Act 1: You get your hero up a tree.
Act 2: You throw rocks at him.
Act 3: You get him down from the tree.
According to Aristotle and William C. Martell, that is. Overly simplified to make the point but valid nonetheless.
Act 1: Sets up your conflict.
Act 2: Is the conflict.
Act 3: Resolves the conflict.
This guy really needs a web designer.
Popularity: 3% [?]
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about time lately. How to manage it. How to get the most out of it. We’ve all been there. You set aside a portion of the day to do something like work on a screenplay the next thing you are playing Asteroids for 6 hours. It is the procrastinator’s game of choice after all. I got a little inspiration from this podcast I’ve recently gravitated towards called Media Artist Secrets. I highly recommend it just for some encouraging thoughts on how to stay focused and redirect your energy. It planted some seeds.
Around 5 months ago, a friend recommended a writing workshop that sounded promising. It’s 3 months for a modest amount of money and is taught by a screenwriting professor for the New York University Graduate Program. I didn’t take it at that time because I wasn’t ready. I wasn’t ready to share my broken screenplay with a classroom of strangers. Childish right? I was trying to gather my thoughts on rewriting this old screenplay, Where Are You Seventeen? and put it into a new outline. After a new screenwriter contact I met at the Tribeca Film Festival read it and gave me notes I was on fire. I just wanted to crawl into my lab and go to work and I did. I made a lot of progress. The outline is there. That was 2 months ago. “And the number one excuse for not finishing what you started….I got busy!!!” I haven’t done any “writing” since. So now I think I’m ready. Maybe it’s what I need? Feedback is always a good thing. The first class is September 14th so I will have to decide soon.
You know, get busy living or, well, you know.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Yes, add my name to the list of people who are pushing Josh Friedman’s blog, I Find Your Lack Of Faith Disturbing. Acerbic wit with a dash of Hollywood cynicism. Right up my alley….and probably yours.
Popularity: 3% [?]
It seemed that every where I turned I saw Victor Argo. Every film that had that New York feel to it, he was in. I don’t mean the glossed-out, dream factory version of “New Yawk”. I mean the sweltering dog days of summer New York. The bitter black ice days of winter New York. The before and after that beautiful but life altering day in September New York. The subway during the morning rush. The borough streets at the midnight hour. Woody’s New York. Marty’s New York. Spike’s New York. Jim’s New York. Abel’s New York. He was a staple of the film scene here and he knew it. “I am New York!!” is what he announced like a battle cry to an audience who just saw the 2003 Tribeca Film Festival screening of the Art Jones film, Lustre. I attended that screening and saw what seemed to be a fitting tribute to not only one of the great character actors but to a city still healing itself. Victor Argo passed away not to long after that screening. How fitting for a regular guy from the Bronx to finally get that lead role he so deserved as a final curtain call.
Lustre opens today in Manhattan.
The New York Times does a review of the film.
Popularity: 3% [?]
I came across this online reel of a very talented DP living and working in NYC. I don’t have any affiliation with Noah David Smith but I have no problem getting the word out when I see a talented individual’s work. He uses a lot of natural tones and really has a command of lighting in both commercial and narrative environments. Check out his online reel at his name linked above.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Cinamatical provides a top ten list for theaters in the U.S. that are doing it right. It’s based on an Entertainment Weekly article that reports some of the more viewer friendly houses. Need some creative inspiration? Go see a screening of Bertolucci’s masterpiece The Conformist at New York’s Film Forum which came in at number 5 on the list.
Popularity: 5% [?]
I decided to branch off with another web log dedicated to just editing. Topics dealing with Final Cut Pro workflow and supporting applications will be discussed here. Feel free to browse and contribute.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Film Threat recently reviewed my short film, The Face of the Earth. It was a fair evaluation of my efforts. The following is a response to the review from Doug Brunell.
Spoiler Warning: Some of the following eludes to the content of the film. It can be downloaded for viewing on the sidebar.
I suggest you see the film if you haven’t already, read the review and then come back here for the response or just go back to what you were doing before you came here.
Doug,
I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to review my short film, “The Face of the Earth”. I thought it was an honest review and probably one of the more thought provoking opinions of my film I’ve heard. Everything you said about the film has been said before and here is why; it’s true, there is an incompleteness to it and that is because it is incomplete. As you probably know filmmaking is one of the more brutal tasks that someone can take on. I found this particularly so first hand with my film. I wore many hats just to get it made and micromanaged everything to make sure all my bases were covered. Even with my herculean efforts it was not enough. From the film you saw, I’d say about a quarter of the script I wrote for it was never shot. So when you say you are looking for more characterization, that’s where your characterization is, still on those pages. I’m not one to disclose this information before viewing the film because I believe a film should be judged for what it is and not what it isn’t. Maybe this sheds some light on the flawed nature of the film you spoke of. In the scripts entirety I never tried to explain the “why” but I did go into who these guys were and what possibly led them to this place.
Thanks for the kind words about a bright future. I learned so much on that film I believe my next efforts will hopefully live up to your expectations.
Best,
william speruzzi
prodigalsonproductions
william@prodigalsonproductions.com
http://prodigalsonproductions.blogspot.com/
William,
Thanks for your letter. It was so nice not to get a death threat for once.
One of the more painful things is watching a movie you know can be excellent but due to various restraints, falls a bit short of the goal. I truly think you are writer/director to keep an eye on, and I feel that you will only get better with each and every project.
You know, one of the major complaints I have about filmmaking in this country is that filmmakers — true artists (not the Hollywood entertainers) are given zero respect. From an artistic standpoint, that can just totally deflate one’s will to even attempt to make a film, but there is a bigger problem there, too. This lack of respect also equals lack of money, lack of time, and lack of skilled help. If you aren’t making “Bad Boys 3,” you aren’t making anything worth watching. So what happens? Independent films suffer. Now some deserve to suffer. I’ve seen more than my share of utter failures that had nothing to do with how American society treats films. But a good percentage of the indie films out there suffer solely because of majority attitudes toward them.
If you had more time, money and help, you could have perhaps got your entire vision on the screen. As it stands, you had to compromise. The entire reason I think you are one to watch is because you knew what you could compromise in order to make the film work. That can’t be said for many people.
Thanks for making the film, and keep doing what you do. It’ll pay off someday … hopefully. -Doug
Read my column, “Excess Hollywood,” at: Film Threat
Popularity: 3% [?]
When I'm not hiding in my cave as I am known to do I can be found wandering the streets of Brooklyn mumbling to myself. Read more about William Speruzzi.
RSS
