January 30, 2006

A polish...

After four notes and conference sessions with my reader and four just about page one re-writes... after our last chat yesterday...

...all I have to do is a polish! That's right... just a little dialogue shaping to squeeze every ounce of drama out of this story I can. What a feeling from going through the black either of a page one re-write (3.5 times)... to another page one re-write... to another re-write... but to finally hear the words, "It's working on all levels", is a great feeling. "You took it to the next level"... isn't a bad thing to hear either.

For those of you who are new here, I'm talkink about my feature film script, "Produced By Jimmy Wade".

So, what's the plan now?... well, I've got to finish the polish (2 weeks), get the script budgeted (not cheap), convince a casting director to work with me on the project, find a lead actor (preferably a name), write the business plan for investors, find the money to make the movie and then proceed to pre-production... needless to say, I'm going to have a lot to blog about moving forward.

With all that said though, I'm very pleased with my script and am really glad that I didn't start sending this out in the world until both my reader and I were happy with the results. Been there, done that, never again. My friendly advice to fellow writers out there... I thought it was ready after the second draft, it wasn't. I thought I brought it to the next level after my third draft, I didn't... but then after this last pass (fourth draft) I felt in my own heart of hearts that it was really close... and it is... and it's not just me or my mom saying that (see my readers link above). Now just a little bit more and it's there. FYI... that first page one re-write, was about 8 months ago. Keep writing and thanks for checking in.... EB.

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November 29, 2005

Shedding...

Shedding is a term used by musicians to describe the growth that they go through as musicians as they learn more, play more and experiement more...

...and as I've been struggling with my current (3rd) draft of my script, "Produced By Jimmy Wade", I've begun to feel that "shedding" can apply here as well... not to mention pretty much any other artistic endeavour.

Recently I've gone back and read some pages from earlier scripts, stories written over the past five years, and I cringe at a lot of what I read... it screams amateur, hack, pack up and go home... but then I think about the 3rd draft that I'm going through now and I can actually see the shedding that's taken place. Why, you may ask?... well, if you've read anything about screen writing, you've probably come across the saying, "kill you babies"... which means that as a writer, you can't be affraid to delete that favorite line of dialogue, that character that has no point or even a scene altogether if it doean't push the story forward or deepen the understanding of a character. I've come to look at "killing your babies" as a type or form of "shedding".

Living in New York City, I come across many artists all wanting success but what I've seen is that they want it NOW... they're not willing to put in the time to shed and grow as an artist till it's the RIGHT time... at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Hopefully the posts will pick up when I put this script to bed and begin work on packaging and financing... but again, I make no promises. Thanks for reading... EB.

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June 29, 2005

The Hook…

To all you writers out there, I’m going to give you a gift… yep, a free gift… a perfect hook for you New York story! I came across this article a couple days ago and I’m giving it to YOU...

As a filmmaker, I’m always on the look out for interesting stories or facts or themes that could possibly be fashioned into a fictional story that I would enjoy telling… and that article is one… a good one.

The article is a great example of the types of things that I look for and save for potential material down the road. The article specifically mentions the story of a woman searching for an apartment who was duped by another woman in New York acting as an apartment’s lease holder. The supposed lease holder met and took first and last month’s deposits from about 20 people and then high tailed it out of the county to Germany with about $60,000 of other people’s money. Now what makes this story interesting is that 1. It isn’t the only time that New York City apartment searchers have been duped by such a scam and 2. The woman who is recounting her story for the Village Voice ended up meeting a number of different people who were duped just like she was… and that’s the interesting part.

When I read this story, I thought how great an opening that would be if two, four or more people all met at the police station as they are all filing reports about this fraudulent supposed lease holder that took advantage of all of them (not to mention their money). That’s a great HOOK for the first act of a screenplay! The options are endless and that hook gives outsiders looking in a real feel for how cut throat the real estate market really is on this island we call Manhattan.

So with that, I offer you this gift… this hook if you will. Take that opening, fashion it to your story and run with it… no payment necessary, just a special thanks in the end credits when they roll. EB

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June 15, 2005

Taking notes... and re-writing...

Before I go and budget out a draft of “Produced By Jimmy Wade”, I needed to have it read by a reader who is not my mother or girlfriend… someone who is in the industry and reads a lot of indie scripts. In other words, it’s their job. Jamie, being a top reader for Sundance, fit the bill.

The thing about creative people is that we are all very sensitive when dealing with criticism. Whether you’re a musician, filmmaker, painter, photographer or whatever, criticism is never easy to take. The trick for someone giving criticism is to have tact in how they present it. As a director working on set with an actor, I never want to say, “That was wrong let’s try it again” but rather something like, “Interesting choice but how about trying THIS being your motivation instead.”

I’ve used three readers in the past for two of my previous scripts and I feel like their feedback was a mixed bag… on the one hand, you want a reader to be very critical of your work and point out ways to improve it while on the other hand you need encouragement that what you’ve written wasn’t a waste of time and that the overall story entertained them. In terms of the second hand, getting the encouragement to re-write, I’d say one out of the three of my previous readers accomplished that. The other two offered no encouragement at all and seemed to relish telling me that I was a hack with a long way to go.

As I waited for my scheduled time to call Jamie and take my medicine regarding “Produced By Jimmy Wade”, I was a nervous wreck. Based on this up-coming phone call, I could be in for a six month page one re-write or, less likely, he could have loved it and just a polish was in order. Luckily, Jamie’s criticism was somewhere in between but leaned more towards the polish than the page one re-write… phew.

Now, where does that leave me? There were a couple of things Jamie said that stuck out. First, once I informed him that I was conscientious about wanting to keep the rating of the film “PG-13”, Jamie said that he felt that I was holding back and that this story is for adults or teenagers entering adulthood so I shouldn’t hold back and make it an “R” rating… pull back later if I need to. This is the right way to go, it just took someone saying that for me to realize.

Secondly, Jamie wanted me to infuse many more specifics in the story. His point was that the audience relates to stories through the specifics… infuse the script with more of “me” in it, the specifics, and they’ll be along for the ride.

Thirdly, Jamie felt that more of the theme, the thin line between passion and addiction, could be added throughout the entire piece to give it more cohesion from start to finish. I knew this was my theme from the beginning but Jamie showed me spots in the story where I could add more of it.

Lastly, Jamie was very encouraging about the story and my writing ability… double phew. He also felt that my knowledge about the music recording industry and singing in general held the story together while keeping it interesting for someone not familiar with that world… Note to self, don’t lose that in the re-write.

Giving me this encouragement last, after spending over two hours on the phone, is the tact that readers, directors and producers need to have when dealing with “sensitive artists”, always begin and end criticism with “the good”… thanks Jamie.

So far, the work is going well. A lot of new ideas have been born and I’m excited to see where the next draft ends up… hopefully in a couple weeks. I’ll report back and let you know how it’s going but in the mean time, you can click here and here for more on the art of re-writing. EB

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June 08, 2005

The Spark… the first and most important step.

Whenever I tell someone that I’m a filmmaker, that I’m writing a script and what the script is about, the inevitable question of “How did you come up with that story?” follows. I like to say that story ideas are a dime a dozen… they come and go as they please and some stay longer than others. That’s also why whenever I’m in one of those conversations I also always get, “Hey, I’ve got a great idea for a movie too!”. What differentiates stories that I write into scripts and eventually want to make into films versus the ones that don’t is… the SPARK.

Since filmmaking is such a long and intense process, I have to know in my true heart of hearts that the story I’m about to write and eventually shoot has a big enough spark that I can always pinpoint and remember that feeling of excitement/passion. I make a specific point of always remembering when and how I first thought of the idea, the spark, so that when the struggle of writing the story eventually hits, and it always does, I have that memory to re-ignite my own fire for the story.

Sometimes I think that I’ve found the idea for the next story and it hangs around for a couple days or even a few weeks but eventually fades away… The true sparks, for me, never go away, are always there and can always lead me back to the keyboard to push through the struggles of getting the story on the page. Find your sparks and make sure they’re bright enough to pull you through your first draft, it’ll save you lots of heart aches and head aches in the end, promise. EB

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