Frozen Script Review

Hello and welcome back.

The script review today is for Frozen.  Billed as Open Water on a chair lift.

What happens is three friends, two guys Jason and Lynch and one of their girlfriends Parker beg to be let up on the chair lift for one last run at the end of the ski day.  The lift is closing early due to bad weather approaching.  The lift operator relents and allows them up the ski lift.

The problem comes when that lift operator is relieved to go see "the boss" in the office.  He tells the one who relieved him that there are three more coming down.  When the operator at the top of the hill announces over the radio that the last chair as arrived.  The guy at the bottom of the hill sees three skiers come down and assuming that they're the three who were the last ones up shuts the lift down.  The ski hill does not open again until the following Friday.

Now are the three friends are trapped with a storm front coming.

At first they believe they are going to be rescued.  When it becomes apparent they have been forgotten the inevitable panic sets in.

They try things to escape their situation only to meet a grim fate.

The lesson to be learned from this script is that it is possible to have a movie take place in only one location and make it riveting.  For further proof of this see Buried, Phone Booth and Rear Window.

What you need to show is the passage of time.  You also need to have obvious obstacles to an escape, too far to jump off the chair lift.  Too far to the next lift tower to climb down the ladder.

And also the obstacle of one of our greatest fears.  Predators close by to eat us alive.

I enjoyed the script and will eventually buy the DVD or Blu Ray disc to watch the movie.

The challenge now is to come up with my - and your - own confined spaces script.  Probably easier to sell than most as a one location script is very inexpensive to make.

The Green Arrow Script Review

The Green Arrow script by Justin Marks is based on DC Comics characters.

The Green Arrow aka Oliver Queen starts off the story as a rich kid billionaire, an unfortunate event leads him to become a super hero dressed in a costume that goes around fighting crime.  In other words he's another Batman.

He gets framed for murder committed by someone else and sent to Super Max Prison.  Where he is befriended by another inmate.

The script, well written was basically Prison Break with comic book characters.

What I learned was you can have a premise or plot similar to stuff done before, just put a new twist or hook to the story.

For example Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour were the same plot - two detectives go after a crime syndicate.  The story for Lethal Weapon is a retiring detective is forced to take on a suicidal partner.

For Rush Hour is was more or less an action comedy and the different approach to policing between the American detective and the Chinese detective.

So in creating a story start with What If?  For example:  What if a super hero gets sent to prison?

Do your what ifs and then see if something else has been done before and then try and put a different hook to the story.

Update to October's Goals

For those of you not on the Writer's Store mailing list they're putting on a screenwriting contest called "The Industry Insider Screenwriting Contest" located at the following link:
 http://www.writersstore.com/industry-insider-screenwriting-contest

The update to my October Goals is that I am going to be working on an application for this contest to see how I do.

All of you aspiring writers should do so as well.  Simply because if you don't put your writing out there you'll never know what your strong points and weak points as a writer are.

So go for it.  Enter.  There will surely be a lot of competition, but you never know, you might get picked.

October 2010 Goals

Hello everyone.

This month's goals for October 2010 will be to finish the draft of my screenplay that I'm working on and to read/review five scripts.  I haven't been able to accomplish the goal of fifteen scripts so what I'll do is make a more realistic goal as I am still working two jobs along with my screenwriting and blogging.

Goliath Script Review

When I read the title to the script I was expecting a story that was going to ram religion down my throat.  I was wrong.  It was a very good action movie, or at least it will be when it's made, that is faith based.

It had some very good action sequences in it as well as moments when you didn't know a character was going to die, but did.

The only weak point is that the hero, David, starts out as a reluctant hero.  He doesn't want the responsibility, he just wants his easy life of being a shepherd.  This has been done before along with the people who convince him to join the fight to save Jerusalem

There was good imagery in it too.  For example it mentions that an area of Jerusalem is a slum that makes Jakarta look like a five start hotel.  Gets the image of the horrible living conditions these people are living in.  They're the lowest of the low, the dregs of the society.

What I learned from reading the script is how to finally write a chase scene.  For example (not from the movie):

JANE

She runs down the alley and sees that she's got at a dead end.  She looks around and sees three dumpsters on each side.  A place to hide to postpone or cancel her impending death.  She climbs in to the middle one on her right hoping that her pursuer will choose the opposite side.

As she quietly closes the lid she hears footsteps running towards her.

MIKE

Mike enters the alley and sees Jane's nowhere to be found.  Could he have guessed the wrong alley?  he scans around and sees the dumpsters.

That's one example of how to do it.  The basic point to doing a chase scene is that you have to show each character's point of view in it not just one.

I hope you enjoyed today's review and lesson.

Update on September goals.

Hello everyone and welcome back.

Today I completed one of my September goals and that was to finish the board for the 7th draft of the story I'm working on.

Later today I will start working on the actual draft for it as well.

One important thing to remember when setting goals and accomplishing them is to reward yourself.  My reward will be to buy a DVD movie.

Overcoming Obstacles

Hello everyone and welcome back.

Today I'll talk about overcoming obstacles to our writing.  I had a minor one this week and that was the hard drive on my main computer crashed.  A relatively minor one since I have a lap top as well as a desk top computer.  But what to do in this situation if you don't have a back up computer and can't afford to buy one?

Lots of things:

1. Work on a scene hand writing it out on paper.
2. Work on log lines for other stories
3. Work on the development of another story.  You should always have other stories on the back burner.
4. Work on five lines for stories.
5. Work on a beat sheet found in Blake Snyder's "Save The Cat"

Those are just some suggestions.

Some other obstacles you might face are a perceived lack of time.  I say perceived as we all have the same twenty four hours a day in which to find time to do our writing.  You may think you don't have time but I would challenge you otherwise.

One of my main inspirations for this is Bruce Dickinson, the lead singer of Iron Maiden.  Here's the things he does:

1. Lead singer for a hugely successful heavy metal band.
2. Commercial airline pilot.
3. Published novelist
4. Produced screenwriter for Crowley.
5. Plus probably the most important thing is he has a family as well.

If a busy rock star can do all that surely I and by extension you can find or make time to write as well.

Here's the stuff I am doing:

1. Full time security officer at a local university where I do a 3 on 3 off shift rotation.
2. Part time security guard for a private guard company on my days off.
3. Working on building a network marketing business.
4. Working on building an affiliate marketing business.
5. Working on writing screenplays.

`So there truly are no excuses to not having time to do your writing.  Set aside a block of time where you can do it.  Do your job, spend time with your family but also tell them you need some personal time to work on your writing. 

If it means not watching football or other sports so be it.  What has the potential to make you financially successful sports or writing?  Unless you're an elite athlete it ain't sports.

Look at J.K. Rowling.  She set aside the time for writing and has now become one of the most successful writers ever with the Harry Potter series of books and movies.  While you may not get to that level wouldn't it be better to find out for sure one way or the other?

Keep those thoughts with you as you're writing or doing something else.

Bye for now.