A LITTLE SOMETHING BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS

This link has been finding its way across the internet well enough on its own, so my extra applause is unnecessary. On the site Making Of there is a tidy little post by screenwriter Rob Edwards titled, "Seven Writer's Rules for Survival in Animation."

These writing rules can be adjusted to all genres, and the one that I find lacking in most of the scripts I read is Rule #4, "Remember Why It's Animated." Whatever you are writing has a genre, a medium chosen by the writer because it is the best way to tell that particular story. If it's a slapstick comedy, use the elements of that genre to the nth degree. People need to fall and break things and the rules of reality can be stretched and ignored befitting the world of the script.

In animation, that medium is chosen as the best way to tell the story, so take advantage of having characters that can be talking animals that can be taken to magical worlds simply by drawing it. It's not live action where every set has to be built, for example. If you say your peice is a period drama but in reality it could easily be a modern comedy, you aren't using the tools of the genre to their potential.

Mr. Edwards does a better job of explaining his rules than I ever could. It's a good read written by a screenwriter with insight into how a script is actualized in his field. The post is a publicity peice for Mr. Edwards' work on the new Disney film THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG. As much as I love the films Disney creates, I do have my issues with the story elements in a lot of their films, but that's for another time.

THE AESTHETIC OF THE PAGE

I recently had a stack of scripts to read, and in this modern world that means I got a handful of printed scripts plus a sporadically growing count of .PDFs in my in-box. I prefer to read scripts in the hard copy form; something tactile, pages to bend. Space for corrections and notes to myself. Most of these notes are not actual words, but markings - pen scratches. A dash over a name that isn't capitalized, a line drawn through a description or action that I didn't understand in the first pass. An X by an element that should, I hope, pay-off somewhere down the line.

It is only the growing old man inside of me that dislikes reading scripts, or anything, on the computer. For the most part because I'm unable to mark it up or drop it in my bag to take on a plane flight or read in bed but there is also another aspect to this situation - how the reader relates to, and interacts with what they are reading.

I prefer small paperbacks that fit in my back pocket. White pages with enough white space to keep my eyes strong and loose in my skull. On the illuminated screen of my Powerbook, the eyes grow tired from the constant and steady pulse of light. The eyes are muscles, or if not actual muscle, there has to be a muscle or tissue behind the corneas that stretch and flow and drop focus when stressed by too much visual stimulus to take in.

A page in a book can be visually appealing even beyond the words and their meaning. A Rothko-esque canvas of paragraphed space.



This page is from Francoise Sagan's novel BONJOUR TRISTESSE, a HarperCollins book designed by Cassandra J. Pappas. This is page one of a one hundred and thirty page novel, a book roughly five inches by seven inches. The font is a dark steel blue on matte white page. The amount of white space that heads the page pushes the reader's eyes down through the white to the title "INTRODUCTION" that is printed in the center of the page to balance the eyes before they hit the first paragraph.

The viewer has a lot of clean negative space, to draw the focus easily into the first paragraph. The letters are loose with a lull of white between each word. One critique of this page is that the empty space between the paragraphs is too large. If seen as the time it takes the viewer to get from one to the other, it makes it appear that these paragraphs are two separate thoughts and not a continuation of the theme. It could be argued that this brief pause is necessary, it gives the reader a breath to be taken back to "That summer..." after the writer introduces a state of being for the main character. It's only an aesthetic issue I take with it, not one of content.

This is something that a script cannot do as easily as a novel, but if you were to consider the first page of your script and look at as a visual piece, it can be written to ease the reader into the world you are creating and at least make it visually appealing.

to absolutely steal an example from a far better writer and artist than myself, I turn to John K* of REN & STIMPY fame.



In the above panel from a YOGI BEAR comic, we can immediately discern that Yogi Bear is where the artist wants our eyes drawn. He is at the center of the page and the white motion lines connect him from the background to the foreground. His brown coat pops against the pale green of the grass floor. The yellow crates in his arms push down on him, tipping from the right of the page and the top. It's a simple drawing, an obvious set up, but one that can also be applied to the page of a script or novel.

To bring it back to the world of scripts; if a character is introduced in a brick of scene description, his name and situation will get lost and die. His appearance might only be in type, but the surrounding elements still need to bring the reader's focus on him and his action.

Every moment in a script needs to have a purpose. To have a known place of priority. If the fact that the character we are following is wearing a flannel shirt does not play into the story or theme, but the fact that he has a gun in his hand does - forgo the shirt detail in favor of supporting the importance to what's necessary. Meaning, if a scene description eats up a good portion of the page, the writer needs to find what is important and what is interesting in the scene and nix everything else. Have every word aid in focusing the reader's attention.

To go against all of that, I present this inadequately scanned page from Ayn Rand's novel ATLAS SHRUGGED.



This paperback edition of ATLAS SHRUGGED is full of densely packed type.

As soon as the book is turned to this page, the eye is drawn to the center of the page where it reads, "I swear by my life...and my love of it...that I will never live for the sake of another man...nor ask another man...to live...for mine."

Beyond being a stilted and melodramatic moment of monologue, it acts as a spatial release from the solid masses of type above and below it. It gives the eye something to look forward to and if the writer hasn't done their job of creating interesting writing, it gives the viewer something to jump to, skipping the well-worn prose that came before it.

Like...

This.

Not to say that the opinion given here is the right one to have. It is only one writer's, one reader's, opinion of what makes for a strong visual experience when absorbing written information. A writer should be in control of their writing and stand strong in their chosen writing style. The reader should be able to see the intent of the image on the page as well as the meaning of the words.

* I do recommend John K's blog. Insanely interesting cartoon analysis and a good eye opener into the world of animation and its relation to story telling.

Neil Jordan & THE CRYING GAME

Those of us who have held "regular" jobs know the role of the resume, the CV, as a go to sheet for what we have accomplished in our working lives. We list our former employers followed by our title held while employed there and what actions we were responsible for while at the job. This is somewhat easy, a free-flowing use of words that make us look better at a held position that in our heart of hearts we know was not that special or particularly difficult. We can embellish what supplies us pride, ignore what gives us shame, and push and pull the rest into a shape that we are willing to call, "My Working Life."

For those that work in film (or any entertainment and art field) this is not so easy. They must live and die by their filmography as posted by IMDB and in the eyes by the audience. The audience, us, we tell our friends about the films we see and at times write comments on websites to bash or raise to astonishing heights the film we love and hate. The audience can make a film which might have been a poor money maker while in theaters into a cult film that will never go away on DVD, but for every BIG LEBOWSKI and ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW there are THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE and PLUTO NASH. That latter two should have made decent money solely based on the stars attached, Paris Hilton to TH&TN and Eddie Murphy to PN, but that just didn't happen. It didn't hurt either star's career too much since both are living public lives as human jokes. Both "stars" are able to continue in plugging away at their careers.

I bring this up first in discussing THE CRYING GAME because the writer/director Neil Jordan has a checkered work history of strong films mixes with bad to neglected films. For me as a viewer THE CRYING GAME is not perfect, but pretty damn close to it. I won't go into all of his films here but I will say that he is a stronger writer than director, only because he has directed a handful of films that he did not write, and those are always my least favorite of Mr. Jordan's. His greatest star powered and spotlit film to date is INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, a film I go back and watch repeatedly, a film which brought Mr. Jordan more work opportunities, but also brought scorn from die-hard Anne Rice buffs. I have to admit I never read the books, and I also must admit that Tom Cruise did not fit exactly the part of Lestat, but it is a situation where he tried his best and having him attached helped get the film made and a larger audience outside of Anne Rice fans, which I'm sure was a major concern for the filmmakers.

Mr. Jordan has had various attempts at Hollywood films, from IN DREAMS to THE BRAVE ONE with scattered films throughout his career that are in the same vein as THE CRYING GAME and his earlier film, the amazing MONA LISA. Another film I am an incredible fan of is BREAKFAST ON PLUTO, which has a similar scenario to THE CRYING GAME of a Irishman, in this case Cillian Murphy, venturing off to London to seek himself and his fortune. Again, all of my favorite Neil Jordan films are written or co-written by Neil Jordan. The others I need more time to watch over and over again, to convince myself that they could stand next to his greatest films.

STARTING FROM PAGE 1

Starting a script is a difficult thing. You have the story, sort of, rolling in your head from eardrum to eardrum. Perhaps you made a pass at jotting a few notes down on the back of a dental insurance form or a scrap of computer paper with some healthy chicken recipe you never made.

Let's say your story is about a fighter pilot who tests a secret government jet, it goes so fast he rips through time itself creating a wormhole and crashes the secret jet in pre-historic Mongolia where he invents the wheel and goes down in history for inventing things his modern world already created. It's a rambling and short synopsis, but if that note was found months after it was written in a desk drawer, the writer would remember, "Oh! I was going to write a script with that."

So where does this writer start? With the pilot already at the the secret government location? At home, the day of, arguing with his wife about who has to pick up the kids from the babysitters? Do we see him in flight school, where he excels at all the tests except one? Does he have a co-pilot? Who is he? What government does he work for? Does he have to go to pre-historic Mongolia? What if he goes back in time and makes amends with his father? Why not go back to the dawn of man so the script can be thematic about the evolution of mankind and how the need to be better instead destroys?

A million questions begin to pour out, one after another until the writer stops dead, too many questions and all he wants to do is write about a fighter pilot. Maybe he envisioned a fight scene. A love interest. An action film. Does he still need to consider the other aspects of the story? Does the writer need to create a life for the fighter pilot even if all he wants to write is a science-fiction comedy with some physical comedy and shots of boobs?

Of course the writer does. Or rather, of course the writer should. There are plenty of comedies where it is obvious the actors are only playing themselves, side characters are caricatures or stereotypes, the world is superficial, and scenes are created with the sole purpose to set up the next one. Yet we laugh. We see the films, buy the DVDs, and watch them again when they're on cable. I wish I could say there are answers to how to write a successful script that will definitely be produced and loved, but there are not. It could be a matter of luck or chance, divine intervention of karma. I will admit I am in control of no one's career. I hold no key to that door that makes the amateur writer the professional, all I have is some experience in breaking down scripts to determine what works and what does not, what could be done better and possible ways to make these changes.

My suggestions are not the only way for a script to go, they are just the different ways I can see it going and working based on my opinion, my tastes, likes, and dislikes. I've kept myself awake nights with stress after sending back coverage to a writer, wondering, "Did I cover all the bases? Did I really try to get what they were going for? Did I miss something that could have helped?"

Sometimes I hear back from a writer that feels I did miss something, or read something the wrong way and to that I can only say, "Write it clearer next time. Know what the script is about, who these characters are, what this world is. Be certain of your story and write it." Clarity is difficult. Having clarity of the story in your head and turning that into clarity on the page is where the art and the craft of screenwriting, or any writing, needs to come into action.

There are films that are made that fail or just stumble at times yet we enjoy them. Why? Because overall there is a clarity, and no matter if a scene doesn't work or character is out of place, the idea rings so clear that we, the audience, go along for ride.

Going from script to screen it is obvious that some things just need to be seen and not read to be understood. A generic character that falls flat on the page can explode and steal the movie with a great performance by a gifted actor. How does that work? How does that script even get made? Well, beyond connections and marketability, the overall script most likely had a clear tone and genre. The writer knew what they were going for and wrote it.

Next, I'll be looking at the script for THE CRYING GAME by Neil Jordan. A script that is simple in its written form yet reads complex and once on screen, the script becomes a wonderful film about loyalty, friendship, and to me, how the wandering soul with no purpose will latch on to something, to anything, just to keep moving.