1 – The Triumphant Death of Frank Bean    Catherine R. Hardin
2 – This Modern Man is Beat                 David J Schroeder
3 – Bigger and Better                         Liz Ulin

4 – Bernie and Rebecca                     John Harris
5 – Birthday for Boris                         Billy Ray Fong
6 – Teenage Dance                         Adam Bentley
7 – And the Dead Body Makes Five             Audra Wheeler
8 – Wisdom of the Ancients                 M. Perlick
9 – The Little Death                         Colette Thomas
10 – Ice Fishing                             Anders Mickelson
11 – Re:                                     Jeffrey Aarles
12 – Last Ride of The Carver                 Eric Borden
13 – Philadelphia                         Mark Spasaro

The Yorkton Film Festival is proud to announce our 2013 Festival Nominees. Thanks to all of this year’s attendees and congratulations to all of our winners.

Special Awards

Best of Festival
Let the Daylight into the Swamp: Producer(s) Anita Lee ; Director(s) Jeffrey St.Jules ; Production Company National Film Board of Canada

Founder’s Award
Hard Light: Producer(s) Annette Clarke ; Director(s) Justin ; Production Company National Film Board of Canada

Sub-Category Awards

Ruth Shaw Award (Best of Saskatchewan)
The First Days: Producer(s) Stephen Huszar , Ryan Lockwood ; Director(s) H. Mauricio Carvajal ; Production Company Hulo Films Inc.

Best Aboriginal Award
Smoke Traders: Producer(s) Christina Fon , Catherine Bainbridge , Linda Ludwick ; Director(s) Jeff Dorn , Catherine Bainbridge ; Production Company Rezolution Pictures Inc

Emerging Filmmaker Award
Beauty Mark: Producer(s) Nimisha Mukerji , Daniel Domachowski ; Director(s) Mark Ratzlaff ; Production Company Miles Mook Productions.

Canadian Short Screenplay Competition Writers Block Crystal
The Triumphant Death of Frank Bean: Writer(s) Catherine R. Hardin.

Category Awards

Animation
Foxed!: Producer(s) James Stewart , Kennedy Zielke (Co-Producer) , Sean Harvey (Co-Producer) , Chris Pounds (Co-Producer) ; Director(s) James Stewart , Nev Bezaire (Co-Director) ; Production Company Geneva Film Co.

Children’s and Youth Production
Things You Need to Know II – Chemistry: Producer(s) Elliott Halpern (Executive Producer) , Elizabeth Trojian (Series Producer) , John Farren (Executive Producer) , Catherine Ross (Series Producer) ; Director(s) Robin Bicknell ; Production Company Yap Films Inc..

Comedy
Da Smoke Shack: Producer(s) Laura Milliken , Kaniehtiio Horn ; Director(s) Kaniehtiio Horn ; Production Company Big Soul Productions.

Community Television Production
Lamb of Love: Introductions: Producer(s) Lowell Dean ; Director(s) Lowell Dean ; Production Company Access Communications.

Digital Media
Artic Air Man of the North webisodes: Producer(s) Gabriela Schonbach , Michael Chechik , Deborah Sharpe ; Director(s) Anthony Atkins ; Production Company Omnifilm Entertainment.

Documentary Arts & Culture
The Portrait: Producer(s) Lea Marin ; Director(s) Hubert Davis ; Production Company National Film Board of Canada.

Documentary History
The Real Inglorious Bastards: Producer(s) Ed Barreveld ; Director(s) Min Sook Lee ; Production Company Storyline Entertainment.

Documentary Nature/Environment
The Ghosts In Our Machine: Producer(s) Nina Beveridge , Liz Marshall ; Director(s) Liz Marshall ; Production Company Ghosts Media Inc.

Documentary POV (Point of View)
Fight Like Soldiers Die Like Children: Producer(s) Patrick Reed , Peter Raymont ; Director(s) Patrick Reed ; Production Company White Pine Pictures.

Documentary Science/Medicine/Technology
Surviving The Teenage Brain: Producer(s) Merit Jensen Carr ; Director(s) Elise Swerhone ; Production Company Merit Motion Pictures.

Documentary Series
War Story: Producer(s) David York , Barry Stevens ; Director(s) Barry Stevens ; Production Company War Torn Productions Inc..

Documentary Social/Political
Smoke Traders: Producer(s) Christina Fon , Catherine Bainbridge , Linda Ludwick ; Director(s) Jeff Dorn , Catherine Bainbridge ; Production Company Rezolution Pictures Inc.

Drama
WILL: Producer(s) DAVID CORMICAN , ANDREW RAIHER ; Director(s) LAURENCE COHEN ; Writer (s) DAVID CAREY ; Production Company YEAR OF THE SKUNK PRODUCTIONS.

Experimental
Let the Daylight into the Swamp: Producer(s) Anita Lee ; Director(s) Jeffrey St.Jules ; Production Company National Film Board of Canada.

Lifestyle
Pitchin’ In Season 4: Producer(s) Jamie Brown , Daniel Gelfant ; Director(s) Meagan McAteer ; Production Company Frantic Films.

Multicultural
Life Under Construction Part 2: Producer(s) Geoff Leo , Paul Dederick ; Director(s) Geoff Leo ; Production Company CBC Saskatchewan.

Performing Arts & Entertainment
Love Lies Bleeding: Producer(s) Braun Farnon , Jean Merriman ; Director(s) Moze Mossanen ; Production Company White Iron Pictures Inc..

Short Subject
Today I Will Tell Her: Producer(s) Phil Carvalo ; Director(s) Jon Murray ; Production Company 999 Limbs.

Student Production
Offline: Producer(s) Ian Bawa , Markus Henkel , Benjamin Lenz ; Director(s) Ian Bawa , Benjamin Lenz ; Production Company .

Craft Awards

Best Director (Fiction)
inSAYSHAble: Producer(s) Mark Montague , Amy Matysio ; Director(s) Jeff Beesley ; Production Company Minds Eye Entertainment

Best Director (Non-Fiction)
The Portrait: Producer(s) Lea Marin ; Director(s) Hubert Davis ; Production Company National Film Board of Canada

Best Research
The Real Sherlock Holmes Researcher(s) Clara Cameron, Jennie Punter ;  Producer(s) Ed Barreveld ; Director(s) Gary Lang ; Production Company Storyline Entertainment

Bernie and Rebecca John Harris (USA)
Re: Jeffrey Aarles (Canada)
Bigger and Better Liz Ulin (Canada)
Philadelphia Mark Spasaro (Canada)
And the Dead Body Makes Five Audra Wheeler (USA)
Last Ride of The Carver Eric Borden (USA)
Wisdom of the Ancients M. Perlick (USA)
Ice Fishing Anders Mickelson (USA)
Teenage Dance Adam Bentley (Canada)
The Little Death Colette Thomas (Canada)
The Triumphant Death of Frank Bean Catherine R. Hardin (USA)
Birthday for Boris Billy Ray Fong (Canada)
This Modern Man is Beat David J Schroeder (USA)

These 13 lucky finalists will be granted full-accreditation to attend the 2013 Yorkton Film Festival in Saskatchewan, Canada, where they can attend industry panels, screenings and networking events, in addition to attending the Golden Sheaf Awards Gala, where the winner of the 2013 Canadian Short Screenplay will be announced as part of the Television Broadcast awards show May 25th, 2013.

The Yorkton Film Festival runs May 23rd – 26th, 2013 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan. For more festival information, you can visit the home of the Golden Sheafs.

Jack    Kevin Fitzpatrick
Bernie and Rebecca    John Harris
Shiva    Christian Bengtson
Edit Facility    Philip T Brewster
Match Made in Heaven    Dongwon Kang

Re:    Jeffrey Aarles
Whistle in the Woods    Edward Nieh
Half Rest    Caroline Legault-Forest
Bigger and Better    Liz Ulin
Ritual    Bruno Verdoni

Death of a Snowman    Zach Cannon
Philadelphia    Mark Spasaro
And the Dead Body Makes Five    Audra Wheeler
Last Ride of The Carver    Eric Borden
Wisdom of the Ancients    M. Perlick

Ice Fishing    Anders Mickelson
Teenage Dance    Adam Bentley
The Little Death    Colette Thomas
The Triumphant Death of Frank Bean    Catherine R. Hardin
Birthday for Boris    Billy Ray Fong

When Freddy Met Fred Being Freddy    Philip Hay
Aborted Exit Thomas Tan
Extra Baggage E.B. Sam
The Modern Man is Beat    David J Schroeder
CiviliTEA Joey & Amber Kent

Tell-All Companion    Robert McElheron
The Modern Man is Beat    David J Schroeder
Tomorrow and Tomorrow    Nathan Boucher
Interrogator    Pierre Langenegger
Vampire Problems    David Healey
The Renovation    Brian Hugh O’Neill
Adrift    Stuart Creque
Safe    Simeon Courtie
Body Of Knowledge    Philip T Brewster
Disabled Parking    Alon Bar
Jack    Kevin Fitzpatrick
Extra Baggage    E.B. Sam
When Freddy Met Fred Being Freddy    Philip Hay
Buzz Off    Lizbeth Malkmus
Nadia    Kersti Steinwald
Aborted Exit    Thomas Tan
Cagey    J. J. Hillard
In Transit    Edward Nieh
Recovery    Dan Boomgarden
Made for Each Other    Dong Won Kang

Bernie and Rebecca    John Harris
Jack    John Ray Gutierrez
Heroin Garden    Devin Bateson
CiviliTEA    Joey & Amber Kent
Twelve Full Moons    Eric Borden
You’re A Good Guy, Eli    Cornelius Murphy
One Lucky Guy    JoAnn Bertana & Gail Bertana
Will    Serge Kushnier
Greed    Brad Himour
Golden    Kjell Kvanbeck

Mute    Cody Britton
Shiva    Christian Bengtson
Edit Facility    Philip T Brewster
Match Made in Heaven    Dongwon Kang
Re:    Jeffrey Aarles
Snow Globe    Paula V. Muldoon
Whistle in the Woods    Edward Nieh
Half Rest    Caroline Legault-Forest
Bigger and Better    Liz Ulin
Ritual    Bruno Verdoni
Death of a Snowman    Zach Cannon
Philadelphia    Mark Spasaro
And the Dead Body Makes Five    Audra Wheeler
Last Ride of The Carver    Eric Borden
Wisdom of the Ancients    M. Perlick
Ice Fishing    Anders Mickelson
Teenage Dance    Adam Bentley
The Little Death    Colette Thomas
The Triumphant Death of Frank Bean    Catherine R. Hardin
Birthday for Boris    Billy Ray Fong

“Are we feeling limber yet?” – not a quote from Roger Corman’s Pit and the Pendulum

Before I go any further with this post, I would like to acknowledge that my fifth grade history teacher showed the film pictured above – Roger Corman’s Pit and the Pendulum – to our class. I’d like to think it somehow tied in with a unit on the Spanish Inquisition. The guy had been teaching at the school for years and clearly had tenure, so I don’t think he really gave a shit whether or not showing a Corman film to a classroom of fifth graders had any (historical) educational value (Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t).

He had a reputation for being terribly boring (he was) and falling asleep in the back of the computer lab (he did), but in retrospect, I applaud his brazen decision to play the Corman film. Kudos sir.

Anyway, unfortunately, Corman and Edgar Allan Poe don’t really have the slightest to do with this week’s post. I wanted a picture still from a movie of someone getting stretched out on a torture rack, and sure enough, I got sucked into the black hole that is any Google Image search. The point was supposed to be “stretching,” so hold your breath folks, here comes another running analogy.

I hate to always bring back my equating of running and writing, but given that these are the two activities I pursue out of borderline-obsessive habit, it’s only natural for me to do so. However diligent I may be with regard to running (nearly) every day, ever since I stopped running competitively (high school), I’ve been terribly about stretching, before or after a run. In the balmy summer months, that’s less of an issue. But in the brittle winter months, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little stiff. Usually I’m too tired to think on it for very long, but it takes me about a mile before I’ve adjusted the pace and motion I’m accustomed to.

Writing is not so different with respect to the idea of “stretching.” If you can come home after a long day (and/or evening or night) of work, and jump right into a draft, then hats off to you, you’re a freak… and I sincerely do mean that as a compliment. Most of us need time to decompress, or to amp our minds up, to get free and limber.

Ask any of my close friends, whether they’re writers or not, and they’ll tell you that the term “writer’s block” sets me off on a tirade, foaming at the mouth. There is so such thing as writer’s block. We all get stuck. Any project in any form – short, feature, play, prose, whatever – will present difficulties, whether you’re in the nitty gritty of writing a draft or just in the outlining or note-taking stage. This is inevitable, and again I will reiterate, we all get stuck.

The question is, what do you do when you get stuck? You have plenty of options. Anytime I’ve thrown in the towel, I know I’ve kidded myself by thinking that by reading or watching a film instead, I was somehow being productive. And of course there are worse things you could do when you get stuck (see F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc.). But one of the worst, in my book, is ascribing this moment of being stuck to a larger paralysis of the mind, i.e. writer’s block.

Lately, I’ve made a point of beginning every writing session with a bout of free-writing. I crank up the stereo (lately favoring the new My Bloody Valentine album as my go-to) and let fly the thoughts until I feel the bout leave me completely. It’s a wonderful tool for those stuck moments, you’d be shocked what nuggets you find buried in the troves of stream-of-conscious dribble. Even better, it’s a great way to stretch out the mind before diving into the material at hand.

–

Extrapolating on the idea of writing exercises, I’ve taken the exercises a step further, applying them to the rewriting of a feature film script. Without going on to much, it’s a work I’m co-writing, and after draft two, we’re at a play where we’re pulling together ideas for the next re-write.

While drafting up notes, I started to outline a few things that would be considered off-page – in other words, elements that are instrumental for the writers to better understand the characters and their motivations, but the sort of details that will probably never make it into the actual script. So far, I’ve written two brief prose pieces for two different characters; short illustrative narratives about their backgrounds.

By doing so, I think I at least helped to better define the world (and its history) in which the characters appear. I’m cheating, I’ll admit, in that we all agreed to sort of step back from the script for the week, which in obeying to the letter of the law, I’d say I have.

Even when you stray away from a writing piece – whether by choice or by feeling cornered in one of those stuck moments – there are ways to re-enter from a new angle. These short narrative pieces came from my free writing, and they add new dimensions to the story I never would have thought about.

To revisit the running metaphor, in training, the analogous scenario could be “tapering” before a race. Before a meet, usually late in a season, a runner cannot afford to be exhausted going into a race. Conversely, a runner certainly cannot afford to stop running altogether either – this would be far more detrimental.

The answer is to taper, or ease off the training a bit, while still continuing to run. I’m not suggesting a perfect analogy, because I don’t think it’s particularly beneficial for any writer to write less. But you can ease off a particular piece without ceasing to write. There are just as many outlets for writing as there are excuses not to write, to be blunt about it.

Is it the power of love or self-delusion propelling Robert Cole (Albert Brooks)?

“You ever heard of a no-win situation?… You know, Vietnam, this.” – Albert Brooks (Modern Romance, from the opening break-up scene depicted above).

Piggybacking off of last week’s post on Blue Collar, I decided to go with another “How did they ever get this made/They’d never make this today” pick. This past Sunday, I caught a screening of Albert Brooks’ Modern Romance (1981), a delightfully cynical spin on the boilerplate love-conquers-all Hollywood comedy.

With little context provided (or needed), Brooks opens the film cold, leading into a break-up between Hollywood film editor Robert Cole (Brooks) and Fidelity banker Mary Harvard (Kathryn Harold). Cole’s equating of their relationship to the not-so-distant-then Vietnam War is, of course, hilariously overblown. The comparison is completely incongruous and, it would seem, unwarranted. But as Cole’s borderline psychotic behavior unfolds in the self-inflicted fallout – he instigates the break-up – the casual reference to Vietnam hints at a fitting (if still comically over-the-top) analogy: As the atrocities of Vietnam redefined the concept of war for the American public, the insanities in Cole’s admissions of “love” in Modern Romance re-contextualize the idea of courtship for the moviegoers.

Two large contributing factors shape Robert Cole as a character, and both are significant and not at all incidental. First, Cole’s occupation as a film editor. At one point, Mary suggests that Cole has gone through so many blips of Hollywood’s idealized (read: perverted) notions of romantic love, he can’t help but try (and fail) to apply these misguided notions to real life. There’s absolutely something to Mary’s suggestion, but it goes beyond that. Cole is an editor, and by nature, he obsessives over perfection. Whether or not Cole agrees with David, his hack director (played spot-on by James L. Brooks), the two men share a heightened sense for details. Cole doesn’t see the need for tweaking George Kennedy’s footsteps in post-production – the laughably bad space picture has so many apparent issues beyond the minute, fine cuts, what could the difference in footsteps make?

The irony, though, is Cole’s inability to apply this balance of detail v. larger picture to his relationship. He rationalizes every last bit of crazy behavior under the banner of his professed “love” – I use quotation marks, because Brooks depicts this “love” as an outgrowth of Cole’s ego and neuroses.

Which brings me back on track to the second aforementioned factor contributing to the development of Robert Cole: Brooks’ experience drawn from his work on the Taxi Driver set.* Cole quickly reveals himself to be something not so horribly far off from Taxi Driver‘s Travis Bickle. Though far more verbose than Bickle, Cole is no less disturbed in his thought process. His tendency hinges more toward mania, Bickle’s closer to depression.

–

*Brooks has a relatively small role in Taxi Driver, but has spoken in interviews about hanging around set, soaking up whatever he could from Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Chapman.

A rare moment of unity – albeit one of collective despair – in Paul and Leonard Schrader’s Blue Collar

This past Sunday, I cut into my designated writing time with the very noble cause of venturing out into the melting Brooklyn streets to catch Paul Schrader’s directorial debut, Blue Collar, as part of the current Richard Pryor retrospective at BAM Cinemas.

Getting to see the film at all (it doesn’t seem to be available on Netflix), in an excellent-looking archival 35mm print no less, was an incredible treat. Almost exactly four years ago, I read Patton Oswalt’s appreciation of the film for Ain’t It Cool News, and I’ve been hankering to see it ever since. After having seen Oswalt’s performance in Big Fan, it comes as no real surprise the actor/comedian holds Blue Collar in such high regard*.

As I was watching Blue Collar, I was immediately struck, as I am by the best of Schrader’s work, at the enviable dialogue. Schrader (along with his brother, co-writer Leonard) has such an incredible ear for the variety of working class dialects. Even up against (Paul) Schrader’s more widely-recognized scripts (I’m thinking specifically of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull), Blue Collar seems to me his most focused, his least showy.

There’s an air of anger hanging over the entire production – the visible Detroit smog appears to shrink the frame, closing in on the assembly line workers. Anger sings through, from the opening theme song, Captain Beefheart growling over the sampled factory sounds, guitars and metal plates, smashing together.

I’d hate to point fingers, but I remember a certain recent best picture winner that happens to share a name with a David Cronenberg film (and J.G. Ballard novel of the same name), that had an awkwardly stated thesis that went something like this:

“It’s the sense of touch… Any real city, you walk, you’re bumped, brush past people. In LA, no one touches you…. We’re always behind metal and glass. Think we miss that touch so much, we crash into each other just to feel something.”

Now, I’ve promised myself numerous times I wouldn’t waste time (and my blood pressure) going off on the film to which the above quote belongs (it’s Crash, if you haven’t figured that one out yet). But, in retrospect, more than the preachy, cloying script or the film’s terribly… hm, let’s say… over-simplified ideas on race relations, what bothers me most about Crash is that it’s all polite outrage and zero anger.

Blue Collar is anything but polite. The film starts out ugly and ends up a whole lot uglier. The angry energy is infectious, starting at the script level and exploding onto the screen, much thanks to a knockout performance from Richard Pryor.

Though the soundtrack largely favors the blues, I’ve been thinking of the film’s rhythms in terms of jazz. This probably has less to do with the film and more to do with the fact I can’t stop playing the Miles Davis Live in Europe 1969 set. Try and stick with me though, because I think it’s relevant.

By the end of 1968, moving into 1969, Davis and his Second Quintet (and the “Lost Quintet” featured on the 1969 set) were exploring new musical territory, experimenting with free jazz. My knowledge of jazz – despite a college internship with JazzTimes – is, unfortunately, limited. However I know what I like, and I believe my enjoyment for free jazz is not unlike my tolerance for noise rock. I can appreciate the free jazz or the noise only based on what comes before and after these stretches – the richness comes from the juxtaposition.

That’s what I see as the greatest success of the rhythms of Blue Collar – the quieter stretches are devastating in juxtaposition to the louder, angrier whole. Pyror’s performance is bottled lightening, but the actor’s finest moment comes in a lull.

After an orgiastic night of partying, Pyror, Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto’s characters sit back in the aftershock of their excesses. Pyror covers his face, groaning in the cocaine come down as reaches a defining moment of clarity:

Sometimes I get so depressed. I start thinking about the shit I promised Carolyn and shit I ain’t never going to be able to do. And I know, a man is supposed to take care of his family… I never was good with money, man. I just fuckin’… always broke man. I just can’t fuckin’ get the knack of that shit. God knows I try to be…

Taken at face value, the prose isn’t nearly as grand as Travis Bickle’s “I am God’s lonely man” or Jake LaMotta’s recycling of On The Waterfront or his opening, rhyming monologue (“Give me a stage, where this bull here can rage”). It’s simpler, more honest and completely despairing. Pryor nails the read, a mix of self-realization and self-loathing.

His quiet is chilling, and more so than the explosive ending, it’s the bit that’s sticking with me.

–

*I can only assume Big Fan writer/director Robert D. Siegel has similar feelings for Blue Collar.

Art Hindle stars as the pious and chummy, Elijah

The Canadian Short Screenplay Competition winner, ELIJAH THE PROPHET, to premiere at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO, ON – The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival recently announced their screening line-up, including the Worldwide premiere of Producer David Cormican’s and Director James Cooper’s KickStarter financed short film, ‘Elijah the Prophet‘.

The film, penned by brothers Zachary and Jesse Herrmann of Brooklyn, New York, beat out over 500 other Worldwide entries to take the grand prize for the 2010/11 Canadian Short Screenplay Competition, and was financed by over 130 backers using the crowd-funding platform, Kickstarter.

‘Elijah the Prophet’ tells the comedic tale of Elijah, pious, chummy and increasingly inebriated, who after gracing one too many Passover seders with his good-humored antics, gets in trouble with the law.

“The script uses the Jewish tradition of Passover to tell a story of lost innocence and the harsh realities of growing up. It does so with a hilarious, irreverent twist that gives it universal appeal,” says Producer David Cormican. “It’s the moment when every kid realizes Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy or even the Easter Bunny aren’t real. That’s what drew me to this story”.

The cast includes Gemini nominee Art Hindle (The Brood, Invasion of the Body Snatchers) in the title role as Elijah the Prophet. Melanie Nicholls-King (Rookie Blue, The Wire) and two-time Emmy Award nominee Tonya Lee Williams (Young & The Restless, Poor Boy’s Game, She’s The Mayor) play Officer Murphy and Cst. Jackie, respectively. Gemini nominated funny man, Carlos Diaz (Rent-a-Goalie, Cra$h & Burn), lends his comedic chops to the short film playing Brian Levy, while longtime industry veteran Howard Jerome plays patriarch David Goldberg.
Behind the lens, crew included Genie and Gemini nominee, Director of Photography Alwyn Kumst (Degrassi: The Next Generation, LA Complex), and Andrew Raiher (The Oranges, Rescue Dawn) as Composer.

“You really couldn’t ask for a more appropriate showcase for the film”, says Director James Cooper. “Jewish communities have really embraced the film and its tongue-in-cheek nature. We couldn’t be happier.”

Elijah the Prophet premieres Sunday February 17^th, 2013 at 11:40am and screens again, Wednesday February 20^th, 2013 at 2:45pm as part of the Twenty Two day Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, the second largest Jewish film festival in North America.

For more information on Elijah the Prophet, visit

http://www.IBelieveInElijah.com

For more information on the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival, visit

http://www.ajff.org

###

About The Canadian Short Screenplay Competition (CSSC)

The Canadian Short Screenplay Competition, administered by Year of the Skunk Productions, and established in 2008, is the premiere script contest for short film screenplays. CSSC is the single-most competitive, prestigious, short screenplay festival in Canada, winner of the 2010 Canadian Weblog Award for Literature and Writing, a champion for screenwriters everywhere and a launching pad for writers’ professional careers.

“Coming up with bogus loglines is the least dangerous game of all.”

Let’s have some fun.

One of my favorite classes in college was my first semester freshman year Intro to Poetry workshop. Lucky duck that I was*, I had placed out of the heinous English 101 requirement, and therefore, was free to take en elective instead.

My time in that class (and outside, reading and writing) has definitely aided me in screenwriting. Shaping the action of a screenplay or an exchange of dialogue is not unlike crafting a stanza, watching the interaction from line to line, transition to transition. Just as the cinematographers can learn a great deal from the painter, the screenwriter can learn from the poet.

Some of the best lessons I took from that poetry class weren’t even contained within the poems, or for that matter, the writing of my poems. Our teacher had us do a lot of free writing exercises. My favorite prompts were the guided writing exercises.

For example, a starting phrase: “Black cherry.” Each writer had to begin his or her poem with the prompted phrase. There was a time limit (five or ten minutes maybe?), and then time to share. It’s the sort of game (or exercise, if you prefer) I wish I did more often in relation to my screenwriting. Ideas don’t materialize out of nothing. Our best stories and plots, at least in theory, emanate from desires, concerns, preoccupations, obsessions, dreams, etc. Sometimes all you need is the entry point, which is exactly the sort of opening you hope to gain from juggling around your free-written ideas.

*I owe this “luck” entirely to my high school English curriculum and its wonderful teachers, who tore me down and built me up to be the writer I am today. No joke, I took my English composition education for granted until I went away to college and saw how privileged I had been.

–

On an especially torturous round-trip on the subway, my brother taught me a game. And it’s a great one. Come up with a screenplay title, and then, let your collaborator work backwards and come out with the (extended) logline.

Once Around the Block

Up, Down or Weird?

Chrysanthemum Rex

Groping for Grayson

The Man from Sicklerville

Yes, some of these titles are awful and the movies we dreamed up were even worse. I refuse to give you any of the loglines, because let’s be honest, it’s much more interesting to imagine your own. We played the game for a while (there were quite a few delays going downtown), but at least one or two of the ideas we joked about could be further developed, if not into full blown features, then certainly into short film scripts.

I had someone ask me recently what I thought was my greatest strength as a writer – dialogue? Action? Scene description? Since that conversation, I’ve had more than plenty of time to come up with a well-reasoned answer… and, well, I still don’t have one. I do, however, know which part of the writing process gives me the most joy.

It’s the brainstorming, the kicking around of ideas until, there’s a shred. Then the shred becomes a character, or an inciting incident and, after months or years of work, the whole thing snowballs into the larger story. And to be honest, I’m not sure how much actual enjoyment I have by the time the “final” product sits on my desktop.**

The hashing-out process (we can agree “spit-balling” is sort of gross sounding) is the fun and games, and I’ve found the inverse to be true as well.

** Stray observation – when I wrote the word “desktop,” I definitely intended the word as a reference to saving the digital script file to my computer. Now that I go back over the word, I realize that when I do print out a script – especially a feature-length – the sense of accomplishment is far greater than when I simply export a .pdf file from Final Draft or Celtx. Obviously, that’s a lot of paper, so I try not to make a point of printing out a 95 – 120 page script to often.