Screenwriting

These Aren’t Resolutions

It’s late, I can’t sleep, and my mind is racing a million miles a second. I figured that since this is the case I would write out a list of things I’d like to do in 2009. Before I go any further, I need to clarify: these are NOT resolutions. Resolutions (if you recall) are things that people break. I don’t want that to be the fate of these items, and if I don’t call them by the “r” word, maybe I’ll actually succeed. Following so far?

Sell my first screenplay.
Finish my second screenplay.
Sell that one.
Produce my short film that got rejected by the Columbia College Practicum.
Write a third screenplay.
Ice skate.
Take a road trip with friends.
Find a job that parallels my interests and be able to keep it.
Continue my webcomic.
Draw a new one that’s been kicking around in my head for some time.
Go on an honest to god date. You know, where you dress up super nice and drink wine.
See at least 12 bands in my library.
Cook more. (I’ve cooked more this year than before just in these past few months!)
Go to a rave.
Do my part in making the production company I’m a part of the big thing this year.
Go to at least 2 conventions of any kind and get my picture taken with someone “famous.”
Go to comic con.
Record an episode of Geek Troika at each of my co-hosts’ places.
Get to writing that fourth screenplay.
Submit my writing to competitions.

I definitely plan to add to this list as I think of more things. There’s so much to do this year and only 365 days to do it in. Not much time, if you ask me. Oh yeah, and if you enjoyed this list, make your own and share it. I kind of like the idea of being accountable to the internet on this one.

Rambling About Screenwriting Books

Posted on January 7, 2009 by movieguyjon Blather My Life Screenwriting 5

Thought I would try out my new account with Viddler by ranting about a screenwriting book that I hate and one that I love. Kind of threw it together fast so it ain’t “all that” nor is it the definitive source on what you should buy if you’re in the market for books on screenwriting…so be kind. :)

Back in Chicago

Posted on December 28, 2008 by movieguyjon Blather Screenwriting 0

I arrived at the Greyhound station in Chicago at around 1:00am, just like the ticket said. I exited the bus as fast as I could and waited eagerly for the luggage man to come by and hand me my bag so I could get the hell away from the bus and get back to my nice (and hopefully warm) apartment. As I bounced up and down impatiently, a fellow passenger took a step toward me and excused himself. “I noticed that you were using a script-writing program.” he said. “May I ask which one you were using?” I told him about Celtx and how it’s been my program of choice for awhile now. I gave him a brief rundown of what it did and then we parted ways awkwardly.

There really wasn’t a point to this little story, but I figured I would share anyway.

A Thought On Method

Posted on November 21, 2008 by movieguyjon Blather Film Internets My Life Screenwriting 10

As a writer for any medium, you often get asked (or are made to ask yourself), “What’s your method?” Some people respond with a very complex list of how they get into the mood to write and then how they go about building their magnum opus while others go at great lengths to explain how they just do things in bursts. I tend to fall into that latter category. My writing inspiration seems to come and go, usually without much warning. I could be sitting in the classroom arguing the semantics of storytelling when this “need” will rise to the surface and eat away at me until I scribble something down. Or, I could be sitting at the local Starbucks drinking a Grande White Mocha when this happens, oftentimes in mid-sip. If I’m lucky, I’ll have a pen nearby. If not, I resort to my laptop.

There was a period of time where I tried to maintain a more organized writing method, what some might call a regimen if you will. I put this into practice during the summer, since I chose not to take any classes, and went to a coffee shop to spend a few hours a day writing. I would ask for a real “froofy” drink and then sit down and write until the battery died. I was able to get a decent amount of work done in around two to three hours (I need a new battery for the ole macbook pro). After about a week or so of this, though, I stopped and went back to my more sporadic method of writing every couple of days or whenever I felt like it.

And then I had a conversation with the Chair of the Film and Video Department at Columbia College. I (alongside a producer from our Practicum class) had pitched a story I was working on and he gave some excellent advice on how to go about fixing the then incomplete story. Later on, we bumped into each other in the hall and talked about the process of writing. I explained my exasperation at the process and he chuckled. He told me that it was a day to day process, and that in this business you need to continually write. It’s a competitive business and if you aren’t writing, you won’t make it. That hit home with me, and I decided to work on my method some. Now, I try to write something every day, whether it be my scripts, Twitter, Friendfeed, this site, or for Generation Tech. But I don’t force myself, either. If I don’t have anything, I don’t write anything.

That’s pretty much my method, explained in a bunch of barely strung together paragraphs. Hopefully the insight was helpful, and gave you something to take away. So, I turn the question to you. “What’s your method?”

Thanks goes out to Kent Nichols for making me think. :)

My Life As An Intern At A Failed Startup, pt 2

Posted on September 20, 2008 by movieguyjon Film Internets Screenwriting 0

There’s a specific moment in any new job or situation when the honeymoon officially “ends” and for me it happened when we started doing group pitches. I remember being quite excited about this at first. In theory, pitches sounded like a really good idea. A chance for me to prove I had ideas, that I could truly contribute to the company, so to speak. When I found out that they had scheduled them for Wednesdays (my class time), I was bummed but I gave them my ideas anyway. I’d skip classes next week and make sure I was there to be heard and to give my ideas.

Well, that second week turned out to be something special, alright. I entered the office first thing in the morning, and felt the nervous excitement of everyone around me. A few people were running back and forth between their computers and the printer, making sure they had enough copies of their scripts to go around.

“Scripts?” I asked no one in particular as I went to find my desk. When I got to the place where I usually sit, I found someone sitting there, typing away at the keyboard. Not one to make or want a scene I simply chilled around the office. At first I wandered around the little island of computers in the middle of the office, and then I moved over to the animators and chatted with them for a bit, awkwardly seeing what was up and making sure to get enough “drool time” in regards to the Cintiq. I moved along and eventually found myself back near my station. One of the guys looked up from his computer and gave a double take.

“Oh, um,” he said. “We’ll figure out something for you to do after the pitches.” I nodded, and repressed a little unease. I sat down at the computer desk which would eventually become my main station in the final months of working there and made light chit-chat with Caitlin, who I hadn’t talked to much before then.

One of the guys finished printing his copies early and started stapling them together. Thinking fast, I took over his station and printed my ideas out for the pitch. There weren’t many of them (much like the ones I had handed in the week before) so the process ended just as quickly as it had started. I certainly didn’t have any scripts prepared, a fact which stayed with me until the meeting started. Had I missed something here? Was I supposed to have written a script? As everyone gathered into the room, I tried to rack my brain to see if I had blatantly missed what had been said to me a week before, or if something had been said to me a week before.

Um, nope.

I hadn’t missed anything.

Hmm. Weird.

I guess they had spent some time on these ideas. An emotion not unlike awe and respect crept up on me. I thought, (and I cringe at this nowadays) “My god, these guys are real writers. This is what it’s all about.” Suddenly, my puny little education at Columbia College felt small time. Here I was going to school to learn how to one day write an amazing script, and these guys were actually writing these on a week to week basis.

These feelings of awe and respect went away within the first ten minutes of the pitch session. By the end of it all, I felt sick to my stomach. What had happened certainly wasn’t a pitch session in any traditional sense. The guys with the scripts passed theirs around and we read them one by one and voted. Only one person talked about each story, with the writers of the ideas pitching in every now and then to correct or try and win everyone’s vote. As it turned out, my ideas were panned on account of not being fully fleshed out.

“There’s just not enough here,” at least one person mentioned. Another gave me a look, which I took to be that of condescension. I had seen it before in my previous internship from the regular, full time staff, so I picked up on it almost instantly. It’s that look of “Oh, you’re new at this. It’s okay. We appreciate your help.” Oddly enough, it’s not that dissimilar of a look to the one you get when you tell a real bomb of a joke at a party before anyone starts drinking.

The scripts that made it through the pitch session weren’t all that great. I remember stepping out of that room feeling a mix of agitation, confusion, irritation wish just a dash of embarrassment. Didn’t I just consider these guys writers not an hour or so ago? Hadn’t I been ready to discount my education completely because they had printed out scripts? Now that I think about it, I was probably more embarrassed than anything else.

A sirloin steak with a giant penis?

Really?

This was going to get us our hits?

“What the fuck is this place?” I remember whispering to myself at the end of my shift.