Come On, Rogue

Dear Reader,

 

How long do you think it will be until we get a Star Wars universe film where they don’t make a gazillion references to the 3 classic movies?

I can’t exactly say I had high hopes for Rogue One, but I sat down and watched it, thinking I ought to give the film a chance at least before I condemn it to the ‘fan-pandering piece of shit’ pile. It wasn’t totally shit. There were some enjoyable moments – the inclusion of Mads Mikkelsen for one…. – but for the most part it was certainly fan-pandering.

Perhaps I am alone in thinking that the main character was completely and utterly pointless.  There seemed no point in it being specifically Jyn Erso. If anything, I believe the most interesting story was her fathers, but considering the age we live in, it seemed they were far too keen on having a female lead instead of an interesting and worthwhile lead. Her father was the one who was actually doing stuff. It was his actions that seemed to me to propel the plot, so why the hell wasn’t his the story we were told?

There was an ad for the movie coming up on Sky Cinema soon and Felicity Jones mentions the humour – but that only comes from K-2. K-2 made me eye roll every time he tried to make a joke. It was totally cringe-worthy. It just doesn’t work when there is only one character who is in on the humour and everyone else is completely stone-faced. You’ve got Chewie and Han or even C3-PO and R2-D2 (despite the fact we didn’t know what R2 was saying, you still knew they were having some top banter). These guys made it work in the original movies, because you knew that when there was dark, there was going to be some light when these characters were on the screen.

It was such an odd movie. I was trying to remember it the next morning after I watched it and I honestly couldn’t think of anything specifically that happened beyond they got the plans to the Death Star. Funny, because that’s all they based the plot on. Of course, there isn’t much of a plot there to begin with – it’s just something that needs to happen for Leia to meet Luke and well, you know the rest. The story was such a nothing that I only started getting into it when Jyn and that Kassian died. Then I could feel myself getting excited because I knew it was building to A New Hope.

Sadly, I believe the Star Wars movies are going to be nothing more than a money-maker now it’s gone to Disney. I mean, I know it was a money-maker before, but now the sequels/prequels/stories are all being sold on the fact that die-hard fans will literally eat up anything to do with those 3 films and the galaxy that they fell in love with.

 

Thanks for reading

xxx

True Horror

Dear Reader,

 

What makes a film truly horrifying for you? Do you like being left in a quivering mess by about 10 minutes in? Or do you prefer something that is frightening, but tolerable so you can ‘happily’ get to the end? I suppose everyone has their own limits for horror. Personally, my limit is gore. Pure, mindless gore. No thank you. Think Hostel or the Saw films. Blergh. So not interested.

To be honest, I used to be a complete NO to everything that may have even vaguely resembled horror. Such is my imagination that it can be a massive bitch sometimes, so I just didn’t want to feed it. Only at sleepovers or parties where we watched the obligatory horror film. However, for some strange reason and I can’t remember why, I suddenly wanted to watch some horror. One of my flatmates at uni was a massive horror fan and she lent me a few to get me started. I began with Candyman, Halloween and then progressed on to Friday the 13th and Prom Night. All the originals of course.

The classics. That’s where it’s at. I’m definitely leaning more towards the slasher side, which is where my script falls too. I loved Candyman, it was scary, but it had a story and sort of romance. It’s not your typical slasher horror and I think that’s what I liked so much about it. I know I’m more interested in horror where it’s tolerable, perhaps not even gory (the older ones I watched seem less on the gore, or just to modern eyes so ridiculously fake), but where the horror comes from the people. People are terrifying.

There is one film I will never, ever watch. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. A good example of the no-gore of older films (yes, while I haven’t watched it I have read about it a great deal), yet the horror of the people is far too much for my brain to be able to cope with. I once tried watching the start of it – “The film which you are about to see…”etc and I lasted about 5 seconds before I was just like NOPE.

I’m trying to find a happy medium between satisfying the more hardcore horror fans, while not putting off people like me. I don’t want to lose the appeal by making a pure gore-fest, but then one of the most important writing motto’s is ‘Write what you know’ so I don’t think it would even be possible for me. Story is what is important and always will be.

 

Thanks for reading

xxx

 

Happy Valley

Dear Reader,
A short one today.
I’m so happy right now. After months and months of barely finding 5 minutes of peace (I am capable of blog writing in ‘not’ peace), I have finally sat down and written something of the new, altered and most certainly improved story that I have. Up until that point, I felt like I was bottling things up. Well, I suppose I had to as I wasn’t getting chance to have that release. I miss having the time to write.

Sadly, the only time I’ve ever really felt like I’ve had dedicated time to write was in uni….the most uncreative place in existence. I miss writing when I can’t do it. It’s like an ache. A need to write. A feeling of missing out on something that could be great if I can’t get it written down. 

I feel I have been able to purge. The next purge date has yet to be set.
Thanks for reading

Xxx

Up

Dear Reader,

I have good ‘up’ days. I have days where I think ‘Hell yes, this is a fucking awesome idea. I’m going to write a fucking awesome script and it’s going to be made into an amazing film.’ Those are good days. I know that somehow, I am totally going to nail this scriptwriter thing and be seeing my movies hit the big screen any day now. I’m going to send them to random studios who’ve never heard of me and they’re going to be banging on my door demanding a million more. 

That happens right? No? This is where the ‘down’ days hit. Why am I wasting my time doing something that’s never going to happen? I don’t live in L.A. I don’t have connections in the industry. My Mum’s third cousin’s best friend from high school isn’t a big or even small-time director (Seriously, you look up how some people got into the jobs they’re in now and while they try to convince you that they had a hard time, the only reason they’re there is because they knew someone….). I don’t have loads of money to live off while I chase my as yet, unpaid dream so most of the big competitions are out. Of course, to get an agent you have to have already had something made (unless of course you’re ridiculously lucky….I’m guessing) and to get something made, you have to have an agent. That old chestnut! 

Boo hoo. I know. We’re all in the same boat here. I’m just wondering where do the breaks come from? I’m a random no-one from nobody cares with nothing to her name. 
Although, maybe I am just wasting my time on what right now most people would call a hobby, as studios rarely make original movies these days anyway. It’s not a hobby for me. This is work. Just because I’m not getting paid for it, doesn’t mean I’m not putting a hell of a lot of effort into it. You don’t get paid at the start of your shift, you get paid at the end. I hate these ‘down’ days, I much prefer the ‘up’s’.  It gives me motivation to keep going. 

Thanks for reading

Xxx
 

Mad, Sometimes

Dear Reader, 
So, I’ve done it again. I have ceased operations on my previous story and have since updated and improved it! That’s the hope anyway. I think, after a while I just wonder if what I had written was film worthy at all and I try to think of what’s missing. I realised that while I had a good overall concept, I didn’t really like my characters and I didn’t really have a direction that the story was going in. I had good ‘moments’ but that was about it. I could sense that there wasn’t going to be a clear ending on the horizon. 

I’m not one to plan out a script before writing, as I find it makes things a little too stale. I like freshness. However, my problem had come from investing too much in the villain and not enough in everyone and everything else. That does not maketh a good story. I’m all about a good villain though and I find it very easy to get side-tracked. I watched Psycho again the other night and it was a great reminder on how simple a villain can be, but also how the heroes need to be good foils to that. Here I am talking about the heroes in terms of the villain, but hey ho, that’s just the way I see the world! 

So, I’m desperately trying to see the bigger picture and make sure the whole thing is merging together well, instead of just getting a cool moment in just because. 

Thanks for reading 

Xxx

Das Reboot

Dear Reader,

What is happening to cinema? I swear; every single day for the past couple of weeks there has been news of yet ANOTHER film being remade or rebooted. I am sick of seeing it. Today it was Little Women, the other day it was Splash…. While it’s true that everything these days is so completely saturated, there surely must be an alternative to stripping another beloved film, of everything that made it so in the first place?

Remakes/reboots always seem to completely lose the point of why the original was a success. The message behind the story. All they see is a ready made fan base, potential to gender swap (looking at you Ghostbusters and Ocean’s films) and, oh yeah, an easy way to make loads of money. It makes me so angry and sad that this is the state of cinema today. Compared to what it used to be, today it is nothing but a good money-making machine for people who don’t need to be any richer. Where’s the art? It’s all lost behind those big dollar signs flashing in studios eyes. 
There are a few odd gems to be found amongst the new films, but it’s certainly telling when they get swept under the carpet to make way for the superheroes. Greed is not good. Greed is sucking the life out of what used to be such an interesting and intriguing medium. 

Can we have a ‘Restore to factory settings’ button please? 

Thanks for reading

Xxx

P.S. Just realised that I wrote about this only a month ago….goes to show how much it affects me and my writing! 

10 Things I Hate About Scriptwriting

Dear Reader,

1. Not having enough time for it
2. Constantly thinking of new things that would change everything I’ve already written ever so slightly
3. Getting sidetracked by thinking of another superfuckingawesome idea just as I’ve started writing my first superfuckingawesome idea
4. Desperately trying to think of something ‘original’ when about 1% of what’s in the cinema these days is completely original
5. Writing the wrong name in for a character and having to go back and change them all
6. Getting too caught up in research (especially for my current ’50s set script)
7. Constantly wondering if someone reading it is going to read it in the same way that I write it
8. Knowing that my work is unlikely to ever see the light of day of a cinema screen
9. That feeling when you think you’ve written more than you actually have
10. The way I don’t really hate it. 

Ok, so that last one may have been a bit of a cop out but, the rest is true. I suppose a lot of things I hate about it are things I inflict upon myself. Things I could do something about. 

I love scriptwriting. Since university, I knew it was something I was supposed to continue (I got my best marks in that course and the tutor loved my style!). Here I am bragging about uni. Like that’s something studios are going to care about.

So my next ’10 Things’ list will be about how much I love scriptwriting. Coming soon! 

Thanks for reading

Xxx

Citizen Same

Dear Reader,
I’m certain I’ve blogged about this subject before, but it bothers me so much that once again it has entered my thoughts. 
With the overly saturated market of EVERYTHING these days, it becomes ever more difficult to find that unique, original spark in my writing. Something that I hope will make it stand out from the crowd. Although, these days audiences tend to lap up all the unoriginal remakes, reboots and book adaptations so who knows – I may just be wasting my time! 
Much like anyone interested in film, I read the movie magazines. But when I look at them, I’m desperately hoping that nothing new pops up that sounds like my story. So far, I’m good! It’s very encouraging I have to say, knowing that when I’m done it will be something unique. However, it’s becoming so difficult to write something unique these days, I often wish there was a reset button so that everything got wiped and we could start a clean slate with it all. 
As a student, I remember either reading or being told that “Audiences want the same thing, but different.” Where does that end though? Surely we are going to reach a point where there are no more original ideas. Everything becomes a twist on something that’s already been done. Not that I’m dissing on that, it’s just the way it’s done these days. It’s not often that you come across something where you can truly say ‘Wow. I’ve never seen anything like that before.’ And I think a lot of that comes from studios pushing for sure audiences with things like comic book adaptations. It’s becoming less about art and more about money and that makes me sad. 

Thanks for reading

Xxx

Just Married to My Script

Dear Reader,

I’m still in the honeymoon stage of my script-writing. Everything still feels exciting, fresh and I’m having new ideas for the next stage or the next scene at random moments of the day.  I’m still thinking about it when I’m not writing it. I’m still in love.

There does come a time, however, where it changes from being everything I imagined it could be, to becoming something that I just have to deal with every day just to get to the end. Fed up with the marriage analogies yet? I feel like it’s a good analogy though. It works. When you come up with the idea, it’s just like asking yourself ‘Do you want to write this story?’. Your reply – ‘I do.’. There are a tonne more, but I won’t bore you with them. I’m sure you can work the rest out for yourself.

I’m trying to keep it going, (my enthusiasm, that is) by writing the exciting bits as they come to me. Still in sequence, but rather than do the padding out bits, I’m jumping straight to the crux of the scene. At the moment, it’s working. It’s tough trying to keep the enthusiasm going at times. Especially when I don’t know when, or for how long I am going to get to sit down and work on my script. But, a lot of the scripts on my laptop end up half finished purely because my enthusiasm for them wears down. More often than not, it’s actually because I take so long to write the damn thing that I’ve thought of another idea that I’d rather get written instead . Not exactly the best system is it.

Well, guess what? I’ve done 11 pages so far and I’m feelin’ good.

Thanks for reading

xxx

 

 

 

 

Scriptwriters Assemble

Dear Reader,

I’m hoping someone can help me. You know that it’s supposed to be a page a minute with scripts yeah? Well, when there’s no talking and it’s just action, but there’s no way you describing the action on paper is going to take as long as the action will actually take on screen (following?), what do you do? I have no idea and can’t find it clearly explained by Mr Google.

 

Thanks a bunch if you can help!

xxx