Going to the Screenwriting Gurus

Gaining some final bits of inspiration from the screenwriting gurus. These are a few of the books that we've been reading (or re-reading) as we finalize the screenplay for Under Jakob's Ladder...

• The Anatomy of Story by John Truby
• Screenwriting Tricks of the Trade by William Froug
• Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee
• Screenplay by Syd Field

A Beat Calculator

You've heard of a calculator. But have you ever heard of a... beat calculator?

Someone created a very nice tool on the internet to figure out how you should be writing your screenplay. For a 120-page screenplay:

• Your opening image is on page 1.
• You need to establish your Theme in pages 1 to 5.
• Your setup is in pages 1 to 11.
• Etc. Etc. Etc.

Check it out. You can even change it all depending on the number of pages in your script.

But... It kind of makes your screenwriting into a bit of a math formula. And, frankly, isn't screenwriting supposed to be creative?

So, while some may find it a useful tool, you may also want to throw caution to the wind as you write your next big movie. Remember the proverb that rules were made to break.

P.S. Did you just read this blogpost and ask "What's a beat?!"... Then, why not check out an earlier post we did on that topic.

Out of Focus

What do you do when you (as a filmmaker) discover that one of your shots is out of focus?...

Not only is it too late to fix it... but every take has the same problem. The actor you need has already gone home and can't come back because they are off on another shoot. And it just isn't in the budget to get them back anyway.

That's where creative filmmaking comes into play.

This scerario happened to us on our last film. We still can't quite figure out how it happened, because the shots taken before and after the one in question are fine. But every take we did of this one particular shot in Dear J did not match the rest of the movie; or the rest of the scene, for that matter.

We actually realized the shot was no good while we were still on set, but only AFTER we wrapped for the day. The actors had gone and as we watched some of the dailies for that day, well, our hearts began to sink.

Not only was the shot key to the scene, but it involved the Judge (played by Karen Lynn Gorney -- Yes, the same Karen Lynn Gorney who played opposite of John Travolta in 'Saturday Night Fever')... And she was off to shoot in Florida or something the next day.

First attempt at fixing this mistake: We decided to do the shot again, this time without her in it... using a double and only getting the Judge's arm in the frame. And although we reviewed the footage, you can tell we were rather harried because we got Fumbles (played by Myron Buchholz) to use the wrong arm when he whispers his message to the Judge! (We actually didn't realize this mistake until we began editing the movie about a month later.)

That version of things stayed in the movie for over a year during the post-production phase. And it even made it into the version we showed at the gala in October 2007. (There's a little trivia for you!)

But then, shortly before we burned the final DVD version, we had a breakthrough... Firstly, we reasoned, this whole scene takes place in the imaginery courtroom, right? Secondly, it's part of a discussion between the two psychologists, Dr. Donovin and Dr. Frolick, as they discuss James' situation. Therefore, if the original footage is grainy, why not make that whole particular scene grainy?

We tried it, and voila! It worked... Serendipitiously, it actually makes the scene work.

Necessity is the mother of invention... or in this case, at least of creativity.

Conflict: Moving Things Along

What makes a good scene in a movie?

One word: Conflict.

Yes, a good scene needs conflict to move things along. Opposing forces. Protagonist does A. Antagonist reacts with B. Action-reaction. (Yeah, kind of like Newton's third law of motion.)

The protagonist needs to go from one trouble to the next. (Basically, put your good guy up a tree and throw stones at him.)

Don't have conflict in a scene? Writing gurus tell you to get rid of the scene. Granted, that's not always easy to do, especially when you've become rather attached to the scene.

On the other side, you can also go overboard with an over-zealous approach to cutting out scenes. Sometimes the audience needs a short breather. And sometimes it isn't bad to lull your character into a false sense of security. Or perhaps you need a scene for character development.

But, keep in mind that conflict can also take the form of an underlying tension in scene. Dramatic irony works well; where your character is unaware of some danger lurking, but the audience knows it's there.

Still, it's always a good idea to evaluate each scene for the element of conflict/tension. Remember the old Hitchcock adage: That drama is life "with all the boring parts taken out."

And nobody wants a movie to be boring!

P.S. Can you think of a good movie that has scenes you would call "boring"?

Costuming for History

Conventional filmmaking wisdom says to stay away from making movies set in days gone by.

Well, we went against convention when we decided to go ahead with our upcoming feature: Under Jakob's Ladder.

And yes, we're finding out first-hand why the advice says to avoid filming the historical genre. One problem we're having to deal with: Costumes.

Yes, we are now in the middle of figuring out how to costume all our actors. The prisoners are not so much an issue. But the NKVD prison guards... They have forced us to spend many an hour trying to figure out what their uniforms even look like!

And then there's the cost of actually buying the costumes... Even with places like ebay, one such uniform isn't going to be cheap. And not only is there the uniform, but there's the hat and the boots; not to mention the insignia and shoulder blades and other little extras that make up the uniform.

Oh, it would be so much easier to work on a film that deals in today's clothing.

Making Props Look Old

"Why are those bowls sitting outside in the snow?"

Don't think that you're the first person to ask that question... They are there because... well, they're being distressed.

Our feature film, Under Jakob's Ladder, is set in the Soviet Union in 1941. Which means we need to get props and set pieces that look like they belong to that time period. In other words, they need to look well-used. (It's not like Jakob and his pals had Walmart on every corner.)

We recently picked up these wooden bowls. Problem; they look a little too new! So, how to make a new item look old?

Let them sit out in the rain... lie under a blanket of snow... be weathered by the sun...

Then comes a rasp and file and all sorts of grades of sandpaper.

After all this distressing, these bowls will soon look like the real thing...

Hitting the Marshmallow Wall

We're getting closer and closer to a lock on the script for Under Jakob's Ladder. Right now there's a "marshmallow wall"...

A marshmallow wall??? Okay, by this we mean that if there are any changes made to the script, they can only be small changes.

Our goal is to have lock very soon. Of course, you're never in a complete lock... sometimes scripts can have changes to it, even on set while filming.

(Probably one of the most famous script doctorings happened with 'The Godfather'; with screenwriter Robert Towne coming in to write the patio scene in which the Godfather talks to Michael.)

Of course, throwing in a last-minute scene like that is hard for us to do since we're our own script doctors. So, we try to have the script as ready as possible for shooting. Although on Dear J, we did do some small scenes after principal photography was over to help clarify a few things in the movie. (We wrote and recorded our radio talk-show host rants nearly 9 months later!)

So, while the script will be locked, it will probably still have a marshmallow wall...

And who doesn't like marshmallows?

Poll Results - Going out to the Movies

In this recession, it seems that people are still going to the movies.

Sooo... How often do you go out to see a movie at the theatre? Here's what you told us:

Once a month -- 9%
2 times a month -- 36%
3-5 times -- 0%
6 or more times -- 0%
Only a few times a year -- 45%
Don't go to the movie theatre -- 9%

Translation: It seems like not a lot of you go more than twice a month. Although, if you add the first two options (1-2 times a month), that's nearly half of you; while the other half seems to go out only a few times a year.

Wonder if any of this is affected by Netflix and the internet?... (Maybe the next poll should ask about Netflix or internet downloading...)

Which of these trends do you fall into?

New to the Blog for 2009...

Happy New Year 2009!

Not only is this our first published post of the 2009... But this post is also announcing something new to the blog. Can you find it? There it is in our side bar.

...A list of our films. (Very exciting. We know.)

But wait. Before you dismiss this as valid news, just think, it might come in handy one of these days. You never know. Maybe when you are on some game show and get to call in a lifeline for "the name of that Moon Brothers film about the evangelist in the psychiatric institute." Then you might be thanking us for this list. (Then again, you could probably just ask your lifeline to check out IMDb.)

Anyway, if you're interested, it's here: "Our Filmography". Look at the side panel, just below the "More About Us" section. As we said, very exciting. Aren't you excited?

P.S. We should probably make a new year's resolution to submit all of these to IMDb this new year. Not sure if they take shorts, though. Is it worth the hassle? (Memories of the tedious IMDb submission process is resurfacing...) Hmmm...