Just plain lazy...

Hello dear readers - yes I know, where have I been, what on Earth have I been up to? How could I possibly ignore my audience for all this time? All good questions...that need answers...or we can all save ourselves some time up by saying, I'm lazy, and forgetful.

Anyway, I'm back, at least for the time being... I just a story on the BBC website about a 400 odd year old map, created by Martin Waldseemuller in 1507, which was the first to name America, though after the map mapping business really got into the swing of things, it was largely dismissed as old news and put away in a box. Later discovered by a bored librarian, he sold it to the Library of Congress for a cool $10 million dollars, advertising it as 'America's birth certificate'. Not bad for a bored librarian...

King of the Blues

Hello dear reader! I know, I've been missing in action and not informing cyberspace of my pointless rambling. But my tiny use of bandwidth isn't a complete waste of space, though offering the inside gossip on Brad and Angelina would probably draw a larger readership...

Anyway, the writing course is on hiatus, since the first course wasn't the greatest experience, as you may have noticed in previous messages. Still, I have the option to continue and hopefully I will.

The current 'project' is guitar amp construction, which carries with it warnings in big bold letters about lethal voltages. Yes, yes, but as long as you follow some basic rules and understand what you're doing before you do it, sparks shouldn't fly - if all cars started up with a friendly but authoritative voice gravely announcing the dangers of driving and likelihood of a fatality on the open road there may be less accidents and less people on the road. A bonus for drivers and tree huggers alike...!

So, just to document the moment I should say after much thought and research that I decided to build a Deluxe type amp. A classic Fender amp, which offers a little sonic interest and build interest than is little brother, the Champ, whilst still being a simple circuit and an ideal first amp build experience. Decided to go with Trinity, a Canadian amp company who produce hand made amps and kits to DIY builders and have had much praise from the likes of ZZ Tops', Billy Gibbons. They use quality components and have a very good online forum community for any help with the build. And being Canadian, I think they're a trustworthy bunch. I shall keep you posted on the progress. Considerations to the amp cabinet and speaker are still being weighed. I know which speaker I would like, the Tone Tubby Alnico, but it also appears to be the most expensive speaker on the planet!

Also of note to mention is that I had the pleasure of seeing the 'King of the Blues', BB King this weekend. At 83, its amazing that he still has the energy, though as the years have gone by I believe the stories in between songs have become longer so he doesn't have to play so much! Lucille, his beautiful Gibson 335 guitar still sings sweetly under his fingers and what amazed me more was BB's voice, which has lost none of the power and tone and in the slower blues tunes was truly wonderful to hear.

And on that minor note dear reader, I will sign off...

Open book

At the London book fair and within 20 mintues had a sneaking feeling it wasn't for me... Deal makers and breakers abound, half of whom are Indian suppliers promising the same job in half the time at half the price - I know from experience that's only half true.

Still, it's nice being out of the office...as they say.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Masters Playoff

Just an amendment to the previous post...a known golfer, Angel Cabrara won a three way masters playoff, in great style - though for some reason lineker and co presenter are presenting the woes of the other guy, rather than congratulating Angel. Typical. Anyway, well done the Argentian!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Who dares wins

Watching The Master's golf final round...tiger and mickelson were the stars of the show for the first 9 holes but then progressively ran out of steam. The guy leading from the start of the day will probably win, though nobody knows his name, but the masters is often like that. Good stuff anyway.

Just read David Mitchells guardian column rant via his tweet about some politician jumping on a tabloid bandwagon to get Jonathan Ross and Russell brand to pay a BBC fine. An intelligent peice that rather cleverly points out four issues with this idea and rants beautifully about the usual political BS that they spout to claim a few easy points in the so-called balanced media. Does anyone beleive them apart from the awful people who frequent the daily mail? Probably not.

And speaking of rants...my own rant on the Gibson Dark Fire guitar was published in May's edition of Guitarist magazine. It's firm, but fair I think - I posted it on a previous blog just in case the fine editors of Guitarist didn't see fit to publish my viterol. Thankfully it fit right into their Readers Rant section! Enjoy. The rant I mean, not the guitar...the guitar is plain awful.

Good night and good luck.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Ain't nobody home...

Just catching up on some fellow students' posting on the UCLA blackboard. I've had some comments from someone regarding my treatment, quizzing that it showed lots of action, of what was happening on screen, but she didn't get the characterization. I wanted to reply, well, thanks, that's the point of a treatment! Cinema is action, not people looking in the mirror at their tattoo's and thinking maybe they won't kill themselves today. I tried to be more constructive than that...

And our great leader was AWOL again for a while, and he's since come back and still not commented on my posts or even replied to a direct email. His biggest contribution thus far has been to continually apologize for his absence..but he's a working writer, director...blah, blah - Alan, I don't give a fuck - the first time you apologized, you said you didn't want to short change anyone. Well, you have. The frustration is more that I'm not sure if all unit courses are like this, or just this one? Should I continue or not? That, dear reader is the question.

I've just read that brain function decreases after you're 27! And memory is shot after 37, but at least you won't remember how clever you used to be. Though, your ability to collect general information increases until you're about 60, which is probably why pensioners wander about B&Q spouting nonsense to anyone is earshot. At 37, I just can't remember why I'm in B&Q to begin with...

4.48 to sleepville

I made a cardinal mistake of eating a couple of biscuits to mark a small acheivement of the day late in the evening, and now they're killing me via acid reflux. It's 4.51 and the birds are enjoying an early morning chorus and I've just heard what sounded like two gun shots - let's hope it isn't a farmer on a killing spree, emulating yet more shootings in the news - within hours very similar events taking place in Germany and the US.

Anyway, I earlier posted my Act 1 scene-by-scene overview. I had a little moment of revelation at the end of the act, which made me feel I acheived something. Not on any grand scale of course...no cancer's cured, no peace for mankind but a little personal writing moment, and that's enough for a Wednesday evening.

I also emailed our illustrious professor with a complaint of why my week 4 masterwork had not been commented on, when others have had their revisions commented on...we await his answer dear reader.

Time to try more sleep - the birds may fancy singing but I need some sleep. Let's hope there's been an amnesty on acid reflux and gunplay!

Goodnight and good luck.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Mini Cooper

I've just read that Gran Torino, Clint Eastwood's latest film will be his last acting role. The reviews have been almost universally positive. I saw the film this week and I rated it 6 out of 10, though my girlfriend, fidgeting throughout, scored it a lowly 3, if only because of Clint's growling. It would have been a much better film, if not for the stage-school acting of the rest of the cast. Clint, despite his age, still holds a great physical presence on screen, and knows that screen acting is about less, not more. And all because everyone wanted his 1972 Ford Gran Torino! Grrrr....hands off my Mini Cooper, punk.

Dark Fire sale

I recently wrote to guitarist magazine ranting about the newly released Dark Fire guitar from the Gibson guitar company, which was reviewed in March 2009 issue. I thought it was worth repeating here in case the editors deem my angry ramblings as unsuitable for print. History in this case will not here my comments on this guitar, and I think history will be the worse for it, so here it is.

Good lord, what a hideous contrivance Gibson has seen fit to let loose on the guitar world. The most powerful guitar ever, you posed? Well that may be...it may boast many features, such as robotic tuning, piezo pickups and pickup switching system that sounds as user-friendly as barbed wire, but does anybody out there want all this on a single guitar? I'm no technophile, so the silicon chips aren't my main gripe with this guitar.  I know, I know, looks are all in the eye of the beholder, but Gibson should hold their heads in shame, as the Dark Fire is hideous. Fine, you have the heritage of a core brand like the Les Paul, so you keep that classic shape, but to then meld, what looks like a chinese lacquer cabinet with bits of fake carbon fibre, and possibly the worst fret inlays I've seen in my life, the question I pose to you Gibson is, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? If you want it to be cutting-edge and futuristic, look toward Yamaha (like the ABX A2M Bass in the same issue) and Parker, or even Apple for design cues. I guarantee that in the guitar encyclopedia's of the future, this will be listed as another of Gibson's failed attempts to fuse vintage and modern. Stick all the gadgets in a Les Paul Standard if that's what you want, rather than trying so hard to be modern, because what you end up with is something that fails on both fronts and appeals to neither buyer.

If the future is reading this, I was right wasn't I, nobody wanted the bloody thing...

Less haste...

I apologize for the terrible grammatical errors of the last post. I'd like to say it won't happen again, but you dear reader and I know that it will. I blame my editor...

Do you doodle?

There was a small story on the BBC website today, which was talking about how doodling can effect your memory capacity during a dull meeting or telephone conversation - rather than switching off, your brain can be more focused if you also doing a very simple task like doodling. There are some marvelous statistics that show something or other, but my mind wander and lost interest in the whole thing; you can't doodle and use the interest it seems...

More interesting is what your doodles says about you - my (mostly) geometric doodles say this about me:

Doodling boxes or perspective forms shows an advanced stage of artistic development. Simple 3-D boxes show an order mind and a love of routine and a good sense of spatial relationships. Stacking those boxes indicate great stress especially if that stack is in danger of toppling. Complex 3-D boxes are usually done by artists and designers or anyone who uses technical drawing. The doodler of these are motivated to experiment with design.

...a stressed genius clearly. I can't tell you how many stacked boxes I've been drawing lately!

And the winner is...

...not me. As avid readers will recall, Save the Cat author and screenwriting guru was holding a competition on his website to write a humorous logline based on a famous movie, by changing one letter. The winners, the runners-up and the special mentions were posted yesterday, and I dear reader was not among them. It was a shocking defeat. In case you're interested, the winner was: Dr So - Only James Bond can save a mad scientist who plans to take over the world by infecting teenagers with exasperating indifference.

Not bad I suppose...

It's been a while since my last post, and there have been some changes afoot. My ex-girlfriend decided she couldn't live without me - she probably didn't say that, but I'm a writer, so I can use artistic license. Then she gets a job in london, and we came up with a plan, a masterplan, which may or may not involve a cat. Stay tuned.

Week three of the UCLA writing course resulted in favourable comments from our great leader, Alan, when I ruminated and cogitated over the One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest script. Just for you dear reader, here is a little extract. Enjoy.

McMurphy himself is wonderful character, and I think shown perfectly in the 2nd baseball vote scene. In the first vote it had been a power struggle between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy, where Ratched’s influence over the group was total. In the second vote, McMurphy initially jubilant with a perceived winning vote is soon faced with the realization that Ratched knew the outcome and is feeling cheated. McMurphy ‘fights’ back by engaging the group in an imaginary baseball game - a turning point in the film, as the group from this point are more vocal and confident.

Another key turning point is when McMurphy discovers the voluntary status of so many in the group. Again, Ratched gains the upper hand, until Scanlon and Cheswick start acting up about the door being locked on weekends and cigarettes. Cheswick challenges Ratched, but she regains control by blaming McMurphy and his ‘gambling den.’ This constant switching of power and control between Ratched and McMurphy is key to the flow of the film. It is a constant battle of wits, though the emotional intent of Nurse Ratched is kept cleverly ambiguous.

Easy as ABC...

I'm stuck at an impasse, struggling to fix the numerous holes that permeate my story, like some fat piece of rubbery Swiss cheese - how's that for a simile...or is it a metaphor? You decide, ten points for the right answer. I'm not really stuck - it's really a case of selecting the right scribbled idea, but you feel like every selection, every creative decision is like a trap door or a mouse trap or some other kind of entrapment device, which will later come back to, well, trap you.

After my last outrage regarding my tutor, it turns out, to paraphrase an old Groucho Marx joke, he hates everyone equally, as there has been a swathe of blunt criticism for my classmates. He asked the right question of my main character - why would she do it? It gives me a warm feeling inside to know that I asked myself that question about three years ago, and underlined it! That's what the audience would indeed ask - the ones in the audience paying attention anyway, not the ones scoffing fruit gums. Horror movies actively seek this reaction, as it seems to enhance the tension - in that genre at least. I've broken down in my car, do I... a) call for help on my cellphone, b) go and knock on the door of the creepy looking house and upon getting no response, go inside creepy house, or c) do B, then remember to do A, whilst man with a limp and melted face introduce you to his favourite meat cleaver.

The Milk Run

Snow bound in the house for just two days and primal forces come into play - ok, not quite house bound, as the co-op is over the road, but they ran out of milk and an Englishman without a nice cup of tea to dunk a biscuit into is always verging on the brink of chaos.

Speaking of chaos, I did manage to chip out the Mini from a blanket of ice and embark on an adventure to Waitrose to collect the afore mentioned milk....and microwave popcorn, as I had the sudden desire to watch Woody Allen's classic, Annie Hall. This week's homework, which was finally posted by my AWOL tutor, was to discover who our main character was and their key elements which define a good character. I pondered this in the extensive queue in Waitrose, whilst occasionally being nudged by fellow shoppers looking for milk.

I am currently in research mode, though I'm slightly ahead of the game, as I've previously written my main character biographies and motives, though their place in the story will have to change, as my previous main character is now my secondary character and vice versa. I'm sure my characters won't like this, but it had to be done - my AWOL tutor was right about not being sure who the main character was, I admit.

And speaking of my tutor and fellow classmates, I've noticed a distinct...hang on, have I given them this blog...no, I think I'm safe - I've noticed a distinctly American 'high-five' attitude toward each other and an even more cloying 'wow, you rock' mentality toward our tutor. Take note dear reader that I respect his experience and expansive knowledge of the industry but his opinion is only one. Maybe its just my suspicious attitude toward teachers and authority figures in general; the idea that they alone own all logic and reason. This is in fact one of the main elements of a good character - showing their attitude to life. What does it say about me?

And the winner is..?

In the first writing competition of the year over at, Save The Cat website, you are asked to think of a famous movie, and then replace one of its letters with another to form a new, preferably humorous new film title and then write a 'save the cat' like logline -the kind of description of the film you might find in the TV guide. Ladies, gentlefolk...here are four entries that I came up with when I should have been correcting colour proofs, admiring my own typographical genius...or something work related. Just in case it's not plainly obviously what films I've gently mocked, they are; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Catch-22, Cloverfield, and The Italian Job.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S VEST

A violent haberdasher is transferred to a mental institution where he meets a controlling nurse intent on keeping the other patients dressed in beige. In a brief and bitter struggle of wits and woolly hats, he opens the eyes of the other patients to the wonder of denim.

LATCH-22

A U.S. Army Air Force airman waiting out the war on an Italian island struggles to understand the point of having so many latches on the door of his B-52 bomber.

CLOVERFIEND

Five heroin-starved New Yorkers with the shakes film an "alien invasion."

THE ITALIAN HOB

A hotchpotch of bank robbers get misdirected through a Turin traffic jam and have to make do stealing designer kitchen utensils.

Three little piggies

I have been remiss in ignoring my legions of Writer Room fans, but I have been squirreled away working on my first week's assignment, the autobiography of which you've already had the pleasure of...and so, here dear reader are three story ideas.

1. A psychologist working with the FBI wants to know what it is to commit a crime. A professional thief persuades her to help him steal a top secret device from a tech firm - but the company learns of the plan and hires a hitman to stop them. Set up to take the fall, the psychologist learns what it is to commit a crime. In a final twist, it is the thief who is to fail.

2. When a man believing he has a 'gift' for remote-viewing violent crime scenes through images tries to help police apprehend the murderer, he discovers that the serial killer is in him and must be stopped.

3. A hobo blues guitarist living his life by the roll of the dice embarks on a pilgrimage north to Chicago to play along side his ideal, Muddy Waters.

I have created...now let the critics destroy my worlds!

This is the life...

Asked to write an autobiography for my screenwriting course, I crafted this piece of nonsense. I edited the part about my brother taking pleasure in torturing me by suffocating me with a pillow - it's an autobiography, not a confessional. Yes, in this movie, I am put upon protagonist and my brother the evil antagonist. I still have to find a part for the cat...

I was born in Southport, England and grew up there. In its heyday it was a Victorian seaside retreat, but now it’s rare to actually see the tide come in, let alone Victorian bathers. Growing up involved events such as learning to sail with Dad in the marina lake and doomed fishing trips to the Lake District National Park. Adventures in the cubs and then the scouts - though scouts deteriorated into knot-tying club. Skateboards, grifter bikes, football in the park in the summer and air rifle competitions in the back garden, blasting lemonade bottles and paper targets printed with sillouetted terrorists. I enjoyed a sibling rivalry, an acquired truce with my sister through a mutual enemy; an  on-going war with my brother.

Never being particularly academically inclined in my junior years, it was a while before I experienced the thrill of inventing something on paper. My imagination had always been active, and my day dreaming legendary. My mother was once called into school by my teacher who was concerned about my concentration levels; that I could be a distraction to other children - in junior school, a stranger walking past the window or suddenly a fly in the room could be a distraction for the rest of the day. ‘He’s a dreamer,’ the teacher said. ‘Well, so was Joseph, and he turned out ok,’ replied my mother, as legend has it. It was a church school though I assume she was referring to the technicolor stageplay.

Whilst I never had a yearning to draw and paint, I was always quite visual, which perhaps is related to my excessive daydreaming - I never thought of it as wasted time, just time spent doing and being something else. I did enjoy technical drawing, perhaps simply because I was good at it, and maybe because it showed how things work in a visual way. Another reason perhaps why I finally settled on screenwriting as the form that I most enjoyed and identified with in my writing. A friend once told me that I had a very visual way of writing after reading a few short stories. Writers talk of finding your voice - I think I’ve always had a fairly clear idea of my voice (though not necessarily a clear idea of what to say!), but I needed pointing in the direction of the medium to deliver it.

Design college was easy, which sounds a little arrogant,  but that’s not me - I just found the work easy, then unchallenging, and then we got to develop an idea for an introduction to a TV show, a storyboard, on an extension to the graphic design course. I obviously did something right because bizarrely like a scene from a Hitchcock film, the tutor tried convince me to switch to his film course in a train carriage when I was going back home. It’s one of the moments you occasionally wonder about - red pill or the blue pill?

I now work as a graphic designer for a publishing company, designing children’s library books. It’s a creative job, which I occasionally like and occasionally loathe - like any other job. I enjoy writing for myself, pleasing an audience of one first and foremost. I’ve written short stories, poetry, the obligatory half finished novel, and a critically acclaimed sitcom - the production company acclaimed it, but said no one would buy it. Still, it was the glimmer of success that I cling too every now or then. I aim to learn a lot from this class, but the thing I hope it will do the most is inspire me to get on with it.

What's my mantra again?

This evening I have, no laughing at the back, started an ideas diary. The trick is to be quick with your ideas and rambling - it can be surprising what you write. Ray Bradbury's mantra is WORK, RELAXATION, DON'T THINK! And then, theoretically, in a zen way, the work will want to write itself.

In a more pragmatic approach, screenwriting whiz and all round legend, William Goldman, suggests that you answer these questions about your project - ALWAYS...

- What is the story about?

- What's it really about?

- What time is it set in? (past, present, future, fast/slow)

- Who tells the story? (point of view)

- Where does the story take place?

- What about the characters?

- What must we cling to? (what's the emotional core)

And his offers a pithy quote for you dear reader -

"With screen writing, as with a gift, it's the thought that counts."

I also distilled my first story idea into a clean simple paragraph, following the instruction of someone wants something, he tries to get it, they succeed or fail. The second story idea is either set during the 1929 stock market crash or about a schizophrenic serial killer.

Goodnight and good luck.

And they're off...

And so, we are up and running, albeit with a slight false start if I may extend the racing metaphor. The UCLA Extension - Introduction to Screenwriting I started today, with the first week's course materials being posted by our guide and professor at large, Alan Shapiro. After a small discrepancy between the syllabus and the the lecture notes stated homework, and a brief exchange on the discussion board, we're now all on the same page. At least, Alan, Leslie from Florida, and Shannon from Northern California know what we're doing, no other class members turned up on the discussion board, though one presumes Alan knew all along...

So, now I have to write an autobiography and come up with three story ideas - the story ideas I think I have, the life story I may have to fabricate.

Now screaming...

Sorry dear reader, that should be titled, now screening. Or should it? I've just logged onto the UCLA blackboard and discovered my introduction to screenwriting course notes are now there so I can finally see what I've got myself into...bloody hell is what comes to mind, as this mind hasn't been educationally exercised in quite some time and now the mere mention of 'weekly assignments' fills me with dread! Not only writing assignments but reading ones too - the watching assignments on the other hand are most welcome!

Stay tuned...

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Golden Fleece

An awful nights sleep (due to late night peanut eating and general wimpering) led me to be reading the second Save the Cat book, which looks at movie genres and offers break-downs of a wide variety of films for each. The author, Blake Synder (a very nice bloke who amazingly, responded to my email about his workshops...and from his Apple iphone, so clearly a man of good taste and high thinking), has come up with more memorable, descriptive terms for genre's, rather than the established genre types, such as 'Dude with a problem, Monster in the House and Golden Fleece.

I watched the film, Air Force One last night, which falls into the category, 'Dude with a problem' - its a pretty by-the-numbers film, and a carbon copy of much superior film, Die Hard. I just checked and it made $172 million box office dollars (and cost $85 million to make). There is some spectacularly bad acting going on in places, though Harrison Ford does his thing well. I wonder if Obama would be all guns blazing this quickly?

Lack of asleep aside, I did discover that my story, my film story that is, is a 'Golden Fleece' story, which then falls into sub category of 'Caper Fleece', as its essentially a heist movie in old genre speak. The Golden Fleece is of course a reference to Jason and the Argonauts, where the story is really about the journey, not the prize of the golden fleece at the end of it.

UCLA screenwriter course starts this week...wonder if they've heard of this Golden Fleece theory?

1984

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8

Blonde woman running with a big hammer in skinny shorts with boobs a bouncin'.

Hmmm, wonder why I remembered that..?

An Apple a day

Happy birthday Apple computer - you're 25 today! Well, lets correct that before the nerds come out of the cyber woodwork. The Apple Macintosh computer is 25. Apple started beavering away in the 70's with other computers, like the Apple II, which was the first proper personal computer and sported a beautiful beige paint job. Why didn't they make them funky colours to begin with; it was the lurid 80's after all? An original Apple II computer lurks in the gloom of my parents loft, along with entire collections of VHS tapes, Star Wars toys and brown 70's furniture that's been chopped up so it could fit through the hatch in the loft. We witnessed it, even if we couldn't quite agree with the flawed logic. I was twelve and knew that sofa wasn't ever being glued back together.

I digressed... The Apple Mac was unleashed to the world in 1984, during the commercial break of american football's main event, the Superbowl - regarded as one of the prime, and most expensive advertising slots the world has ever known. And Ridley Scott directed it, who dear reader also directed wonderful things like Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator and rubbish things like, G.I. Jane. The advert is now considered a masterpiece (it was a loose interpretation on an Orwellian vision), though I only remember women throwing hammers - time for a nostalgia trip to YouTube! As far the computers go, I never owned one, as by the time I was in college and bought one (I can proudly say I've never owned anything other than a Mac), I got myself a shiny LC475, which is probably now not so shiny, but I bet you good money, its in my parent's loft.

Save the cat

I've just finished reading screenwriting book, Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, which claims to be the only book on screenwriting you'll ever need. Wish I'd known that before I waded through Robert McKee's book, Story. An excellent, if intimidating read, much like his seminars, which I've attended. The cat book tells it like it is, in a more commercial sense but also makes you feel like you're one of the guys, a screenwriter. Which gives you a warm fuzzy feeling, I admit.

As with all these books, you read the list of films they've written and think...never heard of it, or, hmmm, a film for the Hallmark channel, impressive? You aspire to be Speilberg or the Coen brothers naturally, so what can I learn from these guys? Well, they know the business and the craft of writing a script and selling it - You know nothing, even if you think you're Shakespeare...

By the way, the save the cat law of screenwriting is simply that your hero has to do something when we meet him that makes us want him to win - like saving a cat...

I don't believe I have that in my script, which means I have a 'black hole' in my script. Here kitty kitty...

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Nice helicopter Mr President

Just a small note to mark the event where Mr Obama became President Obama. American politics being so much more interesting than ours, you can't help but be drawn to it. Our man in Number 10 was quick to utter the usual utterings about our relationship, though for once dropped the "special" nature of it. You get the feeling from Obama that he sees Europe as the relationship he has to forge, and the former coziness between the UK and US will be somehow be lost down the back of the sofa for a while, much like the current value of the pound...

I watched a documentary about JFK - a film made up of footage that had been filmed during his path to and time in the White house. You can see the parallels with Obama and in particular the vision and inspiration of his speeches. Obama hasn't got a missle crisis to deal with as yet (unless you count gaza) but he does have a few things in his in-tray tomorrow morning. Not least, what will be the presidential puppy?

Americans...God bless 'em!

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Bonus night

The more astute and observant among you may have noticed that I have recruited a follower, a disciple no less to follow me through the afore mentioned meagre ramblings that is the writer room blog.  I hope I am followed for a long time and that the bonus night, that friends inspired is remembered well, if indeed it was the last time. Friends then, again...

On the eve of Barack Obama's inauguration I was reading about the first presidents, which offered such insights, such as Washington's bad teeth, which is why he always has that pursed look on his mouth and that John Adams (his vice president) said of him, 'too illiterate, unread, unlearned for his status and reputation,' though John Adams, was often referred to by his nickname, 'His Rotundity' during his presidency.  Thomas Jefferson used to soak his feet in cold water every morning, opposed slavery, despite being one of America's biggest slave-owners and politically had a bad word for everyone. Martin Van Buren, nicknamed 'the sly fox' said of his presidency, 'the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it.' Good luck Barack, you'll need it...

Distractions

After my previous post forming a conclusion on screenwriting software, I immediately ignored my own logic and put my foot into the Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 camp. Final Draft is still too buggy and just plain offends my aesthetic inclinations - should that matter if it does the job? Well, like everything in life, some things just seem to fit better. After a good trial of Movie Magic, and I shamelessly admit, after reading the various "famous people" who recommend it, I felt it suited me better. It just felt better designed than Final Draft, and appears to be just as much an "industry standard," which FD always lays total claim too. Customizability (if such a word exists) was the key - yes, I'm a mere aspiring writer, and have no use of the excellent production features, but I want a piece of software I can grow into, not out of - so Montage, with all its many plus points is off the menu, though I may use it as a development and research tool. If my opinion matters dear reader, I recommend MM Screenwriter 6! (on a Mac of course...I don't recommend a PC to anyone!)

The UCLA Intro to Screenwriting course is looming large, as it begins soon. Not sure what to expect, as it's been a long while since I put pen to paper academically speaking, and even then I wasn't always keen on the homework - unless it involved technical drawing or building a bridge out of an A3 piece of paper and superglue. I trust once the course is up and running this blog will become more informative as to the life of a screenwriting student. But it's more for me than anyone else, whomever happens to stumble across these meagre ramblings.

Owner of a lonely heart?

So goes the song, and so goes my current state of being. This blog is currently part writing tool, as a way for me to flex my writing fingers again (RSI here we come again!) and part confessional relating to my newly acquired single status. And if I may mimic sex in the city with a question: can an ex really be just a friend..? Well, life is full of possibilities.

On a completely different topic, today as time meandered its way around the digital clock face I began researching screenwriting software. Turns out their are quite a few more than I thought that are hailed as 'industry standard'. Well, everyone knows, Final Draft is the standard, but precious few actually hail it. Similar situation in the design world if I might digress with Quark Xpress and InDesign; the former being the original kingpin, and the latter our current knight in shiny drop-shadowed armour. Complacency and just plain awful, I mean lousy customer support, almost killed Quark. Final Draft has the same issues - buggy, looks like it was designed by a ten year old with wax crayons and trying to authorize it requires codes to rival DaVinci's.

Movie Magic Screenwriter 6 I discovered today and is also hailed by a raft of successful writers, producers and directors. You can download a trial copy, but you only get 48 hours - gives me an idea for a movie about a cop and Hollywood writer, thrown together by fate, or a fat guy named Tony, I'm not sure, and they have 48 hours to write a buddy cop movie - or the world explodes..!

Then there's Mariner Montage, Scrivener, and Celtx (Free). Montage is promising, as it looks great on a mac, with good features, though it can't yet match the more mature programs of FD and MM...or so the internet wisdom goes - version 2 is due out sometime this year and I can personally recommend the forum for a good discussion (as mentioned in an earlier post). I like the idea of using an industry standard application. Just because you're an aspiring writer, why use something that doesn't aspire to be anything better than a hobbyist? I want options people. I've also bought into Contour, and theoretically, if not yet practically, it works directly with Montage, so it gives me a reason to stick with Montage for the moment, though I do admit its simplicity is slightly unnerving...

I might get a cat (and damn the rent agreement about pets!). What do you think? This is almost certainly a rhetorical question, as I have no followers. The blog is a sad and lonely place - which is precisely the need for a cat. A tabby cat to be specific.

The Antagonist

Briefly following on from the previous annoyance, you'll be aware that I had commenced battle with the tax office. One phone call to an actual tax advisor and she confirmed the entire system was flawed and I would not owe the government the debt of a small country, as it foolishly suggested. Death and taxes - they certainly are related, if only by causing stress induced heart attacks!

On a screenwriting front, I began to tackle the weighty issues of the four key questions. 1. Who is the protagonist? 2. What are they trying to acheive? 3. Who is trying to stop them? 4. What happens if they fail? I got stuck on question one... Who is my protagonist, my hero? Marshall or Elizabeth? It would be more unusual to have a female lead character, but maybe less commercial. Not me dear reader saying that, its just statistics and screenwriting books with cats of the cover. Though it's a crime or caper story as genres go, so probably not that commercially popular anyway.

Must get myself a theme too...

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

The Last Word

No, no, not my last blog, as the title suggests, but rather a brief muttering on the official nature of the split from my girlfriend. Many tears and cold cups of tea led us a final sigh, hint of teary smiles and then cottage pie, the near perfect comfort food. Friends then...

So today, a little lost with a sore head and few obligatory sighs, I recycled the Christmas tree, window shopped for a kettle for no real reason other than distraction and attempted to file my tax return. Attempted is the key phrase, because although it advertises the use of the back button, it does actually support such a grand feature and continued to throw repetitive instructions at me, which didn't work either. So I stormed out, bought two pints of milk and vowed to try again tomorrow, when these palpitations subside.

Good night, and good luck...

Tete-a-Tete

In a previous illuminating post I said I had just started a discussion with a man called, Jeff Schechter, regarding the possible restrictions of a screenwriting program, called Contour. It deals purely with story structure and sticks to a very strict formula. Some films do not fit into this strict formula, which initially he didn't want to admit, but I persisted. I suspect he's the kind of man who always likes to have the last word - I thought I'd had the last word, but no, he's just replied again. He's even advertised our "tete-a-tete" on his blog. It's all good marketing for his program of course and I don't begrudge the use of my witty banter for a second. You too, dear reader (if I ever have any), can view our exchange, through the link on his blog. Go to, http://totallywrite.wordpress.com

If you don't see a header, 'FORUM: Is Contour Too Restrictive?' and a small but amusing image of a man in a straight jacket, my fifteen minutes of web fame will have evaporated into the constantly changing stream of ones and zeros. 

Don't worry, I'll pick another fight with him soon enough...

Stephen Fry said what?

I've been listening to blues music today as it felt right to do so - the music did fill me with a little more sadness than usual, but I'm trying to stay positive in the light of my girlfriends departure. She hasn't technically left as yet, as there is a week of 'thinking time' in progress, but I think it's more of a buffer zone to reduce the tearage on my part...

As regard to writing, I've spent the day (other than diligently working at my desk) reading Stephen Fry's blog, to see if I can pick up on any tips on how to write one - I need followers apparently; he has thousands, tens of thousands even, but then he is Stephen Fry. I'll wager a good percentage of them of technophiles, or applephiles, or some other group that worships a good solid firewire connection. He was momentarily talking, or 'twittering' about Vista on a Sony laptop, before he threw it out of a hotel window into the wasteland of New Zealand or jungles of the Amazon or wherever he is this week.

I've also been looking at screenwriting structure software, Contour, from Mariner software, which was recently released into the wild. I've considered the theory, posed a thoughtful question regarding the restrictive nature of the software on the Mariner forum, and have just read the reply from the man who came up with the concept, Jeff Schechter. It was a long response, which basically said I was fool to right an original, imaginative and challenging script, until I was successful enough to stamp my foot like a child when someone doesn't bring me a frothy latte. He's almost certainly right, but I'm planning a riposte, as he was so flattering about my good question.

And to misquote Stephen Fry...iphone's are beautiful chunks of splendidness.

One small step...

It's just turned midnight and this will be my first ever blog posting. Strange that, for someone who has all the mac toys and is often considered an IT geek - by normal people that is. Real IT geeks would smirk at my level of DNS network ignorance, whatever that means? But, I'm slightly off topic. I've just enrolled in the UCLA Extension Screenwriting certificate course...and just broken up with my girlfriend (well, she broke up with me and I mostly fell apart). So, I guess now I'll have the time to actually do it, with no excuses. The previous line still hurts, so you'll have to bare with me. Who reads these things anyway? Well, the idea was to document the start of a new challenge, get used to writing again, even if it's just ramblings on a blog - I'll let you know how I get on.