Take Us to Your Leader – We Bring Fire

Not wanting to turn this blog into a culture review site I hesitate to follow up my in-depth, Pulitzer prize-winning Derren Brown review with one for Ridley Scott‘s new movie, Prometheus.

Oh, go on then.

This is a movie that seems to really polarise opinion. In the first camp are people (for shorthand I will refer to these as Educated) who understand this is not an Alien prequel and can appreciate a spectacular film made in a familiar universe. The second camp contains people (here I’ll go with Idiots) who  -despite Sir Ridley banging on for months that Prometheus was only vaguely associated with Alien- entered the cinema expecting a direct prequel complete with darkness, dripping chains and xenomorphs with major dental problems.

The answer is of course somewhere in between. As a self-styled Educated Idiot I thoroughly enjoyed the movie -seen in the darkness of Cineworld Didsbury, along-side a number of other lone, forty-year olds wearing U.S.S. Sulaco t-shirts from Last Exit to Nowhere – despite its numerous flaws. There are plot-holes; Idris Elba doesn’t have enough to do and the Space Jockeys turn out to be smaller and less alien than hoped. But it is beautiful -never more so than in the opening scenes of a primordial Earth- and looks truly epic. The benefits of Ridley’s insistence on actually building sets to act against, rather than just going with greenscreen, are really obvious.

Once you realise that the moon all this plays out on is not the same moon as in Alien; different spaceship, different aliens, possibly a completely different time period, it makes a lot more sense. It’s not perfect but it is visually stunning, highly entertaining and though provoking.

Just don’t get me started on the Blade Runner prequel…

A Sad, Sad, Joyfully, Wonderfully Epic Day

I have just seen The Avengers for the second time. Okay, I’ve just seen Avengers Assemble for the second time, but I am wholly reluctant to embrace a name allocated solely to our country on the grounds that marketeers believe we are too stupid to recognise that The Avengers -a film, set in the modern day, about a team of superheroes- is totally different to a TV series (or even one crappy film based on the TV series, that nobody saw) made in the sixties involving a bloke in a bowler hat.

Okay, it also featured a sexy woman in a slinky catsuit but clearly that diminishes my argument a little.

I thought it was only the US that marketeers slighted in this way -see The Philosopher’s Stone become The Sorcerer’s Stone and License Revoked becoming License To Kill.

Anyway, I have digressed once again.

The main thing is that I have just seen the epic Avengers film for the second time. The first was all about 3D, excitement, giggles and only using the front quarter of my seat.

This second time I wanted to pay attention to the story beats and how it had been crafted. Mainly though, I was giggling and only using the front quarter of my seat.

It is a wonderfully balanced film. As a summer blockbuster it utterly fails in giving us flat, shallow characters. It has an ensemble cast in which all characters shine interestingly, take their turn in the spotlight, fight together (using both meanings) and exchange witty remarks.

It is, in summary, everything you expect of a witty, intelligent low-budget indie. It is however a blockbuster that took $235m to make and will most likely earn over a billion dollars.

It is a sad day that we can’t mock a blockbuster for not being beautifully, deftly written.

It is a wonderfully, epic day that we see a blockbuster deliver everything you always hoped they would.

Thank you Joss Whedon, for proving the smug writery-types wrong. Intelligent and interesting can also involve blowing shit up.

Hulk. Smash.

Making a Film

So, many things have been afoot.

One of the most significant was that we made a film in 48 hours. Yes, yes, we’ve been making films for about a year now so what’s so important about that? Well firstly, we actually finished one. Fully edited, sound FX, music track, grading, the lot. It seems that setting yourself constraints can really make things happen. You don’t procrastinate, you make sure you have the time set aside and you don’t keep suggesting improvements that mean you keep re-shooting.  Secondly it was a proper film challenge, being up there with our peers. A chance to check out the competition and not only feel a part of it but also feel immensely proud that a) what we produced is pretty damn good in all respects and b) realise that what we produced was on the right level, in the right ballpark and, actually, very good given the limited size and experience of our team.

So how was it? Cool. We filmed in 2 locations – in an aeroplane at Speke Aerodrome and Moore Nature Reserve, near Warrington- one of which was very cramped on a wet and windy day, the other a lovely sunny day in the wide open with a tent. Our actors performed admirably and a horde of extras and supporters helped us through. Tim (DP) worked tirelessly as DP and editor, lugging around his massive new camera rig and case of lenses on a hot day as well as working wonders in a cramped cockpit. Matthew not only handled sound duties with his new sound rig (Edirol R44 sound recorder, gadget porn fans) but stepped up to the plate when an actor crisis hit and delivered a great performance as Technical Officer Pantall in the spaceship scene.

What did I do? Well, I wrote the script, obviously. Which was, whilst not as wordy as many things I have written, still fairly wordy for a 5 minute short. I also tagged myself nominally as director, something of an emerging role that I don’t think any of us have a great handle on yet. I storyboarded the script to show Tim what shots I thought we needed. I worked with the actors to rehearse and guide the performance. The pre-production planning and the editing was done collectlvely and worked well.

Did it come out the way I wanted? Certainly the play of the visuals and framing of the shots  was what I wanted. The acting delivered in the right way and the edit runs smoothly to deliver the way I saw it in my head. All of this of course is within the constraints of time and circumstance.

Mostly though I was pleased with the way it worked as a team. The idea isn’t to be a Kubrick production where everything revolves around one guy but a devolved team where you paint the vision and let the experts get on with it. I think that’s important because we’re a group of people who all want to push things and learn a lot about our chosen areas, not just enact the creative vision of one person. I don’t think Joss Whedon single-handledly put together Avengers. He got together a group of talented choreographers, graphic and sound designers, cinematographers and so on, painted them a vision and let them go away and play, giving nudges of guidance along the way.

What it does comes down to though is the need to have a guy that makes the final decisions and, whilst in a devolved model that should mainly come down to focusing on guiding the performances and saying when you’ve got the right one in the can, it still means that all across the team, from wardrobe to edit, to sound and to music someone will, at some point, need to step in and say, ‘this is what we are doing.’  It requires so much deeper levels of thought and visualisation about all the aspects of production, because you can’t make an assured decision until you have. There’s a lot to learn in that space and its important to go through it. Being a director requires doing a lot outside of your comfort zone but what does make it more comfortable is recognising it is another skill to be learned and that each mistake, difficulty or challenge moves you further along that path.

Most of all though. The feeling of sitting down and watching a film, based on word you wrote, is just epic.

What the F*** is Going On?

We’ve been through a lot recently haven’t we? First there was the script rewrite of 180 Days Later following Reader feedback. Then the new feature burbled its way into half-life,  then NaNoWriMo, short stories, the screenplay version of NaNoWriMo, all peppered with new short scripts desperate for writing.

It sounds a lot but some of it -okay, you saw my NaNoWriMo word count, most of it- took place in my head. It’s where most of my stories develop, over weeks and months, until they fall -complete with loud definite click– into place and I can start writing them down. Whilst that fits my idle dreams of being a professional writer -lounging around, having baths, eating peanut butter sandwiches and nursing gin hangovers from late nights boozing with Iain M. Banks (Iain Banks is no fun to drink with, he gets a bit creepy) because underneath I’m really working, gestating my story until it’s ready -with maybe a midwiferly nudge from my publisher, to usher it into the world- I occasionally feel that it might be a slightly, dare I say it, lazy way of working. As I watch others putting in days and days, sweating and straining to produce a first draft, am I deluding myself that honing and perfecting in my head is a short cut to the end of drafting and editing?

Even as I write this blog post I can see the very thing I fear about a traditional process happening before my eyes. What started out as a post to share a useful find that shows how to plot, has quickly changed direction towards a piece of self analysis that I certainly didn’t intend.

I like to feel I understand something before I start. I often find in appraisals at work that I am  described as someone who, whilst quiet, can be relied upon to ask pertinent and incisive questions on the occasions that they speak. I like to have understood, twisted and prodded something before I can vouch an opinion. I feel scared of a new blank page when I don’t fully know where it is going to lead, fearful that the tiny footprints of additional text will upset and unbalance what has come before or what is to come. I need to know what the statue looks like before I pick up my chisel.

This is what happened with NaNoWriMo. I knew the story well, the middle and the ending were just burning scenes in my head aching to be written but they couldn’t be until I knew the characters well enough that their actions and words would flow properly. But I couldn’t start. The gap between the three opening chapters I had written and the final twenty-five just sat there, black and indiscernible. Pretty much the middle of act one where the characters began their dance, met, interacted and set their courses for the story was missing, like a valley that needed bridge.

The bridge is there, I can feel it. Over Christmas I have felt ropes being fired across the chasm, steel cables pulled over and the beginnings of pilings being built deep in the valley.  One or two people, in the peak of physical health could get across but certainly not all of them. It still needs refining and finishing. Then there’s the doubt that it should be a TV series, rather than a novel…

I think that mulling, or in fact running through and watching my film hundreds of times through in my head, tweaking and changing as new ideas, ways to overcome obstacles and just plain damn experiments come along, is a perfectly good approach. It works for me. I am multi-tasking; 90% done on one thing, 50% on three more and tiny, single figures on a handful more. What I need to realise is that alongside doing that you still need to keep sitting down and writing. Not necessarily the same thing but something. Keep those muscles moving, keep honing the craft so that when my story is ready I’ll be able to put it down to the very best of my ability.

For Those That Understand the Writers Room, We Salute You

I didn’t go to the Women Writer’s Festival, for obvious reasons… (I was busy).

Some people did, including a very interesting sounding session from Kate Rowland -who set up the Writers Room- on what the BBC will be looking for over the next 12 months or so.

See the link below for a summary of the session. Some of us interested in comedy or representing our Northern/Welsh roots should take note.

http://www.scriptpunk.com/bbc-writers-room-2012-opportunities/

Nanananananana

The global phenomenon known as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is almost upon us, with only 1 day to go. Every November a fully exaggerated trillion people try to write a complete 50,000 word within the space of one month, that month being the fairly slow and innocuous month of November.

This year I shall be attempting it.

Novels are what I really always wanted to write. Like other slovenly people, I decided that short stories were a much more interesting -and achievable- form. Then I discovered screenwriting and got fully into that, with its short description requirements and fast cutting bish, bang boom.

But nontheless there is a part of me that always harks after writing a novel, however bad, before my deathbed beckons. Having tried writing a regular blog as a means to stretching my writing muscles regularly -like training for a big event- I wonder if I am now ready for that very event (change later using thesaurus to think of alternative word to event. Sod it).

Deep inside I’m sure I will make it to Friday then give up. That is probably the wrong mind set to approach it. Oh well.

Interestingly my favourite place that I have never visited, MadLab, is hosting a series of write-in events, allowing local Mancunian NaNoWriMo’ers to gather and gnash and type together.

Probably can’t be arsed to do that either but what the hell. Go if you live near.

Do you think you’re supposed to prep and outline first?

Bugger.

Toys for More Filmmaking

This weekend I will be mostly filming.

Due to some successful long term planning -that has unfortunatly meant I’m away from home more than I would like this week- my crew and I will be filming. (much as I love the sound of that they are much more than crew, we have a DoP and Production Sound Mixer  with the remaining roles of Director, Producer and Talent(!) being allocated based on who is standing where or has the best idea at the time. Editing is multifarious and depends on who was quickest with FCP or who took the SD cards home. I insist on trying to hold onto the title of Screenwriter because It Was My Idea.)

Some of us have gone a bit mental. In the same way that you can go Shopping As Pocrastination, it seems you can go Shopping As Anticipation. New kit we have is:

• Boom Pole (to go with the new Shotgun Mic)
• Sound Stabiliser
• Dead Cat Wind Muff
• Dual lighting rig
• Smoke Machine
• Strobe lighting

It is all much appreciated and should be very cool.

As is the hot tub to hold script meetings in. So cool that my wife does not believe me when I say I will miss her.

But I will.

New Short Film

We’ve been doing some filming of a script I wrote, called ‘Galactic Council’. We filmed it once before on HD camcorder, as a learning experience. Now we’re trying to up the ante, by filming in 1080p, using DSLR‘s with nice cinematic depth of field and really working on the editing, using cut aways and multiple camera angles. We might do it again, or just another script, using some real actors from college or Shooting People.

It’s tough finding time -seeing as we all work and have families- especially when moving filming to the next level really takes an exponential increase in hours.

Fortunately we’ve managed to find a good chunk of weekend -and a new lighting rig and shotgun mic- where we can do some filming -as long as we don’t spend too much of it drinking, mucking about on guitars or hearing the siren call of the hot tub (wow that sounds soooo rock n’ roll) – and I am seriously excited.

So excited that I really wanted it to be here now, rather than later. So, inventing a whole new category called no-script, one-take cinema, I filmed a new short, called ‘300 Hours’.

I’ve posted it on YouTube, have a look.

Today’s Haiku

Great whale,

How many lipsticks and candles

In all that girth?

4 Days in August, a Competition

Eerily reminiscent of last month’s 247 word short story competition, we have a new contest, being held as part of the London Screenwriters Festival.

Basically, you need to write a single page script, around the theme of the 4 days of rioting in London last month. Once again, this is not as easy as it seems; anything you write comes to minimum 2 pages, and no, you’re not allowed anything sneaky like using BBC script formatting.

Competition closes at the end of September, have a go here.

My attempt can be seen below:

4 Days in August