Complications Ensue: The Crafty Game, TV and Screenwriting Blog
Complications Ensue:
The Crafty Screenwriting, TV and Game Writing Blog



Archives

April 2004

May 2004

June 2004

July 2004

August 2004

September 2004

October 2004

November 2004

December 2004

January 2005

February 2005

March 2005

April 2005

May 2005

June 2005

July 2005

August 2005

September 2005

October 2005

November 2005

December 2005

January 2006

February 2006

March 2006

April 2006

May 2006

June 2006

July 2006

August 2006

September 2006

October 2006

November 2006

December 2006

January 2007

February 2007

March 2007

April 2007

May 2007

June 2007

July 2007

August 2007

September 2007

October 2007

November 2007

December 2007

January 2008

February 2008

March 2008

April 2008

May 2008

June 2008

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008

December 2008

January 2009

February 2009

March 2009

April 2009

May 2009

June 2009

July 2009

August 2009

September 2009

October 2009

November 2009

December 2009

January 2010

February 2010

March 2010

April 2010

May 2010

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

January 2011

February 2011

March 2011

April 2011

May 2011

June 2011

July 2011

August 2011

September 2011

October 2011

November 2011

December 2011

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

April 2012

May 2012

June 2012

July 2012

August 2012

September 2012

October 2012

November 2012

December 2012

January 2013

February 2013

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013

July 2013

August 2013

September 2013

October 2013

November 2013

December 2013

January 2014

February 2014

March 2014

April 2014

May 2014

June 2014

July 2014

August 2014

September 2014

October 2014

November 2014

December 2014

January 2015

February 2015

March 2015

April 2015

May 2015

June 2015

August 2015

September 2015

October 2015

November 2015

December 2015

January 2016

February 2016

March 2016

April 2016

May 2016

June 2016

July 2016

August 2016

September 2016

October 2016

November 2016

December 2016

January 2017

February 2017

March 2017

May 2017

June 2017

July 2017

August 2017

September 2017

October 2017

November 2017

December 2017

January 2018

March 2018

April 2018

June 2018

July 2018

October 2018

November 2018

December 2018

January 2019

February 2019

November 2019

February 2020

March 2020

April 2020

May 2020

August 2020

September 2020

October 2020

December 2020

January 2021

February 2021

March 2021

May 2021

June 2021

November 2021

December 2021

January 2022

February 2022

August 2022

September 2022

November 2022

February 2023

March 2023

April 2023

May 2023

July 2023

September 2023

November 2023

January 2024

February 2024

June 2024

September 2024

October 2024

 

Thursday, March 31, 2011

I like to put one blank line before a slugline. In general, I feel there should never be more than one blank line in a row in a screenplay. Waste of space, y'know.

However, Screenwriter comes with the default set to two blank lines before a slugline. So which is the industry standard.

If you have an opinion, please vote. If you have a strenuous opinion, please vote and comment. Thanks!




Free Online Surveys

UPDATE: So far, the pros overwhelmingly (eight to one) use a single blank line. Everyone else is split almost evenly, with slightly more using single spaces.

Labels:

4 comments

Post a Comment

A Friend of the Blog hired me to do story notes on his script, and I did. Then he asked:
Q. But I have one important question: is this script worth working on? With your experience, would you say that this script could be sold one day if I would follow your notes?
Well, yes. I'm not one of those cheerleader script editors who says nice things to be nice. If I say "this could be good if you do this," it's because I think it could be good if you do that.

But the script I have in my head -- the script I think your script wants to be when it grows up -- is not your script now. Can you get it there? Or get it close enough that someone will buy it and hire someone else to get it all the way there?

How should I know?

What I tell everyone is: pitch your story out loud, to lots of people. Don't read it off the page, but tell people your movie story, out loud, without notes. Do this over and over, to anyone who'll listen. Ideally to the kind of people that you think are its natural audience, but also to any kid between 10 and 14. Kids are more open-minded than adults, and if a story is too subtle or too complicated for them, it's probably too complicated and subtle for a movie.

(Note: a kid might not like AWAY FROM HER, or LES INVASIONS BARBARES, but the story is simple enough to explain.)

If you pitch your story out loud, several things will happen.

You will immediately get a sense of whether people are interested in your story. If you give someone a script, they will say, "Hey, that was fun!" But if they have to sit through it, you'll know if they really like it.

You will improve your story. Parts of it will seem lame. You'll come up with better stuff as you pitch, or after you pitch.

Parts will seem boring. You'll cut them, or come up with better stuff.

Parts will seem confusing. You'll forget what comes next. That's where you need to fix your story logic.

Your listener will ask questions. That will help you track where the audience is. They will often spot your plotholes, too.

Your listener will make suggestions. Some of them will be better than you've got.

Pitching your story is scary and hard to do. But the more you do it, the better it will be.

Don't ask me if the script could work. Pitch it to your friends and neighbors, and you'll get a visceral sense of whether you believe it will work. And it's hella cheaper than hiring a story editor.

Labels:

6 comments

Post a Comment

Monday, March 28, 2011

The TV Writer Podcast has an interview with my friend Matt MacLennan. Check it out.
Once Matt set his eyes on the goal, nothing would stop him from achieving it. He read books, worked as a script reader, sent out hundreds of unsolicited emails, worked as personal assistant and production assistant, and met with anyone who could give him advice on the industry.

When one door would close, Matt would open another. When he did get a job, he would milk it for all it was worth, volunteering his time for duties outside his job description, so he could learn as many aspects as possible of what it takes to put a show together.

Learn the amazing story of how he proposed an innovative solution to a modestly budgeted teen show, to use indie local bands for fresh but inexpensive music. Matt ended up helping to promote many bands that would use the TV show to springboard to greater success, and at the same time he was credited not only for his writing, but for his music supervision as well!

To top it all off, Matt graciously offers his email address to any writers who would like to seek his advice or help. if you’ve learned anything from Matt, take him up on the offer!

Matt’s latest show, HBO Canada’s “Call Me Fitz,” starring Jason Priestley, begins airing in the US in April. Watch for it on DirecTV!

Labels:

3 comments

Post a Comment

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Q. I'm developing a webseries for a screenwriting contest. I dove into creating interesting and relatable characters, but then it struck me that the premise seems really hard to explain, and hence to pitch. I don't have much trouble envisioning the finished product as something worth watching, but maybe that's because it's a work comedy and I've had jobs in the same field the series would be set (political communication consulting, which I guess is rather esoteric for the general public). So, does this mean the premise is unworkable, or is it just that the idea is still too raw and needs more development?
The premise may need reworking. You have to figure out how to pitch it so people get it quickly. You might need to restructure the show to include a point of entry for the public. For example, SPIN CITY and THE WEST WING are two takes on "political communication consultants," if you will. We get what they're doing, because one of them is a guy advising a mayor, and the other is some guys advising the President. We didn't know what the Deputy Communications Director did for the President before watching THE WEST WING, probably, but we know what the President is and does, so he's our way in.

If your premise is hard to pitch, it's not a great premise. A good premise is easy to pitch. We immediately get what your main characters are trying to do, whether it's run a restaurant, save a marriage, look cool or save American from terrorists.

However you can find a great premise in all sorts of unlikely territories, certainly including political communication consulting. You just have to work it a bit more than you have.

One mark of a good writer is the willingness to throw out good stuff in order to arrive at better stuff. You may, in reshaping your premise, have to chuck out wonderful characters. Maybe you'll be able to work them back in, maybe not. But "carnage" is a part of the creative process. Don't be afraid of it.
Q. Alternatively, do all series ideas just seem great at first and horrible a week later?
No. Great series ideas seem good at first and then get better as you develop the pitch and find your groove. My best premises ring the bell when we think of them at home, and then ring the bell over and over again when I pitch them.

Labels:

3 comments

Post a Comment

Friday, March 25, 2011

At the risk of splintering understanding & energy, or something, here's a fun new blog about language.

Labels:

1 comments

Post a Comment

Thursday, March 24, 2011

The WGC wants Canadian co-productions (which count under certain Cancon rules) to include more majority co-productions (PDF). They would like more fundamentally Canadian shows, which hire Canadian writers, and fewer minority co-pros like THE TUDORS where there is no real Canadian cultural content, just some money spent in Canada. (A few Canadian actors, say, maybe some post-production services.)
Researching the coproduction landscape in Canada, the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) found proof of what it has long suspected – that there is a severe imbalance between majority and minority co-productions of TV drama. In its submission today to the Government of Canada’s Consultation on the Implementation of Canada’s Policy on Audiovisual Treaty Co-production, the WGC called on the Canadian government to strengthen the domestic film and TV production industry by enforcing the goal of balancebetween productions in which Canada is a majority partner and those in which we play a minority role. The current imbalance has far-reaching negative effects on the job opportunities in film and TV, the Canadian content available to Canadians, and the domestic talent pool.

The WGC noted that for TV drama, in each of the last two years, there have been just one or two majority co-productions to four or five minority co-productions. And current tracking tell us the situation is only worsening. Such high-cost minority co-productions divert scarce financial resources etc. etc. etc.
I agree with the sentiment; minority co-productions shouldn't become a back door for producers to get the taxpayer to pay for service productions.

But I want more than 'more majority co-pros.' I would like to write on these goddamn shows. I would like to write on THE TUDORS. I would love to write on MERLIN or CAMELOT or whatever.

In fact I would like to propose an expansion of the Canadian cultural content rules. There is a rule that shows should be set in Canada and/or feature Canadian characters, but there's an exception for science fiction. You can set a show in the future and call it Canadian, so long as it is set offworld (Caprica, say) and not in some known country that is not Canada (future San Francisco).

Why not make an exception for history? Canada's history is not the same as the history of the North American continent. Canada's history includes British and French history. Our history includes the English Civil War, and Henry VIII, and Magna Carta, and 1066. Our history includes Madame de Pompadour and Joan of Arc. Go further back, and our history includes Caesar and Pericles and the March Up Country. Our legends include King Arthur and the Chanson de Rolond and Exodus.

Why, oh why, don't these count as Canadian cultural content? These are the people we came from, and the stories they told.

And why be Eurocentric? Canadians come from China and Africa and India. Why isn't The Pillow Book "Canadian content"? Or The Tale of Genji? Or the Mahabarata?

The alternative is what we have. You can't make a medieval movie in Canada, not and call it Canadian, because Canada had no Middle Ages. (Otherwise we'd be shooting my medieval zombie pic here.) You couldn't make a movie out of my novel about Morgan le Fay, THE CIRCLE CAST, because King Arthur never came to Montreal. You can't make a sword-and-sandals Canadian TV show because Canada was never part of the Roman Empire.

Which, due to the nature of Canadian film and TV funding, means we can't get a sword-and-sandals show made at all.

Which means I don't get to write one.

If Britain had similar rules, MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL would have qualified for full Britcon, but MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN would have been insufficiently British.

As a history fan, this drives me up a tree. (Yggdrasil, in fact.) Cancon rules cede all historical features to other countries.

And yet historical movies travel well. You can air ROME or A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM or BEN HUR in Italy, France, Romania, Morocco and South Africa and the audience will know something about Rome, and want to see more. All these countries have Rome in their history.

Some Cancon rules are necessary. Without cultural Cancon rules, the Canadian taxpayer would be funding nothing but faux-American cop shows set in Generica. But the rules also limit Canadian film and TV to the present and the future. They cut us off from our past.

I think there should be a historical exemption. Go back further than a certain historical time -- let's say 1497 -- and you're off the hook. You still have to shoot here with Canadian crew and actors, but you don't have to set your story within the geographic borders of Canada.

Discuss.

Labels:

6 comments

Post a Comment

Friday, March 18, 2011

If you're in Montreal on the 4th, swing on by Réservoir for another Soirée Schmooze; we'll be upstairs.

Labels:

0 comments

Post a Comment

Friday, March 11, 2011

Today, I'm interviewed on YA Fresh. I talk about the mystery at the heart of the King Arthur legend, my writing routine, my first sale and other fun stuff. And I'm giving away a signed copy of the book. Check it out!

Labels:

0 comments

Post a Comment

Thursday, March 10, 2011

So I'm reading The Audacity of Hope, and I see that eleven years ago, Barack Obama had just got his butt whooped in a congressional election, and was considering getting out of politics. About the same time, I was considering getting out of showbiz. I guess it worked out for both of us after all.

0 comments

Post a Comment

Wednesday, March 09, 2011



Denise Jaden, author of the highly acclaimed YA novel LOSING FAITH and the forthcoming APPETITE FOR BEAUTY, interviewed me on her blog! She asks me about my characters, my day job (which is screenwriting), my path to publication, my number one bit of writing advice, and what I wrote when I was a teen. Check it out!

Labels: ,

0 comments

Post a Comment

Thursday, March 03, 2011

On a certain script, I've been getting some feedback that amounts to two characters not being perceived as likable or worthy people. I've had various proposals on how to make these characters seem more likable or more worthy people.

While that note can be valid, often it is misleading. We don't have to like your main character and we definitely don't have to like your secondary characters. You have to make your characters people we find compelling. We have to root for them to succeed or fail, but rooting for them to fail is just as strong as rooting for them to succeed.

For example, we have a lot of sympathy for the Frankenstein creature, but we don't want him to survive -- he murdered a little girl! In Oliver Stone's NIXON, we don't want Tricky Dick to get away with it. But we find him a compelling, fascinating character -- a sort of monster himself.

Lisa and I were just watching Charlie Kaufman's BEING JOHN MALKOVICH. (And if ever the possessory credit should belong to the writer and not the director, this would be it.) John Cusack's character is not likable. He's a whiny loser of a puppeteer. Then he goes on to do things that make us hate him. Yet he carries the film. We care what happens to him ... and his punishment is very satisfactory, thank you.

In this particular screenplay, I couldn't give the main character more likability because of what he does. He has a profession we all despise and fear. And in the movie he does a very bad thing, and then covers it up. That's nothing I could change -- it's in the bones of the screenplay. Having him be nicer to his daughter or to "save the cat" would just piss the audience off -- they'd feel I was trying to weasel out of the character's essential badness.

I think I've cracked how to fix this particular screenplay. If I'm right, the answer isn't to make the main character more likable nor his girlfriend more worthy. Instead I'm making the girlfriend much more clearly crazy -- clarifying just where her insanity lies -- and showing more clearly how the main character is failing to understand her craziness. The solution is in making their flaws clearer and stronger, rather than giving them virtues they do not deserve.

When someone says your character isn't likable enough, the answer may not be in making the character more likable. There is something missing, but it may not be something you can solve by having the character take care of his aged grandmother. The solution is in making them more interesting. Make them more compelling, stranger, more distinct, more flawed, more human. Make them more someone we can't take our eyes off.

When someone asks you to make a character more likable, make them more interesting.

Labels:

3 comments

Post a Comment

We just got word that YOU ARE SO UNDEAD has been invited to screen at BleedFest in LA. Yay! We'll let you know the date.

Labels:

2 comments

Post a Comment

Wednesday, March 02, 2011

The WGC National Forum is coming up April 10th and 11th. If you're a member of the WGC in Québec, or if you hope to become one, and if you have any concerns you'd like aired, please talk to Anne-Marie Perrotta or me before then. Thanks!

Labels:

0 comments

Post a Comment



This page is powered by Blogger.