Reminders

There are only a couple of spots left for the Documentary Film Maker's Course hosted here in Los Angeles by our very own Andrew Zinnes, so check it out and see if you can squeeze in.

Also, I have already received a fair number of Pumpkin, Paradox, Periwinkle scene competition submissions so don't be left in the dust - do some writing this weekend!

We have another Malapropalooza coming up here at the Rouge Wave so don't forget to proofread, Wavers, lest you be included - which is not such a horrible thing - we all need to lighten up and have a laugh, yes?

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Great Class

Dear Rouge Wavers - Jim Mercurio is a good friend of mine; I have known Jim for many years and I have to say, he's pretty darn good at what he does. I thought I'd mention an opportunity coming up to learn from him:

KILLER SCREENWRITING
40+ Hour Interactive Workshop

Become a better screenwriter in one week!

Jim Mercurio jam-packs a semester of screenwriting into a living and breathing interactive work of art and education. Participants' script pages will be part of class text and will inspire and complement the film clips, excerpts and lecture. The class will adapt to the students and accelerate their growth as screenwriters.

Actors workshop everyone's scenes and one will be shot/edited. Jim's insight will make your jokes funnier, dialogue sharper, conflict more specific, theme more coherent and your script a better read.

October 29 - Nov 2 (Starts day after Expo) - 20 student limit
For information: http://jamespmercurio.com/classes.html

"Having been world-class in another field, I know it when I see it: Jim's mentoring is world-class."...Wayne Chiang,1999 StarCraft World Champion

Jim produced Hard Scrambled and was a Creative Screenwriting columnist. YouTube him to see him teach filmmaking. E-mail him: jim@jamespmercurio.com.

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The Waiting is the Hardest Part

by Andrew Zinnes

Man, Tom Petty gets to the heart of things so easily doesn’t he? Waiting…not the easiest thing for this Aries to handle and yet so integral to writing. Waiting for inspiration. Waiting for the printer to spit out your script. Waiting to get a response from readers/production co.’s/studios. And what has been sticking in my craw for the last few months: waiting for the deal to close.

Back in July, I entered into negotiations to write a script for a couple of producers and as of this afternoon, the deal remains half completed. As a creative person, all you want to do is write. Especially in this case; we had to do a fair amount creative thinking to generate a story that got the production company to say yes. At that point, both sides got excited. This could be a good movie! Both sides want to go to draft. Both sides can’t wait to see the finished product. This is part of the juice that we all crave. But it can’t happen. Not until the deal closes. And typically speaking deals move at glacial speeds.

So why does it take so long? First, your reps have to negotiate deal points and money with their business affairs people, which can take as little as a week to several months. Then the deal has to be papered – literally written out followed by more back and forth to get the language correct. This could take months, too. Finally, you get the call to sign the deal and once you do, then you can commence writing and even better, money starts to flow your way. Studios seem to have a two-week schedule for paying after you sign. Oh, make sure the agreement states that the deal goes into effect once YOU’VE signed, not when both have signed. That contract will sit around for a few more weeks until their rubber stamp comes out and you don’t want to be waiting even longer.

If both sides want the deal, then why can’t they speed things up? Well, the finger usually gets pointed at the business affairs department of the paying company. But to be fair, these people (who are mostly lawyers) are generally overworked and get the brunt of everyone’s ire because the creative side moves so much faster and wants the deal closed immediately. Plus they typically work on sometimes a dozen deals at the same time, which I’m sure is a bit of a head screw. And if they don’t get things right and the company gets screwed, guess who’s ass is on the line. Now imagine that pressure combined with everyone yelling at you all day long to close their deal NOW! That would make me reach for the Rolaids. In the long run, their due diligence means that you typically get a better deal should your project actually go forward.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not uber-painful sitting around waiting for that call that says, “It’s done. You can start writing now. And the check should be here in tomorrow.”

So I guess the lesson here is that if you are fortunate enough to get into a deal with someone, don’t go out and spend like there’s no tomorrow - for tomorrow no check will be coming. Try and be patient. Try to get your mind off of it by keeping busy with other things. That’s what I’m desperately attempting to do as I sit here trying to not wait for the phone to ring. Though, ironically, I’m working on other projects that, once written, shall go out into the world and create a new cycle of waiting.

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Halloween Scene Competition!

Well Wavers, we've done Magnanimous Feet and we've done Whiskey, Tango Foxtrot - but Halloween approaches and it's time to roll out yet another completely ridiculous, just-for-fun scene competition. After all, writing is supposed to be fun, right? And Wavers need to know how to write on assignment. So here goes:

The Pumpkin, Paradox, Periwinkle Short Scene Competition

Rules

Write a one-page scene using the words pumpkin, paradox and periwinkle anywhere in the scene. Make the scene Halloween-themed, any genre. Could be funny, could be terrifying, could be poignant. But you have one page and you must use those three words anywhere within that scene.

Format

PDF or Final Draft is preferred but the Wave-inatrix is a softie at heart and anything short of a crumpled receipt will be reviewed.

Deadline

Please submit your scene HERE by Sunday, October 28th. On Monday the 29th, I will post the top three finalists and in a Rouge Wave tradition - Rouge Wavers will vote for the winner.

Lots of Prizes!

A $25 gift certificate to a choice of: the Landmark or AMC theaters

A $10 gift certificate to Barnes & Noble or Amazon

A 25% gift certificate toward any Script Whisperer service. (offer expires November 15th)

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The Season of Fear

The season is upon us, fellow Wavers. The Wave-inatrix was just talking about film genre conventions, and her timing was perfect because what does October always bring movie fans? A variety of horror and thriller movies to kick off the creepy season.
The question is, which one will get us into those seats with flashy trailers that give away the whole movie, and which ones will deliver the goods to keep you entertained?

It’s a great time to watch studios competing for those coveted 18-34 adult dollars, and they’re all competing with the promise of a scare and a thrill. Similar to writing that eye-catching, totally original script, what does each Halloween fright flick do differently? If your script was put into a sea of other thriller films, or into happy waters filled with other romantic comedies, how does your script stand out from the pack?

The Wave-inatrix pointed out tried and true conventions of different genres, but this is a great time to see how different conventions can be twisted and exploited to give their genre another layer. After all, it’s how your movie differs from the pack that gets it noticed. While some of this might tie into how different movies are marketed, at the end of the day, the film itself needs to hold up to the scrutiny. Some do, and some definitely don’t.

BLAIR WITCH PROJECT did. Terrific, and really a great example of early internet marketing, the film itself told a story (a classic horror story) with a documentary style and perspective.

SHAUN OF THE DEAD, a brilliant twist on the classic zombie pic. (Seriously, this is a must see for all of you looking to subvert a genre.)

SAW: Maybe the first one did it. I personally have never found that any of these films bring something new to the genre. But, consecutive box office success proves I might not know what I’m talking about.

SKINWALKERS came and went. Did anyone see it? Wonder what they did wrong that it needed to be released mid-August? That's like the studio trying to dump the Christmas flop SURVIVING CHRISTMAS in late October. It's a sure sign that something isn't good enough to stand up to the seasonal competition.

Any way you slice ‘em and dice ‘em, these October fright pics are always a great time to see which films will rise to the occasion. Will yours?

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Conventions

What are movie conventions? Well, another way of saying that is expectations of a genre. For example - and this is inspired by a funny conversation on a message board recently about horror films – it is a convention of horror films that a group of teenagers arrive at the haunted road/farm/castle/house for some kind of trip and it is they who get picked off one by one. In other words, we have not seen a busload of senior citizens go through this –no, it’s always teens or college kids. It’s a convention. Audiences expect it.

Well, let me waffle a little bit on that one: that a group of strangers (innocents, tourists, somebody random) stumbles into a heretofore cursed or haunted place is a convention. That they are teenagers is a cliche. Do Wavers see the not so subtle difference?

Moving forward with another example, is a convention of horror movies that the cabin is located by a lake. Or that the motel is empty and the guy behind the counter is either creepy or preternaturally cheerful.

It is a convention of romantic comedies that boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. It is a convention of westerns that a bad guy blows into town and the good guy has to take him out and protect the town. It is a convention of action movies that the hero is some kind of outsider or underdog who just happens to be really good at fighting crazy terrorists. Yippy ki yay mother bleepers.

You see the trends here. Now, here’s the tricky thing about conventions. You need to know what they are – and you do, even if subconsciously – but you also need to subvert them so that your script stands out from other scripts.

In other words – think of the Rubik’s Cube. If you have, say, a horror convention like the “pop-out” moment – well, the convention goes like this:

Character hears weird sound or sees something out of corner of their eye.
Character investigates – big, long, scary silence – and – nothing is there.
Audience breathes sigh of relief.
Character turns around and – HOLY BLEEP! THERE IT IS!!

That’s a good old fashioned pop-out moment. Now, if you write a horror script devoid of the pop-out, well, it’s not going to go over very well. Because that is a convention of the genre. People expect it, in other words. But, how about writing a pop-out that honors the convention and then takes it to another level? Making the audience wait through not one but two false alarms isn’t that original. Been there done that. But in the Japanese horror movie JUON (THE GRUDGE was the American remake) there were plenty of pop-out moments but what was fun and unconventional is that some of them were memorably in broad daylight in a public place. Now THAT turned the convention on its head. It met the expectation but then changed it up just enough to be familiar AND different at the same time. And, that, Wavers is the bottom line of what you need to know about convention.

THE RING had some pop-out moments and they weren’t that unconventional but the movie also had a completely unconventional evil creature because she crawled OUT of the television!! I mean, that is one memorable horror monster, right? Nobody had done that before. So THE RING satisfied convention and expectation but it took it to another level completely.

A convention that is a lot of fun to think about is the “cute meet” in romcom. You can gather what cute meet means – it’s right there in the words – but clearly there are thousands of permutations of what constitutes a cute meet. There are thousands of permutations of what a rebellious, down-and-out action picture hero might be like.

You have your movie conventions down cold right now – because you see movies all the time. You consciously and unconsciously know right when the music is going to swell, when the sweeping vista of the family ranch is going to appear, when the bad guy is going to kick the door open and when the madly in love couple is going to have an ugly fight. You know it because you’ve seen these conventions millions of times. We need conventions in movies; they give us the milestones of the story. But as writers, we need to both know them and then use them as jumping off points. Because if you a good enough writer to take convention to the next level – you are a good enough writer to get noticed.

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The Rouge Wave Mailbag

I.M. Anonymous left a comment on yesterday's blog post that I thought was worthy of discussion. I.M. says:

I find it terribly ironic that a "writer" (like you) is so pro censorship that they have to "approve" commentary before "allowing" it to this blog...it's an interesting way to encourage discourse.

And here's my response:

First of all, I.M., thank you for your comments. Here's the way I look at it. The Rouge Wave is my blog, not a venue for back and forth discourse in the same way that a message board forum is.

The Rouge Wave is to read and enjoy. I work hard to provide content as regularly as I can, within the constraints of my other obligations (work, family, you know the drill). I often have to do it late at night or ahead of time so that I can maintain content for my readers. It's something I love to do; it's a passion project.

If a reader wants to contribute to the conversation by leaving a constructive comment then great; but if someone is here to argue and get personal, they can go to a message board and join the other trolls.

I am the editor-in-chief (ha) and yes, I do reserve the right to moderate my own blog. Truth be told, I have only had about two comments in the past several months that were unconstructive or rude. But I'd like to keep it that way. So yes, I do approve comments.

I hope that answers your question.

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Pull My Finger: Comedy so Funny it Hurts

By Margaux Froley Outhred

Sounds like the ad for CBS’ Monday night line-up, doesn’t it? What is it about comedy that is intrinsically painful? And, the more painful, often the funnier it is. But, how do you know where to draw that line between tragically funny, to just plain tragic? I’ve been working on writing funnier jokes and creating funny characters, and it almost seems unfair that I am mining my own and my friends’ personal sob stories in order to give these characters comedic dilemmas. Unfair, or maybe just good research?

America’s Funniest Home Videos,… the amount of babies taking a baseball bat to their father’s crotches has never stopped making audiences guffaw. Or someone slipping on a banana peel; that will always be hilarious. No one stops to watch the home movies when Dad is rushed to the hospital and will never pee standing up again. Or when the banana man fractures a vertebra on his pratfall down. We don’t want reality, we need to laugh at reality. Look it right in the face and throw a big creamy pie right at the real world.

A friend of mine got some bad news this morning, and I tried to comfort her by saying in 5 years she will find this situation funny. Maybe not now, but with a little perspective the emotional sting will wear down and you’ll see how futile all this stressing is. Maybe it’s the inner Buddhist in me, or just pure escapism, but if we can’t laugh at the things that don’t work out in our life, then we’ve got to find a way to. But, my own personal philosophy aside, why is the tragic so funny?

Lately, it seems that comedy in general is having a tough life. Stand-up comedians can’t tell jokes without being picked apart or called traitors to their country. 2 and a Half Men is one of the most watched comedies on television. When did Charlie Sheen really become funny? I don’t buy it.

Feature comedies are tough sells these days too. While Judd Apatow’s raw humor made KNOCKED UP and SUPERBAD the hilarious pics they were, a comic god like Steve Carrell drowned in EVAN ALMIGHTY, the most expensive comedy ever made (and probably one of the biggest flops of 2007). And in the development world? No one is really sure what is funny anymore. Kevin James seems to be the Development world’s answer to funny for now. The new TV comedies didn’t make me laugh once (Sorry, CARPOOLERS). Thankfully 30 ROCK and THE OFFICE can reclaim their comedy thrones for another year. But, sadly, no one wants to buy comedy because they just don’t know if they can guarantee it will be funny. I guess development execs feel the fear of their corporate bosses more than they can laugh at a good joke.

While there is always the Monty Python school of random acts as comedy, it seems that audiences enjoy the tragically funny. Why? Because they can relate to it. All the bad dates from SEX AND THE CITY? Those came from someone’s terrible first date, or awkward sexual experiences. SUPERBAD and KNOCKED UP did a great job with making those jokes relatable, although at times somewhat harsh. So, Wavers, if you are looking for a funny joke here, or a comedic setpiece there, the question is, do you buy it? (Granted tone and style of your piece should weigh heavily in this decision.) But, do you believe that this event could happen, and is just horrible enough that it could possibly be funny? The tragedy of things might become great inspiration for the comedy they could become.

Mel Brooks once said: Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.

The two masks of theater are made up of one portraying tragedy and one portraying comedy. What if the two are more closely linked than you may think? Maybe those Greeks were onto something.

More wisdom from Mel Brooks

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Moving Parts

Scripts are a little like Rubik’s cubes. There are different elements and when you move or change one element, everything else follows. Here’s the fun part – these moveable parts are yours to arrange and rearrange until you find something that really clicks for you as a writer and for the material.

In other words, particularly if you’re stuck on a premise or your script just isn’t working. Throw all rules and judgment out the window and ask that script some questions as a way of jogging your creativity.

Is this a western?
Is this a science-fiction story?
Is this set during the Civil War?
Maybe the Civil Rights period?
Is this set in Mississippi – or Alaska?
Is my main character the opposite gender?
Is the beginning of my movie actually the end? Should I reorder the narrative?
Maybe my movie is set just before a real-life disaster? (Katrina? The Challenger explosion? 9/11?)
Or AFTER some fictionalized event: a flood, an election, a murder…
Maybe my antagonist is actually my main character?

In other words, shifting genre, main characters, time periods and events surrounding your story can suddenly shed new light. Don’t be afraid to click different elements in and out of place. I have literally seen writers emerge from a brainstorming session completely excited because when they did this exercise they suddenly got it – the thing that was missing – because they were able to throw everything out the window and just spitball their story and characters until something that had never occurred to them before suddenly made perfect sense.

So if you’re stuck, roll up your sleeves, take a deep breath and simply mess with your story. Ask it all kinds of questions. Go big. And you might just find the solution – and inspiration – to get you unstuck. Do it with a sense of playfulness because never forget, Wavers, this is supposed to be fun. We’re making up stories here, people, not solving prison over-crowding. So let loose with that imagination – don’t be trapped by a story of your own making.

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When Good Characters Do Dumb Things

Once in awhile I see scripts in which characters do unbelievably dumb things. Like go down into the basement to check on that weird sound they just heard. Or keep their back to a window as they discuss the weird sound they just heard outside [insert crashing glass and bloody screams here]. Or opening the door two minutes after a crank phone call had been received. It’s moments like these when I think – does your character ever GO to the movies?? Come on!!

So just a little something to bear in mind – make sure to write your moments very organically for your character so that they appear to have a three-dimensional consciousness and awareness of the world outside of their story. Truth be told, if you heard a weird sound in your basement and weren’t the actual writer of this story and so thusly are not aware that yes, the basement contains a gruesome monster who sucks on bones for dinner, sure, you might go check it out. You have to, right?

But give your character credibility in the moment so that the sound in the basement is not a simple mechanism to get the character maimed or killed but something connected to the story and to the character overall.

Seriously - if you heard a big thump in your basement would you go right straight down there to check it out? Or would you wait to see if you heard it again? Would you go down with a knife? NO because you've seen too many horror movies and you KNOW bad things will happen. Most likely, you'd call the police and then exit the house. Or lock yourself in the bathroom. Or call the neighbors.

Particularly in horror scripts, newer writers tend to conveyor-belt the victims. Five kids rode the bus to the remote town preyed upon by a rabid Yeti - one will come out. And the first four will get knocked off in a very orderly fashion, every 10 pages or so. And in order to get them out of the way until we get to the main event – our hero’s confrontation with Yeti – writers will make the first four victims good and dumb. Huh? What’s that snoring sound coming from the ice cave?

Even though the world you create for your characters is unique and self-contained, there is still a larger world that we all identify with and reference, consciously or unconsciously when we watch a movie. In a horror movie set in the present, we have to assume the characters have seen a horror movie or two in their lifetimes and so would not peer too closely into the darkened window which overlooks the haunted lake. I mean – come on people!

Yes, it is fun while watching a horror movie to squirm while the character gets closer and closer to danger – or it gets closer to them – remember the shower scene in ARACHNAPHOBIA? Open your eyes! Open your eyes! Spider coming!! There’s a certain deliciousness to that feeling. But if your character seems plain dense, then their death means absolutely nothing and your audience might even guffaw at it.

So make sure your characters have a modicum of intelligence while in dangerous situations – or write your characters so well that we believe that their being in a dangerous situation isn’t stupidity but something much more interesting, like a mixed up death wish. Anyone see the wonderful documentary GRIZZY MAN? While the intelligence of Timothy Treadwell might be arguable, clearly there was something pretty complicated going on that lead to his demise.

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Hey!

Has anybody else noticed that over the past few years, “hey” has become the new “hello” or "hi"?

Think about it. When was the last time you said “hello”? Maybe when you answer the phone? Do you say “hi”? Or “hello”? How about “howdy?” Or are you a “hey”-er?

The way we speak to each other changes all the time. Remember when you said “groovy” and it wasn’t retro to say it? If you can’t remember, you’re just too durn young. How about “rad”? or “wicked”? Or “dope”?

Start paying attention to the language used all around you every day. How you greet and are greeted. Do you say “good night” to your beloved or do you simply say “’night”?

How do your characters greet each other? Do they use a greeting at all or launch into a tirade?

Hello, good morning, how are you? Good evening, good afternoon, pleased to meet you?

How about goodbye? Later, goodbye, bye, see ya, until we meet again?

The Wave-inatrix has noticed a new trend and that is that when one wishes to acknowledge that something is self evident, one says “I know, right?” I hear it constantly and yes, I have begun to say it myself.

Slang, colloquialisms, dialects and speech patterns can be trendy and/or tied to current events. William Safire writes a wonderful weekly column in the New York Times Magazine on this very topic.

Be aware of your speech patterns – hey versus hello, ‘night versus goodnight, cool versus dope, etc. These word choices that you make are dependent upon a lot of things: how old you are, where you are from, the fact that it is 2007, and the situation you are in. For example, you probably won’t say “hey” to your grandmother. The Stanford educated lawyer you just hired, even though he’s all of 26, probably doesn’t say “wow, that’s so dope that the client settled!” – it would be situationally inappropriate.

How about f*ck yeah! Versus heck yeah! Depends on who is in the room when you make that choice, doesn’t it? And can you picture a 38 year old RN and mother of two saying that? Maybe. That would make her pretty interesting, wouldn’t it?

So when you write dialogue for your characters, take the same types of things into consideration:

Age
Gender
Provenance
Education
Time period
Situation

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