Screamwriter

The Rains of Castamere

2013-06-08T23:00:00.000-04:00

Despite the fact that I’ve been a loyal viewer for the past three seasons, this is actually my first Game of Thrones post. It only took one of the most shocking scenes in television history to get me off my butt and start blogging. The season finale is tomorrow but I’m still chewing over the now infamous Red Wedding. George R.R. Martin is a cruel, cruel man. He creates these likable characters, gets us to root for them, and just when it seems like they’ll triumph--BOOM! They’re dead. He especially seems to relish punishing the Starks for their bad decisions.

Here’s a good interview with Martin in Entertainment Weekly explaining why he wrote Red Wedding. He’s all about suspense and defying expectations. If anyone can die at any moment, we can’t take the outcome of any scene for granted. Sounds like good advice. Check out this snippet from a recent Conan appearance:

The beauty of television is how we can see characters grow and change over the course of many episodes/seasons, as opposed to a two hour film. Watching that all change creates emotional attachments. Twitter went berserk when those deaths occurred. Viewers can be so indifferent because some stories are so predictable, it’s fun to see them lose their frickin’ minds when the writer pulls a fast one on ‘em.

Game of Thrones has taught me a few things: no good deed goes unpunished, a just cause doesn’t guarantee success, and don’t mess with the Lannisters (or cross Walder Frey). It’s impossible to predict how this series will end, and I imagine that’s exactly the way Mr. Martin likes it.

The Mini-Movie Method

2013-05-29T23:54:00.000-04:00

ScreenwritingU had a pretty good teleconference last Sunday with Chris Soth discussing his Mini-Movie Method. Basically, it's a way of breaking your script into several "mini-movies" in order to give the story a cohesive and concrete structure. They've posted a link to an mp3 of the interview here. Even if you know this kind of stuff already, it's not a bad refresher course...

Contest Alert!

2013-05-26T22:22:00.000-04:00

Screamfest just added a last minute sweetener for this year's screenwriting competition: a first look deal for the winning script with Chiller TV. Final deadline is June 15th. Details here. Decisions, decisions...

In The Flesh

2013-05-16T23:48:00.003-04:00

Set after a zombie uprising, treated zombies are rehabilitated back into society.

Came across this trailer for a BBC zombie drama that aired in February. Zombies aren’t at the top of my favorite movie monster list, but if the premise is interesting enough, I usually give it a shot. As much as I enjoy shows like The Walking Dead, it’s certainly refreshing to see a different take on the zombie apocalypse story. Anyway, I did a little googling and found three scripts over at the BBC Writersroom. There’s also a blog entry from writer/creator Dominic Mitchell.

Tips From Hitchcock

2013-05-08T17:03:00.001-04:00

Found a great bunch of clips where Alfred Hitchcock discusses some important storytelling tools.

Click

2013-05-07T21:21:00.001-04:00

I came across this really cool short from an article posted over on io9. No gore, splatter or flashy effects needed. An excellent example of how suspense can be a horror screenwriter's best friend.

Cold Feet

2013-05-06T23:53:00.001-04:00

The Nicholl final deadline came and went last week without my entry... I can be a bit of a perfectionist at times, but I trust my gut. Something wasn’t working. I finally realized that inserting crazy twists and reveals into the story was ultimately doing more harm than good. Instead of working on something like character development, I made a rookie mistake.

Anyway, there’s still the Austin Film Festival. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make that deadline...

Contest Alert!

2013-04-21T12:22:00.004-04:00

Only twenty bucks for early submissions. Seriously considering this one...

2013 SCREAMCRAFT Horror Script Contest In Association With The Blood List

Is your script the next “Paranormal Activity” or “Saw” franchise? Whether you have a contained thriller or a big effects-driven horror film, WE WANT TO READ YOUR SCREENPLAY. The judges panel includes 3 development executives at Lionsgate, Paramount and Sony.

First place prize is $1,000 cash + consultation with agent Kailey Marsh, founder of The Blood List, + personal recommendation of your script to the list’s 100 industry insiders who determine the top 13 dark genre scripts every October!
Second place prize is $100 cash and a phone call with a top literary manager.
All Top 10 Finalists will receive a page of development notes from one of our judges.
Early submission fee is only $20 until April 30th. Enter now:

Orphan Black

2013-04-21T11:43:00.000-04:00

Sarah Manning discovers that she has multiple doppelgangers, and someone is killing them off.

Absolutely fantastic premise but the pilot really didn’t grab me. Too much time spent on Sarah’s crummy life, crummy ex-boyfriend, stolen cocaine, etc. However, I suppose that information was necessary in order to justify why she would swap places with a recently deceased cop/doppelganger.

Tatiana Malsany is quite the chameleon. I didn’t realize that she was in one of the Ginger Snaps sequels until I looked her up on the imdb. She really seems to enjoy juggling all the wigs, outfits, and accents.

All in all, the pilot reminded me of a grimier version of the CW’s short-lived Ringer starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. But instead of a soapy melodrama, Orphan Black has great potential to be an effective police procedural and sci-fi thriller. My biggest criticism would be the pacing. The entire episode felt like several episodes of a web series stitched together into a loosely connected 60 minute movie. Subsequent episodes have been much stronger.

R.I.P.D. Trailer

2013-04-18T22:32:00.000-04:00

Based on the trailer, it would be difficult to ignore the obvious similarities between R.I.P.D. and Men in Black: a secret organization, mismatched partners, gruff older guy and the cocky younger guy, fish out of water, special effects driven, etc. We’ve come a long way from the days of 48 Hours and Lethal Weapon. Audiences have shorter attention spans and demand lots of spectacle. I do like the concept of otherworldly cops though. I haven't read the comic that it's based upon, so R.I.P.D. could very well be a completely original idea, but the marketing folks probably thought this was the best way to sell it. Only time will tell...

Tick-Tock

2013-04-14T23:00:00.001-04:00

The only thing I hate more than deadlines is missing them... The Nicholl final deadline is May 1st. Now I don’t want to jinx myself and say that I’ve finally gotten over the hump, I but feel pretty good about meeting that deadline with a ~~completed~~ polished script. I even have time to throw up a few posts this week. Stay tuned...

The Awakening

2013-03-23T23:30:00.000-04:00

Looks like I broke my New Year’s resolution regarding big gaps between posts -- gotta work on that. Even though I’m in the middle of my Nicholl script, I managed to squeeze in some time for a few quick words on The Awakening.

Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall), author/skeptic/paranormal debunker, arrives at a boarding school to dispel the rumor that a ghost is responsible for a boy’s death.

The murder mystery angle works well and surprisingly gets wrapped up at the halfway point. It’s at this junction in the story where Florence begins to suspect that something supernatural is also going on. Unfortunately, this is also point where everything starts to become incredibly muddled and twisty.

You could make the argument that The Sixth Sense and The Others were the two worst things to happen to ghost stories. Ever since those films, there’s been this overwhelming emphasis on a huge, mind-blowing Third Act twist. The Awakening decides to up the ante by attempting to throw so many twists at the audience that they’ll end up with whiplash by the closing credits.

The best twists are the ones we should have seen coming. All the clues hidden in plain sight. On the other hand, nobody wants to feel hornswoggled because the film omitted or totally misrepresented certain story elements. It's quite the balancing act...

Some good performances here from Rebecca Hall and Dominic West, but the film simply tries too hard...

Looper

2013-03-08T20:00:00.003-05:00

One of the better sci-fi films in recent years. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's prosthetics didn't turn out to be such a big distraction. This is probably old news, but Rian Johnson created a commentary track while the film was still in theaters:

https://soundcloud.com/rcjohnso/looper-theatrical-commentary

Here's a link to a Jeff Goldsmith interview with Johnson:

http://traffic.libsyn.com/theqandawjeffgoldsmith/RianJohnsonLooperQandA.mp3

Contest Alert: Austin Film Festival

2013-02-26T23:55:00.000-05:00

Got my annual call for entries from the Austin Film Festival the other day. Their screenplay competition has an impeccable reputation and industry awareness, but my werewolf script didn’t fare too well when I entered a few years back so I usually pass. I know, I know, it’s all subjective but [whine] that same script made the finals and semi-finals of reputable genre contests and received two positive reads from Nicholl!![/whine] I’ve been reluctant to take another shot... until now.

“Due to an increasing demand by our industry judges, we’ve created a new horror award category for the Screenplay Competition. This category is open to any feature horror script including dark suspense, thriller, sci-fi and macabre themes.”

Austin has always had a genre category, but I like the new emphasis on horror. Not sure if my odds will be any better though. Check out the details here.

Impending Doom

2013-02-18T11:00:00.000-05:00

I’m really enjoying the heck out of FX’s new espionage drama The Americans. Set in the 80s, Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys star as Russian spies posing as an all-American married couple. The pilot had a great cinematic quality and pacing that grabbed me from the start. The third episode ("Gregory") had a terrific scene last week, where a character thinks they’re going to have a happy ending, but there’s this (figuratively) black cloud looming above. While everyone is saying all the right things, you just know this person is doomed. It was fascinating to watch it play out. Instead of punctuating the scene with garrotte around the neck, a muffed scream, or a gunshot, the character cheerfully gets into a van. The camera lingers on the two stars as they wrestle with what they've just done. It takes a lot of trust on the part of the writers to let the actors emote and not force a few words out of their mouths. One of the pitfalls of some newbie writers is an overdependence on dialogue. Characters say exactly what’s on their minds, or respond verbally to everything going on around them. It might be a good exercise to try out one of those elephant-in-the-room scenes...

Do No Harm Axed!

2013-02-10T22:51:00.000-05:00

A brilliant neurosurgeon who has to battle his own alter-ego so that he can live a normal life.

Not as compelling as BBC’s Jekyll, but certainly watchable. I am surprised that NBC went this route after similarly-themed Own Worst Enemy fizzled a few years back.

The marketing could have been stronger. After you get past the Jekyll & Hyde stuff, what kind of show are viewers dealing with? Medical procedural? Crime drama? Thriller? Viewers want a clear sense of what they’ll be getting every week. On the other hand, the marketing folks can only work with what they’ve been given. The “all of the above” approach to the concept probably contributed to the muddled advertising. I don’t understand the image of Ian's face in Jason's hands. Is that supposed to be scary?

I hope the produced episodes eventually find their way online or on SyFy...

The Following

2013-01-28T20:48:00.000-05:00

FOX was Fringeless last Friday -- gonna take a while to get used that -- so I took the opportunity to check out the encore premiere of The Following. Aside from Silence of the Lambs, Se7en, Scream, and Luther on the BBC, I’ve never been especially interested in shows/films dealing with serial killers. The deal-breaker for me is that too many of them focus on being gruesome rather than suspenseful. I don’t mind gore, as long as it goes hand in hand with good storytelling. The Following’s promos seemed interesting enough, and the involvement of Kevin Bacon and Kevin Williamson were a definite plus to get me on board.

A brilliant and charismatic, yet psychotic serial killer communicates with other active serial killers and activates a cult of believers following his every command.

A couple of well-worn tropes are front and center: the burnt out (ex) FBI agent (Kevin Bacon) who got way too close to his quarry, the brilliant professor-turned-serial killer (James Purefoy), his obsession with a Edgar Allan Poe, the love triangle, a paternity question -- I’m probably missing a few, but you get the idea. Bacon helps. A lot.

Maybe there’s more to come, but I don’t think the pilot illustrated how social media helps these twisted followers come together. Nobody wants to watch people pointing and clicking for 45 minutes, but viewers should get a sense of how they communicate. Note to self: start working on a Techno-thriller.

The other thing that caught my attention: the Hero’s Journey stuff. Joe Carroll (Purefoy) fancies himself an author, and Ryan Hardy (Bacon) is his protagonist. He actually explains to Hardy that a killing was necessary so he would have a call to action. I’m curious to see how much The Following adheres to the stages of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth.

The ratings were pretty solid, around 10 million viewers, so there’s a pretty good chance we’ll get to see all 14 episodes.

Contest Alert: NBC Drama Challenge

2013-01-20T23:20:00.000-05:00

NBC is honored to partner with the annual New York Television Festival to discover inspiring, fresh writers. From the network that brings you hit shows like REVOLUTION and GRIMM we are looking for our next big, splashy drama. Here at NBC, no topic or genre is off limits. What excites us most are passionate ideas and strong, bold characters with specific points of view. We are offering a $25,000 prize along with the chance that we may develop your winning script and/or engage you to write additional ideas.

What do I need to submit?

    Produced Pilot Scene (not to exceed 10 minutes in length)
    Pilot Script (1-2 Acts, not to exceed 40 pages in length)
    Series overview (not to exceed 2 pages in length)
    Signed Entry Packet

Click here for details.

I'm currently up to my elbows with my 2013 Nicholl Fellowship entry, but a free contest with a $25,000 prize is mighty tempting. Really wish I had heard about it in November. I have a pilot idea on the back burner, but I doubt it would be ready for the March 15th deadline. The last thing I need right now is distraction. Great opportunity though...

#goodreads - Prometheus

2013-01-13T14:35:00.001-05:00

I’m really late to the party with this one... A few months ago, Hitfix posted links to some early drafts of Prometheus. One from Jon Spaihts (back when it was called Alien Engineers) and a subsequent version from fanboy favorite Damon Lindelof. Haven’t read them yet, but hopefully the links aren’t dead. While many critics and fans felt the film was somewhere between big disappointment and awful, there were a scant few of us in the “liked it” camp.

Maybe it’s my geeky weakness for sci-fi stories about space exploration and beings from other worlds -- I dug John Carter as well -- that made me looked past the *many* nitpicky gaps in logic. Your favorite film has dumb character moments and convenient coincidences. They all do. When a story works for us emotionally, we overlook the flaws. I can’t even begin to explain why I liked Lockout. *hangs head in shame*

Honestly, who could resist a face like that?

As much as some people complained, things could have been worse. Ridley Scott said in an interview that at one point in the story, it would have been revealed that Jesus was an Engineer. His death is what caused them to turn on mankind -- even I would have bailed on that lame plot point.

Don't the Engineers look like Powder on steroids?

The influence of Erich von Däniken’s book, Chariots of the Gods?, is pretty hard to miss here. Technologically advanced race from another world, tinkers with the puny humans. Prometheus probably connects more with fans of Ancient Aliens than moviegoers looking for Round Two of Ripley vs. The Xenomorph Queen. There was a little too much teasing of it being (or not being) a direct prequel to Alien. The final scene felt tacked on just to appease fans.

I absolutely adore the first two Alien films, but I wasn’t clamoring for someone to solve the mystery of the Space Jockey. Some questions are better left unanswered. Not to mention the futility of trying to catch lightning in a decades old bottle. And while it made good money at the box office, I’m not sure if we’ll ever get a sequel. Lindelof recently announced that he wasn’t going to be involved in writing a sequel. Maybe in another 20-30 years, someone will try to tackle the franchise again.

Mama Trailer & Original Short

2013-01-06T23:40:00.000-05:00

Here’s the really short film by Andrés Muschietti that attracted Guillermo Del Toro to executive produce the upcoming feature length version. I can’t believe two minutes is all it took to get the attention of a big-time director/producer. Short films, especially on the web, seem to be an effective calling card these days...

Talk about a bad hair day. Wonder how much it cost to produce. And now the trailer...

Although feral children and a ghostly creature certainly sounds like a winning formula, I don’t see a lot beyond the typical jump scares. When Del Toro puts his producer hat on, he goes for out-of-the-box genre stories like Julia’s Eyes and The Orphanage, so I’ll reserve judgement.

A New Year

2013-01-05T23:30:00.000-05:00

First post of the new year ...and it only took me five days! Up this point, I had completely forgotten about my 2012 screenwriting resolutions, so it was quite the surprise to discover that I had met most of them. I didn’t finish the screenplay in 21 days, but I managed to read and write more often. Sorely lacking in specificity, but I’ll take those tiny victories where I can find them.

And while contests and querying didn’t get me anywhere in 2013, there’s nothing like the whiff of a new script to make you believe things will be different this time around. I started it last January, but things only started to come together in the last few months. I stayed away from ghosts, zombies, vampires, and werewolves with this one. The story is a big shout-out to those classic Twilight Zone episodes. I’m really anxious to see how it fares in contests.

My other writing resolution deals with this blog. No more two week gaps between posts.

#Goodreads - Oscar Bait

2012-12-16T12:13:00.000-05:00

Rope of Silicon has compiled a list of downloadable screenplays from Academy Award hopefuls. I’m especially interested in Beasts of the Southern Wild, Hitchcock, ParaNorman, and Snow White and the Huntsman. Check them all out here.

Pacific Rim Trailer

2012-12-15T19:58:00.000-05:00

After watching the Pacific Rim trailer, I suddenly felt there was a strong possibility that I had somehow slipped into a parallel universe where Guillermo Del Toro was a hack who made soulless films with giant robots, lots of ‘plosions, and featured Maxim models as his leading ladies (Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental). Clicking my heels together didn’t do much to change my surroundings, so I did a little Googling and found a few interviews that eased my fears...

Get More: Movie Trailers, Movies Blog

Del Toro hasn’t changed. He’s still the same imaginative filmmaker who gave us Cronos, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Hellboy. The ability to combine spectacle and story is a rarity these days. He’s giving us a little more spectacle than we’re used to, but I suspect subsequent trailers will shed more light on character and story. I really want this film to do well. Its success would definitely increase the odds of a Hellboy 3.

M.I.A.

2012-12-11T23:15:00.002-05:00

Posts have been more sporadic than usual because a wonky computer, but expect a flurry topics at the end of the week...

Jump Scares

2012-11-30T11:05:00.000-05:00

Ah, the jump scare. Even the most seasoned horror fan will occasionally fall for them, but they’re most effective when used sparingly. All too often, this advice falls on deaf ears. Characters are constantly subjected to cats springing out of cupboards (How do they manage to close the doors behind them?), sneaky buddies popping up out of dark alleys, split-second shots of spooky faces in bathroom mirrors, etc. It's all about balance. You can't have your ghost/monster/killer to appear in every scene that requires tension or else they'll lose their effectiveness. There's nothing wrong with a quick, cheap scare, just stay away from the same old cliches. Put a new spin on them.