Just one reason WHY I LOVE MOVIES

For over 100 years, movies have given us many great, wonderful, memorable images. Here's just one of them (and notice how you don't have to have much, if any, dialogue to get your point across) ...

McQueen vs Dunaway

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A short film I made...

A few years ago my friend Robert and I made a short silent movie. (Well, not entirely silent: there's a fun musical track.) The movie's title is That Darn Bill and it's about 11 minutes in length. Here's a quick synopsis:

The 1920s silent short has been reborn in That Darn Bill, the frenzied tale of Marvin, a down-on-his-luck hobo who happens upon salvation in the form of a crisp $100 bill. But Marvin quickly discovers that finding salvation is one thing...and hanging onto it is another.

I think you'll get some chuckles out of it. At least I hope so. Click the link below to check it out...

THAT DARN BILL!

NOW ALSO ON VIMEO!

PS: I play the role of "Marvin."

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Pen and Paper...

One of my readers recently wrote to me, asking: What’s your preferred manner of writing? Do you prefer writing entirely on a computer, or do you tend to favor pen and paper?

Virtually everything I write starts its life on a yellow legal pad. As I work my way through the handwritten manuscript, I’ll transpose to the computer. Every few scenes (or if I’m writing prose, every chapter or so) I’ll print a hard copy and go to work on revisions with a red pen. Then I’ll transpose those changes onto the computer. But I love working with paper and pen. It just feels more organic to me. I also feel it’s a good thing on a psychological level. Sometimes you need tangible proof that you’re getting the work done, which seems a bit more difficult when working entirely off a computer screen. But hey, do what's best for YOU. All that really matters is that you’re getting your scripts, novels or short stories completed. But for me, there's nothing quite as magical putting pen to paper.

LUIGI'S CHINESE DELICATESSEN
A novel about making it in Hollywood

Now available in paperback from Amazon.com 

and Kindle e-Book!

READER QUESTIONS (#2)...

Q: Have you ever adapted a novel into a screenplay? If you have, how’d you break down the book into what you felt would translate well into the script? Also, I was thinking about adapting one of my favorite books. Do you think this is a good idea?

A: I’ve adapted four novels into screenplays. (One of these I did early on just as a practice run; the other three were paid assignments.) Here’s how I handled the last adaptation I was assigned:

After reading the novel, I went through it all again page by page and highlighted everything that I felt could be successfully translated to the screenplay. If a character did something or said something, then it got highlighted. If a character thought something, or if the author was providing background info that wasn't absolutely relevant to the scene or the progression of the story, then it probably didn’t get highlighted. (The reason I say it “probably” didn’t get highlighted is because you can oftentimes find useful material in an author’s exposition, so keep an eye open for it.)  I did this throughout the entire text of the book. Then I wrote up a beat sheet of everything that was higlighted, breaking it all down into separate scenes and providing a thumbnail sketch of what took place in each scene. Your "beat sheet" looked something like this:

1). Joe arrives at work (a widget factory) and finds the office has a new receptionist. Her name is Jane. She’s mid-20s and hot.

2). During the course of the next few hours, Joe can’t get any work done—he’s too busy thinking/dreaming about Jane.

3). Later, Joe has lunch with Mike at the corner burger place. Joe can’t stop talking about Jane. Mike says, “Forget it, bud. She’s a lesbian.” Joe asks, “What makes you think that?” Mike says, “Because I asked her out for lunch and she turned me down flat.”

4). Later, as work is letting out for the day, Joe confronts Jane in the parking lot. He shyly asks her out on a date. She accepts!

Feel free to expand on your beat sheet, including any character descriptions, dialogue, descriptive passages, notes, etc. The last novel-to-screenplay beat sheet I worked from was about 45 pages.  

Remember, novels tend to go off in several directions, veering away from the central characters or plot. You can’t necessarily do this in a movie. In a movie you have to stay on course, including only what is pertinent to the “spine” of the story you’re trying to tell.  Once you have your beat sheet/outline, chip away at it a bit further, trimming it down to a lean document—a document that will serve as a trusty road map for the story you want to tell and the screenplay you want to write. 

As for your last question: Sure, you can adapt any book you want. But if you weren't actually paid to do it, DO NOT SHOW THE COMPLETED SCREENPLAY TO ANYONE. Seriously. If you don’t own the rights to the book, or if you weren't commissioned to adapt the book, you can be sued if the script gets sent out and read by anyone.

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Rod Serling, Writer

I recently finished reading As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling," Anne Serling's wonderful memoir of her father, who sadly passed away in 1975 at the young age of fifty. I'm sure many of you know Mr. Serling from TV's The Twilight Zone (he introduced all 156 episodes, wrote 92 of them) , but he was far more accomplished than that. He was a screenwriter, novelist, playwright, and teacher. He was also a fine man and a wonderful father to his two girls. There's a wealth of interesting and insightful Serling-related material on YouTube, including interviews and documentaries. I urge those of you not familiar with Mr. Serling to explore these videos and discover the myriad contributions this talented man made to the film and television industries.

Just a few videos to check out:

Rod Serling on Writing, Part 1
Rod Serling on Writing, Part 2
Rod Serling on Writing, Part 3
American Masters documentary
My favorite episode of The Twilight Zone

READER QUESTIONS (#1)

Many thanks to those of you who have sent in questions for this blog. Here are a few... 

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Q: For a script with voice-overs are there any guidelines for too many, or too few?

A: There are no hard-and-fast rules about the use of voice-over.  The main things to be aware of when including voice-over in your script are:

a). Avoid wall-to-wall voice-over. That sort of thing can be really annoying.  A little here, a little there is fine. 

b). Don't have the voice-over tell us what we're already seeing. In other words, if your character walks into a room and sits down at a desk, don't have the voice-over say, "I walked into the room and sat down at the desk." The voice-over should give us entirely new information to the scene and/or what the character is thinking/feeling. Having voice-over that actually contradicts what we are seeing can also be interesting.

c) If you're going to have a voice-over at the end of your story, make sure you have it at the beginning of your story. It's very jarring to suddenly have a voice-over in the final moments of the film when it wasn't established earlier on.

Many films have used voice-over effectively. Here are some that come to mind:

SUNSET BOULEVARD (1950)

TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN (1969)

TAXI DRIVER (1976)

APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)

FATHER OF THE BRIDE (1991)

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994)

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Q: At the end of many movies, there are graphics describing what has happened to some of the characters in the film. What is the best format for this, rolling titles, or separate screens?

A: I say just keep it simple and keep it uncomplicated. If the director wants to use graphics/photos or rolling titles or whatever, let him make that decision. Your job is to tell us the movie is over and there are some final words about the story and/or characters. There are several ways of accomplishing this. Here are a couple:

BLACK SCREEN. Over this, SUPER legend: “Johnny Denton was killed in a car wreck on April 2, 1975…” 

Over BLACK SCREEN, SUPERIMPOSE: “Johnny Denton was killed in a car wreck on April 2, 1975…”  [Make sure you put quote marks around the word that are to appear on screen.]

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BlogTalk interview...

I did an interview a few years ago on BlogTalk Radio's Movie Geeks United show. For those of you who may have missed it back then, well, here's your chance to miss is again! No, seriously, it's not a bad little interview -- and the interview that follows mine, with screenwriter/author Allison Burnett (one of the participants in my book Q & A: The Working Screenwriter - An In-the-Trenches Perspective of Writing Movies in Today's Film Industry), is certainly worthwhile.

Movie Geeks Screenwriting Interview