Heath Ledger as an heroin addict (best script)

Last night I watched two films. The first one was Taken (Director: Luc Basson). It was again the only film to watch at the cinema next to my house. It was better than I've expected (I really had zero expectations from this film), but still. The action scenes were annoying, blurred with some ugly visual effect and cut way to fast to understand who was punching who. But it was clear the good guy (Liam Nissan, who looks here slightly like Al Bandy) will win. He only had one moment of trouble when the bed guys got him, but it only lasted 2 minutes and he got out.

There was no balance in the script of Taken - you get a slow begining with way too many scenes with the ex-wife and her husband, and some of our man's old service buddies, and then when the action starts he's all alone, no phone call from the mother or her powerful new husband, no help (besides one phone call in the very beginning) from his old buddies. Why did I need this excessive setup if it's not building to anything?

So we have here Luc Besson, and Liam Nissan, but a very bad script and bad direction. I'd say bad acting too, but it wasn't so bad to watch after all. The worst part is the end: when all is over and the poor girl is back with her father, she looks like someone who was just stuck in an elevator for a few hours, not someone who got kidnapped to be sold as a prostitute. Ok, so there might be some bad acting here after all.

The second movie was Candy, an Australian film that was on TV. It's about this couple and their heroin habbit, but it's so real that it just hooks you. The characters talk like people talk. They do drugs like people (with this habbit) do it. They love like people love. They get mad and depressed like us. It's so close, and quite sad. Excellent direction, great acting, original script. I loved it a lot. here is why we should be sorry Heath Ledger (who plays the boyfriend) is no longer with us.

Slow days with a book

So i had to stay in bed for a couple of days after the visit at the doctor. I took the time to read the book I took from the library: Alternative Scriptwriting. It turned out to be a pretty good book, and I especially enjoyed reading the chapters about genre (working with genre / working against genre). The authors discuss changing a motif in an existing genre or mixing genres, and they explain it in such clear way it's a pleasure to read. They also have case studies from films, but I only read it when I knew the film discussed.

I didn't touch my laptop, only after a day and a half I took it to bed. I had a job to do (some graphic stuff) and I felt better when it was done.

Dana Goldberg, a filmmaker and a friend, sent me a link to her new website. I was an assistant on her first short film, which she did while we were both studying art. I must say that although she was not a film student, her production was one of the most professional productions i saw. There's something in film students that make their ambition to be only external, very empty, and not lasting. But maybe this is why I switched to scriptwriting studies.

An actor who can choose a script

They showed two Jim Carrey films on TV this week: The Truman Show and Fun with Dick and Jane. I just love Jim Carrey, and this is not something that happened too quickly. It took me some time, and especially Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to understand this guy is not only masks (though I also really loved The Mask). I think it was when I saw him on Liar Liar I thought I like him when he tries a little less. I know he makes many films and it's easy to say he chooses good scripts (cos I just don't mention the ones I don't like), but still. At the least he's very talented and has a pretty good agent. And actually, the films he did which I don't like - he's still adding something there. Like Bruce Almighty.

Another actor who I started to like quite late is Adam Sandler. I didn't like his voice (which is funny cos Adam Sandler actually sings, he even recorded an album or something). I felt he was a fake, even as a character. Until I saw him on Punch Drunk Love and then on Reign Over Me.

By the way, it's really funny, but I thought that 50 first Dates and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind took the very same theme and made 2 very differet movies out of it. Those two films are about the very essence of love, and in both the love has the memory loss as an obstacle - but the love keeps winning, it's eternal.

This week on the best scriptwriters' blogs

Bill Martell tells us all about the difference between SLANG and JARGON. I find it very important now, as I write a script with a scientist as my protagonist. Martell taks about using original slang in your movies rather than the real-but-boring we all know already. Cool.

John August advices a Tisch graduate about her next steps. I hope myself to take the screenwriting MFA in 2009 so it's interesting to see that this is in fact a beginning of a long road.

A voice mail recording from Bruce Cambell is what Kristen Havens chose to put at the top of her homepage. Kristen: "I had emailed him through the contact form on his website, telling him about my comedic B-movie script, "Deers!", and asking if he had any advice about getting started in screenwriting. He called me at home to respond, ensuring a lifelong crush on my part."

But hey, what can a writer do but write?

Another good scriptwriting book

I'm huge. I'm really puffed. I didn't know pregnancy makes you puffed. It's weird. I don't recognize myself in pictures. Somehow in the mirror it looks alright. But the pictures - they don't lie.

Today was the last day at school, I had the japanese cinema class. Was ok, we talked about Ran of Kurasawa. Tomorrow I have the amniotic fluid test, after which I must stay in bed for 48 hours. So I took a couple of books from the library.

One of the books is Alternative Scripwriting (2nd edition) by Ken Dancyger and Jeff Rush. They go over alternative structure (not only the classic structure of the three acts exists, you know), alternative genre (mixed genres) and alternative character view. I only began to read but it seemed like a great book to learn the scritwriting craft from, and to open your mind. Since I have now two weeks vacation, I've decided to do more reading on the first week, and focus on writing on the second week. This book seems to be the exact thing I needed.

The other book I took was Ugly Feelings. It talks about negative feelings, and it's based on this novel...I forgot which. I only read a few pages on my way home in the car, so I can't really say anything about this book. But it seems interesting, though not very light. It's from Harvard Press.

I don't know what's the premise of my script is. I knew, but I think it's not true for me. So I don't know anymore. And dose Theme and Premise the same thing? I'm not sure of anything anymore, but I'll take this week to figure it all out.

I used to think my cat was so big. Now I'm even bigger.

My vacation is about to begin

This is the last week of the semester (actually this year a trimester). I don't care what I'll do - I'm just happy the summer is here and I can get up early and write. It doesn't yet happen in the rythme I want (every day for a fixed amount of hours) - but it will.

Also, as you see in the picture above, my belly is getting bigger every day, so soon with a baby I will have to get up early. I love it (in the summer).

I started to write the script (the one I worked on during my first online scriptwriting course at UCLA Extension). I'm still not sure how I want it to be told - but only writing can tell me.

reading scriptwriters' blogs is a great way to learn the craft

I really enjoy reading other writers' blogs. First off, I see I'm not the only one who needs eye drops after too many screen hours. Second, sometimes they really have good tips or interesting adventures to share. Go to my link list of the best scriptwriters bloggers I found. Each one of them has its style of blogging. I love them all.

This morning I saw on the Vanity Fair online those great old film posters (or should I call them great old movie posters? was there a difference back then?). Those posters were taken from the Leonard Schrader Collection. Most of them are an example of great design, where graphic didn't go against emotion but totally surrendered to it. Sometimes I think modern graphic designers are a bunch of cowards, who negate any emotion instead of finding new ways of expressing it. Maybe they're just too drugged or depressed or whatever. I love those old sentimental moments.

Unforgetable scenes from Juno - now JEWNO

How to make your script say what you mean

I let the class read my script yesterday. It's not being read out loud on this class, each one reads and then we all discuss it. My first scene was not completely understood by all. Actually, I think only 3-4 students understood the subtext. Though I was disappointed, it only meant one thing: I needed to make my point more obvious. How do you make the information in your script be clear but not too explicit? How can the subtext talk without really being "heard", but rather understood?

My scene was about two lovers, both around their 50s. He's divorced, after his wife found out about his lover. He's living in secret ever since, never feel free again. Also to his current girlfriend he treats like sshe's his lover. They meet at his place, order food, stay indoors. In this scene he decided he wanted to go out with her and act normal. Then he finds out she's actually hiding him, and she has another boyfriend. He's now the "other man".

What was important for the audience to get is:
1. They are lovers.
2. Until now they stayed indoors, secretly, and the man thought it's his wish.
3. Now the man wants to change it, to feel free.
4. The woman wants things to stay the same.
5. The woman has a boyfriend.

The fact that they are lovers and that they meet in his place (they don't live together) is quite easy to show. It's enough that she's wearing cloths that are on the floor, or that she has her small beg with her, or that she asks him where does he keeps the glasses. Basically it's better if this doesn't involve dialoge, or at least if the dialogue will not only be there for that purpose.

How will you show on your script that they meet all the time indoors? How do you create the sense of a routine based on something that's only shown once? This is screenwriting. Think about the screen. What do you see when something is a routine? Automated actions, habits. A no-surprises situation. When I write, I like to think about my own life - when did I feel like that? I remember the first weeks with my boyfriend. He worked as a waiter and we used to meet every day at 12:30AM, after he's finished. He took the subway and came to my place. We had a joint, perhaps a drink as well. He used to bring me indian food from his restaurant. We sat on the carpet, smoking and chilling, then ate the dish in the metal box. Then we used to fuck and go to sleep. A very pleasant routine, if you ask me.

There were expectations. If he didn't bring food, I would probably ask about it - 'no lunch box today?' or something of that sort. If we ran out of weed, I'd probably go and get some from a friend and tell him about it. To notice a routine, you need to show something is out of order. A small thing, that does not kill the routine, maybe even preserves it (like getting your drugs from a different source so your night smoking routine wouldn't stop). I think this is the best you can do without the use of dialogue. Of course, if you choose to use dialogue, your character can say - 'why don't we go out this time? who are we hiding from?', and then you understand that they always stay indoors. This last sentence can be used to cover both points 2+3 of information, so it might be wise this time to use dialogue. They normally stay indoors, but now the man wants to change it.

The woman wants to keep things as they are: she can take her time, express rejection to the idea with her body language, or simply say she doesn't want. She can also do something more extreme, to say she must leave. Then you also understand she doesn't really into spending time with this guy (after the sex).

That the woman has a boyfriend: Here I failed in my script, cause only few scriptwriting students understood this piece of information. I didn't want to use dialogue for this one. I felt it's too obvious. Instead I used the woman's body language: when he asked her "who are we hiding from", she looked at him serious and kept quiet. then she stick her earings in her ears. I felt it expresses what she doesn't say: that she's actually hiding from someone else, her boyfriend (I thought the earings will link to her boyfriend). But it failed. I think that for my second draft I will use dialogue. The woman will say, after being quiet: 'now, don't start with asking too many questions'. This would make it clear enough. Or maybe not? Maybe this too needs another explanation.

Here I want to introduce another scriptwriting technique that is very common and affective: split your information. If you put a hint here and another hint there, the secret reveals itself. If she will say this sentence, and then a few seconds later she will check her phone, write an sms or something, it will get clearer. Or if they will watch a film on tv that's about cheating, and she will have a certain way of looking at it - it will give that extra info we needed.

Just to sum it up, the inforation needs to reveal itself, so it wouldn't feel like there is a scriptwriter behind the scene who has the need of showing us something. Goodluck!

Learning scriptwriting by listening

Yesterday my short script was read in class. It's an interesting an important experience, to hear your words. Normally it would be done by actors, but here my friends from class read it. It's a very weird feeling, to hear your script being read. Sometimes it sounds like it's too slow. Sometimes you lose track.

My teacher loved it. Also most of the students, I think. You can never really know. People always trying to be nice. This is the hardest part in scriptwriting studies: to understand what people really think at your work. My problem is I never try to be nice, but then I don't want to be the only mean girl in class. Maybe I'm a geek. Probably.

I also liked my script. It's only a first draft, but I think by the second draft it can be ready for shooting. I think I'll start a blog in Hebrew (that's the language of the scripts I write at Uni) and post there my entire scripts. I would very much like to see them filmed. I can also contact animation students. They are always hunting new ideas. But then again, it takes them 2 years to make a 4 min film. But I guess better late than never.

I started now to read again Christopher Vogler's "The Writer's Journey". I thought both Dara Marks and Christopher Vogler approaching screenwriting from the point of view of myths. If you want to study scriptwriting you must get a broarder view of things. So I'm reading this book again, after 4 years almost.

Today (I got up real early, it's not even 08:00 now over here) I hand another script in class. This was a very interesting scriptwriting excersize: we had to complete one of the students' scripts. We all got the same script, 4 pages long, which was read in class the week before. It was a whole script, with a beginning, middle and an end (in that order, actually). Our mission was to add another 3-5 min script to the existing one.

It was hard for me to decide how to tackle this problem: obviously the script already had a protagonist with a problem that was solved. I looked for another open issue I can work with. I found it in another character (the father of the protagonist, which now became the protagonist in himself). He had an inner fault that screw up his life and the life of his family: he didn't respect his needs, he kept living in secret. It led to the break of his marriage and now it was happening again (this is where my script begins). He had a girlfriend. They used to meet at his place, staying in bed, ordering food, never leaving his house. He was afraid to meet one of his children on the street, he felt it would be awkward. After he and his daughter had a talk about the past (that part is from the original script) he finally realized it is ok for him to move on. It's not that everybody around him reminded him of his past - it was he who did it to himself. It was time to put it all behind. he offered his girlfriend to go out to eat instead of ordering food again. She refuses. It sinks slowly, but then he understands - he is the other man in her life. It ends right there. He's alone. He goes to the movies. They screen the German film "The Life of Others". At the end of the film, when the mailman walks the empty former east Berlin street alone, our guy starts to laugh. He doesn't stop, even when people look at him with anger. He laughs so hard.

That's it. I wonder if it's clear from my 3 pages script. The department for scriptwriting is the best thing that ever happened to me. Writing is...

ABC stories (a good book for screenwriters)

I'm so happy that in two weeks starts my semester break. I have tons of things I plan to do during this month (no exams, total freedom, yay). The course I took at UCLA Extension (Online) was over last Wednesday. The next one will only start on April 9th so I have two weeks of pure free time to work on my beat outline.

A few days ago I got the newsletter from Creative Screenwriting and it mentioned a seminar with Dara Marks. Her name didn't sound familiar so I googled her. Her seminar is based on her book, "Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc". I didn't find it in the Uni's library, so I checked out the Amazon "surprise me!" feature. They usually let you browse quite a good amount of pages. I started to read, bit here, bit there. I loved they way she approached the structure of the script. What Dara Marks says is that you have three main plots: your A, B and C story. So far I knew.

A story is the external goal of the protagonist. B story is her inner conflict. C story is a relational conflict. And guess what? Most of the stories don't put the love story on their A plot. She talks about Casablanca, and says: The A story is about Rick and Lazlow. Will he help him get away? The B story is about Rick's inability to connect to other people's needs. The C story is about Rick and the girl. If Rick solves his inner story (and start thinking about the needs of others), he will solve both stories A and C. Pretty neat, eh? Pretty neat.

This made me thinking a lot. A subplot is not something that is 'less then' the plot. It's actually more of the plot's basis. And guess what? The theme of your film, the one thing you can't pronounce for days? It's right there, in the inner conflict of your character.

What do I tell you, I really must put my hands on this book, they don't sell it anywhere besides Amazon and the official website of Dara Marks (as far as I know). Ah, and in the writer's store (CA). By the way, on the writer's store website you can find an extract from the book, about that inner conflict of your character. It's called "The Fatal Flaw". Have fun!

Japanese cinema seminar

Like every Tuesday i opened my day with 90 minutes of Japanese cinema. I take this seminar at university, so at the end of the year we must write a 20 pages essay about any issue we choose from the very wide spectrum of Japanese Cinema.

Today we discussed the japanese family, and how it's presented in various films. As in every Japanese film, also in family matters the Giri (the obligations one has) are an issue. In Tokyo Story of Ozu (me and Jim Jarmush love this talented director very much) you can see how the children try to get rid of their parents, refuse the Giri. Ozu put the son in Osaka and the daughter in Tokyo - spread all over the country. In the traditional Japanese family children and parents continued to live under the same roof their entire lives. You see the younger sister still respects the Giri, and the widow of the son is the one who takes the most care for the parents. She, of course, doesn't have to take care of them - but she does it because she wants to.

I'm not sure what this means. Perhaps not only gap between children and parents, but also something deeper - the real obligation starts from the inside, not from outside rules that fade with time. At the end, Giri or not Giri, we all make our choices as individuals.

The second film we talked about today was Family Game of Morita. I didn't know this director until today but the film was interesting both in theme and style, and quite extreme. A stranger enters the life of a family, and though he change it a bit, at the end all is the same. The ending dinner scene is great, very original and full of...food.

The last film discussed was Visitor Q. This one is real extreme piece, not realistic and was very hard for some students to watch. A daughter fucks with her father (and then laughs about him for being an 'early bird' and taking money from him), a mother who is a whore and a drug addict, a son who hits his mother with a belt, a father that takes video shot of his son being beaten by his friends on the street. All this untill Visitor Q enters their life (in a violante way, of course) and becomes part of the family. After filling a room with the mother's milk everything starts to change. I guess this film is a must see, if your eyes and guts can take it.

Besides that, I'm still working on my script. Long night ahead.

Charlie Kaufman was so !!! when he got the Oscar

A good script to learn structure from

Just wanted to say, The Verdict is a great script. The writing style is interesting, very clear and simple. The structure is pure. It's really one of the best scripts I've read, especially for a scriptwriting student to learn from.

The Third Act (not easy at all)

This is the time to get scared. I wanted to write the final act for my feature (a beat sheet for the third act, not the actual scenes yet). Then I've realized I need to work still on act II and the essence of my story. Without this I won't have a third act.

The bad thing is that I'm supposed to send my beat sheet now (actually a few hours ago). I'm behind, but the head has its own time. Damn.

Great scriptwriting today, with Eitan Green. He always gives us fun excersizes and I really wanted to hear his new assignment today, but we ran out of time so only next week. Damn.

I feel like returning to an old love of mine, photography. I have some stills I want to enlarge and perhaps the day after tomorrow I'll go to my old art school to the lab. I love the quiet and the darkness. I love it most when it's only me and one other person there. I hate talking in the dark room.

For a long time now I've been going to dark rooms of a different kind. But I've had enough of that. I want my life back.

I'm going to continue with my third act now, for UCLA. My next courses on the UCLA Extension begin on April 9th, I can't wait.

Eitan Green (the scriptwriting teacher from Tel Aviv University) told us today we must write. Every day, to have a project we work on. He's right, I've been doing it for the last 2 months. Not every day, but almost. I need to do it more. I need to feel like it's my office and I have 3 hours a day I must attend. No matter what. Writing is all a writer must do.