I haven't been working on my script. ScriptFrenzy started on Friday but I've had some other things going on. Among them, I've got a few stories I wanted to get into shape and mail off. That's mostly done, now, with one odd story needing some more work, so I can get back to the screenplay.
Which is a good thing, because my workshop begins in a week. When I signed up it seemed so far away! I've got something basic and will develop that further this week so I can take my pages to distribute to the group. It won't be great, but then I have no idea what I'm doing.
Of the screenwriting books on hand, I've only read one. I started with the thinnest and, as it turned out, the oldest. I picked up Constance Nash and Virginia Oakey's The Screenwriter's Handbook at the Green Valley Book Fair a couple of years ago, but I should have paid attention to the publication date--1974. A lot has changed in 33 years, which makes the chapter on "Typewriter Settings" quaint. There are other chapters that are more timeless ("How to Write a the Screenplay" includes sections on terminology, organization, understanding the Three Act Structure, etc.) so the book isn't totally useless. It just needs a serious updating. I've now begun Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434, published in the '90s, and that seems like it will be good.
Showing posts with label Screenwriting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Screenwriting. Show all posts
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
ScriptFrenzy
A couple of years ago I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) during which I wrote a [very] rough draft of a novel that is slowly making its way into a more polished form. It was a terrific exercise, one that I wouldn't mind doing again some November.And now I hear of ScriptFrenzy, which sounds pretty similar. Participants are hoping to complete a 20,000 word screenplay during the month of June. Now, I've just begun a screenplay, as I noted earlier, and I'm participating in a screenwriting workshop at Tinker Mountain in mid-June, so I think I might as well sign up for this.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Adventures in Screenwriting
I’ve just started work on a screenplay. (!) I’ve been planning to do this for some time and even acquired the Final Draft software that facilitates the weird formatting for screenplays. (I taught myself how to use it months ago when it came, but of course I had to relearn it all yesterday.) The impetus for beginning now, though, is that I have an opportunity to take a screenwriting workshop with Hal Ackerman next month at Tinker Mountain (where I studied fiction with Pinckney Benedict two years ago). And while I could go empty-handed to the workshop, I’d rather have a chunk of script to start with and go into it with a feeling for what it’s all about.
I’ve collected a couple of books about screenwriting, including Ackerman’s Write Screenplays That Sell, and I’ll be plowing through those, both before and after the workshop. If all goes well, I’ll report on my studies here.
The truth is, though, I’m more interested in playwriting. I don’t see a lot of movies. Of course most of the theater I see is Shakespeare (at the American Shakespeare Center, as regular visitors here will know), so that’s not all that useful either. But I do read dramatic works from time to time and I studied some in graduate school. Drama, to me, isn’t that far removed from fiction and one can sit and read a play like a novel. Cinema is another form altogether, despite the obvious family resemblance. Anyway, because I’m thinking I’d like to return next year to Sewanee in their playwriting workshop, I’ll also be using Final Draft to work on a script I can use there. And, to that end, I’ve picked up some playwriting craft books also. Again, I'll report here on my studies.
As for the script I’ve now started, it’s an adaptation of a story I published last year called "Hand-painted Angel." One editor who saw the story suggested it would make a good screenplay and that has stuck in my head, although whether that editor knew what he was talking about or not I have no idea. As an exercise in both screenwriting and the art of adaptation, though, I can see that this is going to be time well spent, whatever comes of the actual screenplay that results.
I’ve collected a couple of books about screenwriting, including Ackerman’s Write Screenplays That Sell, and I’ll be plowing through those, both before and after the workshop. If all goes well, I’ll report on my studies here.
The truth is, though, I’m more interested in playwriting. I don’t see a lot of movies. Of course most of the theater I see is Shakespeare (at the American Shakespeare Center, as regular visitors here will know), so that’s not all that useful either. But I do read dramatic works from time to time and I studied some in graduate school. Drama, to me, isn’t that far removed from fiction and one can sit and read a play like a novel. Cinema is another form altogether, despite the obvious family resemblance. Anyway, because I’m thinking I’d like to return next year to Sewanee in their playwriting workshop, I’ll also be using Final Draft to work on a script I can use there. And, to that end, I’ve picked up some playwriting craft books also. Again, I'll report here on my studies.
As for the script I’ve now started, it’s an adaptation of a story I published last year called "Hand-painted Angel." One editor who saw the story suggested it would make a good screenplay and that has stuck in my head, although whether that editor knew what he was talking about or not I have no idea. As an exercise in both screenwriting and the art of adaptation, though, I can see that this is going to be time well spent, whatever comes of the actual screenplay that results.
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