The Passion is in the Risk!

I love the line from the movie, When in Rome, “The passion is in the risk!” The movie is about an ambitious New York woman who gives up on love until it finds her in Rome and follows her back to NYC! But that line really has different meanings for me. When I think of passion and risk, I also think of doing something that most people would never try... because most people are just not risk takers. But thanks to a certain someone who said, “I hope you do it.” The universe has given me everything that I need to make this amazing undertaking possible. I smile every time I think of my team from New York to Miami who love my ideas so much that they have not only brought in their own genius but their personal and professional contacts to help make this adventure one that we’ll all walk away feeling good about.
 
So if you’re thinking of taking a risk… “I hope you do it!” Great risks have the potential to yield great rewards. Once you take a step forward… everything that you need will find its way into your life so that you can accomplish your goal. Just dream bigger and surround yourself with other risk takers who inspire, motivate and bring the best out of you! Let your imagination take you places that you never thought were possible and watch the world embrace you with open arms. I’m living proof!

What are you thinking of doing that's ambitious?

And the award goes to...

I'm now about 20 pages into the Ghostkeeper sequel screenplay and am going through all the usual things; like it's really good for an hour,  then it's awful and I don't know how to write, followed by "it's not too bad", and so on and so on. 

So I thought I'd post a quick review of the films nominated for the Academy Awards. One thing continually bugs me about the way the media handles the awards. They usually only mention the actors and the movies. Sometimes they'll include directors but nobody ever mentions the writers.  They'll be buried somewhere on page 5 of the LA Times while the actors faces grace the first page.

After all, who's more important, the actors or the writers? I know people who think the actors make up all the words they speak, you don't have any idea how many times I'm asked "exactly what does a writer do?"

But that's another subject and who likes whiners.

What's interesting about this year is that it could be a landmark year for anyone under 40. Or it could remain like it's always been.

It seems that 3 movies are the leaders, The King's Speech, True Grit and Social Network. Social Network is the favorite in Las Vegas but not a sure thing.

What's interesting about Social Network is that it's essentially a movie for 20-somethings. I saw it and didn't mind it,although I thought of it as an HBO movie. But I noticed I felt sorry for the guy who started Facebook. But that was a bit of manipulation by Arron Sorkin, the writer who flat out stated that when he wrote it he had Citizen Kane in mind. I was there when he said it.

What does that mean? Well, if you remember Citizen Kane it came to the fact that even though he was ruthless and uncaring, when he died, he remembered the sled he had as a child. The point being that he wasn't happy with his riches and success. That made the rest of us feel better, you won't necessarily be happy if you have all the money in the world. It's an equalizer.

What Sorkin did was inventing the thing about Mark Zuckerberg losing a girl at the beginning of the movie. And the last scene has him being rebuffed by another girl as he watches her walk away.

We feel sorry for him now, don't we? Or at least we can think he doesn't have everything in life.

But what's more important in the race for the Oscar is this; it's a contest between hope, inspiration and loyalty and greed and betrayal

True Grit for example, is about loyalty and hope, and the King's Speech is the same thing. It's about the good that comes from people. It's positive.

Social Network, on the other hand is about betrayal and greed, sort of a Y-Generation version of Wall Street, the movie.

The average Academy member is above 40 and so this is where the contest begins to be interesting. Will the older members vote for loyalty and hope or will they vote for greed.

And more important, is this saying that greed and betrayal are the standards and values for anyone under 40. 


Blame Arron Sorkin, he made Mark Zuckerberg likeable. Ironically Zuckerberg did get the girl in real life. But that ending wouldn't have been as good.


(Monday: GKPR 2)

What you need to write

Sometime today I will begin to write the sequel to Ghostkeeper. My writing schedule has always been morning. And I usually write for no more than two hours. Today though, I have to write the blog first, which usually is around 8 am and takes me around 30 minutes or so.

There is a danger in writing so early, at least for me. You see, I like to be fresh, nothing should stand in the way of my writing. I don't want to listen to music, I don't have a coffee on my desk and I don't want phone calls.

What happens if the phone rings? Or if coffee is reachable?

Then I will find an excuse not to write for a few minutes. 

There are at least 300 books on screenwriting and most of them have their own theories as to how to write the great script. Yet, last Friday I listened to Ben Affleck at a screening talking about  how he co-wrote The Town and how hard it was to find a great script. I am not Ben's greatest fan, but that's another story.

The obvious question here is that, with all the screenwriters in the world running to Los Angeles and with 10,000 WGA writers already here... why aren't there a lot of good screenplays then?

A friend of mine and I have a theory, we realized that between us, we've probably seen every kind of genre, every twist, every surprise ending and every type of character there ever was. So what's left?

For a start, it helps to have lived a curious life, meaning that it helps if you are curious. About everything. Some of the best characters and dialog I've ever written was basically borrowed from watching real people living real life. 

And life experience is essential if you want to write, or act or direct.

For example, take Tom Selleck and Mark Harmon. As younger actors, they were considered "pretty boys", handsome in that Sears catalog kind of way but with little talent. But I watched a bit of their respective TV shows recently, NCIS and Blue Blood and I noticed something curious...

Whenever either of them were not in the scene, the scene felt empty. I've long said that the supporting casts of the procedural TV shows like CSI and NCIS are so bland that they could change shows and nobody would know the difference.

But Selleck and Harmon stood out. And I began to realize why.

They were older. Their faces had wrinkles. And they were relaxed and enjoying themselves because they had the comfort of confidence as well as years of experience and the access to options that they didn't have when they were younger.

They were easy to watch and comforting to an audience, and that's what made them interesting to watch.

The same thing goes for writing, the more you have lived, the more you have to write about. There are exceptions of course, but those are the talented ones. I've told you before that I'm not particularly talented, but I am stubborn has hell. It took me a long time to learn how to write good, maybe 6 years of writing bad scripts.

I'm still not good on story, my characters are colorful and believable and my dialog is pretty damn good. But stories are not the easiest thing for me. If they were I would have sold the 34 specs I currently still own.

Why haven't they sold? Well, because so far nobody likes them enough. Does that mean I'm a bad writer? No, it means that nobody's come along who likes them.

It's kind of like decorating your home; some friends will like it, some will be ambivolent and some will dislike it.

And like Tom and Mark, I am comfortable in my abilities. I'm never sure if anyone will like my screenplays, but like those two guys, I don't really care. With having written and/or rewritten 18 produced movies and having worked on at least 30 unproduced movies I know that I have accomplished my initial goal.

To be a working writer in Hollywood.


Now, I am forcing myself like crazy to end the blog and start writing. Maybe I should have a coffee first though? 


(Thurs: Progress?)

Faces

Bald women, 80s makeup, wig-like hair, tangled eyelashes, empty stares. Walking down the sidewalk, I can't ignore all the eyes watching me through the windows. One of the things that really caught my attention in Turkey was the freaky mannequins. They just didn't look like mannequins anywhere else in the world we'd been. I wondered if Turkey got the 20 year old hand-me-downs from everyone else instead of buying new ones. Usually when you walk past a store window, you notice the styled outfit and overlook the body it sits on. Not the case in Turkey. Many of the mannequins were actually beat up with scuffs on their faces, scratched out eyes, and duck-taped necks, which added to the creepy factor. I didn't photograph the really beat up ones, as I think that would have offended the shop owners (and given you nightmares). You might agree with me that the fashion on most of them (not all) is pretty horrendous as well. 

I'm not sure why I was compelled to photograph them at all, but here's my little collection. These are from around Istanbul and Bodrum. 

- Julia

Second Chance

While wandering about the city with our camera, no destination in mind, Yuriy and I almost walked past  a little place called "Second Chance Boutique". I believe Yuriy actually pointed it out, like a good husband should. Seeing vintage dresses in the windows, I was thrilled and shocked. I did not think people in Istanbul could possibly be into vintage style... that was just a fad from back home. Yuriy knew right away that we were going inside. 

The shop was very small and stocked full of dresses in every color, classy purses, whimsical face masks, and vintage touches. Against one wall stood a pretty white fireplace with gorgeous headpieces on the mantle. I couldn't put a handle on myself as I madly started clicking away (after asking for permission). It had been so long since I'd been inside a vintage store, and everything around me was suddenly so photogenic and delicious.

Hope you can enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.

- Julia

Writing and Software wars

So it's begun, I have started writing Ghostkeeper 2. Well, sort of writing; I'm doing what is called a beat sheet, which means establishing the beats to the story. In simpler terms, it's a version of index cards which have been used in the film business probably since silent movie days.

Of course today we have the software version of index cards, software that even asks you questions. There are several out there, but my favorite is Power Structure, which I've been using for at least 10 years, maybe even more.  It was created by the people who created ScripThing, the first real screenwriting software that went beyond a Word stylesheet called Scriptor, first used in the mid 1980's.

*A note here;  There often occurs a debate as to which software is better. In my mind there are only two standards, Screenwriter and Final Draft. Yes there are others, some even free, but those two are the standards, like it or not. Does this mean your screenplay won't sell if it's not one of the two? Of course not, you can write your script on stone tablets if you want, just as long as someone can read it.

I used Screenwriter as it originally was ScripThing but I also keep a copy of Final Draft just in case someone wants me to rewrite a screenplay in that format. I don't particularly like FD as I feel it's just a Microsoft Word template. And Screenwriter software support is free while FD charges. But also because of the politics of The Writer's Store who always suggest that FD is "the professional's choice".

This feud goes back years, the Writer's Store never really liked ScripThing because it had a sense of humor in it's program. There was a cute little monster icon and I remember that if you left ScripThing for ten minutes or so and came back, an icon would pop up and say "I've been looking at your screenplay and I think you need more character development". It's a joke, of course but apparently some writers and the store didn't think professional writers should have funny software.

However I did, and so did others. When I taught UCLA screenwriting I always suggested Screenwriter because I thought it was easier to use and more intuitive towards screenwriting. But in at least 2 examples, the Writer's Store told my students that they really should have FD as it was "the professional's choice".

So I called Jesse at Writer's Store and told him that it wasn't fair to do that, being that his people had promised not to change buyer's minds anymore, something I was told by Screenwriter staffers, suggesting that the Writer's Store did it more than I even knew. In the end, the Writer's Store exchanged FD for the students who preferred Screenwriter.

Both softwares are used by professionals, some writers still use typewriters, others use a writing pad and pencil and ultimately it doesn't matter what you use, as long as the screenplay is good. But that's another blog.

Back to Power Structure; what it does is help me figure out the beats to the screenplay, as in simple sentences like: 

"Riva arrives at the hotel"

 "Murray sees a stranger"

"A dark figure watches them"

"Evening around the camp fire". 

I do maybe 30-40 of these "beats" and then go back and expand them into more, sort of like this:

"Riva arrives at the hotel-- finds it empty -- cell phone doesn't work -- notices figure in hallway that walks away - her room has been rummaged." 

Slowly and carefully I keep adding to the beats, sometimes deleting a beat or phrase, sometimes adding a whole paragraph.

Remember that thing I said about the software asking questions? It does that too, it will ask me what the backstory is for any particular character, or what is the purpose of that character, what is their greatest success or greatest failure. And it asks questions about the story; what has to happen in this act, how is the story moved forward, what's the ticking clock, and much more.  Like my own development executive but cheaper.

It sounds strange, but by filling in the pieces of character by answering those questions, you get a more detailed person. You can even chart the conflicts between characters, I never really got that part of the software, but it's handy to have around.

And as always, is this software essential? Of course not, neither is a computer for that matter. But it sure helps me. And I am a professional. At least sometimes.

So today and Friday I will continue expanding my beat sheet, filling in details and answering questions until it's ready to go to screenplay. With this my job is at least 50% over, the second 50% is the fun part where the characters come to life.

(Mon: Start)

The Bazaar

Of course we visited the famous bazaars—the Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar. The Grand Bazaar is a grid of congested streets that amazingly house 4000 shops. After a while it seemed like all the shops sold the same cheap but overpriced stuff (since this has now become a major tourist attraction). We didn’t stay long. Maybe it was because we had already done so much walking around the city and we came late evening, but I did not have much enthusiasm to immerse myself into the shopping crowds. The Grand Bazaar is one of the biggest and oldest covered markets in the world [with 250,000 to 400,000 visitors every day], so I can't say it's totally unimpressive.

The Spice Bazaar, on the other hand was a total wonder.  It is the second largest bazaar in Istanbul after the Grand Bazaar. Every shop had neat little piles of colorful spices and teas, each labeled. The shop owners invite you to stop and taste the spices while they give you some info about them. Each smelled and tasted so distinctive and oriental. I wanted to buy a little of everything and cook up an exotic storm back home. But alas, no room.

- Julia

Turkish Delight [or Lokum] is very common, though not my favorite. It's made of gelatin, water, cornstarch, and sugar with added nuts or dried fruits.