A bit of background: the story was borne of a conversation about story concepts. We wanted to do a comedy, and we wanted it to be either a mafia story or a cop story. I proposed a number of premises to Glass Cage, and together we settled on “unnamed project.” I then went about the business of refining the premise, inventing characters, and dreaming up potential story lines. I’m a big fan of Noah Lukeman‘s discussions about creating story, so I pursued character studies, allowed those to change the story, and then I tweaked and changed all the elements until I got to what seemed a good approach.

I put the project on hiatus for several months while I finished a romantic comedy. During that time, I had unnamed project on my mind, and the character’s voices spoke to me at various times. This itself is another technique–allowing a story to grow on its own in the recesses of your mind. I started the story a number of times, but it fell flat and I abandoned the efforts quickly. Also during this time, I was learning about the Beat Sheet from Nail your Novel, and Anatomy of Story, and worked with Steve Kaplan. (This is turning into another whorish post, but all these people are a great influence!)

At last, I began to focus my attention on “unnamed project.” The entire Anatomy of Story work has taken almost a month, with this last week the most demanding, because “Scene Weaving” calls into question all the work you’ve done previously, and you may have to adjust your ideas. It’s frustrating and humbling. But now that I’ve hammered unnamed project into a cohesive outline, I’m surprised at the result and anxious to get started with the first draft.

But first, I must revise my romantic comedy for a few contests.

Very, very handy.

I’ve blathered before about Truby’s Anatomy of Story, and it’s the combination of his Scene Weave exercise with the Beat Sheet that worked for me last month. Granted, it was a story I’ve wrestled with for 18 months, but with the revised scene weave built in Beat Sheet format, AND mounted on a poster board and placed above my desk for constant reference, I cranked through the new version. It’s better than ever.

I’m working on a new story for Glass Cage Productions, based on an idea we conceived last summer. I was panicked for a while because the evolving story had left the premise, but the new premise is much improved thanks to what I learned from Steve Kaplan.

So today I will work on the new beat sheet/scene weave. It may take a week to get it right, but it’ll be smooth sailing after that!

I finally read their front page and, by gosh, there’s an interesting article there about some of the common story structures for screenplays. I had been thinking about doing something similar, but I plan on writing about the process of developing story. Structure is one part of that. Still, I will break down Chris Soth’s mini-movie method and Truby’s Anatomy of Story, when I do, into their structural components.

Meanwhile, bookmark Trilane.

Watch the interview here.

This is a list of some of my favorites:

• Addams Family Values
• Animal House
• Back to School
• Beetle Juice
• Caddy Shack
• Easy Money
• George of the Jungle
• The Quest for the Holy Grail

I was worried because movies with beautiful people have a challenge in that sometimes it’s hard to feel sorry for the really good looking people because, regardless of circumstances, they’re probably going to be good looking. So the filmmakers did a clever thing in keeping total success slightly out of their reach.

I was relieved to see that Paul Rudd’s character makes his own mess. In my book, that leads to better humor. If there’s a true flaw, it’s that he isn’t actively working on achieving something, except maybe getting along with his family. That’s fine, but it isn’t made clear until the third act.

In my mind, it falls into the same place I store “Little Miss Sunshine” and “The Fisher King” for the type of jokes, and the style of delivery. In terms of structure, I think when Paul’s character goes back to prison, it’s in the same place as when Alan Arkin’s character dies of an overdose in “Little Miss Sunshine,” or Robin Williams’s character goes back to the asylum in “The Fisher King.” I think they could have elevated the tension a bit with Paul’s character in prison, and landed a few more jokes. It wasn’t bad–far from it–but I think they might have left some money on the table.

And I have to say that Steve Coogan was funny naked.

The premise is dark, but the capricious manner in which the bad guys approach their task reminds me of similar characters on the animated TV show “Boondocks” in which a young man of privilege uses his wealth and life of leisure to pursue para-military hobbies, leading to mayhem.

The reviews I read mentioned that Aziz stole most of the scenes with his nervous manners and frantic delivery of lines, and they were right. He brought energy and enjoyment to the role. I wonder if the picture might have been better if Aziz wor. the strap-on, and Jesse Eisenberg provided the nervous, hyporchondriac-styled support.

The magic worked best for me when the two victims rob a bank, and the ensemble they encounter deliver several funny moments (but I’m a sucker for jokes in a business setting). I so thoroughly enjoyed the man in the bank who was shot that I really wanted to see the main character explode. That wish is almost granted in the end during the minor but gruesome blood bath of the climax. It was kind of like seducing a meat grinder: you may be held in suspense as whether or not you’re going to score, but there’s no doubt that the money-shot will be messy.

Trilane.com makes their screenplay formatting reference available here.

I have read several books on the subject, and read a number of screenplays, but I still falter every once in a while, and my brain won’t let it go until I verify what is acceptable. I’m adding a montage to my current script, and I needed this page.