I hate pitching scripts. Not that I’ve done it much but generally, I hate it. Even if it’s just down the pub with some mates and we end up talking about that sort of thing. Trying to write catchy and enticing loglines is even worse. Even so, I’m going to pop an entry in to Lucy’s Christmas Logline Competition. Maybe even two.

Being the season to be seasonal, the pitches need to be seasonally themed and Lucy has specified five in particular: A Long Journey, Crackers, A Child Is Born, Confrontations and Revelations, Starlight. All very clever. I’ve decided that, at the very least, I’m going to work on the logline for one of my short films which, as I’ve mentioned before, turned out to be the Nativity story in disguise. I haven’t rewritten it yet on account of spending mucho time-o hacking away at Revelation (which, unsurprisingly, would fit the Confrontation/Revelation theme so might get a logline entry of it’s own).

But I still fucking hate coming up with loglines. At the moment, I’ve got two:

• “A virgin gives birth in a stable with hilarious consequences”
• “Rosemary’s Baby meets H.P. Lovecraft”

Okay, I lied about the first one. She’s not a virgin and the consequences aren’t that hilarious. There’s no stable either. The second one gives more idea of the feel of the film but not the story itself so that wouldn’t be any good.

Guess I’m just going to have to work on it.

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.

- William Makepeace Thackeray

This quote (which you may remember being uttered by Brandon Lee in “The Crow”) really gets to the heart of a thematic convention that is often used in horror films as a way of isolating and effecting not only the protagonists but also the audience. For most people, the concepts of both Mother and God are associated with the notions of security and sanctuary, associations that stem from childhood. They are the powers which keep the darkness at bay, that can defeat the monsters under the bed and make the bad dreams go away. The convention in horror films is to undermine these two concepts and eliminate the sense of safety and protection that they provide.

Spoilers ahead for “28 Days Later”, “Alien”, “Nightmare on Elm Street” and “The Exorcist”.
(more…)

I’m so very nearly at the half way point.

The chances of finishing this draft before the end of November are slim. Not impossible, just unlikely. It will mean writing 6 pages a day which is definitely doable - provided I have no more distractions and stop procrastinating. But the story is beginning to bore me which I’m taking to not be a very good sign. Or maybe it’s the last scene I wrote last night (I say wrote, what I mean is drunkenly splurge words on a page in the hope that they make some sort of sense in the morning). In theory, I quite like the scene potential but it definitely feels like a filler and not actually furthering the story.
(more…)

For Lyle.

Litotes (from Greek, Litos “small, plain, meagre”)

Deliberate understatement, especially when expressing a thought by denying its opposite.

Source.

Danny Stack has revised his list of the most clichéd ways in which a script starts following the submission of 2000+ entries to the Red Planet screenplay competition (which, I hasten to add, I didn’t enter so this post is neither gloating or glum). It makes for interesting reading as well as being a little discouraging because I’m guilty of using rather a lot of them. In fact, I’ve realised that the first 10 pages of Revelation is made up entirely of some of these clichés.

My excuse, however, is that the script is inspired by the work of a particular author and that some of these scenes are based on stories that he wrote. What care I about being original?
(more…)

I’m sorry - I said I wouldn’t post that much more about the Writers Strike but, frankly, it stirs me up no end. So read it, don’t read it. I don’t care - it’s on the internet so it’s only for promotional purposes anyway.

The title of this post covers pretty much how Michael Eisner sees the current state of affairs regarding the availability of movies and TV shows over the internet. In an interview with that well known bastion of journalistic integrity and impartiality, Fox News, Eisner, former CEO of Disney, called the current Writers Strike “a stupid strike” claiming that the profit from digital content is “a piece of a nonexistent flow, which won’t be nonexistent, but it will be nonexistent for the next three years.”

Now, Eisner was CEO of Disney up until September 2005. A year later, Disney started selling movies through iTunes. You know, that popular application which lets you buy music, movies and TV Shows over the internet. In November 2006, a little under 2 months after beginning internet downloads, nearly half a million Disney movies had been sold - approximately $4 million worth. After 3 months, the number of downloads had skyrocketed to 1.3 million. In May of this year, current Disney CEO Robert Iger claimed that movie downloads had been surpassed by downloads of Disney TV shows which had reached a figure of 23 million since they had been added to iTunes. Even Disney’s own website now streams 100 million videos per week to over 6 million unique users (and you can make the most of this target audience by buying advertising space on the website).

Eisner suggested that the Writers should be striking outside Steve Jobs house as Apple are obviously screwing the studios out of a fair share of the pie. Perhaps he should have had a quick chat with Robert Iger because, according to Ars Technica,

Disney CEO Robert Iger said that this was because Mickey and Company were quite pleased with Apple’s movie pricing and the margins they were seeing. Although the pricing of a movie on the iTunes store is lower that that of a physical DVD, Disney is making about the same amount of money on each movie it sells there.

The internet - too new to be profitable.

More Writers Strike - I’m sorry, but this video is too outrageous not to share.

Quick recap: the AMPTP (which stands for Fucking Greedy Bastard Megacorporations*) does not want to pay writers residuals for media that is distributed over the internet. There argument is that the internet is too new and that they need 3 years for a study into - well, I don’t know what. How to use YouTube I guess. Their predominant concern appears to be that the internet may not be the cash cow that the writers claim it’s likely to be.

This video shows the heads of most of the major media outlets justifying this concern:

Spread the word.

(Via United Hollywood)

*Is a googlebomb out of the question at this point?

Dragon Claw Fire Horde? Sign me up!

This article is also well worth reading.

As at least two other bloggers have successfully got onto Metlab (well done Martin and Chip) and have mentioned that only four people did, I’m going to take a wild stab and assume that I didn’t. I am a little disappointed but not at all surprised. Actually, I’m not sure I’m even that disappointed. Relieved in a way as, although it would have been highly useful, it’s not a commitment I need to worry about for the next, um, 5 and a half months give or take a week or two.

I celebrated by whacking off out six more pages on Revelation and decided to introduce a scene with maggots. Maggots are always good value - a low budget effect that works well. Maggots are great. I love maggots. Actually, that’s a lie. I fucking hate maggots - they’re horrible and wriggley and disgusting and bleugh! I have to deal with maggots in our bins every summer when it gets too hot and something starts to fester. They’re absolutely gross. They’re also making a cameo in my script.

After that, I drank a bottle of wine and got my arse resoundingly kicked in TeamFortress 2. Tonight I’m going to settle down in front of Them with a few tinnies. What are you watching?

Still don’t get what the WGA strike is all about? Tim Kazurinsky explains it on WGN News: