LA Features Draft 2 January 10, 2008
Posted by James D Hartland in Horror, LA Features, Rewriting, Romcom, Wendall Thomas.1 comment so far
Well today was the day I was supposed to get some notes from Wendall Thomas on my second draft of my LA Features script, and sure enough when I woke up this morning there was a 12 page set of notes from Wendall waiting for me in my inbox.
It’s full of loads of things I need to change, but in a way it was a kinda positive thing to read because her list of problems are for the most part ones I am all too aware of; things that I felt needed changing anyways or all the bits I knew I was kinda fudging and hoping no one will notice. It’s nice to know you aren’t way off the mark in your own personal judgement.
Of course knowing where the problems are and knowing how to fix those problems are two different things and that’s where Wendall is going to be invaluable to me. Some of these problems have been in the screenplay since day one and I’ve yet to find solutions for them, but already just reading the notes has given me a bunch of ideas for things I’ve never thought of before but which might well be the answer to all my problems.
I could go through all the other major points of interest like how my character’s aren’t flawed enough, how I need more conflict in the end of the script and much more, but I’m not sure exactly how much use that will be to anyone, or if anyone even cares. But I guess if I stumble upon some major discovery like I feel I’ve worked out the secret of how to write flawed characters or something then I guess I’ll write a blog entry about it.
One note I do wanna mention though, because it’s a bit more general about me as a writer rather than the specific script, was her comment that my writing style is too dense.
I had already suspected that my writing style was perhaps a bit too dense with me writing very detailed descriptions when it wasn’t always needed, which is why I decided this year I’m gunna make a concerted effort to read more screenplays and get a better sense of economy in my description. (As mentioned in my new year resolutions.) It’s nice to finally know one way or the other if I’m worrying over nothing or as I suspected it’s something that I need to address in order to work in the LA industry.
I’ve now got 42 days or 6 weeks until I need to hand in the 3rd draft, so I guess from today I need to stop working on my horror film and get back to work on my LA Features romcom.
I’m pretty pleased with my horror film so far, but there’s a long way to go with it yet. The bit I’m struggling with at the moment are the specifics. Like it’s easy to say “right at this point I want her to be chased by the killer”, but to actually fill in the specifics of that is very hard. It’s such a set piece kind of a moment that you’ve really gotta think moment by moment what is gunna happen and how that can be original and engaging.
I think I’m gunna stop worrying about it so much and just put something down even if it sucks. Writing is rewriting after all.
Christmas News Update December 23, 2007
Posted by James D Hartland in Christmas, Horror, Keyboard, LA Features, Romcom, Wendall Thomas.1 comment so far
It’s been a while since I’ve written anything here so without further ado here is some news from my life.
LA Features
A few weeks back I handed in the second draft of my Romcom as part of the LA Features scheme. For a bunch of personal reasons I wasn’t really able to get as much work done as I would have hoped so I’m kinda kicking myself. But that said I think in a few key areas I’ve improved the script, I think it’s just a case that the changes arent as polished as I would have liked them.
There is one section in particular that I wrote at the very last minute after deciding to make a big change to the structure with only a couple of days to go, and boy is that section clunky. It pains me to know that sequence is out there, but hey, as negative as it might sound I am being I am actually looking forward to getting back to work on it and getting everything polished.
Had you asked me if I was looking forward to getting back to it a few weeks ago though I wouldn’t have been quite so enthusiastic, which goes to show what a few weeks away from a script can do.
One thing I need to do to improve my involvement in the scheme is to take more advantage of Wendall Thomas. NFM have provided a wonderful resource in having her be available to help with our projects when ever we need it, but I haven’t really used her as much as I should of. I should be biting her hand off! This is the other big thing that I’ve been kicking myself over, because this truly is a wonderful opportunity for me and I’m just not taking advantage of it enough.
I’ve warned her though that next year to make up for lost time I’m gunna be hassling her with questions and suggestions non stop. 
Horror Film
The thing I’ve been working on since sending off my second draft of my romcom is a horror film. It’s a project I’ve been trying to get started for a while but whenever I find myself with any spare time to work on it something else always comes up.
I’ve set myself the aim of getting 30 pages of treatment done by January 10th when I start work on my romcom again. At the moment things are going OK to achieve that goal, but obviously with the festive period fast approaching I might find myself in a situation where I’ve not done any work in days.
I’ve promised myself that I will get at least a page done on Christmas day as punishment for all the times I’ve procrastinated over the past year. But more on this next week when I write some New Year’s Resolutions.
New Keyboard!
Whitey, the keyboard I’ve had for 10 years (see here) has finally been replaced! Of late the “E” key just hasn’t been working properly, so I’ve bitten the bullet and started using another keyboard.
Though I did think later that maybe I just needed to clean the keyboard out as perhaps a stray piece of toast was blocking the “E” key. Now that I’ve gone and changed keyboard I’m too lazy to find out.
I’m not sure about the long term use of this new keyboard though, I bought pretty much the cheapest one I can find since us Writer’s are poor folk. I dont think it will last as long as Whitey.
What’s hot today
More observant readers may have noticed that now at the bottom of the side menu there is a new section that lists the top 5 most clicked blog entries today. I thought it might encourage people to check out some older blog entries, but regardless its kinda fun to see what other people have been reading.
I really like these free wordpress.com blogs but it’s kinda frustrating that if you click on the blog’s tags at the top of each blog entry you are taken to a page contained all wordpress.com blogs with that tag rather than just the ones in my blog. Luckily I have a tag cloud which shows the 30 most used tags on my site. Using the search box is probably people’s best option though for finding specific things.
What have I asked Santa for?
I wont bore you with a word for word account of the entire list that I sent Santa’s way, but the main thing I asked for was an external hard drive. I’m always butting up against the limits of this 80GB drive in my computer so I’m looking forward to having to some breathing space.
LA Features September 29, 2007
Posted by James D Hartland in Career, LA Features, NFM, Romcom, Wendall Thomas.7 comments
Well this week I got the biggest piece of news I’ve had all year. After getting turned down for every scheme and course I’ve applied for in the last year I finally got the break through I wanted. I got a place on NFM’s LA Features scheme!
Which essentially means that for the next year I will be getting mentoring and script notes from Wendall Thomas (UCLA, Screenwriting Expo), and then after that there’s a possibility of an expenses paid trip to LA to meet agents. Yup, this time next year I might be jetting off to LA to meet agents in Hollywood! Pretty sweet huh?
The application process for this scheme was documented in my blog a few weeks back so I am glad to say that all that worrying seemed to be over nothing, since not only have I gotten onto this scheme but Wendall has been very complimentary about my first draft.
It’s been great to be validated like this by having someone who knows their shit tell you that you have some talent and you might go far. Quite simply, for the first time ever I feel like I am a proper professional screenwriter and not just someone who gets away with pretending that he might be.
But lets not kid ourselves here. For me to make the most of this scheme and any possible trip to LA will take a whole bunch of hard work and blood, sweat and tears; so in a way getting on this scheme is only the beginning. Now I’ve gotta really up my game and make sure I meet the demands of the LA crowd, because they aren’t going to be as forgiving as the people here in the UK.
But fingers crossed those multi-million script deals and Oscars aren’t far off now
Hollywood 3 Act Structure September 28, 2007
Posted by James D Hartland in Events, Moan, NFM, Screen Agency, Theory, Wendall Thomas.1 comment so far
This past week I attended yet another set of lectures by Wendall Thomas from UCLA. She seems to be Northern Film and Media’s favourite script guru at the moment.
I would always attend these events regardless because you never know what you might learn, and since they are free thanks to Northern Film and Media you would have to be a fool to turn the opportunity down. Why pay through the nose for expensive courses when you can get great education free from your local screen agency?
That said though I did go into this event feeling a bit “hmmm”, since 3 Act structure is something I would consider myself as knowing like the back of my hand. I was especially apprehensive about the second day given that the entire day would be spent going over Fatal Attraction scene by scene, and well, if you already know 3 act structure that sounds like a terrible bore.
But I am glad to say that the two days were really informative and I learnt at least 3 things that have made me think differently about the way I approach structure in feature films.
Which kinda goes along with what I have been saying all along. Even if you think you know all there is to know about these things, simply hearing the same theory from a fresh perspective or with a slight spin on the emphasis can make all the difference.
The more I see of Wendall’s ideas the more I come to really appreciate her as a good teacher.
Now onto the moan. It wouldn’t be one of my blogs if I didn’t moan about something.
The problem with these lectures is you always get at least 1 or usually 4 or 5 people who feel they should be able to put their hand up very other minute and offer the group their opinion on something.
There’s nothing wrong per say with people offering a point that the lecturer hasn’t mentioned, but the way these guys do it comes across as some tragic attempt at boosting their egos. I mean, do they really think that if they don’t say whatever it is on their mind everyone else in the room will go home having missed some super valuable input? Its more about them and how they wanna come across than actually offering anything of interest to anyone else in the audience.
And it’s not like I’m just being a moaner here. I think just about everyone come break time was complaining about these annoying people. I certainly didn’t have to get the ball rolling in the conversations I was privy to.
But just think, you might be paying through the nose to get annoyed by these people! God bless the UK Film Council throwing money at screenwriting training.
