6 posts tagged “screenplay”

Wow, first post of 09, lots of pressure - but I have to say, this year is starting off wonderfully! Only one bad thing has happened so far and I sort of need to get it out of the way: I almost threw up at Bikram yoga. I don't know if it's just being out of shape, or the fact that I had some peanut butter toast 2 hours before class ( I really need to not eat before class at all. like, it must be about 5 hours before class or something...) So anyway, i'm in class and I start to feel really lightheaded and panicky and I'll looking at my yoga mat like I'm going to hurl on it. So I run out of the room, take a bunch of cool air deep breaths and realize that I have to go back, this is ridiculous. I can't just leave after 20 minutes of a 90 minute class. So I go back in and the instructor says to me, "Did you throw up?" in front of everyone. I really wanted to die. If throwing up is my top 1 least favorite thing to do, then being embarassed in front of a group of people is my top 2nd least favorite thing to do. I shook my head no, and then thought I was going to throw up again out of embarassment.

But in the spirit of starting the new year off right, I always like to make myself a little list of things that I want for the new year.  This year I also want to do something a little different, look back at last year and how much happened. I feel like that's always pretty amazing what can happen in a year.

Things that happened:

My amazing boyfriend, we just celebrated our one year anniversary at the end of November. The best thing he said to me over the holidays was, "Sometimes I feel like we've only been going out a few months." and he meant it in a good way, not a wow, who the hell are you??? kind of way... I think... Anyway, he makes me really happy

I got Rattle and Bark off the ground. OK, not far off the ground, but up and running and in the name of Rattle and Bark I've taught myself embroidery and I'm about to teach myself (this week in fact!) printing with linoleum blocks so I can do some gretting cards and print on canvas bags and stuff.

I let some stuff go this year. Just released it into the wind and sometimes it does hang over me still, but for the most part I feel like I've been able to work on some stuff that's really tripped me up in the past.

I finished the first draft of my screenplay. I have to go back to it and start on the second draft - and soon, but hey, I got my first draft done.

Things that I want to happen in the new year:

1. I want to be more productive with the projects I love. I've had a rush of ideas in the New Year - partly inspired by the new medium that I've been experimenting with, and will continue to experiment with, but I need to do more. Like Sigourney Weaver said to Melanie Griffith in Working Girl, "Who makes it happen Tess?" and Tess says, "I make it happen." Corny, but true. This year, I'm going to make it happen. Without the shoulder pads and big hair though...

2. I want to be a better friend and a better girlfriend. This is something that goes on the list every year. Well, the friend part does, I've never had a boyfriend who made me want to be a better girlfriend before...

3. Take charge of my life more. If I want it to be different I have to change it, but be smart about it.

4. Final drafts. Or at least second drafts... the screenplay and the novel. It's time... Last year was all about gutting the novel and building the screenplay's skeleton. Now it's time to put it all together. 

This book - Save the Cat! is fantastic - I originally got it for working on my screenplay, but as with most screenwriting books I think it's just a great tool in general - buy it if only for the "Beat Sheet" which is basically an outline that makes you break down your story idea. If you hate anything that looks anything like a formula, you might hate the beat sheet at first because it makes you take your story through traditional plot points. But for me this just forces me to clarify in a few sentences what happens and when. It's not so much about plot as it is about your main character's emotional arc. These aren't really plot points, but more like points where you take your character & story's temperature and see where you're at and what needs to happen next. I.E. if things are really heated in one scene that heat has to go somewhere, you have to see the cause and effect of things.

Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need

Blake Snyder

What a strange week it's been already, I kind of feel like I'm sleepwalking through it a bit. The only down time I've had is when I'm sleeping. 

I had a great idea for a new screenplay today. I was so energized by the idea that I started writing notes down and ran through sheets and sheets already... (ok, fine, it was a small notebook, but you get the idea)... I think this is also the antidote to the post-project blues - start a new project. I think part of the blues was missing that momentum that you get when you're continuously working - when you're writing a lot you want to be writing a lot, when you're working out a lot you want to be working out a lot. It sort of all feeds itself. 

I finished the first draft of my screenplay over the weekend, something that you would think would make me positively elated. I even gave it to my friend, the one who is my partner in this project and will be handling the producing side of things once it gets going. Anyway, you would think that all this would make me feel great, but somehow I just feel weird about it. While you're working on a project it's still under your control. You can make changes, you can work on it, you can not. You can have a great day with it, a bad day with it, it's like a companion. And then when you finish it, even a draft, it's like it's gone. And there's nothing you can do. You just have to wait while other people read it and judge it. Man, no wonder it's so hard to finish things - there's this slight feeling of satisfaction when you do, but if you're someone without an agent, without serious prospects for the project it just feels like it's being release into the ether....

I can't remember the last time I started cursing at my T.V. Especially since I got cable and have actually been able to see instead of just hear the T.V. things have been pretty good between us. And then Mitt Romney got on stage last night and I turned into one of those crazy people who yell at their T.V.s when no one is around. I think it was the part where he said this, "Is a Supreme Court liberal or conservative that awards Guantanamo terrorists with constitution rights? It's liberal!" Um, holy shit, he just called the Geneva convention liberal and something that he wanted to throw out of Washington. He may look like Ted Danson, but this is the scariest dude out there.