Adaptation

Enter The Pitch

I’ve been working with Enter the Pitch, which runs a short film competition with a £25,000 prize to make a short film. The subject must be inspired by a character or story in the Bible. Choose from an amazing range of powerful, dynamic, complex, troubled characters in stories that have persisted for thousands of years.

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Lessons from eQunioxe Scriptwriting Workshop

The answer to this these questions provides a critical overview of the story. If they aren’t answered clearly then it doesn’t matter how good the individual scenes might be. The story won’t add up to much or hold together properly.

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Summer Workshop in Italy

Friend and colleague from UCLA, Paul Chitlik, now a clinical assistant professor at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television, holds a residential writing seminar in Europe every summer. This year, the seminar is in Cairo Montenotte, Italy.

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April 2012 Ullensvang Hotel – Film Summit

Many ferries ply the smooth waters of Norway's fjords. In some remote communities the ferries are the only links to the outside world.
Many ferries ply the smooth waters of Norway’s fjords. In some remote communities the ferries are the only links to the outside world.
Preparing to board the ferry. It will turn out to be a five hour trip through some of the most magnificent scenery imaginable. The pictures that follow don't do it justice!
Preparing to board the ferry. It will turn out to be a five hour boat trip through some of the most magnificent scenery imaginable. The pictures that follow don’t do the landscape justice!

 

Pulling away from Bergen on the ferry. The charming town seen from the water.
Pulling away from Bergen on the ferry. The charming and friendly town as seen from the water.

 

 

Other boat plying the fjord. Water traffic is a key mode of transport for goods, materials, and people.
Other boats plying the fjord. Water traffic is a key mode of transport for goods, materials, and people.

 

Passed lots of lovely homes and farms located in sparse settlements along the fjord.
Passed lots of lovely homes and farms located in sparse settlements along the fjord.

 

Wind-blown on the deck of the ferry. Gorgeous day but very windy!
Wind-blown on the deck of the ferry. Gorgeous day but very windy!

 

 

Snow capped mountains and glaciers lining the fjord.
Snow capped mountains and glaciers lining the fjord along the ferry route.

 

 

Up close snowy mountains seen from the ferry deck.
Up close snowy mountains seen from the ferry deck.

 

 

Balcony off my hotel room at Ullensvang and one view of fjord. I had almost a 360 view of mountains and fjord.
Balcony off my hotel room at Ullensvang and one view of fjord. I had almost a 360 view of mountains and fjord from my very beautiful room.

 

 

Another mountain view from my room window.
Another mountain view from my room window.

 

 

Final hotel room view.
Final hotel room view- also from balcony.

 

 

Building on hotel grounds.
Building on hotel grounds.

 

 

The summer hut where famous composer Grieg worked and wrote on the hotel grounds.
The summer hut where famous composer Grieg worked and wrote on the hotel grounds.
About 200 people at the Film Summit. Nearly that many at my Character Map Class. For those of you who missed it a link to the eBook http://etbscreenwriting.com//products-page/e-books/the-character-map/
About 200 people at the Film Summit. Nearly that many at my Character Map Class. For those of you who missed it a link to the eBook http://etbscreenwriting.com//products-page/e-books/the-character-map/
Participants took a field trip to Odda one of the first industrial factories in the world. Now vacant and in planning stages to be a film studio.
Participants took a field trip to Odda one of the first industrial factories in the world. Now vacant and in planning stages to be a film studio.

 

Dinner for 200 at the enormous hydro-electric plant which once powered the factory.
Dinner for 200 at the enormous hydro-electric plant which once powered the factory.

 

Goodby Hotel Ullensvang
Goodby Hotel Ullensvang

 

Plot vs. Character

I believe that if you want your stories to endure, then plot must come from character and not the other way around. I have often said that storytellers are the most powerful people on earth– because they have the power to move the human heart. There is no greater power on earth. You cannot move hearts by relying on plot mechanics.

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Triage – Day Thirty Seven – #40movies40days

Injured and traumatized war photographer, Mark (Colin Farrell), returns home from a photo assignment in Kurdistan. He returns alone. He professes to have been separated from his best friend Colin. Unravelling the mystery of what happened is key to his recovery.

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Foreign Correspondent – Day Thirty – #40movies40days

Foreign Correspondent, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is a great complement to The Quiet American. Again, two men fighting for different sides are caught in a triangle over a girl.

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Rabbit Proof Fence – Day Fifteen – #40movies40days

The Rabbit Proof Fence is a powerful story of survival, hope and the triumph of the human spirit. Three young girls walk 1,500 miles to return to their mother and aboriginal homelands.

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The Wages of Fear – Day Eleven – #40movies40days

The Wages of Fear (the French title is: Le Salaire de la Peur) is a directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and stars a young Yves Montand. It’s a classic French thriller as fresh and contemporary today as it was the day it was made (almost 60 years ago).

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Baby Face – Day Six – #40movies40days

The film is notorious for its unrelenting and unsavory look at women’s lack of power in society and commerce (except for sexual power). Baby Face was the film that finally compelled the movie studios to enforce the Hays Office production code that would, for decades, censor American movie morality.

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The Adjustment Bureau – Day Four – #40movies40 days

Much has been written about who the Adjustment Bureau is– are they angels and is the “chairman” God? Let’s look at what the bureau does– it creates a hunger in people that can be directed to fulfill the bureau’s plan.

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The Woman in the Window – Day Three – #40movies40days

We lose our integrity bit by bit, decision by decision, one small choice at a time. Thoughts (or fears) create action. Action creates habits. Habits build (or destroy) Character. Character creates Destiny.

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Dogtooth – Day Two – #40movies40days

Last night I saw Dogtooth, the 2011 Academy Award nominated Best Foreign Language Film from Greece. There’s going to be no rhyme or reason in selecting the films for my 40 movies in 40 days project. I’ve decided to go wherever the spirit leads me.

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Rango and My Own Lenten Observance – #40movies40days

I’ve decided to watch 40 films in 40 days and write about them from a personal standpoint as I puzzle through how I want to be reborn on Easter morning. It will be a journey of looking at my life through the lens of movies– some contemporary and some old school– I hope you will join me.

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NFL Leadership Styles – Can You Help?

Sometimes it is really useful to look at the Character Types of real people to see how what they do or say defines them. The SuperBowl and the magnificent victory by Green Bay and their young quarterback Aaron Rodgers is a great example to start off with. I’d like to type all the major players in the NFL in terms of their leadership styles. I’m looking for some help here– with quotations or a link to a video as an illustrations. Can you help fill things out?

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My Day at Pixar

I spent an amazing day at Pixar on Tuesday. I was doing a Character Map session with some of their writers, artists, directors and others. It’s easy to spot people coming to Pixar for the first time. They’re the ones, like me, walking around trying to soak in all the wonderful visuals in the building and snapping pictures like mad. Here are some of mine–

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McKee on 2011 Best Screenplay

Here is Robert McKee’s views on Best Screenplay and on stories based on history, fact or actual people’s lives. Like McKee, I believe that a writer’s first duty is to the emotional truth of the story, not factual accuracy. That’s why it’s FICTION.

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Mark Zuckerberg on SNL

The lesson here is FaceBook and Zuckerberg’s deft handing of The Social Network movie. Despite being a fictional and immensely unflattering protrait, Zuckerberg wisely refrained from going ballistic in the press– which wouldn’t have helped and would have only made him look worse. Now he is at the point of being able to laugh at the whole thing and wins points for not taking himself too seriously.

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Day Two at eQuinoxe

When a script isn’t working well, isn’t as compelling a read as it should be or has some kind of emotional disconnect in the story the problem is usually the lack of a clear compelling and well-developed Want, Need or Price.

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Tony Curtis – Power of Ambition

Sidney Falco in 21Tony Curtis passed away at the end of September 2010.  Here is what Time Magazine has to say about one of the roles that defined him as an actor, Sidney Falco in The Sweet Smell of Success.  It is a stunning example of a Power of Ambition protagonist falling to the Dark Side.

(In the film) Sidney Falco, Broadway publicist, is telling his secretary Sam how far he wants his ambitions to take him: “Way up high, Sam, where it’s always balmy. Where no one snaps his fingers and says, ‘Hey, Shrimp, rack the balls!’ Or, ‘Hey, mouse, mouse, go out and buy me a pack of butts.’ I don’t want tips from the kitty. I’m in the big game with the big players. My experience I can give you in a nutshell, and I didn’t dream it in a dream, either. Dog Eat Dog. In brief, from now on, the best of everything is good enough for me.”

An actor doesn’t often get a role that upends his Hollywood image and reveals his inner demons. Tony Curtis, who died Wednesday at 85 of cardiac arrest at his home near Las Vegas, found that dream-nightmare part in the 1957 Sweet Smell of Success. Sidney Falco, a name that replaced Sammy Glick as the slick nogoodnik par excellence, is a pretty boy on the make — all hustle, no morals, and with a line of patter like petty larceny…

…Another refugee from the New York streets, and one of the first postwar actors to produce his own movies, (Burt) Lancaster … cast him in Sweet Smell as Sidney, the publicist trying to get his clients’ items in the gossip column written by Lancaster’s J.J. Hunsecker.

In the script, by Ernest Lehman and Clifford Odets, Sidney’s status floats between villain and victim — he peddles flesh and secrets, and pins the Commie label on an innocent young musician, before getting climactically framed by J.J. — but (actor) Curtis was the victor in the movie. It’s easy to imagine that, that when the actor first read this script, he thought exultantly, “That’s me all over!” A shark in the Broadway aquarium, Sidney looked like a million bucks, all counterfeit.  FULL ARTICLE HERE

A character driven by the Power of Ambition can be a hardworking, eager, charming optimist with a “can-do” spirit— or a lying, manipulative, backstabbing striver who will do anything to get ahead in life.

The definition and meaning of “success” is at the heart of a Power of Ambition character’s story.  The basic question for this character’s emotional journey is: “What does it profit a person to win the whole world but lose his or her own soul?”

That what we watch Sidney Falco do, lose his soul, over the course of The Sweet Smell of Success.  It is a film well worth watching and a master course in the Power of Ambition Character Type.

The Value of Incremental Change

Writing just one hour day can produce a new script in just 22 weeks, using The One Hour Screenwriter eCourse. That means you could complete two new scripts a year with weekends off and eight weeks of vacation time or time for rewrites. And that’s while holding a full-time job, meeting social and family obligations and all the other duties in a busy life.

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Jumping Off a Cliff

I am always talking about characters taking a Leap of Faith in a story. But I have been a bit hesitant about making my own. The cliff I am contemplating right is moving to Europe to live and work for a year, possibly longer.

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How to Use Byron Katie’s Four Questions

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Yesterday I posted Byron Katie’s four questions.  These questions get at the fear and fearful thinking that causes personal suffering.  As many of you know the best definition of fear I have ever heard is:  “Fear is the anticipation of grief.”  Anticipating something often makes it true– That’s where the saying “a self-fulfilling prophecy” comes from. Here is how to use the questions in fictional character development:

1.  Is it true? Every character has a specific view of the world, of themselves and of their role in the role.  This is based on the person’s Character Type.  These beliefs and or philosophies limit the character in some profound way.  For example, a Power of Truth character believes that the world is fundamentally uncertain.  These characters believe life is filled with hidden pitfalls, secret agendas and you can’t really trust in or believe anything.

When operating out of fear these character doubt everyone and everything.  They don’t even trust themselves– second-guessing every decision, doubting themselves and others.  Mickey Sachs (Woody Allen)  in Hannah and Her Sisters at his most anxious neurotic state is a great comic example of the Power of Truth Character Type.  Mickey says:

“…I really hit bottom.  You know, I just felt that in a Godless universe, I didn’t want to go on living.  Now I happen to own this rifle which I loaded, believe it or not, and pressed to my forehead.”
“And I remember thinking… I’m gonna kill myself.  Then I thought… What if I’m wrong? What if there is a God?  I mean after all, nobody really knows. But then I thought, no.  You know,  maybe is not good enough.  I want  certainty or nothing.”

“…I really hit bottom.  You know, I just felt that in a Godless universe, I didn’t want to go on living.  Now I happen to own this rifle which I loaded, believe it or not, and pressed to my forehead.”

“And I remember thinking… I’m gonna kill myself.  Then I thought… What if I’m wrong? What if there is a God?  I mean after all, nobody really knows. But then I thought, no.  You know,  maybe is not good enough.  I want  certainty or nothing.”

Mickey nearly shoots himself but the gun slides off his forehead and he escapes in the resulting mayhem.  He  run into the street, walks for hours and then retreats into a movie theater where a Marx Brother’s movie is playing.

2: Can you absolutely know it’s true? In a climatic moment, Mickey realizes he can’t be absolutely certain there is no God.  He says:
“…I went upstairs to the balcony, and I sat down and, you know, the movie was a film that I’d seen many times in my life since I was a kid, and I always loved it.  And, you know, I’m watching these people up on the screen, and I started getting hooked on the film, you know?”
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“…And I started to think how can you even think of killing yourself? I mean, isn’t it so stupid?  Look at all the people up there on the screen.  You know, they’re real funny, and, and what if the worst is true?”
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“…What if there’s no God, and you only go around once and that’s it?  Well, you know, don’t you want to be part of the experience?  You know, what the hell, it’s not all a drag.”
3: How do you react—what happens—when you believe that thought? When Mickey believes there is no real certainty he fells anxious, depressed and self-destructive.  When he doubts everything he wants to kill himself.
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4: Who would you be without the thought? Without obsessing about certainty or the lack of it, Mickey can begin to enjoy his life, relax and be more open, fun-loving and tolerant of ambiguity.  He says:
I’m thinking to myself, geez, I should stop ruining my life… searching for answers I’m never gonna get, and just enjoy it while it lasts.  And… I mean, you know, maybe there is something. Nobody really knows.  I know, I know maybe is a very slim reed to hang your whole life on, but that’s the best we have. And… then, I started to sit back, and I actually began to enjoy myself.”
Absolutely nothing changed but Mickey’s attitude.   When he let go of his obsessive thoughts, based on his fears and narrow world view, he became more comfortable with uncertainty and more available to life and it’s enjoyments.
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Byron Katie’s process is another way of looking at the Leap of Faith described in the Character Map eBook.  Every character must, at some point, let go of their self-limiting view of the world and of themselves.  This is the only way to make the transformation that is so scary but so emotionally satisfying.

Writing for the Web – From the UK

This excellent report from a BBC Writer’s Room roadshow in Northern Ireland in January was filed by John Fox for Screenwriter’s Goldmine. It outlines the elements of the acclaimed internet drama, Sofia’s Diary.

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Idealism Wins at the Oscars

Pixar won the 2009 Oscar for Best Animated Feature with Up. All seven Pixar films released since the creation of the category have been nominated. Five have taken home the Oscar: Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up. Three of those five Oscar winners— Up, The Incredibles and Ratatouille— are Power of Idealism films.

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Is “Good Writing” A Matter Of Culture?

William Zinsser discusses how “good writing” is a matter of cultural difference. Here’s what he said in a talk to the incoming international students at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism on August 11, 2009:

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Trapped as an Enduring Film Theme

Dr. Howard Suber, author of The Power of Film, says that the majority of all great films could be titled “Trapped.” Here he talks on a panel at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum about the enduring interest in Holocaust films, illustrating that theme

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Writer Access Project

The Writer Access Project is designed to identify excellent diverse writers with television experience and to bring these writers’ scripts to the attention of showrunners, creative executives and agents for consideration during staffing season. Info here.

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Battle Speeches – Power of Idealism

It is critical that a battle speech reveal character. Each kind of leader sees the world differently and fights for different reasons. Each kind of leader inspires followers differently.

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Laughing Until It Hurts

“Comedy is never the gaiety of things, it is the groan made gay,” wrote drama critic Walter Kerr. This is the great irony implicit in comedy. It feels good to walk out of a theater laughing. But we often go into the theater not feeling so good. Many times, what makes us laugh is seeing that other people are not feeling so good either.

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Mobile Micro-Blog Novel Writing

The Micro-Blog Novel is shaking up a publishing industry that has been declining for a decade. An author of fiction is lucky to sell a few thousand copies of a title. A popular cell-phone novelist sells several hundred thousand, and recruitment for new talent is intense.

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Top Ten Political Movies

In 2008, Entertainment Weekly set out to identify some of the best-loved political films of all time. Here are the top 10 picks, with each film’s primary star.

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Writing Routine

I discovered a great website that discusses how various writers and artists approach their work and organize their day. Below is a discussion of the simple method Anthony Trollope used to write forty-nine novels in thirty-five years!

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Mad Men – Art vs Commerce

Mad Men has had wide-spread critical acclaim, won numerous awards and has become a cultural reference– but it has a very small audience. This struggle between art vs commerce and high brow vs low prestige mass entertainment is a dilemma writers and producers wrestle with continually.

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Creating a New Character – Fear

It’s important to look at the ways the character is most worried about failing others and becoming unloved or unlovable. This often is traceable back to the character’s own childhood fears. These early fears powerfully stay with us and color our adult lives.

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Fear in Politics, Life, and Storytelling

In my Character Map workshops I talk a lot about fear. This article from the Huffington Post makes a clear statements about fear in politics, everyday life and storytelling. It is a wonderful summary of the discussion of fear I have with my workshop participants.

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Barack Obama – Three Factors of Character Type

I’ve written extensively on the differences in Character Type between John McCain and Barack Obama. Both candidates’ response to the recent American financial crisis is further revealing of all aspects of their Character Types.

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McCain and Obama: Character Consistency in Storytelling

#ThinkpieceThursday – The Presidential election is an opportunity to see two Character Types play their roles on the world stage.

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John McCain – Three Factors of Character Type

The same tactics and approach can create totally dissimilar strengths and weaknesses, problems and opportunities because the two characters view the world so differently.

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New Book With A Powerful Backstory

“I pressed the button on the phone and the first sound I heard in the headset was a child sobbing. She was barely able to speak, kept saying the same thing over and over…”I just want it to stop.” It was Monday morning 7.30 am. My very first call as a ChildLine volunteer counselor.

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Wall-E – Getting to the Essence of Things

In a few seconds the audience (or executive in a pitch session) should be able to get the essential core of your story and character. One of my favorite quotes is by Albert Einstein: “If you can’t say it simply and briefly you probably don’t understand it well enough.”

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Third Cocktail Question

cocktail-party ETBScreenwritingFinishing up with the third cocktail question: “Would you like to hear a great idea for a movie?”  For some reason, when people know you are a screenwriter they feel compelled to tell you their story or ask your opinion on their idea.

As you are listening, realize you are sitting in the place of a beleaguered studio executive.  What can you learn from this experience?

Always listen to the idea carefully because it’s a great opportunity to learn two of the most valuable lessons about pitching.  Pretend you listen to screenplay ideas for a living.

First, notice the person isn’t nervous.  They are simply sharing something that they are interested in and feel  passionate about.  They are hoping you will like the idea but the fun is in just communicating the it.  That is the greatest lesson of pitching.  Don’t go into a pitch meeting with the expectation or desire to sell the pitch.  Just enjoy sharing your story.  That goes a long way in eliminating nervousness.  Have fun.  Make it fascinating cocktail conversation.

Second, keep it short and punchy.  You want a strong opening, a series of interesting complications and a satisfying payoff.  That’s it.  Any more than ten to fifteen minutes is overkill.  Einstein once said”  “If you can’t explain it briefly and simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”  And he was talking about physics!  The best thing you can get anyone to say in a meeting is: “Tell me more.”  Then you have permission and the interest and attention to elaborate.  You don’t want someone looking at the watch and thinking:  “Get to the point already.”

Isn’t that what anyone wants in a cocktail conversation:  A fun story that is mercifully short.  Get in. Get out.  Leave them wanting more.