Tuesday, July 18, 2006
My Hollywood dream
I've watched a lot of television over the years. And seen a lot of movies.
Not more than everybody else. But enough to get that feeling that I can predict what's coming up. What this character will say next, what suprise will upset whose plans, which one is the real villain, et cetra, et cetera, et cetera.
Then there's the bad scripts that you feel like you could have come up with fresher dialogue or a more original plot twist. It's unusual for a film to suprise me, and I appreciate it when a movie brings me something new.
What all this tells me is that I should be writing these scripts. I swear I could do a better job than half the people out there. Rather than remain the arm-chair script-doctor, I decided to do something about it. I started my own screenplay.
It happened rather spontaneously: I was reading a book, and it occurred to me that it could make a good film. I read a few books on screenwriting techniques and began to write.
There are a lot of methods recommended to writers. One that I tried involved 3X5 cards (which didn't work for me). Some wanted you to come up with detailed character histories that would never enter into the story (I didn't even try). But some of the advice seemed good, and I took it.
Now I have a pretty good stab at a first draft. I'm convinced it could be good, it could be big.
But I do understand that Hollywood is drowning in scripts. Every cocktail-server and busboy in town has a script they want to sell. All over the world people like me think they know about making movies from watching them. The difference is my story is good, even if the actual script needs a lot of work.
I'm now pondering ways to present my story for greatest impact. But maybe I should do a couple more rewrites first.
Not more than everybody else. But enough to get that feeling that I can predict what's coming up. What this character will say next, what suprise will upset whose plans, which one is the real villain, et cetra, et cetera, et cetera.
Then there's the bad scripts that you feel like you could have come up with fresher dialogue or a more original plot twist. It's unusual for a film to suprise me, and I appreciate it when a movie brings me something new.
What all this tells me is that I should be writing these scripts. I swear I could do a better job than half the people out there. Rather than remain the arm-chair script-doctor, I decided to do something about it. I started my own screenplay.
It happened rather spontaneously: I was reading a book, and it occurred to me that it could make a good film. I read a few books on screenwriting techniques and began to write.
There are a lot of methods recommended to writers. One that I tried involved 3X5 cards (which didn't work for me). Some wanted you to come up with detailed character histories that would never enter into the story (I didn't even try). But some of the advice seemed good, and I took it.
Now I have a pretty good stab at a first draft. I'm convinced it could be good, it could be big.
But I do understand that Hollywood is drowning in scripts. Every cocktail-server and busboy in town has a script they want to sell. All over the world people like me think they know about making movies from watching them. The difference is my story is good, even if the actual script needs a lot of work.
I'm now pondering ways to present my story for greatest impact. But maybe I should do a couple more rewrites first.
# posted by newbie @ 5:49 AM 
