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.
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.
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.
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