Sgt. Angle reporting for duty!

Amidst all the hubbub this weekend over the Superbowl or some ridiculous VW commercial, there was also an event in Southern California that was not to be missed: The first ever Inland Empire Comic Expo. Semantink’s own James Ninness wrote a review of his experience there, and I happened to be present as well, covert, wandering amongst the masses, picking the brains and minds of some talented artists and writers.

All of this creativity got me thinking: Isn’t there an easier, lazier way to get to know writers — specifically of movies — and try to pick up handy bits of tips to help other wwriters out there who can then, later on, create their own websites of useful tips???

Here are three such examples of lazy browsing for writing tips.

johnaugust.com

John August is the writer of many of Tim Burton’s flicks over the last 15 years, from Big Fish to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He’s also worked on his own pet projects Go and The Nines, and took on the massive undertaking of adapting Preacher. His website is a massive database of fan and writer questions and his answers, based on his years and experience in the business. Mostly, you’ll see a question that he’s been asked by numerous people, and he just figures hey, this is one I should probably answer. What’s great about the site is that John not only gives sound advice about style and formatting, but also his take on developing ideas, characters, and story structure. Yet he never discredits your style. If you use index cards, you’re all the better for it — but it’s not a guarantee to a great story structure or character arc. If you want to underline key words in the dialogue, great, but don’t overuse it. The best answers he gives are those that cover pitching and being more than just the writer when you meet with executives — how to take a meeting. Finally, John’s site is extra special because he’ll occasionally take on a topic like gay marriage or the new iPad or writing script for a website, and expound his opinions. Once in a while, on twitter (@johnaugust), he’ll randomly ask for feedback for his own research. Follow him.

Scriptshadow

A risky fella who goes by the name Carson Reeves started this site a few years back with the intention of allowing aspiring writers to get their grubby hands on screenplays in development (mostly those on the Black List) and early drafts of well-known movies. Today, he reviews five scripts a week, culminating in “amateur Fridays” when he covers a script emailed to him by one of his avid readers. The good thing about Carson’s site is the access to screenplays. One of the most important thing to study as an aspiring screenwriter is other people’s work — what’s been made, what hasn’t, and why. He’ll usually post a link to the script with a bold note stating that if you are the script’s copyright holder, simply email him and he’ll remove the link.

The bad thing about Carson’s site, as pointed out by John August, funny enough,  is the fact that the public is essentially reading a “draft” of a movie, something not intended to be seen by the general public. Imagine that you’ve shot your film an have a rough cut — no sound effects, no music, etc. A thousand people see it because it made its’ way online. These “fans” start going viral about how bad the movie is. Now, no matter if you have John Williams scoring it or Roger Deakins color-correcting, your film has already been given a rotten by the GP. Too bad, so sad.

These days, Carson also expounds upon the “best or worst” things a writer can do in any given genre. He’s very opinionated and sometimes self-contradictory, nevertheless it’s fun to read his coverage and reviews, and helpful to view his “what I learned” section of each review, as if he’s learning right along with us.

wordplayer.com

A rarely updated site run by Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott (Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean), here we get essays and “featurettes” written by such writers as Frank Darabont, Stephen King, and Fred Dekker (holler at The Monster Squad!). Rossio and Elliott offer up such columns as “Breaking the Ice” and “A foot in the door,” little features and vignettes, much in the vein of William Goldman’s Adventures in the Screen Trade. Wordplayer is a website that’s a bit tough to navigate and frustratingly not updated as much as it could/should be, but still has the goods in the words, and the word is the master.

Check out the above sites for a little more about the world of screenwriting and the behind-the-scenes workings of the development stages of Hollywood. You’ll like your favorite movie that much more if you know the story behind the story.

You are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

Sgt. Angle Reporting for Duty!

I’m here this week to discuss a couple of new movies that are each excellent viewing experiences for very different reasons. Cases in point:

Knight and Day

This is a good movie because it is exactly what it sets out to be. This not reason enough for you? Okay, how about Tom Cruise. Sure, he’s had a fair share of setbacks in recent years, both in the public eye and on screen (in the forgettable Lions for Lambs). But I’ll tell you right now, privates, there is something to be said for actors who can take their enjoyment of the craft to the extremes, and show you just how much they enjoy it.

Maverick!

When Cruise’s Roy Miller smiles, does his little chuckle at Cameron Diaz, he’s almost parodying himself. Even the character — a deep undercover spy who has apparently gone rogue, and crazy, over a top-secret device — is a complete parody of his Mission Impossible Ethan Hunt character — typically brooding, dark, barely breaks a smile, work is number one, etc. Roy Miller likes the work he does, likes the people he meets despite having to cut himself off personally from the world.

Likewise, Cameron Diaz plays an ultimate damsel in distress, crying out for help when she can probably, by now, learn to fend for herself, and being the thorn in the side of our hero as he tries to reach his goals.

Okay, at times the film’s “plot” becomes repetitive (you drugged her how many times?), and the “plot” truly is paper thin. But Cruise…come on. He is a screen presence. It’s high time the dude found a middle ground between brooding, self-centered anti-heroes and comedic caricatures (Knight and Day, Tropic Thunder). Then again, watching Maverick on a screen will always hold a special place in the box office charts. The dude knows what movies he wants to do, and luckily, he gets his pick.

Winter’s Bone

Double-award-winner at this year’s Sundance Film Festival (Grand Jury and Best Screenplay), Debra Granik’s second film as writer/director is a wonder, to be sure. Images and the synopsis will cause one to think of “typical indie fare” — a girl who takes care of her siblings in an economically deprived, drug-ridden town searches for her missing father, a meth cook.

To the contrary, Winter’s Bone is a startlingly original take on the classic detective tale, set in a depressing place, filled with criminals and grungy neighbors, untrustworthy friends, and danger around every turn. Jennifer Lawrence, plays Ree. She is truly a star, embodying a strong resolve despite her familial and economic strife, who has grown “beyond her years” despite a lack of parental guidance. She aims only to care for her brother and sister, and the county is threatening to take away their home, which her father put up for bond on arrest. If her father doesn’t show up to court, they will be out of a home.

So begins her journey, inquiring her father’s old friends, namely his brother, Teardrop. John Hawkes plays Teardrop. You know John Hawkes, even if you don’t know him. Teardrop is a waste of space, a mean-mannered man who wants nothing to do with Ree or her situation. Does blood run thin in this hole in the world, or are there some ties that just won’t let go?

Ree’s trek to find her father brings her to a Southern crime-lord’s beat up house, a drug-addict’s shack, and to dark corners of realization and last resorts.

This is the kind of film that screenwriter John August (Go, Big Fish) would tell you to write — asking you, constantly, does everything that can happen on screen happen on screen, or are your characters sitting around talking about food?

There are a lot of shots, you see, of Ree with her brother and sister — teaching them how to shoot squirrels, for instance — that we might think are lingering pointlessly on the moment. But they are not. They advance her character when her character has gone into all the corners she knows to go, and then the story finds her. I do not think this is a bad thing. In fact, this is a great thing. When your characters is down and out and lost, with nowhere else to go, show us how he/she will react to a typical situation, then turn that situation upside down. In this instance, Ree is teaching her too-young-to-hold-a-gun siblings to shoot, when her friend shows up with a nice surprise to take her to the next step in finding her father.

Unlike Knight and Day, for instance. In that film, Tom Cruise will show up out of the blue to rescue our damsel in distress again and again. But this is different, isn’t it? This is an example of a writer forcing the story to happen, whereas in Winter’s Bone, Ree has done all she could do, and along the way we’ve met her friend turn her away once. Now’s the time to come back. It’s a payoff, ten-fold.

Knight and Day features predictable rescue moments, and Winter’s Bone, because of the strength of the character and her determination coming to a sudden halt, we’re given unpredictable solutions in a world where everything should be dark and everyone should be turning their backs on you.

Winter’s Bone takes the classic detective genre and A) gives us a female detective with a heart of stone, and B) sets it in such a wasted and decrepit location, we don’t even recognize the structure until her second or third inquiry. Then, it’s all a thrill ride until the end.

Please do yourselves a favor and see both of the above films when you get your next free moment. You’ll see Cruise at his best, and with Winter’s Bone you will get a chance to witness one of the best movies of the year, as well as a possible award-winning performance from John Hawkes.

Dismissed!

Sgt. Angle.