How the sausage is made

In this case, a television show.

Anyone interested in writing for TV will find this to be a Godsend. It's a look inside the writing room and how an episode comes about:

"But if you really want to understand what makes Battlestar Galactica great, scroll through the iTunes list to the podcasts called "Battlestar Galactica Writers Meeting." These are four hours of unedited recordings from the writers' room, and they're fascinating, even for the uninitiated. The podcasts are like a master class in how to make good television."

Via slate.com Link to the podcast available here.

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

The screenwriters of the new Transformers movie convened a small group review of other screenwriters to review the final draft. From the LA Times:

“A few weeks before production started on the Michael Bay-directed sci-fi blockbuster about a war between dueling machine races on Earth (due in theaters next Independence Day), Kurtzman and Orci compiled a wish list of writers they admire who also happen to be fans of the Transformers brand. Their mission was to look over Kurtzman and Orci's latest draft — the last before shooting would begin — and punch it up one final time.

Kurtzman and Orci's dream team included David Ayer ("Training Day," "Harsh Times"), Rawson Marshall Thurber ("Dodgeball"), stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt ("MADtv"), Jon Hurwitz ("Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle"), Lona Williams ("Drop Dead Gorgeous"), Jeff Nathanson ("Catch Me If You Can") and Don D. Scott ("Barbershop"). While all of the screenplay's major elements — structure, plot, characters — were locked down, these writers were asked to double check its logic and help squeeze whatever additional humor they could from potentially comedic moments.”

Just like an HSSW meeting. Except that all these participants received a $2,500 consulting fee and a catered lunch. (No word if Michael Bay brought the Cape Cod potato chips.)

Saw Borat Last Week.

We thought it was as funny as advertised, but we still had some nagging probolems. Our full take on it is located here.

Good Jobs at Good Wages.

Screenwriter gets $4 million to write the Da Vinci Code sequel, Angels and Demons.

A new high for a screenwriter. That's right, $4 million for an adaptation. Of a book that was deliberately written to be commerically successful .

"... Akiva Goldsman, who adapted Dan Brown's worldwide bestseller into a $755.6 mil hit pic, is receiving $4 million for the Da Vinci Code sequel in the works by both Imagine Entertainment and Sony Pictures. Not only is that major moola, but agents are telling me this represents a new $$$ high for hiring a screenwriter (not buying a spec script) -- and not even an original screenplay, but an adaptation of a book. And, no, Goldsman isn't getting a producer credit, so this is for straight scribbling. "That would be a lot for a pure writer's credit," one agent gushed. "It puts Akiva in the absolute top of his profession." Via Deadline Hollywood Daily.com

Good for him. A rising tide lifts all boats, as they say.

Thanks to Defamer.com for pointing us to the story. Photo via corbis.com

December 4 Review

The script for the Monday, December 4th review is now available. Wendy Lebron's "1st Love Last Chance." If you have not yet received it, contact Scott via www.hssw.info so he can get you a copy

A reminder that meetings are held every Monday from 7-9 PM at the new HSSW Compound located at The Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, 10 Howard St, Cambridge.

One Man's Thoughts on Theme and Structure

via the Artful Writer blog comes a rumination on the relationship between the three act structure, theme, and character:

"To summarize (and please forgive the dogma of acts…it’s just a shorthand…)

Act One: The Hero is ignorant of the truth of the Theme, and demonstrates this ignorance clearly.

Act Two: The Hero faces tests that begin to slowly reveal the truth of the Theme (and the non-truth of the Hero’s current belief system). At the end of the act, the truth of the Theme is fully revealed, and the Hero is faced with the tragic fact that he’s been living an ignorant life.

Act Three: The Hero attempts to do that which believers-of-the-Theme would do, but only in the moment when he actually believes is he finally able to triumph."

By Craig Mazin, writer of the more recent movies in the Scary Movie franchise.

Confessions of a Genius Script Reader

A script reader shares his pet peeves, from Film Threat magazine (via John August.com) A lot of this advice will sound familiar to a regular HSSW member.

My favorite:

2. Swearing

Sometimes a script isn’t so much a screenplay, per se, as an excuse for the writer to use swear-words in really clever ways, i.e., “Halleh-fuckin-luyah!” Many writers specialize in crafting unique combinations of swears and/or inventing new ones like fucknuts, a recently discovered gem. Modern cuss artists are way too concerned with swearing and overestimate its importance as a communication tool. …. at a certain point, repeating the f-word isn’t writing, just swearing. After all, how many times can one say fucknuts before it loses all meaning? Either you tell it like it is, or you wax scatological to no purpose.

If a tree falls on a car in a forest

... will the scene be labeled as INT. CAR or EXT. CAR?

At the last meeting, a perennial question was asked once again: If a scene takes place in a car, do we have to slug it as EXT. CAR? Or can we write INT. CAR?

A point was raised by one of the new HSS members that most scripts being submitted today differentiate between scenes set inside and outside a vehicle. Scott held fast, and insisted that all scenes involving a car be labeled EXT. , because that is ultimately what determines how the scen is lit.

We take the former view- if it improves the readability of our script by specifying that the scene takes place inside or outside a car, then we’re going with the INT. option. But we hesitate to disregard Scott’s experience on this matter.

So for another opinion, we turn to another source: published screenplays. Specifically The Matrix Unloaded. As you may recall, this movie features a battle on the Freeway that takes place both inside AND outside a moving automobile (beginning with line 120 in the PDF of the script of the version we found online):

INT. CAR –DAY

Morpheus dials long distance on the car phone.

Right about now we'd kill for a copy of the spec script for Fast and the Furious..

Movie: The Prestige

This weekend, we saw the best fall movie you’ve probably never heard of, the Prestige.

Movie was by Christopher Nolan, the guy who made Memento (and was co written with his brother, Jonathan. This is significant, if you've seen the movie you'll understand why.) Same kind of movie as Memento - lots of twists, the narrative jumps back and forth (and back again) thru time, and some huge reveals at the end. Type of movie that you’re still talking about 1 hour later, when you realize you still haven’t figured everything out yet.

We recommend it. Good performances by Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, and the story is top notch. Solidly structured, too - there are a LOT of twists and surprises in this film, but looking back on it, they didn't cheat. Most every twist was forshadowed, if you look closely enough. Also included a small thing we liked - there’s a subordinate storyline involving Edison and Tesla battling each other at the dawn of the electric age. Nice parallel to the Main story about the two magicians.

This is the second of two fall movies involving dueling turn-of-the-century European magicians, the other being the Illusionist (featuring Ed Norton and Paul Giamatti, written by Neil Burger) Taken together, both films complement each other nicely. Both are excellent period pieces, with the Illusionist being the more romantic of the two. The Prestige is a much darker take (Doug Henning, bless his soul, would never have the stomach for what these guys pull) .

(We’re also working our way though the 850-page monster that is Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, so we’ve just about had it had it up to here with these guys and their incantations.)

Update: Two interviews with Christopher Nolan about the film, via Creative Screenwriting Magazine and InFocus Mag.com.

The Power of Editing

An Office Space trailer, cut to look like a horror movie. (via kottke.org)