting. Both of the professionals that I interviewed said that approach works the best. When I discussed it further with my mentor, Mr.Huber, he gave me the precise reasoning behind it. He said that if you edit it after you’ve already written the entire thing, you’ll find mistakes or scenes that you want to take out, but if you take them out, you’ll be forced to change 10 other scenes because they build on that mistake.

Its a lot like that board game Jenga, that I used to play back in the day, where you’d build a stack with these blocks, and then you had to go around and take out a block one by one, until the whole thing crumbled. I feel like if I take out any scenes, I wont be able to replace them with anything better or worthwhile.

Whats more, I have so many scenes and lines which I love and that I think are necessary, but now that I’ve given my script for a few people to edit, they’ve told me to remove entire scenes. The most blunt answer that I got was from Mr.Huber when he said, “editing is something that a lot of writers dread. When you get rid of a really good line, it feels like you’re drowning one of your own kids.” As gruesome as that image was, he was right. Every time I get rid of a really good scene, I have a sort of separation anxiety for the rest of the day. The only thing that pushes me to keep editing is the thought that my screenplay will only benefit from it.

Senior Thesis- Part Seven

I’ve been writing for a few months now, and it’s not getting any easier. If I was to come up with an image or a phrase that encapsulates the process of writing a screenplay, I’d say that “writing a screenplay is like squeezing an orange”. In the beginning, it couldn’t have been easier. The slightest touch and the juices would immediately start flowing. The first few pages were the easiest. I had written the first 10 pages within the first day I sat down to write.

Then, as the weeks progressed, I had to apply a bit more pressure. The dialog was starting to become a bit stiff and unoriginal. I still had good lines, I just felt like they weren’t coming as easily to me.

Then it came to the point where I was hunting for any spots that still felt moist, any spots that still had color. I was now squeezing the white part. The hardest part wasn’t writing the scenes and lines anymore (which was still hard as hell). It was figuring out how to transition from one scene to the next. I couldn’t figure out how to go from two characters fighting with each other, to having the two of them go their separate ways. I kept writing, but I couldn’t help but feel like I was selling the scene short. It’s like there’s a movie theater in my head, constantly playing this film, and there’s a guy watching it, and he’s like “What the fuck, that’s it? That’s all that happens? That what I came to see?”

On the other hand I’m trying to avoid overwriting certain scenes. Nothing is more annoying in a movie that a scene that goes on even a tiny bit too long. The movie Superbad (2007) which I personally hold to be comedic gold, cant be considered perfect because, despite the 99% of the movie that made me laugh, there was still that tiny, miniscule, one-friggin-percent that managed to have a voice loud enough to annoy me. I would have considered the movie to be the greatest ever if the cop car scenes would have just been trimmed down a bit.

Finally, I’ve reached the point where I’m squeezing the peel. I’m really reaching for any drop I can get. I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel. What’s worse, I am not even close to the 120 page quota that’s considered industry standard for movie length. At best, im another 40 pages away. At this point, overwriting isn’t even on my radar. I’m hitting road blocks left and right. If I manage to write one or two pages, its considered a GREAT day.

So as far as achieving what I set out to do in my thesis question (Writing a successful screenplay) I don’t think I’ll even be able to come close to figuring it out on my own and translating it into my work. I do think, however, that I’ll still be able to research existing works and spot the things that work, and the things that don’t.

Senior Thesis- Part Six

Writers seem to be a lot more down to earth than other people in Hollywood. I think it’s because of the occupation itself, writers have to get used to a lot of rejection before the ever hear good news. I think that screenwriters nowadays epitomize the stereotype of a “starving artist”. One of writers I interviewed this week said that he had 88 of his stories rejected by various publishers and studios before he ever managed to write “the big one”. I don’t necessarily know if I have that kind of resilience, but I did learn something new about the field, which is what this project is all about. I always knew it was hard to be a writer. But I honestly had no idea it was that hard. Part of the reason for that is because I figured, If you have talent, than no matter what, someone will eventually realize it and start paying you.

Looking back on it, I guess I didn’t have to interview anyone to find that out. I could have simply gone to the box office and see how much crap is out there, in front of millions of moviegoers. For example, how come a movie like Made of Honor (2008) staring Patrick Dempsey gets to be produced, but other films like I-Robot (2004) spend ten years in a studio drawer collecting dust before they ever get produced and filmed. More than anything, I’ve learned that being a successful screenwriter is a borderline impossible task. I’m like Socrates in the way that I’m just realizing how little I know now.

Not to spoil my interviews, but I found that the successful writers out there struggle with the same type of issues that I do, and that I’m not alone. Even other aspiring writers who I’ve talked to on various forums and websites have said the same thing, sometimes it just isn’t there. Sometimes you do run out of ideas, you do run out of stuff to say. The thing is, the ability to push forward and continue writing despite that is what seems to separate the ‘aspiring’ writers from the plain old fashion writers.

Senior Thesis- Part Five

Despite all the books I’ve read, all the screenplays I’ve seen, and all the movies I’ve watched, nothing has taught me more about writing a screenplay than actually sitting down and writing (for 3-5 hours at a time). Its one thing to have an idea in your head that sounds nice, that sounds like a good movie. It’s another thing to actually sit down and try to write it out into a hundred minute movie (industry standard).

I’ve already talked about how much time I spent preparing a storyboard and a treatment before writing the screenplay itself. But after spending time writing the screenplay, it felt like I didn’t prepare at all. At first, I only put in the dialog which I thought was absolutely necessary to move the story along. After a week of this, however, I realized that I was going to be short by about 40 pages (that’s forty minutes for those of you keeping score). This actually put me into panic mode because it meant that I wouldn’t have a finished product, I wouldn’t have a movie that I’d be able to sell to the typical production company. So to pinpoint the problem, I decided to watch a few movies and find out what I was missing from my own.

I was actually surprised that I didn’t realize this sooner. After watching a few films, it jumped out at me. Not every seen need’s to be there. I don’t mean that directors put in scenes for no reason and that the movie is better off without them. I mean that in most movies, not every scene in the movie needs to move the story along. Some scenes are just there. They don’t contribute the story and they aren’t plot driven.

This doesn’t mean that those scenes need to remain purposeless necessarily. In some cases, though the scene isn’t crucial to the plot, it might be crucial to understanding the personality of a certain character. An example off the top of my head would be in Iron Man, where Tony Stark (Robert Downey) is at a charity banquet, dancing with his assistant (Gwyneth Paltro), and they make small talk while he gazes into her eyes. This scene has nothing to do with his metamorphosis into Iron Man, or his fight against evil. But it does show the viewer a certain side of Stark that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. It shows the viewer that despite his reckless behavior and his blaze attitude, he is capable of having emotions, particularly warm ones which are not typical to a weapons maker. It also somewhat contributed to his metamorphosis into a more heroic-like character. Before hand, he wasn’t really a good guy; he just wasn’t a bad one.

So after picking up on little techniques and nuances like this one, I’ve begun to insert scenes like this into my own movie. It still like my movie will be short a few pages, but I’m more aware now and I’ll have something more presentable. One thing that I know for sure, even after I’ve presented this project to a panel, I still won’t consider my movie to be 100 percent done. It has a long way to go before it’s worthy of the silver screen.

The Treatment

I know a lot of people have no clue what my screenplay is even about, so I decided to put up a link to the original treatment I wrote. This is actually just a bunch of disorganized thoughts I had that I wrote down before I'd forget them. This will give you an idea as to what my screenplay is about. Hope you enjoy!

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dff9wxf7_34gbdf6rfw

Senior Thesis- Part Four

Its been a bit of an adjustment, writing a screenplay after I’ve been writing short stories for so long. So much of my highschool writing has been geared towards writing in what now seems like a very specific style. With stories and other creative writing endeavors, I prided myself on the fact that I could describe so many scenes using fancy words and descriptions, but in a movie, people cant see words or descriptions, they can only see the character himself. In a book or a short story, I can actually write what the character is thinking. I don’t have that same liberty with a screenplay.

Another new facet that I’m getting used to is using juxtaposition in my characters dialog. In a book, I can tell you everything you need to know about a character whenever I want to. In a movie, the only information you’ll ever get is going to come from the characters themselves within their dialog. Viki King gives a good example in her book:

Frank:
Hows your wife? You haven’t brought her around lately.

Ralph:

She’s fine. Did you hear Jack’s getting a divorce?

She shows that just from this short exchange, you can guess the relationship between Ralph and his wife. I knew about the power of subtly a long time ago, but the experience of writing a screenplay has really taken it to a whole new level. Its much harder than I thought it would be from that aspect. I’ve had to adapt myself to the style, and nothing I’ve ever written before has really prepared me for this.

Aside from that, I’ve actually been having a progressively easier time writing my screenplay. At first, I really overanalyzed everything. When I sat down to write, I thought, “every line has to be perfect, cause then this baby is gonna win me an Oscar”. I sat down, and after 2 ½ hours, I only had about 6 pages (to get an idea, each page is about a minute in ‘screen time’) so I only squeezed out 6 minutes of a movie after 150 minutes of effort. And then I thought back to the lessons I picked up in the books I read.

I already have a basic structure of the movie written out. I have the story itself, and I have an idea what is going to be on screen for pages 1, 3, 10, 30, 45, 60, 75, 90, and 120 (arbitrary mile stones that are spread out through the movie). The dialog doesn't have to be golden, it just has to move the story along. I figure, I’ll let a consultant hammer out the rough parts and refine it once I hit it big time, or worst comes to worst, I’ll get Mr. Huber fix it up when he reads it. Either way, I’ll be leaving the nitty gritty to the experts.

Senior Thesis- Part Three

This week I started reading books that were more oriented towards the “how to” of screenwriting. As recommended by my mentor, I picked up two books in particular; How to Write a Movie in 21 Days by Viki King, and Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee. So far, I’m just about finished with King’s book, and it’s really taught me a lot about starting a screenplay that I didn’t really know beforehand. More importantly, it’s taught me a lot about how I can “get the juices flowing” and approach any creative task. After reading her book and looking back, the way I used to write my movies actually seems shortsighted now. I used to just start the screenplay itself, with some vague idea of a story floating around my head, and make it up as I went along. This would lead to a lot of bumps along the way. I would write until I reached a point where I would say, “what happens next?” and I’d be completely lost. I would “take a break” from the writing to try and figure out the rest of the story in my head, and I’d lose interest in the project completely.

King’s book actually managed to break the process of screenwriting into a series of steps that are pretty easy to follow. She spends as much time preparing to write the screenplay as she does actually writing the screenplay itself. She suggests that you need to be able to visualize the story in its entirety before you ever begin writing it. King also forces the writer to ask himself a lot of questions in the process, like “How can you tell if your idea is a movie, a novel, a play, or a song?” and she actually goes through ways to identify each one. She also asks questions like, “Who is it about? Does your age play any role in the subject you chose? Etc.” Aside from the story itself, she also insists that the writer “get acquainted” with the characters themselves by putting them in different situations and asking “what would he/she do?”

As brilliant and fresh as the book is, however, it does have its shortcomings. First off, the style of writing gets a bit obnoxious at certain points, and it feels like it’s written as more of a self-help book than a guide to writing. King tries to keep things fresh by adding little jokes or puns, but it makes the book sound way too corny. And considering she’s a writer, she falls into a basic trap and makes a rookie mistake in the beginning, where she spends the first 15 pages of the book telling you what the book is about. It’s sort of like self-hype. Most of all, the premise of the book itself is pretty arrogant if you think about it. The book claims to have the secrets to writing a successful screenplay. The first sentence of the book is, “So you want to write a movie? You’ve come to the write place!” I asked myself, if it is this easy, why isn’t everyone a successful screenwriter? It’s not like this book a secret, after all. And 21 days? Purists of the art will tell you that a great idea takes months, even years, to sharpen into a screenplay worthy of production.

I guess I’m just being a stickler, but all I can say for certain is that this book has given me some perspective as far as writing. It’s really essential that I ask myself all these questions while I’m writing because, after all, who knows better than I do about what I want to write. Plus I have to be able to defend my ideas from other sticklers out there like me.