"From The Inside Out" continues apace - the first draft of the first act is done, and I'm now going back over what I've written so far - I initially added a bit more to the end of act one, then headed back to the start where I added a whole page to the opening scene, which I thought needed more meat from the off.
At this very moment it's at 22 pages, so it's a much leaner script than my last one - the zombie epic called "The End" - but I was always planning to make this latest script far leaner, especially as it's designed for a low budget (like I've spoken about previously) - at least, that's the intention.
I'll probably slow down for a spell though, as I've got educational DVD stuff to be getting on with, but aye - the script is going well so far.
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Script writing a-go-go!
Well, my second sit-down on the script for "From The Inside Out" was equally plodding as the first - from 2 pages to 4 - it's always hard getting into something new you're writing, I always found that when writing essays throughout my education.
But last night, my third sit down with it, was quite a good session. It's now deep into page 10, and the plot is bounding along at quite a pace - something I'll seek to slow down and develop a bit more when I re-draft each act as I go along.
I'm starting to get into the swing of writing again, after having not written anything since finishing "The End" on New Years Eve. So aye - it's starting to pick up now - I'm looking forward to seeing how it all turns out in the end, how it all fleshes out from my two page run-down I scribbled out recently before I started.
But last night, my third sit down with it, was quite a good session. It's now deep into page 10, and the plot is bounding along at quite a pace - something I'll seek to slow down and develop a bit more when I re-draft each act as I go along.
I'm starting to get into the swing of writing again, after having not written anything since finishing "The End" on New Years Eve. So aye - it's starting to pick up now - I'm looking forward to seeing how it all turns out in the end, how it all fleshes out from my two page run-down I scribbled out recently before I started.
Monday, 23 March 2009
A new script on the go...
Remember that "horror script" I was on about doing before I ended up writing "The End"?
Well, I finally started it last night - again, like with "The End", starting it is always a slow process, and you find yourself not writing that much on the first session, but still - two pages done and the opening scene is there in it's first version.
It's called "From The Inside Out", and it's designed to be a low budget horror - i.e. it could be filmed on a low budget (although a budge that, to me, is high budget). Perhaps a budget in the realms of somewhere between Mum & Dad, and Hush.
Then perhaps I'll go back to my "graduate comedy" script "Generation Procrastination" and go through all the dialogue again (it's a dialogue heavy piece) to punch it all up now that it's about 18 months since I wrote it.
But first though - do "From The Inside Out".
Well, I finally started it last night - again, like with "The End", starting it is always a slow process, and you find yourself not writing that much on the first session, but still - two pages done and the opening scene is there in it's first version.
It's called "From The Inside Out", and it's designed to be a low budget horror - i.e. it could be filmed on a low budget (although a budge that, to me, is high budget). Perhaps a budget in the realms of somewhere between Mum & Dad, and Hush.
Then perhaps I'll go back to my "graduate comedy" script "Generation Procrastination" and go through all the dialogue again (it's a dialogue heavy piece) to punch it all up now that it's about 18 months since I wrote it.
But first though - do "From The Inside Out".
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Gran Torino...
What's to say really? Clint's an absolute legend (The Good, The Bad & The Ugly is in my Top 10 of All Time), and this is quite possibly going to be his last on-screen performance - and a blinder of a final bow it is too. Not only is it a case of superb acting, but he manages to make an unreformed, emotionally disconnected, casual racist a hero you can cheer for, and it's a master class is grimacing/scowling/growling.
In fact at times, the film becomes quite funny - the stunningly creative and endless procession of casual slurs Clint's character reels off are chuckle-inducing. Not to the extent of agreement (far from it), but it's just the sheer conviction and most of all, the delivery. One particular rapid-fire slur-laden rant had the audience chortling in shock - again, nobody was agreeing with such sentiments, it was the delivery and the 'creativity' of the insults that were slung which left a large impression, and the audience wide-eyed.
But this is glossing over the gripping plot, the gripping clash of cultures, and the over all joy of seeing Clint tearing up the screen with his sheer power - like I said before, the dude's a total legend. This all said, it's certainly not an action fest (nor was it intended to be), but when Clint's aiming his M1 Garand at a gang-banger and growling at him to "get off my lawn", you can't help but grin like a child in a sweet shop. Legend. He's what, 78 now? But I'm damn sure he could kick my ass, and many other asses to boot - he just exudes sheer, raw power. A real man from a time when men were proper men ... there's not a lot of that these days, but we'll at least have his cinematic legacy as something for men the world over to idolise and even aspire to.
Ultimately, the film is a bittersweet journey (as headed-up earlier in the film when death is summed up as a bittersweet event) - and indeed, this is what you feel come the end credits. You get the bitter, but you also get the sweet - and it's a long-lasting impression.
If this is indeed Clint's last on-screen outing, he certainly went out on top.
In fact at times, the film becomes quite funny - the stunningly creative and endless procession of casual slurs Clint's character reels off are chuckle-inducing. Not to the extent of agreement (far from it), but it's just the sheer conviction and most of all, the delivery. One particular rapid-fire slur-laden rant had the audience chortling in shock - again, nobody was agreeing with such sentiments, it was the delivery and the 'creativity' of the insults that were slung which left a large impression, and the audience wide-eyed.
But this is glossing over the gripping plot, the gripping clash of cultures, and the over all joy of seeing Clint tearing up the screen with his sheer power - like I said before, the dude's a total legend. This all said, it's certainly not an action fest (nor was it intended to be), but when Clint's aiming his M1 Garand at a gang-banger and growling at him to "get off my lawn", you can't help but grin like a child in a sweet shop. Legend. He's what, 78 now? But I'm damn sure he could kick my ass, and many other asses to boot - he just exudes sheer, raw power. A real man from a time when men were proper men ... there's not a lot of that these days, but we'll at least have his cinematic legacy as something for men the world over to idolise and even aspire to.
Ultimately, the film is a bittersweet journey (as headed-up earlier in the film when death is summed up as a bittersweet event) - and indeed, this is what you feel come the end credits. You get the bitter, but you also get the sweet - and it's a long-lasting impression.
If this is indeed Clint's last on-screen outing, he certainly went out on top.
Friday, 13 March 2009
The Day The Earth Stood Still 2008...
Aye, a bit behind on this one - but it's not exactly like it's worth rushing to see. Far from it - just "worth a watch", especially as I've recently seen the original 50's version ... unsurprisingly, it's a case of the original movie "for the win".
The remake starts fairly promising, with a thankfully quite faithful update of Gort - but it all quickly goes downhill once Klaatu Reeves legs it with micro-biologist woman and her snotty-little-know-it-all-gets-in-the-way-snide-bastard step-son tagging along for the ride, which is basically staggering from one place to another evading the authorities.
There doesn't feel like there's any real purpose in their farting around, it all seems to be set up to stall for time so that Klaatu Reeves can learn that mankind is worth saving by using micro-biology woman and her shitty little step-son as unintentional ambassadors for human kind.
If I was Klaatu, I'd have bitch-slapped that snotty little kid for being a gigantic, arrogant pain in the arse - why is it, that kids in movies and TV, often end up being such know-it-all shits that just fuck everybody's day up? You'd have also thought that micro-biologist woman would have explained to her snotty little WoW-playing step-brat that his KIA father was a military engineer, not some arse-kicking GI Joe knock-off ... i.e. kid, you shouldn't demand that mankind destroy an alien visitor "just in case" - a complete 180 from the original movie, which had a kid with some intelligence and faith ... even if his relationship with Klaatu was damn-near paedo-like in this day-and-age of 'paedo's are everywhere!' fear.
Bung in a toothless role for Kathy 'bust an ankle or two' Bates, and a shoe-horned-in appearance by John Cleese as "the professor" - a character who is introduced so poorly you wonder if they lopped out five minutes of "why the fuck are you, Mr Matrix, erasing all my very complicated equations from my chalk board? ... oh you're an alien? ... and this is the answer to my questions? oh okay then" - none of that, and then step-brat goes and thoroughly fucks up everyone's day ... and you've got a rather luke warm hodge-podge soup.
Strange that it's only after Klaatu senselessly slaughters two helicopters, pilots-and-all, that step-shit realises "hey, this Klaatu guy isn't bad" ... indeed, what an utter little bastard.
Then Gort is chucked out the window in favour of that crap you saw in the trailer of trucks and baseball fields getting rinsed by grey clouds, and mankind gets handed the shittiest ending of all.
**SPOILER START**
We'll let you live and develop your way of life, but we're gonna royally screw up your technological advances, industry, incredibly important scientific research, and economy by somehow disabling all power - WHAT. THE. FUCK?!
Then the movie just cuts out ... seriously, what the crap was that turd-pile?!
**SPOILER END**
So aye - decent start, but then it all turns into a mush of nonsense and running around (script before plot, not plot before script, unfortunately), and it ends on a completely rubbish note ... without enough Gort, nor some of the most famous words in cinematic history - Klaatu, Birata, Niktoo - WHY REMAKE A GREAT FILM AND THEN NOT USE THOSE WORDS?!
See - visually flash, utter nonsense.
The remake starts fairly promising, with a thankfully quite faithful update of Gort - but it all quickly goes downhill once Klaatu Reeves legs it with micro-biologist woman and her snotty-little-know-it-all-gets-in-the-way-snide-bastard step-son tagging along for the ride, which is basically staggering from one place to another evading the authorities.
There doesn't feel like there's any real purpose in their farting around, it all seems to be set up to stall for time so that Klaatu Reeves can learn that mankind is worth saving by using micro-biology woman and her shitty little step-son as unintentional ambassadors for human kind.
If I was Klaatu, I'd have bitch-slapped that snotty little kid for being a gigantic, arrogant pain in the arse - why is it, that kids in movies and TV, often end up being such know-it-all shits that just fuck everybody's day up? You'd have also thought that micro-biologist woman would have explained to her snotty little WoW-playing step-brat that his KIA father was a military engineer, not some arse-kicking GI Joe knock-off ... i.e. kid, you shouldn't demand that mankind destroy an alien visitor "just in case" - a complete 180 from the original movie, which had a kid with some intelligence and faith ... even if his relationship with Klaatu was damn-near paedo-like in this day-and-age of 'paedo's are everywhere!' fear.
Bung in a toothless role for Kathy 'bust an ankle or two' Bates, and a shoe-horned-in appearance by John Cleese as "the professor" - a character who is introduced so poorly you wonder if they lopped out five minutes of "why the fuck are you, Mr Matrix, erasing all my very complicated equations from my chalk board? ... oh you're an alien? ... and this is the answer to my questions? oh okay then" - none of that, and then step-brat goes and thoroughly fucks up everyone's day ... and you've got a rather luke warm hodge-podge soup.
Strange that it's only after Klaatu senselessly slaughters two helicopters, pilots-and-all, that step-shit realises "hey, this Klaatu guy isn't bad" ... indeed, what an utter little bastard.
Then Gort is chucked out the window in favour of that crap you saw in the trailer of trucks and baseball fields getting rinsed by grey clouds, and mankind gets handed the shittiest ending of all.
**SPOILER START**
We'll let you live and develop your way of life, but we're gonna royally screw up your technological advances, industry, incredibly important scientific research, and economy by somehow disabling all power - WHAT. THE. FUCK?!
Then the movie just cuts out ... seriously, what the crap was that turd-pile?!
**SPOILER END**
So aye - decent start, but then it all turns into a mush of nonsense and running around (script before plot, not plot before script, unfortunately), and it ends on a completely rubbish note ... without enough Gort, nor some of the most famous words in cinematic history - Klaatu, Birata, Niktoo - WHY REMAKE A GREAT FILM AND THEN NOT USE THOSE WORDS?!
See - visually flash, utter nonsense.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Sex & Ethics DVD...
As I've blogged about a bit on here before, last year I shot & edited an educational DVD called Sex & Ethics, which is now available to schools via www.ethicsonline.co.uk (linked to over on the right hand side).
Anyway - I just noticed a bit of feedback about the DVD, which I thought I'd share here too:
Anyway - I just noticed a bit of feedback about the DVD, which I thought I'd share here too:
"Sex and Ethics DVD is a tremendous resource that students will find educational and engaging. Each ethical theory is presented clearly with an appealing visual interpretation and is followed by well informed, wide ranging and thought provoking student discussions. This is an invaluable resource that will help teachers help students write detailed, accurate and evaluative essays. Highly recommended."
Judy Grill, Head of Religious Studies, Churcher's College, Petersfield
Many thanks for the kind words.
Futurama: Into The Wild Green Yonder...
Futurama was a wicked show, and it was stupid that it was ever cancelled - especially considering that The Simpson's hasn't been that good in literally years. It was welcome, most welcome, when these four 'movies' were announced (although as they've gone on, the intention to split them into four episodes each has become increasingly evident) - and the first really lived up to the TV show.
Beast With A Billion Backs wasn't quite as good, but still a good story ... Bender's Game however did show a distinct dip in "the funnies", as well as a properly good story - it was still welcome though. Again, and now with the final of the four 'movies', Into The Wild Green Yonder (despite being said by some to be up there with Bender's Big Score) shows the continued downslide of the four from absolutely fantastic, to moderate at best.
No doubt it was somewhat affected by the Writer's Strike during production, but it's still light on proper jokes and a really solid story. Despite some quality gags (mainly in the first 25 minutes, my favourite being the "Tickle Me Bender" toy), the majority of the 'movie' is either devoid of chuckles or falls back on jokes that just aren't funny - Celine Dion bashing has been going on since Titanic came out, and people who are obviously not rappers having "grills" on their teeth is again ancient history ... same goes for newsreaders not being able to switch off in real life.
This all said, the ending most definitely left me wanting more - just please, for crying out loud and for the sake of the Futurama brand, make it properly funny and properly gripping next time! More Big Scores, and less Wild Green Yonders. The Futurama team have been, and still are, capable of so much.
More, funnier, Futurama please!
Beast With A Billion Backs wasn't quite as good, but still a good story ... Bender's Game however did show a distinct dip in "the funnies", as well as a properly good story - it was still welcome though. Again, and now with the final of the four 'movies', Into The Wild Green Yonder (despite being said by some to be up there with Bender's Big Score) shows the continued downslide of the four from absolutely fantastic, to moderate at best.
No doubt it was somewhat affected by the Writer's Strike during production, but it's still light on proper jokes and a really solid story. Despite some quality gags (mainly in the first 25 minutes, my favourite being the "Tickle Me Bender" toy), the majority of the 'movie' is either devoid of chuckles or falls back on jokes that just aren't funny - Celine Dion bashing has been going on since Titanic came out, and people who are obviously not rappers having "grills" on their teeth is again ancient history ... same goes for newsreaders not being able to switch off in real life.
This all said, the ending most definitely left me wanting more - just please, for crying out loud and for the sake of the Futurama brand, make it properly funny and properly gripping next time! More Big Scores, and less Wild Green Yonders. The Futurama team have been, and still are, capable of so much.
More, funnier, Futurama please!
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