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Matt Wallace’s Top 10 Points for Professional Writers

Earl Newton — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 05:29:47 +0000

Would-be professionals: take “writer” and put “director / actor / editor,” etc. Matt Wallace’s Top 10 Points for Professional Writers Related posts:Running a Television ShowAdapting Prose to the Screen (interview)WGA says: “Get Outside the Box, Get Into the Tubez” Related posts:

The Danger of a Single Story

Earl Newton — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:09:42 +0000

From TED.com: Chimamanda Adichie discusses the danger of having only one story about a person or place.

The video and my comments after the jump.

“The consequence of the single story is this: it robs people of dignity.”

Adichie has a beautiful way of talking about prejudice and ignorance without ever using those words or adopting a preaching tone. With equal candor and humility, she talks about her American roommate expecting her to be ignorant and poor, just as she herself expected her childhood servant to be lazy simply because he was poor.

While I think Adichie intended this as advice for living, it applies equally well to storytelling. It’s a simple, practical tool to ask yourself: “How many stories do I know about my characters?”

Let’s imagine a coal miner. Is he an oppressed laborer, crushed by a unsympathetic company?

Let’s ask his foreman. Is he a lazy idiot who cannot show up on time?

Ask his wife. Is he a distant, cold housemate?

Ask his mistress. Is he a tender lover, afraid to share his fears anywhere but in the dark?

He is none of these completely, yet each make up a piece of his picture. As you compose his actions in your head, it becomes easier to ask yourself, “Which story is my character playing out now?”

“There is never a single story about any place.”

Storytelling is based on seeing. It is very much like working with a police sketch artist. Unless you can fully imagine the person, you cannot describe them.

The process of creativity is the process of asking questions about your story until you have enough answers to move forward. ”Who is this person? What do they do?” If you stop asking too early, you’re settling, and the picture of your character will emerge as a hazy cliche.

Remember: creativity ends when we stop asking questions.

The MacGuffin Exposed

Earl Newton — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:00:21 +0000

“In crook stories it is almost always the necklace and in spy stories it is most always the papers.”
- Alfred Hitchcock -

If you’ve ever taken a film class, you know what the MacGuffin is.

(I actually got into an argument once with a teacher who insisted the MacGuffin was the most important element in a film. While it’s important to the characters, it is almost irrelevant to the actual film, or to the audience’s experience.)

TVTropes.com has a great wiki set up about the MacGuffin and the sub-groups they’ve discovered. It’s a fun read, especially for avid story theorists.

TVTropes.com -> The MacGuffin

(discovered this link courtesy of the lovely archives at JohnAugust.com)

Running a Television Show

Earl Newton — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:15:50 +0000

Found this blogpost on Twitter, courtesy of Matt F’n Wallace. It’s a piece by Kurt Sutter, a TV showrunner, and it digs into the little-mentioned world of television runners. It’s a world I’m currently fascinated by. Film directors brag about shooting a 2 hour film in 30 days. A television showrunner could be overseeing the production of between 13 and 22 hour-long features, each of which will be turned around in a matter of weeks. In short, these guys know the process, and they know how to multi-task.

Google’s Coming Monopoly on Knowledge

Earl Newton — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 03:30:55 +0000

Found this (admittedly somewhat slanted in tone) breakdown of the Google Books lawsuit currently underway:

The Fight Over the Google of All Libraries

It’s worth reading for yourself, as well as following the most recent update here (as of Sept 25).

Key points to consider:

“Google’s mission is to ‘organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.’” It doesn’t say what that will cost, and it begs the question: if one has a monopoly on all the world’s knowledge, do they have a right to charge for it, especially when it can be transferred to anyone else at zero cost?
Google isn’t known for charging for its services…up to this point. Right now, thanks to “free,” Google has been able to stake claims in the markets for email software, office document processing, telephony, and a lot more.

Whenever I hear about something Google is doing, I think back to an old Star Trek episode my father used to tell me about (Ep 41: I, Mudd). A group decides the human race is too dangerous to be free, so they decide to take control of us. When asked how they will do it, they respond thusly:

NORMAN

We will serve them. Their kind will be eager to accept our service. Soon they will become completely dependent upon us.

ALICE 99

Their aggressive and acquisitive instincts will be under our control.

NORMAN

We shall take care of them.

SPOCK

Eminently practical.

KIRK

The whole galaxy controlled by your kind?

NORMAN

Yes, Captain. And we shall serve them and you will be happy, and controlled.

Makes you realize how open to interpretation a phrase like “Don’t be Evil” can be.

Juggling Real Life and Writing

Earl Newton — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:00:21 +0000

Mur Lafferty (author of Playing for Keeps and the Heaven series, amongst other celebrated works) posted a terrific article about the problem of juggling “real life” and writing*.

Welcome to Real Life

* replace writing with drawing, composing, editing, dancing; whatever your particular passion is.

John August: Breaking Storytelling Conventions

Earl Newton — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:42:10 +0000

MakingOf.com has an interview with John August about his screenwriting process. As always, John August demonstrates his knowledge of the craft by breaking down concepts into relatable terms, and sharing really original insight into the craft — no respun Syd Field here.

Normally I’d embed the video here, but MakingOf.com has some weird Iframe code going on, so I’m just providing the link.

John August on Breaking Storytelling Conventions

And, as a screenwriter, you should already be a regular visitor to JohnAugust.com.

Ira Glass on Creativity

Earl Newton — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:20:50 +0000

Ira Glass is the host of arguably one of the most popular programs in radio, This American Life.

Over four segments of an interview (presumably for Current.TV), Ira basically lays bare the nature of storytelling, the difficulty of it, and what it takes to make it.

It took me years to figure out what he explains in a few minutes. It’s something every creative person should hear. Here are the rest of the segments:

Ira Glass Part Two (Finding a Decent Story: Be Brutal)

Ira Glass Part Three (On Good Taste, And Sucking Major)

Ira Glass Part Four (Two Common Errors of the Beginner)

Wanna Make ‘Fight Club’, but you only have $7.50?

Earl Newton — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 13:02:09 +0000

Then fear not! Your dream can be a reality!

Because it turns out, if you only have $7.50 and you want to make ‘Fight Club’, you are actually trying to make a movie called “UKM: Ultimate Killing Machine“, which was on The Movie Channel when I woke up at 6:30 this morning.

I haven’t gotten to see their actual budget breakdown, but I’ve done a basic estimate based on what little bit of the film I caught.

$8.99 Free!: Buy Michael Madsen a month of Netflix subscriptions in exchange for his performance. Do not tell him Netflix is offering a free two-week trial. Cancel subscription immediately after shooting. Do not shoot for more than two weeks.
$4.89: Bump into Jeff Cronenweth at Starbucks. Buy him a muffin. Ask him, “So what is it you do that just makes things look soooo….Fight Clubby?“
$0.75: Buy 28 seconds on a Kinkos computer terminal. Send an email to your mom. Tell her how you’re doing. In gratitude, she will make your costumes. “Don’t forget, Mom, we’re aiming for something really nihilistic.”
$1.28: Feed ravenous pack of starving LA actors on four packs of Ramen noodles. Beckon them to follow to production set (dangle seasoning packs in front of them). Once there, encourage them to fight each other on-camera. “This’ll be a great ’set piece’.”
$0.50: Buy expired Halloween makeup kit. Tell leery actors this is intentional. “We want something gritty and nihilistic. You’re going to be great.”
$0.08: Find an out-of-work writer. Promise him his 8-cents residual in advance, in exchange for screenplay. “Make it like Fight Club, with more guns. But still really nihilistic.”
Free!: Look up “nihilistic” in dictionary. Realize it is not a synonym for “cool.” Realize also that most Hollywood sales agents don’t realize this. Sell movie to The Movie Channel.

“But I like this feeling! I like being the ultimate killing machine! The army of one made me into a f\/©%ing one-man army and I am LOVING IT!!!!!” – UKM: Ultimate Killing Machine

Google’s Coming Monopoly on Knowledge

Hard Drives Aren’t Forever

Earl Newton — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 05:17:59 +0000

Read a very disturbing article at LarryJordan.biz, courtesy of The Editblog:

Magnetic signals recorded on a hard disk are designed to be refreshed periodically. If your hard disks stay on, this happens automatically. However, if you store your projects to a removable hard drive, then store that hard drive on a shelf, unattached to a computer, those magnetic signals will fade over time… essentially, evaporating.

Emphasis is mine. Read his whole article here.

If you are doing any kind of editing with external HDs (I currently have more than 4TBs worth), the article is worth the read.

Then go back and pay a visit to all those HDs.

Earl Newton.com » Notable Links

Matt Wallace’s Top 10 Points for Professional Writers

The Danger of a Single Story

The MacGuffin Exposed

Running a Television Show

Google’s Coming Monopoly on Knowledge

Juggling Real Life and Writing

John August: Breaking Storytelling Conventions

Read More Screenplays (And How)

Ira Glass on Creativity

Wanna Make ‘Fight Club’, but you only have $7.50?

Hard Drives Aren’t Forever