Lessons from a Movie Set

Amazing graffiti art on the walls on the set. 

Last night, at nearly 11 pm, I made it home from the first day of filming a feature film entitled "Remission."  One day on set makes me an expert, right?  Okay, not even close, but since I am participating in this project, I thought I would pass along any random wisdom I manage to glean from the process.  Here goes the lessons from Day 1:

 Leave your ego at the door.  As a writer, my job is to take a story idea, and show it in words on a page.  It's for the most part, a rather solitary endeavor.  Movie making is more like a hive-mentality.  Every person on the set has a vision for what the story should look/sound like. Writers, directors, actors, effects crew, sound technicians, and they guy who brings the donuts.  (They were great, by the way, along with the Mulligatawny stew)  The goal is to meld all of those visions into one cohesive whole.  It's the director's job, and a lot like herding cats.  For the process to flow, everyone needs to be willing to work together, and if your ego gets in the way, the whole thing can derail.  It doesn't take years of set-work to see how a Diva can develop the relationship where no one wants to work with them.  A "What can I do to help?" attitude will take you much further.

Contrary to popular belief, movie making is not glamorous.  Yeah, the big Hollywood stars may get posh trailers, and pampering assistants. But even then, stars have to do things like stand around for countless takes in freezing weather clad in totally weather-inappropriate attire to get the perfect scene. Get used to no heat, and the nearest bathroom being a gas station four blocks away. It's dirty, cold/hot/wet work sometimes. My respect for actors who can film scenes while hiding their shivering.

Follow direction.  "Quiet on the set," basically means "don't breathe, unless given permission."  Nothing worse than getting nearly through a difficult scene, with near-perfection, then having it ruined by noise contamination.

Make friends!  It's not about name-dropping, or shameless self-promotion.  True networking involves forging relationships.  If you can't be genuine, you're going to struggle.  It goes back to the whole ego thing.  In a line ripped right from the script... "You know what happens if you bite the hand that feeds you? Eventually, it will let you starve."  Let's face it, whether it's Hollywood, or Nebraska, the film community is pretty small.  You want to make a name for yourself, make it be that you add value to a production.  That you're to be trusted.  That you'll be a supporter, cheerleader, and a hard worker.  

Fist-bumps to my fellow cast and crew from Remission.  We rock!

 On the set, after about 10 hours of filming in single-digit temperatures. 

More uuber-cool graffiti art in the background. 

Newton's Laws of Motion

Newton's Laws, and Yes, This About Writing!

                My formal educational background is not in writing--or any liberal art.  I spent my collegiate formation as a scientist.  Hard, cold facts, and immutable laws of  physics.  And, believe it or not, some of that science background has come in quite handy, and in more ways than you might imagine.  So, I am going to break down  Newton's Laws of Motion, and how I think they relate to writing.

                Rule #1: Every object in a state of uniform motion tends to remain in that state of motion unless an external force is applied to it.

                There are two statements about this law that are important.  The first states that a body at rest will remain at rest until acted on by some force.  What this means is you will never, ever write anything unless you apply some force to the chair and start writing.  Thinking about writing, dreaming about writing, wondering about writing... nope.  You. Must. Write. 

                The second is that a body in motion will remain in motion until acted upon by another force.  So, great, you are writing.  Wonderful.  Words and ideas are making their way onto the page.  What force might cause that to cease?  In the physical world we live in, we usually will think of things like gravity, even air resistance.  Oh, I understand resistance in writing.  What things tend to get in the way of writing?  Work, family, chores... the list is endless.  Even more insidious are the forces of apathy.  Inner doubt.  That kind of resistance is sometimes even harder to overcome.  So, be aware of it when  writing starts taking a back seat.  Write anyway.  Make it a habit.  I have a sheet of paper on my writing board that is divided into 365 squares, each numbered.  Every day I write, I can mark through that day in red.  My goal is to fill that page with red marks by the end of the year.  An object in motion remaining in motion.

                Rule #2: The relationship between an object's mass m, its acceleration a, and the applied force F is F = ma. Acceleration and force are vectors (as indicated by their symbols being displayed in slant bold font); in this law the direction of the force vector is the same as the direction of the acceleration vector.

                Take a deep breath.  This isn't as complicated as it might seem, or at least not where writing is concerned.  Basically, Newton's Second Law says that acceleration is increased by force, and decreased by mass.  Okay, so let's consider mass as the size of the story.  A short story is perhaps easier to get in motion, and keep in motion, than, a novel the size of War and Peace.  But, the key here is that we are talking about acceleration.  So, the more force (butt glued to chair, writing) you apply, the faster it goes.  Yes, writing picks up speed the more you write!  You will get to know your characters, you will become more familiar with the world they inhabit, and your writing skills will grow.  I like this law--a lot!  It's like training to run a marathon.  The stronger your writing muscles become, the easier it is to finish the race.

                Rule #3: The mutual forces of action and reaction between two bodies are equal, opposite and collinear.

                Another way this Law is stated is; For every reaction, there is an equal and  opposite reaction.  Hmmm.  What does that mean for writing?  Oh, you are going to LOVE this one.  If you write long enough, things won't remain the same.  They change.  For example, you find yourself getting things like this.

And this:

                Well, that's it for my physics lesson today.  I am back to writing, because I want to accelerate towards other goals.  Like some of these. 

                Until next time, apply some glue to the chair, and get to work on some physics--I mean writing!

Star Wars, you Rule-Breaker!

Last night I watched arguably one of the most famous movies ever to prepare for a plotting talk I'm going to be doing in October for Pagan Musings podcast.  "Star Wars, Episode IV, A New Hope."  (Not that we knew it was episode IV in 1977, it was just "Star Wars")  I chose this movie because it is so universally recognized, and it also fits the basic plot paradigm I want to cover.  Or so I thought.  But, as I analyze my notes, what I find is how many of the current screenplay conventions George Lucas broke in this script. 

Yes, Star Wars absolutely fits the paradigm I'm going to use in the podcast.  So, if you want to know how, you'll have to tune in to find out.  October 22nd, 7-9pm CST, on  www.blogtalkradio.com/Pagan-Musings or on iTunes at http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pagan-musings-blog-talk-radio/id343159333.

I want to talk about a couple of the "screenwriting rules" George Lucas chose to ignore when he crafted "Star Wars."

Rule:  Never open with an information dump, or in other words, disguise your exposition. 

Hello, that iconic scroll at the beginning?  You know how it goes, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."  Not to mention, why a long time ago?  Doesn't that mean the people I'm supposed to cheer on and care about are DEAD???!!!???  And why far, far away?  These are some scary bad guys.  Shouldn't this story be happening RIGHT NOW, and so close these bad guys are just one hyper-jump to light speed away from Earth, where they can wreak some real damage?  But the crawl at the beginning of each movie--information dump! 

Rule:  The story question must be posed in the first ten minutes of the film.  This sets up who is the "Good Guy" and who is the "Bad Guy", and ultimately, the question of who will win. 

Oh, man do we get a great glimpse of the bad guys.  When the huge Imperial ship chased down Princess Leia's ship in the opening sequence, the sound in the theatre rumbled.  It was massive, powerful--unstoppable.  Then Vader enters.  The breathing alone, coupled with the black mask and cape... then the guy kills someone with ONE HAND.  Hello, I don't think anyone--or anything can take him out.  And that's before he chokes someone out with his MIND.  But, where is our "Good Guy?"  Is it the lady with the cinnamon-rolls on the sides of her head?  How about the weird little robot that doesn't even talk, only beeps??  Uptight gold robot?  I don't know.  Ten minutes pass, and Luke Skywalker hasn't even hit the screen yet.  But, when Luke finally hits the screen, we know immediately that this immature, whiny kid is going to either have to defeat Vader, or die trying.  We just don't see how it is ever going to be possible. 

I could cover a lot of territory in how the script fits or doesn't fit standard conventions, but this would be a book, not a blog entry, so I'll end with one final "rule" Lucas breaks in "Star Wars."

Rule:  The Good Guy (Luke)  needs to control his own destiny, and defeat the Bad Guy (Vader) on his own merits.  (No one can rush in and save him at the last second.) 

Yes, Luke controls the Force, he flies into insurmountable odds and aims at the target.  But hold on a moment.  Vader is about to blast him out of the sky.  He's right on his tail, we're waiting for Luke to make a move against him... and no.  Han Solo to the rescue, and it is HAN who blasts Vader into the nether-regions of space.  Now, we know that there are a five more episodes to this story.  George Lucas knew he had way more story than he could fit into one movie.  But, he had to fight to greenlight "Star Wars," and the studio had no intentions of promising him anything until the first movie delivered.  Heck with a  working title like, "Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars." it's no wonder the studio balked (Okay, so that's Rule #4, you need a short, amazing, and compelling title, but since the film came out as "Star Wars," I'm not going to harp on it.)  My point is, in 1977, Lucas had no idea if he would ever see the completion of his vision, and his hero just let the sidekick clobber the bad guy.  Typically a fail as far as scripts go. 

"Star Wars," was one of those films that made an indelible mark on my psyche.  I lost count of how many times I saw it during the summer of 1977.  Why?  The characters, the story, the ground-breaking uniqueness of the film itself--I still love every frame of it.  When I look at the overall arc of the six films, I am so impressed at the craftsmanship--and Lucas's ability to successfully bend the screenwriting rules to give us a story that spanned a nearly three-decade time frame, from May, 1977-August 2008. Heck, I struggle to maintain continuity for a two-hour (120 page) script.  I bow before the Force. 

Have I captured your interest?  Don't forget, October 22nd, Pagan Musings Podcast.  It will be archived on the Blogtalk radio site, and on iTunes if you miss it.  Just in time to get your opus plotted for National Novel Writing Month 2011.  November 1-30.  I'll be leading the charge, and updating every week on how the Lincoln Region is doing on Pagan Musings.  Come be part of the magic!  www.nanowrimo.org!  

Today I like my hair!

I woke up this morning and fixed my hair.  That usually sets the tone of the day.  Ladies, you are probably nodding about now, and the guys are most likely scratching their heads going "huh?" It's true!  The routine is the same, but the results may vary.  You never know until you start running a comb through the curls exactly what's going to happen.  It is either bliss, or agony.  Usually not a lot of middle ground either, and if my hair isn't playing nice, the rest of the day seems to follow suit. 

I went to bed late last night/early this morning after working on revisions on the screenplay adaptation of my story "The Hunt."  I'm short a good 20 pages, and I was more than a bit fed up with the whole thing when my head hit the pillow.  So, this morning, I decided I was going to take a break from it, get a little distance and perspective before I dived back in. 

Keep in mind that I am a disciplined writer, and I am not advocating procrastination.  What I decided to do instead was finish reading a book on screenwriting I'm almost finished with.  (Studying is a constant part of my life as a disciplined writer as well!) What I ended up with after a few hours of reading was a dozen sticky notes with ideas that came to me about my stunted script while I was busy doing something "else."  Ha! 

I also had a back-to-the-basics "duh," moment when it hit me that what I really need to do is look at the beat sheet and determine where I need them to be page-wise, and then compare that to where they actually are.  Is the inciting incident where it needs to be?  How about Plot Point 1?  Plot Point 2?  You get the idea.  Doing some simple math will give me the number of pages I need to add, and more importantly, will tell me exactly where I need to add them.  Hello, targeted revisions! 

I am very fortunate in that my story follows along extremely well with the basic story paradigm already.  That's because I have a decent foundation in setting up the story structure, which is a direct result of that studying I mentioned. 

For those of you who have read 'The Hunt," no worries, I am not changing the storyline at all. The screenplay follows the actual story very closely.  What I'm adding now are details, little things to help make Wuden Hollow a living vibrant world that will shine on a movie screen.  Little details and scenes that add to the lasting imagery. 

For example, I'm adding a brief moment where a little girl approaches Reverend Michael after the first sermon in the opening of the movie.  The wind catches her hair ribbon and blows it into the woods.  I'll use that ribbon in the woods when Michael is deciding which direction to run when being chased.  He can either go toward town, or deeper into the woods.  Then again at the end, when he sees the girl again, and he gives her back the ribbon.  Does anyone remember the girl in the red dress in "Schindler's List?"  

Plus, I'm now back to hair, which is where I started this post.  Not bad, huh?