Quotable Thursday | Midnight

"An optimist stays up until midnight
to see the new year in. A pessimist stays
up to make sure the old year leaves."
Bill Vaughn


[Photo via flikr courtesy of Stephen Cannon]

It's All in the Backstory

It's that time of year when everyone starts looking back over the past year. And that got us thinking about backstory.

Just as in real life, people have a past, so do characters who populate a movie world. And that past (or backstory) will affect what they do in the story. Whether we realize it or no, every character in a movie has a backstory. But it primarily affects the main characters.

Characters who only show up for a limited amount of screen-time are often written as stereotypes or cliches. Why? Because a cliche allows the audience to supply a ready backstory in their own mind for them.

But, you don't want the main character to be a stereotype. You want round characters who do surprising things to hold our attention. That's where backstory may come in.

A character's past affects how that character may or may not react to a situation. It may be revealed in various ways; through flashbacks, narration, or dialogue. But the key to using backstory is to know when to reveal the backstory. All at once? A bit here and a bit there?

We have found that when it comes to backstory, we often write it into an early draft of a screenplay, using overt dialogue or flashbacks. Then, once we're comfortable that that information is part of our character's past, the dialogue/flashback is tweaked and rewritten to be leaner and less obvious.

However, occasionally an overt reference to backstory is left in the script because we're not sure if we will need it or not. It is filmed, but then it is often taken out during the edit. Sometimes it's better NOT to know too much backstory. We can get caught up in a backstory when we need to focus on the actual story.

Which is why there's that old adage about not dwelling too much on the past...

Quotable Thursday | As the Angels Give

"If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should
cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend,
that would be giving as the angels give."
George MacDonald
(1824-1905)


[Photo courtesy of Mogens Engelund]

Where's that Laughter Coming From, Charlie Brown?

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) is one of the longest-running Christmas specials aired each year on television.

It was the first time that Charles Schulz's Peanuts gang made it off the comic strip to the small screen. It was done on a shoestring budget, which meant there were glitches. The animation was also somewhat choppy. The executives at CBS were worried. The special was going to break a lot of the accepted "rules" of children's animated holiday specials...

This included the decision to use the voices of real children (as opposed to adult actors who could sound like children); and a jazzy soundtrack by Vince Guaraldi.

And Charles Schulz was adamant that there be no laugh track. He figured the kids watching should know if something was funny enough. They didn't need to be told.

CBS executives were particularly nervous when Charles Schulz also insisted on using the final narration by Linus on the true meaning of Christmas (which used words straight out the Bible).

But, as it turns out, sometimes executives get nervous about the wrong things.

When the Christmas special was aired, it was a hit. It went on to win an Emmy. And, even though it's 45 years old this year, the program is still aired annually and has become a Christmas classic.

Sometimes you never know when something will work. For the Charlie Brown Christmas Special, Schulz stood by what he wanted for the show.

And it paid off.

Quotable Thursday | More Comfortable

"We do not err because truth is difficult
to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because
this is more comfortable."
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
(1918-2008)


[Photo via flikr, courtesy of NoMoreHours]

MOS Revealed

We mentioned the term MOS in our posts from the past couple of weeks. We realized that some of you may not know what this means. Well, when you film "MOS", it means you aren't capturing sound as you film. It's the visual without the audio.

But why "MOS"? Well, the film historians will say it stands for "Mit Out Sound" (because of some German director couldn't pronounce his w's). Others have claimed that it stands for "Mute on Slate."

Then again, maybe it stands for something else altogether! Here's a list of the Top Seven Alternative Meanings for MOS:

1. Managing Only Silence
2. Move onto Silence
3. Muted-Only Solutions
4. Missing our Sound-Tech
5. Manage Optimum Silence
6. Miracle of Silence
7. Mic on Strike

And that's MOS for you.

Quotable Thursday | Consider the Postage Stamp

"Consider the postage stamp:
its usefulness consists in the ability to
stick to one thing till it gets there."
Josh Billings

A Problem Called Battery

So... what ever happened on that day the battery for our boom mic gave out?

Our first reaction was to buy some time while our sound guys figured out a solution to the buzzing noise created by the dying battery. We shot all the MOS scenes that were scheduled for that location; scenes that didn't require dialogue, and hence, didn't require a microphone.

But then we started to run out of those scenes. Fortunately, our catering people were able to be flexible enough to provide our hour-long lunch early.

Meanwhile, we sent off several teams to try to locate a new battery for the boom mic. We had someone scouring the internet. Someone else started calling stores to see if they carried this type of battery.

Out of the blue, we called a battery store somewhere out on Long Island.

And suddenly, from that simple call, we had our solution—without having to purchase this specialty battery!

The answer? (Now, listen up you aspiring filmmakers, in case you ever run into the same dilemma.)

The solution involved taping together a series of... hearing aid batteries. Something we were able to pick up at the local drug store. At first, we were skeptical. But trying it out, the new improvised battery worked beyond our hopes.

And suddenly, we were back on track, ready for filming.

Quotable Thursday | Parking Places

"The road to success is dotted
with many tempting parking places."
Author Unknown