A young screenwriter: Archive

throw it out

Love Teeth is falling apart. I don’t know if it’s because I don’t know what I’m doing or because no one else does. Starting all over. Haven’t thought about it for a month. I guess I’ll revisit it soon. It just makes me sick.

Jun 22nd

Draft 1.1

Had some more readers do coverage. Had some pretty good feedback and I’m ready to start the next draft. Things are starting to take shape now. Also started a bunch of other things… but Love Teeth has to be finished first…can’t stop thinking about its world.

Mar 5th

First Draft

I finished my first draft of “Love Teeth.” It’s only 100 pages long. I feel like I could go another 20 or so. Still thinking about changing the title…”Chaos, Love, and Teeth”…”Wisdom Teeth”…Bottom of the Bag…”Love, Chaos, and Teeth”….I don’t know. I’m ready to start re-writing. First change would be...

Nov 24th

Screenwriting II class

I’ve been director-proofing my script. They say that filmmaking is a visual medium yet they give you dirty looks when your script is full of blocks of imagery. I don’t get it. Let me be as vivid as possible so some director can’t fuck up my story. First draft will be done by middle of December. It’s still called Love Teeth but it might change if I discover something...

Oct 19th

Inglorious Basterds

whitenoiseinstereo: writingascreenplay: “Basterds” was as close to perfect as Pulp Fiction. Dialogue = suspense. Subtext comes days, weeks, months later. With the same running time, Pulp Fiction was able to do so much more. Each character got their moment to shine and then some. I don’t even know who half of the Basterds even were, aside from the three that got any actual screen time, and...

Aug 31st

Inglorious Basterds

whitenoiseinstereo: was a solid “meh.” a lot of the dialogue seemed to go on for no real reason or subtext. i was also hoping for a bit more action. “Basterds” was as close to perfect as Pulp Fiction. Dialogue = suspense. Subtext comes days, weeks, months later.

Aug 31st

school is soon

I’m hoping that when classes start I will be able to get this draft done. It will force me to get it done. The shape of it probably won’t be good and I just have to learn to live with the fact that I’m going to have to finish a draft before I can make a better draft. Trying different methods. Note: None of these methods were ever uttered to me while in class. What am I paying...

Aug 27th

slack

I haven’t thought much about the world lately. I need to, though. It’s the right time to think about the things going on in the script. I just need to force myself to do it. Watched Ferris Bueller the other day to maybe get things going. Brought American Graffiti too. I hope I can get something written. So much to do.

Jun 1st

bus ride home

I’m going home for a week or so. “race weekend” and Memorial Day are here soon. I like the bus ride most of the time.

May 21st

May 15th

speed limit

There are so many beautiful things to think about when I’m riding the car and bus from Greenwood to Chicago. Field after field after field. The fields were being plowed and the plows broke up the dirt and made it a rich, black color. I saw two does along 65. I saw the flames from a refinery through the trees. I saw the weird way the street lights got bent and reflected onto the windows...

May 13th

Twitter, Bloggers Ganging Up to Destroy Film... →

karinalongworth: Today in The Assault On Film Criticism: two salvos from journalists who just don’t seem to get the online tools and communities that they’ve credited with having ar too much power. Since neither…

May 12th

food

I’m at the very very very beginning of planning a screenplay about food. I don’t know a whole lot about food but I do know quite a bit. I have to do some reading. But first… I’m editing my last film of the semester and my last 16 mm project more than likely. Ever. I played around with the color of it to make it really sick and ill looking…not sick and ill...

May 4th

Apr 28th

the shoot

It went well. It rained all day but we worked it out. We’ll see if any of the footage turned out. I have to go back soon to record some dialogue.

Apr 22nd

Watch

How to make a good movie.

Apr 17th

cherokee purple

I’m shooting my second short of the semester. We’re shooting it in Indiana. It’s called “Cherokee Purple”. It’s about a girl who loves tomatoes and accidently disturbs an unmarked grave. Wish me luck…cuz that’s half of it.

Apr 16th

Apr 12th

suffer

Q: What’s the best thing for man? A: It’s impossible. Q: What’s the best thing for man? A: To not be born. The second best thing for man is to die quickly.

Apr 10th

fuck yeah charlie kaufman →

I couldn’t help it.

Apr 8th

More on Remakes

whitenoiseinstereo: I came off as a bit sympathetic towards studio execs, but I’m not. There are plenty of studios out there making truly great, original films. Killer Films is a great company, putting Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Kids, and Boys Don’t Cry, to name a few. But they aren’t exactly rolling in the dough. Most studio execs aren’t approaching film as an art form, and it shows. The...

Apr 7th

somehow

I was sitting in the sound lab at school looking through the sound library when I saw a quote on one of the monitors over the computers. The quote was something I had said a few years ago in a blog post…I mean, not exactly word for word but it said exactly what I said. And I had never heard of this person who was being quoted. I said that filmmaking is pretension. All films are...

Apr 7th

“Hey movie characters looking through other characters’ music collections,...”

– johnaugust Agreed.

Apr 5th

the woes of production II at Columbia College...

I went into production II fresh out of screenwriting I. My imagination didn’t have an confines. Now it does in production II. I’m having a hard time making my next 5 minute film. I’m in the mindset of “Love Teeth” and it’s hard to transition back and forth.

Apr 3rd

Repulsion

We are watching Repulsion (1965). So good. It’s hard for me to watch European movies after WWII. The whole neo-realism stuff takes a lot of courage to sit through. It’s exactly like only wanting to listen to certain music during certain moods.

Apr 3rd

Telecine!

karenabadmfa: I had telecine from 8PM-11PM yesterday and we didn’t finish the 750ft, so I have to come back on Sunday. It strikes me as odd that the 600ft of film I turned in ended up being 550ft. What happened to the other 50 ft? It disappeared. But I did my camera reports correctly so I have no idea, there’s some ghost film going on, none of my footage is missing. Light Leaks Kevin said that...

Apr 2nd

will it ever get made?

I think about my screenplays getting made. I can see them clear as day. I don’t know if what I’ve started writing is do-able within the constraints of a 21-year old film student without a job and without any sort of connection with anyone with money. The dream would be to direct my screenplays and keep them the same on screen but on the other hand, I feel like after the screenplay...

Apr 2nd

classes

The more time I spend in classes that aren’t film classes, the more my ideas develop. My European history class churns things…in my head. I’m trying to make my characters experience, for the first time, the world coming into their lives.

Apr 2nd

Writing is isolating.

Apr 2nd

time

I would say that the script I’m working on is probably in its 3rd draft phase even though I haven’t technically written 3 drafts. Three drafts in roughly 3 years. I look to Kubrick for support in regards to time. He took huge amounts of time to finish his later movies. He said he wasn’t particularly happy about that but it’s just the way he worked. I think I’m...

Apr 1st

final film

I’m trying to make a bunch of images I want to shoot make sense.

Apr 1st

15

I bought/was given 15 movies for my birthday. When things don’t feel very good, and I don’t know what to do, I remember I can write and I feel much better.

Mar 29th

Mar 27th

Grey Gardens

Watching documentaries by the Maysles brothers makes me question why I would want to write a fictional screenplay.

Mar 26th

Watch

Mar 25th

riding in a vehicle

I usually work out situations while listening to music, while riding a bus or a car for long periods of time. I have only been listening to music that puts me in the appropriate world that I’m trying to make in the script. I really should stay up all night and write. I bought a book that talks about how screenplays got made. One section talks about Lost in Translation. Sofia Coppola says...

Mar 24th

3

The movie I’m writing follows 3 critical characters; 2 males and 1 female. The other script I’m writing follows 3 critical characters as well; 3 males.

Mar 24th

I think it's almost a requirement for all of...

dogganghappened: angiemk: hazelweatherfield: Or at least support it. Because I have yet to come across anyone who doesn’t smoke or support it. I don’t smoke it, and I don’t really support it, I just don’t care for it. Tried it, never got into it! i don’t smoke. i can’t even wear hemp without having a SERIOUS reaction to it. so just to make sure i don’t die i’ve left it alone. well, that...

Mar 19th

76 notes

Mar 18th

Mar 17th

music

Music is so important. Writing has halted until I can decide which songs work in this scene.

Mar 17th

progress

I’ve only written 4 pages but there’s almost no dialogue yet. I’m doubting whether this will be the first scene of the movie. It’s really big.

Mar 17th

the order

I finally decided on the first scene of my script (the first scene of the second draft anyway). I think I might write it tonight.

Mar 16th

muster

I’m trying to make myself write down what’s on my mind for the screenplay. I don’t know what I’m afraid of. It might have something to do with what my screenwriting instructor said. He asked me a question about one of my characters. He asked me why I didn’t take them in a certain direction. I just stuttered and couldn’t come up with an answer…and then I...

Mar 14th