He wrote the music for almost all of the James Bond movies, BORN FREE, MIDNIGHT COWBOY, IPCRESS FILE, ZULU, PETULIA, THE LAST VALLEY, WALKABOUT, ROBIN & MARION, THE DEEP, SOMEWHERE IN TIME, BODY HEAT, FRANCES, JAGGED EDGE, OUT OF AFRICA, DANCES WITH WOLVES, and maybe 100 more! His scores could be lush and romantic or jazzy and cool or strange and haunting or just about anything else. One of the greats.
My favorite cut from the GOLDFINGER score...
So, there was this time when music was on vinyl... and I collected soundtracks, including everything from John Barry I could get my hands on. Here's the strange part - my parents, lower middle class folks who went to the drive in to see movies, owned a bunch of film scores. I think back then, because everything was album oriented, if you liked the theme *song* from BORN FREE you went out and bought the album and got the whole score - and my mom might put on the record while she did housework or cooked dinner and listened to the symphonic parts as well as that hit song. So "normal people" might own some sound tracks - my folks owned a bunch of Henry Mancini stuff because he did music for some of their favorite movies. I grew up listening to ELEPHANT WALK and BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S and CASINO ROYALE.
Here's John Barry's OUT OF AFRICA...
The great part of searching YouTube for all of these clips is that I got to listen to the music all over again... and relive some memories. My soundtrack collection began with YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW because the Lovin' Spoonful did the music, but as a James Bond fan I probably bought GOLDFINGER next. I had the MIDNIGHT COWBOY score before ever seeing the movie, because it was rated X.
MIDNIGHT COWBOY...
When searching for SOMEWHERE IN TIME, I came upon a clip of the big scene and it floored me all over again. This film is kind of slow for today, but a big romance with some amazing scenes that stick with you. It's one of those films that "remembers well" - it may drag a bit while you are watching it, but a couple of days later you'll still be thinking about the penny scene.
Here's the main theme for SOMEWHERE IN TIME:
One of my favorite films, one that influences my writing, is BODY HEAT... and it has a John Barry Score:
So, when I started working at the movie theater there was this guy named Dave who was a big movie fan, and we'd sometimes go to this record store in San Francisco that specialized in sound tracks. Though you could find a good selection of sound tracks in any normal record store out in the suburbs where I lived - and even in the record section of department stores like Sears and Pennys - they probably didn't have any records from 1960s movies... and this place in San Francisco had *everything*. They only carried sound tracks. And they had all kinds of "cut outs" at discount prices. I bought PETULIA there, and still have it.
Here's PETULIA:
Maybe once a month Dave and I would go across the bridge and dig around in the store and buy some stuff we couldn't get anywhere else. The place was run by a couple of Gay guys who were human encyclopedias of film music. You could name any film and they'd tell you who did the score plus some back story. They had a service for regular customers - they had a copy of everything in their collection, and if the music either wasn't on vinyl or was impossible to find, they'd make you a tape for $1 (or something). They also had customer cards with your wish list, and if something came in used that was on your list, they'd hold it and call you. If I'd had more money I would have had a better collection - but I ended up with maybe fifty or sixty sound tracks, including...
BORN FREE:
And here's one of my favorite movies and favorite scores, THE IPCRESS FILE...
Another movie that starred Michael Caine and had a great John Barry score, ZULU:
Here's another sound track I owned on vinyl for *years* before I was able to see the film, a british sex comedy called THE KNACK:
DANCES WITH WOLVES:
Another great Michael Caine movie that you've never heard of - THE LAST VALLEY - a cool epic written and directed by novelist James Clavell about the 30 Years War, and a valley that both sides decide is off limits - a place of peace in the middle of the war:
Something strange happened and department stores like Sears and Pennys cut their music departments down to only the most popular music. And even the record stores like Tower began pruning their sound track sections down to what I call the Krappy K-tel Kompilations: those collections of *songs* from some movie. Fewer soundtracks. More *songs*. The big change came with BATMAN - great score by Danny Elfman - but Warner Bros released an album of Prince music "inspired by" the movie. I think one or two songs might have been used as background, and the rest was never in the film. The Krappy K-tel Kompilation had taken over, and a movie soundtrack might just be a bunchof pop tunes that were never in the movie! The movie was just a way to sell the music. But "normal people" weren't buying soundtracks at all. The only one they'd buy from that point until now was TITANIC. Soundtracks are pretty much dead... so you may not be familiar with John Barry or his work, except for the James Bond stuff.
John Barry will be missed in a strange way: you will be watching a movie, maybe a romance, and there will be these pop tunes in the background of scenes instead of the big lush scores that added to the film experience. And you won't know why this film seems less romantic than a movie like OUT OF AFRICA, but it just doesn't feel the same. That's because John Barry wasn't here to write the music.
Let's end with one of my favorite John Barry scores... for an awful movie. The 1976 version of KING KONG:
RIP: John Barry - won 5 Oscars, was 77 years old. I'm going to miss him.
- Bill
Monday, January 31, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
And The Nominees Are...
83rd Acamedy Award Nominees!
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
“127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
“The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
“Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
“True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
Writing (Original Screenplay)
“Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
“The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
“Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
“The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
“The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler
Best Picture
“Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
“The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
“Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
“The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
“The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
“127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
“The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
“Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer
“True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
“Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers
Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”
James Franco in “127 Hours”
Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech”
Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”
Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”
Animated Feature Film
“How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
“The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
“Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich
Art Direction
“Alice in Wonderland”
Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
“Inception”
Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
“The King's Speech”
Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Judy Farr
“True Grit”
Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
Cinematography
“Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
“Inception” Wally Pfister
“The King's Speech” Danny Cohen
“The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth
“True Grit” Roger Deakins
Costume Design
“Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood
“I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
“The King's Speech” Jenny Beavan
“The Tempest” Sandy Powell
“True Grit” Mary Zophres
Directing
“Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
“The Fighter” David O. Russell
“The King's Speech” Tom Hooper
“The Social Network” David Fincher
“True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Documentary (Feature)
“Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
“Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
“Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
“Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
“Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley
Documentary (Short Subject)
“Killing in the Name” Nominees to be determined
“Poster Girl” Nominees to be determined
“Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
“Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
“The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon
Film Editing
“Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
“The Fighter” Pamela Martin
“The King's Speech” Tariq Anwar
“127 Hours” Jon Harris
“The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
Foreign Language Film
“Biutiful” Mexico
“Dogtooth” Greece
“In a Better World” Denmark
“Incendies” Canada
“Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria
Makeup
“Barney's Version” Adrien Morot
“The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
“The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Music (Original Score)
“How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
“Inception” Hans Zimmer
“The King's Speech” Alexandre Desplat
“127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
“The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Music (Original Song)
“Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
“If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Short Film (Animated)
“Day & Night” Teddy Newton
“The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
“Let's Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
“The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
“Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois
Short Film (Live Action)
“The Confession” Tanel Toom
“The Crush” Michael Creagh
“God of Love” Luke Matheny
“Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt
“Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite
Sound Editing
“Inception” Richard King
“Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
“Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
“True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
“Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger
Sound Mixing
“Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
“The King's Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
“Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
“The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
“True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Visual Effects
“Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
“Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
“Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
“Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick
So, what are your favorites? What films/artists do you think should have been nominated but were not? What films/artists do you think shoukld be on the Razzie List instead of here?
- Bill
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
“127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
“The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
“Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
“True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
“Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini
Writing (Original Screenplay)
“Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh
“The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson;
Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
“Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan
“The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
“The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler
Best Picture
“Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
“The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
“Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers
“The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
“The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
“127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
“The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
“Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer
“True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
“Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers
Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”
James Franco in “127 Hours”
Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech”
Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”
Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”
Animated Feature Film
“How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
“The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet
“Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich
Art Direction
“Alice in Wonderland”
Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
“Inception”
Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
“The King's Speech”
Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Judy Farr
“True Grit”
Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
Cinematography
“Black Swan” Matthew Libatique
“Inception” Wally Pfister
“The King's Speech” Danny Cohen
“The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth
“True Grit” Roger Deakins
Costume Design
“Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood
“I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi
“The King's Speech” Jenny Beavan
“The Tempest” Sandy Powell
“True Grit” Mary Zophres
Directing
“Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky
“The Fighter” David O. Russell
“The King's Speech” Tom Hooper
“The Social Network” David Fincher
“True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
Documentary (Feature)
“Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz
“Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
“Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
“Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
“Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley
Documentary (Short Subject)
“Killing in the Name” Nominees to be determined
“Poster Girl” Nominees to be determined
“Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
“Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
“The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon
Film Editing
“Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum
“The Fighter” Pamela Martin
“The King's Speech” Tariq Anwar
“127 Hours” Jon Harris
“The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
Foreign Language Film
“Biutiful” Mexico
“Dogtooth” Greece
“In a Better World” Denmark
“Incendies” Canada
“Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria
Makeup
“Barney's Version” Adrien Morot
“The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
“The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
Music (Original Score)
“How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell
“Inception” Hans Zimmer
“The King's Speech” Alexandre Desplat
“127 Hours” A.R. Rahman
“The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Music (Original Song)
“Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
“If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
Short Film (Animated)
“Day & Night” Teddy Newton
“The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
“Let's Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe
“The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
“Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois
Short Film (Live Action)
“The Confession” Tanel Toom
“The Crush” Michael Creagh
“God of Love” Luke Matheny
“Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt
“Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite
Sound Editing
“Inception” Richard King
“Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
“Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
“True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
“Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger
Sound Mixing
“Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
“The King's Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
“Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
“The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
“True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Visual Effects
“Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
“Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
“Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
“Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick
So, what are your favorites? What films/artists do you think should have been nominated but were not? What films/artists do you think shoukld be on the Razzie List instead of here?
- Bill
Monday, January 24, 2011
I Threw That Script Away!
Sometimes, instead of rewriting a screenplay, you have to throw it away and start from scratch. The problem is, most people never want to do anything this drastic. They become married to their writing and try to find some way to salvage what they’ve written, even though the best case scenario is to part it out... and the more likely scenario is that even the parts are defective in some way. It’s human nature to want to save what you’ve written, but often a first draft or second draft or even third draft is just a way to organize your thoughts and show you how *not* to write this story. In a couple of months I plan on throwing a screenplay away and starting from scratch - and last night I scribbled some notes on the new screenplay.
Usually outlining prevents you from having to scrap a script. You devote a creative step to making sure the story works and is the best that it can be, then you go to script. When you are finding your story with your first draft, you are more likely to have to scrap all sorts of things that are not the story when you go to second draft - and this may also be part of a larger refining process where you keep throwing away drafts until you have figured out the story and know which scenes matter and which scenes don’t. But even with an outline you can screw up and have to scrap the first version of the script. And that means you have to be objective enough to reject that draft and get on to the next draft.
The script I’m throwing away had an interesting path to the page. A creative exec had asked me what I was working on, and I said I was trying to figure out this thriller script - and I pitched him the concept. Cool high concept - and the CE asked if he could read it when I finished the script. “Sure.” (Why else had I pitched him the concept? Part of the “what are you working on?” question is for them to see if they can get dibseys, and for us to pitch a script.) That would have been the end of that, but the production company connected with a distributor who was looking to do upscale action and thriller films... so the CE called me and asked if I could come in and pitch it to his boss. I had imagined the script as a big studio budget thing, they were looking for something a step down from that - but still a theatrical release with a star in the lead. Not a summer tentpole, but one of those genre films that comes at the end of summer - maybe $20m budget.
I pitched it, they liked it, they asked me if I would write a treatment for free that they could take to the distrib... I agreed... and wrote up a theatrical budget version of the story. There were still story problems that I hadn’t solved, but I did a good job of covering those up uin the treatment and hoped to solve them when we went to script. Everyone was happy with it - the producer gave it to the distrib and they were happy with it. They wanted the title changed - and I was cool with that...
And then something happened and the production company’s relationship with the distrib hit a bump and the project was dead before we went to script and before I was paid a cent. Welcome to Hollywood. But a couple of months later the CE called me again and asked if I would be interested in doing the low budget version of that idea for a cable network? I said I wasn’t sure it would work - though it had a cool concept, the treatment also had some big action set pieces and those wouldn’t work on a lower budget. Plus, the difference between an anything goes theatrical budget and a really tight cable budget meant lots of restructuring - I had to trim down the number of locations, get rid of crowd scenes, etc. But I was willing to write a new treatment - again for free. That new treatment didn’t work as well, and required that a bunch of set pieces that I thought were critical to the story be changed to small scenes at existing locations. Well, they liked the concept so much that they didn’t think the other things mattered... and they thought they had a star signed (I had two meetings with him to get his input - a guy who had starred in a couple of B theatrical action flicks). Because I was worried about the story problems that I still hadn’t ironed out (and they still hadn’t noticed) I thought I would get a jump on the project and start writing the screenplay - even though we didn’t have a contract, yet. Well, the whole thing crashed and burned when I was about at the end of act 1, so I never got paid a cent... and I still owned the script. I have actually bought back a couple of scripts that were shelved, but didn’t have to pay a cent for this one because I hadn’t been paid a cent.
At the time, I was doing other cable movies for other producers and though maybe this script would be something I could sell if I finished - so I got to Fade Out... and then set it aside because I had writing jobs lined up, and when I came back to it a couple of years later I decided the idea was too good for low budget, so I did a page one rewrite to bump the budget up to theatrical level and add some of the big set pieces... except not all of the big set pieces, because the story had changed. What I should have done at that point was throw the existing script away and started from scratch - but instead I tried to save what I had written. I ended up with big budget flesh on a low budget skeleton, and it just didn’t work. But a handful of big companies read it based on the concept... and almost all said they would read it again if I did a rewrite that fixed all of the problems. One producer asks about it every year... and every year I tell him that I have not done that rewrite, yet.
So, now I’m going to throw away the script and start from scratch. There may be some scenes from the earlier version that end up in this version - but they will be typed from scratch so that I don’t try to save something that doesn’t work. Basically I’m writing a new script with the same concept - only this time, hopefully it will work.
Sometimes you just have to throw all of that hard work away and just start from scratch.
- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Sleeper Agent Scenes - and SALT.
Dinner: Togos - hummus sandwich with BBQ sauce... messy!
Pages: Because the New Beverly is showing one of my favorite movies, Walter Hill's THE DRIVER tonight, I wanted to do a blog entry about the film... but just didn't find the time. I've had this avalanche of stuff hit me. So that blog entry *is* coming as soon as I dig myself out.
Bicycle: Yes. Short bike ride to NoHo for the afternoon shift at Panera... where they need some bike lock posts. A dozen bikes, no place to lock them! Saturday I did the bike/subway combo to get to the New Bev Cinemas - and I'm doing that rtonight as well.
Usually outlining prevents you from having to scrap a script. You devote a creative step to making sure the story works and is the best that it can be, then you go to script. When you are finding your story with your first draft, you are more likely to have to scrap all sorts of things that are not the story when you go to second draft - and this may also be part of a larger refining process where you keep throwing away drafts until you have figured out the story and know which scenes matter and which scenes don’t. But even with an outline you can screw up and have to scrap the first version of the script. And that means you have to be objective enough to reject that draft and get on to the next draft.
The script I’m throwing away had an interesting path to the page. A creative exec had asked me what I was working on, and I said I was trying to figure out this thriller script - and I pitched him the concept. Cool high concept - and the CE asked if he could read it when I finished the script. “Sure.” (Why else had I pitched him the concept? Part of the “what are you working on?” question is for them to see if they can get dibseys, and for us to pitch a script.) That would have been the end of that, but the production company connected with a distributor who was looking to do upscale action and thriller films... so the CE called me and asked if I could come in and pitch it to his boss. I had imagined the script as a big studio budget thing, they were looking for something a step down from that - but still a theatrical release with a star in the lead. Not a summer tentpole, but one of those genre films that comes at the end of summer - maybe $20m budget.
I pitched it, they liked it, they asked me if I would write a treatment for free that they could take to the distrib... I agreed... and wrote up a theatrical budget version of the story. There were still story problems that I hadn’t solved, but I did a good job of covering those up uin the treatment and hoped to solve them when we went to script. Everyone was happy with it - the producer gave it to the distrib and they were happy with it. They wanted the title changed - and I was cool with that...
And then something happened and the production company’s relationship with the distrib hit a bump and the project was dead before we went to script and before I was paid a cent. Welcome to Hollywood. But a couple of months later the CE called me again and asked if I would be interested in doing the low budget version of that idea for a cable network? I said I wasn’t sure it would work - though it had a cool concept, the treatment also had some big action set pieces and those wouldn’t work on a lower budget. Plus, the difference between an anything goes theatrical budget and a really tight cable budget meant lots of restructuring - I had to trim down the number of locations, get rid of crowd scenes, etc. But I was willing to write a new treatment - again for free. That new treatment didn’t work as well, and required that a bunch of set pieces that I thought were critical to the story be changed to small scenes at existing locations. Well, they liked the concept so much that they didn’t think the other things mattered... and they thought they had a star signed (I had two meetings with him to get his input - a guy who had starred in a couple of B theatrical action flicks). Because I was worried about the story problems that I still hadn’t ironed out (and they still hadn’t noticed) I thought I would get a jump on the project and start writing the screenplay - even though we didn’t have a contract, yet. Well, the whole thing crashed and burned when I was about at the end of act 1, so I never got paid a cent... and I still owned the script. I have actually bought back a couple of scripts that were shelved, but didn’t have to pay a cent for this one because I hadn’t been paid a cent.
At the time, I was doing other cable movies for other producers and though maybe this script would be something I could sell if I finished - so I got to Fade Out... and then set it aside because I had writing jobs lined up, and when I came back to it a couple of years later I decided the idea was too good for low budget, so I did a page one rewrite to bump the budget up to theatrical level and add some of the big set pieces... except not all of the big set pieces, because the story had changed. What I should have done at that point was throw the existing script away and started from scratch - but instead I tried to save what I had written. I ended up with big budget flesh on a low budget skeleton, and it just didn’t work. But a handful of big companies read it based on the concept... and almost all said they would read it again if I did a rewrite that fixed all of the problems. One producer asks about it every year... and every year I tell him that I have not done that rewrite, yet.
So, now I’m going to throw away the script and start from scratch. There may be some scenes from the earlier version that end up in this version - but they will be typed from scratch so that I don’t try to save something that doesn’t work. Basically I’m writing a new script with the same concept - only this time, hopefully it will work.
Sometimes you just have to throw all of that hard work away and just start from scratch.
- Bill
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Sleeper Agent Scenes - and SALT.
Dinner: Togos - hummus sandwich with BBQ sauce... messy!
Pages: Because the New Beverly is showing one of my favorite movies, Walter Hill's THE DRIVER tonight, I wanted to do a blog entry about the film... but just didn't find the time. I've had this avalanche of stuff hit me. So that blog entry *is* coming as soon as I dig myself out.
Bicycle: Yes. Short bike ride to NoHo for the afternoon shift at Panera... where they need some bike lock posts. A dozen bikes, no place to lock them! Saturday I did the bike/subway combo to get to the New Bev Cinemas - and I'm doing that rtonight as well.
Friday, January 21, 2011
Friday's With Hitchcock: Frenzy (1972)
Screenplay by Anthony Schaffer based on the novel by Arthur La Bern.
Hitchcock’s 52nd film manages to combine many of his most popular elements into one story: We get the wrongly accused man story - this time very similar to one of his other lost gems, YOUNG AND INNOCENT. We also get a STRANGERS ON A TRAIN story of guilt transferred. Plus we get a sexy, violent, shocking serial killer story like PSYCHO. Hey, add a twist ending and you've got quintessential Hitchcock. Oh, and it's funny and clever, too - screenplay by the brilliant Anthony Shaffer...writer of the original SLEUTH, the original WICKER MAN, and SOMMERSBY. This is the best Hitchcock film in the post-PSYCHO period.
After a bunch of interesting failures after PSYCHO - movies that only Robin Wood could love - Hitchcock needed a hit... and here it is. FRENZY is a return to England and to London. The business had changed, and Hitchcock - who always seemed ahead of the curve - had coasted on past brilliance in the 60s until he stopped dead. This was the film that restarted him - and probably the film he should have gone out on. Though it’s about a man who is wrongly accused, he isn’t on the run like in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, instead he’s kind of “a man on the hide” - trying to find some safe place to hole up or some scheme to avoid the police by being smuggled out of the country. After years of sly winks from Hitchcock about sex - trains entering tunnels - the new permissive world of cinema practically demanded that he do a film full of nudity and sex. This is Hitchcock’s only R rated film. Instead of those glossy Hollywood “personality” stars like Cary Grant that he had used in the past, or the new method actors and low-key guys like Paul Newman - who didn’t match his style, FRENZY stars a bunch of fine British stage actors. You don’t know their names, but you may have seen them in movies or on TV before. The hostess of Masterpiece Theater, Jean Marsh, plays a role. Whether Hitchcock was returning to his roots or his comfort zone, the results are a fun and frightening little film that is still fun to watch.
Nutshell: Bitter bartender Richard Blaney (Jon Finch) seems to have lost everything in his divorce, including many of his friends. The one pal who took his side was Bob Rusk (Barry Foster) who runs a produce company at Covent Garden. These two are polar opposites. Where Blaney's life is a mess, Rusk is on top of the world.
London is plagued by the Neck Tie Killer - who strangles swinging single women with neck ties. When Blaney’s ex-wife (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) becomes the latest victim only a day after they had a very public fight, he finds himself on the run from the police. Unfortunately, everyone sided with the ex-wife in the divorce, and no one will believe he's innocent. And when another Neck Tie Killer victim can be traced back to Blaney? Even his old pal Rusk thinks he’s guilty... and turns him in to the police. Lots of twists and turns, and one of those great end twists where the real killer is revealed.
Hitch Appearance: In a crowd listening to a political speech - right
at the beginning of the film... then someone spots a dead woman floating in the Thames River, naked except for a neck tie. “Is that my club tie?” someone asks.
Hitch Stock Company: Elsie Randolph who plays the Hotel Clerk was also in RICH AND STRANGE (1931).
Birds: One of the few Hitchcock films without birds - though there are some seagulls in the opening shot and a quail is served at dinner.
Experiment: Hitchcock plays it safe as far as story is concerned. FRENZY is a great example of taking us into a world, Hero & Villain “Flipsides”, character flaw creating story, set ups, and traditional twist endings. There are also some visual experiments in the film that we will look at in a moment.
SPOILERS!!!
Motifs: One of the great things about this movie is that it also manages to use *food* as a leitmotif - not only is one of the characters in the produce industry, and much of the story takes place in London's Covent Garden food market (where Hitchcock’s father worked), the Detective's wife is taking a gourmet cooking class... which supplies a lot of comedy as he attempts to eat her odd concoctions. We get food and friendship and romance as story elements that pop up in a variety of places throughout the film.
Love and sex are also leitmotifs, here - with Rusk a real lady’s man, always talking about women. Blaney’s ex-wife runs a dating service, and people tend to be defined by their sex lives. The police detective investigating the murders (Alec McCowen) has been married for years, and his wife is trying to spice up their relationship... with cooking lessons. The way to a man’s heart...
After Blaney has a blow up with his wife in public, Rusk shows up at the dating service. He has “peculiar appetites” when it comes to women, and Blaney’s ex-wife refuses him service... so he rapes and murders her with his neck tie. About a third of the way into the film we know who the Neck Tie Killer is - and it’s Blaney’s best friend! And by the 33 minute point, Blaney is on the run from the police with nowhere to hide.
When Blaney finds some money his ex-wife put in his coat pocket, he calls his girlfriend from the bar Babs (Anna Massey) and they go to a no-tell hotel, where they are given the “Cupid Suite”. Babs knows Blaney could never be the Neck Tie Killer - he only owns two ties. There have already been more murders than that. The hotel desk clerk recognizes Blaney from a wanted photo and calls the police. Blaney manages to escape without his clothes and his now on the run in his pajamas. Hard to be inconspicuous when that’s all you have to wear.
World Of The Story: One of the interesting things about this film is that you get a great behind the scenes look at the wholesale produce business in London. You often hear people say in interviews that “New York is a character in our film”, and usually that’s BS, but sometimes a location *can* be a character. One of the great things about movies is that they allow us to visit places we have never been and experience things we will probably never experience. Who wants to be falsely accused of murder? Just as NORTH BY NORTHWEST took us on a tour of famous sites between New York and Mt. Rushmore, FRENZY takes us on a tour of the Covent Garden Market and the wholesale produce business.
There are some great shots of Covent Garden’s market, including a high overhead. You get a good feel for the place, but the story takes us behind the scenes to see how the market works. Because Rusk’s business is wholesale produce, we get to see his warehouse and hear him make deals as the background to scenes. The audience is fascinated by how things work - that’s why we have all of those procedural shows on TV - but we aren’t only interested by crime scenes, we are interested in reality shows about how restaurants work and commercial fishermen and truck drivers. We love to see behind the curtain. Every story takes place in some world, and part of our job as screenwriters is to show the audience the secrets of that world - the things we didn’t know. This can be a travelogue like NORTH BY NORTHWEST or a documentary like FRENZY - both are the thriller versions of something you might see on National Geographic.
The key to showing the audience the world of your story is to show us how things work as part of the story - Rusk has a conversation about some of the produce having a short shelf life so he has to get rid of it, and there is a conversation about sending old potatoes back to the farm... which enters into the story later. There’s a scene where Rusk goes through his warehouse and we see every element of his business. The other key is to find some interesting little details - one of the things I love about Elmore Leonard novels are those cool details like the rubber bands on the grip of a pistol to keep it from slipping. Might have been a Leonard novel where I first read about super-gluing to find latent finger prints - that’s cool! Look for those interesting details that people will remember and talk about after seeing the film. Hey, can we trim the brown spots off those veggies and still sell them? Can we turn those apples over so that the brown spots don’t show?
The most important thing is that the world of the story is *part* of the story. Those potatoes being sent back to the farm because they didn’t sell end up being the perfect place for the killer to hide a body. The potatoes are shipped in a truck - and we get to see most of the trip, including the cruddy diner where truckers stop for a meal on the road. The body gets into the truck by the tools of the trade - a dolly. I did an article for Script Magazine ages ago called Hitchcock’s Chocolates about how he consistently uses the tools of the character’s trade as part of the story - in the remake of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH Jimmy Stewart is a doctor who gives his wife a sedative before telling her that their son has been kidnaped. So Rusk uses all of the tools and elements of the produce market in the story - as part of the story.
When Blaney gets fired, his friend Rusk gives him a carton of grapes to help him out... and a tip on a horse.
Flipsides: Richard Blaney is our protagonist and Bob Rusk ends up being the antagonist - notice that they share the same initials, but reversed? And each character is almost the opposite of the other - Rusk is “lucky” and seems to breeze through life without any problems, he gives Blaney that race horse tip... and Blaney doesn’t have any money to bet. Rusk’s horse wins, but Blaney still loses. Rusk owns his own business, Blaney gets fired from his job as a bartender about a minute after he’s introduced. Rusk is great with the ladies, Blaney is divorced and throughout the film seems to have problems with women. One of the best gags is that Blaney is *sure* he’s going to score with his ex-wife... but ends up sleeping on a cot at the Salvation Army. Rusk is cool and glib and always smiling, Blaney has some serious anger issues and always seems to be snarling and frowning. Though each man has similarities to the other, if one is positive the other is negative.
In my long out of print Action Screenwriting book I talk about heroes and villains who are “flipsides” - like Indiana Jones and Belloq in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. This is a great way to define your protagonist and antagonist - find their common ground (like both are adventurous archeologists) and then show where they are opposites. What’s interesting about Rusk and Blaney is that Rusk seems like as genuinely nice and caring guy - he would do anything to help his friend out. And Rusk even seems to care about the feelings of his victims, kind of - he tells Blaney’s ex-wife that he wouldn’t do anything to a woman she didn’t want done (well, except rape and kill them, I guess). Blaney, on the other hand, seems to think only about himself. He is always asking people to do him favors - like getting Babs to collect his things from the apartment behind the bar. But he also suffers from the sin of pride - he’s a loser who doesn’t want to look like a loser, so he’s always getting angry when people try to help him, and starts the film off throwing all of his money at his boss when he gets fired to pay for his drinks and that advance on his salary. When Rusk asks if he needs money, he *must* say no to keep his pride, even though it’s obvious the reason why he went there in the first place was to hit him up for a loan. Same thing with his ex-wife. Blaney is isolated from society before he’s accused of being the Neck Tie Killer. Where Rusk charms people into doing things for him, Blaney is so bristley he pushes away the people who want to help him.
The Clues Lead To The Hero: One of the great things about the way this script is plotted is that all of the clues to the Neck Tie Killer lead right to Blaney. Every woman he comes in contact with ends up being a victim! How can he ever convince the police, or anybody else, that he’s *not* the killer? In a story where a man is wrongly accused of a crime, one of the difficulties is to find a logical reason why he would be accused in the first place, and then keeping him wrongly accused for the rest of the story. In NORTH BY NORTHWEST, we have George Kaplan - the fake spy that Roger O. Thornhill thinks has all of the answers - and that keeps Thornhill going to the wrong place at the very wrong time and staying deep in trouble. In most other Hitchcock films we get something similar - the protagonist chases after the villain and the authorities believe he is the villain. But in FRENZY we have a different solution - Blaney’s friend Rusk knows who Blaney knows - knows that his ex-wife is doing well in her business (first scene between them), knows that he’s sleeping with Babs who works at the bar (also in the first scene between them), so all of the women that Blaney knows, Rusk knows. When Rusk kills one, Blaney is blamed. The great thing about FRENZY is how *friendship* enters into the story again and again - if Blaney and Rusk had not been friends, Blaney would never be prime suspect in the Neck Tie Killings. Blaney’s Air Force pal ends up being the guy who offers to hide him... except his wife wants to turn him in to the police. Again - a friendship that puts Blaney at risk... causing him to lose his temper yet again.
Triple Set Ups: There are many great set ups & pay offs in the film - and they seem completely invisible. In Rusk’s first scene he uses his monogrammed tie pin to pick his teeth, and does this throughout the film. You think it’s just a bit of business - maybe something the actor came up with.... but it’s actually a set up for a later suspense scene. Also, in a throw away conversation about the produce business, Rusk talks to another produce guy about a shipment of potatoes that is being returned. We think this is just showing us the world of the story at the time, but it is also a set up. And the third bit of set up is Rusk telling a victim, “You’re my type” - which is particularly chilling at the time, but also a set up. None of these three things seems like a set up at all...
That Long Tracking Shot: On of the most amazing shots in film history is in FRENZY - Rusk takes another woman connected to Blaney up to his apartment and tells her “You’re my type” as they enter his apartment. Because that phrase has been set up as part of Rusk’s Neck Tie Killer side, we don’t need to go inside the apartment and see him kill again, we *know* what is going to happen. So we get a long backwards tracking shot from the apartment door, down one flight of stairs, around a corner and down another flight of stairs, through an entry hall, out a door, across a bustling street, then craning up to see more of the building. This would have been a difficult shot with a Steady-cam, only that wouldn’t be invented for another four years.
Here's the trick - the camera is on a jib arm for the stairs, then there is actually a cut when we leave the house which is covered by a man carrying a sack of potatoes walking in front of the camera. I call this a "Hitchcock Wipe". Spielberg used it in JAWS for the that cool scene on the beach when the Kittner Boy gets chomped by the shark.
Then we have a great scene where Rusk puts a victim’s body in a sack of potatoes that will be driven back to the farm where they came from - the pay off from that conversation earlier in the film that we never suspected was setting up this scene. And all of the evidence is gone, and Rusk is free and clear. He goes to pick his teeth with his tie pin... and it isn’t there. We get some great flash-cuts: the victim grabbed it while he was killing her! Rusk goes back to the potato truck, searches for the sack with the dead woman... and the truck starts up and drives away! This is a great suspense scene, with the *villain* in peril of being discovered... And it works! Rusk retrieves the tie pin, but now must escape the speeding potato truck.
As every woman he has ever known ends up a victim of the Neck Tie Killer, Blaney has no one else to turn to for help except his old pal Rusk... and Rusk turns him over to the police, where he is arrested and thrown in a cell. This is all done in a high overhead, turning Blaney into nothing more than a pawn.
Here's that shot:
Character Flaw:Blaney is an interesting protagonist - an angry, bitter, ex-war hero who manages to pick a fight with anyone who tries to help him or shows him pity. He has enough self-pity, no need for anyone else’s. But this leads to some great blow ups that get him fired and make him the prime suspect in his ex-wife’s murder. His character and character flaw are what make him the perfect suspect. This may be a thriller but it is still character related - and Blaney’s *character* and his emotional issues are directly related to the story being told.
One interesting element of the film is that we spend a great deal of time away from Blaney. Most Hitchcock films stayed with the protagonist for the majority of the scenes. This is true whether the film is NORTH BY NORTHWEST or REAR WINDOW. But here Blaney shares screen time with Rusk and the Detective. The three seem to have almost equal screen time.
There are hilarious scenes where the Detective must suffer through his wife’s gourmet cooking which help define his character. How do you pretend to enjoy the eel head soup? These scenes do more than provide a laugh, they show the Detective slowly beginning to believe that Blaney may not be guilty. He is a “pivot character” who begins as an antagonist chasing Blaney, but slowly changes sides and tries to find the evidence that will exonerate him. This happens in a swell scene where we see the Detective thinking in the courtroom after Blaney has been captured and found guilty of murder.
There’s a great scene where the Detective and his wife are discussing the dead woman in the potato truck, the killer had to pry open her rigored hand to get the tie pin, breaking each of her fingers... And his wife snaps a break stick in half. Ouch! This is done throughout the film - very clever stuff! Sound and image working together.
Twist Ends: The film works its way to a great traditional twist end and doesn’t waste a second of film time after the twist - it goes directly to closing credits. This is not a "Sixth Sense" twist that changes the entire film we have previously seen, but the sort of twist ending the Hitchcock Presents Show was famous for - in this case we have sort of a triple twist: Blaney escapes prison and goes to kill Rusk... but the person in Rusk's bed he beats with a crow bar ends up being the latest neck tie victim (in the novel it's Jean Marsh's character, in the film it's some hot naked woman)! There's a great shot after he gets done slamming the crow bar into the person's head when an arm falls from beneath the sheets - a woman's arm with too many bracelets. Twist! Just when Blaney realizes his mistake, the door opens - and it's the Detective. Twist! The Detective puts his fingers to his lips and hides... as the door opens *again* and it's Rusk with a trunk. But Rusk tries to pin it on Blaney. Twist! Who will the Detective arrest? And then we get our final little twist - kind of a Columbo Moment - when the Detective notes that Rusk isn't wearing a neck tie. For a moment there, we thought for sure Blaney was screwed!
There are some other great twists in the film - instead of just dumping information on the audience Anthony Shaffer and Hitchcock always seem to find a way to spring it on us. After we know that Blaney is the Neck Tie Killer there’s a great scene where Babs leaves the bar - in shock because she’s worried that Blaney might actually be the killer - and when she steps outside the scene becomes completely silent. She’s lost in thought. And when she moves her head - WHAM! - Rusk is right behind her! Great shock moment. Another example is when Blaney’s Air Force pal’s wife asks how Blaney’s ex-wife is doing - a great tense moment - and Blaney admits that she’s dead... and his friend’s wife grabs a newspaper with a front page story about the police searching for Blaney the Neck Tie Killer and shoves it in Blaney’s face and says: Because you killed her! Knocks Blaney back, and knocks us back as well. These are the people trying to help him - and they think he did it! Blaney really is a man with awful luck! Throughout the film, every piece of information is given to the audience in the most interesting way possible - through little twists and reversals that make FRENZY a consistently exciting film.
A great summation of Hitchcock's thrillers that also works as kind of a little tour of London and a behind the scenes of Covent Garden market. Lots of suspense, twists, and a fun look at what happens when you lose all of your friends in the divorce... except for the bad boys you used to hang out with as a bachelor. Great script by Shaffer, great cinematography by Gilbert Taylor. Marred by iffy music by Ron Goodwin (replacing Bernard Herrmann after he had a falling out with Hitch). Hitchcock's best film in the post-PSYCHO era (after he began to believe all of those critics that called him a genius - and made mostly cruddy films). A modern film, that holds up really well.
- Bill.
The other Fridays With Hitchcock.
BUY THE DVD AT AMAZON:
Hitchcock’s 52nd film manages to combine many of his most popular elements into one story: We get the wrongly accused man story - this time very similar to one of his other lost gems, YOUNG AND INNOCENT. We also get a STRANGERS ON A TRAIN story of guilt transferred. Plus we get a sexy, violent, shocking serial killer story like PSYCHO. Hey, add a twist ending and you've got quintessential Hitchcock. Oh, and it's funny and clever, too - screenplay by the brilliant Anthony Shaffer...writer of the original SLEUTH, the original WICKER MAN, and SOMMERSBY. This is the best Hitchcock film in the post-PSYCHO period.
After a bunch of interesting failures after PSYCHO - movies that only Robin Wood could love - Hitchcock needed a hit... and here it is. FRENZY is a return to England and to London. The business had changed, and Hitchcock - who always seemed ahead of the curve - had coasted on past brilliance in the 60s until he stopped dead. This was the film that restarted him - and probably the film he should have gone out on. Though it’s about a man who is wrongly accused, he isn’t on the run like in NORTH BY NORTHWEST, instead he’s kind of “a man on the hide” - trying to find some safe place to hole up or some scheme to avoid the police by being smuggled out of the country. After years of sly winks from Hitchcock about sex - trains entering tunnels - the new permissive world of cinema practically demanded that he do a film full of nudity and sex. This is Hitchcock’s only R rated film. Instead of those glossy Hollywood “personality” stars like Cary Grant that he had used in the past, or the new method actors and low-key guys like Paul Newman - who didn’t match his style, FRENZY stars a bunch of fine British stage actors. You don’t know their names, but you may have seen them in movies or on TV before. The hostess of Masterpiece Theater, Jean Marsh, plays a role. Whether Hitchcock was returning to his roots or his comfort zone, the results are a fun and frightening little film that is still fun to watch.
Nutshell: Bitter bartender Richard Blaney (Jon Finch) seems to have lost everything in his divorce, including many of his friends. The one pal who took his side was Bob Rusk (Barry Foster) who runs a produce company at Covent Garden. These two are polar opposites. Where Blaney's life is a mess, Rusk is on top of the world.
London is plagued by the Neck Tie Killer - who strangles swinging single women with neck ties. When Blaney’s ex-wife (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) becomes the latest victim only a day after they had a very public fight, he finds himself on the run from the police. Unfortunately, everyone sided with the ex-wife in the divorce, and no one will believe he's innocent. And when another Neck Tie Killer victim can be traced back to Blaney? Even his old pal Rusk thinks he’s guilty... and turns him in to the police. Lots of twists and turns, and one of those great end twists where the real killer is revealed.
Hitch Appearance: In a crowd listening to a political speech - right
at the beginning of the film... then someone spots a dead woman floating in the Thames River, naked except for a neck tie. “Is that my club tie?” someone asks.
Hitch Stock Company: Elsie Randolph who plays the Hotel Clerk was also in RICH AND STRANGE (1931).
Birds: One of the few Hitchcock films without birds - though there are some seagulls in the opening shot and a quail is served at dinner.
Experiment: Hitchcock plays it safe as far as story is concerned. FRENZY is a great example of taking us into a world, Hero & Villain “Flipsides”, character flaw creating story, set ups, and traditional twist endings. There are also some visual experiments in the film that we will look at in a moment.
SPOILERS!!!
Motifs: One of the great things about this movie is that it also manages to use *food* as a leitmotif - not only is one of the characters in the produce industry, and much of the story takes place in London's Covent Garden food market (where Hitchcock’s father worked), the Detective's wife is taking a gourmet cooking class... which supplies a lot of comedy as he attempts to eat her odd concoctions. We get food and friendship and romance as story elements that pop up in a variety of places throughout the film.
Love and sex are also leitmotifs, here - with Rusk a real lady’s man, always talking about women. Blaney’s ex-wife runs a dating service, and people tend to be defined by their sex lives. The police detective investigating the murders (Alec McCowen) has been married for years, and his wife is trying to spice up their relationship... with cooking lessons. The way to a man’s heart...
After Blaney has a blow up with his wife in public, Rusk shows up at the dating service. He has “peculiar appetites” when it comes to women, and Blaney’s ex-wife refuses him service... so he rapes and murders her with his neck tie. About a third of the way into the film we know who the Neck Tie Killer is - and it’s Blaney’s best friend! And by the 33 minute point, Blaney is on the run from the police with nowhere to hide.
When Blaney finds some money his ex-wife put in his coat pocket, he calls his girlfriend from the bar Babs (Anna Massey) and they go to a no-tell hotel, where they are given the “Cupid Suite”. Babs knows Blaney could never be the Neck Tie Killer - he only owns two ties. There have already been more murders than that. The hotel desk clerk recognizes Blaney from a wanted photo and calls the police. Blaney manages to escape without his clothes and his now on the run in his pajamas. Hard to be inconspicuous when that’s all you have to wear.
World Of The Story: One of the interesting things about this film is that you get a great behind the scenes look at the wholesale produce business in London. You often hear people say in interviews that “New York is a character in our film”, and usually that’s BS, but sometimes a location *can* be a character. One of the great things about movies is that they allow us to visit places we have never been and experience things we will probably never experience. Who wants to be falsely accused of murder? Just as NORTH BY NORTHWEST took us on a tour of famous sites between New York and Mt. Rushmore, FRENZY takes us on a tour of the Covent Garden Market and the wholesale produce business.
There are some great shots of Covent Garden’s market, including a high overhead. You get a good feel for the place, but the story takes us behind the scenes to see how the market works. Because Rusk’s business is wholesale produce, we get to see his warehouse and hear him make deals as the background to scenes. The audience is fascinated by how things work - that’s why we have all of those procedural shows on TV - but we aren’t only interested by crime scenes, we are interested in reality shows about how restaurants work and commercial fishermen and truck drivers. We love to see behind the curtain. Every story takes place in some world, and part of our job as screenwriters is to show the audience the secrets of that world - the things we didn’t know. This can be a travelogue like NORTH BY NORTHWEST or a documentary like FRENZY - both are the thriller versions of something you might see on National Geographic.
The key to showing the audience the world of your story is to show us how things work as part of the story - Rusk has a conversation about some of the produce having a short shelf life so he has to get rid of it, and there is a conversation about sending old potatoes back to the farm... which enters into the story later. There’s a scene where Rusk goes through his warehouse and we see every element of his business. The other key is to find some interesting little details - one of the things I love about Elmore Leonard novels are those cool details like the rubber bands on the grip of a pistol to keep it from slipping. Might have been a Leonard novel where I first read about super-gluing to find latent finger prints - that’s cool! Look for those interesting details that people will remember and talk about after seeing the film. Hey, can we trim the brown spots off those veggies and still sell them? Can we turn those apples over so that the brown spots don’t show?
The most important thing is that the world of the story is *part* of the story. Those potatoes being sent back to the farm because they didn’t sell end up being the perfect place for the killer to hide a body. The potatoes are shipped in a truck - and we get to see most of the trip, including the cruddy diner where truckers stop for a meal on the road. The body gets into the truck by the tools of the trade - a dolly. I did an article for Script Magazine ages ago called Hitchcock’s Chocolates about how he consistently uses the tools of the character’s trade as part of the story - in the remake of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH Jimmy Stewart is a doctor who gives his wife a sedative before telling her that their son has been kidnaped. So Rusk uses all of the tools and elements of the produce market in the story - as part of the story.
When Blaney gets fired, his friend Rusk gives him a carton of grapes to help him out... and a tip on a horse.
Flipsides: Richard Blaney is our protagonist and Bob Rusk ends up being the antagonist - notice that they share the same initials, but reversed? And each character is almost the opposite of the other - Rusk is “lucky” and seems to breeze through life without any problems, he gives Blaney that race horse tip... and Blaney doesn’t have any money to bet. Rusk’s horse wins, but Blaney still loses. Rusk owns his own business, Blaney gets fired from his job as a bartender about a minute after he’s introduced. Rusk is great with the ladies, Blaney is divorced and throughout the film seems to have problems with women. One of the best gags is that Blaney is *sure* he’s going to score with his ex-wife... but ends up sleeping on a cot at the Salvation Army. Rusk is cool and glib and always smiling, Blaney has some serious anger issues and always seems to be snarling and frowning. Though each man has similarities to the other, if one is positive the other is negative.
In my long out of print Action Screenwriting book I talk about heroes and villains who are “flipsides” - like Indiana Jones and Belloq in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. This is a great way to define your protagonist and antagonist - find their common ground (like both are adventurous archeologists) and then show where they are opposites. What’s interesting about Rusk and Blaney is that Rusk seems like as genuinely nice and caring guy - he would do anything to help his friend out. And Rusk even seems to care about the feelings of his victims, kind of - he tells Blaney’s ex-wife that he wouldn’t do anything to a woman she didn’t want done (well, except rape and kill them, I guess). Blaney, on the other hand, seems to think only about himself. He is always asking people to do him favors - like getting Babs to collect his things from the apartment behind the bar. But he also suffers from the sin of pride - he’s a loser who doesn’t want to look like a loser, so he’s always getting angry when people try to help him, and starts the film off throwing all of his money at his boss when he gets fired to pay for his drinks and that advance on his salary. When Rusk asks if he needs money, he *must* say no to keep his pride, even though it’s obvious the reason why he went there in the first place was to hit him up for a loan. Same thing with his ex-wife. Blaney is isolated from society before he’s accused of being the Neck Tie Killer. Where Rusk charms people into doing things for him, Blaney is so bristley he pushes away the people who want to help him.
The Clues Lead To The Hero: One of the great things about the way this script is plotted is that all of the clues to the Neck Tie Killer lead right to Blaney. Every woman he comes in contact with ends up being a victim! How can he ever convince the police, or anybody else, that he’s *not* the killer? In a story where a man is wrongly accused of a crime, one of the difficulties is to find a logical reason why he would be accused in the first place, and then keeping him wrongly accused for the rest of the story. In NORTH BY NORTHWEST, we have George Kaplan - the fake spy that Roger O. Thornhill thinks has all of the answers - and that keeps Thornhill going to the wrong place at the very wrong time and staying deep in trouble. In most other Hitchcock films we get something similar - the protagonist chases after the villain and the authorities believe he is the villain. But in FRENZY we have a different solution - Blaney’s friend Rusk knows who Blaney knows - knows that his ex-wife is doing well in her business (first scene between them), knows that he’s sleeping with Babs who works at the bar (also in the first scene between them), so all of the women that Blaney knows, Rusk knows. When Rusk kills one, Blaney is blamed. The great thing about FRENZY is how *friendship* enters into the story again and again - if Blaney and Rusk had not been friends, Blaney would never be prime suspect in the Neck Tie Killings. Blaney’s Air Force pal ends up being the guy who offers to hide him... except his wife wants to turn him in to the police. Again - a friendship that puts Blaney at risk... causing him to lose his temper yet again.
Triple Set Ups: There are many great set ups & pay offs in the film - and they seem completely invisible. In Rusk’s first scene he uses his monogrammed tie pin to pick his teeth, and does this throughout the film. You think it’s just a bit of business - maybe something the actor came up with.... but it’s actually a set up for a later suspense scene. Also, in a throw away conversation about the produce business, Rusk talks to another produce guy about a shipment of potatoes that is being returned. We think this is just showing us the world of the story at the time, but it is also a set up. And the third bit of set up is Rusk telling a victim, “You’re my type” - which is particularly chilling at the time, but also a set up. None of these three things seems like a set up at all...
That Long Tracking Shot: On of the most amazing shots in film history is in FRENZY - Rusk takes another woman connected to Blaney up to his apartment and tells her “You’re my type” as they enter his apartment. Because that phrase has been set up as part of Rusk’s Neck Tie Killer side, we don’t need to go inside the apartment and see him kill again, we *know* what is going to happen. So we get a long backwards tracking shot from the apartment door, down one flight of stairs, around a corner and down another flight of stairs, through an entry hall, out a door, across a bustling street, then craning up to see more of the building. This would have been a difficult shot with a Steady-cam, only that wouldn’t be invented for another four years.
Here's the trick - the camera is on a jib arm for the stairs, then there is actually a cut when we leave the house which is covered by a man carrying a sack of potatoes walking in front of the camera. I call this a "Hitchcock Wipe". Spielberg used it in JAWS for the that cool scene on the beach when the Kittner Boy gets chomped by the shark.
Then we have a great scene where Rusk puts a victim’s body in a sack of potatoes that will be driven back to the farm where they came from - the pay off from that conversation earlier in the film that we never suspected was setting up this scene. And all of the evidence is gone, and Rusk is free and clear. He goes to pick his teeth with his tie pin... and it isn’t there. We get some great flash-cuts: the victim grabbed it while he was killing her! Rusk goes back to the potato truck, searches for the sack with the dead woman... and the truck starts up and drives away! This is a great suspense scene, with the *villain* in peril of being discovered... And it works! Rusk retrieves the tie pin, but now must escape the speeding potato truck.
As every woman he has ever known ends up a victim of the Neck Tie Killer, Blaney has no one else to turn to for help except his old pal Rusk... and Rusk turns him over to the police, where he is arrested and thrown in a cell. This is all done in a high overhead, turning Blaney into nothing more than a pawn.
Here's that shot:
Character Flaw:Blaney is an interesting protagonist - an angry, bitter, ex-war hero who manages to pick a fight with anyone who tries to help him or shows him pity. He has enough self-pity, no need for anyone else’s. But this leads to some great blow ups that get him fired and make him the prime suspect in his ex-wife’s murder. His character and character flaw are what make him the perfect suspect. This may be a thriller but it is still character related - and Blaney’s *character* and his emotional issues are directly related to the story being told.
One interesting element of the film is that we spend a great deal of time away from Blaney. Most Hitchcock films stayed with the protagonist for the majority of the scenes. This is true whether the film is NORTH BY NORTHWEST or REAR WINDOW. But here Blaney shares screen time with Rusk and the Detective. The three seem to have almost equal screen time.
There are hilarious scenes where the Detective must suffer through his wife’s gourmet cooking which help define his character. How do you pretend to enjoy the eel head soup? These scenes do more than provide a laugh, they show the Detective slowly beginning to believe that Blaney may not be guilty. He is a “pivot character” who begins as an antagonist chasing Blaney, but slowly changes sides and tries to find the evidence that will exonerate him. This happens in a swell scene where we see the Detective thinking in the courtroom after Blaney has been captured and found guilty of murder.
There’s a great scene where the Detective and his wife are discussing the dead woman in the potato truck, the killer had to pry open her rigored hand to get the tie pin, breaking each of her fingers... And his wife snaps a break stick in half. Ouch! This is done throughout the film - very clever stuff! Sound and image working together.
Twist Ends: The film works its way to a great traditional twist end and doesn’t waste a second of film time after the twist - it goes directly to closing credits. This is not a "Sixth Sense" twist that changes the entire film we have previously seen, but the sort of twist ending the Hitchcock Presents Show was famous for - in this case we have sort of a triple twist: Blaney escapes prison and goes to kill Rusk... but the person in Rusk's bed he beats with a crow bar ends up being the latest neck tie victim (in the novel it's Jean Marsh's character, in the film it's some hot naked woman)! There's a great shot after he gets done slamming the crow bar into the person's head when an arm falls from beneath the sheets - a woman's arm with too many bracelets. Twist! Just when Blaney realizes his mistake, the door opens - and it's the Detective. Twist! The Detective puts his fingers to his lips and hides... as the door opens *again* and it's Rusk with a trunk. But Rusk tries to pin it on Blaney. Twist! Who will the Detective arrest? And then we get our final little twist - kind of a Columbo Moment - when the Detective notes that Rusk isn't wearing a neck tie. For a moment there, we thought for sure Blaney was screwed!
There are some other great twists in the film - instead of just dumping information on the audience Anthony Shaffer and Hitchcock always seem to find a way to spring it on us. After we know that Blaney is the Neck Tie Killer there’s a great scene where Babs leaves the bar - in shock because she’s worried that Blaney might actually be the killer - and when she steps outside the scene becomes completely silent. She’s lost in thought. And when she moves her head - WHAM! - Rusk is right behind her! Great shock moment. Another example is when Blaney’s Air Force pal’s wife asks how Blaney’s ex-wife is doing - a great tense moment - and Blaney admits that she’s dead... and his friend’s wife grabs a newspaper with a front page story about the police searching for Blaney the Neck Tie Killer and shoves it in Blaney’s face and says: Because you killed her! Knocks Blaney back, and knocks us back as well. These are the people trying to help him - and they think he did it! Blaney really is a man with awful luck! Throughout the film, every piece of information is given to the audience in the most interesting way possible - through little twists and reversals that make FRENZY a consistently exciting film.
A great summation of Hitchcock's thrillers that also works as kind of a little tour of London and a behind the scenes of Covent Garden market. Lots of suspense, twists, and a fun look at what happens when you lose all of your friends in the divorce... except for the bad boys you used to hang out with as a bachelor. Great script by Shaffer, great cinematography by Gilbert Taylor. Marred by iffy music by Ron Goodwin (replacing Bernard Herrmann after he had a falling out with Hitch). Hitchcock's best film in the post-PSYCHO era (after he began to believe all of those critics that called him a genius - and made mostly cruddy films). A modern film, that holds up really well.
- Bill.
The other Fridays With Hitchcock.
BUY THE DVD AT AMAZON:
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Lancelot Link Thursday
Lancelot Link Thursday! For those of you who think Bonzo should have run for President after graduating college, here are some articles about screenwriting and the biz that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are four cool links plus this week's car chase...
1) A sentence that only uses one word many times.
2) Movie Reviews, Broken Down.
3) Got a novel? - my friend Harry posted this on his blog - Del Rey has a conest going!
4) Trailer #3 for the movie RUBBER - like PSYCHO, but with a car tire.
5) The car chase is from RONIN - a movie with kind of a nonsense story, but a bunch of great action scenes.
No CGI, no tricks - just some amazing French drivers!
- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Writing Action Scenes - and the 5 reasons why they need to be on the page.
Dinner: Tortas in Studio City - a burrito as big as my head, salad, chips, salsa... all for less than you'd pay at some fast food joint.
Pages: Yes - slow progress on the spec.
Bicycle: Yes. Sort bike ride to NoHo for the afternoon shift at Panera.
Here are four cool links plus this week's car chase...
1) A sentence that only uses one word many times.
2) Movie Reviews, Broken Down.
3) Got a novel? - my friend Harry posted this on his blog - Del Rey has a conest going!
4) Trailer #3 for the movie RUBBER - like PSYCHO, but with a car tire.
5) The car chase is from RONIN - a movie with kind of a nonsense story, but a bunch of great action scenes.
No CGI, no tricks - just some amazing French drivers!
- Bill
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Writing Action Scenes - and the 5 reasons why they need to be on the page.
Dinner: Tortas in Studio City - a burrito as big as my head, salad, chips, salsa... all for less than you'd pay at some fast food joint.
Pages: Yes - slow progress on the spec.
Bicycle: Yes. Sort bike ride to NoHo for the afternoon shift at Panera.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Flashback: Set Crashing
Originally ran in 2007...
My buddy Van Tassell and I and director Paul Kyriazi are going to hang out next weekend - a bunch of guys from the old days from my home town. I think Van is my oldest friend - I've known him since I was 18, and when I go home for the holidays we grab beers and see movies.
Whenever anyone filmed a movie in the San Francisco Bay Area, Van and I snuck on the set. Growing up in the East Bay Area - halfway between Oakland and Stockton - San Francisco always seemed like some far off place you only went to on special school field trips or when you went to the zoo on your birthday. Actually, we usually went to the Oakland Zoo on my birthday. I saw San Francisco more in movies than in real life.
So when I started making my own movies on 8mm and Super-8mm, my buddy Van Tassell and I began driving into the city and sneaking onto movie sets... to watch the pros at work.
Van installs carpets for a living (any out of work film guys could always find a job tearing up jute padding and carrying heavy rolls of carpet for Van) and his carpet tool pouch looks EXACTLY like a film grip's tool pouch. This was part of the plan to sneak onto movie sets - look like someone who belongs. So we would dress like grips, filling the tool pouch with film tools.
I subscribed to Weekly Variety, and they printed the films in production. Whenever anything was shooting in San Francisco (a popular location) we'd take a few days off from our day jobs to crash the set. To find out where they were filming I'd call the city permit office and pretend to be somebody from a newspaper covering the film or a caterer who forgot where to send the food truck. They'd tell me where the permit was issued for, but usually it was a vague answer like "They're shooting in the Marina District today" - maybe they didn't believe my story?
So Van and I would pile in his red Bronco - it was used as a picture vehicle in Paul's movie WEAPONS OF DEATH.... the hero's truck - and just drive around the Marina District until we spotted two dozen huge trucks. Then we'd just follow the cables to the set. The key was to be cool and blend in. We looked like grips, but we also had to ACT like grips. A couple of times someone would actually ask us to do something, and we always did it. I actually carried a 9-K light from the truck to where they were shooting on one set.
Van and I became pros at blending in, and we crashed a bunch of sets. Mel Brooks filmed HIGH ANXIETY in San Francisco, and we were there. Don Siegel shot TELEFON and ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ and we were there. But the best story is when they shot the James Bond movie VIEW TO A KILL. We didn't know it would become the worst James Bond movie ever - we just knew that James Bond was shooting in San Francisco, so Van and I decided to go out and watch. Dressed as grips.
The day Van and I crashed the set they were doing this huge effects scene - burning down City Hall. They had rigged all of these gas explosions on the building. They had Roger Moore's stunt double on a fire truck. They'd hired a bunch of extras to run in panic and some stunt men who would actually catch on fire. It was going to be very expensive, and they could only do it once. Boy did we pick the right day to crash the set!
So, we're doing our best to look like grips - helping ourselves to doughnuts on the craft services table - when we notice these two guys hop the rope and sneak onto the set. Well, that creates a danger to us. If they start checking to see who belongs on the set and who doesn't, we'll be kicked off before they start filming. Van and I come to a dead stop in the doughnut line, causing REAL grips to complain.
These two sneak-ins are wearing warm-up suits and look WAY out of place. They're also laughing - probably a little drunk. Then they see the food and start to come over!
Oh man. They're walking right towards us. Laughing so loud, people are starting to notice them. A couple of big Security Guards hear the laughter, turn and see the two sneak-ins, and move to intercept them... Coming right at us!
Two big Security Guards.
Walking towards Van and me.
We both freeze for a minute, then one of the REAL grips tells us to stop hogging the doughnuts. So we try to move away from the craft services table, but that means moving TOWARDS the two sneak-ins... and those two big Security Guards.
Shit! No choice!
Van and I play it really cool and move away from the table, pretending to be REALLY interested in the sprinkles on our doughnuts. The two sneak-ins brush past us on the way to the food. One of the Security Guards says, "Hey! You two!" Van and I try NOT to look at them, but both of us are wondering if they're talking to us or the sneak-ins. What if the Guards know everyone on the crew and know we don't belong? Can they arrest you for crashing a set?
They two big Security Guards are coming right at us. One puts his hand on my shoulder. Busted!!!
"Excuse me," he says as he moves me aside to get to the sneak- ins. Van and I watch the sneak-ins get rousted by the two big Security Guards. They are told to leave the area... but they hang around on the sidelines.
Close call. Van and I eat our doughnuts and watch the extras get instructions on how to run in panic when City Hall explodes behind them. The extras are told they can't screw up the shot, because they are only going to do it once. Van and I watch as the FX guys turn on their remote controls and they get the Roger Moore stunt guy on top of the fire truck. "This is gonna be cool," Van whispers to me.
Everyone takes their places as they get ready to blow up City Hall. Lights blast on. The director whispers to the AD who yells: ACTION! They start filming. The extras walk down the street calmly. BLAM! City Hall explodes into flames! The fire truck races into the shot...
And the two sneak-ins in warm ups hop the rope, run RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA and yell "City Hall's on fire! City Hall's on fire!" Then they run away, like the rest of the extras... blending into the crowd.
Van and I have been on a dozen film sets and have always stayed in the background. Always played it cool. Always tried to blend in. We can say to friends, "Yeah, we were on the set of that James Bond movie. We watched them burn down city hall." But those two sneak-ins?
They're actually IN THE MOVIE!
- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: That Ned Beatty / Hillbilly romance film - edgy films and DELIVERANCE.
Dinner: Togos sandwich.
Pages: Some, but still behind.
Bicycle: Yes - long bike ride Monday, medium sized on Tuesday.
My buddy Van Tassell and I and director Paul Kyriazi are going to hang out next weekend - a bunch of guys from the old days from my home town. I think Van is my oldest friend - I've known him since I was 18, and when I go home for the holidays we grab beers and see movies.
Whenever anyone filmed a movie in the San Francisco Bay Area, Van and I snuck on the set. Growing up in the East Bay Area - halfway between Oakland and Stockton - San Francisco always seemed like some far off place you only went to on special school field trips or when you went to the zoo on your birthday. Actually, we usually went to the Oakland Zoo on my birthday. I saw San Francisco more in movies than in real life.
So when I started making my own movies on 8mm and Super-8mm, my buddy Van Tassell and I began driving into the city and sneaking onto movie sets... to watch the pros at work.
Van installs carpets for a living (any out of work film guys could always find a job tearing up jute padding and carrying heavy rolls of carpet for Van) and his carpet tool pouch looks EXACTLY like a film grip's tool pouch. This was part of the plan to sneak onto movie sets - look like someone who belongs. So we would dress like grips, filling the tool pouch with film tools.
I subscribed to Weekly Variety, and they printed the films in production. Whenever anything was shooting in San Francisco (a popular location) we'd take a few days off from our day jobs to crash the set. To find out where they were filming I'd call the city permit office and pretend to be somebody from a newspaper covering the film or a caterer who forgot where to send the food truck. They'd tell me where the permit was issued for, but usually it was a vague answer like "They're shooting in the Marina District today" - maybe they didn't believe my story?
So Van and I would pile in his red Bronco - it was used as a picture vehicle in Paul's movie WEAPONS OF DEATH.... the hero's truck - and just drive around the Marina District until we spotted two dozen huge trucks. Then we'd just follow the cables to the set. The key was to be cool and blend in. We looked like grips, but we also had to ACT like grips. A couple of times someone would actually ask us to do something, and we always did it. I actually carried a 9-K light from the truck to where they were shooting on one set.
Van and I became pros at blending in, and we crashed a bunch of sets. Mel Brooks filmed HIGH ANXIETY in San Francisco, and we were there. Don Siegel shot TELEFON and ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ and we were there. But the best story is when they shot the James Bond movie VIEW TO A KILL. We didn't know it would become the worst James Bond movie ever - we just knew that James Bond was shooting in San Francisco, so Van and I decided to go out and watch. Dressed as grips.
The day Van and I crashed the set they were doing this huge effects scene - burning down City Hall. They had rigged all of these gas explosions on the building. They had Roger Moore's stunt double on a fire truck. They'd hired a bunch of extras to run in panic and some stunt men who would actually catch on fire. It was going to be very expensive, and they could only do it once. Boy did we pick the right day to crash the set!
So, we're doing our best to look like grips - helping ourselves to doughnuts on the craft services table - when we notice these two guys hop the rope and sneak onto the set. Well, that creates a danger to us. If they start checking to see who belongs on the set and who doesn't, we'll be kicked off before they start filming. Van and I come to a dead stop in the doughnut line, causing REAL grips to complain.
These two sneak-ins are wearing warm-up suits and look WAY out of place. They're also laughing - probably a little drunk. Then they see the food and start to come over!
Oh man. They're walking right towards us. Laughing so loud, people are starting to notice them. A couple of big Security Guards hear the laughter, turn and see the two sneak-ins, and move to intercept them... Coming right at us!
Two big Security Guards.
Walking towards Van and me.
We both freeze for a minute, then one of the REAL grips tells us to stop hogging the doughnuts. So we try to move away from the craft services table, but that means moving TOWARDS the two sneak-ins... and those two big Security Guards.
Shit! No choice!
Van and I play it really cool and move away from the table, pretending to be REALLY interested in the sprinkles on our doughnuts. The two sneak-ins brush past us on the way to the food. One of the Security Guards says, "Hey! You two!" Van and I try NOT to look at them, but both of us are wondering if they're talking to us or the sneak-ins. What if the Guards know everyone on the crew and know we don't belong? Can they arrest you for crashing a set?
They two big Security Guards are coming right at us. One puts his hand on my shoulder. Busted!!!
"Excuse me," he says as he moves me aside to get to the sneak- ins. Van and I watch the sneak-ins get rousted by the two big Security Guards. They are told to leave the area... but they hang around on the sidelines.
Close call. Van and I eat our doughnuts and watch the extras get instructions on how to run in panic when City Hall explodes behind them. The extras are told they can't screw up the shot, because they are only going to do it once. Van and I watch as the FX guys turn on their remote controls and they get the Roger Moore stunt guy on top of the fire truck. "This is gonna be cool," Van whispers to me.
Everyone takes their places as they get ready to blow up City Hall. Lights blast on. The director whispers to the AD who yells: ACTION! They start filming. The extras walk down the street calmly. BLAM! City Hall explodes into flames! The fire truck races into the shot...
And the two sneak-ins in warm ups hop the rope, run RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA and yell "City Hall's on fire! City Hall's on fire!" Then they run away, like the rest of the extras... blending into the crowd.
Van and I have been on a dozen film sets and have always stayed in the background. Always played it cool. Always tried to blend in. We can say to friends, "Yeah, we were on the set of that James Bond movie. We watched them burn down city hall." But those two sneak-ins?
They're actually IN THE MOVIE!
- Bill
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: That Ned Beatty / Hillbilly romance film - edgy films and DELIVERANCE.
Dinner: Togos sandwich.
Pages: Some, but still behind.
Bicycle: Yes - long bike ride Monday, medium sized on Tuesday.
Monday, January 17, 2011
Happy MLK Day!
A couple of years ago over the MLK Day Weekend the movie BLONDE & BLONDER was released, and I wrote a post about the accidental beauty of those two things...
The Martin Luther King jr Day blog post from a couple of years ago.
- Bill
The Martin Luther King jr Day blog post from a couple of years ago.
- Bill
Boys! Boys! Boys!
I’m behind on the new screenplay. I had hoped to make up for lost pages on Saturday, but completely screwed up and didn’t do squat. I can still finish by the end of the month, but it becomes less writing a comfortable number of pages every day and more *work*.
The problem is probably the script I finished last month just before Christmas (actually, I think it was December 24th!) - I haven’t written two scripts back-to-back in about 15 years! It’s like running a Marathon today... then trying to run another Marathon tomorrow. The plan was to work extra hard on Saturday and then take Sunday off - because I think having a day off might help me be more productive (sounds counter-intuitive, but also kind of makes sense). But the various events that caused me to get nothing done on Saturday kind of screwed up that plan. I had to do some work on Sunday just to keep from getting father behind.
My sleep patterns are all messed up, and add to that some stupid stuff - like leaving some materials I needed at a copy place on the other side of the valley. The problem with sleep being off is that it makes you stupid. So I’ve been doing all kinds of stupid things over the past few days in addition to not getting many pages written.
One of the other problems with this screenplay - it was originally about a 12 year old girl. The problem is that a 12 year old actress can only work 4 hours a day, and must have an on set teacher, and there are all kinds of other fun rules that will screw up making the film. But an 18 year-old actress pretending to be 16 years old? No restrictions at all! Work them ‘till they drop - they are adults. So I switched the lead from 12 years old to 16 years old... Simple!
Except there is one HUGE difference between a 12 year old girl and a 16 year old girl.
Okay, boobs... but also what comes with boobs...
Boys. A 12 year old girl may like boys and have crushes, but a 16 year old girl may be boy crazy - and boys are part of their every day life. A 12 year old asks her parents if she wants to go to a movie, a 16 year old is asked out by a boy or wishes she were asked out by a boy... or goes with a group of other girls and they talk about boys, etc.
There were no boys in my story idea. No romantic subplot.
I tried to just ignore boys when I started writing the script, but it wasn’t working. So I had to go back and add boys - rewritting a bunch of scenes. The lead girl’s best friend went through a sex change operation (behind the scenes) and Alice became Arlo. This solved part of the problem, but I’m still having boy problems on almost every page. What was outlined to be a scene where she watches a sporting event... is about *boys*! Because boys are the athletes. What was outlined as a scene where she becomes involved in a hobby that’s the main plot... is a problem because she can’t spend that time thinking about *boys*! I’m trying my damndest to keep the boy stuff to a minimum because it has nothing to do with the plot, but it isn’t easy. By the way, here’s a tip: the problem is usually the solution to the problem - so a scene where she had problems with her hobby is now going to include *boys*!
There will still be no romantic subplot for my 16 year old girl.
The other issue with this script - it is not KICK ASS 2. The 12, now 16 year old girl is not shooting guns or outrunning explosions. She also isn’t the reincarnation of a serial killer victim hell-bent on revenge. She is just a girl. This is a family film. Not my genre. Though it is *my* story, and I have a connection to it and a passion for it - um, I want something to explode on page 24. So, on top of this being a Marathon right after a Marathon, it’s a Marathon I’m not obsessed with winning. Hey, it would be nice, but there are many other races that I am more interested in. So, while I’m running this one I keep thinking of other races.
And now I’m just bitching. Venting. Using you kind folks. Sorry about that.
Sometimes, it’s work. You have that fantasy that you’re going to sell that script and tell your day job boss to take this job and shove it (though my boss was a great guy) and then live this romanticized screenwriter’s life where you sleep until noon and type either in your pjs like Marcel or in the bathtub like Waldo... and sometimes you can do those things. Other times, it’s work. You still love it, but it’s that love you feel for your spouse when she does something that screws you up bigtime and you are mad as hell but bite your tongue. You may almost hate her now, but in a couple of days or a week all of this will be dust in the wind and you’ll be back to loving her. You *know* you’re going to still love her when all of this blows over (and you still love her now, you’re just mad at her, too) - so you stick with it and put on that “Yes, Dear” smile and say it doesn’t matter when it does and work to get past it. I’m going to work to get through this script because I know somewhere down the line - maybe the day after tomorrow - I will fall back in love with it and everything will be wonderful.
Except for all of those scenes that now require *boys*.
- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Beginning, Middle, and End - and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.
Dinner: Carls Jr Chicken Strips.
Pages: Yeah, read the blog entry.
Bicycle: Yes. On Thursday I took a bike ride of epic length - all over NoHo, then to Burbank, then to Writers Store, then to an undisclosed drinking location, then home. Saturday - another long one. Sunday - short ride, but should have just rested my legs.
The problem is probably the script I finished last month just before Christmas (actually, I think it was December 24th!) - I haven’t written two scripts back-to-back in about 15 years! It’s like running a Marathon today... then trying to run another Marathon tomorrow. The plan was to work extra hard on Saturday and then take Sunday off - because I think having a day off might help me be more productive (sounds counter-intuitive, but also kind of makes sense). But the various events that caused me to get nothing done on Saturday kind of screwed up that plan. I had to do some work on Sunday just to keep from getting father behind.
My sleep patterns are all messed up, and add to that some stupid stuff - like leaving some materials I needed at a copy place on the other side of the valley. The problem with sleep being off is that it makes you stupid. So I’ve been doing all kinds of stupid things over the past few days in addition to not getting many pages written.
One of the other problems with this screenplay - it was originally about a 12 year old girl. The problem is that a 12 year old actress can only work 4 hours a day, and must have an on set teacher, and there are all kinds of other fun rules that will screw up making the film. But an 18 year-old actress pretending to be 16 years old? No restrictions at all! Work them ‘till they drop - they are adults. So I switched the lead from 12 years old to 16 years old... Simple!
Except there is one HUGE difference between a 12 year old girl and a 16 year old girl.
Okay, boobs... but also what comes with boobs...
Boys. A 12 year old girl may like boys and have crushes, but a 16 year old girl may be boy crazy - and boys are part of their every day life. A 12 year old asks her parents if she wants to go to a movie, a 16 year old is asked out by a boy or wishes she were asked out by a boy... or goes with a group of other girls and they talk about boys, etc.
There were no boys in my story idea. No romantic subplot.
I tried to just ignore boys when I started writing the script, but it wasn’t working. So I had to go back and add boys - rewritting a bunch of scenes. The lead girl’s best friend went through a sex change operation (behind the scenes) and Alice became Arlo. This solved part of the problem, but I’m still having boy problems on almost every page. What was outlined to be a scene where she watches a sporting event... is about *boys*! Because boys are the athletes. What was outlined as a scene where she becomes involved in a hobby that’s the main plot... is a problem because she can’t spend that time thinking about *boys*! I’m trying my damndest to keep the boy stuff to a minimum because it has nothing to do with the plot, but it isn’t easy. By the way, here’s a tip: the problem is usually the solution to the problem - so a scene where she had problems with her hobby is now going to include *boys*!
There will still be no romantic subplot for my 16 year old girl.
The other issue with this script - it is not KICK ASS 2. The 12, now 16 year old girl is not shooting guns or outrunning explosions. She also isn’t the reincarnation of a serial killer victim hell-bent on revenge. She is just a girl. This is a family film. Not my genre. Though it is *my* story, and I have a connection to it and a passion for it - um, I want something to explode on page 24. So, on top of this being a Marathon right after a Marathon, it’s a Marathon I’m not obsessed with winning. Hey, it would be nice, but there are many other races that I am more interested in. So, while I’m running this one I keep thinking of other races.
And now I’m just bitching. Venting. Using you kind folks. Sorry about that.
Sometimes, it’s work. You have that fantasy that you’re going to sell that script and tell your day job boss to take this job and shove it (though my boss was a great guy) and then live this romanticized screenwriter’s life where you sleep until noon and type either in your pjs like Marcel or in the bathtub like Waldo... and sometimes you can do those things. Other times, it’s work. You still love it, but it’s that love you feel for your spouse when she does something that screws you up bigtime and you are mad as hell but bite your tongue. You may almost hate her now, but in a couple of days or a week all of this will be dust in the wind and you’ll be back to loving her. You *know* you’re going to still love her when all of this blows over (and you still love her now, you’re just mad at her, too) - so you stick with it and put on that “Yes, Dear” smile and say it doesn’t matter when it does and work to get past it. I’m going to work to get through this script because I know somewhere down the line - maybe the day after tomorrow - I will fall back in love with it and everything will be wonderful.
Except for all of those scenes that now require *boys*.
- Bill
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Beginning, Middle, and End - and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.
Dinner: Carls Jr Chicken Strips.
Pages: Yeah, read the blog entry.
Bicycle: Yes. On Thursday I took a bike ride of epic length - all over NoHo, then to Burbank, then to Writers Store, then to an undisclosed drinking location, then home. Saturday - another long one. Sunday - short ride, but should have just rested my legs.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Lancelot Link Thursday
Lancelot Link Thursday! For those of you who wonder why Marcel the monkey didn't get a spin off series from FRIENDS, here are some articles about screenwriting and the biz that may be of interest to you. Brought to you by that suave and sophisticated secret agent...
Here are four cool links plus this week's car chase...
1) Talk like a Cowboy!
2) The Strange World Of Sherlock Holmes.
3) What If That Movie Had Been Made In Japan?
4) The Writer Behind THE KING'S SPEECH.
5) And this week's car chase...
RIP: Peter Yates.
- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Character Driven Blockbusters?
Dinner: Roast Beef sandwich at Togos.
Pages: Some pages on the new spec - I'm a little behind, but okay.
Bicycle: First medium ride since returning from the holidays!
Here are four cool links plus this week's car chase...
1) Talk like a Cowboy!
2) The Strange World Of Sherlock Holmes.
3) What If That Movie Had Been Made In Japan?
4) The Writer Behind THE KING'S SPEECH.
5) And this week's car chase...
RIP: Peter Yates.
- Bill
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Character Driven Blockbusters?
Dinner: Roast Beef sandwich at Togos.
Pages: Some pages on the new spec - I'm a little behind, but okay.
Bicycle: First medium ride since returning from the holidays!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Do Not Drink Liquids While Reading This
My friend Ronson posted a link to this on Facebook. I've been to this page before, laughed too hard in public, and then forgot about it.
DAMN YOU AUTOCORRECT!
- Bill
DAMN YOU AUTOCORRECT!
- Bill
Best Of The Blog
So, here's a sample of the posts that usually pop up on this blog...
1) The LEOPARD MAN post on creating dread and suspense.
2) How NOTTINGHAM became ROBIN HOOD. - my most read blog entry.
3) Chess Moves and DARK PASSAGE.
4) The Fridays With Hitchcock Index - What we can learn about screenwriting from Hitch's films.
5) What does a car chase look like on the page?
6) My First Agent! - actually, the only one I've ever had.
7) Last, but not least: The Saga Of The Brad Pitt Guy. There are 5 parts to it, next part linked at the end of each part before the comments.
What are your favorite blog entries?
- Bill
1) The LEOPARD MAN post on creating dread and suspense.
2) How NOTTINGHAM became ROBIN HOOD. - my most read blog entry.
3) Chess Moves and DARK PASSAGE.
4) The Fridays With Hitchcock Index - What we can learn about screenwriting from Hitch's films.
5) What does a car chase look like on the page?
6) My First Agent! - actually, the only one I've ever had.
7) Last, but not least: The Saga Of The Brad Pitt Guy. There are 5 parts to it, next part linked at the end of each part before the comments.
What are your favorite blog entries?
- Bill
Friday, January 7, 2011
Wish I Would Have Thought Of That
I never come up with any good Get Rich Quick schemes - mine are always the ones that take a lot of hard work.
A friend of mine came up with a scheme to sell stuff that was made by other people - he'd just be the middle man. I thought this was a dumb idea, as customers could buy the products from the manufacturer for *less* than he sold them for. But his theory was that if you put a bunch of connected products from different sources on the same website, people would buy from you rather than go all over the place online - even if you would save money doing that. And he was right. I was wrong. He makes a living with a website that sells other people's stuff... and now I wish I'd have done that.
So when I was e-mailed by the writers of this proposed screenwriting book, I felt like an idiot again. Great idea! Why didn't I think of that? They had professional screenwriters and screenwriting teachers each write a chapter of their book... and they wrote the introduction! (okay, they had to plan and edit the book, too.) So you get a bunch of name writers each doing a chapter - like an all star movie.
Meanwhile, I am writing my own damned books - doing all of the writing myself! And I don't have an all star line up of writers - just me.
I wish I would have thought of this book!
- Bill
A friend of mine came up with a scheme to sell stuff that was made by other people - he'd just be the middle man. I thought this was a dumb idea, as customers could buy the products from the manufacturer for *less* than he sold them for. But his theory was that if you put a bunch of connected products from different sources on the same website, people would buy from you rather than go all over the place online - even if you would save money doing that. And he was right. I was wrong. He makes a living with a website that sells other people's stuff... and now I wish I'd have done that.
So when I was e-mailed by the writers of this proposed screenwriting book, I felt like an idiot again. Great idea! Why didn't I think of that? They had professional screenwriters and screenwriting teachers each write a chapter of their book... and they wrote the introduction! (okay, they had to plan and edit the book, too.) So you get a bunch of name writers each doing a chapter - like an all star movie.
Meanwhile, I am writing my own damned books - doing all of the writing myself! And I don't have an all star line up of writers - just me.
I wish I would have thought of this book!
- Bill
Monday, January 3, 2011
Crank It To 11!
Welcome to 2011! Though last year was so much better than 2009 for me, I’m hoping this new one will be better still. And I’m hoping that it will be a good year for all of you as well. I mean, what if those Mayans were right? If this is the last full year before all of that stuff from that John Cusack movie happens, let’s hope it’s a good one! So get those specs finished and sold and made... and I hope your film premiers happen before December 20, 2012! Just in case.
If the Mayans motivate you to get things done, that’s a good thing. If something else motivates you to get things done, that’s a good thing. The key is to get things done. We have a whole new year to get things done in. Wipe away any deadlines you may have missed and start with some new ones. Or some new projects. Whatever works for you.
I ended the year with a new spec, and am starting the year with a new spec...
Which means the 2 weeks of new Script Tips I had planned to kick off the year with? Not going to happen... but I had almost a full month of new or completely rewritten Script Tips last year, so I’m going to run those and then try for 2 weeks of new Script Tips in February. Heck, maybe even a whole (short) month of new and completely rewritten tips.
Tuesday’s New Script Tip rerun is on making some sort of plan so that you can get something done before those earthquakes and giant waves and flocks of dead birds falling from the sky that means the world is coming to an end. This is a good tip - don’t miss it!
Though I haven’t secured the venue, yet, I plan on doing my first USA screenwriting class in *years* on April 16 & 17 - probably at the Burbank Airport Marriott.
I hope to do a few small blog entries every week, and get around to those epic multi-part stories about people who claim to have urinated with Brad Pitt once this spec is finished. I may squeeze in some Hitchcock entries and maybe talk about some more of my favorite films in January - provided I don’t get too far behind. I hate/love Stephen King for having enough residual energy left after writing an 800 page novel to knock out a couple of short stories. Even if I crank my energy level up to 11, when I finish a script I want to take a nap. But I’ll try to get some new material up here in the new year.
And I want *you* to create some new material of your own. This is the year to crank your energy up to 11 and get some stuff done!
- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: That's Episodic! - and a movie starring Jack Black.
Dinner: Pizza with everything on it.
Pages: Did some work on the Action Book rewrite.
Movies: TRUE GRIT in the cinema and John Sayles' MEN WITH GUNS on DVD.
If the Mayans motivate you to get things done, that’s a good thing. If something else motivates you to get things done, that’s a good thing. The key is to get things done. We have a whole new year to get things done in. Wipe away any deadlines you may have missed and start with some new ones. Or some new projects. Whatever works for you.
I ended the year with a new spec, and am starting the year with a new spec...
Which means the 2 weeks of new Script Tips I had planned to kick off the year with? Not going to happen... but I had almost a full month of new or completely rewritten Script Tips last year, so I’m going to run those and then try for 2 weeks of new Script Tips in February. Heck, maybe even a whole (short) month of new and completely rewritten tips.
Tuesday’s New Script Tip rerun is on making some sort of plan so that you can get something done before those earthquakes and giant waves and flocks of dead birds falling from the sky that means the world is coming to an end. This is a good tip - don’t miss it!
Though I haven’t secured the venue, yet, I plan on doing my first USA screenwriting class in *years* on April 16 & 17 - probably at the Burbank Airport Marriott.
I hope to do a few small blog entries every week, and get around to those epic multi-part stories about people who claim to have urinated with Brad Pitt once this spec is finished. I may squeeze in some Hitchcock entries and maybe talk about some more of my favorite films in January - provided I don’t get too far behind. I hate/love Stephen King for having enough residual energy left after writing an 800 page novel to knock out a couple of short stories. Even if I crank my energy level up to 11, when I finish a script I want to take a nap. But I’ll try to get some new material up here in the new year.
And I want *you* to create some new material of your own. This is the year to crank your energy up to 11 and get some stuff done!
- Bill
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: That's Episodic! - and a movie starring Jack Black.
Dinner: Pizza with everything on it.
Pages: Did some work on the Action Book rewrite.
Movies: TRUE GRIT in the cinema and John Sayles' MEN WITH GUNS on DVD.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)