Tag Archives: writing
When to laugh
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2010/10/good-direction.html
This quote from a John K post struck me as noteworthy:
“I never know when to laugh when I watch modern cartoons because they are so devoid of pacing or feeling.”
I usually hear from the other side that they feel insulted or pandered to if they are constantly being told when to laugh, that it kind of took me aback to see someone complain about not being told.
Let the movie be about what it’s about
Some actor who was in the Transformers movies, on why he was disappointed with Transformers 2, “You lost a bit of the relationships. Unless you have those relationships, then the movie doesn’t matter. Then it’s just a bunch of robots fighting each other.”
Bond Villains
So on William Martell’s script secret site, he posted about Casino Royale. Some of what he says makes sense, but I’m going to dispute him on the need to be more clear and precise about the villain’s plan.
First up, I think this goes hand-in-hand with the idea of a more “realistic” Bond. You can’t very well have the villain hold Bond captive to give a powerpoint presentation about where the money will be spent.
Cheesy dialogue
Someone got me thinking about the difference between unrealistic dialogue and cheesy dialogue. Brick, a movie I love the hell out of, has plenty of unrealistic dialogue. But it somehow uses that to its advantage.
So Brick proves that being unrealistic is not sufficient to render dialogue cheesy. What sets it apart from cheesy dialogue?
Everything about story structure I learned from Ren and Stimpy
The first thing I ever saw that really got me thinking about story arcs and stuff, was, believe it or not, a Ren and Stimpy cartoon.
In it, Ren and Stimpy are flat broke. Ren dresses up as a mouse, so Stimpy can charge for his services as a mouse catcher. The plan goes well, until the marks ask Stimpy to eat the mouse. Rather than give up the game, Stimpy puts Ren in his mouth and slowly chews. Ren tries to bear this treatment as long as he can, but he finally snaps; he pops out and yells that he is not a mouse, he is a chihuahua. (And pulls out his pedigree to prove it.)
Script Secrets
This link, ‘;
echo ‘this link, ‘;
echo ‘ and this link ‘;
?> all link to random tips from ScriptSecrets.net.
I made this random link as a writing tool. If I’m stuck on what to fix on my script, I can read a random tip, and then think of how I would write my script if I made that tip my highest priority. I think it could help force me to approach the script in a new way that will get me unstuck.
I put it on my blog, so you can use it, too, if you want.
Worst script excerpt ever
This amused the hell out of me. Continue reading