I was doing the ironing, which is something I seem to do a lot of when I get home at weekends, and watching a film - we have a TV conveniently located in the room where the ironing is done. The film in question was the new Sherlock Holmes which is a fun film and good for passing the time when you're ironing.
The next bit is spoilery if you haven't seen it, but not seriously since I'm focussing on a very specific sequence near the beginning. And you actually know the result of the sequence before you see the process.
Holmes is in the process of disguising himself while on the move; he adds a false nose as the first step, then borrows Watson's coat. There is a circus setting up in one of the London squares he passes through and here he picks up most of his disguise. And the disguise works perfectly.
So far so good, what's my point?
It's a circus. Why is it a circus?
Look at it this way: he could have had all the pieces of his disguise in his rooms. But that's a bit boring, the fact that he has to pick things up en route makes it more interesting (also demonstrates his abilities as a thief, which is relevant, as is his skill at disguise). Then again he could have grabbed these items from any unsuspecting person he found along the way, perhaps some people playing cards.
But no, we do have lots of people he could have stolen from, but he has to go through a circus.
Because this is the biggest and most outrageous place he could come across in London. It's spectacle, it's exciting. And feasible.
When we write a story with a theme - something that's actually going to mean something to someone - it's not real. But it does have to be interesting and as the writer you are within your rights to make it as interesting as possible, more than a right, it's your duty.
The writer and blogger Alexandra Sokoloff wrote recently about the different rewrite passes you should do for your script (whether novel or screenplay) and that's what you need. It is possible that in the first draft of Sherlock Holmes the character did put together his disguise in his room. Or in a later draft, from people along the way. But a circus is better.
Stories are artificial constructs that have to appear completely real. The characters and the plot are a vehicle for the theme and, as such, they cannot be anything but artificial. But being artificial does not detract from the story, on the contrary, it's what makes the story.
But ironing is very real - perhaps I should spice it up with some extreme ironing.
What's on the turntable? "Piano improvisations" by Emerson, Lake and Palmer from "Welcome back, my friends..."
Showing posts with label bohemian project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bohemian project. Show all posts
Sunday, September 05, 2010
Monday, November 24, 2008
Elementary, My Dear Watson
This evening I lost another procrastinary device: I finished the 1,408 pages of the The Complete Sherlock Holmes Stories.
Phew.
I originally bought it because of a collaboration/competition thingy on Shooting People, someone looking for an original Sherlock Holmes story. I needed to research so bought them in order to get a feel for the style.
It's actually a fascinating historical document, and there are some cracking good stories, although watch out for the longer stories, the second halves are always the back story which can be pretty tedious, even if they are historically interesting.
In my blog this particular piece of writing was referred to as the Bohemian Project. It came to naught and a good chunk of the reason for that was me not reading the brief properly. I completely failed to notice that the company wanted something very dark and possibly supernatural. Mind you, Holmes wouldn't stand for that, read "The Sussex Vampire" story.
It's a crime I shall never be guilty of again, because I mean to win.
Back to Holmes, as I mentioned in a recent blog the word monograph comes up reasonably frequently. However there were turns of language that surprised me by their modernity, such as referring to the USA as "the States", and (I know it's not very recent but still...) a criminal saying "It's a fair cop".
What's on the turntable? "Heartsong" by Gordon Giltrap from "Perilous Journey". Heartsong was his only charts hit, and it's a lovely tune. Gordon Giltrap tells stories in music without words.
Phew.
I originally bought it because of a collaboration/competition thingy on Shooting People, someone looking for an original Sherlock Holmes story. I needed to research so bought them in order to get a feel for the style.
It's actually a fascinating historical document, and there are some cracking good stories, although watch out for the longer stories, the second halves are always the back story which can be pretty tedious, even if they are historically interesting.
In my blog this particular piece of writing was referred to as the Bohemian Project. It came to naught and a good chunk of the reason for that was me not reading the brief properly. I completely failed to notice that the company wanted something very dark and possibly supernatural. Mind you, Holmes wouldn't stand for that, read "The Sussex Vampire" story.
It's a crime I shall never be guilty of again, because I mean to win.
Back to Holmes, as I mentioned in a recent blog the word monograph comes up reasonably frequently. However there were turns of language that surprised me by their modernity, such as referring to the USA as "the States", and (I know it's not very recent but still...) a criminal saying "It's a fair cop".
What's on the turntable? "Heartsong" by Gordon Giltrap from "Perilous Journey". Heartsong was his only charts hit, and it's a lovely tune. Gordon Giltrap tells stories in music without words.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Chapter 17
"No one trains you for this." - Adrian Mead, "How to make it as a Screenwriter".
I spoke to the producer in the BBC today and arranged a meeting for next Wednesday evening, somewhere in London (venue to be confirmed). An informal " get to know you" type meeting, which roughly translates as "I like your writing but are you someone I can work with?"
Chapter 17 of Adrian Mead's monograph[1] is entitled "Meeting Script Editors and Producers" and contains the above quote as the second paragraph. He goes on to say:
This [meeting] is rarely about making your script. Most likely they are meeting you for
one of the following reasons:
Well, I'm certainly not neurotic - arrogant possibly.
The truth is that nobody trains you, until now. Adrian spends the rest of the chapter explaining how to prepare for, and how to be professional in, the meeting; thereby increasing the likelihood that something does come of it. (Is [less than] ten quid really too much for this sort of information? Especially when the profits got to Childline.)
So I shall prepare well and behave in an appropriately relaxed but professional manner.
[1] "Monograph" is a sadly under-used word nowadays, yet its definition perfectly fits Adrian's little book: "a detailed and documented treatise on a particular subject". I have been, over the last few months, on and off, been reading the complete works of Sherlock Holmes by Conan Doyle. And the word monograph pops up every now and then. I read the stories picturing the amazing, iconic and sorely missed, Jeremy Brett, who made the role his own in the 41 stories he appeared in.
What's on the turntable? "Suspended in Gaffa" by Kate Bush from "The Dreaming". Reminds me of this: You only need two things in this universe Gaffa Tape and WD40. Gaffa is for stopping things moving that shouldn't and WD40 is getting things moving that should.
I spoke to the producer in the BBC today and arranged a meeting for next Wednesday evening, somewhere in London (venue to be confirmed). An informal " get to know you" type meeting, which roughly translates as "I like your writing but are you someone I can work with?"
Chapter 17 of Adrian Mead's monograph[1] is entitled "Meeting Script Editors and Producers" and contains the above quote as the second paragraph. He goes on to say:
This [meeting] is rarely about making your script. Most likely they are meeting you for
one of the following reasons:
- They liked your work and are interested to see more ideas.
- They are checking you aren’t a neurotic type to see if you’re suitable for one of their existing TV shows or film projects.
Well, I'm certainly not neurotic - arrogant possibly.
The truth is that nobody trains you, until now. Adrian spends the rest of the chapter explaining how to prepare for, and how to be professional in, the meeting; thereby increasing the likelihood that something does come of it. (Is [less than] ten quid really too much for this sort of information? Especially when the profits got to Childline.)
So I shall prepare well and behave in an appropriately relaxed but professional manner.
[1] "Monograph" is a sadly under-used word nowadays, yet its definition perfectly fits Adrian's little book: "a detailed and documented treatise on a particular subject". I have been, over the last few months, on and off, been reading the complete works of Sherlock Holmes by Conan Doyle. And the word monograph pops up every now and then. I read the stories picturing the amazing, iconic and sorely missed, Jeremy Brett, who made the role his own in the 41 stories he appeared in.
What's on the turntable? "Suspended in Gaffa" by Kate Bush from "The Dreaming". Reminds me of this: You only need two things in this universe Gaffa Tape and WD40. Gaffa is for stopping things moving that shouldn't and WD40 is getting things moving that should.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Stress bunny
It's been over a week since my last confession ... oh, no, sorry, I'm not Catholic.
I've been busy both with writing and day job.
How can I describe my day job? Easy, programming, I'm part of a team that's on a Government project that's probably worth a few million pounds (not Defence, I don't think I'd do defence work unless I had no other choice ... and then I'd just starve instead). And on said project there is one part of it which is utterly fundamental to the proper functioning of the entire website.
Guess who's doing the bit that absolutely must work first time? That would be me. Millions of pounds, the jobs of a hundred people or more, the future of every schoolchild in the country (sort of). And me.
Hence a bit of stress. I have been rather under the weather for the last two weeks but I'm feeling better now so I thought I'd bring you up to speed on the writing.
The Blockbuster project is dead. I decide to kill it. I may come back to it if I start making something of this screenwriting career.
The Bohemian project is due on Saturday. I spent some time plotting out, as I partially covered a couple of blogs ago. I'm not doing the Jeff Kitchen follow-up yet because I really need to have his book beside me to get it right.
However I used his technique called "Sequence Proposition Plot" to ensure that my story had a solid spine, and so wrote a treatment for it. Then I used the same technique (which is totally scalable from an entire TV series [or bigger] down to an individual scene) to ensure that the scene that I have to write as a sample is also solid with a good beginning, middle and end.
I'm pretty pleased with both.
Living here in Reading, apart from giving me TV-free evenings in which I can write a lot, gives me half an hour each morning and evening as I walk to and from work, in which I can plot and plan.
Which means that the next thing on the agenda, the BBC's Sharps competition, is at the "thinking about while walking" stage. So far I have nailed the setting which has to be based on "The Nation's Health" in some way (not necessarily a doctor thing -- mine isn't), and I've got some characters but I haven't got a plot.
Sharps is only 30 minutes, and it's not comedy. So we have that weird thing: a half hour drama. I have trouble thinking that short, my ideas tend to be very big. I've got 2 weeks and it has to be sent as hardcopy.
So that's where I stand at the moment. Next time I might tell you about my involvement in the movie Hotel Caledonia, looks like it's finally going to happen. Development hell is aptly named.
What's on the turntable? "All Neon Like" by Bjork from "Homogenic" (a little while ago it was 'Joga' which is an utterly beautiful track, I could play it repeatedly, forever)
I've been busy both with writing and day job.
How can I describe my day job? Easy, programming, I'm part of a team that's on a Government project that's probably worth a few million pounds (not Defence, I don't think I'd do defence work unless I had no other choice ... and then I'd just starve instead). And on said project there is one part of it which is utterly fundamental to the proper functioning of the entire website.
Guess who's doing the bit that absolutely must work first time? That would be me. Millions of pounds, the jobs of a hundred people or more, the future of every schoolchild in the country (sort of). And me.
Hence a bit of stress. I have been rather under the weather for the last two weeks but I'm feeling better now so I thought I'd bring you up to speed on the writing.
The Blockbuster project is dead. I decide to kill it. I may come back to it if I start making something of this screenwriting career.
The Bohemian project is due on Saturday. I spent some time plotting out, as I partially covered a couple of blogs ago. I'm not doing the Jeff Kitchen follow-up yet because I really need to have his book beside me to get it right.
However I used his technique called "Sequence Proposition Plot" to ensure that my story had a solid spine, and so wrote a treatment for it. Then I used the same technique (which is totally scalable from an entire TV series [or bigger] down to an individual scene) to ensure that the scene that I have to write as a sample is also solid with a good beginning, middle and end.
I'm pretty pleased with both.
Living here in Reading, apart from giving me TV-free evenings in which I can write a lot, gives me half an hour each morning and evening as I walk to and from work, in which I can plot and plan.
Which means that the next thing on the agenda, the BBC's Sharps competition, is at the "thinking about while walking" stage. So far I have nailed the setting which has to be based on "The Nation's Health" in some way (not necessarily a doctor thing -- mine isn't), and I've got some characters but I haven't got a plot.
Sharps is only 30 minutes, and it's not comedy. So we have that weird thing: a half hour drama. I have trouble thinking that short, my ideas tend to be very big. I've got 2 weeks and it has to be sent as hardcopy.
So that's where I stand at the moment. Next time I might tell you about my involvement in the movie Hotel Caledonia, looks like it's finally going to happen. Development hell is aptly named.
What's on the turntable? "All Neon Like" by Bjork from "Homogenic" (a little while ago it was 'Joga' which is an utterly beautiful track, I could play it repeatedly, forever)
Sunday, May 18, 2008
How to write a feature
Or, more accurately, how I write a feature. Specifically the Bohemian Project which I now have two weeks to write a treatment. If you're not sure what a treatment is sexy Blogette Lucy has explained over here.
To write a script you start with an idea. The idea might your own, or it might be something you're told to write about (as in the Bohemian project). Either way, it's the spark, the starting point.
What then? Plot or Character? Which is most important? What do you work out first?
That depends mostly on what your idea is. Ideas are usually ideas for a character or ideas for a plot. For "Une Nuit a Paris" I had a setting and concepts suggested by a song. So I thought about a plot, and characters that would fit that plot: What if a man is on his stag night in Paris and falls in love with a prostitute? Which led me to the character of the man, and the prostitute, thence the wife, the brother, the brothel madam, her son, the other prositutes and the antagonist.
For the Bohemian Project I had to use certain fictional characters, and the request was for a "character piece" not CGI action, something that will achieve critical acclaim. Plus it had to be written for specific actors.
But these characters require a certain type of plot. I researched, got some ideas, and started building a plot that would create the necessary interactions to make this a character piece while still representing the fictional characters.
But there's only just so far that this can take you, somewhere you have to start getting into the nitty gritty of the plot structure, scenes and so on. At this point you would have a good idea of the characters you're using, not necessarily all the details but a decent concept. You'll also have a pretty good idea of how the plot's going to work.
So when I reached this point with the Bohemian Project (this afternoon) I used a trick that paid dividends on the Blockbuster Project (although I didn't use it for Une Nuit a Paris) and it looks like this:
Name of character:
External conflict:
Internal conflict:
Fatal flaw:
Key scenes: (a) (b) (c)
You don't need any kind of fancy form, you can just write them down on a sheet of paper, 7 lines for each character. I'm not sure where I got all this from, certainly not one source, it works for me.
Drama is based around conflict, no conflict = no drama. The "External conflict" is the obvious thing that a character is trying to achieve which is being prevented by something/someone else. The "Internal conflict"and "Fatal flaw" go together, for example a character might have a fatal flaw of being unwilling to work with anyone else, but must work with someone else to solve their problem so, to overcome their internal conflict, they must overcome their fatal flaw. Ideally the fatal flaw/internal conflict should also relate to the external conflict. Bring them together.
A secret agent who always works alone, who cannot work with another because of their fear of bringing harm and because they've been betrayed in the past, is in a situation where they must depend on someone else in order to succeed and save world.
So what about key scenes? Think of three key scenes which exemplify the start condition, the point where things change internally, and where the character has reached their final emotional destination.
You do this for the protagonist, the protagonist's friends, the antagonist and the antagonist's cohorts. Of course possibly either the protagonist or the antagonist might not reach their end point because of the plot, just fill in what you can.
How many main characters have you got? For the Bohemian project I have four. Three key scenes each (oh yes, I make sure there is no overlap of key scenes, that's cheating) = 12 scenes, each of which is, say, 4 minutes long = 48 minutes. I've already written half the movie. (It might be suggested that 4 minutes is too long for a scene nowadays, but these are key scenes, with emotion and action.)
So that's my first step, in the next blog on this I'll go into how I use Jeff Kitchen's "Proposition, Sequence, Plot" to build action.
What's on the turntable? "Under the Ivy" by Kate Bush from "Hounds of Love" (extended CD)
To write a script you start with an idea. The idea might your own, or it might be something you're told to write about (as in the Bohemian project). Either way, it's the spark, the starting point.
What then? Plot or Character? Which is most important? What do you work out first?
That depends mostly on what your idea is. Ideas are usually ideas for a character or ideas for a plot. For "Une Nuit a Paris" I had a setting and concepts suggested by a song. So I thought about a plot, and characters that would fit that plot: What if a man is on his stag night in Paris and falls in love with a prostitute? Which led me to the character of the man, and the prostitute, thence the wife, the brother, the brothel madam, her son, the other prositutes and the antagonist.
For the Bohemian Project I had to use certain fictional characters, and the request was for a "character piece" not CGI action, something that will achieve critical acclaim. Plus it had to be written for specific actors.
But these characters require a certain type of plot. I researched, got some ideas, and started building a plot that would create the necessary interactions to make this a character piece while still representing the fictional characters.
But there's only just so far that this can take you, somewhere you have to start getting into the nitty gritty of the plot structure, scenes and so on. At this point you would have a good idea of the characters you're using, not necessarily all the details but a decent concept. You'll also have a pretty good idea of how the plot's going to work.
So when I reached this point with the Bohemian Project (this afternoon) I used a trick that paid dividends on the Blockbuster Project (although I didn't use it for Une Nuit a Paris) and it looks like this:
Name of character:
External conflict:
Internal conflict:
Fatal flaw:
Key scenes: (a) (b) (c)
You don't need any kind of fancy form, you can just write them down on a sheet of paper, 7 lines for each character. I'm not sure where I got all this from, certainly not one source, it works for me.
Drama is based around conflict, no conflict = no drama. The "External conflict" is the obvious thing that a character is trying to achieve which is being prevented by something/someone else. The "Internal conflict"and "Fatal flaw" go together, for example a character might have a fatal flaw of being unwilling to work with anyone else, but must work with someone else to solve their problem so, to overcome their internal conflict, they must overcome their fatal flaw. Ideally the fatal flaw/internal conflict should also relate to the external conflict. Bring them together.
A secret agent who always works alone, who cannot work with another because of their fear of bringing harm and because they've been betrayed in the past, is in a situation where they must depend on someone else in order to succeed and save world.
So what about key scenes? Think of three key scenes which exemplify the start condition, the point where things change internally, and where the character has reached their final emotional destination.
You do this for the protagonist, the protagonist's friends, the antagonist and the antagonist's cohorts. Of course possibly either the protagonist or the antagonist might not reach their end point because of the plot, just fill in what you can.
How many main characters have you got? For the Bohemian project I have four. Three key scenes each (oh yes, I make sure there is no overlap of key scenes, that's cheating) = 12 scenes, each of which is, say, 4 minutes long = 48 minutes. I've already written half the movie. (It might be suggested that 4 minutes is too long for a scene nowadays, but these are key scenes, with emotion and action.)
So that's my first step, in the next blog on this I'll go into how I use Jeff Kitchen's "Proposition, Sequence, Plot" to build action.
What's on the turntable? "Under the Ivy" by Kate Bush from "Hounds of Love" (extended CD)
Saturday, May 03, 2008
More deadlines
Excellent.
The BBC has a new writers' "opportunity", for which read "competition".
It's called Sharps and the deadline is two weeks after the deadline for the Bohemian Project. So that fills up my time nicely. This one is to write a 30-minute drama based on "The Nation's Health" interpreted whatever way you want, so doesn't have to be a hospital drama. Of course 30 minutes isn't a long time, and for me it's a bit too much like writing short stories. I never liked writing short stories - my imagination is too big and I have trouble keeping things small. So I shall have to try to think of a "point" to make, shorts are always about a "point". (Off the top of my head, I might do something on alternative medicine because of a complete [censored] I heard on the radio.)
The prize for Sharps is quite handy, the top 20 get a workshop and the top 8 from that get a week-long residential and mentoring. Luvverly.
I'm also planning to go to the Cheltenham Screenwriters Festival this year, a bit daunting but if I fulfill all these deadlines I'll have scripts and ideas in quantity. I've never had the cash for something like this before but the new job gives me the opportunity to do things I've never been able to do before.
On a personal note it's the Daughter's 17th birthday today with mega sleepover. Half a dozen teenagers running riot. They all want to watch Dr Who, so they're fine in my book. After that and a chinese, they'll be retiring to the lower ground floor (the house is not small) to watch DVDs and generally be teenage girls.
What's on the turntable? "Love is the Drug" by Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music from "Street Life" compilation
The BBC has a new writers' "opportunity", for which read "competition".
It's called Sharps and the deadline is two weeks after the deadline for the Bohemian Project. So that fills up my time nicely. This one is to write a 30-minute drama based on "The Nation's Health" interpreted whatever way you want, so doesn't have to be a hospital drama. Of course 30 minutes isn't a long time, and for me it's a bit too much like writing short stories. I never liked writing short stories - my imagination is too big and I have trouble keeping things small. So I shall have to try to think of a "point" to make, shorts are always about a "point". (Off the top of my head, I might do something on alternative medicine because of a complete [censored] I heard on the radio.)
The prize for Sharps is quite handy, the top 20 get a workshop and the top 8 from that get a week-long residential and mentoring. Luvverly.
I'm also planning to go to the Cheltenham Screenwriters Festival this year, a bit daunting but if I fulfill all these deadlines I'll have scripts and ideas in quantity. I've never had the cash for something like this before but the new job gives me the opportunity to do things I've never been able to do before.
On a personal note it's the Daughter's 17th birthday today with mega sleepover. Half a dozen teenagers running riot. They all want to watch Dr Who, so they're fine in my book. After that and a chinese, they'll be retiring to the lower ground floor (the house is not small) to watch DVDs and generally be teenage girls.
What's on the turntable? "Love is the Drug" by Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music from "Street Life" compilation
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
New deadlines
I'm settling into my life here in Reading, Berks. Heading towards the end of my third week it's all ticking along pleasantly. Apart from the fact I slept badly last night because I had things to do.
Things to do.
So, on one of my script writing mailing lists, up pops a fascinating little project: it already has funding, has two major actors attached and no script. They want a character piece. And they're taking submissions (a treatment and sample scene) by the end of May. I shall call it the Bohemian Project henceforth.
As we all know I have a fondness for deadlines. Really. It's all those years I spent generating newsstand magazines every 4 weeks. And I really do mean every 4 weeks, we did 13 issues per year.
Can I write a character piece? I have no idea. However I did not know whether I could write a contemporary rom-com a month ago, and apparently I can. (It may not be brilliant, but I can do it.) We shall see.
But there's still the Blockbuster treatment for the Hollywood director to do and my TV script dialogue.
Tight deadlines. Even more fun.
I spent this evening mapping out a new version of the Blockbuster treatment. My professional readers really hadn't liked it much so I went back to square one and thought it through. I worked up some action plot lines for the four main groups of people. Then mapped them out on my Storylines software, I find it useful for getting things in order.
One of the problems with my treatment had been that it was all action and very little in the way of character. There is a problem with the source material for this adaptation in that there isn't a lot of character anyway. However I've already taken liberties with the plot so there's no reason for not taking liberties with the characters as well. (To a point.)
Screenwriting books will tell you lots of interesting things about External Conflict, Internal Conflict and Fatal Flaws. I'm not going to repeat it in detail here but while I didn't need this particular tool for "Une Nuit a Paris" (because the characters flowed well), it was definitely a tool for this treatment.
I wrote out those three things for each of the eight main characters (including the antagonists) and then thought what would be key scenes to go with these traits. Very interesting. I came up with some quite juicy ones and it turned one of the main bad guys into a potentially fascinating, and even tragic, character even though he gets very few scenes in this film. (He gets more in the sequel.)
Having done that I went back to my Storylines software and inserted the key scenes in the appropriate places so now I have both action and emotion. I can now re-write the Blockbuster treatment and hopefully make something better out of it.
I also realised that some of the interesting stuff with my bad guy would transfer very nicely to one of the principle characters in the Bohemian Project. Nice.
What's on the turntable? "Where Opposites Meet" by Sky from "Sky"
Things to do.
So, on one of my script writing mailing lists, up pops a fascinating little project: it already has funding, has two major actors attached and no script. They want a character piece. And they're taking submissions (a treatment and sample scene) by the end of May. I shall call it the Bohemian Project henceforth.
As we all know I have a fondness for deadlines. Really. It's all those years I spent generating newsstand magazines every 4 weeks. And I really do mean every 4 weeks, we did 13 issues per year.
Can I write a character piece? I have no idea. However I did not know whether I could write a contemporary rom-com a month ago, and apparently I can. (It may not be brilliant, but I can do it.) We shall see.
But there's still the Blockbuster treatment for the Hollywood director to do and my TV script dialogue.
Tight deadlines. Even more fun.
I spent this evening mapping out a new version of the Blockbuster treatment. My professional readers really hadn't liked it much so I went back to square one and thought it through. I worked up some action plot lines for the four main groups of people. Then mapped them out on my Storylines software, I find it useful for getting things in order.
One of the problems with my treatment had been that it was all action and very little in the way of character. There is a problem with the source material for this adaptation in that there isn't a lot of character anyway. However I've already taken liberties with the plot so there's no reason for not taking liberties with the characters as well. (To a point.)
Screenwriting books will tell you lots of interesting things about External Conflict, Internal Conflict and Fatal Flaws. I'm not going to repeat it in detail here but while I didn't need this particular tool for "Une Nuit a Paris" (because the characters flowed well), it was definitely a tool for this treatment.
I wrote out those three things for each of the eight main characters (including the antagonists) and then thought what would be key scenes to go with these traits. Very interesting. I came up with some quite juicy ones and it turned one of the main bad guys into a potentially fascinating, and even tragic, character even though he gets very few scenes in this film. (He gets more in the sequel.)
Having done that I went back to my Storylines software and inserted the key scenes in the appropriate places so now I have both action and emotion. I can now re-write the Blockbuster treatment and hopefully make something better out of it.
I also realised that some of the interesting stuff with my bad guy would transfer very nicely to one of the principle characters in the Bohemian Project. Nice.
What's on the turntable? "Where Opposites Meet" by Sky from "Sky"
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