Archive for December, 2009

Book To Film: Weekly Adaptation Sales & Options (12.31.09)

NIGHT AND FOG (Comic Book)

Genre: Horror

Authors: Alex Lung & Matthew Bradford

Screenwriter: not announced

Logline: Set during World War II, a Frankenstein-like infectious mist unleashed on a military base transforms its victims into preternatural creatures of the night.

3 Steps For A Successful Rewrite

For many writers the revision process is a daunting task. It can be less challenging when you approach the next draft with a clear, organized plan. Here are three steps to help you along your path to a successful rewrite:

1. CLARIFY YOUR VISION OF THE FINAL DRAFT
What is your goal for the script? Do you want to write a western with the tone and pace of Unforgiven or 3:10 to Yuma? Is your intent to convey a specific theme or tell a character-based story? When you have a clear vision of what you want your final draft to look like, then you have a destination. When you have a destination you clearly know where you want to go, how to map your way to get there and, most importantly, you can determine when you’ve finally arrived.

2. ANALYZE & CHART THE STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF YOUR CURRENT DRAFT
Systematically analyze and chart your script’s strengths and weaknesses. Your chart may look something like:

Dialogue – protagonist = strong
Dialogue – antagonist = weak  (cliché, no bad guy speech….)
First Act Structure = weak  (lacking compelling inciting incident, didn’t introduce antagonist, dramatic question not set up…)

Tips for analyzing your script:

Read For Structure
Does the script hit all the necessary structure elements, including the hook, the set up, the inciting incident, the crisis, climax, and resolution? For more on structural elements, download the free Screenplay Structure PDF located in the right column.

Read For Scenes and Sequences
Does each scene and sequence have a beginning, middle, and end? Do they contain escalating conflict and pack an emotional punch? For more on scenes and sequences, check out 6 Ways To Ensure All Your Scenes Play, 4 Essential Elements of the Obligatory Scene, and Constructing An Effective Scene Sequence.

Read For Description
Does the narrative tell a visual story and move the story forward? Does it capture the tone and pace of the story? Is it succinct and direct? For more on description, see 15 Tips For Writing Scene Description.

Read For Dialogue
Is the dialogue compelling? Is each word necessary? Could the characters be doing something instead of talking about it? Does each character have an individual voice that is distinct from all the other characters’ voices? For tips on dialogue, check out 12 Characteristics of Great Dialogue, 6 Ways To Use Subtext In Your Dialogue, 12 Things That Can Hurt Your Dialogue, 3 Tips To “Show” (And Not Tell), and 5 Techniques for Revealing Exposition.

Read For Characters
Is each character fully developed? Does each character have a purpose? Does the main character experience a significant and believable transformation? For some helpful tips on writing characters, see How To Create Your Main Character’s Backstory, 8 Techniques for Revealing Character, 3 Steps to Creating Supporting Characters, Creating the Hero & The Villain, The Three Types of Character Arcs, and 6 Tips For Creating A Key Relationship For Your Protagonist.

Read For Throughline
Is the throughline consistent? Does each element serve the throughline? For more on through-lines, see Understanding The Narrative Throughline.

3. CREATE A REVISION MAP
Once you have analyzed and charted the strengths and weaknesses of the current draft, you can create an effective revision map to follow throughout the rewrite process. The revision map is a checklist of each of the areas you need to address, for instance:

* Add a scene to Act Two to show the protagonist’s admiration for his older brother
* Polish the antagonist’s dialogue to reflect his English education
* Escalate the conflict in scene three of Act One
* Combine the characters of Mary and Sue into one character for stronger impact
* Move the fourth scene in Act Three to the end of Act Two
* Eliminate scenes in the First Act to get to the inciting incident quicker
* Clarify the protagonist’s goal in Act One

Now you’re ready to attack your next rewrite…..

YOUR TURN: How do approach the revision process?

Book To Film: Weekly Adaptation Sales & Options (12.23.09)

MURDER AT 19,000 FEET
From the book Murder In The High Himalaya: Loyalty, Tragedy and Escape From Tibet

Genre: Drama

Author: Jonathon Green

Screenwriter: not announced

Logline: The true story of a 17-year-old Tibetan nun who is gunned down by Chinese border guards while fleeing to India, and the dozens of elite climbers headed up Everest who witness the murder.

ROLLOVER
From the book Tragic Indifference: One Man’s Battle with the Auto Industry Over the Dangers of SUVs

Genre: Legal Drama

Author: Adam Penenberg

Screenwriter: Mikko Alanne

Logline: Attorney Tab Turner struggles to hold two principal automotive-industry companies accountable for their ethical failures and calculated improprieties.

GIL’S ALL FRIGHT DINER

Genre: Comedy Horror

Author: A. Lee Martinez

Screenwriters: Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris

Logline: A vampire and a werewolf partner to battle zombies and try to save the world after stopping at a diner in the desert that is a conduit for the supernatural.

WAR HORSE

Genre: Drama Adventure

Author: Michael Morpurgo

Screenwriter: Lee Hall

Logline: Recounts the friendship between a boy and a horse who are separated but whose fates continue to be intertwined over the course of World War I

COME BACK TO SORRENTO

Genre: Drama

Author: Dawn Powell

Screenwriter: David Mamet

Logline: Set during The Great Depression, a music teacher with a mysterious past finds more than he expected when he travels to a small town in Ohio to teach music and comes to love a housewife seeking a long-forgotten dream.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

Genre: Crime Thriller

Author: Steig Larsson

Screenwriter: Steve Zaillian

Logline: A journalist-investigator and a precocious computer hacker become embroiled in life-threatening mysteries as they attempt to expose institutions.

THE HELP

Genre: Drama

Author: Kathryn Stockett

Screenwriter: Tate Taylor

Logline: The story of African-American domestic servants and their wealthy white employers in Mississippi before the civil rights era.

THE LAST SPYMASTER

Genre: Thriller

Author: Gayle Lynds

Screenwriter: none announced

Logline: An infamous turncoat spy breaks out of prison and the CIA enlists its top hunter to track him down within 48 hours.

CROSS

Genre: Detective Drama

Author:

James Patterson

Screenwriter: Kerry Williamson

Logline: Early in his career Detective Alex Cross tries to find his wife’s murderer.

Four Ways To Foreshadow Conflict

To foreshadow conflict means to indicate or hint at the difficulties that will arise later in the story. Foreshadowing creates suspense and tension; the audience knows something’s going to happen – they just don’t know what or when. A story’s conflict is best foreshadowed in the first act, in the second and third acts, techniques for creating rising conflict are used to drive the story forward.

Here are four ways to foreshadow conflict in your script:

1. CREATE DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES
All scripts are driven by conflict. Setting up a story that is rife for discord and problems, with characters that must engage in struggles with one another or themselves in order to reach a final resolution, is the first step in foreshadowing conflict.

In the first act of the film Aliens, an inexperienced Lieutenant, a sleazy corporate guy, a creepy “synthetic person”, a group of young gung-ho marines, and a psychologically-scarred woman who survived a previous alien attack are thrown together on a mission to find why contact has been lost with a settlement on a remote planet – you just know something bad is going to happen.

2. SHOW CHARACTERS’ REACTIONS
When character’s react negatively to a situation – showing fear, stress, anxiety – it heightens the tension for the audience. In Aliens, Ripley’s response to being asked to become part of the group going out to check on the settlement (where she previously encountered the deadly alien) is immediate and emotional, “You want me to go back out there? Forget it!” We also see Ripley having recurring nightmares about the aliens.

3. SHOW THE UPCOMING OBSTACLES
Show the audience the problems, difficulties and troubles that lie ahead for the characters – doing so causes the audience to worry about what will happen to them. This is an especially effective technique when the protagonist is unaware of the obstacles but the audience knows what’s coming up (in Superman, the audience knows that Lex Luther has obtained kryptonite to use against the protagonist, but the hero is unaware of the trouble in store for him.)

In Aliens, screenwriter James Cameron provides plenty of foreshadowing using this technique:

* During the insurance investigation, Ripley tells the story of what happened to her and the crew of the Nostromo

RIPLEY
Look, I can see where this is going. I’m telling you those things exist. Kane, the guy that went in, said he saw thousands of eggs in that ship. Thousands… Just one of those things managed to kill my entire crew.

* Ripley retells the story to the marine crew to prepare them for what they may encounter

* While patrolling the med lab on LV-426, the crew discovers two living alien specimens in containers

* The crew finds a young survivor, Newt, who tells Ripley her family is dead and provides this foreshadowing dialogue:

RIPLEY
Newt, these people are soldiers. They’re here to protect you.

NEWT
It won’t make any difference

4. USE PROPS
When you show a dangerous item or an ominous situation – a gun, a knife, a walking trail alongside a steep cliff with no guard rail, a car that continually breaks down, a door that sticks shut – the reader will remember it and anticipate the conflict to come.

At the same time, if you use this device you need to pay it off. Paraphrasing playwright Anton Chekov: If you show a gun in Act I, you need to fire it in Act II. Props need to be set up effectively – not just for foreshadowing purposes but also for clarity and flow. If a character suddenly draws a gun to shoot her philandering husband in Act III, and the reader never saw or heard about the weapon until page 110, the reader’s going to be distracted wondering, “Where did that come from?”

In Aliens, the audience is shown numerous dangerous props
* Ripley learns how to use the loader prior to departing for LV-426
* Hicks gives Ripley a deadly weapon and shows her how to use it
* Ripley gives Newt a tracking device to wear at all times

YOUR TURN: What techniques do you use to foreshadow conflict?

Friday Q&A: Screenwriting Competitions

Q: Can screenwriting competitions help a writer’s career?

A: Thank you for your question. Screenwriting competitions won’t harm a writer’s career (unless you’re spending more time and money entering competitions than working on your writing or trying to sell your script and get it made), but don’t expect winning a competition to launch you as the next Hollywood “it” screenwriter. If you win or “place” in a well-respected competition you can always mention it in your marketing efforts – it’s one more credit to include in your query letter. And if you’re lucky, you may garner a few industry contacts. If you decide to enter screenplay competitions, consider the well-known contests, such as The Nicholls Fellowship, Scriptapalooza, and the Austin Film Festival.

YOUR TURN: Has entering screenwriting contests helped your writing career? Do you have any screenplay competitions you recommend?

Book To Film: Weekly Adaptation Sales & Options (12.17.09)

BUTCHER’S CROSSING

Genre: Western Action Adventure

Author: John Edward Williams

Screenwriter: Joe Penhall

Logline: In the 1870’s, a man drops out of Harvard and heads west to the small Kansas town of Butcher’s Crossing to join the search for a great buffalo herd.

FELA

Genre: Drama Bio

Author: Michael Veal

Screenwriters: Biyi Bandele and Steve McQueen

Logline: Musician and activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti lived large and pays a high price for speaking out against oppression in Nigeria.

LET THE GREAT WORLD SPIN

Genre: Drama

Author: Colum McCann

Screenwriter: Colum McCann

Logline: Centered around Philippe Petit’s tightrope walk between the Word Trade Center towers in 1974, the story follows an ensemble cast of characters struggling throughout New York.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES

Genre: Horror Romance

Author: Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen

Screenwriter: not announced

Logline: A woman’s quest for love and independence amid the outbreak of a deadly virus that turns the undead into vicious killers.

LOST GIRLS AND LOVE HOTELS

Genre: Drama

Author: Catherine Hanrahan

Screenwriter: Nadia Conners

Logline: A woman tries to forget her past while working in Tokyo as an English specialist at a stewardess training school by day and losing herself in a sex-and-drug addicted oblivion by night.

6 Ways To Ensure All Your Scenes “Play”

Great scenes ‘play’ – they seem to be effortlessly compelling, engaging the reader and involving him on the journey. So what’s the difference between a scene that plays and one that feels flat?

Scenes that are designed to purely reveal exposition or character, or that consist of ‘on-the-nose’ dialogue are often dull. Scenes that evoke emotion, contain conflict and stakes, change the dynamic, allow audiences to gain insight, and push the story forward are the scenes that make a story work.

Here are six ways to ensure all your scenes ‘play’:

1. Know Thy Conflict
Scenes revolve around conflict – two (or more) conflicting desires at direct odds with one another. If the forces are tangential the conflict is diluted. A well-written scene presents clearly opposed forces. It is the back-and-forth dynamic, the push-and-pull, the action-reaction component, of the scene that makes it compelling – as the conflict steadily increases and ultimately reaches a crescendo. Note (1) who is driving the scene, (2) what does that character want, (3) who or what is opposing that character’s desire, (4) what does that opposing force want, and (5) track the action/reaction conflict throughout the scene to ensure it is developing – and not static.

2. Evoke Emotion
If the audience feels nothing (or worse, feels boredom) at the end of a scene – then the scene didn’t deliver. Remember, character emotions don’t equate with the audiences’ emotions. A character in a scene may collapse to the floor and cry when her lover leaves her, but the audience doesn’t necessarily feel what the character feels (sadness and loss) – depending how the screenwriter designed the story, the audience may feel relief (good thing that bastard is out of her life), justice (she got what she deserved), or fear (what will happen now that she’s left alone with that serial killer on the loose.) A helpful exercise is to note what emotion each scene evokes – whether it is anxiety, curiosity, laughter, joy, fear, sadness – and determine if it is delivering the intended emotional punch.

3. Allow The Audience To Discover The Meaning
If the scene is too on-the-nose it deprives the audience of the joy of gaining their own insight and discovering what lies beneath the surface – the real meaning of the scene. Well-crafted scenes don’t spoon-feed information to the audience, they unfold with layers of subtext.

4. Come In Late, Get Out Early
Keep your scenes lean, tight, and focused by cutting extraneous, unnecessary material. Enter the scene at the latest possible moment and end it immediately upon (or before) resolution.

5. Make a Change
If the scene concludes on the same note as it started, nothing has happened. There should be a clear change – it could be a change in stakes, or direction, or knowledge, or any element that affects the story.

6. The Ending Is Only The Beginning
Good scenes drive the story forward. They open up new questions, create complications, and establish problems that need to be resolved. Successful scenes create a level of suspense (regardless of genre) that inspires the reader to turn the page to find out what will happen. The ending of a well-crafted scene leads directly into the next scene – such as this classic scene from The Silence of the Lambs:

CRAWFORD
We’re trying to interview all of the serial killers now in custody, for a psycho behavioral profile.
Could be a big help in unsolved cases. Do you spook easily, Starling?

CLARICE
Not yet.

CRAWFORD
You see, the one we want most refuses to cooperate. I want you to go after him again today, in the asylum.

CLARICE
Who’s the subject?

CRAWFORD
The psychiatrist – Dr. Hannibal Lecter.

CLARICE
The cannibal…

CRAWFORD
I don’t expect him to talk to you, but I have to be able to say we tried… Lecter was a brilliant psychiatrist, and he knows all the dodges.
(hands her the manila envelope)
Dossier on him, copy of our questionnaire, special ID for you… If he won’t talk, then I want straight reporting. How’s he look, how’s his cell look, what’s he writing… Now. I want your full attention, Starling. Are you listening to me?

CLARICE
Yes sir.

CRAWFORD
Be very careful with Hannibal. Dr. Chilton at the asylum will go over the physical procedures used with him. Do not deviate from them, for any reason. You tell him nothing personal, Starling. Believe me, you don’t want Hannibal Lecter inside your head… Just do your job, but never forget what he is.

CLARICE
And what is that, sir?

This scene works on every level… opening up more questions, creating complications and problems, evoking emotion in the audience (curiosity, apprehension), creating conflict (though subtle) with dynamic action/reaction, increasing the stakes as the scene progresses (ending with the crescendo warning from Crawford), entering late and getting out early (before Clarice’s question is even answered – it is Dr. Chilton who answers her question as the next scene opens), and compelling the reader to turn the page to find out what happens next…..

YOUR TURN: How do you ensure a scene ‘plays’?

Page To Screen: “Up In The Air”

UP IN THE AIR

Author: Walter Kim

Screenwriters: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Logline: Ryan Bingham is a corporate downsizing expert whose cherished life on the road is threatened just as he is on the cusp of reaching ten million frequent flyer miles and just after he’s met the frequent-traveler woman of his dreams.

Screen Cave has an interview with screenwriter Jason Reitman on adapting Up In The Air and Reitman and Sheldon Turner talk about writing the screenplay to Script magazine.

Download a free copy of the script.

YOUR TURN: Have you had the opportunity to see the film while in limited release? What do you think of the adaptation?

Friday Q&A: Free Screenwriting Software

Q: I’m not ready to invest in Final Draft or Movie Magic Screenwriter software. Is screenwriting software really necessary?

A: Thanks for your question. Screenplays have been written for decades without the use of screenwriting software. However, there’s no doubt that the built-in formatting of screenwriting software makes the process much easier. Using The Hollywood Standard: The Complete & Authoritative Guide to Script Format and Style by Christopher Riley, you can format your script using a basic word processing software program, such as MS Word. There are also several free screenwriting software programs available worth considering: Scripped, Zhura, Celtx, and MindStar’s Script Editor.

Book To Film: Weekly Adaptation Sales & Options (12.10.09)

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES

Genre: Supernatural Romance

Author: Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl

Screenwriter: Richard LaGravenese

Logline: When high-school student Ethan Wate meets and becomes bewitched by Lena Duchannes, a 16-year-old whose family has moved to the small South Carolina town where he lives, the two must confront a curse that has haunted her family for generations.

GUN WITH OCCASIONAL MUSIC

Genre: Science Fiction Crime

Author: Jonathan Letham

Screenwriter: not announced

Logline: A San Francisco private eye investigates the murder of a prominent doctor in a strange world that involves super-smart children called “baby-heads”, evolved animals, debit cards that hold one’s karma, and a menacing kangaroo that works for the mob.

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