Where do your screenplays take place?

It has occurred to me as strange that my screenplays take place in the USA, with the exception of one which is 50% UK, 50% USA. As I live in the England, I find that a little strange.

I'm trying to get a handle on this and come up with a UK based screenplay, but every new idea I invent seems to be based in the USA. I don't know about the rest of you, but when I am inventing a screenplay in my head, I am imagining how it will appear on the big screen. For some reason I just don't see the UK on the big screen.

Has the British film industry suffered that much lately? I know that British films have done alright over the past few years, but every one of them seems to come sort of label like "The best British film since …....". As if that label alone will make me see it. They seem to attempt to make it trendy to want to go see the film. Anyone who knows me will tell you that if something is perceived as trendy, I will avoid it like the plague. I hate following sheep.

Perhaps the fact that with almost every film in the cinema is set outside the UK, I have been brainwashed into thinking of the big screen in that way.

I'm trying to come up with a British film I really liked. The only one I can think of is 'Shaun of the Dead'. 'Love Actually' was ok, but it just seemed like 101 short films rolled into one feature length film.

Anyway, maybe a UK based screenplay idea will pop into my head tomorrow :)

lasertastic!

I haven't really told this to many people I don't see on a day to day basis:

I've finally plucked up the courage and had my eyes zapped. I can now see!

So if you see me without glasses, well now you know :)

Later

C

Rotten Apple?

I forgot to post this when I wrote it, so it is a few days old now…..

Apple must be stupid. You think up a product, submit a patent and them manufacture it! No variation on that order.

It seems they launched the iPod without taking out a patent. Microsoft noticed that and said "Ohh, we'll have that then!". Now it turns out Apple may have to pay Microsoft up to $6 in royalties for each iPod sold.

Apple are fuming and crying foul, but to me it seems that it's their own fault as they should have known better.

I'm not sure how it will work out in the end, but doesn't Microsoft own 30% of Apple anyway?

Robert McKee???

I'm not quite sure why so many people rave about Robert McKee's book (Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principals of Screenwriting).

When I visit screenwriting forums or newsgroups, everyone says this book is a must have. I bought it and started to read. My first comments were "My God this is dull", but I stuck at it for a while. After that while I gave up and put it down.

To me it seemed more aimed at someone who wants a third party view of how this particular person views the writing process, rather than a book that will teach you how to write screenplays. Perhaps it got to the nitty gritty soon after the point where I stopped reading. If that is the case has he not broken the golden rule; get the readers attention and interest from the start? Maybe his seminars are different but the book just didn't do it for me.

I get the feeling that in the screenwriting world it is trendy to swear by that particular book.

Perhaps I'm the rebel writer, or maybe I just prefer books that get right to the point. I have read about three other books on the subject that I found really helpful. I'll post the titles soon if they aren’t at the bottom of some box (we are moving house at the moment).

Disclaimer: Please don't take offence if you do happen to think that book is great. What do I know, he's sold a shed load more books than I have screenplays :)

Write! With what?

I posted about this on a forum the other day and thought I'd include it here.

I saw another one of those "Which screenwriting program should I buy" posts the other day. I asked the same questions when I started out and various answers like Final Draft, MMS (Movie Magic Screenwriter), Microsoft Word and Notepad came back to me.

I have since purchased a copy of MMS which does the job fine, and that's ok as I know I would love to write for a living so it was worth spending the money. However these posts come from people who are thinking about dipping their toe in the screenwriting pool. They know they would like to write a screenplay, but they probably don't know if they will be able to see it through.

Here is my answer to that question and it's one I wasn't given:

Buy an A4 pad of paper and a pen. Why spend £180 or so on a screenwriting program when you can spend £1.99? Write it out on paper first. If you see that process through to the end and have a finished screenplay, then it may be worth spending more money on some software.

I'm writing my current screenplay on paper. When it is finished I will type it up, moulding it as I go. When I have finished, hey-presto, I'll have a second draft!

When writing a first draft on the computer I find it hard to keep the flow going. I suppose I feel that because it is on the screen in the correct format, everything has to be perfect story-wise before I move on to the next page. There is no flow in that. Write a mess on paper the first time round (at least one you can decipher) and let the story flow.

Explicit Lyrics

Does anyone know the rules regarding explicit lyrics on CDs here in the UK?

I bought the James Blunt album the other day whilst in town with my 2 year old daughter. I got in the car to drive home and thought I'd put it on. Anna-Louise is nodding her head to the music in her car seat when the word 'fucking' came out of the speakers. I turned the stereo off and waited for the inevitable "What does fucking mean daddy?" Luckily she never asked.

Now I didn't remember an explicit lyrics sticker on the case when I bought it and a check when I got home confirmed this. I examined the case closer and on the back, blended in with the other writing on there is a box warning of foul language.

I'm not complaining about it as I have been known to use the odd four letter word myself in the past, but some better sort of warning would have been nice. I thought that if there was any swearing in the lyrics, one of those black and white stickers had to be on the front of the case telling you so.

Can anyone comment?

Screenwriting Post

To help those of you who are not interested in screenwriting filter any writing related posts from the others, thier title will now appear in green.

I tried red but it seemed a bit harsh.

Hope that helps.

C

How do you see films???

I must say that nowadays when I watch films, I do so with a little bit of a writers perspective.

Has it ruined watching films for me? I don't know, but I think I can now really appreciate a well written film. I think Lost in Translation is a prime example of this. I have heard many people say that they were falling asleep watching it, but I was the total opposite. It was great to see a film that constantly moved on, but it was the actual story doing this as there wasn't much dialog in it.

On the flip side there is the film 'Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow'. I rented this last night and I have to say it was rubbish (in fact I rated it 1/5 after returning it to screenselect). It was either badly written or badly made/edited. If it was well written then most of the film must have ended up on the cutting room floor.

First of all it took me a while to get used to the human actors running around in a comic book look and feel world. Then there seemed to be so many things missing. No character back-story, big holes in act two and the twist at the end wasn't mind blowing at all (if you can call it a twist). It didn't even rate a raised eyebrow.

If it was the writing I am seeing here, then I hope I can make a living writing like that, however I think if I ever want to have a career in screenwriting I think the bar I will have to jump over will be set a million miles higher in comparison.

Screenwriting Update

Hi all,

As the title of this blog suggests screenwriting, I thought I'd give you an update on my progress so far. I'll try to make some sort of flag easily viewable for those who don't really care about my writing and are just here to read my rants and raves.

I have around seven screenplays buzzing around in my head or as a rough outline on paper. As far as actually writing them goes….. Well, the number of finished screenplays still registers a big ZERO. However that doesn't mean I haven't started on any scripts.

3,500 miles from New York was my first attempt at writing a screenplay. I have a start, and the ending is fine. Unfortunately I am having trouble with the back end of act 2 and making everything meet in the middle seems to be a problem. Unfortunately creativity on this screenplay seems to have stalled. I will probably come back to this in 12 months or so and see if I can kick it back into action.

Untitled 4 (as in I have no name for it yet) is my current work in progress. I'm writing it out on paper rather than at the keyboard (quicker to add notes and edit). I have a full outline (this time the start and end do meet in the middle), and I am currently around page 20 with the actual script. This one may be the first to the finishing line :)

The Woman on the Bus will be the next one I start. I have an almost complete outline that just needs a few ragged edges tidying up. When Untitled 4 is finished I will crack on with this one in an attempt to keep some momentum going.

As progress continues I hope to give regular updates.

Windows Vista???

This may be old to some of you, but I've just found out what Vista stands for:

Viruses.Infections.Spyware.Trojans.Adware

Well it made me chuckle.

The queen for hire: best offer accepted.

Read an article on Google News to day about plans by the M.O.D to get the queen in to appear at a banquet in celebration of the battle of Trafalgar.

It seems the M.O.D can't afford the cost of the knees up and have roped in the queen so that they can charge £1,750 to see her. One source was quoted as saying that if you pay the money you will be able to chat to the queen.

Now it seems that politicians and "constitutional experts" are up in arms about this. They say it is wrong to use her presence to make up an M.O.D cash shortfall in staging the celebration.

I think they should shut up. My only problem would be having to pay money to see Betty in the first place. If she wants to exist in her elevated position paid for by the tax payer, then I think the tax payer should own her along with the rest of the Germans they have hiding behind the name Windsor. I found out last month that Prince Phillip doesn't even have a British passport (he may not even be a British citizen!).

Just imagine it. You go down to your local village fate, and join the queue for the "Throw a rotten piece of fruit at a royal in the stocks' stall (I would prefer prince harry).

Other ideas are welcome.

To gazump or not to gazump.

Is that how you spell gazump??? Anyway:

Had a bit of a dilemma the other night.

We have sold our house and found one to buy and things are proceeding pretty much ok. However one of the people who had been to view our house in the past turned up on our doorstep. He said he had now sold his house and wanted to buy ours and that he had no chain. He said he has seen every other house in his price band in Thornton and wanted ours and was willing to beet our current buyers offer.

Now, he is dangling a big fish hook in front of our mouths with a pile of money on the end. We said no. I think it was the right thing morally and logically.

Morally:
If the people we were buying off suddenly turned round and said. We don't want to sell to you any more as someone has offered more money, we would be pretty pissed off.

Logically:
(1) There is a chain. If he had to sell his to buy ours then there is a chain. If we took him up on his offer and the people buying his pulled out on him, we would be shafted.

(2) The people who are buying ours a first time buyers and that is the definition of no chain, they have nothing to sell so the chain starts with us.

(3) Our first time buyers seem happy so far. If we go with the other guy, he could be fickle and pull out shafting everyone.

I think we did the right thing (I hope)

The most satisfying flash application in the world

Got this off Iain by email and just had to post it.

Kill it!

Things to note:

There is a counter displayed to show many times 'it' has been killed. Keep note of the number and after you have killed it reset the app and see how fast the number has gone up. People must really hate this thing ;)

The harder you hit it, the sooner it it killed. I managed to kill it with 2 swings of the bat. That is a good record to beat, but I admit that it wasn't as satisfying as drawing it out a bit and hitting it in the nuts a few times :)

Is it hot outside?

Wasn't it supposed to be the hottest day ever on record today?

Don't know about where you are but it is pissing it down here!

I really don't know why the news media always seem to jump on the weather. It's the top story if it rains heavily, it's the top story if it snows at all, and it's the top story if it's hot.

I can understand the tornados making the news last month, but the rest? We get sunshine, wind, rain and snow in this country. It's a fact, not big news.

Anyway, if you wan't an accurate weather forcast then download the Konfabulator toolbar (www.konfabulator.com I think). It's the most accurate I've seen so far, plus you can get lost of other widgets for it (thanks to Iain for pointing me at that).

Cinema start times

Ok I doubt anyone will read this as this is my first post in ages and anyone who was reading will have gone by now, but.........

After work last night I decided I wanted to go to the cinema. Looked at my watch: 5:30pm. Great I'll catch the films that start around 6:30, so got into the car and off I went to the Odeon. Got there around 6 and was miffed to find out that the films I wanted to see started at 8:15, in fact everything apart from Herby (or however you spell it), started after 8pm.

So back into the car and down to Cineworld (Bradford's other cinema). The result: THE SAME!!!!!!

Come on. The start times for all their films seemed to be 5:30 and then sometime after 8pm! Has it never clicked with them that the majority of people won't finish work until 5:30. Therefore by the time you get to the Cinema it will be after 6. So why, why, why do they start films at 5:30.

I'm sure there is logic to it but it is lost on me.

Rant over :)

On a lighter note, things seem to be going smoothly with our house move :)

Later

C