This is how movies should be nowadays! Original, fun and entertaining! The beginning is just pure genius...


Let's see how Tarantino, Ritchie etc. influence popular cultur like this!

And yes, it fucks up my page... but who cares? Watch the vid!

The Films of Ridley Scott

Another great one by Paul Proulx:



to see more of his work, check his site here: Bennet Media

One great scene in 25th Hour:






This scene propably doesn't work well in the script but onscreen with the music and editing and of course with a performance of Edward Norton rarely seen (and that means a lot, since he's always great!) this one makes one hell of an impact.

With just 30 second context input this scene would even make one hell of a short.

Mysteryman showed me. I wanted to give you part of it too...

Great Editing!

This guy Paul Proulx is doing some great editing work with movies. Check out his Blog and Youtube Profile.

Here's an example I like:

Casino


He also edits the WowManWow-Series which is a really absurd drug-trip and really fun to watch. It gets better with every new episode.



Well, I have to admit I am mostly drunk when I watch it.

Have fun!

Watch this Reporter!

I watched this like 10 times already! LOL

Secret

I don't know why, but sometimes I make really depressing movies. Check this out:

Little Update

Yes, it's been a while. Just some infos in "The Night They Came": Structure is done. I can only write through the script. I have a lot of other things to do like building up two brand new homepages and one company and still work full time at a regular IT job. But be sure that the progress bar will show "script completed" and maybe even "sold". Stay tuned.

Info on "The Night They Came" Script

Just about five minutes ago I realized the beginning of my script (i.e. first ten pages) has some problems that need to be solved with a rewrite. The stupid thing is I worked on the first ten pages for a very long time. Now I have to come up with something else. The rest is about okay, structure wise.

The good thing is I propably can take some parts of the first version into my new one. So that means for today and tomorrow I have to come up with some really good stuff to write.

USS Indianapolis - Jaws

From one of my favourite movies; from one of my favourite scenes:



Robert Shaw delivers it!

Die Hard With a Vengeance

This is my favourite trailer of all time. And I think it is also one of the best ever. Back in 1995 I thought of how cool it would be of a third installment of the Die Hard series come onscreen (yes, I was only 12 back then) and just a couple days later they showed exactly this trailer on TV. I never forgot.

They Called Me Mister Glas

M. Night Shyamalan surprised me with The Sixth Sense. I watched that movie in theaters because I thought the trailer was cool and it had Bruce Willis in it. I didn't know much more about it. Yeah, I was young and had no clue, except that I was going to watch one of the truly great pictures of the 90's.

Just a little later came Unbreakable. Many saw it as a flop. It wasn't. It made more then 200 Mio.$ worldwide. And it is one of my favourite movies!

This is the ending sequence of the movie, so if you haven't seen it, go rent and watch it, heck buy it! First watch the movie before watching this.

Even though I may have seen the ending come that way as Samuel L. Jackson being the badguy in the last ten minutes, I would've never thought of such a dramatic and complete story to end like that.

The movie is cinematically speaking a work of genius.

Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

This movie is in my top ten favourite movies of all time. If you haven't seen this movie, go rent it now and watch it, don't look at this footage before. For everyone else, this is love for cinema. Tornatore and Morricone captured the end of the movie perfectly. Back then I had tears in my eyes seeing this, I still have everytime!

Cinematic Writing

Inspired by Mystery Man's post about Cinematic Storytelling:

I believe to truly write cinematic you have to get rid of some stuff if you haven't already. Never had them? Fantastic!

First of all no camera directions whatsoever nor anything technical is allowed. I'm a writer/director and even though I write for myself with me directing the script in mind, I don't put anything like "dolly shot" or "crane shot with zoom" in it. It's going destroy the flow of the story, it's obtrusive. These things belong in a storyboard.

Secondly, get rid off this one immediatly: "We see..." or "We move..." etc. It's lazy writing and it's not elegant at all. Seriously, you will be forced to write more cinematic without that.

Now what you add to your writing is very easy. When you write a scene, just describe what is in the frame. You don't need more. The audience will not be able to see more then the eye meets. So why describe more? Just describe everything inside the frame. Like that you will be forced to write cinematically.

Here's an example:
_________________________________________________

INT. APARTEMENT - NIGHT

TV is on. Mute.

The ringing breaks the silence. The dog in the corner is alert.

A female hand reaches for the cordless phone.


EXT. APARTEMENT - NIGHT

A dark figure stands on the other side of the street, holding a cell phone.

WOMAN (O.S.)
Hello?

MALE VOICE
Hi Cindy, do you wanna die tonight?


INT. APARTEMENT - NIGHT

The cordless phone falls onto the floor.

_________________________________________________


While reading you were forced to only see the things I give you. I forced you to see my editing, my camera angles.

If you'd have described the apartement and the woman in there because you feel it is necessary for everything that is being introduced to have a full description, then people reading your stuff will make their own movie in their mind (in terms of cuts and camera angles) because you give them more room.

John Rambo

Yes, he's back! And how he is back! Below you can watch the promo trailer. This is going to be really violent. Silvester Stallone has reached the point where he just makes what he does best and doesn't give a damn! First Rocky Balboa, which I think was a great movie and a great end to the Rocky series, and now this!

Enjoy!

The Meaning of the Monolith

This is a two part analysis of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey by Rob Ager. He does a really good job dissecting the meaning of the monolith. Check them out, they are really worth your time.

Part One:


Part Two:

Spider-Man 3 (quick analysis)

Since everybody is writing or should I say was writing about Spider-Man 3 and I just read half of Scott the Reader's post on his blog, I had to write something, too.

Well, I've seen the movie on May 1st, so it's been a while and although I digested and made my opinion the next day, I never really lost too much thought on the movie ever since.

The reason for that on one hand is that it basically ends like it is/can be the end of the series, but not really, not definitely.

I think what the writers had to do is to solve all the problems of Peter Parker from the previous movies and add Venom to it AND make it the preliminary end of the series. That's tough writing to do!


MINOR SPOILERS

In a perfect world the studio and producers would've just gone with the normal formula and made a real sequel with another sequel in mind. That would've meant the meteor with the black material would've caught on Peter Parker in the first ten minutes of the film. So we could've enjoyed the journey of a really dark Spider-Man 3.

Like that we could've seen how Peter Parker learns his skills (womanizer, bar fight, career etc.(yeah, like in the movie, just slower and more menacing)), while fighting Sandman.

So with that, as a writer you wouldn't have space to put in the marrying MJ stuff in. Which is great but isn't 2 1/2 hours not too little time to put in a stretch like Peter wants to marry her one second and humiliating her (jazz bar) the other, while Harry is full of revenge but still wants her back but doesn't really (at least wasn't shown after he got evil again, well because he is just full of revenge again) and we never see how Harry convinced MJ to abandon Peter... she just left him with tears in the park as Harry congratulates her. And yes, Sandman has a backstory, too. And on and on... that's too much. Think of it! After all that you still have to add amazing action sequences that take a great portion of the screentime.

If you would take away the action sequences and the first two movies and the production value, this would be simply a soap opera shown on TV everyday. It just happens too much drama for a movie to handle it delicately enough.

And then I still think the filmmakers and especially the writers did a great job trying to make this all fit. With the objective to kinda have the option to end the series there and resolve everything, they did a remarkably skillful job.

So, then I see they are in the talks for Spider-Man 4 and as far as I know they are writing on it. Hmm... where will that movie go? It just seems awkward to get into action again after the end of part 3. But then it still doesn't really seem THE ending for such a huge franchise either.

All I can say is I have the feeling they probably weren't brave enough to just go further, leaving drama unresolved and questions unanswered.

It's All Fine Again

Yes, I got my backpack back today. The script with the notes was in there. Everything else was untouched, too.

I feel better now and I might relax a little.

Fuck!

And again Fuck!

Some of you may know that I lost part of my script late last year due to a re-installation of my Windows XP. Where's the backup, dude? Well, I didn't have any, I just printed the pages on paper. Anyway, back then I wrote a lot on the script and came along pretty well. I was so into it, I left out my routine to print out pages. That backfired as you know.

So I took that as an excuse to procrastinate writing for a few months. It's actually always around 6 months before I regain motivation and power to write. How do I know that? Well, the loss of a script isn't a unique experience to me. A few years back I was writing a thriller called "The Iron Maiden" on an old computer in at that time my office. Well the day came when I gave up the office and gave the computer to a friend. Before that I wanted to save my script on a floppy disk but looking at the computer that day I realized a week ago I took the floppy drive out of the computer to give it to another friend who needed it. The shitty old computer had no other options than that. Neverthless I gave the computer to the friend who wanted it and I told him to get me my script when he connects the computer onto his home network. Until this day nothing. That time I unconsciously procrastinated for about 6 six months. My excuse was to wait for the script.

So, why am I writing all this? Well, last Thursday I was supposed to meet a friend of mine for a drink after work. She wrote me the meeting at her office would take longer and maybe we should postpone our date to another day. Well, I wrote back that I anyway will be getting a drink and I can wait for sure. I love beer too much to let the opportunity slip. Well after a few beers and a call that she won't make it tonight I went to my favourite bar for my last beer.

I didn't go home after the "last" beer. They played poker that night and asked me to join. Well I joined and played a couple rounds until I started to get to feel the beer and lose chips (you can only get three chips per drink (it's not a casino)) to the sober guy. Now I grabbed my bag and went out for the journey to home.

I didn't go home. It's 11.30 P.M. on a Thursday night and I have to work the next day but heck, as one of the guys I played poker with came out (chipless too) and asked me if we should go some other place like a club, I said yes.

We went to a fancy club here in Zurich. You don't just get in. But he managed, that's how cool this dude was. Inside I grabbed another beer, drinking and trying to follow the cool guy going through the dancing crowd. We finally got a spot where we could sit and enjoy the beer. This additional info might help you: I had no dinner or any snacks and been drinking since 5 P.M.

Yeah, sum it up... I was really, really drunk! The loud music, the lights, the thin air and full packed club doesn't help you to recover that easy. I left my backpack where I sat and wanted to get some fresh air. It got worse and worse. It's like my body decided to pull the plug now and let all the alcohol it had withhold in, pouring like a waterfall into my system.

To make a long story short: I locked myself out. Don't try to make me explain. There was nobody around and I was on the street. The glass door separated me from the party and I said "Fuck it!" and went to the train station.

What was in the bag? My script in development with countless notes and ideas and corrections, invaluable. I wouldn't be able to just recreate the dozens of hours of work on the notes.

There was a shitty incident on the way home involving two guys trying to steal my precious cool mobile, but that's for another post, if ever.

I called the club next day. They didn't have the bag. There were other things in there too, irreplaceable. I felt uneasy in the sense as of: "Yeah, you did it! Now it's time to calm down and reason. Don't freak out or get mad. There's enough time for that later on." But I heart pounded as I realized more and more what a stupid thing I had done.

Luckily, two days ago (6 days after that incident) they called me in the middle of the night (4. A.M.) and said they found my backpack! I wasn't able to pick it up yet. But tomorrow I will have time to get the lost bag.

I hope the script is still in there! Or another 6 months of my life wait to be wasted.

I'm back

I've been abstinent from writing on my blog and scripts for a little more than a month. I wasn't doing too well. But now I feel all the energy coming back and ready for a whole bunch of writing sessions.

Stay tuned.

First page of a first draft

Well this idea came from Deborah in one of her replies to her One Page contest contribution. She suggested somebody may post the first page of a first draft so everybody can see how much we suck. Anyway I thought "why not?" and did it. I wrote this in a few minutes, with some input with a friend of mine. No rewrites, no corrections, just what I wrote from first line on.

Here it is:



I know, I know. I'm crazy. The premise is all in the first page and everybody can steal it. Go on, steal it. I've written this page just before in a few minutes. Just some ideas I punched out and written in the first page. Have fun!

One Page...

So, I'm just reading the blogs and as usual I check out Unk's blog. He refers to Red Right Hand's One Page challenge. I'm in it!

Just no setup and no explanation. Just one page from one of your scripts.

Here it goes:

It Never Ends!

Yeah, yeah! I know there is a third progress bar already. No, I'm not writing three scripts at the same time. As you can see the other two are on hold. I got stuck with both of them and need some time off to get distance and some fresh ideas. Meanwhile I just prepare for another story. It's the story that was inspired by the "Goodbye My Lover" music video.

Does it look like I'm trying to escape from actually finishing my scripts? Yes, it looks like that. And honestly, it is true. It takes me forever to finish something. Anyway, I just keep going...

I haven't posted and updated much the last few weeks. I will do by the end of the month.

Goodbye My Lover

This post is inspired by a May 06 post from The Breaths We Take. It inspired me to finish a script. A script I thought would make very much trouble in the next few months. It only took me two days to solve the entire plot. She added this video to her posting. Enjoy!

Carlito's Way

This is the end sequence with credits of Brian De Palma's masterpiece. I fell in love with this movie the first time I saw it. Great voice over.




EDIT: Since the above video was taken off from Youtube, I post two videos here below. The first one is the ending scene and the second one is the beautiful end credits.

The Big Finish

This post is inspired by Terry Rossio's column at Wordplayer.com .

I wanted to give some additional notes on my personal experience to it. I agree with Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot that the ending is by far the most difficult part to come up with when you want to satisfy your audience.

I've been struggling for numerous times with an ending that makes the entire story/plot worthwile and satisfying. I never had a problem to come up with a great ending for my short scripts. They came up fast enough (usually after two or three weeks within the initial start of the script). But then for a feature length script it gets harder somehow. I guess it's the complexity you invest in a 100 page script. There are far too many characters and far too many emotions and motivations to oversee to keep track of.

With my latest two scripts (Shadows in the Sun / Friday, Last Night) I've come to a point where everything is clear except for the ending. They may be good enough for a mediocre script but ultimately not satisfying enough. Somehow you have to have a feeling it is satisfying for you as a writer as it is as a reader. I always felt things are missing.

In Shadows in the Sun I don't know the motivation of my antagonist. There is one but it is not enough. It seems too superficial.

The problem I face is basically what I believe most writers face: You have the first act perfectly executed. The second well done. The third act is coming but now you know everything has to come up to point where it all makes sense without the audience to anticipate it like a "same old story" thing.

For one part it lies in your writing. For another part it lies within your ability to step back and see what the audience will see.

It's a process you need to go through. Over and over.

Let's take an example from The Usual Suspects. If the writers wouldn't have put enough thought into their script it normally would've become a "cheater plot". It didn't. Tho in my opinion to a part it is. But it's so well executed you don't even realize what really is happening until you see "Kobayashi Porcelain" on the ground and how Chazz Palmiteri looks with the greatest surprise in his face on it. It's pure cinema. Great writing, great cinematography, great score, great acting, everything is perfect.

But you can't count on everything but only your writing. It's like a lightning strucks you one night and you realize you got it. Write it down.

I'm a firm believer of fast endings. Don't go for it too long. Don't set up things. Just go for it. Whenever you have the chance, end the script. You can always add a paragraph or two into your second act or even your first. But when it comes to the solution. When it comes to the end. Make it as quick and as compressed as possible. Like a poem. The audience will understand. And they will be in awe.

My point is actually this: Study poem. It's the art of screenwriting! Involve as much information as possible in your script as you can in only a few pages. Character motivation, storyline, emotions that arise from a few facial expression or better visual action.

Try to write a poem about your script story. Or even better write a poem about your third act. You know you probably got only roughly 20-30 pages for your third act. Write a poem and you will know if it works.

additional notes!

No matter if you write about a submarine or outer space experience. You may have no experience with it. Just research it. At the times of internet and ulimited access to information, you can do anything. Research. You are part of it. No need to experience it first hand. My first short story that went beyond 30 pages was about WWII. I had no real idea about the wars in the desert of Africa. But I wrote it. I was 15 years old. I still wrote it. I did it because I had something to tell. No need to be very clear about any infos or construction of a "Spitfire" or a "Messerschmitt". You just need to stell a compelling story! Stoy that grabs an audience! Even if it's just you!

The thing with writing is...

When you write, you don't really do write. You tell a story. Most of us have to stop with the notion of "I am writing". You actually compose instead of writing, you tell. Whatever technique you use. Three-act tecnique or a freelance style, it doesn't matter. The story you write must touch you. One way or another. You are part of the audience. You are the audience.

No one gives a shit about a script that has no heart and soul. It must be part of you. What you experienced, part what you would like to experience, who you are, who they are... everything you know. Don't be afraid. It's a screenplay. Your real-life encounters are not interesting as long as they are not in your script. It's up to you! Who ever could've thought that talking about what a quarter pounder of cheese is been called in netherlands, is a funny and interesting topic? That's real life! At least Tarantino reality!

It doesn't mean you should write the neverending story of "a writer comes to LA and doesn't know how to handle it". That's crap. Take the nuances of your life. Everyday life and pick up the interesteing parts. What do you think Larry David does? He makes comedy out of our lifes! And we pay for it!

What I am saying is: Basically just try to do what you know. Write every single crap you know. Dismiss it after you wrote it. But write it. Don't get stuck by little bullshit on page 7 or 11l. Just finish your script. It's much more important to have a first draft then having 10 pages of nothing.

just wanna share this

You Should Be a Film Writer

You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

You have to do it

Just for notice. If you want to make to Hollywood! Get the numbers right! Everyone is writing a script! Do you think you can write the next blockbuster? No, you can't! I say so not because I am a cynic. It's because the competition. Everyone has a script. You write a shit, chances are somebody else has already written it. Heck, chances are that person registered it at WGAw. Just write the best you can. Write for years. Write for your life. I mean it.

Hollywood pays more then a half a billion for story rights every single year. They want the next Titanic or Lord of the Rings orJerry Maguire. Things are not easy for the people who decide to put one or two hundred millions into your production.

Just do it. Nike says so. So should you. Make it. I'll prove it to you!

Glamour is about to come

I have 18 pages of my new horror script. It's doing quite well tho I haven't worked on it for the last 4 days. My computer was at my friends place where he fixed it. I was worried about my harddrive for a while. My scripts were on it. I haven't made a backup in a while (bad habit).

So I got my computer and my files back yesterday. I printed out my pages for some rework and feel like to write another 20 pages in the next 2 days. I am full of energy.

I'm still drinking a lot. It feels good. I have more confidence in this story then in my previous spec script "Shadows in the Sun".

I've written the first half of my first act. It sounds fun to me. It's a horror/comedy/drama. It's a bit a mixup of some strange scary funny dramatic movie.

When I finished this and "Shadows" I will show it to people around town and everywhere. Since I live in Switzerland this is a bit of a different story. I will first of all send it to some people for some professonial advice and after their comments and my corrections and thoughts I will send this script first of all to Arthur Cohn. Many of you might know his name from his many times academy award winning movies. He lives in Basel (Switzerland) and I think my writing has enough quality to have him recognize my talent.

By the end of the year '06 I think I will make my breakthrough. I want it. It's not like I am a first time writer. I've been writing the last eight years of my life. I think and I believe I have the game. Just for example I've been writing on my revenge story the last 6 years. It has developed into a great epic scale short. I am very critical of my work.

I will tell you when I got my scripts out to producers. Will be a quite interesting experience!

You are too late!

So, I'm watching the world cup and drinking a lot of beers and get stressed (Switzerland and England both lost). Sometimes I write on my screenplay and stumble across a few "minor" problems like the antagonist having NO MOTIVATION. It's killing me. But that is of course not enough as you can read below.

I browse the IMDB and out of nowhere find something that makes me mad! As I stated in my first post my storie's title is Shadows in the Sun. I like that title. I made it up by myself. It fits the storie's mood and there is even a monologue with that line. So, I see on the front page of IMDB that there is a movie called The Shadow Dancer (2005). I just click on it and read more about the movie and find this out: aka Shadows in the Sun. I first can't believe it.

Why? Why do movies have to have more then one title in the same language!? It doesn't make sense to me! Is "The Shadow Dancer" not enough? How about "Shadow Dancer in the Sun"! I just made one title out of two and it sounds even better now! More dramatic! Stick to one title!

Do I have to change my title? I don't think so. But still, it makes you feel like you just don't have that unique cool title anymore. Not that it was so original. It just felt so right for my story. Still does.

P.S. Only a few days until my exams. I really need to study French and Math now or else...

Late

It's been a while since my last post. It's WorldCup time in Germany. I watch a lot of games, drink a lot of beer and shut down my brain.

Ok, I admit. I got stuck. I haven't even written that much. Out of nowhere, as usual, problems with storyline, character motivation and just about everything imaginable arise. Just to stop me. To make me mad, insane.

But I have the football matches on TV. It saves me. For now until July 9th.

Cheers!

Woha!

I've been strolling around countless screenwriter's blogs last couple weeks and I have to say I got so many information I can't even grasp the amount of what I learned thus far.

It all started about eight years ago when I bought my very first book on the subject of screenwriting called Opening the Doors to Hollywood: How to Sell Your Idea, Story, Screenplay, Manuscript by Carlos de Abreu and Howard Jay Smith. From then on I read more then a dozen different screenwriting books and thanks to internet I read a lot of produced and unproduced screenplays. I sometimes pick them up to read thru and remind myself of structure, plot and other tips.

So, last month I went to Max Adam's forum, after reading her book The Screenwriter's Survival Guide, to see what other writer's do in their spare time. Someone posted a link to the hilarious blog of Josh Friedman. I got hooked immediatly. It's funny and insightful. From there on I started to read Alligators in a Helicopter to Artful Writer and many many more blogs.

Now in the middle of my current script I'm more confident, more enthusiastic and more excited to go on. I'm more confident because some issues about script format and style are solved for me. I no more wonder if certain formatting styles are outdated or if I missed something important. I'm more enthusiastic because of the new tips and tools I found and make good use of them. I'm more excited because I know the endproduct will be at least 100% better then it would've been without all these infos.

It probably sounds like the books and scripts didn't serve me too well. It's not true. If I hadn't read them and wasn't writing for years I would have probably not gained as much from the blogs as I do now. I started with a great solid groundwork. Build your fundament and you will advance step by step much easier.

Well, basically, I just wanted to express my joy of being able to write AND improve constantly and have a feeling to know that I'm not alone in this world trying to write a damn great story.

To all of you out there. Thank you!

The Beginning...

Well, finally I decided to start a blog like everyone else does. Just about one or two weeks ago I realized blogs are addictive. So instead of reading them all day, I figured, I could write some myself too.

I'm a lazy guy. And I write scripts. And make movies. Just no money.

Currently I'm working on a feature length script called "Shadows in the Sun". Was sitting around and thinking about this story for months and couldn't advance beyond page fifteen. Just yesterday I cracked the story. I pushed the right buttons. I was happy.

I wrote down everything relevant about the story that I just cracked. And started to write. I wrote two pages and stopped. I was too happy to write. I had an open bottle of wine that needed to be finished. I went on to read some more blogs until it was time to go to bed.

Yes, I am happy now. Page count right now is 19. Will get to page 26 tonight. Will finish first draft very soon.