Hey folks! We're not blogging here anymore. If you wanna keep reading, head to our wordpress account!
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It's been emotional...
L.
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Thursday 3 December 2009
Monday 9 November 2009
The Adventures of Moonface and Torchboy
Hello out there!
Today's blog is just a cheeky wee one, as I'm just squeezing it in at the end of the day. This weekend's been crazy busy - we've been filming some fun sketches for the Scottish Social Work peeps, as well as attending the premiere of "Terror 'Neath the Tay" on Saturday night at the Dundee Odeon cinema.
We were invited to the premiere by one of our youtube chums, Kyle Titterton. He got in touch and asked us to make a fake trailer to be screened before his main feature (which was very entertaining, I have to say!). Along with our good chum, Alexander Bethune, we came up with this...
We were concerned it wasn't going to be well-received on the night, but fortunately people were in a silly mood and we got a respectable number of giggles.
The best thing about it all though, was seeing the benefits of building relationships with other local film-makers and people in the "industry". Our friend and mentor, Justyn Rowe, once told us that we should get to know as many other people in the same line of work as us, and not be afraid to help them out. They may be your competition, but they are also a powerful ally and resource!
Anyway, that's all for now!
Have a great evening!
L.
Subscribe to our youtube channels...
http://www.youtube.com/manalivestudios
http://www.youtube.com/manaliveblog
Follow us on Twitter...
http://twitter.com/manalivestudios
Today's blog is just a cheeky wee one, as I'm just squeezing it in at the end of the day. This weekend's been crazy busy - we've been filming some fun sketches for the Scottish Social Work peeps, as well as attending the premiere of "Terror 'Neath the Tay" on Saturday night at the Dundee Odeon cinema.
We were invited to the premiere by one of our youtube chums, Kyle Titterton. He got in touch and asked us to make a fake trailer to be screened before his main feature (which was very entertaining, I have to say!). Along with our good chum, Alexander Bethune, we came up with this...
We were concerned it wasn't going to be well-received on the night, but fortunately people were in a silly mood and we got a respectable number of giggles.
The best thing about it all though, was seeing the benefits of building relationships with other local film-makers and people in the "industry". Our friend and mentor, Justyn Rowe, once told us that we should get to know as many other people in the same line of work as us, and not be afraid to help them out. They may be your competition, but they are also a powerful ally and resource!
Anyway, that's all for now!
Have a great evening!
L.
Subscribe to our youtube channels...
http://www.youtube.com/manalivestudios
http://www.youtube.com/manaliveblog
Follow us on Twitter...
http://twitter.com/manalivestudios
Wednesday 28 October 2009
Surprise, Surprise!
Happy Wednesday!
How's it going out there, peeps? Today it's bright and sunny here in Dundee, which is most unusual. But enough with the tedious formalities! Here's part 6 of my notes from the writersroom seminar...
SURPRISE
When you are writing a screenplay, you want to write something that is fresh and original, but there are only a finite number of basic plots that you can work with (I'm going to do a blog on these basic plots later too) so you need to know what's different about your version. What unique perspective are you bringing to the story? What's your original touch? How are you going to surprise the audience?
When you watch a movie, or read a great story, there should be a sense that the ending was totally inevitable, but at the same time unpredictable. What I mean by this, is that, once the dust clears, you should be able to look back and see that it was obvious the story would end like this. Everything should "add up".
A good example of this would be the movie "The Sixth Sense", by M. Night Shyamalan. The story is about a child psychiatrist (Bruce Willis) who is working with a young boy that claims he can see ghosts.
If you haven't watched it, don't read any more as there is about to be a terrible spoiler...
...at the end of the movie, it's revealed that Bruce Willis' character (the main character throughout the film) is actually a ghost. This is a great plot twist in the movie, as, when you look back over the film, you can see that it really was quite obvious, but not (to my mind anyway) predictable. Now, not all stories need to end with such a mind-blowing twist to be a success, but they do need to come to a satisfactory resolution that has been built up over the course of the plot. Many movies start off strong, but lose it at the ending. This is usually because the writer simply hasn't done enough to suggest this kind of conclusion to their story.
An example of a movie that (in my opinion) utterly fails in this principle, is the film, "Vanilla Sky".
Don't be fooled by the great trailer. This movie uses the technique that children are taught never to use in writing class, the "and then I woke up" lazy-ass ending. The writer has created all these confusing yet interesting situations/circumstances and twists in the plot, but then, instead of rewarding the faithful viewer with a great resolution that explains everything, they cop out by saying it was all a dream. Awful stuff.
So, that's all for this section. Many of you may disagree with my thoughts on "The Sixth Sense" and "Vanilla Sky" (as there is potentially some case to be made in suggesting that Vanilla Sky does, in fact, point towards its ending), but hopefully you can see the principle behind what I mean anyway.
L.
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How's it going out there, peeps? Today it's bright and sunny here in Dundee, which is most unusual. But enough with the tedious formalities! Here's part 6 of my notes from the writersroom seminar...
SURPRISE
When you are writing a screenplay, you want to write something that is fresh and original, but there are only a finite number of basic plots that you can work with (I'm going to do a blog on these basic plots later too) so you need to know what's different about your version. What unique perspective are you bringing to the story? What's your original touch? How are you going to surprise the audience?
When you watch a movie, or read a great story, there should be a sense that the ending was totally inevitable, but at the same time unpredictable. What I mean by this, is that, once the dust clears, you should be able to look back and see that it was obvious the story would end like this. Everything should "add up".
A good example of this would be the movie "The Sixth Sense", by M. Night Shyamalan. The story is about a child psychiatrist (Bruce Willis) who is working with a young boy that claims he can see ghosts.
If you haven't watched it, don't read any more as there is about to be a terrible spoiler...
...at the end of the movie, it's revealed that Bruce Willis' character (the main character throughout the film) is actually a ghost. This is a great plot twist in the movie, as, when you look back over the film, you can see that it really was quite obvious, but not (to my mind anyway) predictable. Now, not all stories need to end with such a mind-blowing twist to be a success, but they do need to come to a satisfactory resolution that has been built up over the course of the plot. Many movies start off strong, but lose it at the ending. This is usually because the writer simply hasn't done enough to suggest this kind of conclusion to their story.
An example of a movie that (in my opinion) utterly fails in this principle, is the film, "Vanilla Sky".
Don't be fooled by the great trailer. This movie uses the technique that children are taught never to use in writing class, the "and then I woke up" lazy-ass ending. The writer has created all these confusing yet interesting situations/circumstances and twists in the plot, but then, instead of rewarding the faithful viewer with a great resolution that explains everything, they cop out by saying it was all a dream. Awful stuff.
So, that's all for this section. Many of you may disagree with my thoughts on "The Sixth Sense" and "Vanilla Sky" (as there is potentially some case to be made in suggesting that Vanilla Sky does, in fact, point towards its ending), but hopefully you can see the principle behind what I mean anyway.
L.
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Tuesday 27 October 2009
Show Me Emotion, Tra La La La La....
Hey!
We're back after a nice long weekend, and, sadly, I'm now a year older. Yup, a lot can happen in a weekend. Today we were going to be out filming a silly fake trailer for a superhero film, but there was too much rain. Hopefully we'll have it done before the end of the week and we can post it for your entertainment.
In the meantime, here's the next part (part 5) from the writersroom seminar the other week...
EMOTION
When you're writing a screenplay, it needs to matter at a human level. What I mean by that is that the characters and their individual stories need to be more important than the "concept" behind the film. This obviously links in with what we were saying about character in the last blog, but refers more to the journey that you take your characters through than the characters themselves.
A good way to do this is by showing the vulnerabilities in your characters - the chinks in their armour. A great example of this is the film "Leon", which is one of my favourite movies of all time...
The main character is a cold-blooded assassin, who cares about no-one and lives a life of solitude, but everything changes when he decides to save the life of his next-door neighbour - a young girl. As the film goes on we get more and more glimpses into the true vulnerability of Leon's character, and the emotional journey he goes through. If you've not seen the movie, I highly recommend it.
Essentially, the best scripts/movies (really, the best stories) should generate a physical response as you read/watch them - whether it be laughing out loud at the jokes, getting goosebumps at the revelations, holding back a tear at the sad bits, looking cautiously around the room at the scary bits, involuntary gripping of the armrests during a tense scene, or, best of all, combinations of all of these things and more. You can't get any of this if the audience don't care about the characters, and there's no point aspiring to anything less than this. If this is not your goal, you're wasting your time, and if it is, then check your scripts back afterwards and be sure you're generating the feeling you want your readers to feel.
Peace for now!
L.
Subscribe to our youtube channels...
http://www.youtube.com/manaliveblog
http://www.youtube.com/manalivestudios
Follow us on twitter!
http://twitter.com/manalivestudios
We're back after a nice long weekend, and, sadly, I'm now a year older. Yup, a lot can happen in a weekend. Today we were going to be out filming a silly fake trailer for a superhero film, but there was too much rain. Hopefully we'll have it done before the end of the week and we can post it for your entertainment.
In the meantime, here's the next part (part 5) from the writersroom seminar the other week...
EMOTION
When you're writing a screenplay, it needs to matter at a human level. What I mean by that is that the characters and their individual stories need to be more important than the "concept" behind the film. This obviously links in with what we were saying about character in the last blog, but refers more to the journey that you take your characters through than the characters themselves.
A good way to do this is by showing the vulnerabilities in your characters - the chinks in their armour. A great example of this is the film "Leon", which is one of my favourite movies of all time...
The main character is a cold-blooded assassin, who cares about no-one and lives a life of solitude, but everything changes when he decides to save the life of his next-door neighbour - a young girl. As the film goes on we get more and more glimpses into the true vulnerability of Leon's character, and the emotional journey he goes through. If you've not seen the movie, I highly recommend it.
Essentially, the best scripts/movies (really, the best stories) should generate a physical response as you read/watch them - whether it be laughing out loud at the jokes, getting goosebumps at the revelations, holding back a tear at the sad bits, looking cautiously around the room at the scary bits, involuntary gripping of the armrests during a tense scene, or, best of all, combinations of all of these things and more. You can't get any of this if the audience don't care about the characters, and there's no point aspiring to anything less than this. If this is not your goal, you're wasting your time, and if it is, then check your scripts back afterwards and be sure you're generating the feeling you want your readers to feel.
Peace for now!
L.
Subscribe to our youtube channels...
http://www.youtube.com/manaliveblog
http://www.youtube.com/manalivestudios
Follow us on twitter!
http://twitter.com/manalivestudios
Thursday 22 October 2009
If You Want To Make It As A Writer, You've Got To Have Character(s)
Yo! Welcome back! This is part 4 of my notes from the writersroom seminar. Check out the other parts in our last three blogs. :-) Today we're talking about...
CHARACTER
One of my favourite TV shows ever is "The Shield", a police drama about a police station that is right in the middle of LA gangland. The main character, Vic Mackey (a corrupt cop), is an incredibly interesting character. Not at all a likeable person, but SO entertaining to watch. You're always wondering what he's going to do next. Here's a scene to show you what I mean, but be warned, it's pretty gross and the language isn't suitable for kids. Mackey is the bald one...
Whenever you're writing a character, you really need to make them compelling on an emotional level. No amount of fiddling with the other details of your script will help if you don't have compelling characters.
There's no real way of being "taught" how to do this, but you can examine the characters you've written and if you can't connect with them, or they seem dry, or stereotypical, or if they all seem to have the same "voice", then you know you need to work on them some more. They need to be somebody that you want to spend time with, not necessarily somebody that you like, but somebody who makes you want to know what they're going to do next and what's going to happen to them.
Part of this is making sure that you take your characters on an "active journey", and by this, I mean that the character is motivated by desires or needs, and that they face obstacles or come up against dilemmas that get in the way of these desires. How they deal with these situations is how you reveal the nature of your characters and make them identifiable.
Another part of it is making sure you don't play into the trap of using stereotypical characters, but instead create them as individuals. The last thing that Paul Ashton (of the writersroom) said about character that really, really struck me was, "what does your character see when they look at the world?" It seems so simple, but if you can get your head into the character, and think about how they view the world/people around them, you can think about how they see it differently from everybody else. This will make it easier to write for them - they will become more "alive", interesting and individual.
That's all for today, peeps. Catch you tomorrow.
L.
Subscribe to our youtube channels...
www.youtube.com/manalivestudios
www.youtube.com/manaliveblog
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twitter.com/manalivestudios
CHARACTER
One of my favourite TV shows ever is "The Shield", a police drama about a police station that is right in the middle of LA gangland. The main character, Vic Mackey (a corrupt cop), is an incredibly interesting character. Not at all a likeable person, but SO entertaining to watch. You're always wondering what he's going to do next. Here's a scene to show you what I mean, but be warned, it's pretty gross and the language isn't suitable for kids. Mackey is the bald one...
Whenever you're writing a character, you really need to make them compelling on an emotional level. No amount of fiddling with the other details of your script will help if you don't have compelling characters.
There's no real way of being "taught" how to do this, but you can examine the characters you've written and if you can't connect with them, or they seem dry, or stereotypical, or if they all seem to have the same "voice", then you know you need to work on them some more. They need to be somebody that you want to spend time with, not necessarily somebody that you like, but somebody who makes you want to know what they're going to do next and what's going to happen to them.
Part of this is making sure that you take your characters on an "active journey", and by this, I mean that the character is motivated by desires or needs, and that they face obstacles or come up against dilemmas that get in the way of these desires. How they deal with these situations is how you reveal the nature of your characters and make them identifiable.
Another part of it is making sure you don't play into the trap of using stereotypical characters, but instead create them as individuals. The last thing that Paul Ashton (of the writersroom) said about character that really, really struck me was, "what does your character see when they look at the world?" It seems so simple, but if you can get your head into the character, and think about how they view the world/people around them, you can think about how they see it differently from everybody else. This will make it easier to write for them - they will become more "alive", interesting and individual.
That's all for today, peeps. Catch you tomorrow.
L.
Subscribe to our youtube channels...
www.youtube.com/manalivestudios
www.youtube.com/manaliveblog
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twitter.com/manalivestudios
Wednesday 21 October 2009
The Plot That Sucked
Hello faithful blog readers!
Back again today with part 3 of the notes from the writersroom seminar. Today's should be fairly brief...
COHERENCE
Your script needs to have a strong plot that holds everything together. This should be fairly obvious to anyone who's an aspiring screenwriter, but there are so many people who get it wrong! You can have lots of great ideas, good scenes, etc., but you still need a clear plot that connects these things and also comes to a satisfactory resolution.
One example of a film which (in my opinion) fails to accomplish this, is "The Boat That Rocked" by great writer Richard Curtis. It's full of great little scenes and moments that can be comedic, touching, or even heartbreaking. As a whole, however, it is very unsatisfying. The overall central plot is extremely weak, and there are too many little plots all happening at once, with no real resolution or sense of story.
It's very easy to get carried away when you're "in the zone" and to try to do too much, but you need to beware of being distracted from the focus of your story. You may write a scene that you really like, but, if it's not moving the plot along, does it really need to be there?
Lastly, you need to know the world, tone and genre of your script, then make sure that you are faithful to this throughout. What kind of story is it? This harks back to the stuff about format from part one of these blogs, but again - your audience needs to know what they are watching, and to "get it" very quickly. There's nothing wrong with writing in a specific genre, the trick is learning how to be original and surprising within that world.
Alright. That's all for part 3. Catch you later!
L.
Subscribe to our youtube channels...
www.youtube.com/manalivestudios
www.youtube.com/manaliveblog
Follow us on twitter...
twitter.com/manalivestudios
Back again today with part 3 of the notes from the writersroom seminar. Today's should be fairly brief...
COHERENCE
Your script needs to have a strong plot that holds everything together. This should be fairly obvious to anyone who's an aspiring screenwriter, but there are so many people who get it wrong! You can have lots of great ideas, good scenes, etc., but you still need a clear plot that connects these things and also comes to a satisfactory resolution.
One example of a film which (in my opinion) fails to accomplish this, is "The Boat That Rocked" by great writer Richard Curtis. It's full of great little scenes and moments that can be comedic, touching, or even heartbreaking. As a whole, however, it is very unsatisfying. The overall central plot is extremely weak, and there are too many little plots all happening at once, with no real resolution or sense of story.
It's very easy to get carried away when you're "in the zone" and to try to do too much, but you need to beware of being distracted from the focus of your story. You may write a scene that you really like, but, if it's not moving the plot along, does it really need to be there?
Lastly, you need to know the world, tone and genre of your script, then make sure that you are faithful to this throughout. What kind of story is it? This harks back to the stuff about format from part one of these blogs, but again - your audience needs to know what they are watching, and to "get it" very quickly. There's nothing wrong with writing in a specific genre, the trick is learning how to be original and surprising within that world.
Alright. That's all for part 3. Catch you later!
L.
Subscribe to our youtube channels...
www.youtube.com/manalivestudios
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Tuesday 20 October 2009
Stuck "In The Middle."
Good day to you.
Here's part two of my notes from the writersroom session last week...
GET THE STORY GOING
When you're writing a script, you need to "hit the ground running". When readers are going through a script for the first time, they make a decision based on the first ten pages. This is because television isn't like cinema; if people lose interest they will simply turn over or turn off. Obviously the script has to be just as engaging after these first ten pages, but if you spend too long setting up the story, or introducing characters, people won't bother waiting to see what happens.
I attended another writer's seminar, not that long ago, that was taught by the successful playwright, Colin Teevan. He spoke about the same thing, and called it "the ticking clock". You shouldn't have a story that begins on page seven. It should already have started by page one! You need to find out where your "ticking clock" begins and ends, so that your story doesn't start too late or finish too soon.
The best thing to do is to start off "in the middle" of something, and show your characters in action. You can give backstory and character depth, but do it as the story moves, not before. Also, you should beware of doing too much backstory and exposition (explaining things). The audience is much more intelligent than they are often given credit for, and don't like to have everything spelled out to them.
To show you what I mean, here's a clip of the opening scene from "The Matrix"...
This is a great example of "hitting the ground running." We begin with a phonecall between two unknown people, and are simultaneously aware that another, separate party is running a trace on their call. In this first conversation, one of the characters talks about how they are going to kill someone, and the other talks about the potential importance of this person. Suddenly, they become suspicious of a trace and end the call, and we immediately see that the police have traced the call and are about to bust down a door. An incredible action sequence follows.
There has been no explanation, no backstory, you know nothing about any of the characters. Who are they? What are their intentions? How are they able to do these remarkable things? Why is the woman being hunted? Who were they talking about on the phone? The audience have been hooked right into what's going on. Straight away, you're "in the middle of something."
I hope you found some of that interesting/helpful. There'll be more from my notes on the writersroom seminar tomorrow.
L.
Subscribe to our youtube channels...
www.youtube.com/manalivestudios
www.youtube.com/manaliveblog
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twitter.com/manalivestudios
Here's part two of my notes from the writersroom session last week...
GET THE STORY GOING
When you're writing a script, you need to "hit the ground running". When readers are going through a script for the first time, they make a decision based on the first ten pages. This is because television isn't like cinema; if people lose interest they will simply turn over or turn off. Obviously the script has to be just as engaging after these first ten pages, but if you spend too long setting up the story, or introducing characters, people won't bother waiting to see what happens.
I attended another writer's seminar, not that long ago, that was taught by the successful playwright, Colin Teevan. He spoke about the same thing, and called it "the ticking clock". You shouldn't have a story that begins on page seven. It should already have started by page one! You need to find out where your "ticking clock" begins and ends, so that your story doesn't start too late or finish too soon.
The best thing to do is to start off "in the middle" of something, and show your characters in action. You can give backstory and character depth, but do it as the story moves, not before. Also, you should beware of doing too much backstory and exposition (explaining things). The audience is much more intelligent than they are often given credit for, and don't like to have everything spelled out to them.
To show you what I mean, here's a clip of the opening scene from "The Matrix"...
This is a great example of "hitting the ground running." We begin with a phonecall between two unknown people, and are simultaneously aware that another, separate party is running a trace on their call. In this first conversation, one of the characters talks about how they are going to kill someone, and the other talks about the potential importance of this person. Suddenly, they become suspicious of a trace and end the call, and we immediately see that the police have traced the call and are about to bust down a door. An incredible action sequence follows.
There has been no explanation, no backstory, you know nothing about any of the characters. Who are they? What are their intentions? How are they able to do these remarkable things? Why is the woman being hunted? Who were they talking about on the phone? The audience have been hooked right into what's going on. Straight away, you're "in the middle of something."
I hope you found some of that interesting/helpful. There'll be more from my notes on the writersroom seminar tomorrow.
L.
Subscribe to our youtube channels...
www.youtube.com/manalivestudios
www.youtube.com/manaliveblog
Follow us on twitter...
twitter.com/manalivestudios
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