ROGUE TAXIDERMY
The Minnesota Association of Rogue Taxidermists is actually only three rogue taxidermists. But they mount the most amazing griffins, winged cats, and prehistorical mammals. And such.
I particularly like the work of Sarina Brewer. I'm tempted to get myself a griffin, but I'm not sure I'd really want even part of a dead cat in my loft....
Weird stuff goes on in the heartland! (Of course, MN voted for Walter Mondale...)
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
GOOD WORK TODAY
Hacked my way through the last of the new reel (replacing the reel I chucked out), and now I'm blasting into the third act of Draft Three. It feels good. Much darker, scarier, more adult. Not sure what I've done to the budget, but the movie has to first of all work -- a nicely budgeted movie that doesn't work is worth nothing, while a movie that's a bit too expensive has hope at least. Anyway, I'm not an expert on budgets, and there is more than one way to skin a cat.
(Incidentally, that expression refers to catfish. And there is more than one way to skin a catfish, I gather, catfish being notoriously hard to skin. I guess I can find out more if I manage to get to New Orleans this spring.)
Hacked my way through the last of the new reel (replacing the reel I chucked out), and now I'm blasting into the third act of Draft Three. It feels good. Much darker, scarier, more adult. Not sure what I've done to the budget, but the movie has to first of all work -- a nicely budgeted movie that doesn't work is worth nothing, while a movie that's a bit too expensive has hope at least. Anyway, I'm not an expert on budgets, and there is more than one way to skin a cat.
(Incidentally, that expression refers to catfish. And there is more than one way to skin a catfish, I gather, catfish being notoriously hard to skin. I guess I can find out more if I manage to get to New Orleans this spring.)
ABOUT MYTHIC
A reader writes in that Mythic, a very fine script by Ehren Kruger, sounds like the awful Reign of Fire. Well, only in that they're both contemporary dragon scripts. Kruger spent a lot of effort creating a believable situation in which one dragon assaults an island that is cut off from all communication with the mainland -- which means also cut off from the Air Force. The fire chief has to fight it with the weapons and tools he has available, and he's got nothing bigger than hunting rifles. He also had a nice metaphor -- the dragon is, in a sense, Mother Earth's revenge for our drilling for oil. In Reign of Fire you have a post-apocalyptic world in which people fight dragons with explosive arrows and win -- even though supposedly the dragons already beat the Royal Air Force. Ridiculous. It was nice to see the beautifully CGI'd dragons, but the story had nothing unique about it. And it wasn't about anything beyond fighting dragons.
I still want to see Mythic. I hope someone makes it.
A reader writes in that Mythic, a very fine script by Ehren Kruger, sounds like the awful Reign of Fire. Well, only in that they're both contemporary dragon scripts. Kruger spent a lot of effort creating a believable situation in which one dragon assaults an island that is cut off from all communication with the mainland -- which means also cut off from the Air Force. The fire chief has to fight it with the weapons and tools he has available, and he's got nothing bigger than hunting rifles. He also had a nice metaphor -- the dragon is, in a sense, Mother Earth's revenge for our drilling for oil. In Reign of Fire you have a post-apocalyptic world in which people fight dragons with explosive arrows and win -- even though supposedly the dragons already beat the Royal Air Force. Ridiculous. It was nice to see the beautifully CGI'd dragons, but the story had nothing unique about it. And it wasn't about anything beyond fighting dragons.
I still want to see Mythic. I hope someone makes it.
Sunday, January 02, 2005
THIRD DRAFT CONTINUES
I'm working away at the third draft of Unseen. The second draft was easy, but more than anything it showed the shortcomings of the story. This draft is much harder. I'm always stopping to work things out on my little tin notebook. What started as a logical but rather farfetched narrative is getting denser, richer and less farfetched. But keeping it logical at the same time has proven tricky.
I dropped a whole reel (10 pages) out of the second act today: two of the least convincing sequences which, I'm happy to report, turned out to be unnecessary and replaceable. I'm getting better at chucking out stuff that doesn't quite work. I'm getting more critical of my writing as I go on, less willing to let lame stuff pass.
When you're writing on spec, a "draft" is just the writing that occurs between when you send it to someone for comments. In other words there's no such thing as a "draft" really. How much has to change before there's a draft? Back when people retyped things, the term must have meant more.
The concept of a "draft" is more meaningful, and therefore more problematic, in the professional world. Theoretically you are supposed to get paid for each draft, and theoretically producers get to give you notes only once per draft, as you move on to the second draft. Many producers balk at this and want there to be "revisions" of drafts. The WGC and WGA will always back the writer on this if it gets to that point. But on the other hand you don't want to turn in a draft that isn't good. Usually I resolve this problem by getting comments from other people so I can go and revise my draft before turning it in to the producer. But other writers seem content to revise endlessly on the same ticket. Producers love this devotion to the cause. Unfortunately it does not generate income. I'm not sure there's a real answer to this conundrum. You read about writers doing 20 drafts of something in Hollywood, and I doubt they're getting paid scale for each draft. But these are also writers who are getting paid six digits for opening up their laptops; so it works out pretty well for everybody. In TV it's not a problem, because everyone gets paid scale for their scripts, plus a very respectable story editing salary if they're rewriting on staff. It's the feature film world where everything's a little bit more messy...
I'm working away at the third draft of Unseen. The second draft was easy, but more than anything it showed the shortcomings of the story. This draft is much harder. I'm always stopping to work things out on my little tin notebook. What started as a logical but rather farfetched narrative is getting denser, richer and less farfetched. But keeping it logical at the same time has proven tricky.
I dropped a whole reel (10 pages) out of the second act today: two of the least convincing sequences which, I'm happy to report, turned out to be unnecessary and replaceable. I'm getting better at chucking out stuff that doesn't quite work. I'm getting more critical of my writing as I go on, less willing to let lame stuff pass.
When you're writing on spec, a "draft" is just the writing that occurs between when you send it to someone for comments. In other words there's no such thing as a "draft" really. How much has to change before there's a draft? Back when people retyped things, the term must have meant more.
The concept of a "draft" is more meaningful, and therefore more problematic, in the professional world. Theoretically you are supposed to get paid for each draft, and theoretically producers get to give you notes only once per draft, as you move on to the second draft. Many producers balk at this and want there to be "revisions" of drafts. The WGC and WGA will always back the writer on this if it gets to that point. But on the other hand you don't want to turn in a draft that isn't good. Usually I resolve this problem by getting comments from other people so I can go and revise my draft before turning it in to the producer. But other writers seem content to revise endlessly on the same ticket. Producers love this devotion to the cause. Unfortunately it does not generate income. I'm not sure there's a real answer to this conundrum. You read about writers doing 20 drafts of something in Hollywood, and I doubt they're getting paid scale for each draft. But these are also writers who are getting paid six digits for opening up their laptops; so it works out pretty well for everybody. In TV it's not a problem, because everyone gets paid scale for their scripts, plus a very respectable story editing salary if they're rewriting on staff. It's the feature film world where everything's a little bit more messy...
L'ANNEE PASSEE
This time last year, Lisa was very very pregnant and we were sitting in front of the fire wondering what the baby would be like. We knew she was a girl, but we had no idea what she'd be like. You can only tell so much from kicking!
Now Jesse Anne is almost a year old. She's taken a few steps on her own, and she's just started to try to say words. She has the most wonderful personality of any baby I've ever met. I wonder what someone so delighted to be alive will grow up into. I never thought I would be so lucky.
It has been a terrific year. It started in pain and stress professionally, but that got more or less put to bed. I had a great summer in South Africa, and now I'm working on a screenplay I'm delighted with. I've got interest in one of my TV pitches, and I've got another pitch all but polished. I've also got a book proposal I think will sell. Lisa's really learned how to work on a story with me. She has good ideas and good criticisms. (Some of them are great ideas.)
Lisa sold her book proposal ...
Hunter's had a terrific year at school and has really blossomed as a person, and my relationship with him is all I could have hoped for...
My marriage is all I ever wanted from a relationship: love and friendship and passion and a few other things that are none of your business ...
The Goddess has been good to us this year.
Thank you, Goddess!
I hope your last year has been as good, and if not, I hope this year will be.
This time last year, Lisa was very very pregnant and we were sitting in front of the fire wondering what the baby would be like. We knew she was a girl, but we had no idea what she'd be like. You can only tell so much from kicking!
Now Jesse Anne is almost a year old. She's taken a few steps on her own, and she's just started to try to say words. She has the most wonderful personality of any baby I've ever met. I wonder what someone so delighted to be alive will grow up into. I never thought I would be so lucky.
It has been a terrific year. It started in pain and stress professionally, but that got more or less put to bed. I had a great summer in South Africa, and now I'm working on a screenplay I'm delighted with. I've got interest in one of my TV pitches, and I've got another pitch all but polished. I've also got a book proposal I think will sell. Lisa's really learned how to work on a story with me. She has good ideas and good criticisms. (Some of them are great ideas.)
Lisa sold her book proposal ...
Hunter's had a terrific year at school and has really blossomed as a person, and my relationship with him is all I could have hoped for...
My marriage is all I ever wanted from a relationship: love and friendship and passion and a few other things that are none of your business ...
The Goddess has been good to us this year.
Thank you, Goddess!
I hope your last year has been as good, and if not, I hope this year will be.
HAPPY OUTCOMES
If you needed anything more to prove that people love happy endings, there's the article today about how 10 foreign tourists survived the tsunami on an island. Every day the death toll races up another ten thousand or so faceless Indonesians, but ten white people luck out on an island, and it's news. No doubt someone already has a movie of the week in the works.
We want happy endings for people like us. We want Saving Private Lynch. We want stories about a few people we can understand. The grand sweep of events, well, as one of the OJ jurors said about the DNA evidence, "That's hard." Hard to grasp.
If you needed anything more to prove that people love happy endings, there's the article today about how 10 foreign tourists survived the tsunami on an island. Every day the death toll races up another ten thousand or so faceless Indonesians, but ten white people luck out on an island, and it's news. No doubt someone already has a movie of the week in the works.
We want happy endings for people like us. We want Saving Private Lynch. We want stories about a few people we can understand. The grand sweep of events, well, as one of the OJ jurors said about the DNA evidence, "That's hard." Hard to grasp.
Saturday, January 01, 2005
ANOTHER FILM AT ODDS WITH ITSELF
Rented Nine 1/2 Weeks. I was shocked at how abusive Mickey Rourke's character is. Sure, it's an S&M relationship. But an S&M relationship can be consensual and loving. This is a good portrait of a fundamentally abusive relationship. What I find shocking is how the movie made a name for itself as a soft core classic. People remember Mickey Rourke dripping ice water on Kim Basinger's breasts. They don't remember his creepy stalkerish abuser behavior in the rest of the movie. Likewise, the audience somehow made Saturday Night Fever into a date movie about disco dancing. The movie itself is a sad social commentary on a loser who has nothing to live for except his dancing. It's a good social commentary -- very convincing and heartfelt. But definitely a downer of a story, no matter how the ending turns out. People remembered the dancing, though.
It's movies like these that make me wonder sometimes about the primacy of the story. As a story teller that's what I'm most concerned with. But sometimes what people remember are great sequences, not the story. Phantom Menace could not have succeeded because of its story, but it has some great action sequences. I'm not ready to say any ole story will do. But maybe I should add "some memorable sequences" to the list of what a movie needs to break out. If all you have is a tightly told story, you may not make any headway. But a few memorable sequences may rescue your loosely or murkily plotted flick.
Rented Nine 1/2 Weeks. I was shocked at how abusive Mickey Rourke's character is. Sure, it's an S&M relationship. But an S&M relationship can be consensual and loving. This is a good portrait of a fundamentally abusive relationship. What I find shocking is how the movie made a name for itself as a soft core classic. People remember Mickey Rourke dripping ice water on Kim Basinger's breasts. They don't remember his creepy stalkerish abuser behavior in the rest of the movie. Likewise, the audience somehow made Saturday Night Fever into a date movie about disco dancing. The movie itself is a sad social commentary on a loser who has nothing to live for except his dancing. It's a good social commentary -- very convincing and heartfelt. But definitely a downer of a story, no matter how the ending turns out. People remembered the dancing, though.
It's movies like these that make me wonder sometimes about the primacy of the story. As a story teller that's what I'm most concerned with. But sometimes what people remember are great sequences, not the story. Phantom Menace could not have succeeded because of its story, but it has some great action sequences. I'm not ready to say any ole story will do. But maybe I should add "some memorable sequences" to the list of what a movie needs to break out. If all you have is a tightly told story, you may not make any headway. But a few memorable sequences may rescue your loosely or murkily plotted flick.
OHHHH, I GET IT
I just realized that A Bridge Too Far was released in 1977. Which means it was probably conceived around 1974-1975, about when we were watching the collapse of South Vietnam. The picture is intended to show the arrogance of military types on top, and the foolishness of their foolproof plans that don't take into account the cleverness of the enemy or the realities of war.
But because Attenborough is so fond of directing pageantry, that gets bogged down in the glory of large numbers of planes taking off, hundreds of parachutes, etc. You have an antiwar message inside an ain't-war-grand star-studded envelope.
It might have been cleverer to show the guys getting the orders to go, and going, and only then starting to find out how screwed they are. It's rarely that obvious going into an operation how screwed it is, or no one would approve it. It's usually only in hindsight that the impossibility of success is clear.
It's also easy to critique military gambles that go wrong. The ones that go right often have the same chance of success, they just luck out. Macarthur's attack on Inchon Harbor could have been a disaster, but it was an overwhelming success. Pearl Harbor could have been a catastrophe for the Japanese if the US had known they were coming. If France had mobilized in reaction to the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the German military would have collapsed.
Hmmmm ... sometimes I think I missed my calling. Or one of my callings. I think I could have been a pretty good soldier, if I hadn't grown up during the Vietnam War.
We also rented The Longest Day, a 1962 movie about D-Day. This at least didn't have a propaganda point to make. It just showed the events of the landings, from the screwed up night drops to the screwed up errors in judgment in the German High Command. Not much of a theme here either, but at least they weren't trying to make World War II into Vietnam. On the other hand there's some bombastic dialog I suspect no one in the Army would have put up with -- I doubt the soldiers needed to be told why Hitler needed to be stopped, or how many men the operation involved. I still think Band of Brothers has all these movies beat, for the sheer feeling of what it must have been like to fight your way from Normandy to Bavaria.
I just realized that A Bridge Too Far was released in 1977. Which means it was probably conceived around 1974-1975, about when we were watching the collapse of South Vietnam. The picture is intended to show the arrogance of military types on top, and the foolishness of their foolproof plans that don't take into account the cleverness of the enemy or the realities of war.
But because Attenborough is so fond of directing pageantry, that gets bogged down in the glory of large numbers of planes taking off, hundreds of parachutes, etc. You have an antiwar message inside an ain't-war-grand star-studded envelope.
It might have been cleverer to show the guys getting the orders to go, and going, and only then starting to find out how screwed they are. It's rarely that obvious going into an operation how screwed it is, or no one would approve it. It's usually only in hindsight that the impossibility of success is clear.
It's also easy to critique military gambles that go wrong. The ones that go right often have the same chance of success, they just luck out. Macarthur's attack on Inchon Harbor could have been a disaster, but it was an overwhelming success. Pearl Harbor could have been a catastrophe for the Japanese if the US had known they were coming. If France had mobilized in reaction to the remilitarization of the Rhineland, the German military would have collapsed.
Hmmmm ... sometimes I think I missed my calling. Or one of my callings. I think I could have been a pretty good soldier, if I hadn't grown up during the Vietnam War.
We also rented The Longest Day, a 1962 movie about D-Day. This at least didn't have a propaganda point to make. It just showed the events of the landings, from the screwed up night drops to the screwed up errors in judgment in the German High Command. Not much of a theme here either, but at least they weren't trying to make World War II into Vietnam. On the other hand there's some bombastic dialog I suspect no one in the Army would have put up with -- I doubt the soldiers needed to be told why Hitler needed to be stopped, or how many men the operation involved. I still think Band of Brothers has all these movies beat, for the sheer feeling of what it must have been like to fight your way from Normandy to Bavaria.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)