Thursday, July 21, 2005
Blogcritics.org: Review: Creating Characters
CREATING CHARACTERS: A (polite) BLOG DIALOGUE
Former studio exec and story consultant Marisa D'Vari has written a new book about creating characters for screenplays. I happen to like her past work quite a bit, and while I've not read the new book, it seems to support Henry James' belief that "character is action"--and so the better you know your character, the more action, i.e., plot, you have available to you.
Bill Wallo, of BlogCritics.org, does a very interesting jobof talking about what works and what doesn't work for him in the book. The comments beneath the review are what blogs can do best--extend the dialogue. Check it all out.
Former studio exec and story consultant Marisa D'Vari has written a new book about creating characters for screenplays. I happen to like her past work quite a bit, and while I've not read the new book, it seems to support Henry James' belief that "character is action"--and so the better you know your character, the more action, i.e., plot, you have available to you.
Bill Wallo, of BlogCritics.org, does a very interesting jobof talking about what works and what doesn't work for him in the book. The comments beneath the review are what blogs can do best--extend the dialogue. Check it all out.
Friday, July 15, 2005
RIP, Ernest Lehman: a brief appreciation
Better late than never. You young folks who have not ever seen Lehman's North by Northwest or Sweet Smell of Success, turn off all your electronic implements RIGHT NOW and rent them. And watch them. And learn, learn, learn. Lehman created a figure of classic evil in the character of J.J. Hunsecker, premiere gossip columnist, dark power, and ruiner of lives from jazz musicians to presidents. Hunsecker surfaced first in a short story, and then in a movie starring Burt Lancaster, who sniffs the night air of Manhattan like the predator he is and says, "I love this dirty town."
The movie is full of dialogue like that, not to mention the blossoming of Tony Curtis as a Serious Actor, playing desperate publicist Sidney Falco, whom, Lancaster dubs, "a cookie full of arsenic." Lehman's script suggests that the cookies from the "cookie cutter 50s" were filled with something other than sugar, and yet its makes you revel, just a little, in the brutal primeval forest of Manhattan night clubs.
There is so much more here to appreciate. Imagine a writer who could do this AND adapt both The Sound of Music AND Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Listen to more about him here. NPR : Recalling the Art of Screenwriter Ernest Lehman
And salute a writer who, when writing North by Northwest, climbed halfway up Mt. Rushmore...because he wrote it into a scene. And then came down...because he didn't want to die before he finished the script.
Better late than never. You young folks who have not ever seen Lehman's North by Northwest or Sweet Smell of Success, turn off all your electronic implements RIGHT NOW and rent them. And watch them. And learn, learn, learn. Lehman created a figure of classic evil in the character of J.J. Hunsecker, premiere gossip columnist, dark power, and ruiner of lives from jazz musicians to presidents. Hunsecker surfaced first in a short story, and then in a movie starring Burt Lancaster, who sniffs the night air of Manhattan like the predator he is and says, "I love this dirty town."
The movie is full of dialogue like that, not to mention the blossoming of Tony Curtis as a Serious Actor, playing desperate publicist Sidney Falco, whom, Lancaster dubs, "a cookie full of arsenic." Lehman's script suggests that the cookies from the "cookie cutter 50s" were filled with something other than sugar, and yet its makes you revel, just a little, in the brutal primeval forest of Manhattan night clubs.
There is so much more here to appreciate. Imagine a writer who could do this AND adapt both The Sound of Music AND Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Listen to more about him here. NPR : Recalling the Art of Screenwriter Ernest Lehman
And salute a writer who, when writing North by Northwest, climbed halfway up Mt. Rushmore...because he wrote it into a scene. And then came down...because he didn't want to die before he finished the script.
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Tone Control--In Good Company
First, apologies for the lack of blogging. That pesky real life intervened. I have two books coming out this summer, neither of them about screenwriting. But if you have a fat dog or cat, you might be interested.
"In Good Company", in my humble opinion, suffered from not such great marketing when it was released. It is true that one of the things the movie is about is "Oh my god, Topher Grace is my boss. And he's half my age. And...he's sleeping with my daughter!"
That's the plot. But what matters as much in this movie is...the tone. Which is bittersweet, and, mostly, generous to the characters. Generous the way screwball comedies could be, or Billy Wilder's films in their kinder moments (think parts of "The Apartment," or "Some Like It Hot.")
Which is to say, this is a poignant, funny movie about downsizing with an improbably happy ending. And writer director Paul Weitz, who is third generation Hollywood royalty, knows how to pull it off, because he knows how to control the tone. Which means it can't get too slapstick, or sexy, or just plain mean. And it can be sentimental, in very limited doses.
So, when you're re-reading your screenplay, ask yourself: what kind of tone does my movie have? It doesn't have to be reduced to a single word to be effective. But the more ambitious the subject, the more consistent the tone.
"In Good Company", in my humble opinion, suffered from not such great marketing when it was released. It is true that one of the things the movie is about is "Oh my god, Topher Grace is my boss. And he's half my age. And...he's sleeping with my daughter!"
That's the plot. But what matters as much in this movie is...the tone. Which is bittersweet, and, mostly, generous to the characters. Generous the way screwball comedies could be, or Billy Wilder's films in their kinder moments (think parts of "The Apartment," or "Some Like It Hot.")
Which is to say, this is a poignant, funny movie about downsizing with an improbably happy ending. And writer director Paul Weitz, who is third generation Hollywood royalty, knows how to pull it off, because he knows how to control the tone. Which means it can't get too slapstick, or sexy, or just plain mean. And it can be sentimental, in very limited doses.
So, when you're re-reading your screenplay, ask yourself: what kind of tone does my movie have? It doesn't have to be reduced to a single word to be effective. But the more ambitious the subject, the more consistent the tone.
