Screenwriting new year’s resolutions January 1, 2008
Posted by James D Hartland in About Me, New year, Personal, Procrastination, Writer's Hangups, Writer's Lifestyle.2 comments
I’m not normally one for making resolutions, but what I am always doing is trying to become a better screenwriter so these are some of the things I’m aiming to do over the coming year.
Work Harder
They say success is attained from 80% perspiration and only 20% inspiration. Well frankly I’ve been relying too much on inspiration and not quite doing enough of the perspiration. So this year I’m gunna aim to put more hours in.
The more hours I put in the more progress I can make. Which writer out there doesn’t wish he could have put more hours in?
Read more kick ass screenplays
People talk about how producers and people in the money hate reading screenplays and they are looking for any excuse to put one down. But really this applies to everyone. I think even the most dedicated film maker will admit that reading scripts is a bit of a chore. Which is why up until now I’ve never really read all that many screenplays.
Part of what makes a screenplay less of a chore to read however is having a good writing style. Of course good characters and plotting and all that stuff is essential as well, but it’s improving my writing style which is my reason for wanting to read more screenplays. I wanna make sure the way I describe my action is as good as it can be, and the only way I can do that is to see how the best guys out there are doing it.
Be more organised – have a schedule – and stick to it!!
This is kinda an extension of the working harder idea, but this year I want to try to be more organised in how I approach my work. By this is making sure I get to bed on time, making sure if I say I’m gunna work X number of hours I actually get that done. Just generally have a time table and approaching things with more of a schedule.
Remove more distractions
Again to help me get more work done I’m going to ensure I get distracted less by making sure email is turned off and stuff like that.
I think part and parcel of what makes me a good writer is the way my brain likes to skip from one thing to another; I’m always day-dreaming and going off on weird tangents. This is great for when you are brain storming ideas, but it also makes me very prone to getting distracted. The internet is such a blessing and a curse!
Ask for more help on LA Features
As I blogged a while back, I dont really feel as if I made the most of the wonderful resource that is Wendall Thomas on the LA Features scheme, so this year I’m gunna aim to get as much out of her as possible.
That’s all the stuff that has jumped out at me.
I’m sure there are other things as well, but I guess the common theme is that I feel like I need to bust my ass a little more and get a little more work done, because right now I feel like I’m on the verge of some big developments in my writing career, just so long as I make the most of my potential.
About Me – I used to mug old ladies – Film classifications October 22, 2007
Posted by James D Hartland in 80s Movies, About Me, Film Classification, Personal, Rants, Site News.1 comment so far
I had some time to kill this morning before leaving for a business meeting today so I decided I would finally do the About Me page on the blog. It’s not really that I’ve not had time to do it before now, but more that I didn’t know what to write.
I’ve decided to go for a very brief summery of how I got from being born to where I am now. I dunno if that’s the best way to tell things, but between the profile on the right hand side of my blog and my CV I felt like to do anything else would just be going over the same details again. It is what it is, if it’s crap I might change it some other time. Writing the little summery of my life did get me thinking though…
When I was a child I was allowed to watch many films regardless of their age classification so long as they weren’t exploitative or trashy. So like I could watch violent and gory movies, and movies with some sexual content, so long as they were part of a story; but where my parents would put their foot down would be a movie where the gore or sex was there purely to titillate.
When I inform people nowadays that my parents not only let me, but encouraged me to watch films which sometimes contained adult themes they are shocked. The idea that someone might let their 6 year old watch Robocop or something like that makes them think I had terribly irresponsible parents, and that I was probably running around a council estate mugging old ladies.
Fact is I come from a middle class family and I’ve never mugged an old lady in my life. And actually I consider myself lucky to have parents that encouraged me to take an interest in cinema rather than them just using films as a babysitter to get some piece and quiet.
Also what I find weird is that I can remember talking to my friends in the playground and on the way to school about these sorts of movies. My next door neighbour loved Robocop and Terminator, and my best friend thought Jean Claude van Damme movies were the greatest thing ever, and this was like when we 7 years old. I think pretty much everyone was watching these movies when I was a kid, cept for the kids who went to Sunday school.
So what has changed?
Are people way more educated about film classifications these days? Maybe it’s just the Nanny state syndrome kicking in?
Or has nothing changed, and it’s always been seen as bad parenting; it just so happens my world view is distorted by the fact all my friends at school came from equally debauched households? All I can say is my expriences growing up is worlds apart from this idea that showing kids 18 certificates is terrible and those who do it should be locked up.
Although perhaps this whole issue is a lot more complicated than we appreciate, because in some cases movies which didn’t affect me at all as a child now seem way more violent seeing them as an adult. So maybe to judge a film by our adult perspective is wrong?
One interesting example of someone else stating this same phenomena is with Jurrasic Park. The BBFC got quite a bit of controversy at the time over the rating of that movie as some felt that it was too scary for kids, and the BBFC basically said that kids see the movie differently from adults and thus we cant judge it from an adult perspective. It certainly never crossed my mind as an 8 year old that a T-Rex eating people was anything other than good wholesome adventure.
So maybe the reason I’m not screwed in the head after seeing all these movies is because kids don’t attach the same meaning to the images as adults?
Who knows. All I know is that if I had only been exposed to Disney movies as a child and I wasn’t encouraged to watch good movies regardless of their age limit then I probably wouldn’t be working in the film industry today.
Plus, I’d like to think that I’m a well rounded person who hasn’t been adversely affected by all these movies. Although I’ve got plenty time yet to go mug an old lady.
Busy little bee June 24, 2007
Posted by James D Hartland in Career, Horror, Personal, Romcom, UK Film Council, Writer's Lifestyle.add a comment
My apologies for not writing anything lately. The truth is I haven’t really thought about my blog hardly at all over the past few weeks. I did start writing a big long theory based post but I decided to ditch it, and hence there’s been no updates.
I guess this lack of blog posts is because of my new found busy schedule. After working more or less on one project since the start of the year I have now decided I am far enough along in that feature film’s development that I can start some new projects.
The other week I started work on a horror feature film, and in addition to getting my basic plot beats down I have been watching a whole bunch of horror films. It is making me realise just how fond of schlock I can be, since even a fairly pants horror movie can still be entertaining.
I’m pretty pleased with the speed of which I was able to get the basic structure down for the horror film after it taking me months to get to a similar place with my romcom, though obviously there is still a long way to go. Especially since I have yet to come up with any logical explanation for the sci-fi element of this horror film, or to put it another way; I’ve got a kick ass hook, but no reason to explain why this hook should happen besides the fact it’s kick ass.
The other thing that is taking up my time is a new short film I’m writing for a particular UK Film Council scheme. I’m a bit concerned that the budget might become an issue with this film, which is kinda making me think stuff like “well I can’t have that scene take place where I want it to because that’s a whole other location”; but whatever, I’ll just write it and see what can be changed later.
Both of these projects are in addition to also working on the romcom (which I’ve been working on since time began it seems). I’m hoping to reach another landmark in that films development in the next month so it’s not like I’ve taken my foot off the accelerator with this film.
So there you go… a short insight into what I have been getting up to lately. I’m off to a screening of the Film Council short I directed last year in a couple of days, so my next blog will be about that no doubt.
Anyways, I now must get back to the writing. I’ve promised myself I’ll get this short film finished today.
CV and Writing Sample pages updated June 1, 2007
Posted by James D Hartland in CV, Career, Personal, Site News, Writing Samples.add a comment
Just a quick note to say that the CV and Writing Sample pages are now up. Click on the tabs at the top to check them out.
Oh Crap! May 11, 2007
Posted by James D Hartland in Computer, Deadlines, Personal.add a comment
Last night the power kept going off in my house and it blow my computers power unit thingy. This was not what you want to happen a few days before the deadline you have been working towards for 3 months!
Luckily I had a spare power unit lying around that I was able to switch in otherwise I would have been buggered. Well that’s not strictly true, there’s other computers in the house I could have used, but its scary none the less to have your computer break so close to a deadline.
I hope everyone out there backs up their files., you never know when your computer is going to die on you. Aside from backing up on flash drives and DVD-Rs and the like, you might also wanna try using an online thing like Box.net which is not only a good way to back stuff up, but also lets you take advantage of all sorts of Web 2.0 features to share files with people in cool ways, like creating a shared folder of files that people can then subscribe to and get a notification each time you upload a new file. You can get a 1GB account for free or up to 15GB if you pay. Its pretty sleek.
Anyways, my deadline awaits! Eeek!
Google and updates soon May 7, 2007
Posted by James D Hartland in Personal, Site News.add a comment
I think Google must have indexed this new improved version of the scriptmonster.co.uk blog in the last few days because in the last few days I have seen a large increase in the number of people finding their way here from search terms. (WordPress has some great visitor stat tracking features) The article I wrote on John Truby a while back seems to be particularly popular with people searching for Truby related terms. In fact with some particular combinations of words that blog entry is the top hit! 
In other news, I am still plugging away at my feature script to meet a certain deadline. I’ve now got 5 days or there about to get it all done. So maybe after those 5 days I can purge my system by writing a nice blog entry. It feels like forever since I wrote a proper post.
Memoirs of a Screenwriter March 1, 2007
Posted by James D Hartland in 80s Movies, About Me, Career, John Hughes, Personal, Stanley Kubrick.1 comment so far
Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to work in either the film or television business. Some boys wanted to be footballers, some boys wanted to be firemen, but for me it was always working on creating stuff for the visual medium of TV or Film. Not because I thought it was glamorous or well-paid but simply because it appeared to be the most innately cool thing on the planet!
To me, that little black box in the corner of the living room represented a window into an exciting new world with muscle-bound action heroes, time-travelling cars and transforming robots. That black box was the focal point of my life; I mean, why else would my parents arrange all the furniture to face it?
I think I was lucky to be the right age to be watching my first films just after that first wave of multiplex movies came out. Movies like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, and The Goonies are unrivalled even to this day in terms of their pure popcorn entertainment, and instilled in me a belief from an early age that film was full of exciting possibility. Sure, when I got older I developed an interest in Eisenstein, Kurosawa et al, but I still remain firmly routed in the idea that – first and foremost – film and television should be entertaining first and everything else should follow.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to realise that film is far more than just cool, it’s the most expressive and expansive medium out there. The way I can utilise elements of photography and theatre and music and story and sound and movement and colour to create meaning and emotion responses frankly leaves me in awe of the possibilities. To me, the best example of this is Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, where nothing but white noise is used for several minutes to underscore a particular scene. The idea that white noise can put me on the edge of my seat (as it indeed did) sums up to me the idea that film has infinitely more potential to create emotion and engage directly with an audience than any other art form.
I’m passionate about film-making more than anything else in life, and I make a distinction here between being passionate about film and being passionate about film-making. I meet loads of people who love film and as a result want to make films, but in my opinion seem to lack passion for the actual process of making films. To me it’s as much about the camaraderie of working long, hard days with like minded people, it’s about seeing an idea evolve and grow stronger as different specialists bring their own skills to the table, its the actual process of crafting the films that I like . In my mind this stuff makes the process of actually making the film just as fascinating as the final results.
The 1980s director John Hughes likened film making to pointillism (the style of painting were you create images with dots) because you’re creating these tiny units of film, and whilst you’re making them you have no real idea as to whether they’ll piece together or not until you’ve made enough that you can step back and look at it objectively. That to me was the best description of film making I had ever heard, and represents just one of the many reasons why the medium fascinates me.
What effect is this obsession with film having on my life? When I walk down the street I’m imagining what music I’d set this to; as I sit on a bus I’m looking at people around me and wondering how they might translate into movie characters; when I butter a slice of toast I’m imagining how I would block it. Basically, my brain never stops interpreting the world around me as potential scenes.
My biggest frustration at the moment is not being around other professionals on a daily basis in order that I can learn new skills and gain valuable experience to improve as a writer and script editor. I’m hoping that someone out there will read this and see a young intelligent man with a burning desire to get stuck in and make progress in this industry – someone who isn’t just following some pipe-dream of making cool movies or TV shows, but instead is someone who has something new and different to bring the industry, and – more importantly – someone who isn’t afraid to work bloody hard to get it!
