Ezine Author

So what makes a great movie?

So what makes a great movie, a movie that you will always remember? For me, I remember the very bad and horrible movies almost as much as I do the great ones, which unfortunately are very few and far between.

A very rare instance of seeing two movies in a row, one very bad and one great happened yesterday when I saw one of the best movies I have ever seen right after seeing a very bad movie happened. I don't remember ever seeing two movies in a row before that were so different in quality.

The bad movie was the Interview, the controversial movie that was banned from theaters because of terrorist threats and even received some comments from the President of the United States. This movie was supposed to be a comedy and committed the cardinal sin of a comedy, it just wasn’t funny. There were grotesque scenes of human defecation after death, people biting other people's fingers off during fight scenes and a plot and most scenes which just made no sense at all. What a tragedy that a movie this bad, one of the worst I have ever seen has received so much publicity. What amazes me most is that a movie this bad could have been funded by Sony Pictures in the first place.

The great movie I saw yesterday was the incredible story of Alan Turing, who during World War 2, literally saved the day by inventing a machine that was able to break the German code and because of that one event, shortened the war by 2 years and save 14 million lives. Turing was gay and was able to keep the secret that he was gay for most of the time they were building the machine, but at the end of the war, his secret was revealed and he was forced by the British government to take hormone pills to try and change him to be heterosexual. Soon after this, he committed suicide at age only 41. Turning probably had Autism but his brilliance was profound enough to save the world. I thought the story about the hard work and frustration over a period of 2 years with a team of 8 people trying to break the code very compelling. The final break through when they finally figured out how to get their machine called Christopher to figure out the billions of combinations in a much shorter period of time was one of the best parts of this great movie.

So the question is what makes a great movie? In this case, the first thing you need is a great story, and this is one World War 2 story that should have been told many years ago because in my opinion, it’s the best story about that horrible war I have ever heard. For a great movie of course you also need great writing and acting and this movie has that as well. The Imitation Game will definitely be nominated for best picture for 2014 and if I was a member of the academy I would vote for this great movie to be the best picture of the year.

Self publishing a book / pros and cons

I am looking forward to have my 600+ page book printed in both soft cover and hard cover and I definitely made a good move by having just one copy printed first before I committed to a major printing. My book took me almost a full year to write and when I get it printed out, it has to look good before I commit to more copies.

I had a conversation with an executive of a book publishing company yesterday and he told me that self publishing is now a viable option to getting your work published bypassing all the things a writer had to do in the past to publish their work. On top of this there are many different packages for a great range of prices to get your book added to book web sites and then marketed. None of these decisions are easy ones, and for me I will make the decision to market my book next year after names are changed.

Writing my book this year has been very interesting and challenging and I have enjoyed most of the process but remembering all the bad things and bad people I have had to endure in my career in IT was not easy and I realized in a very big way that I have paid more than my share of dues in my chosen field.

Next year I will have to do a lot of research of all the companies that self publish books out there, to make sure that I get the best deal available.

Putting the finishing touches on my first novel

It has been a tough road this past year, writing all 36 of the chapters of what represents over 32 years of hard times trying to make a living as an employee and then a consultant in the IT field. Even into my last days of editing this over 600 page book, I am still finding areas that i want to fix up and improve. I have found a cheap publisher and the next step is to print out 15 copies for friends and family and for all time sake. Next year I will make a new version for possible release as a published book or ebook.

I recommend anyone who has completed his/her career to write a book about their experiences. For me it was therapy but I have to admit that even after writing it all down I am still not over all the bad times and I have had more than my share.

I added one last chapter where I copied in some emails from an old college professor from 32 years ago who helped me during a very tough time. This last week of November 2014 I sent out the book to get a test printing and i have submitted my manuscript for review.

On Writing my first novel

They say write about what you know.

That is what I did when I wrote a 600 page Novel/Biography about my completed career in the Information Technology field. I started it in late January and now I am about done writing, re-writing and editing it.

I really had no trouble remembering anything, all those thousands of incidents both good and very bad over a 32 year span of trying to make a living. The title says it all, "Because of the Money", and what we all do to make money in this world is a major work of economy and art within it self.

Great Amazon Books on Screenwriting!

I have read several screenwriting books in my career - this is one of the best.

The Screenwriter's Bible, 6th Edition: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script (Expanded & Updated)



Another good book about screenwriting

The 90-Day Screenplay: from concept to polish

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This is a great book about how to write great movie dialogue.

DAZZLING DIALOGUE

http://www.prosperly.com/2009/recession-proof-internet-business-model-flipping-websites/

More great Amazon Books:

Drowning Ruth: A Novel (Oprah's Book Club)

The Goldfinch: A Novel (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

Screenwriting Ebooks

Screenwriting Ebooks

Protect your screenplay

The most important thing you must do before you show your completed screenplay to anyone you dont know is have it protected by the WGA West or East organizations. They are very easy to find on the internet and have online forms to submit your screenplay to be registered. Once registered you will get an official document and a registration number. The cost for this is 25 dollars.

You can also get copyright protection to be extra careful, but for my screenplays so far I have not found this necessary.

Story Craft Software

Check Out Story Craft!

Screenwriting Secrets!

Screenwriting Secrets

Where do you get Screenwriting Inspiration?

Where do these ideas come from? How can you get inspired with what has been called the most difficult of all art forms to master.

For me it comes to me either when I am driving or when I am sleeping. One of the problems when your are sleeping is that very often you forget what you were thinking about when you wake up. I am definitely not writing down ideas in the middle of the night so I don't forget my thoughts, but maybe I should.

Great ideas for a movie are few and far between and that certainly comes through when you consider how many actually good high quality movies are made each year. The reason for this is because of politics and other unknown reasons, but the obvious other reason is because it is extremely difficult to think about a great idea for a movie and then see it through to its completion. This is especially true if your new to the field and trying to break in for the first time, trying to get past all the middle men and agents out there.

What I have done so far and I have started writing my 4th screenplay, is to start writing once you get the new idea or inspiration to make sure that the idea doesn't die on the vine. Start the process moving forward before you lose or forget your new idea!

The main thing is to KEEP WRITING!

Be Wary of Script Coverage Companies

What is script coverage?  Very simply its when you pay a company as much as 200 dollars to have some experts review your screenplay.

DO you have a guarantee that the people who read your script are in fact movie experts or even worked in the field?  No.

Do you have a guarantee of getting an agent or having your work sent to a production company if they like your script. No.

What are the odds or your script getting a SUBMIT rating, rather than a PASS?  Less that 5%.

So your paying as much as 200 dollars for a 5% or less chance of getting anything in return.  Just some arbitrary opinions on people you dont know and whose credentials are not published by the company.

Is there are better way of getting someone else's opinion? Or just to have some else see your work? What I found out the hard way was that you get far more for your money from a web site like FIVERR, where the fees are only 5 dollars.  Of course there are other web sites like FIVERR out there that could be another option.  You can also use family members or friends.  Feedback on your script is vital to your screenwriting success, but just be smart about it.

I have also tried a few screenwriting contests, but your odds there are pretty low as well.

The best thing you can do is just keep writing and creating and doing research online.

Screenwriting: Review of a craft

Screenwriting is a job, and its job you have to do every day. I have to admit that I don't write every day but I do continue to write a book about my now completed IT career, which was very challenging.

To be honest its been a very tough process even getting an agent, and I have been quite amazed at how impossible a hill this new profession has been to climb. I have learned a great deal over the past year, but I need to know much more.

So how did i start to learn this craft. First I read many screenwriting books and there are quite a few below and they are valuable for screenwriting tips and screenwriting ideas. Feel free to select the ones you like below which will take you to Amazon.com. I also got a few reviews of my first screenplay entitled "RB" on FIVER, which is a website where you pay 5 dollars for a small task and some advice. I have been both impressed and very disappointed at some of the results of my five dollar reviews. I also see many movies every year and i have also started a blog about my movie reviews. In my many years of seeing many movies i am always stunned at how many bad movies are made when you consider how hard it is to break into the field as either a screenwriter or actor or director.

I have also entered a few screenwriting competitions, the best one I have heard about is BLUECAT. Its important to research and find out which ones are the best ones, because you don't want to waste your money. Screenwriting is hard work and there is no magic bullet. Keep writing is the secret. If your inclined, perhaps a screenwriting school would be something you would want to try.

SCREENWRITING SUCCESS

There is nothing easy about breaking into this business. The first challenge is getting an agent, and even that is difficult.



I have written 3 screenplays so far, my first is entitled RB - for Running Back. Its a story about a young man named Jay who was an exceptional athlete in high school and was a stand out running back on his high school football team. Unfortunately in his senior year he gets hurt and all his dreams of College and the NFL are lost on one play. Ten years later what could have been haunts him as he goes through life in his boring job and it even affects his relationship with his girlfriend.


It turns out that his biggest fan in high school is also a great filmmaker and he puts videos out on YOUTUBE showing Jay's greatest breakaway runs in high school. These videos make getting over the past much more difficult for our hero and then the other player who caused Jay's injury gets out of prison and that leads to a climactic ending.


Jay's last name Franklin is the name of a good friend I met on my last ever contract in IT, Roland Franklin. Unfortunately Roland passed away back in May at only 48. It was a horrible shock.

During the last year I have gotten screen coverage for my script, which I don't recommend because its mostly about paying people to review your script and things don't go anywhere after that.


What I have done is probably the best and cheapest current way of at least getting some feedback about your work. Try www.fiverr.com and pay five dollars to have part or all of your screenplay critiqued by someone who has some experience and expertise with the art of screenwriting.


Screenwriting has been called the most difficult of all art forms to master.


As I have heard from others so many times; keep writing and creating every day.

Things I have learned so far

Of all the things I have learned from screenwriting so far in my young career, the most important probably is "Keep on writing".

I have completed 2 screenplays so far and I am still working on my 3rd, unable to come up with a great ending.  They say you should work on something else and then go back to your other screenplay when your stuck, so right now I am working on the book about my career in Information Technology which is entitled "Because of the Money".

I found this web site that preaches just that, called Keep Writing and its worth looking at, if only to keep you inspired.

As far as dealing with agents, one thing I found it is - never ask an agent what movie or movies he has been involved with.  One agent in particular actually hung up on me - twice when I dared to ask him about this resume.  


As far as script coverage services, I have found in my one experience that its not worth it. Your better off going to fiver.com and pay only 5 dollars for some good feedback and advice.

Screenplay contests are OK, but you have to find the right ones.  Look at the Keep Writing Web site I mention above for more information about the ones to enter.   One of the good ones is BLUECAT, which I entered some months ago.

Some ideas I have found over the past year is that if you have writers block then write anything, you can always go back and fix it later.   Be prepared for many re-writes before you are completed with any play or screenplay.  Neil Simon wrote his first play "Come blow your horn" no less than 26 times, with each re-write including about 120 pages before he was completed.   I highly recommend Neil Simon's biographies, because both of these books talk about his writing career as well as his challenging personal life:

Rewrites: A Memoir

The Play Goes On: A Memoir


I also found something interesting about some ideas about making a short film.

Short Film Ideas

Screenwriting Format

One of the most important things you have to learn about writing a screenplay is formatting it correctly. The problem is that producers see so many screenplays each day that they actually look for an excuse to reject them even before they are even 10 pages into reading your hard work.

If you make any mistakes in formatting, especially early on within the first 10 pages, your screenplay will be tossed into the trash bin like so many others.

The three major parts of a screenplay are the scene headings, narrative description and dialogue.

In my experience the best way to master the syntax of these 3 basic parts of a screen are to read as many screenplays as you can and the rest will come naturally.

The #1 mistake I made in my early screenplays was to mix scene headings and narrative descriptions together.  The key thing to remember is that the Scene headings only consist of the the camera location (EXT for external and INT for internal), the scene location and whether its DAY or NIGHT and that's all.

As far as the Narrative description or action, that easy.  You just description the action in lower case under the Scene heading and never combine this with the scene heading.  Describe the action that is going on, any sound that may be happening or visual images.

The dialog as far as formatting is the easy part. Just the person name and underneath what they are saying, etc. The person's name should always be in caps. When mentioning a new character in any screenplay, the first time his/her name is mentioned that name should always be in caps.

Over time the formatting of a good screenplay will become second nature to you and of course its always a great idea to invest in some kind of a screenwriting formatting tool and there are several available. This is a much better idea than trying to format your screenplay perfectly using something like Microsoft Word and using the tool will save you a lot of time and frustration.


So what is the best screenwriting software?

One of the best products out there for formatting a screenplay correctly and this is the one that I have used successfully to write all 3 of my screenplays is called
FIRST DRAFT
I highly recommend this product.