Exile Fortnight - day 2

For those of you who don't know what EXILE FORTNIGHT is, you can read up here. Basically, it's my battle plan for writing EXILE - the script I'll be submitting for uni next year. By Saturday 13th, I plan to have the treatment written (working from my crappy first draft script), then by the following Saturday, I hope to have the second draft of the script.

As things stand, I've written 3 pages of the treatment and am about to start Act II. I'm on target and thinking the final treatment will probably level out at about 15-20 pages.

This is the opening to the treatment:

'Exile' is a feature film set in a futuristic London, revolving around a vampire named Roman and his desperate fight for survival. In a world where his kind are hunted down and slaughtered, Roman is pursued by a military general hell-bent on revenge for an unknown crime. Roman runs for his life, but deep down, he knows he must face his past if he is to ever find any peace in his life.

More updates coming later in the week.

Exile Fortnight - two week battle plan

For those of you who don't know, I'm at uni studying English. I'm entering my final year in September which means one thing for any student out there - dissertation time! [insert dramatic music here] However, I'm not doing a 10,000 word essay on Shakespeare, or Gothic tales, or the change in the representation of women in literature from 1700 to 1900. Instead, I'm attacking a creative writing portfolio.

I'm going to submit the first screenplay I ever wrote - EXILE. I wrote the first draft a year ago (give or take a month). And it is shite! Nevertheless, I love the concept and the story I got from it. I think it's my strongest idea to date and while it may not be original, the message I sent at the end of the script is a powerful one: one of hope, which diverts away from my norm. Make no mistake though, it's good and violent.

Exile is a story of oppression, survival and revenge...that just happens to be set in the future, with vampires.

Over the next two weeks, I'm intending to make some serious progress on the idea and have a decent draft to show my tutor, Linda. She's the one who got me into screenwriting in the first place (by handing out two pages of The Screenwriter's Bible - David Trottier). So it's rather fitting that I've got her as my tutor again. Actually, I requested her. She's primarily a novelist, but what Linda doesn't know about story development and character conflict isn't worth knowing! My idea is in safe hands.

At the moment, the idea is in one form - a terribly basic, forced, expo-filled, dull screenplay. From this, I've got to beat out a decent story and write a killer script. Hopefully this will get me a decent mark at uni (my last piece for uni is tipped to get a confident 1st) but as with every script, the idea is to sell it and write a story worth telling. This is my white-board of ideas I threw around at the weekend. It's filled with little things like: "More action when they visit the supermarket" and "Develop Asha more. Not just a love interest - she has a story to tell."

Below is my battle plan for the next two weeks as I work on my all-time fav idea. I've dubbed these two weeks 'EXILE FORTNIGHT'

• Mon 8th - Sat 13th -- Treatment (15+ pages)
  
• Sun 14th -- Relax and dwell on ideas
• Mon 15th -- Spend the day in London, hanging out with Michelle and attending the CBBC Q&A
  
• Tues 16th - Sat 20th -- Write second draft of script
• Sun 21st -- Collapse and/or die
  

So, not a lot to do there then. If I keep to that schedule, I'll be happy. Two weeks to get something good enough to show my tutor isn't bad. The whole project isn't due in until May next year so I have time to work on dozens of drafts and beat out a pretty decent story.

Of course, I'll no doubt be blogging left, right and centre. Moaning about how I want to give it all up one day, then shouting about how well everything is going the next. Thus is the way of the writer.

Happy writing fellow scribes!

6th June - Take a minute

It's 6th June. 65 years ago, tens of thousands of British, American and Canadian men stormed the beaches of Normandy. The Americans handled two of the big guns - Omaha and Utah. The Brits took care of Shield and Gold, while the Canadians took Juno beach.

Approximately 150,000 Allied troops assaulted Normandy that day, by sea and air, facing more than double that number in Nazi Germans. The Allies lost more than 10,000 men that day alone. Working with the French Resistance, the survivors marched on, beating back the Nazis until they had liberated France. Along the way, they worked with Poland forces, Greeks, Norwegians, Belgians and Czechs.

This mission was part of Operation Overlord and is one of the largest Naval assaults in history. The attack was initially set to take place on June 5th, but due to weather conditions, it was put back a day. The Airborne would never have been able to drop behind enemy lines had they not.

The beaches were heavily armed with anti-aircraft weaponry. The planes took evasive action and as a result, there were mis-drops everywhere. Nevertheless, the Airborne sabotaged enemy communications and power and linked up with ground troops in France.

65 years on, there is a huge celebration taking place in France to recognise the sacrifice made by the Allied forces.

Take a minute and spare a thought for those brave men who sat in those planes and boats, preparing to fight for our freedom.

June 6th 1944 - D-Day.

As Churchill said - "we shall fight on the beaches"

Avengers Assemble - Thor, Cap, Hulk, Ant Man

On the Live for Films blog, there's a very interesting interview with Marvel Master Kevin Feige. He chats about the AVENGERS movie and who we might see in there; specifically commenting on how THOR will be done. If you're a huge comic book geek like me, you'll go slightly hyper while reading.

They seem to know what they're doing and the film has the potential to be the biggest and best superhero movie of all time. It's guaranteed to play heavily on the Ultimates comic series. Is it a coincidence that in that series, Nick Fury looks just like Samuel L Jackson and they even say that he would play Fury in a movie of their lives......and....guess who's playing Fury (as we saw in IRON MAN) - Sam Jackson. Make no mistake, I'm confident Marvel have been planning this movie for a long long time - a good 10 years. That's why it's going to be huge.

At the very least, it looks like we're going to get Robert Downey Jr, Sam Jackson and Ed Norton in the same film so that'll help matters. But what do you think about the possibility of Will Smith playing Cap? Here's a segment of the interview:

I think it's going to be very much a Marvel superhero movie, but I think to the movie audience it's going to expand that definition more and more. Again, we've got a forty four year old guy who's going to be a superhero in a movie and he puts on an armored suit. That didn't necessarily mean superhero to people. In that same way, I think, someone who's got superpowers coming to Earth and dealing with other character from his realm will come off very much as a big ass superhero movie. But it's going to expand that definition, I hope, in a way.

[...]

Our movies aren't about saving the world. Iron Man doesn't save the world. Hulk doesn't save the world. Captain America, a little bit. But it's not about these comic bookey “I will save the world” things. The Avengers is about saving the world because there's no other reason for characters that powerful to band together. So I think the scope and the scale will feel like a much bigger thing. So whatever you had seen - whether Starscream was your favorite character or Megatron is your favorite character or Soundwave is your favorite character - you're going to see the experience of that epic thing together. I think it'll be the same thing. Clearly I hope it'll all work. I hope that people will, like they've done with the comics for years and years, argue about who their favorite is and who would win in a fight and all of that fun stuff.

[...]

It'll be big. It'll be something that no single hero can handle.

Full article

Screenwriting Goldmine

Most writers will be aware of The Screenwriting Goldmine by Phil Gladwin. You can visit the site, the blog and sign up for regular (priceless) updates on all things screenwriting. You can follow Phil on twitter and I strongly urge you to sign up to the site updates. Here's a segment from the latest email - 'How to Think About Writing Period Drama'

More importantly, as a writer were you influenced by what you read during your research? Not so much the history books, but more the contemporaneous writing: diaries, letters, newspapers, official records and reports? Did you consider how language and the written word were being used at the time you were researching?

Another question. How much of what you learn about something today is actually just from the words used? And how much of it is conveyed by visual or aural imagery?

The way we perceive and understand events and what makes the news in the world is heavily dominated by the images we see on a screen - rolling TV news channels, website graphics, YouTube or clips taking on hand cams or mobile phones.

[...]

You are not the director or an actor; you can't submit your screenplay to Hollywood as a video or recording of a reading (well not yet). Instead, you have to be as persuasive as you can on the page using only Courier 12pt to convey what it is that you want the audience to see - and the script readers and producers to imagine.

So here's a thought: if you have great visual ideas, but find it difficult to marshal the thoughts in your head into words on paper: take a look at writing from an age when television, or sound recording, or moving images didn't exist.

Mass clearout for writing

I've spent the last 2 days clearing out my room, doing the usual spring cleaning thing. I'm notoriously untidy and this proves it - I found papers lying on my floor from year 1, semester 1 of uni; I start year 3 in September! I wish I'd taken before and after shots because now my room is all tidy-like. However...

...it won't stay that way.

I'm just not a tidy person. People don't usually understand it, but I know where things are. I'll dump things in a pile and when I need it, I know exactly where it is. Granted, it might take me a while to sort through the pile, but I'll find it.

My room usually lasts a couple of weeks before becoming a tip again. We'll see how long it takes this time.....

In the clearout, I had to reorganise my bookcases. What with being an English student and all, I've got to buy a fair few books. At the moment, both bookcases are full and there are two boxes next to them with some more boring books I've had to read for uni.

It all looks very neat but as soon as I buy more books in a few weeks, it'll all need redoing.

One shelf is dedicated writing books. And they are protected by Wesley: Guardian of the Books. If anyone tries to steal one of my writing books, they are well and truly buggered! He may be a small fella but he packs a punch! You've been warned!

Anyway, now the clearout's done, I can slowly recover and get back to some writing. I've just about worked out how to use twitter so there's not too much distracting me.

And because it's such a warm, sunny day, smile as you listen to Satriani's Summer Song:

If in doubt, blame a woman

I finally gave in, after saying for ages I never would. I've joined twitter. You can blame Michelle for this - it's all her fault!

Anyway, I have no friends or buddies or whatever the hell you have on twitter so please follow me (I think that's right).

Let me know your twittery things and I'll follow you too. Actually, I think I'll call it stalking - following just seems to be hiding something. Let's be open about this!