:: Visual Mindscape: Anchors, Triggers and Writing Flashbacks – Oh My!
:: Damon Lindelof on Blockbuster Screenwriting
:: Scene Of The Week: ‘Dirty Harry’
:: “Breaking Your Story”
:: Writing Indie Friendly

Script Perfection

:: Watching the Detectives (and the Crooks)
:: 10 Screenwriting Mistakes To Avoid Courtesy of Southland Tales
:: Scene Description Spotlight: “Star Trek” (2009)
:: TV Writers Podcast Ep, 081 – Jeffrey Lieber
:: Scriptnotes, the 100th Episode — Transcript
:: The Un-Rules of Screenwriting
:: Scriptcat Checks in With 3 More Essential Survival Tips for Screenwriters

Pitching & Selling

:: My Process for Reacting to Feedback
:: The Wrong Way to Network
:: What To Do After Finishing a Draft of Your Script
:: When You Sell Your First Script

Best of the Rest

:: Is it Possible to Write While Maintaining a Full-Time Job?
:: Shaun of the Dead Interactive Screenplay Reveals On-Set Secrets
:: The Sophisticates
:: Does a Mentor Always Have to be Right?
:: Interview: Declan O’Dwyer
:: Finders Keepers?
_______________________________

With thanks to Jamie Campbell.

Enjoy!

Karel

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au

:: Writing Concepts First
:: How Much Can I Assume My Audience Knows About The Classics?
:: 10 Screenwriting Tips You Can Learn From Meet The Parents
:: Tax Driver 2: Opening Scene

Script Perfection

:: Writing Habits
:: The Primacy of Theme | Searching for Charlie Kaufman
:: The Little Self Editor
:: FilmAid Broadcast Part 3 – Damon Lindelof
:: Writer’s Nightmare
:: Writer Fears – I’m Not Good Enough
:: Learn How To Fail

Pitching & Selling

:: Can Networking Help You as an Author?
:: Independents : 25 Ways to Kick-Start Your Screenwriting Career
:: Makings of a Marketable Screenplay
:: Interview: Spenser Cohen and Anna Halberg – Part 1 (sold 3 specs in 2 years)

Best of the Rest

:: Video Interview: David Simon ( The Wire) and Matt Weiner (Mad Men)
:: Breaking the Bank for a Blockbuster
:: By Ken Levine: I Won’t Give Zach Braff One Dime
:: Movie Review – Iron Man 3
:: Thor: The Dark World – Trailer
:: Jurassic Park IV Placed on Indefinite Hold
:: Mini Review – Spring Breakers
:: Mini Review – The Place Beyond the Pines
_______________________________

With thanks to Jamie Campbell.

Enjoy!

Karel

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au

:: The Art Of Higher Stakes
:: Film Endings and ‘Rocky’
:: Death and the Modern Western in ‘True Grit’ and ‘Django’
:: Russel’s Rules For Redrafting
:: 10 Screenwriting Lessons from Inglorious Basterds
:: 3 Storytelling Tips From ‘Breaking Bad’
:: 9 Rules For Being Funny From David Steinberg
:: The Mistake of a Tone Shift Mid-Way Through a TV Season: Battlestar Galactica
:: Outlining Scripts in Fountain
:: Examples of V.O’s and Flashbacks That Don’t Work

Script Perfection

:: The 7 Deadly Dialogue Sins
:: Top Filmmaking Excuses and How To Avoid Them
:: Transcript of Scriptnotes, Ep. 76
:: Scriptnotes Podcast, 77: We’d Like to Make an Offer
:: You Are Not Tarantino
:: Stop Rewriting and Start Filmmaking
:: TV Writer Podcast 070 – Angela Ackerman
:: TV Writer Podcast 071 – Vivi Anna / Tawny Stokes
:: Genre-Shift
:: Oscar Winning Screenwriter and TV Showrunner Alan Ball

Pitching & Selling

:: How To Grow Your Filmmaking Network
:: The Continual Process of Work and Meetings
:: Alex Epstein on Crowd Funding
:: Networks Increase Pilots to be Ordered after Lackluster Season
:: Becoming and Staying a Successful Screenwriter
:: February 2013 Spec Market Scorecard
:: Film Festivals 411: Why Did My Film Not Get In?
:: Championing Your Screenplay

Best of the Rest

:: Silver Linings Playbook – 30min Featurette
:: SNL : ‘Djesus Uncrossed’
:: Berlin Film Festival Honours Eastern European Movie-Makers
:: WGA Awards Winners
:: Organized
:: Screenwriters Ryan Belenzon and Jeffrey Gelber Sell ‘Endangered’ to Lionsgate
:: Does The All-You-Can-Eat Binge Spoil Social Viewing?
:: The 25 Coolest Catch Phrases for Scientific Concepts
:: Dare to Make a Scene
:: Movie Site Host
:: Stunning Interstellar Travel Doc ‘Project Kronos’ Trailer
_______________________________

With thanks to Jamie Campbell and Brooke Trezise.

Enjoy!

Karel

Jamie Campbell

Jamie Campbell is an author, screenwriter, and television addict.

Jamie is proud to be an Editor for The Story Department.

Her latest series Project Integrate is out now.

jamiecampbell.com.au

_______________________________

With thanks to Sol.

Feel free to give your feedback in the Questions and Comments below.

COMING SOON to the Story Department:

Mystery Man and the SCREENWRITING REVOLUTION! (Tomorrow)

Enjoy!

Karel

_______________________________

With thanks to Sol.

Feel free to give your feedback in the Questions and Comments below.

COMING SOON to the Story Department:

Best of Mystery Man
6 Avatar Comparisons
Book Review: Writing the Action-Adventure Film

Enjoy!

Karel

I wanted to figure out who they were, not why they were there. Everyone was there to network.

These guys were Michael and Gabriel, winners of TropFest Junior, the kids section of the largest short film festival in the world.

The big thing is not their first prize. Here’s why I believe they’ve already won:

1. They have plenty of time to fail, learn and win (and no mortgage to pay).
2. They are co-writing (to write faster and better)
3. They are networking (to know more people to sell to)

These teenage filmmakers have what many don’t have: time AND a strategy.

If you don’t have the years to fail and learn, are you really doing everything to counteract this?

Oh and you no longer have an excuse for not being able to work the crowd.

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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Australia is a hands-on type of nation. When I arrived in 2001, it didn’t take me long to get my first short film off the ground. So many wonderful people, eager to get their hands dirty and help me out. After all, filmmaking doesn’t have to be the cumbersome, expensive art it used to be. In a way it is still cumbersome but the essentials to capture and reproduce images have become so cheap they are now within reach of anyone with a job or a credit card.

The largest short film festival in the world started in Sydney. Meanwhile Tropfest has spilled out to all major Australian cities and even the rest of the world . The fact it started here in Australia is no coincidence. When an Australian wants to do something, he doesn’t first sit down to ponder about how it is usually done and then wait for an opportunity to arise so the job gets a bit easier. The Australian goes for it. ASAP.

You can hear me coming: despite all the good intentions there is a downside to this “let’s just do it” attitude. In the case of filmmaking, I cannot shed the impression the Australian believes there are shortcuts. What is the easiest way to get your idea on the screen? You hire or buy a video camera, get some mates to stand in front of it and “just do it”. We are all made to believe this is how it works. Practical guides to the use of digital equipment make it seem like child’s play.

It is an illusion that has cost us dearly in recent years. I have seen a fair few movies lately that were all made with lots of enthusiasm but not a lot of thought gone into the screenplay. What is it with movies that people just cannot stop believing the illusion? At this point I must add that what sets my friend with the HD camera apart from the crowd, is this: he had first invested a significant amount of money in learning the craft of screenwriting.

FINAL GOODBYE FINAL DRAFT?

Only yesterday I received an email from which I quote:

“I have about 3 ideas for scripts, they would be produced entirely by my friends and I. I need to put the first drafts down I am trying to round up a script writing program to make it easier.”

There is the other myth: Final Draft will help you write your script. (On a separate note: soon that myth may be forever buried, when Celtx takes over. They have just released version 0.995 and it is starting to look better than anything on the market. Interesting detail: Celtx is free. At least no money will be wasted on the illusion that software could spit out a story.)

In his book STORY, Robert McKee makes the point:

“If your dream were to compose music, would you say to yourself: “I’ve heard a lot of symphonies… I can also play the piano… I think I’ll knock one out this weekend? No. But that’s exactly how many screenwriters begin: “I’ve seen a lot of flicks, some good and some bad… I got A’s in English… vacation time ‘s coming…”

The essence of story is not rocket science. I keep repeating: it is a learnable skill. But a skill that must be learned nonetheless. What you cannot learn is the inspiration, the need to tell a specific story. Yet so many people with the desire to tell that story believe they can get away without properly mastering the craft. They want to build the house without a notion of engineering. They want to compose a symphony without knowing a C from a Cis. They want to serve a bouillabaisse but can’t even cook a ratatouille.

If you were hoping there might be a new generation waiting to jump in and rejuvenate this general malaise, the following might put a stop to your optimism. At a networking event earlier this year, I spoke with a university student who had taken a screenwriting class the previous year. Asked about the one thing she took away from that class, she answered:

“I guess, that you can break the rules and still get away with it.”

THE OMNIPOTENT FUNDING AGENCIES

Having recently caught up on some Australian films of the past few years (see my previous post) and listening to feedback from others on more recent films (Clubland, West, Suburban Mayhem etc.) it seems these pictures are unable to connect with a mainstream audience. Or any audience, for that matter. It’s no longer an issue of getting the audience into the theater, if those who saw the films are not entertained. There are strong indications the problems don’t lie in the execution but in the bare essentials of story. Yep, they are breaking the rules.

But where did things start to go wrong? I believe the lack of understanding of the principles of story has become endemic for our entire industry. Not only do writers lack the skills: producers and funding decision makers fail to see the flaws in screenplays. As long as the ‘elements’ are in place, the film will get made. The ‘elements’ being: cast, technically experienced crew, government funding etc.

On the government’s role: while preparing development notes for a government funding application, a particular paragraph in the guidelines struck me.

“What is the point of view (POV) of the script? That is, where is the audience positioned in relation to the script? Are they close to one central character? Is it an omnipotent POV?”

An “omnipotent POV”?? Somebody has lost the plot here. Point of view is crucially important in a story. The terminology should be second nature to anyone even remotely involved in screenwriting, let alone the funding of it. If even the funding agencies cannot get their act together, why would anyone expect the writers would? Interesting to note that the same funding agency has been reported to have feature drama screenplays assessed by documentary film makers. Go figure.

Recently a young filmmaker submitted a rough cut on DVD with an application for post-production funding. The application was rejected. The assessor didn’t like the film? Correction: the assessor didn’t like the screenplay. The rejection was justified in a multi-page assessment of the screenplay. The assessor did reference the DVD but the brunt of his tirade was directed at the script.

Why am I concerned… Very concerned…

Karel FG Segers

Karel Segers wrote his first produced screenplay at age 17. Today he is a story analyst with experience in acquisition, development and production. He has trained students worldwide, and worked with half a dozen Academy Award nominees. Karel speaks more European languages than he has fingers on his left hand, which he is still trying to find a use for in his hometown of Sydney, Australia. The languages, not the fingers.

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