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Introducing Characters

2008-07-22T17:32:00Z

As I sit here re-reading some of the screenplays I’ve written, I’m struck by how often I singularly fail to introduce the characters for the audience. Especially the protagonists (pretty important, Shirley?). In reading scripts from my peers on recent courses, I’m not alone in missing this.

Obviously, this is down to forgetting to read the script as though I was the final audience. Not the producer, or director, or whoever, but someone sitting actually watching something I’ve written. As a result, I’ll introduce the character in the scene description, and that’s it. I never refer to them by name in the dialogue. Or even in any other way, such as a name badge, a massive banner celebrating their birthday or a “Wanted” poster.

That’s not really very clever of me, so this is a blog-as-external-brain post. Hopefully it will serve to remind me to not be so forgetful in future.

Also, I must stop calling characters “Tom”.

And in fact, writing this post has made me think that we’re forgetting to introduce the main character in the game I’m working on. I’ll just go and check that…

Being Professional

2008-07-19T01:34:00Z

Being professional means separating out your personal taste from your professional opinion. I don’t watch Ugly Betty, or listen to Cedric The Entertainer comedy records, but I understand why they work. I would personally never choose Leno over Letterman, but I understand what his appeal is to those who do so. Understanding the audience is my job. It has to be. And if you work in the business, no matter where you work in the business, it’s your job too.

—Denis McGrath

Work Through The Suck

2008-07-15T16:36:00Z

Ira Glass is host and executive producer on This American Life. In this video, he talks about working through the suck, using himself as an example.

Choice quote (approximate):

All of us who do creative work get into it because we have good taste … but there’s a gap, so for the first couple of years you’re making this stuff and it’s really not that good … but your taste is still killer, and it’s so good that you can tell that what you’re making is a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase; a lot of people at that point, they quit.

(via)

Secret Sauce

2008-07-02T17:32:00Z

Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure – or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you will find success.

—Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

Red Planet Prize Info

2008-07-01T19:38:00Z

Nowt official yet, but The Stage reports on the prize:

Writers wanting to enter this year’s competition are asked to submit the first ten pages of a one hour pilot script that has series potential.

Entrants should also include a page submission about how it could work as a series and the writers that impress [Tony] Jordan and his panel of judges the most will be asked to submit a full one hour script.

Application forms can be downloaded from www.redplanetpictures.co.uk. Deadline for entries is September 30.

~~I don’t see the form available on the website yet, but expect it will be updated shortly.~~ Update: The Red Planet site is all nice and shiny now, and the application form is right there.

The fact that they’re looking specifically for something with series potential is interesting (I think I’m right in saying that’s different from last year?), and does in fact alter my decision on what to write.

There were over 2,000 entrants last year, and I’d guess there might be double that this year. Scary odds, but it’s too good a prize to waste energy thinking like that.

Planet Busters

2008-07-01T06:49:00Z

A game I worked on has been released! Yay! It’s called Planet Busters and it involves much destruction. You can read some more about it at the official site, or why not watch the clip below?

Until July 8th, you can buy the game for the measly price of $8.99 (after that it’s a not quite so measly $9.99). It’s currently only available on Steam, which is a very good thing that you should have anyway.

Joyous Jealousy

2008-06-30T12:11:00Z

I can’t find any online reference for this, but Bob Kurtz apparently coined the phrase joyous jealousy. So here’s me stealing the glory and providing said online reference:

The feeling you have when you experience someone else’s work and think: “I wish I’d made that!” followed by the thought “Well, what can I learn from that?”

This absolutely holds true for me on a number of topics: TV, games, companies, films, books and products. In thinking about it though, I seem to feel it less often with movies. I’ll have to give some thought as to why that might be. And yes, I really did say companies there.

This isn’t about purloining ideas. I didn’t watch Finding Nemo and then decide I would write a film about some fish, or even about a father looking for his lost son. Rather, this is about inspiration: watching Finding Nemo made me want to write. More than that, it made me aspire to write something that good. Why do you do what you do? A lot of writers will say it’s because they have to write; game designers might say it’s because they want to make the game that they always wanted to play. I don’t think that’s what drives me.

When people ask why I do what I do, joyous jealousy gives me a neat way to summarise it. I love to create things, to bring something into existence that wasn’t there before. And when I have a positive experience other people’s work, it does inspire me to go off and create my own. I’ve even been known to get animated about things in such rushes of blood. The fact that I have so many areas that I follow is certainly a contributing factor to my lack of focus, but equally, I think it all feeds into and serves the overall creative process. Most importantly, I think, it gives me a number of creative outlets. Hopefully this helps make my ideas stronger. Perhaps it even makes me interesting, though I doubt anything could make me interesting. Possibly dangerous, since I know a little about a lot of different things, but not interesting.

Here’s a few things I am joyously jealous of:

Anything by Pixar (The only reference I can find to Kurtz and this phrase is on the Toy Story 2 10th Anniversary DVD)
Malcolm Gladwell books & articles
The West Wing
30 Rock
Portal
Everyday Shooter
Innocent
Every company featured in Mavericks at Work
The Walworth Farce

What inspires you to do what you do? What are you jealous of?

Red Planet Prize 2

2008-06-30T07:20:00Z

As expected, the second Red Planet Prize will be announced at the Screenwriters Festival on Wednesday. They have a blog for it this year too.

I think I know what I’m going to write for it, but I’m going to wait for the actual announcement before I make a final decision.

Get Your Music Played

2008-06-25T12:37:00Z

This is perhaps the most significant message that [Philip] Glass delivers to the young composers whom he assists behind the scenes: stop dreaming of Beethoven and get your music played.

(Alex Ross on Philip Glass)

Blunted

2008-06-23T16:07:00Z

As expected, I didn’t make it to the shortlist for Sharps. Apparently, 100 scripts were longlisted from the near 600 entrants, and the writers of those that didn’t make it through will be told such and get some feedback. So now I cross my fingers that I somehow made it to that stage.

Given that I’ve spotted all sorts of problems with the script, I’m not going to hold my breath.

On a positive note, I now have a 30 minute script which I can work on and polish up. I’ll be getting some imminent feedback from my current writing class, which is always useful, before I make any changes though. I’m always curious to see if readers point out the same things that I already know are problems.

Tomorrow, it’s off to the Traverse for the BBC writersroom Roadshow. Should be fun!