Screenwriting Blogs Recap - Friday Edition

Hello all my scribblers out there. It's time for another recap of the best in the blogosphere.

It's been relatively quiet this week -- people are busy, hiding, working hard, dealing with down servers (glad you're still out there Unk) or potentially giving up their blogs (say it ain't so, Dave!) but there are some nice gold nuggets of wisdom out there in the wilderness.

First up, Mystery Man details how you can tell that a script is suffering from serious crapiocity. Pretty entertaining, to say the least.

Blake Snyder extols on the summer blockbuster and what Hollywood can do to keep itself afloat.

John August explains why making up your own jargon is both fun AND educational!

And Amanda dishes out the reality of living/working/writing in LA and why you shouldn't pack up and leave after one short year.

And that's the scoop, ladies and gents. On my end, I'm off to finish/seriously rewrite QftSS so that I can rewrite Xia. And then Darkness Rising. And then start my next spec...

Ah, a writer's life. Never bored. Too many things to do.

I'm a Script Frenzy Champion!

Well after a month of sweat I won Script Frenzy again this year.

Go me go me!

And kudos to the more than 450 other writers who cranked out 100 pages (or more) this year. The screenplay's far from done, I've got at least 10 more pages left and a serious rewrite for May, but I achieved my goal, and the contest stimulated the old imagination, which is always a plus. And best of all, I REALLY LIKE Quest for the Soul Stone now, which is not something that I could say before.



So to all my readers who participated, congratulations!

And now a word from our sponsor - if you participated (or even if you didn't but wish you had) please consider donating a bit of your spare change to Script Frenzy. They are way below on their donations again this year and could use the help to spread good karma the world over. I bought myself a shirt and intend to buy either this year's shirt or a travel mug (or both) soon. Also, if you are unable to donate money in this nasty economy, you can still help by using the search engine Goodsearch. All you have to do is type in which charity you would like to donate the money and Goodsearch donates cash to your charity of choice. At last count the folks at the Office of Letters and Light, who run the Screnzy, received a fat check for $1000, so it's definitely a good way to help them out.

That's it for me. Peace out, yo.

Even MORE Avatar News

According to Animation Magazine the first Avatar movie, entitled simply The Last Airbender, is slated to arrive in theaters on Friday, July 2, 2010.

2010?!
I can't wait that long!

But I must. I am excited to see one of my favorite shows on the big screen. I am also glad that they were able to compromise with the title. While it would have been cool to call the trilogy Avatar: The Last Airbender, it would not have been cool to get sued by James Cameron, who, as many of you may know, is also coming out with his own Avatar film that has no relation whatsoever with Aang and his element-bending buddies.

I have mixed feelings about M. Night Shyamalan directing the upcoming Avatar films though. On the one hand he directed The Six Sense, one of the most poignantly scary films I've ever seen. On the other hand, he directed The Village. And Unbreakable. And Signs. *shudder*

However, given the source material and the fact that creators Michael DiMartino and Brian Konietzko are on board as executive producers, I do not foresee the film bombing at the box office. And I can only imagine how cool the special effects will look in a live action picture. So here's to M. Night making a great film! (I hope!)

Screenwriting Blogs Recap - Monday Edition

Greetings fellow screenwriters! I hope that the weekend treated you well and that all of you are busy crafting your masterpieces. Quest for the Soul Stone is on track to be completed by the Script Frenzy April 30th deadline. I am excited for this screenplay. Thus far the adventure/family-friendly tone works well for it and I look forward to submitting it to contests after the rewrite(s). I am disappointed though in the Frenzy fallout. What I learned being an ML this year is that many people sign up for the challenge but few remain by the end. The write-ins consisted of myself and one to three other people (sometimes), even though 56 people signed up for the area. Not sure if they finished their specs or not, hopefully they did and they were too busy/swamped/shy to show up, but you never know. I fully intend to ML next year so we'll see what happens in 2009.

As for the Scribosphere, your favorites are back and ready to lend their wealth of knowledge to us, the burgeoning troop of future professional screenwriters.

First off, Jane is back online after taking time to work on her script for "Battlestar Galatica." She even includes a piece of the actual script for her loyal readers to peruse. Fabulous!

Personal fave Amanda will be blessed by the karma of the universe for her list of companies to call in regard to finding a job in LA. Thanks Amanda.

John August shows that he is not only a wonderful writer but also human by revealing that it took him six hours to write one scene. Glad to hear that I'm not the only one.

Mystery Man continues with Craig and John's rant about the now-infamous WGA blacklist. Shameful what the Guild has stooped to after doing so well with the strike.

Blake Snyder gives a warm shout-out to everyone who attended his recent meet and greet. His previous post is truly inspiring as well and definitely worth a read.

Alex gives tips on how to showcase a phone conversation in your script.

And in sadder news, Man Bytes Hollywood may or may not return. David is struggling with whether he should keep the blog or allow it to spontaneously combust when he returns from his retreat. The selfish part of me hopes that he will keep the blog as he provides a wealth of information, but he alone knows what he should do with his time. We'll find out what happens when he returns.

My Poorly Drawn Life - Web Comic of the Week

Back when I lived in NYC I had the pleasure of meeting Rising Stars of Manga vol. 2 winner Tania del Rio at MoCCA Fest.

Tania's an awesome manga/comic artist who recently relocated to Cali.
She worked on Archie comics' Sabrina the Teenage Witch and also published a book called Manga Ka America highlighting American manga artists that all of you should buy right now. The art is amazing and showcases that you don't have to be from Japan to produce quality manga.

Every Monday Tania writes/illustrates a fantastically crude (as in badly drawn) web comic called My Poorly Drawn Life where she highlights interesting things going on in her life and the life of her family. It's always entertaining and just goes to show that you don't have to make everything Disney quality in order to entertain people.

Enjoy!

Disney/ABC Fellowship where are you?

Does anyone have any idea what happened to this program?
The last update says that submissions must be sent in by July 1, 2007.

Eh?

Every screenwriting blog out there promotes this competition but silly Disney/ABC won't respond to email inquires and their automated phone messaging service is stuck in a loop.

I myself have called and emailed four times now with no success. Perhaps you will have more success than I. Here is their contact info:

The Disney•ABC Writing Fellowship
500 South Buena Vista Street
Burbank, CA 91521-4016

www.disneyabctalentdevelopment.com
E-mail: abc.fellowships@abc.com
Telephone: (818) 560-6894

In all seriousness if anyone out there knows if this fellowship will be offered in 2009 please let me know so I can post the information. Thanks.

I AM Punk Rock

At long last I have an offer for a JOB. I am excited.
Here's the story:

2 weeks ago I began to get antsy as I attempted to find work in this town. As I scoured the Colorado film scene I came across a company featured by the Colorado Film and Video Commission. I checked out their awesome website and found the place that I wanted to work for. Alas, I have NO, read ZERO film editing, film creation experience, unless you count the two videos I filmed for junior history class in high school. (Which were, by the way, fantastic, or as fantastic as two short films with no budget and a Sony Handicam can be. But that's beside the point.)

Knowing that I would have to be creative in my offer, I sent them an email that basically read, "Look here's the deal. I recently moved here from New York. I love animation. I'm interested in your company. I can edit articles, do PR work, file, be an office assistant, an intern, what have you. Do you need someone awesome who can help you with the tasks you don't have time to do? If you do, please give me a call." And I inserted a creative subject line, "Do you need a volunteer/editor/office manager/lackey?"

I figured two things would happen:

a) They would laugh at my inquiry and give me a call
b) They would laugh at my inquiry and it would end up in the spam filter

Lo and behold, I get an email on Tuesday saying they LOVED the email, though it was charming and original and would I like to come in today to discuss a small project?

Cha-CHING!

I went to their fabulous office today and turns out they need press releases. And since I would be working freelance they are testing me by giving me a sample to write. If they like it, I get paid, and thus starts a beautiful relationship. And they also need interns, so I have the potential of getting to work for them at their office as well.

Yours truly is majorly stoked and hopefully this is my opportunity to get my foot in the door at a place that is truly magical.

Avatar Season 3 Trailer

At last! At long last! The series mega finale will begin!

I an avid "Avatar" fan, one of the best shows I've ever seen on television, hands down. I've written two specs for this show, the second I submitted this year to the Nick Writing Fellowship (fingers crossed folks, I'll find out in Sept. if I'm a finalist!)

The awesome creators of Avatar Spirit were given permission to post the trailer on the net for those of us not fortunate enough to attend this year's New York Comic Con. Darn you timing! I was there last year. Grr...

All bad timing aside, this is an awesome trailer and I look forward to watching the rest of the series.

Is it July yet?

The 200th Post!

Woo hoo! Much excitement here. Glad to see that my blogging experiment is no longer an experiment, but a full-fledged habit in writing and drawing. Applause all around.

So in celebration today I went to the Denver Zoo, and drew some pretty sweet drawings of the animals. I enjoyed myself. I like going to the Zoo, especially on the weekdays. Better parking and fewer mobs. It's fun listening to families watch the animals. Little kids always excited. Moms, Dads, Grandmas, Grandpas.

It's also funny watching parents trying to explain to kids why the animals are freaking each other.

No joke. I'm watching the lions, and they start getting it on. Then I go over to the hippo pound, and they start getting it on. And everyone's staring, not quite sure how to act, er "appropriately."

SUBURBAN MOM
Wow. It's like National Geographic.

ME
Yeah.

SUBURBAN MOM
Come on honey, let's go look at the giraffes.

LITTLE GIRL
No! I want to stay and watch the hippos.

Awkward.

But kids gotta learn sometime. Better the Zoo than TV I guess. More accurate.

So here are the lovely pics. Enjoy!

Script Frenzy - totally not dying! Yeah!

So let me tell you how glad I am that my screenplay is NOT going to crash and burn.

Glad. VERY glad indeed.

Seriously this has been the most difficult thing I've ever written since my first spec script I wrote three years ago. It's been a pretty painful process, which is bizarre since compared to everything else I've written this has been the most thought out, well-organized script I've ever written. I made a four page treatment, Acts I, II and III. I had a paragraph on each character. Even illustrations.

And then on Day 1 of Script Frenzy I realized I hated my script.
I spent the next week scrambling trying to figure out what to write instead. I had a vague idea about a guy that died, an angel, a group of wanderers in desert, but nothing remotely concrete.

But since I'm ML for Denver it wasn't like I could just quit. I had minions (er fellow writers) looking up to me for inspiration you know. So I just had to suck it up and deal with it. And you know, now that I've reread my first 76 pages, it's not as awful as I initially anticipated. In fact, after the rewrite, it will be darn near entertaining. I say near because it still needs quite a bit of work but hey, what are rewrites for?

Screenwriting Blogs Recap - Wednesday Edition

Only two updates to speak of today.

The first comes from Amanda, who quite frankly is starting to offer better advice than most of the professional blogs I read on a daily basis. Today, she tackles the neverending question: how to actually get a JOB in LA.

Second update comes from Alex, answers a reader's questions about the hero overhearing conversation in the background and how indepth the background conversation needs to be.

Yeah, exciting stuff, right?
But it's all part of the script process.

Let me know if you find anything more interesting.

Fox Entertainment Group Diversity Writer's Initiative

I found out about this cool program courtesy of Amanda's blog.
Fox is offering a six week crash course in pilot script writing to a lucky handful of diverse candidates this year who submit original pilot episodes of their own shows.

It's the called the Diversity Writer's Initiative, sort of like the Nick Fellowship except they don't indicate whether you get paid or not, and you need a letter of recommendation from either a friend in the industry, an agent or an attorney.

It's a sweet deal though, because if you're selected you will be writing with professionals who will help you pick your script apart and rewrite it so that it is professional grade. You will then have the opportunity to pitch it to Fox execs.

The deadline is not until July 3rd. You have two months to do this. You have no excuses. Go out there and show the world what you're made of!

Screenwriting Blogs Recap - Tuesday Edition

Only three scribes of the scribosphere have updated their blogs today. And not only that, they talk about stuff I don't really care about. Wah!
Oh well. Time to dab the eyes, throw out the tissues and carry on.

Mystery Man talks about what film noir actually is. Personally I've never liked film noir. Actually that's being nice about it, I can't stand film noir. Everytime I hear about how great Chinatown is I want to hurl. But you may like it. So if you like it, you should read the book he recommends.

John August goes off on a tangent about Grand Theft Auto IV. Yeah, I know. I was shocked too. More of a Tetris gal myself. But his tangent does have a bit of a point. He'll be off playing for awhile so you may not see any updates on his blog (or on mine about his blog) for a few weeks. Sad, very sad.

But Amanda talked about something I actually found useful - the Pros and Cons of being an assistant for tv/film/production. Very cool info. Read her blog update first.

Screenwriting Blogs Recap - Monday Edition

Welcome back from the weekend, fellow readers!
Hope that all of you had an awesome Saturday and Sunday.
As you all know I co-hosted two Script Frenzy events, one which I posted about and another I'll post about later today.

And while I was out writing writing writing the scribes of the scribosphere were busy lamenting over a rather ugly letter sent by the presidents of the WGAe and WGAw. Apparently the two are resorting to witch huntery post-strike, which is quite sad. Both John August and Craig Mazin posted about it on their blogs. You can also read the full letter in all its' scathing glory here.

In more upbeat news Amanda posted her two cents on how to find your voice and why it is so important in the craft of screenwriting.

And Cat! auteur Blake Synder gives a shout out to his upcoming third book. I'm a big fan of formulas but unlike Blake I don't believe that EVERY screenplay has to adhere to all 15 beats of his BS2 as he suggests. I wrote my first two screenplays without it and they turned out alright, but whatever works for you I suppose.

Animated Script Goodness!

Awesome reader Celeste kindly sent a link to not one, not two, but TWENTY ONE animated scripts from the Silver Surfer series. Kudos Celeste!



Please respond to her kindness by visiting her blog of coolness.

And check out the teleplays. Enjoy!

Script Frenzy Write-In

So yesterday Skyla and I had a write-in at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
We were pretty stoked about this as it would be a write-in for the entire state. However only four people showed up- Skye, myself, and Skye's two friends. Our other ML, Crash, was nowhere to be found (Crash, where were you and your denizens of Fort Collins?)

It was cool meeting her in person though. We got everything worked out prior to being at the Museum. I commend her for organizing events as well as she's had, especially since my script frenzy email wasn't working. And even though there were only four of us, we still had a blast. Turns out you can eat in the Museum cafeteria without having to pay Museum admission, which is pretty sweet. We basically plunked ourselves down at a table by the window and wrote/typed/commiserated for three hours. Good times.

So now I'm on page 50 of "Quest for the Soul Stone." Last year I was much further along. Although last year I liked my screenplay a lot better. I've figured out the problem. I didn't like the story going into it. I mean, I liked it two weeks prior. I enjoyed writing the outline. I had everything figured out. Then the day Screnzy started I realized I HATED the movie. Ouch. You ever wonder if someone working on the film knew the film was bad? You ever wonder why they kept working on it? I'll tell you why: it's because they've spent so much time planning it, they have people depending on them to finish it and they are so gung-ho about finishing what they start that they refuse to the see the crap bubbling up before their eyes like some primordial stew and they doggedly persist even when they know they should scrap the whole thing and start over.

But I'm here to tell you friends, that is the nature of the first draft. Seriously, how many of you out there can read your first drafts and NOT say that they are a bloody mess? Even "Xia," screenplay that I love with the warmth of a thousand suns, is but a mere shadow of it's former first draft self.

Fortunately for me, being an ML means that I should set a good example, which is the reason why I haven't quit the contest entirely. And because I haven't quit, I've been searching for ways to make my screenplay work. And last night, as my friend D'awn and I watched "The Forbidden Kindgom," the answer appeared to me.

Make the movie fun.

That's right, what this story lacked was a serious sense of enjoyment. The audience should enjoy the ride, be excited by what they see, not spoken to as if they are attending a funeral dirge. The concept is exciting, the characters need to be so too.
So I am adding more elements of danger, suspense, surprise, and hopefully that will make the story more engaging.

And heart. Lots of heart.

Screenwriting Blogs Recap - Weekend Edition

Hello hello my dear readers. It's time for another exciting recap of the musings heard 'round the scribosphere.

Alex Epstein encourages all writers to tell their story out loud. This will help you be a better storyteller!


John August explains why it may be better to have screenwriting, rather than non-screenwriting friends, read your scripts.


Mystery Man explains why each screenplay should be judged on its own merit and not simply a formula a la Robert McKee. I'm glad someone finally said this. It's as if everyone in the screenwriting world has gone gaga over that guy and his awesomely bogged down tome.

And Rogers at Kung Fu Monkey -- let's face it. The man's awesome. The man and his team. He actually breaks down on all the shenanigans that go into creating an actual show. Go read his blog. RIGHT NOW.

Photoshop Take 2

I really like this drawing. This one came out much better than my first attempt. I used the 5 pnt pencil this time, instead of the 10 for the outline. I also shaded it better.
Enjoy.

Stephen Colbert on Larry King Live [1 of 4] 4/14/08

Seriously Colbert is freakin' hilarious.
It amazes me how one guy and one show can have such an impact on America.

Just goes to show you how much you can get away with if you're funny.

Stephen Colbert on Larry King Live [2 of 4] 4/14/08