Stage to Screen, Screen to Stage

Tsk. Kids today. Metal music. Writing things on the ground in blood.

A lot of people have been reporting on the Screen adaptation of Yasmina Reza's Tony Award winning play God of Carnage, as a cast was finally confirmed; Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, Christoph Waltz, and Matt Dillon (who's role I'm hearing might actually be recast, we'll see), & to be directed by Roman Polanski.

Yeah, I guess I won't get political here, but I'm not excited about Roman Polanski directing it (ohhh how plebeian, amiright? - overlook it, he's an artist!) . It'll be filmed in France as he's a fugitive here, but it looks like the play will still be taking place in Brooklyn as per the American adaptation, despite the fact that the original play, Le Dieu du Carnage was French and took place in France as far as I know. But yeah, American audiences and the like.

The play is coming to The Goodman Theatre this season, so I'll see it in a few months, but I haven't yet. Thus, I don't know what Reza is talking about when she says

Did you write a separate screenplay?
No. He wanted to mainly follow the play, so we decided to change the beginning and to end in a slightly different way, and we were in the process of making some changes in the middle, but mainly the same.

Playing Pretend: Poll

EDIT: Do you guys see the poll or is it not showing up and I'm hallucinating? Because sometimes it's there, and sometimes it isn't. If it stinks, just respond in the comments.

This is where a Playing Pretend blog of it's own would come in handy; I want to talk improvisation - the awful set I did in class and then particularly talk about my own mistakes in an audition I had, but I feel weird coming to Throwing Ink to do it. So for those people I *know* read the blog (blogger stats got my back yo, I know y'alls exist - comment once in a while so I don't feel so lonely! Also, publicly follow! Seeing your avatars on my page also makes me feel cozy and loved and less lonely just like comments do!) I present to you a poll:

           

If I get mostly "yes"es I'll probably change the subheading of the blog to... I dunno yet, and I'll feel safe posting more theatre-y stuff.

I was going to write about the improv in this here blog post but the wind got taken out of my sails a bit by having to make a quick exit out of the physical location where I was originally blogging from. Also, I got emailed a call back for that audition I mentioned (yay!), and while I still want to talk about the improv mistakes I had and what I learned from it (and how it applies to writing), I'm going to wait a bit. I'm preoccupied right now and want to get this poll up.


Note: If the poll isn't showing up, it asks:  "Would you be okay with my including more acting/theatre stuff in this heretofore "screenwriting" blog?"
Options are:
"Yes - hearing about acting and theatre will be interesting and helpful!"
and
"Hells No! - This piece be called Throwing Ink - A Screenwriting Blog for a reason!"

Feel free to respond in the comments if the poll is a fraud.

Playing Pretend - Pacing

Here at Throwing Ink, I'll occasionally be talking about theatre (and often connect it to film craft) as it's my other "thang". I was going to do it in a whole separate theatre blog, but... that didn't make a lot of sense for me - I have little time to blog as it is and don't want to go a month without new posts in one blog because I'm posting all in the other one. Plus, they connect. I'll be calling these segments "Playing Pretend" and will have a little fun logo eventually. But for now...

She's gonna hurt her eyes, embroidering in poor light like that...

While stage plays and screenplays are certainly different beasts, they share basic qualities of story telling. These are are stories which are written primarily in dialogue, on average are told in roughly two hours, and are performed and meant to be watched. While stage plays are far more limited in it's opportunities for visual settings and effects, scene changes, and general scope, I think the qualities that make for a good film, story wise, will usually make for a good play and vice versa. Why is it, then, that plays seem to often get a pass with poor pacing? Not that all film has a handle on it either - art and indie films in particular often fall into a pacing mud puddle, but it's as if because supposedly "cultured" and "intelligent" people like theatre and art and indie films the audience is meant to overlook the poorly measured acts and lack of forward story movement; that we should pat ourselves on the back because it means we have a greater attention span and appreciation for something more cerebrally demanding. But a good story is a good story.

What Has Happened To Me?

She's got laser eyes. She knows what you're thinking.

Where have I been?

At Go Into The Story, Scott posted an interview with Chris Provenzano and C. Gaby Mitchell, writers of the currently in theaters movie, Get Low. And I read it.

I knew absolutely nothing about this movie.

I saw the poster last week when I passed by Landmark Theater on my way to buy a cookbook from Borders. It caught my attention, but for only a second, and probably only because I had never heard of the film. It's not a very good poster, and the only thought I really had besides "Whoa, hey Robert Duvall, haven't seen you in a while" and "Oh, Sissy Spacek" was "... Get Low? Like... Lil' Jon "Get Low""?

Public Service Announcement

Pitiful! Just Pitiful!

These are my new glasses. Kanye said they tight. New trend. 2011.

Nathaniel over at Film Experience Blog posted here about this NYTimes article here, talking about TV vs Film and whether Film sucks right now, compared to TV.
I agree with what Nate said, basically that they're comparing the best of tv with the lesser of film, and a bunch of other things. Read his stuff yourself. What I want to get around to saying is, the article/blogpost particularly caught my attention because just last night, I texted to my boyfriend that I needed to become a better cinephile - I watch far more tv series (not on actual television mind you - internet & DVD o'course) than films. The hours I dedicate to television is at least 1000% that of film (seriously, at least - it's probably more like 5000%, maybe more)- and this isn't a matter of spending $11 at the theater - the majority of dvds in my collection are movies I haven't seen! I buy them at $5 and then let them dust. And to better illustrate the severity of my problem, here is what I've watched in the last 4 weeks or so (now with math!):

I Think I'm Back Again. Again.

Self Portrait

I dropped out of blogging due to computer problems, but then shame on me - I never came back (and then the computer malfunctioned even worse a couple months ago and I lost my writings - I think it was punishment for my extended break).

But I'm back again, again. And this is what I'm doing to really get back:

1) Reading my blog roll! I haven't looked at some most any of these for months (I'm awful). 

2) Re-Rewriting the screenplays I lost in the fire hard drive failure.

3) Compiling a list of movies that affect me, reading those screenplays.

4) Reading the new screenplays all the cool bloggers are talking about.

5) Compiling motivational soundtracks (yeah.) Edited to Clarify: Not like, "Eye of the Tiger" and "You're the Best Around", though I have one of those too, but like, mood music for the screenplays I'm working on.

So, all you kids who are bad, like me, and not doing the things you should be doing, Get On That! It's fall, losers, back to school time. The school of life and hard knocks. Word to your mother.

And P.S. The soundtrack isn't procrastinating if John August says you should do it, right?

Comments on Another's Rundown

Over at Script Shadow we have this week's Weekly Rundown. These are the bits that caught my attention, and a few brief thoughts on them.

First, a King Arthur movie to be helmed by Guy Ritchie is in the works. It'll be written by John Hodge (Trainspotting). Variety Article.

The first thing I thought was "weren't there a couple big budget King Arthur movies like, 5 years ago?"

FRENZY!!!! (or RomComs: A Discussion)

No, the frenzy isn't in reference to a zombie horde feasting on the masses. It's... 

 

I know I've posted about NaNoWriMo in the past, but truth be told that never works out because novel writing doesn't really seem to be my thing. However! Script Frenzy is this April and I will be writing my first feature length screenplay! (Yay!) Also, very surprising to me, I will be writing a RomCom. I've never really had intentions of writing one in the past but this story really seems the best choice for me for my first feature.

I've started plotting it out, and currently my plan is to have the story nicely set out in index cards before April. In addition to plotting, I think I need to examine a couple of the better romcoms to set me on the right foot, through both reading and watching. Hopefully, in the end I'd be able to produce a kind of stereotypically audience gender neutral one, like 40 Year Old Virgin or Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It seems like the key to that is to have a solid bro contingent with a healthy dose of sex and sex jokes. I wasn't really planning on adding a whole lot of sex to mine, but I won't be surprised if I make that decision further down the road, during rewrites. There's certainly room for it, character and story-wise. I do, however, have a good, humorfull, broscape that is central to the story.

Shake It Up, Bisques!

Here's the thing. I'm pretty certain knowing y'alls some o' that Shakey - that ol' Bard of Straford on Avon - will always serve you in some way, particularly in the entertainment industry. In screenwriting, it can bring you round to that oh, so coveted "same but different" screenplay, it is rife with characters and situations you can steal borrow, and isn't it just good to know where shit came from? Plus, most of the country isn't up on it's Troilus and Cressida, so as long as you aren't writing another Romeo and Juliet you're probably fine. No, strike that, there's a new Romeo and Juliet spin constantly. Besides, his stuff is just an awfully good place for reminders of basic story plots. Like the Star Crossed Lovers™ .

2010 Oscars - Animated Short

Hey readers. Last night was the Oscars (o' course). My discovery: I saw an embarassingly low number of any of the nominated films, any category. However, most years I see zero of the shorts, which, you know, zero is less than few or ambiguous "low number" (I saw more Tony nominees this year I think, than Oscar nominees, which is a first).

So, submitted for the approval of the midnight society, I call this blogpost...

Don't you miss Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Ahhhhh Sh*t

I absolutely love this work of James Jean's.

...and that is exactly how things go with me. Somehow, I can't just grab shit and run forward like it always seems my peers can do, I have to make things complicated for myself. So out of that one can (maybe) ascertain my sudden drop of updates. Or not. I've excuses like a kidnapper has candy but neither are good for anybody, are they? Not me and the kidnapper (though the kidnapper, no not good) but I'm referring to the candy and excuses. Well, candy from kidnappers, candy is good on it's own. In moderation, you know, yadda.

SO!

Step Outlines For the Win!

Totally purloined the image off some poor website in google images. Thanks ::checks link:: GlobalNerdy.com It's cute though, and I wanted it.

So, Step Outlines.

As I found in the last short screenplay I wrote, they can be a very helpful little monster, these outlines, and not just for screenplays. If you know what they are and haven't been using them, give them a whirl and see how it influences your work. I'm one to skive off of a lot of prep work, and generally think I don't need it, but boy howdy step outlines helped my mediocre "writing it because I need something to turn in" short.

If you do know and do use, well, I dunno, it's up to you whether or not you want to read this post (versus the rest of you who are supernaturally compelled, apparently, because only those who presently use step outlines are given the choice). However, before you click away from my page, I don't know how you do step outlines, but in the brief internet search I did, people's how to's (I don't think the apostrophe in the "to" of "how to" is appropriate, but it's easier to read) were different than the method I use, so you may want to stick around regardless. For those who do not know what a step outline is or how it might help you...

This is how they work:

Screenplay pReview: Source Code

I don't want to say director Duncan Jones looks like Peter Pettigrew in this picture but... well, he looks kind of like Peter Pettigrew in this picture.

Anyway, Source Code, the screenplay that's been kicking since 2007 that everyone and their momma loves and will likely finally be in production early next year (Jake Gyllenhaal in negotiations to star).

I thought it was good. *shrug*

It's billed as a sci-fi/thriller and yeah, it's a good script. A really good script. I wasn't bored once and that, in my novice screenplay-reading experience, means something. Whether it's because I'm new to the screenplay format and it takes a little extra work to fully immerse myself in, or whether I've just been reading crappier screenplays, I start getting antsy and distracted half way through them. This one I didn't.

The problem is, to me, it read like it would play out like any other blockbuster action/suspense movie of the modern age and since I came into it expecting sci fi... well, I was disappointed.

Book to Screen: The Lovely Bones

Alright, it's about time to get down with my first Book to Screen post, something I think will be a recurring, though not necessarily regular, segment.

Here is a part of my Goodreads review (which was short to begin with), which basically says my thoughts on the book.

I felt the book was like a sentimental drama thriller, without the usual melodrama that accompanies stories of this type. It's like an "easy listening" suspense story, if you know what I mean. That doesn't mean it's cheap or sappy, not at all. I enjoyed it a lot and it affected me emotionally but it was a comfortable ride, for the most part, despite the horrors that occurred within the story.

I enjoyed the book. I give it a 3.3ish out of 5.

Now the screenplay by Fran Walsh, Phillipa Boyens and Peter Jackson (who seems to only do adaptations). Trying without spoilers.

A Quick Lesson from Mira Nair

I love Mira Nair. I admit, I don't know her work well at all. I've only seen Monsoon Wedding (which she directed and produced) and Vanity Fair (which she directed and I saw when it came out and I didn't like it). But my love comes all from Monsoon Wedding. It is one of my favorite movies (and there really aren't really many things I will right out call "favorites," I'm too loving to name names and too indecisive to commit) and I adore it whole heartedly. (Note to self: Put Mira Nair movies to top of Netflix list. Hurry and go see Amelia.)

Here is a quick lesson from Mira Nair, via Third World Girl over at Three Hole Punched, who attended the IFP's Independent Film Conference in New York where Mira Nair spoke (Bobby said, that Sally said, the Jimmy said... Yes, my through the grapevine/telephone game paraphrase lesson from Mira Nair). I looked for a direct quote on the internet for a couple minutes and came up with nothing helpful. So here is the he said/she said version of it. Thanks Third World Girl.

Don't "anthropoligize" or explain too much culturally. If you watch Monsoon Wedding you'll see how much you're thrust into the action. There's no expositional dialogue about why we dress this way or wear this henna, or sing this song. There's no outsider leading you through the action and the work is all the richer and more authentic for it.

Pledges

These are U.K. aerosols by the way.

Anyway, I'm swallowing books like they're very very large candies so I figure I ought to read screenplays as well. I pledge to read at least 1 screenplay a week. Not as if that should be a hard promise to live up to, they only take a couple of hours to read. It's just tedious reading them off the computer and I feel badly if I print them out. I think I'll have to see if I can read them in a 2page per 1 format and then use both sides.

I was looking for a copy of The Lovely Bones screenplay, as I'll be done with the book soon and the movie's coming out but I couldn't find it.

Book Review: A Long Way Down

A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don't want to add every book review I do on Goodreads up here, but seeing as I did the other Nick Hornby review up here, I felt I should put this one here too. Also, it's an update, when otherwise I have nothing to share.

I loved this book. I'll be rereading it some time in the future.

This book is written in the first person view of 4 individuals. Each time the narration changes, the writing is imbued with the personality of the one telling the story, which is of course how it should be, but it's wonderfully done.

Book Review: How to Be Good

How to Be Good by Nick Hornby


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is the first Nick Hornby novel I've read and I've put him on a list of authors to look for in the used bookstore.

This book was swift and fun to read. I get excited whenever I see an interesting female lead in a novel, particularly one written by a man, and this story's female lead is wonderful. She's witty and clever, as well as selfish enough (in the suddenly apparently selfless world she's found herself in)to be entertaining while retaining relatability. I found her charming and layered.

All the characters in the book are surprisingly dynamic, including the two young children of the main character, Katie Carr, and her husband, David. In many reads, children have little personality and are only there for a foil to work against or tools to make drama. However these children, Tom and Molly, are funny, reactive, and well rounded. They do well in putting the adult's strange world into perspective.

There are some great observations, some great lines. I liked this one particularly:

Love, it turns out, is as undemocratic as money, so it accumulates around people who have plenty of it already.

The Return of Me

Sorry non-existent readers in the ether! I had disappeared for some time, as I had predicted. It all came on far sooner than I had hoped.

Update on my writing:

I have written a short screenplay that needs more work. It is currently at 15 pages and contains an ending I am somewhat unsatisfied with but at this moment do not know how to change for the better.

I am currently enrolled in a screenwriting class and a fiction writing class. I have written many a short piece for the fiction writing class. Until recently, I had been convinced I was over fiction writing; That it wasn't for me, I wasn't built to wax on about sight and smell and sound and scape in literature.

Things change.

I'm happy in the class and I'm happy in writing. It takes... discipline. Discipline is not one of my greater talents; I have discipline better than some, worse than many, but if I can somehow make myself into a person that writes rather than can write, well, I think it's something I worth striving for. I may construct myself into a person who wakes up at 4:30 am every morning to write for two hours or... who knows what. It's something I'm looking into, considering.

It is one week before NaNoWriMo officially kicks off, and I have designs on winning it (that is to say, complete the challenge). I want to write a 50k word piece of fiction. To have that under my belt. To know I can do it.

I'm not sure what on. Yet. "But," as Betty Draper says "I do have thoughts."

Character Voice and Speech Patterns

I just read Woody Allen's Annie Hall screenplay and it was kind of weird. It was like the text was transcribed after someone had spoken the words. What I mean is, there were so many stuttered words in the dialogue, "ums," sentences starting over half way through, overlapping dialogue. Here's a piece of random dialogue: