Crash and Burn

The first two acts of my screenplay met their death on Sunday.  I wasn’t happy with the direction of the story, so I subjected it to the irreversable demise of the delete button.  Over at www.johnaugust.com, I read a comment that there is a Five-Script rule that applies to screenwriters.   This rule states that the first five scripts anyone writes will almost certainly suck.

Needless to say, I was a little taken aback by this theory.  The positive news is that I am nearly as far on my second synopsis for the story as I was on my first.  The plot on this version definitely seems much tighter, and hopefully I will be able to finish and begin the script by the weekend. Be sure to check b-moore’s page, as he too is attempting a journey into the world of screenwriting.  If you do nothing else, harass him to make sure he doesn’t slack off.  We all need someone there to push us to stay focused.

Lastly, the back is feeling much better.  Hopefully the pinched nerve saga is coming to an end.   This will be helpful both in writing, as well as to my wife – who is growing increasingly frustrated by my inability to do anything around the house.

Until next time,

Henry Hill

Much like Henry Hill in Goodfellas, a nerve in my spine has gotten pinched.   For anyone who has never had a pinched nerve – please commence to knocking on wood as you read this.  For those that have, you surely understand the agony associated with this satanic affliction.

It causes me to wake up throughout the night unable to breathe, as my muscles are all constricted around my spine which causes my entire chest to tighten up.  If I do manage to sleep through the night, the next day my leg is in pain – as the nerve runs from my spine to my toes.  This causes me to walk with a limp, and makes sitting down for any period of time extremely uncomfortable.  Though I have gone to the chiropractor 12 times in the past two weeks, I am not seeing any improvement.  The next step is having an MRI done to see if I have more serious damage to my nervous system.

Obviously, this has delayed my progress in writing – however today I plan on staying covered in ice and popping Motrin in an effort to make it possible for me to sit at the computer and accomplish something.

Damn you Henry Hill.

Method vs. Feel

I began writing the treatment for my screenplay last night. “Treatment” is apparently just movie slang for a five page synopsis of your film from start to finish. During this process, I continued to realize what I had already begun to perceive about writing prose/screenplays.

Writing in this format is much more about METHOD than it is about FEEL.

Granted, great ideas, creativity, etc are all things that can occur naturally – the actual formulating of these ideas into a treatment or script is very regimented. Where music was all about “feel” – you would hear the beat, it would inspire you to write the words, which would inspire you to perform the song, etc… This is very much a step by step lesson in formatting, screenwriting has to be visual and creative – yet precise and organized. Its a very strange tightrope to walk.

If I had never visited blogs like Artful Writer, or read any books on this – I wouldnt know where to begin. How would anyone inherently know that scripts must be written in 12 point Courier, as it takes the human brain one minute to process a page of words written in this font?? I wouldnt have, but Im glad to know now.

As far as the treatment goes, I have a fairly solid synopsis of my first act. I hope to have it done by the weekend so I can officially launch into writing the actual script. That is, if I can continue to resist the urge to color outside the lines…

Dustin

ACT I

For some of you – this blog may come as no surprise.  However, for some of you who may have stumbled onto this by fate/accident, there may warrant some back story behind my desire to pursue screenwriting.  Like most children of the eighties, I have grown up on countless hours of television,  film, and video games – which has almost naturally made me attuned to and interested in the entertainment field.

As a lifelong fan of music, especially hip hop – it was a natural progression for me to pursue that as my first dream.  For several years I was one half of the group Forge and Amen, and while you certainly never saw us on TRL – it was a character building experience that really opened my eyes to the “business” of entertaining. From doing shows up and down the east coast, to the harsh and sometimes glorious reviews from critics, the time we spent doing music definitely exposed us both to the thick skin one must develop in order to flourish in any creative industry.

In preparation for what will hopefully be a long and fruitful journey – I have dedicated as much time as possible to reading books on screen writing, reading the blogs of successful screenwriters, and most importantly – reading scripts.  Throughout this process I have discovered that the similarities between music and my current endeavor are staggering.  Both are greatly dependent on possessing a certain style.  Much in the sense that it would be very difficult to perform music having never heard it, it would be equally difficult to understand the nuances of writing in the style of a screenwriter without having actually read it..

I went into this expecting to write a novel. I quickly learned that my mind worked a little too visually to really go into the copious detail required of a novelist.  Through reading a few scripts, I realized that my best bet of getting the stories in my mind onto the page was through screen writing.

I can admit, rather selfishly, that the sole purpose of this blog is to provide me with an outlet for writing outside of the lengthy process of putting together a screenplay.  Regardless of whether anyone is reading or not – it will hopefully serve to keep me motivated and focused on the task at hand.  Not to be a complete ass however, I certainly would love to engage with anyone who chooses to read during this progression – as each discussion/post can only lead to future inspiration.

Stay Tuned.