Here are the nominees and the winners... but who should have won?
BEST PICTURE
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
WINNER: The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
BEST 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
WINNER: The King’s Speech, Screenplay by David Seidler
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 Hours, Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
WINNER: 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
BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
WINNER: Colin Firth, The King’s Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours
BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter’s Bone
WINNER: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
BEST DIRECTOR
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit
David Fincher, The Social Network
WINNER: Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech
David O. Russell, The Fighter
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
WINNER: Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King’s Speech
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King’s Speech
WINNER: Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Black Swan, Matthew Libatique
WINNER: Inception, Wally Pfister
The King’s Speech, Danny Cohen
The Social Network, Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit, Roger Deakins
BEST ART DIRECTION
WINNER: Alice in Wonderland, Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara
Happy Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 1, Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Inception, Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
The King’s Speech, Eve Stewart, Judy Farr
True Grit, Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh
BEST EDITING
127 Hours, Jon Harris
Black Swan, Andrew Weisblum
The Fighter, Pamela Martin
The King’s Speech, Tariq Anwar
WINNER: The Social Network, Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter
BEST 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
WINNER: Inception, Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
Iron Man 2, Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
WINNER: Alice in Wonderland, Colleen Atwood
I Am Love, Antonella Cannarozzi
The King’s Speech, Jenny Beaven
The Tempest, Sandy Powell
True Grit, Mary Zophres
BEST MAKEUP
Barney’s Version, Adrien Morot
The Way Back, Eduoard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk, Yolanda Toussieng
WINNER: The Wolfman, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey
BEST SOUND EDITING
WINNER: 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
BEST SOUND MIXING
WINNER: 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
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
127 Hours, A.R. Rahman
How to Train Your Dragon, John Powell
Inception, Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech, Alexandre Desplat
WINNER: The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
BEST SONG
“Coming Home,” Country Strong, Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light,” Tangled, Alan Menken, Glenn Slater
“If I Rise,” 127 Hours, A.R. Rahman, Dido, Rollo Armstrong
WINNER: “We Belong Together,” Toy Story 3, Randy Newman
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Hors la Loi (Outside the Law) (Algeria)
Incendies (Canada)
WINNER: In a Better World (Denmark)
Dogtooth (Greece)
Biutiful (Mexico)
BEST ANIMATED FILM
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
WINNER: Toy Story 3
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz
Gasland, Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic
WINNER: Inside Job, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
Restrepo, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger
Waste Land, Lucy Walker and Angus Aynley
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
The Confession, Tanel Toom
The Crush, Michael Creagh
WINNER: God of Love, Luke Matheny
Na Wewe, Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143, Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
WINNER: Strangers No More, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon
Sun Come Up, Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger
The Warriors of Qiugang, Ruby Yang and Thomas Lenno
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Day & Night, Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let’s Pollute, Geefwee Boedoe
WINNER: The Lost Thing, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary), Bastien Dubois
So, who got robbed?
- Bill
Monday, February 28, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Fridays With Hitchcock: Dial M For Murder
The medium that would make Hitchcock the most recognized director in history was also the medium that would cause him the most trouble as a film maker: Television. Now that more and more people had small screens at home, there was pressure from the studio to make bigger and bigger films - to create an experience in the cinema the audience could not get at home. Epics became popular - and Hitchcock’s movie were usually intimates. So Warner Bros insisted that Hitchcock make his new film in 3D... a popular gimmick in B horror films.
DIAL M FOR MURDER was an international hit stage play by the master of stage suspense, Frederick Knott (WAIT UNTIL DARK). It was a hit on Broadway, a hit in London, and a hit in several other countries, so it only made sense for Hitchcock to be the one to bring it to the screen. One of the interesting decisions Hitchcock and writer Frederick Knott made was *not* to open up the play - usually a stage play is broken out of the set and scenes are transplanted to streets and parks and rollercoasters and anything else that screams “This Was Never A Stage Play!” But here the story remains in the living room of the Wendice flat in London, with a couple of small trips outside and a scene where two of the characters go to a party. By not transplanting any of the scenes to some crazy exterior location, we get a great feeling of being trapped in the action. When bad things happen, we can not cut away to some safe location - because it has never been established. We have to deal with the problems in that living room.
Nutshell: Tony Wendice (the suave-yet-sinister Ray Milland) is a trophy husband for wealthy, beautiful Margot (Grace Kelly). When he discovers that she is cheating on him with her old friend, mystery novelist Mark Halliday (Bob Cummings) he decides to kill her and inherit all of her money... and hatches the perfect murder (title of the remake). Tony blackmails a down-on-his-luck ex-college acquaintance, Charles Swann (Anthony Dawson) to murder Margot while he and Mark are at a party together (the perfect alibi). Nice story if it ends there, but everything manages to go wrong and it's Swann who is killed... by Margot, in self defense. Tony comes up with a quick patch, making it look like Margot murdered Swann in cold blood... and this works perfectly, except for one little thing. Like a British Columbo, Detective Hubbard (John Williams) thinks that something is wrong with this picture and begins poking around until he discovers the truth.
Experiment: Several, most notably shooting the film in 3D. At the time, this required *two* huge film cameras (one representing each of our eyes). Most 3D films had simple non-moving shots, but Hitchcock used graceful, flowing moving camera - almost like his long takes in ROPE, but without completely jettisoning the concept of editing. Here he cuts when he needs to cut, changes angle when he needs to change angle. But the camera is fluid, and that helps to balance the single location.
In order to shoot 3D, the set was built elevated, so Hitchcock could get low angles. He also had to build some giant props, since the two cameras could not get very close to an object like a telephone - and it’s important to the story that we see that phone.
Unlike the cheesy 3D of the horror films of the time, where things are always jumping out at the audience, Hitch uses 3D to give us depth. There is often foreground, a center area, and a background in each shot. There *are* a couple of moments where the action jumps out at the audience - in the murder struggle an arm reaches out to us, and later a major clue is practically shoved in our faces, but these are the only times we get the gimmick side of 3D.
Then, the film was never released in 3D! By the time the film was finished, the threat of television wasn’t as bad as everyone thought - so they decided to just release the movie in standard “flat” prints (less expensive). Earlier this week a 3D version played at an art house in Canada - this is very rare (I considered flying up to see it!).
Hitch Appearance: Hit the pause button or you’ll miss him! When Tony shows Swann a college reunion photo of them together - Hitch is sitting at the same table.
Great Scenes: Because almost the whole movie takes place at one location, instead of looking at traditional scenes, we’re going to look at a couple of elements in the movie that are great screenwriting lessons. There is a reason why this is a beloved film that was remade decades later with an all star cast (and several times over the years under a variety of titles) - the whole script works like clockwork.
Man With A Plan (part one): One of those frequent development notes that get tossed at you is how there is no one in your script we like. Hey, you *must* have a likeable lead! Well, that’s total BS - what you need is an understandable lead. No film is a better example of the non-likeable lead than DIAL M FOR MURDER.
Our lead in the first half of the film is Tony, a trophy husband who plans to murder his wife. The wife, Margot, is cheating on her husband. The movie opens with Tony and Margot kissing, and a few scenes later we have Margot and Mark playing tonsil hockey. So none of those people are likeable - they’re all kind of scummy. Swann - well, he’s going to murder for money, making him not likeable. The detective doesn’t show up until the last half, but he’s all about his job. So we have not a single likeable person in the first half of this film... and maybe the whole thing, depending upon how you feel about cops. So how can this film possible work? (asks the development stooge.)
We may not like Tony, but we certainly admire him. He is clever, brilliant, and has the most amazing plan for killing his wife. And we understand why he would want to kill her - she’s cheating on him. He’s not the perfect husband by any stretch, but he’s not lip-locking with someone else in broad daylight. But the key to Tony is our admiration - while we blunder through our day to day lives, Tony has this amazing master plan that has been worked down to every last minute detail. He has been setting this up for months - and when he does something clever like “accidentally” drop a love letter from Mark to Margot that was stolen by a blackmailer... actually Tony... on the floor in front of Swann, and Swann picks it up in his ungloved hands and returns it to Tony’s day planner - we see how brilliant this guy is. We wish we were that brilliant! Tony becomes our dark fantasy - a guy who does all of the evil things we might want to do, and has such a brilliant plan we know he will never get caught. He has *everything* under control.
Tony explains to Swann step-by-step how he will murder Margot, and will easily get away with it. The camera goes high overhead, so it becomes like a chess game - we can see all of the moves before they will be made. Everything is planned out. There are only two keys to the flat: Tony will have his, and will take Margot’s from her purse and hide it under the carpet on the stairs. This gets Swann inside the house. At the party, Tony will excuse himself to call his work - but actually call his flat first. When Margot goes to answer the phone, Swann will strangle her, then make it look like a break in - stealing some items while wearing gloves. The perfect murder.
As he describes each step, and we see the back up plans for each potential problem that Swann comes up with, we can not help but admire him. This guy is a million times more clever than we are!
Suspense Triggers: Suspense is the anticipation of an action or event. Now we have an action - the murder of Margot - that we are anticipating, but the problem is, Tony is *so* clever that we know nothing can possibly go wrong. Which means no suspense. We anticipate the action - but we expect the action will happen without incident and even though murder is wrong... well, we’re kind of seeing this through Tony’s eyes at this point, from his POV, he is our lead, so we *want* his plan to work. But that’s not the way to make the film interesting and exciting...
So there is this great little “suspense trigger” - Tony and Mark and Margot are having a conversation about Mark’s work - writing mystery novels - and Tony asks if he’s ever been tempted to try out one of his plots. Mark answers that you can plan what happens in fiction, but in real life something *always* goes wrong. The killers are *always* caught. And suddenly the audience begins to worry that there may be a flaw in the perfect murder plan... and they begin to anticipate all of the problems that might happen. And we have suspense.
Without that “trigger” we would not worry that things might go wrong, because the plan seems so perfect. That line creates the suspense.
Little Problems: Now that we are worried that things might go wrong, they do. When Tony and Mark get ready to go to the party, Margot says she’s decided to go to the movies. Which means she won’t be home to get murdered! Tony has to talk her out of the movies, and suggests she work on her scrap book... setting everything on the desk - including a huge pair of shiny silver scissors. A bit of irony, there.
At the party, Tony’s watch has stopped. He has to ask everyone at the table for the time, which works *for* him because he’s establishing an alibi... but works *against* him because it is later than he thinks. He can’t run to the payphone, that would attract attention, so he walks slowly... only to find there is a man using the phone. Having some sort of long conversation, while time is ticking away.
Meanwhile, Swann has been waiting for the phone to ring for quite some time, worries that something is wrong, and decides to leave. Everything is going wrong!
Tony finally gets the pay phone, calls... and when Margot gets out of bed to answer it, Swann is by the door, not in his position behind the curtains near the phone. He must race to his position... barely hiding behind the curtains in time. Margot crosses to pick up the phone, and...
An aside: in READ WINDOW Grace Kelly had a neglige she modeled for Jimmy Stewart. It was fashionable. Here, Grace Kelly is wearing a neglige that seems more about comfort than fashion... and it’s sheer and clingy and I’ll bet it was very risque in 1954. It’s pretty sexy today.
Margot picks up the phone, right in front of the curtains where Swann is hiding...
Killer Twists: Here is where the whole story does a 180. Though we have wanted Tony’s plan to succeed in theory, do we really want to kill Margot? Sure, she’s sleeping with Mark... but which is the worse crime: adultery or murder? It would be difficult for the audience to continue identifying with Tony if his plan actually works and Margot is strangled by Swann...
So just as Margot is about to die, she grabs those shiny silver scissors and rams them into Swann’s back in self defense.
Tony is listening to all of this on the phone, but doesn’t really know what is happening - just that there is a struggle. He expects Swann to come back on the line, tell him everything went well, then Tony will call his boss to continue his alibi and get away with murder.
Only Swann has these sparking scissors in his back, and - this is delightfully gross - falls onto his back shoving them all the way in. We see this in one shot - and I have no idea how they did it - the scissors seem to really go into his back.
When Tony hears a voice on the phone, it’s not Swann... it’s Margot! She tells him what happened, he says he’s on his way - don’t touch anything or call the police.
Focused Suspense: When Tony gets home we have a great but where he looks at the situation and we see him devise a new plan on the spot. This guy is clever! He searches for the door key he left under the stairway carpet, finds it, and... sees Margot searching through her purse for something! Hopefully not the front door key! Just aspirin. When she goes to get a class of water he puts the key in her purse. She comes back in, and goes *right to the purse*. The purse becomes the object of suspense.
Tony slides the stolen love letter into Swann’s coat pocket, unlocks the window so that it appears that’s how Swann entered, and *burns* the actual murder weapon (a scarf) in the fireplace... replacing it with one of Margot’s nylons as the strangling device. Then places the nylon’s mate under the desk blotter where the police will be sure to find it. All of this frames Margot as the killer of Swann, who was threatening her.
There’s a great bit of suspense where the police on the scene almost* find the other nylon... and finally do. Again, the hidden nylon is the focus object. Will the police find it?
Now we’re halfway through the film and we introduce Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) who, like Columbo, has just one more thing. He notices all of the little problems with the scenario... he’s damned clever and we admire him. And we get a new focus object - because we know that Swann is in the class reunion picture on the wall. How soon until Hubbard discovers this?
Man With A Plan (part two): Hubbard is so clever that he already knows the connection between Swann and Tony... Leaving Tony no choice but to show Hubbard the class reunion photo himself. It’s a great game of car and mouse, and part of how these things work is that the suspect has no choice but to volunteer incriminating information because it makes him look as if he is cooperating and innocent... even though that information may end up being another nail in his coffin. Tony must act innocent, even if that means giving evidence to Detective Hubbard.
Hubbard is our new man with a plan - our new clever character that we wish we could be. He knows for a fact that Swann did not come in through the open window - because it had rained that night and the ground outside the window was muddy - but Swann’s shoes were clean. As Hubbard continues to find problems with the scenario, we admire him more and more... and when he asks Mark to write down his address - Tony knows the reason is to compare the handwriting with the writing in the stolen love letter.
Even though there are some holes in the scenario, the evidence points to Margot...
And Margot is arrested, tried, convicted... and sentenced to death! This all happens in *one shot* of Grace Kelly on the witness stand!
But Detective Hubbard is still a man with a plan, and he knows something is wrong. He comes up with a plan to prove that Margot is innocent and Tony is guilty... based on the key the police later find under the carpet on the stairs. Did Margot put it there? Or Tony? You see, the key Tony found in Swann’s pocket - was *Swann’s* front door key.
Hubbard’s plan is to send each to the door with the bad key, and see if they search for the key hidden on the stairway when that key doesn’t work. Building two suspense scenes - one where Margot tries her key, one where Tony tries Margot’s key. Hubbard is more clever than Tony, so we would rather have Hubbard win this battle of the wits and discover what *Tony’s* plan was, and how it went wrong.
We don’t need to like the characters, we do need to understand them and admire them. Here we get a killer with the perfect murder and the detective who is clever enough to prove that no murder is perfect.
Sound Track: Dimitri Tiomkin, a nice score that really pops during the murder scene.
Again, Hitchcock works with familiar faces - Bob Cummings starred in SABOTAGE and John Williams would be in TO CATCH A THIEF and several other Hitchcock films - he may hold the record for most films with the director. Robert Burkes color and lighting is again amazing - deep, rich shadows and those scissors *sparkle*!
One of the great things about this film is its simplicity. A handful of characters, a couple of locations, and many twists and turns and lots of suspense - often created by small things like hidden keys and pictures on the wall and a shocking glimpse of stocking. Not the greatest Hitchcock movie, but still a lot of fun.
- Bill
The other Fridays With Hitchcock.
BUY THE DVD AT AMAZON:
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Casting Your Story In Genre and a few past Oscar nominees.
Yesterday’s Dinner: Tortas on Ventura.
DIAL M FOR MURDER was an international hit stage play by the master of stage suspense, Frederick Knott (WAIT UNTIL DARK). It was a hit on Broadway, a hit in London, and a hit in several other countries, so it only made sense for Hitchcock to be the one to bring it to the screen. One of the interesting decisions Hitchcock and writer Frederick Knott made was *not* to open up the play - usually a stage play is broken out of the set and scenes are transplanted to streets and parks and rollercoasters and anything else that screams “This Was Never A Stage Play!” But here the story remains in the living room of the Wendice flat in London, with a couple of small trips outside and a scene where two of the characters go to a party. By not transplanting any of the scenes to some crazy exterior location, we get a great feeling of being trapped in the action. When bad things happen, we can not cut away to some safe location - because it has never been established. We have to deal with the problems in that living room.
Nutshell: Tony Wendice (the suave-yet-sinister Ray Milland) is a trophy husband for wealthy, beautiful Margot (Grace Kelly). When he discovers that she is cheating on him with her old friend, mystery novelist Mark Halliday (Bob Cummings) he decides to kill her and inherit all of her money... and hatches the perfect murder (title of the remake). Tony blackmails a down-on-his-luck ex-college acquaintance, Charles Swann (Anthony Dawson) to murder Margot while he and Mark are at a party together (the perfect alibi). Nice story if it ends there, but everything manages to go wrong and it's Swann who is killed... by Margot, in self defense. Tony comes up with a quick patch, making it look like Margot murdered Swann in cold blood... and this works perfectly, except for one little thing. Like a British Columbo, Detective Hubbard (John Williams) thinks that something is wrong with this picture and begins poking around until he discovers the truth.
Experiment: Several, most notably shooting the film in 3D. At the time, this required *two* huge film cameras (one representing each of our eyes). Most 3D films had simple non-moving shots, but Hitchcock used graceful, flowing moving camera - almost like his long takes in ROPE, but without completely jettisoning the concept of editing. Here he cuts when he needs to cut, changes angle when he needs to change angle. But the camera is fluid, and that helps to balance the single location.
In order to shoot 3D, the set was built elevated, so Hitchcock could get low angles. He also had to build some giant props, since the two cameras could not get very close to an object like a telephone - and it’s important to the story that we see that phone.
Unlike the cheesy 3D of the horror films of the time, where things are always jumping out at the audience, Hitch uses 3D to give us depth. There is often foreground, a center area, and a background in each shot. There *are* a couple of moments where the action jumps out at the audience - in the murder struggle an arm reaches out to us, and later a major clue is practically shoved in our faces, but these are the only times we get the gimmick side of 3D.
Then, the film was never released in 3D! By the time the film was finished, the threat of television wasn’t as bad as everyone thought - so they decided to just release the movie in standard “flat” prints (less expensive). Earlier this week a 3D version played at an art house in Canada - this is very rare (I considered flying up to see it!).
Hitch Appearance: Hit the pause button or you’ll miss him! When Tony shows Swann a college reunion photo of them together - Hitch is sitting at the same table.
Great Scenes: Because almost the whole movie takes place at one location, instead of looking at traditional scenes, we’re going to look at a couple of elements in the movie that are great screenwriting lessons. There is a reason why this is a beloved film that was remade decades later with an all star cast (and several times over the years under a variety of titles) - the whole script works like clockwork.
Man With A Plan (part one): One of those frequent development notes that get tossed at you is how there is no one in your script we like. Hey, you *must* have a likeable lead! Well, that’s total BS - what you need is an understandable lead. No film is a better example of the non-likeable lead than DIAL M FOR MURDER.
Our lead in the first half of the film is Tony, a trophy husband who plans to murder his wife. The wife, Margot, is cheating on her husband. The movie opens with Tony and Margot kissing, and a few scenes later we have Margot and Mark playing tonsil hockey. So none of those people are likeable - they’re all kind of scummy. Swann - well, he’s going to murder for money, making him not likeable. The detective doesn’t show up until the last half, but he’s all about his job. So we have not a single likeable person in the first half of this film... and maybe the whole thing, depending upon how you feel about cops. So how can this film possible work? (asks the development stooge.)
We may not like Tony, but we certainly admire him. He is clever, brilliant, and has the most amazing plan for killing his wife. And we understand why he would want to kill her - she’s cheating on him. He’s not the perfect husband by any stretch, but he’s not lip-locking with someone else in broad daylight. But the key to Tony is our admiration - while we blunder through our day to day lives, Tony has this amazing master plan that has been worked down to every last minute detail. He has been setting this up for months - and when he does something clever like “accidentally” drop a love letter from Mark to Margot that was stolen by a blackmailer... actually Tony... on the floor in front of Swann, and Swann picks it up in his ungloved hands and returns it to Tony’s day planner - we see how brilliant this guy is. We wish we were that brilliant! Tony becomes our dark fantasy - a guy who does all of the evil things we might want to do, and has such a brilliant plan we know he will never get caught. He has *everything* under control.
Tony explains to Swann step-by-step how he will murder Margot, and will easily get away with it. The camera goes high overhead, so it becomes like a chess game - we can see all of the moves before they will be made. Everything is planned out. There are only two keys to the flat: Tony will have his, and will take Margot’s from her purse and hide it under the carpet on the stairs. This gets Swann inside the house. At the party, Tony will excuse himself to call his work - but actually call his flat first. When Margot goes to answer the phone, Swann will strangle her, then make it look like a break in - stealing some items while wearing gloves. The perfect murder.
As he describes each step, and we see the back up plans for each potential problem that Swann comes up with, we can not help but admire him. This guy is a million times more clever than we are!
Suspense Triggers: Suspense is the anticipation of an action or event. Now we have an action - the murder of Margot - that we are anticipating, but the problem is, Tony is *so* clever that we know nothing can possibly go wrong. Which means no suspense. We anticipate the action - but we expect the action will happen without incident and even though murder is wrong... well, we’re kind of seeing this through Tony’s eyes at this point, from his POV, he is our lead, so we *want* his plan to work. But that’s not the way to make the film interesting and exciting...
So there is this great little “suspense trigger” - Tony and Mark and Margot are having a conversation about Mark’s work - writing mystery novels - and Tony asks if he’s ever been tempted to try out one of his plots. Mark answers that you can plan what happens in fiction, but in real life something *always* goes wrong. The killers are *always* caught. And suddenly the audience begins to worry that there may be a flaw in the perfect murder plan... and they begin to anticipate all of the problems that might happen. And we have suspense.
Without that “trigger” we would not worry that things might go wrong, because the plan seems so perfect. That line creates the suspense.
Little Problems: Now that we are worried that things might go wrong, they do. When Tony and Mark get ready to go to the party, Margot says she’s decided to go to the movies. Which means she won’t be home to get murdered! Tony has to talk her out of the movies, and suggests she work on her scrap book... setting everything on the desk - including a huge pair of shiny silver scissors. A bit of irony, there.
At the party, Tony’s watch has stopped. He has to ask everyone at the table for the time, which works *for* him because he’s establishing an alibi... but works *against* him because it is later than he thinks. He can’t run to the payphone, that would attract attention, so he walks slowly... only to find there is a man using the phone. Having some sort of long conversation, while time is ticking away.
Meanwhile, Swann has been waiting for the phone to ring for quite some time, worries that something is wrong, and decides to leave. Everything is going wrong!
Tony finally gets the pay phone, calls... and when Margot gets out of bed to answer it, Swann is by the door, not in his position behind the curtains near the phone. He must race to his position... barely hiding behind the curtains in time. Margot crosses to pick up the phone, and...
An aside: in READ WINDOW Grace Kelly had a neglige she modeled for Jimmy Stewart. It was fashionable. Here, Grace Kelly is wearing a neglige that seems more about comfort than fashion... and it’s sheer and clingy and I’ll bet it was very risque in 1954. It’s pretty sexy today.
Margot picks up the phone, right in front of the curtains where Swann is hiding...
Killer Twists: Here is where the whole story does a 180. Though we have wanted Tony’s plan to succeed in theory, do we really want to kill Margot? Sure, she’s sleeping with Mark... but which is the worse crime: adultery or murder? It would be difficult for the audience to continue identifying with Tony if his plan actually works and Margot is strangled by Swann...
So just as Margot is about to die, she grabs those shiny silver scissors and rams them into Swann’s back in self defense.
Tony is listening to all of this on the phone, but doesn’t really know what is happening - just that there is a struggle. He expects Swann to come back on the line, tell him everything went well, then Tony will call his boss to continue his alibi and get away with murder.
Only Swann has these sparking scissors in his back, and - this is delightfully gross - falls onto his back shoving them all the way in. We see this in one shot - and I have no idea how they did it - the scissors seem to really go into his back.
When Tony hears a voice on the phone, it’s not Swann... it’s Margot! She tells him what happened, he says he’s on his way - don’t touch anything or call the police.
Focused Suspense: When Tony gets home we have a great but where he looks at the situation and we see him devise a new plan on the spot. This guy is clever! He searches for the door key he left under the stairway carpet, finds it, and... sees Margot searching through her purse for something! Hopefully not the front door key! Just aspirin. When she goes to get a class of water he puts the key in her purse. She comes back in, and goes *right to the purse*. The purse becomes the object of suspense.
Tony slides the stolen love letter into Swann’s coat pocket, unlocks the window so that it appears that’s how Swann entered, and *burns* the actual murder weapon (a scarf) in the fireplace... replacing it with one of Margot’s nylons as the strangling device. Then places the nylon’s mate under the desk blotter where the police will be sure to find it. All of this frames Margot as the killer of Swann, who was threatening her.
There’s a great bit of suspense where the police on the scene almost* find the other nylon... and finally do. Again, the hidden nylon is the focus object. Will the police find it?
Now we’re halfway through the film and we introduce Inspector Hubbard (John Williams) who, like Columbo, has just one more thing. He notices all of the little problems with the scenario... he’s damned clever and we admire him. And we get a new focus object - because we know that Swann is in the class reunion picture on the wall. How soon until Hubbard discovers this?
Man With A Plan (part two): Hubbard is so clever that he already knows the connection between Swann and Tony... Leaving Tony no choice but to show Hubbard the class reunion photo himself. It’s a great game of car and mouse, and part of how these things work is that the suspect has no choice but to volunteer incriminating information because it makes him look as if he is cooperating and innocent... even though that information may end up being another nail in his coffin. Tony must act innocent, even if that means giving evidence to Detective Hubbard.
Hubbard is our new man with a plan - our new clever character that we wish we could be. He knows for a fact that Swann did not come in through the open window - because it had rained that night and the ground outside the window was muddy - but Swann’s shoes were clean. As Hubbard continues to find problems with the scenario, we admire him more and more... and when he asks Mark to write down his address - Tony knows the reason is to compare the handwriting with the writing in the stolen love letter.
Even though there are some holes in the scenario, the evidence points to Margot...
And Margot is arrested, tried, convicted... and sentenced to death! This all happens in *one shot* of Grace Kelly on the witness stand!
But Detective Hubbard is still a man with a plan, and he knows something is wrong. He comes up with a plan to prove that Margot is innocent and Tony is guilty... based on the key the police later find under the carpet on the stairs. Did Margot put it there? Or Tony? You see, the key Tony found in Swann’s pocket - was *Swann’s* front door key.
Hubbard’s plan is to send each to the door with the bad key, and see if they search for the key hidden on the stairway when that key doesn’t work. Building two suspense scenes - one where Margot tries her key, one where Tony tries Margot’s key. Hubbard is more clever than Tony, so we would rather have Hubbard win this battle of the wits and discover what *Tony’s* plan was, and how it went wrong.
We don’t need to like the characters, we do need to understand them and admire them. Here we get a killer with the perfect murder and the detective who is clever enough to prove that no murder is perfect.
Sound Track: Dimitri Tiomkin, a nice score that really pops during the murder scene.
Again, Hitchcock works with familiar faces - Bob Cummings starred in SABOTAGE and John Williams would be in TO CATCH A THIEF and several other Hitchcock films - he may hold the record for most films with the director. Robert Burkes color and lighting is again amazing - deep, rich shadows and those scissors *sparkle*!
One of the great things about this film is its simplicity. A handful of characters, a couple of locations, and many twists and turns and lots of suspense - often created by small things like hidden keys and pictures on the wall and a shocking glimpse of stocking. Not the greatest Hitchcock movie, but still a lot of fun.
- Bill
The other Fridays With Hitchcock.
BUY THE DVD AT AMAZON:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Casting Your Story In Genre and a few past Oscar nominees.
Yesterday’s Dinner: Tortas on Ventura.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Lancelot Link Thursday
Lancelot Link Thursday! For those of you who think 12 MONKEYS would have been better with an additional monkey, 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 five cool links plus this week's car chase...
1) 5 Hollywood Secrets That Explain Why Movies Suck! (you already knew one of them)
2) How to *Guarentee* your sit-com gets cancelled!
3) Oscar Winning Screenwriter Vs. Scientology - also tons of backstory on Paul Haggis.
4) 11 Biggest Movie Flops Of All Time - I didn't write *any* of them!
5) Aaron Sorkin on Screenwriting.
6) And today's car chase...
Okay, it's a boat chase... but I'm slowly easing you into accepting the Big Wheel Chase clip I have.
- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: When The Hero Runs Out Of Time and a couple of Denzel films.
Dinner: Airport food.
Pages: Travel day.
Here are five cool links plus this week's car chase...
1) 5 Hollywood Secrets That Explain Why Movies Suck! (you already knew one of them)
2) How to *Guarentee* your sit-com gets cancelled!
3) Oscar Winning Screenwriter Vs. Scientology - also tons of backstory on Paul Haggis.
4) 11 Biggest Movie Flops Of All Time - I didn't write *any* of them!
5) Aaron Sorkin on Screenwriting.
6) And today's car chase...
Okay, it's a boat chase... but I'm slowly easing you into accepting the Big Wheel Chase clip I have.
- Bill
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: When The Hero Runs Out Of Time and a couple of Denzel films.
Dinner: Airport food.
Pages: Travel day.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Self Imposed
If you wander into the Studio City branch of the Los Angeles Public Library system, as I do every once in a while when I need to do research that can’t be found online, you will find a couple of rows of computers you can sign up to use in the back... and probably at least one homeless guy (with a duffle bag containing all of his belongings) surfing porn while the librarians discuss how to get him the hell out of there. In the old days, before computers, there were rows of typewriters in some libraries that you could rent for 25 cents and hour... and just like those rental computers in Kinkos, they were often being used by students who didn’t own a typewriter but still had to turn in typewritten papers in order to get a grade. Years ago Ray Bradbury, who did own a typewriter, bought a couple of rolls of quarters and went to his local public library to write a novel. The reason for going to the library is that a limited number of quarters equals a limited number of hours and the minute you sit down to that keyboard the clock is ticking. You need to get pages written! By the way, that novel was FAHRENHEIT 451.
Writers do all kinds of tricks to get themselves focused on writing. As I write this, the greatest living writer of private eye fiction, Lawrence Block, is *somewhere* writing a new novel. He’s not telling where. He’s been posting on FaceBook, but makes sure any clues to his location are impossible to figure out (a photo through his hotel room window has a view you could find in a million places). This is a common thing for novelists - they go to writers retreats or some strange city’s hotel room without their normal life’s distractions and lock themselves away in order to get a book done. Raymond Chandler was once famously locked in a room with a week’s supply of booze and a typewriter so that he could finish a project. Whatever works to get the pages done.
I usually look at time away from home as a way to get things done. Over the holidays I wrote a new script, and that wasn’t the first time I’ve done that. I”ve written several scripts over the holidays, using the time I spend out of town as a self imposed deadline. I wrote JUST BEFORE DAWN in 2 weeks over the holidays... and thought I had a deal for it when I returned... but the deal fell apart.
This time over the holidays (Thanksgiving to New Years - extended vacation) I planned on writing the new script *and* working on the book rewrite... but only managed to get the new script finished. Part of the reason for not getting things done was hanging out with friends, and that’s an acceptable excuse. The other part was a deal that seemed to be about to close any minute, my lawyer doing a great job of keeping things going in my absence. But the strange distraction of having to hop a plane at any minute for a meeting, and the strange way the deal was evolving from spec sale to some other sort of strange thing that didn’t make any sense, kept distracting me from writing. I was that dog in UP and the deal was the squirrel. The deal kept falling apart and then coming back together again and again, and it became a crazy soap opera where I had to know what happens next... and that took time and focus away from the work I was supposed to be doing. That deal eventually fell apart. It involved an actor whose name you know.
But over the holidays, while the deal looked like it was going to happen, airfares went on sale and I bought a round trip ticket to an undisclosed location. I thought I’d probably be doing rewrites on the deal in January and I had this other script I needed to get written, and would probably need some time off in late February. Plus - the airplane tickets were a deal! But when that spec sale fell apart, I got bummed out and thought maybe that week of vacation might be the consolation prize.
Except, like a squirrel, another spec deal popped up with its own set of strange elements and my hard working lawyer was busy again hammering out contract points. Once again, this was a distraction that kept getting in the way of my writing the new script, and at one point I went a little crazy about one of the deal points and probably spent a whole week doing nothing but bouncing off the walls. But this deal also crashed and burned at the last minute a day before I left for vacation. So, I was behind on the new script, and had not finished the rewrite of the Action Book, and had not done a pile of other things on the To Do List (new Script Tips? Um, never got around to writing any).
So, I decided to take this vacation week and write. I wouldn’t lock myself in my hotel room, but I’d be in a strange city without any of the usual distractions with a limited amount of time. I would not be able to finish the Action Book rewrite, but I could get a huge chunk of it done and finish the rest at my leisure. I decided to tackle the chapters that needed the most work, get them out of the way. I was looking forward to crossing off chapter after chapter and finishing the week with all of the heavy lifting done on the book rewrite. I would come home with things crossed off the To Do List!
Except, that hasn’t really happened. It was a great plan, but I managed to impose all kinds of problems on myself that sabotaged my self imposed deadlines. The first thing that happened wasn’t really my fault - I twisted my leg and my trick knee decided to become tricky again... as I was leaving the plane. So, I start off in pain. On top of that, I hadn’t been sleeping well, and that carried over on vacation for a while - then I ping-ponged between not enough sleep and over sleeping. But the biggest hurdle I imposed on myself was a frustration/depression/anger over having two deals crash and burn. That nagged at me - was there some reason? Was it because the scripts sucked? Was it because I’ve lost it? Was it because I’m out of touch?
Standard “Writer’s Paranoia” - when there often doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the business, you start to wonder if maybe your whole career is a mistake... and someone finally caught on. Or maybe there was an expiration date no one told me about, some sort of LOGAN’S RUN for my screenwriting career? These worries are silly, but like those squirrels they can keep you from focusing on what’s important.
Add to that the idea of starting with the most difficult stuff - which isn’t exactly a confidence or momentum builder. I *struggled* with the most difficult chapter to rewrite for freakin’ **days**! The plan was to knock off a chapter a day, and when that didn’t happen I became even more frustrated/depressed/angry. Crap! What if I never* get the book revised? What if it takes me months when I’m working on it full time? This made me want to avoid work, rather than continue... and I was on vacation, wasn’t I?
But here’s where I really screwed up - when I was playing hooky, I just felt guilty over not working... and didn’t enjoy myself much. Man, I just ruined a whole week! I didn’t get much done and I didn’t have much fun.
I have not gone to the movies. I brought 4 new DVDs with me, and have not watched any of them. I brought a book with me, and haven’t opened it. I have walked past a museum almost every day I have been here, and have not gone inside. Whenever I have done anything touristy, I have felt guilty about not writing.
So, now I have the most difficult chapter rewritten, but lots more to do. And I have to get back to work on the new script, because I really should have spent the week working on that - people are waiting. That means - I’m going to have to self impose a deadline to get that new script *finished* and just forget about the squirrels and forget about those self doubts and f/d/a about having a couple of deals crash and burn late in the game.
This is being written on the last full day of my vacation, and I think I’m just going to just say screw it and take the rest of the day off. Then, when I get back to Los Angeles, write like a son of a bitch to get this script finished. Maybe I’ll take another self imposed vacation week to get a few more chapters of the book rewritten.
Meanwhile, my lawyer has been working his ass off while I freak out and it seems one of the dead projects may be alive at some other place. The director from the busted project seems to have carried my script to a company that wanted to hire him. Maybe I'm not a fraud afterall?
If you have trouble getting pages written, find some way to create a self imposed deadline... then actually write!
- Bill
PS: Folks, no cheering up needed! I'm fine. Part of this blog is sharing what I am feeling, especially if it's something I think you guys might also experience. I don't want to be some god-like Robert McKee that you are not allowed to make eye contact with and has no emotions. I'd rather be as honest as I can.
Writers do all kinds of tricks to get themselves focused on writing. As I write this, the greatest living writer of private eye fiction, Lawrence Block, is *somewhere* writing a new novel. He’s not telling where. He’s been posting on FaceBook, but makes sure any clues to his location are impossible to figure out (a photo through his hotel room window has a view you could find in a million places). This is a common thing for novelists - they go to writers retreats or some strange city’s hotel room without their normal life’s distractions and lock themselves away in order to get a book done. Raymond Chandler was once famously locked in a room with a week’s supply of booze and a typewriter so that he could finish a project. Whatever works to get the pages done.
I usually look at time away from home as a way to get things done. Over the holidays I wrote a new script, and that wasn’t the first time I’ve done that. I”ve written several scripts over the holidays, using the time I spend out of town as a self imposed deadline. I wrote JUST BEFORE DAWN in 2 weeks over the holidays... and thought I had a deal for it when I returned... but the deal fell apart.
This time over the holidays (Thanksgiving to New Years - extended vacation) I planned on writing the new script *and* working on the book rewrite... but only managed to get the new script finished. Part of the reason for not getting things done was hanging out with friends, and that’s an acceptable excuse. The other part was a deal that seemed to be about to close any minute, my lawyer doing a great job of keeping things going in my absence. But the strange distraction of having to hop a plane at any minute for a meeting, and the strange way the deal was evolving from spec sale to some other sort of strange thing that didn’t make any sense, kept distracting me from writing. I was that dog in UP and the deal was the squirrel. The deal kept falling apart and then coming back together again and again, and it became a crazy soap opera where I had to know what happens next... and that took time and focus away from the work I was supposed to be doing. That deal eventually fell apart. It involved an actor whose name you know.
But over the holidays, while the deal looked like it was going to happen, airfares went on sale and I bought a round trip ticket to an undisclosed location. I thought I’d probably be doing rewrites on the deal in January and I had this other script I needed to get written, and would probably need some time off in late February. Plus - the airplane tickets were a deal! But when that spec sale fell apart, I got bummed out and thought maybe that week of vacation might be the consolation prize.
Except, like a squirrel, another spec deal popped up with its own set of strange elements and my hard working lawyer was busy again hammering out contract points. Once again, this was a distraction that kept getting in the way of my writing the new script, and at one point I went a little crazy about one of the deal points and probably spent a whole week doing nothing but bouncing off the walls. But this deal also crashed and burned at the last minute a day before I left for vacation. So, I was behind on the new script, and had not finished the rewrite of the Action Book, and had not done a pile of other things on the To Do List (new Script Tips? Um, never got around to writing any).
So, I decided to take this vacation week and write. I wouldn’t lock myself in my hotel room, but I’d be in a strange city without any of the usual distractions with a limited amount of time. I would not be able to finish the Action Book rewrite, but I could get a huge chunk of it done and finish the rest at my leisure. I decided to tackle the chapters that needed the most work, get them out of the way. I was looking forward to crossing off chapter after chapter and finishing the week with all of the heavy lifting done on the book rewrite. I would come home with things crossed off the To Do List!
Except, that hasn’t really happened. It was a great plan, but I managed to impose all kinds of problems on myself that sabotaged my self imposed deadlines. The first thing that happened wasn’t really my fault - I twisted my leg and my trick knee decided to become tricky again... as I was leaving the plane. So, I start off in pain. On top of that, I hadn’t been sleeping well, and that carried over on vacation for a while - then I ping-ponged between not enough sleep and over sleeping. But the biggest hurdle I imposed on myself was a frustration/depression/anger over having two deals crash and burn. That nagged at me - was there some reason? Was it because the scripts sucked? Was it because I’ve lost it? Was it because I’m out of touch?
Standard “Writer’s Paranoia” - when there often doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the business, you start to wonder if maybe your whole career is a mistake... and someone finally caught on. Or maybe there was an expiration date no one told me about, some sort of LOGAN’S RUN for my screenwriting career? These worries are silly, but like those squirrels they can keep you from focusing on what’s important.
Add to that the idea of starting with the most difficult stuff - which isn’t exactly a confidence or momentum builder. I *struggled* with the most difficult chapter to rewrite for freakin’ **days**! The plan was to knock off a chapter a day, and when that didn’t happen I became even more frustrated/depressed/angry. Crap! What if I never* get the book revised? What if it takes me months when I’m working on it full time? This made me want to avoid work, rather than continue... and I was on vacation, wasn’t I?
But here’s where I really screwed up - when I was playing hooky, I just felt guilty over not working... and didn’t enjoy myself much. Man, I just ruined a whole week! I didn’t get much done and I didn’t have much fun.
I have not gone to the movies. I brought 4 new DVDs with me, and have not watched any of them. I brought a book with me, and haven’t opened it. I have walked past a museum almost every day I have been here, and have not gone inside. Whenever I have done anything touristy, I have felt guilty about not writing.
So, now I have the most difficult chapter rewritten, but lots more to do. And I have to get back to work on the new script, because I really should have spent the week working on that - people are waiting. That means - I’m going to have to self impose a deadline to get that new script *finished* and just forget about the squirrels and forget about those self doubts and f/d/a about having a couple of deals crash and burn late in the game.
This is being written on the last full day of my vacation, and I think I’m just going to just say screw it and take the rest of the day off. Then, when I get back to Los Angeles, write like a son of a bitch to get this script finished. Maybe I’ll take another self imposed vacation week to get a few more chapters of the book rewritten.
Meanwhile, my lawyer has been working his ass off while I freak out and it seems one of the dead projects may be alive at some other place. The director from the busted project seems to have carried my script to a company that wanted to hire him. Maybe I'm not a fraud afterall?
If you have trouble getting pages written, find some way to create a self imposed deadline... then actually write!
- Bill
PS: Folks, no cheering up needed! I'm fine. Part of this blog is sharing what I am feeling, especially if it's something I think you guys might also experience. I don't want to be some god-like Robert McKee that you are not allowed to make eye contact with and has no emotions. I'd rather be as honest as I can.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Gun Crazy
This is a repeat from several years ago, because I seem too busy to get new blog entries written. Sorry!
So I’ve been watching a whole bunch of Film Noir in prep for the Film Noir audio class and since I mentioned this film when I was talking about THE BIG COMBO a few entries ago, I had to pull it out and watch it again. I probably first saw this film at the UC Theater in Berkeley a couple of decades ago, and was blown away by it. First, like most noir, it’s an adult story. Not Hollywood fluff. It’s dark. It’s sexy. Probably the thing that impressed me the most when I first saw it were Peggy Cummins’ *very* tight black trousers. Women in 1940s movies always wore skirts and dresses. If they did wear pants they were non-sexual - often mannish. But here we have pants so tight it’s almost as if she’s naked.
SPOILERS!
The story is about a boy (eventually played by John Dall) who has a gun fetish. In the opening scene he steals a gun from a shop window, admires it while the alarm blares, then takes off running... tripping on the wet street. The gun goes sliding across the wet street until it hits a man’s boot... tilt up... a *Police*man’s boot. Next scene - the boy in court explaining to the judge how much he just loves guns. He doesn’t feel whole unless he has a gun in his hands. We’ll leave that up to Uncle Sigmund... but that’s what drives the film - this guy needs a gun to feel like a man. At the trial we meet his two best friends - one is the policeman’s son, the other wears glasses so you know he’ll grow up to be a writer - and they tell the judge that our hero isn’t a killer, on a camping trip he couldn’t shoot a wildcat that was hanging around their campsite (great flashback). He couldn’t bring himself to shoot at it. Wow, same problem as Jon Voight in DELIVERANCE! Boy is sentenced to reform school, from there he goes into the army, then he comes home.
Now we have adult John Dall and his two pals - one is now a cop and the other is a writer for the town newspaper. The carnival is in town, so that’s where they go.
The great thing about this film are the set pieces. In case you missed that Script Tip, a set pieces is a big scene. In the old studio days, it was a scene so juicy the studio would pay for a new set to be built. You don’t need a new set for a set piece, you just need a big juicy scene... and even though GUN CRAZY was a low budget film, probably shot on leftover sets that had been used a million times before and real loactions that could be got cheap - and in the case of one set piece, probably shot without any set at all - the film is full of amazing set pieces.
The Carnival - maybe the same one from THE RING (1927) - has a sharp shooter as it’s main attraction. Sexy Peggy Cummins in those skin-tight pants. She shoots balloons from around her assistant, shoots a cigarette out of her mouth, and all of the other carny tricks you usually see with a knife thrower. The Barker, an aging pretty boy, announces that for a mere $50 you can test your shooting skills against the master... and possibly win $500. Kind of the same deal as THE RING, just with guns instead of fists. John Dall’s buddies put up the money, and we get a great set piece as Dall and Cummins try to out shoot each other... and fall in lust in the process. Because Dall is an amazing shot, the Barker keeps upping the ante in order to win the bet. Eventually it comes down to this insane trick where a crown that holds a half dozen matches is put on Dall’s head and Cummins *lights the matches* with her bullets. All but one. Then it’s her turn to wear the crown. Dall lights them all. Look, I don’t want even the best sharp shooter in the world to be aiming a gun at my *head* from across the room, let alone firing at me six times. That’s just crazy! Dall ends up with a job at the carnival...
Now we have a great scene - not a set piece, but a juicy *dramatic* scene that deals with the romantic triangle between the Barker and Cummins and Dall. One of the interesting things is how they used a metaphor to tell us who was sleeping with who. When Dall first joins the carnival, the Barker asks if he has a car... he says no. Cummins wants him to ride with them, the Barker says there isn’t room in their car... Dall can ride with the clown. If you watch who rides with who in the carnival scenes, you can see Cummins and Dall getting together and the Barker riding alone. Which brings us to the big juicy scene where all of this blows up. Real good. The Barker has a claim on Cummins and tells Dall he’s out of here if he doesn’t honor it. The result of the big blow up is *Cummins and Dall* leaving together (in the same car), which leads us to some relationship stuff where they realize they are broke, and then Cummins’ plan to make money...
By armed robbery.
Now we get one of the greatest set pieces in low budget history - the “backseat bank robbery”. It’s a single continuous shot - several minutes - taken from the back seat of their car as they drive down the street of a town, find the bank, hope that there is a parking spot, Cummins pulls into a spot near the front of the bank and Dall gets out. After Dall goes into the bank, a cop walks down the sidewalk, stops near the front of the bank! Cummins pulls the car up, gets out, flirts with the cop, and tries to steer him away from the bank. Not happening. This builds suspense. She keeps trying to get the cop out of the way, but he won’t budge. Then the alarm goes off. She hits the cop, just as Dall bolts out of the bank doors with the money.
They get in the car, Dall driving, and now we get a shoot out and car chase from the back seat of the car. All one shot. The great thing about this is that it was probably dirt cheap - we don’t need the bank interior and extras and setting up lights in the location. It’s *one* camera set up. But it gives you the feeling that you are right there - in the getaway car with them. When the cop fires at the car, he’s firing at *you*. And it’s all one cool shot.
The big set piece is the armed robbery that will make them rich. Dall thinks this means they can retire to some exotic location and just be together for the rest of their lives. Cummins thinks only about how much money they will end up with. The target for the armed robbery - the Armour meat packing plant payroll. Well before anyone thought of product placement, we get a *real* company name and a *real* meat packing plant. Again, this was probably due to the low budget. They found a practical location and probably couldn’t afford to change all of the signs.
This is one of those split second timed robberies where all kinds of things can go wrong... and do. It’s a tense scene, then it blows up and becomes a big action scene. The great part about it are the pieces of the set piece. Dall drives up in a truck filled with beef on hooks. He gets some steaks from a butcher and puts them in his bag, then walks to the offices and has to get past a half dozen people who tell him he’s in the wrong area. Dall tells them he has the steaks for the boss’s barbeque. Everyone tells him there’s no refrigeration here - he should take the steaks back to the plant. The deeper he gets into the office, the more he and the steaks are out of place. Eventually he gets to the boss’s floor... where Cummins is working as a secretary, Here it’s Cummins who tells him he’s in the wrong place - as she leads him right into the boss’s office, where they kidnap him and have him fill the steak bag with payroll money. And here’s where we see the beginning of the end - Cummins gets trigger happy and shoots a whole lotta people on the way out. It’s a great big run and gun scene - lots of action to break the tension that has come before.
After that set piece they are on the run, and we get a great sequence where they have their last night out as a couple. They go to the Santa Monica Pier and go on carnival rides - bringing us back to the beginning of their relationship. Then they go to a dance hall, and have a nice, tender, relationship scene... not knowing that the police have traced them to California and are waiting outside. They manage to escape with nothing - they even lose some of the clothes on their backs. Only one place to go...
Back to Dall’s home town. Now we get a great scene with the criminals and Dall’s sister’s family.... trying to act normal when people come over. Dealing with kids playing in the yard when you are harboring a pair of fugitives. And eventually a great scene with Dall and his two childhood friends - the cop and the reporter. A low budget film needs big scenes like this one - juicy drama where childhood friends are on opposite sides of the law... and Dall is kind of in the middle. Cummins is all for just killing them- in fact, she’d kill anyone if it allowed them to escape. She’d kill the kids (and that is in the film). In fact, there’s a great unseen scene where Cummins does *something* to Dall’s sister and her entre family - maybe she just locks them up, maybe she kills them all. We never find out which it is, because we come to the other big amazing set piece...
The one that probably has no set!
Dall and Cummins end up chased by every cop in the state, and blood hounds, and posses and probably villagers with pitchforks... but since they are chased through a foggy swamp, we just *hear* all of these things. I’m not sure if we see a single dog - though there may be a stock shot of dogs chasing - but we *hear* packs of blood hounds chasing them. We hear hundreds of cops searching the foggy swamp for them.
The swamp is... well, it’s 99% fog and 1% a couple of thatches of tule grass.
The big scene where they hide and the cops and dogs search - is just them behind a thatch of tules surrounded by fog. And it works! It’s an amazing scene. Probably shot in some warehouse with a smoke machine. Just goes to show you, *imagination* and *inventiveness* can create production value if you don’t have any cash.
GUN CRAZY still holds up, mostly due to the amazing set pieces and great sequences and fairly obvious sexual overtones... oh, and Cummin’s skin tight trousers.
- Bill
Hey, I'm doing my big 2 day class in Los Angeles April 16 & 17 - Click For More Info.
Nothing sexual about this...
So I’ve been watching a whole bunch of Film Noir in prep for the Film Noir audio class and since I mentioned this film when I was talking about THE BIG COMBO a few entries ago, I had to pull it out and watch it again. I probably first saw this film at the UC Theater in Berkeley a couple of decades ago, and was blown away by it. First, like most noir, it’s an adult story. Not Hollywood fluff. It’s dark. It’s sexy. Probably the thing that impressed me the most when I first saw it were Peggy Cummins’ *very* tight black trousers. Women in 1940s movies always wore skirts and dresses. If they did wear pants they were non-sexual - often mannish. But here we have pants so tight it’s almost as if she’s naked. SPOILERS!
The story is about a boy (eventually played by John Dall) who has a gun fetish. In the opening scene he steals a gun from a shop window, admires it while the alarm blares, then takes off running... tripping on the wet street. The gun goes sliding across the wet street until it hits a man’s boot... tilt up... a *Police*man’s boot. Next scene - the boy in court explaining to the judge how much he just loves guns. He doesn’t feel whole unless he has a gun in his hands. We’ll leave that up to Uncle Sigmund... but that’s what drives the film - this guy needs a gun to feel like a man. At the trial we meet his two best friends - one is the policeman’s son, the other wears glasses so you know he’ll grow up to be a writer - and they tell the judge that our hero isn’t a killer, on a camping trip he couldn’t shoot a wildcat that was hanging around their campsite (great flashback). He couldn’t bring himself to shoot at it. Wow, same problem as Jon Voight in DELIVERANCE! Boy is sentenced to reform school, from there he goes into the army, then he comes home.
Now we have adult John Dall and his two pals - one is now a cop and the other is a writer for the town newspaper. The carnival is in town, so that’s where they go.
The great thing about this film are the set pieces. In case you missed that Script Tip, a set pieces is a big scene. In the old studio days, it was a scene so juicy the studio would pay for a new set to be built. You don’t need a new set for a set piece, you just need a big juicy scene... and even though GUN CRAZY was a low budget film, probably shot on leftover sets that had been used a million times before and real loactions that could be got cheap - and in the case of one set piece, probably shot without any set at all - the film is full of amazing set pieces.
The Carnival - maybe the same one from THE RING (1927) - has a sharp shooter as it’s main attraction. Sexy Peggy Cummins in those skin-tight pants. She shoots balloons from around her assistant, shoots a cigarette out of her mouth, and all of the other carny tricks you usually see with a knife thrower. The Barker, an aging pretty boy, announces that for a mere $50 you can test your shooting skills against the master... and possibly win $500. Kind of the same deal as THE RING, just with guns instead of fists. John Dall’s buddies put up the money, and we get a great set piece as Dall and Cummins try to out shoot each other... and fall in lust in the process. Because Dall is an amazing shot, the Barker keeps upping the ante in order to win the bet. Eventually it comes down to this insane trick where a crown that holds a half dozen matches is put on Dall’s head and Cummins *lights the matches* with her bullets. All but one. Then it’s her turn to wear the crown. Dall lights them all. Look, I don’t want even the best sharp shooter in the world to be aiming a gun at my *head* from across the room, let alone firing at me six times. That’s just crazy! Dall ends up with a job at the carnival...
Now we have a great scene - not a set piece, but a juicy *dramatic* scene that deals with the romantic triangle between the Barker and Cummins and Dall. One of the interesting things is how they used a metaphor to tell us who was sleeping with who. When Dall first joins the carnival, the Barker asks if he has a car... he says no. Cummins wants him to ride with them, the Barker says there isn’t room in their car... Dall can ride with the clown. If you watch who rides with who in the carnival scenes, you can see Cummins and Dall getting together and the Barker riding alone. Which brings us to the big juicy scene where all of this blows up. Real good. The Barker has a claim on Cummins and tells Dall he’s out of here if he doesn’t honor it. The result of the big blow up is *Cummins and Dall* leaving together (in the same car), which leads us to some relationship stuff where they realize they are broke, and then Cummins’ plan to make money...
By armed robbery.
Now we get one of the greatest set pieces in low budget history - the “backseat bank robbery”. It’s a single continuous shot - several minutes - taken from the back seat of their car as they drive down the street of a town, find the bank, hope that there is a parking spot, Cummins pulls into a spot near the front of the bank and Dall gets out. After Dall goes into the bank, a cop walks down the sidewalk, stops near the front of the bank! Cummins pulls the car up, gets out, flirts with the cop, and tries to steer him away from the bank. Not happening. This builds suspense. She keeps trying to get the cop out of the way, but he won’t budge. Then the alarm goes off. She hits the cop, just as Dall bolts out of the bank doors with the money.They get in the car, Dall driving, and now we get a shoot out and car chase from the back seat of the car. All one shot. The great thing about this is that it was probably dirt cheap - we don’t need the bank interior and extras and setting up lights in the location. It’s *one* camera set up. But it gives you the feeling that you are right there - in the getaway car with them. When the cop fires at the car, he’s firing at *you*. And it’s all one cool shot.The big set piece is the armed robbery that will make them rich. Dall thinks this means they can retire to some exotic location and just be together for the rest of their lives. Cummins thinks only about how much money they will end up with. The target for the armed robbery - the Armour meat packing plant payroll. Well before anyone thought of product placement, we get a *real* company name and a *real* meat packing plant. Again, this was probably due to the low budget. They found a practical location and probably couldn’t afford to change all of the signs.
This is one of those split second timed robberies where all kinds of things can go wrong... and do. It’s a tense scene, then it blows up and becomes a big action scene. The great part about it are the pieces of the set piece. Dall drives up in a truck filled with beef on hooks. He gets some steaks from a butcher and puts them in his bag, then walks to the offices and has to get past a half dozen people who tell him he’s in the wrong area. Dall tells them he has the steaks for the boss’s barbeque. Everyone tells him there’s no refrigeration here - he should take the steaks back to the plant. The deeper he gets into the office, the more he and the steaks are out of place. Eventually he gets to the boss’s floor... where Cummins is working as a secretary, Here it’s Cummins who tells him he’s in the wrong place - as she leads him right into the boss’s office, where they kidnap him and have him fill the steak bag with payroll money. And here’s where we see the beginning of the end - Cummins gets trigger happy and shoots a whole lotta people on the way out. It’s a great big run and gun scene - lots of action to break the tension that has come before. After that set piece they are on the run, and we get a great sequence where they have their last night out as a couple. They go to the Santa Monica Pier and go on carnival rides - bringing us back to the beginning of their relationship. Then they go to a dance hall, and have a nice, tender, relationship scene... not knowing that the police have traced them to California and are waiting outside. They manage to escape with nothing - they even lose some of the clothes on their backs. Only one place to go...
Back to Dall’s home town. Now we get a great scene with the criminals and Dall’s sister’s family.... trying to act normal when people come over. Dealing with kids playing in the yard when you are harboring a pair of fugitives. And eventually a great scene with Dall and his two childhood friends - the cop and the reporter. A low budget film needs big scenes like this one - juicy drama where childhood friends are on opposite sides of the law... and Dall is kind of in the middle. Cummins is all for just killing them- in fact, she’d kill anyone if it allowed them to escape. She’d kill the kids (and that is in the film). In fact, there’s a great unseen scene where Cummins does *something* to Dall’s sister and her entre family - maybe she just locks them up, maybe she kills them all. We never find out which it is, because we come to the other big amazing set piece...
The one that probably has no set!
Dall and Cummins end up chased by every cop in the state, and blood hounds, and posses and probably villagers with pitchforks... but since they are chased through a foggy swamp, we just *hear* all of these things. I’m not sure if we see a single dog - though there may be a stock shot of dogs chasing - but we *hear* packs of blood hounds chasing them. We hear hundreds of cops searching the foggy swamp for them.The swamp is... well, it’s 99% fog and 1% a couple of thatches of tule grass.
The big scene where they hide and the cops and dogs search - is just them behind a thatch of tules surrounded by fog. And it works! It’s an amazing scene. Probably shot in some warehouse with a smoke machine. Just goes to show you, *imagination* and *inventiveness* can create production value if you don’t have any cash.
GUN CRAZY still holds up, mostly due to the amazing set pieces and great sequences and fairly obvious sexual overtones... oh, and Cummin’s skin tight trousers.
- Bill
Hey, I'm doing my big 2 day class in Los Angeles April 16 & 17 - Click For More Info.
Nothing sexual about this...
Friday, February 11, 2011
Script Secrets Class: Los Angeles
It's been almost 5 years since I last did my 2 day class in the USA! I've been busy writing, but done it in London and Hong Kong and Denmark. But now I'm bringing it back to Los Angeles...
SCRIPT SECRETS: THE BIG IDEA is an INTENSIVE two day course - screenwriting stripped of the theoretical nonsense! This is the "classic class" - starting with finding an amazing million dollar idea - the kind that makes producers salivate! Learn brainstorming techniques, how to tell the difference between a movie idea and a book or stage play idea. The basics of high concept. And how to kick-start your imagination.
This class is jam-packed with techniques to create great film ideas, then I'll take you step-by-step from black page to the big screen and show you how to create great characters from that idea. Learn how high concept can be *your* personal story. How to find theme within the concept. How to create amazing high concept scenes that actually *explore character*, plus solid techniques to improve your dialogue, create lean-mean-evocative description, flesh out your story and improve screenwriting abilities! Plus a section on selling your script!
Now with The Thematic - the most powerful screenwriting tool I've ever created! Start with a story idea or a character, and it will take you step-by-step, finding the perfect supporting characters, amazing dramatic scenes, dialogue that works on more than one level, actions that show emotional conflict, and more. Thematic uses your story's theme to generate the other elements of the story, creating the template for a tightly focused character and theme based screenplay. This is not a machine or a formula, but a unique way to look at writing your screenplay.
For 2011 we'll be using the movie GHOST as our primary example, with clips from that film as well as NORTH BY NORTHWEST, THE MATRIX, AIRPLANE, THE BIG SLEEP and DILLINGER.
April 16 & 17, 2011
Burbank Airport Marriott - Producer's Room.
Register TODAY!
Only $249
Click For More Info.
Yes, this is spammish - sorry! I finally booked the hotel and wanted to get the word out to people who have asked about the class.
- Bill
SCRIPT SECRETS: THE BIG IDEA is an INTENSIVE two day course - screenwriting stripped of the theoretical nonsense! This is the "classic class" - starting with finding an amazing million dollar idea - the kind that makes producers salivate! Learn brainstorming techniques, how to tell the difference between a movie idea and a book or stage play idea. The basics of high concept. And how to kick-start your imagination.
This class is jam-packed with techniques to create great film ideas, then I'll take you step-by-step from black page to the big screen and show you how to create great characters from that idea. Learn how high concept can be *your* personal story. How to find theme within the concept. How to create amazing high concept scenes that actually *explore character*, plus solid techniques to improve your dialogue, create lean-mean-evocative description, flesh out your story and improve screenwriting abilities! Plus a section on selling your script!
Now with The Thematic - the most powerful screenwriting tool I've ever created! Start with a story idea or a character, and it will take you step-by-step, finding the perfect supporting characters, amazing dramatic scenes, dialogue that works on more than one level, actions that show emotional conflict, and more. Thematic uses your story's theme to generate the other elements of the story, creating the template for a tightly focused character and theme based screenplay. This is not a machine or a formula, but a unique way to look at writing your screenplay.
For 2011 we'll be using the movie GHOST as our primary example, with clips from that film as well as NORTH BY NORTHWEST, THE MATRIX, AIRPLANE, THE BIG SLEEP and DILLINGER.
April 16 & 17, 2011
Burbank Airport Marriott - Producer's Room.
Register TODAY!
Only $249
Click For More Info.
Yes, this is spammish - sorry! I finally booked the hotel and wanted to get the word out to people who have asked about the class.
- Bill
Lancelot Link Thursday
Either 1 day late or 6 days early! Lancelot Link Thursday! For those of you who wonder why your waitress has hairy legs... and a hairy back, 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's waiter brother...
Here are five cool links plus this week's car chase...
1) Movie Posters for remakes we wish were true!
2) The Coen Brothers Screenwriting Secrets Revealed!
3) Real James Bond era Spy Gadgets!
4) Time Out's 100 Best British Films - with an upset! The BFI's #1 film is pushed to #2 by another thriller!
5) What if David Lynch directed the Superbowl?
6) This week's Car Chase is from a Luc Besson movie...
I watched this film on VHS back in the day and thought it was crazy... but fun. Wonder what else this guy has made?
- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: How To Study A Screenplay .
Dinner: Fish & Chips at what has to be the last remaining H. Salt Esq - in NoHo. Place ain't cheap! Greasy fast food - over $10.
Pages: Yes - a great scene yesterday. Still way behind, but you will cry every 15 minutes when reading this script!
Here are five cool links plus this week's car chase...
1) Movie Posters for remakes we wish were true!
2) The Coen Brothers Screenwriting Secrets Revealed!
3) Real James Bond era Spy Gadgets!
4) Time Out's 100 Best British Films - with an upset! The BFI's #1 film is pushed to #2 by another thriller!
5) What if David Lynch directed the Superbowl?
6) This week's Car Chase is from a Luc Besson movie...
I watched this film on VHS back in the day and thought it was crazy... but fun. Wonder what else this guy has made?
- Bill
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: How To Study A Screenplay .
Dinner: Fish & Chips at what has to be the last remaining H. Salt Esq - in NoHo. Place ain't cheap! Greasy fast food - over $10.
Pages: Yes - a great scene yesterday. Still way behind, but you will cry every 15 minutes when reading this script!
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
No Middle Man!
Before the holidays I had a meeting with a company about an assignment - they were looking for something in a specific sub-genre for a network they have a deal with that could be made on the network’s budget. One of the problems is that this network is one of the few left that make original movies and they have a target demo... and they want something they haven’t seen before. Imagine pitching someone like Sy Fy Channel and having to come up with two original giant monsters to battle - and a scenario for that we haven’t seen. Though I didn’t have to come up with any giant monsters, this network’s movies do tend to blur after a while - and they want something that stands out but still fits. So I worked to come up with a half dozen pitches that I didn’t think they had heard before. At least, in looking over their recent movies I hadn’t seen anything like these.
As with any bunch-o-pitches there’s always at least one that I love, a couple that are okay, and usually one that I hope they don’t pick because it’s the least thought out and least interesting to me. This time around there are two that I really like because they have ironic twist ends that I don’t think people will see coming, and both also have interesting characters and locations that I don’t think we’ve seen before... at least not in films on this network. As a test, I pitched them to a couple of writer friends... and the two I really liked got the best response.
Now, one of the problems is that you can’t have every story beat thought out for each pitch, so you decide which ones to give some extra thought to - and in this case it was the two I really liked and my friends had liked. So, I anticipated questions they might ask based on the kinds of questions I’d been asked in the past. I also went online and looked into the unusual locations - hey, could they be found in a state with film incentives?
Now, the way these things work is that the network is not at this meeting. The network doesn’t actually produce the movies, they have a few production companies that make movies for their network. The production company takes projects to the network for approval, and the network gives the production company the money to make the movie.
So the production company comes between me and the network guy (or gal), and I pitch it to them and they pitch it to the network - and sometimes things can get lost in translation, But also you are dealing with the production company’s taste rather than the network’s taste. Though the production company is a surrogate for the network, and much of the time they know what the network wants - sometimes they don’t. Everything is based on their past experiences, and that isn’t the same as all experiences. So one production company’s experience may be that all women in jeopardy movies must take place in the suburbs, but another company has had success with that sub-genre in a big city setting or a rural setting. So the network may *want* more rural women in jeopardy movies, but they aren’t getting them due to this filter of the production company’s experiences. If I’m pitching something like this, I like to do a little homework so that I can point out some other things the network has done, etc.
But you are still dealing with a middle man.
And I hate middle men.
I decide to start and end with my best ideas, and if something happens in the middle where I need to gain control I’ll just use that last great pitch early. These are short pitches, just the concepts and a few details - kind of an “elevator pitch”. Might be a page or two if it was on paper. So I go in, pitch that first great pitch... and before I can get to sentence #2, it gets shot down due to some strange thing. “Wait, the character wears a hat? No way is that gonna fly!” (The actual problem was that the conflict was a side effect of another conflict that they had seen before - like a woman running from an abusive husband who swaps identities with someone else... and they shot it down after “Woman running from abusive husband”.)
The problem is, you can’t argue and win. In this case, I mentioned that the real twist came next, but they had already decided they didn’t want it - so I pitched the next thing... and they didn’t like it at all. I was losing it!
So I pulled out that last great pitch and gave it all of my energy... and once again they shot it down after a few words. What? Okay, now my problem is that they are rejecting it before they even hear it! Can I have a full minute, please? Once again I try to explain that there’s more to the idea - that I’m taking a common situation that the core audience can identify with, and using that as the foundation for a completely original and different story. Could I please just get to that different part? No. They’ve heard enough. What else do I have?
So I pitch the last ideas... and they really latch on to the one that is the least developed and that I think is the dumbest. The larger problem is that this is what I call an “underhanded pitch” - something that sounds like a good idea, but when you start writing it you see that it is filled with problems. There are lots of ideas like this, that seem okay in short form but are one problem after another when you flesh it out - and many of them hit a brick wall about halfway in. I can see that brick wall from where I’m standing, but the D-Guy could not.
To me, the big problem is that the two great ones they shot down without listening to the whole things were something the network would really like. And I fear the one they like the network may not like - and that kills this deal. Now, I still own those two great pitches, and there are other producers who make movies for this network (plus I always try to come up with an idea that stands alone and can just be a movie), but it is frustrating to have a middle man get in the way of a deal.
Much of my career is due to middle men - they pass the script to their best contact - but that also means a bunch of deals that never were is due to middle men screwing things up. Sometimes you get a Devo with kind of a “tin ear” and they completely fumble the pitch to their boss. Sometimes you get a person why knows someone looking for an action script, and they want to take submit your women in jeopardy script (WTF?). Sometimes it’s the middle man who is the problem - though I don’t think that Brad Pitt Guy actually had a good connection with Brad Pitt, it still might have been nice if he’d tried giving him one of my scripts. I also know of a “producer” who is just bad news, so when he hands a real producer a script and says he has to be attached, that script gets rejected even if it’s CASABLANCA. Sometimes there’s a different kind of “tin ear” at work - where someone has a connection to an ultra conservative producer and hands them your ultra liberal script... when you have scripts that would match that producer’s politics available. This is when someone doesn’t do their homework. On one of my projects that never was, the producer could not get this money guy’s name right whenever he talked to me. I kept correcting him, but he just kept getting the name wrong. Guess what? The project did not get funding from that source, even though the producer had access to the guy (it was a distrib that picked up his last film). I knew this was going to happen, dreaded it every time the producer talked to me, wished I could be at the meeting to get the guy's name right ("Mr. Lantos" not "Mr. Santos") and maybe save the deal... but no. This becomes frustrating after a while, and you just wish you could get rid of all of these middle men and just do it yourself.
But part of this business, or any business, is that you not only have the connections that you have, you have the connections that your connections have. I don’t have time to know everybody, I’m writing screenplays. I know a small handful of people, and my scripts sometimes travel to people I do not know. But each person knows someone who knows someone else - it’s networking. The thing about networking is that it’s one of those chains that is only as strong as its weakest link - so you should always expect a bunch of links and chains to break. There is no sure thing, it’s all a numbers game. There will always be people between you and the decision maker, and some of those people may screw things up for you. But others may champion your work and open doors for you. I often have people who read something long ago and remembered it, and maybe submit it at their new company. So it’s not really middle men I have a problem with, it’s just the ones that screw up somehow - usually in some way that seems obvious to me, but probably doesn’t to them.
So, I got an e-mail from the producer about that pitch of mine - they want to meet with me sometime to discuss it. In my reply, I included the paragraphs for *all* of my pitches, with the best two first. Maybe he'll read them all the way through, maybe not. I may end up having to write the worst idea of the bunch because the middle man likes it most.
- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Show The Goal and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.
Dinner: Nothing. That's right.
Pages: No pages. All around bad day. 4 hours sleep, lots of strange things went wrong, the whole day was putting out fires.
Bicycle: No - someone stole it.
As with any bunch-o-pitches there’s always at least one that I love, a couple that are okay, and usually one that I hope they don’t pick because it’s the least thought out and least interesting to me. This time around there are two that I really like because they have ironic twist ends that I don’t think people will see coming, and both also have interesting characters and locations that I don’t think we’ve seen before... at least not in films on this network. As a test, I pitched them to a couple of writer friends... and the two I really liked got the best response.
Now, one of the problems is that you can’t have every story beat thought out for each pitch, so you decide which ones to give some extra thought to - and in this case it was the two I really liked and my friends had liked. So, I anticipated questions they might ask based on the kinds of questions I’d been asked in the past. I also went online and looked into the unusual locations - hey, could they be found in a state with film incentives?
Now, the way these things work is that the network is not at this meeting. The network doesn’t actually produce the movies, they have a few production companies that make movies for their network. The production company takes projects to the network for approval, and the network gives the production company the money to make the movie.
So the production company comes between me and the network guy (or gal), and I pitch it to them and they pitch it to the network - and sometimes things can get lost in translation, But also you are dealing with the production company’s taste rather than the network’s taste. Though the production company is a surrogate for the network, and much of the time they know what the network wants - sometimes they don’t. Everything is based on their past experiences, and that isn’t the same as all experiences. So one production company’s experience may be that all women in jeopardy movies must take place in the suburbs, but another company has had success with that sub-genre in a big city setting or a rural setting. So the network may *want* more rural women in jeopardy movies, but they aren’t getting them due to this filter of the production company’s experiences. If I’m pitching something like this, I like to do a little homework so that I can point out some other things the network has done, etc.
But you are still dealing with a middle man.
And I hate middle men.
I decide to start and end with my best ideas, and if something happens in the middle where I need to gain control I’ll just use that last great pitch early. These are short pitches, just the concepts and a few details - kind of an “elevator pitch”. Might be a page or two if it was on paper. So I go in, pitch that first great pitch... and before I can get to sentence #2, it gets shot down due to some strange thing. “Wait, the character wears a hat? No way is that gonna fly!” (The actual problem was that the conflict was a side effect of another conflict that they had seen before - like a woman running from an abusive husband who swaps identities with someone else... and they shot it down after “Woman running from abusive husband”.)
The problem is, you can’t argue and win. In this case, I mentioned that the real twist came next, but they had already decided they didn’t want it - so I pitched the next thing... and they didn’t like it at all. I was losing it!
So I pulled out that last great pitch and gave it all of my energy... and once again they shot it down after a few words. What? Okay, now my problem is that they are rejecting it before they even hear it! Can I have a full minute, please? Once again I try to explain that there’s more to the idea - that I’m taking a common situation that the core audience can identify with, and using that as the foundation for a completely original and different story. Could I please just get to that different part? No. They’ve heard enough. What else do I have?
So I pitch the last ideas... and they really latch on to the one that is the least developed and that I think is the dumbest. The larger problem is that this is what I call an “underhanded pitch” - something that sounds like a good idea, but when you start writing it you see that it is filled with problems. There are lots of ideas like this, that seem okay in short form but are one problem after another when you flesh it out - and many of them hit a brick wall about halfway in. I can see that brick wall from where I’m standing, but the D-Guy could not.
To me, the big problem is that the two great ones they shot down without listening to the whole things were something the network would really like. And I fear the one they like the network may not like - and that kills this deal. Now, I still own those two great pitches, and there are other producers who make movies for this network (plus I always try to come up with an idea that stands alone and can just be a movie), but it is frustrating to have a middle man get in the way of a deal.
Much of my career is due to middle men - they pass the script to their best contact - but that also means a bunch of deals that never were is due to middle men screwing things up. Sometimes you get a Devo with kind of a “tin ear” and they completely fumble the pitch to their boss. Sometimes you get a person why knows someone looking for an action script, and they want to take submit your women in jeopardy script (WTF?). Sometimes it’s the middle man who is the problem - though I don’t think that Brad Pitt Guy actually had a good connection with Brad Pitt, it still might have been nice if he’d tried giving him one of my scripts. I also know of a “producer” who is just bad news, so when he hands a real producer a script and says he has to be attached, that script gets rejected even if it’s CASABLANCA. Sometimes there’s a different kind of “tin ear” at work - where someone has a connection to an ultra conservative producer and hands them your ultra liberal script... when you have scripts that would match that producer’s politics available. This is when someone doesn’t do their homework. On one of my projects that never was, the producer could not get this money guy’s name right whenever he talked to me. I kept correcting him, but he just kept getting the name wrong. Guess what? The project did not get funding from that source, even though the producer had access to the guy (it was a distrib that picked up his last film). I knew this was going to happen, dreaded it every time the producer talked to me, wished I could be at the meeting to get the guy's name right ("Mr. Lantos" not "Mr. Santos") and maybe save the deal... but no. This becomes frustrating after a while, and you just wish you could get rid of all of these middle men and just do it yourself.
But part of this business, or any business, is that you not only have the connections that you have, you have the connections that your connections have. I don’t have time to know everybody, I’m writing screenplays. I know a small handful of people, and my scripts sometimes travel to people I do not know. But each person knows someone who knows someone else - it’s networking. The thing about networking is that it’s one of those chains that is only as strong as its weakest link - so you should always expect a bunch of links and chains to break. There is no sure thing, it’s all a numbers game. There will always be people between you and the decision maker, and some of those people may screw things up for you. But others may champion your work and open doors for you. I often have people who read something long ago and remembered it, and maybe submit it at their new company. So it’s not really middle men I have a problem with, it’s just the ones that screw up somehow - usually in some way that seems obvious to me, but probably doesn’t to them.
So, I got an e-mail from the producer about that pitch of mine - they want to meet with me sometime to discuss it. In my reply, I included the paragraphs for *all* of my pitches, with the best two first. Maybe he'll read them all the way through, maybe not. I may end up having to write the worst idea of the bunch because the middle man likes it most.
- Bill
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: Show The Goal and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.
Dinner: Nothing. That's right.
Pages: No pages. All around bad day. 4 hours sleep, lots of strange things went wrong, the whole day was putting out fires.
Bicycle: No - someone stole it.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Chain Gang Escape
Almost three years ago (beginning of May 2008) I bought a bicycle and began riding again. Though there were many reasons, the main one was because I was fat and not in great health. I needed to get some regular exercise, and riding a bike from coffee shop to coffee shop not only kept the blood circulating, it was also a great way to think about the next scene while I was cycling there. I have lost weight, am in better health, and know how to quickly put my bike on the front rack of a city bus without tearing my hand off...
But Saturday, someone else was riding my bike - it was stolen.
The real pisser is that I had just changed the rear tire and tube - and that’s a bitch to do. Had I known the bike was going to be stolen, I would have left it as it.
So I have to buy a new bike.
The pisser is that the bike was locked, at a public place where it shouldn’t have been stolen, and there were other, better, bikes parked nearby that were not stolen. My friend Mark had his bike parked next to mine, and they didn’t steal his.
Sometimes life is like that. I may have blogged about my general bad luck in the past - a couple of years ago I was standing with some other folks in line to get into a screening and a bird pooped on my head. Just me. No one else got pooped on. Now, maybe I slighted this bird sometime in the past, who knows. But when something like that happens, even though you know it’s completely random, you begin to buy into those bird conspiracy theories. To feel like you’re getting screwed and everyone else is not (well, they don’t have bird poop on *their* heads). But the reality is just that bird poop happens. It’s not personal. Best to just shake it off and keep going.
I talked to my friend Mark about the bike theft - and he’s had several stolen as well. Sometimes you can have the greatest lock in the world, and they use freon to freeze it and smash it and steal your bike. You can’t kick yourself for not having a better lock, and you can’t go around blaming everyone for your missing bike... and you can’t be paranoid that evil bike thieves are following you everywhere just waiting to get your new bike. Just have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back to your life.
The good news is: soon I will have a new bike.
- Bill
But Saturday, someone else was riding my bike - it was stolen.
The real pisser is that I had just changed the rear tire and tube - and that’s a bitch to do. Had I known the bike was going to be stolen, I would have left it as it.
So I have to buy a new bike.
The pisser is that the bike was locked, at a public place where it shouldn’t have been stolen, and there were other, better, bikes parked nearby that were not stolen. My friend Mark had his bike parked next to mine, and they didn’t steal his.
Sometimes life is like that. I may have blogged about my general bad luck in the past - a couple of years ago I was standing with some other folks in line to get into a screening and a bird pooped on my head. Just me. No one else got pooped on. Now, maybe I slighted this bird sometime in the past, who knows. But when something like that happens, even though you know it’s completely random, you begin to buy into those bird conspiracy theories. To feel like you’re getting screwed and everyone else is not (well, they don’t have bird poop on *their* heads). But the reality is just that bird poop happens. It’s not personal. Best to just shake it off and keep going.
I talked to my friend Mark about the bike theft - and he’s had several stolen as well. Sometimes you can have the greatest lock in the world, and they use freon to freeze it and smash it and steal your bike. You can’t kick yourself for not having a better lock, and you can’t go around blaming everyone for your missing bike... and you can’t be paranoid that evil bike thieves are following you everywhere just waiting to get your new bike. Just have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and get back to your life.
The good news is: soon I will have a new bike.
- Bill
Avoid TV in the UK Today...
Wow - it's playing all week! They still have the synopsis wrong, but the film sucks - so who would ever notice?
- Bill
- Bill
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Happy Groundhog Day!
No, this is not a holiday honoring Jimmy Dean sausage... it honors a rodent’s shadow. Now that’s a good reason for a holiday! It’s also the shortest month of the year, and Black History Month... so rent some Spike Lee movies like SCHOOL DAZE. And MALCOLM X... And maybe SHAFT’S BIG SCORE. Plus SOUNDER, even though it was directed by a white guy. You can see a different *great* movie either directed by an African American or starring an African American every day this month! There are easily 28 - had Black History Month been last month, you may have had a problem. The Hollywood Man doesn’t let minorities makes movies all that often.
If only Ernie Hudson had starred in GROUNDHOG DAY, you could watch that today for a two-fer! But the fourth Ghostbuster kind of got swept under the rug when they could have made him into a star - have you seen HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE? That guy can act!
I plan on celebrating Groundhog Day in the traditional Native American way - the family has dug a whole in the living room floor and we have placed gifts around the hole. If the groundhog come up through the hole and sees his shadow - we have to return all of the gifts, even if they were the right size and exactly what we wanted. If he doesn’t see his shadow, we open the gifts and continue the celebration.
Have a great Groundhog Day, and watch some good movies!
Black History Movies on Amazon!
TCM's Black History Month Line Up!
- Bill
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: The Pitch Reveals - when you condense your script to a pitch, all of the flaws show.
Dinner: Togos - turkey & swiss.
Pages: A couple of the family script, but have to really get my butt in gear because they need to read it.
Bicycle: Yes.
If only Ernie Hudson had starred in GROUNDHOG DAY, you could watch that today for a two-fer! But the fourth Ghostbuster kind of got swept under the rug when they could have made him into a star - have you seen HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE? That guy can act!
I plan on celebrating Groundhog Day in the traditional Native American way - the family has dug a whole in the living room floor and we have placed gifts around the hole. If the groundhog come up through the hole and sees his shadow - we have to return all of the gifts, even if they were the right size and exactly what we wanted. If he doesn’t see his shadow, we open the gifts and continue the celebration.
Have a great Groundhog Day, and watch some good movies!
Black History Movies on Amazon!
TCM's Black History Month Line Up!
- Bill
TODAY'S SCRIPT TIP: The Pitch Reveals - when you condense your script to a pitch, all of the flaws show.
Dinner: Togos - turkey & swiss.
Pages: A couple of the family script, but have to really get my butt in gear because they need to read it.
Bicycle: Yes.
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