Greetings. It is I Gigi the Parti Poodle returning to introduce my writer’s blog. I am pleased to announce my novelist will be publishing the first volume of her satirical book series in August. As I am a Canis Lupus Familiaris of champagne taste I have chosen the cover for her book and it is utterly exquisite. Its magnificence will be enjoyed by all. I must say it has been a daunting week as the Maltese attempted to sneak away to a barbeque (gauche I know) at one of the fraternities at the local university. Luckily, I stopped him in time because they have been having a dilly of a time dealing with a Corona outbreak there. I am flummoxed as to what we are going to do in the fall. I am terrified they will open the schools again and then I will be stuck playing nursemaid to that foolish little lummox. Cannot stay away from those sorority girls you see. And they think he is so cute with his brown lipid eyes and silky white hair. The way they pick him up and put him in their laps. Absolutely scandalous. Without further ado here is my novelist.

If you attended last week’s ScreenwritingU’s Free Class Friday, you would know the subject was writing parts that actors want to play. Having studied both acting and writing I can tell you the first thing an actor does when he or she gets a part is take the script, go through it, and count how many lines they have. The second is count how many monologues they have. Actors are notoriously narcissistic. Dr. Drew’s Narcissism Test showed the average score of a celebrity being 18. The average American scores around 15. I scored 12. As you can see celebrity actors have big fat hairy egos.

When I write novels, I try to have all the characters no matter how big or small jump off the page. I try to write with the thought that my book could be made into a play or a film whether it ever would or not. And if it is, it needs to be actor proof. Because I spent many years studying theatre and writing, my stories tend to flow down the page with a fair amount of dialogue. That does not mean I don’t write description. It simply means my style of writing tends to be more dialogue centric. Being as I am introverted to a fault this is of course ironic. I hate talking to people and I imagine they hate talking to me. However, I like smart, sharp dialogue and I enjoy weaving it into my stories.

I also try to give actors things they might need like props and costumes. I also like to make sure each character has a unique voice they bring to the story. This became important while writing my book series which I will be releasing in August. The series is made up of an ensemble cast and each of these individuals had to have a voice that was all their own. Not just by what they said but by how they said it. They also each needed a flaw. Why? Because actors love playing characters who are flawed. This gives them something to work with, something to stand out with.

A good example is Ratso Rizzo from Midnight Cowboy. He’s a short little con artist who limps. Or perhaps Deadpool, a malformed, smarty pants, mentally unstable mercenary. Or Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction who has a serious problem with being ignored. Or Alyssa and James from The End of the F***ing World. I mean where do I even start with their issues? Actors eat this stuff up.

The first season of 13 Reasons Why did an excellent job defining the different personalities and flaws of each of the students. Each episode focused on one of the characters who had some level of involvement in the suicide of the female protagonist. Each one had a well-defined personality, a secret, and a flaw. The show also did a good job weaving in clues about the character who turns out to be the villain. I cannot in good conscience recommend the dreary disheartening second season. But I can recommend the first which is outstanding. And the novel by Jay Asher.

While you’re waiting for my next post and the release of my book series you can check out my novel Chicane on Amazon.

This Friday’s ScreenwritingU Free Friday Class is Want To Write Fascinating Scenes?. You can register for the class here.

STREAM OF THE WEEK: ESCAPE MOVIES: ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK & ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ-Amazon Prime Video

This week because it is summer, I thought it would be fun to choose a couple of movies about escaping…from prison that is. And because stream of the week choices should not always be stuffy.

Escape From New York (1981) is a gleeful tongue in cheek romp. And it has a fantastic lead character named Snake Plisskin played brilliantly by Kurt Russell. Snake is a problem child who in the future (1997 which is the future in the movie) has gotten himself incarcerated in the worst maximum-security prison in the country: Manhattan. Luckily for Snake the President of the United States has crash landed in Manhattan and has been taken prisoner by The Duke. Snake is given an option: rescue the president and help him escape or die within 24 hours. Loads of fun!

Escape from Alcatraz is based on a true story about the one and only daring escape from Alcatraz. Brilliant bank robber Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood) has been sent to the most ruthless prison in the United States where he discovers the prison is not as solid as people think. Teaming up with brothers Clarence and John Anglin and young Charlie Butts Morris slowly but surely begins to plan a fool proof escape from a place deemed to be impossible to break out of. The film is wonderfully written and offers no easy answers to the success or failure of Morris’s plan. A true classic.

SMART MOVIES FOR SMART KIDS: Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back!) (1980)-Amazon Prime Video

Bon Voyagae, Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back!) like many Peanuts movies is a sweet little story and a great travel movie to boot. Charlie Brown, Linus, Peppermint Patty, Marcie, Snoopy and Woodstock all fly to France to be exchange students. On route Charlie Brown shows he has received his first ever letter in the mail…but it is written in French. Marcie who has recently been studying French helps to decipher it. The kids first land in England and Snoopy partakes of tennis at Wimbledon but they are soon onto France where Marcie and Peppermint Patty stay at a chalet with their new friend Pierre. But Charlie Brown, Linus, Snoopy and Woodstock travel on to the place Charlies’ letter was sent from, the Maison du Mauvais Voisin (house of the bad neighbor) where a mystery begins to form.

 

 

Tell them what you did!
Okay…well…
And who you are!
Okay…my name is Tucker and I’m a Maltese.
And I am Gigi parti poodle extraordinaire. Good Afternoon. Now tell them what you did!
My name is Tucker and I got invited to a Corona party at a fraternity in Alabama. I got invited because I have a relative who was a fraternity member and I am legacy. And I thought it would be fun. My favorite movie is Animal House and my other favorite movie is Old School and if you are the first person to get Corona from going to the fraternity party you get all the money everyone throws into the pot. I thought it would be fun to go to the party and see if I could get the Corona. But Gigi…
I am Gigi.
Tattled on me and told our novelist what I was up to so my novelist scolded me and said I could not go to the fraternity party in Alabama and get the Corona and win the money. Now I am grounded.
As you should be. Without any further ado here is our novelist.

Sometimes you wonder what Oscar voters are thinking. And modern movie critics are no better. I long for the days when it was just Siskel and Ebert and not a large pool of critics, would-be critics, and an average score. Firstly, many of the critics are not as good as Siskel or Ebert and secondly, I miss the At the Movies passionate heated discussions. I doubt many critics today have as much passion about movies as Siskel and Ebert did. Although to be fair Hollywood is grinding out more and more dreck so it’s harder and harder to be passionate about film. Whether I agreed with the two Chicago film aficionados or not (and I most often agreed with them) I always respected them. I rarely respect critics now. And I respect Oscar voters even less.

Which leads me to the question what were they thinking when they screened 1917? Did they not see the same movie I did? Were they high on mescaline? Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope is a fantastic film done in one take and that was shot primarily on one set. 1917 was done in one take over an expansive amount of war-torn territory. Did they think this was easy? Did they think Sam Mendes got up one morning and said I am going to shoot a World War One film in one take, and it will be a walk in the park?

And why was George MacKay not nominated for best actor? Are you kidding me?! What more did they want this kid to do? He was amazing. His performance reminded me of Leonardo Dicaprio’s tour de force work in The Revenant. Oscars can be jackasses when it comes to the Best Actor category. They have a difficult time nominating male actors who are not pushing forty. Look at last year’s category. The youngest nomination was Adam Driver who is thirty-six.

One of the major complaints critics had of the film was it seemed like a video game. Okay, let’s think differently for a moment. Let’s just give that a try shall we. Where do you think war time video games get their inspiration? Probably from the same place Sam Mendes got his inspiration for the film: people who were in said war, and books written by people who either interviewed people who were soldiers or were soldiers themselves. So, by that rational Sam Mendes who co-wrote the script based on tales his grandfather who fought in WWI told him, really wrote out the story a video game would copy. In a sense Sam Mendes did not copy video games but rather video games copy stories like his. War is not rational. It is not a Jane Austin novel. It is unpredictable and frenetic. Telling a war story which takes place during battle therefore can be unpredictable and frenetic as well.

I do encourage you to watch 1917 if you have not already. It is a wholly different experience than a lot of films out there and that is good. Should all war films be made in the same fashion as this one? Not necessarily. There is plenty of room for Bridge on the River Kwai, Patton, The Deer Hunter, whatever. But there’s also room for films like 1917 that are not made to dive deep into a character’s psyche. Sometimes a film is about what happens in the moment and the propulsion driving it to the next moment and the one after that keeping the audience on the edge of its seat and still saying something profound about the horrors of war.

While you are waiting for my next post you can check out my novel Chicane on Amazon. Also look for more information coming up about the release of the first novel in my book series I will be publishing this summer.

The ScreenwritingU Free Friday Class tomorrow 7/3/2020 is called Want Movie Stars to Play Your Characters? You can sign up for the class here.

STREAM OF THE WEEK: RUNAWAY TRAIN & THE TRAIN-Amazon Prime

As it is traveling season and but not a good time to travel, I thought it would be fun to feature a couple of films about trains.

Runaway Train (1985) is one of my favorite action adventure films of all time that unfortunately often gets overlooked. It is also an existential film to boot. Jon Voight is sensational as Manny a bank robber and longtime prisoner who after serving three years in solitary confinement devises a plan to break out of a maximum-security prison in Alaska and escape his psychopathic warden (John P. Ryan). He recruits a younger prisoner named Buck played wonderfully by Eric Roberts to help him escape. They manage to head across brutal snowy terrain and hop a train. Though they think they are bound for freedom they aren’t counting on what happens to their ride. Both men earned much deserved Oscar nominations for their outstanding work. Rebecca De Mornay is also fantastic as a railroad worker. Look for Danny Trejo as a boxer and Dennis Franz as a Cop. Don’t miss this one. The screenplay was co-written by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Paul Zindel. It is based on an original screenplay by the brilliant director Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa had planned to direct the film himself but never got to because of difficulties with his American financial backers.

The Train (1964) is an American French War film starring Burt Lancaster and directed by one of the most under appreciated directors of all time John Frankenheimer. The film takes place in August of 1944 where a German Colonel Franz Von Waldeim (Paul Scofield) who has a deep appreciation of art and a keen understanding of its financial value decides to load a train with hords of France’s finest artistic masterpieces and ship them to Germany. But the curator of the museum he takes them from will have none of it and calls upon French Resistance members led by Paul Labiche (Lancaster) to stop the train and return the paintings to France without damage. This of course makes the rescue more dangerous and Labiche is reluctant to take the job. But when one of his elderly engineers sacrifices his life to sabotage the train all bets are off and Labiche and his ragtag crew brew up an elaborate plan to reroute the train.

SMART MOVIES FOR SMART KIDS: Rango-Amazon Prime
Rango is Chinatown for kids. Set in the Nevada desert, Rango is a pet chameleon who gets lost when his terrarium gets separated from his adoptive family. While trying to find his way home Rango stumbles into an old western town and by happenstance destroys the towns enemy a large nasty hawk. The mayor appoints him to the position of sheriff. However, the former hawk served a purpose which was to keep a nasty gun slinging rattlesnake at bay. They mayor Rango finds out is in cahoots with the notorious rattler involving the disappearance of the town’s water supply. The movie won the Oscar for Best Animated Film in 2011.

 

 

Good afternoon. Gigi the parti poodle here once again. My novelist is half-way through polishing the last book in her series for publication. We have been working hard to power through till the end. Many iced coffees have been drunk. My novelist has partaken of some as well. It is tough lying on a pillow and barking at strangers while she writes. I am exhausted. But the end of the tunnel is near, and the book release is drawing nigh. Without further ado here is my novelist.

Because extroverts have proven to be utterly brilliant at staying away from other human beings, wearing masks and not spreading disease during a pandemic, (ha!) I thought I would offer up one more acting exercise that is useful for writers called…The Waiting Exercise. Yes, genius this one is for you.

The beauty of this acting challenge is it is really two exercises in one. The first part is…waiting. The second part is having a secret prop on your person while you…wait. Essentially the character carries around an object no one else knows about except the actor or the character the writer creates. The writer’s choice to eventually reveal the object to the audience/reader is completely up to them. Here is how it works.

The actor picks a prop and gives it a history like the prop exercise from last week. The actor then picks a setting in which his character will…wait for someone or something such as a train station, a bus stop, an office, a drug store, a line at a post office, a movie theatre. It really does not matter. When the actor walks into the scene, they carry the secret prop with them on their person hidden from view, so it must be something relatively small unlike a 2020 ARGO FRONTIER 700 SCOUT 6X6 STK 19537 for example. Without using dialogue, the actor moves about the space and…waits.

Now, the actor needs to have a motive to…wait. It could be perhaps the secret prop in their pocket has something to do with it or not. The secret prop’s purpose is essentially to give the actor a way to gain access to the inner workings of the character. Something they can feel against their body or put in their pocket and move it around with their hand.

Let’s say your character is a college student. He lives in the dorm and he wants to score some Adderall from a baseball player on scholarship. The baseball player has a prescription because he was misdiagnosed with ADHD as a kid. And he is quite a con artist skilled at faking ADHD thus his ability to continue filling his prescription and selling off his meds to suckers like our hero for exorbitant prices. Our college student must go over to the baseball player’s fraternity and meet the guy there. Let’s say our hero has an inside track about the history of said fraternity and the place gives him the creeps. But he wants the Adderall because he is struggling in his physics class and he thinks he needs drugs in order to pass his midterms. So, there he is in the foyer of this notorious oversized house…waiting for the baseball player who is supposed to be there at four o’clock. Fraternity brothers who live in the house go in and out the door and make our hero uncomfortable threatened even. As he…waits, he looks around the place where he might see a neon beer sign, the fraternity’s coat of arms, a half-deflated blowup doll in the corner etc.

Now, in his pocket is his secret prop which no one knows about but him. The audience does not know either. But it should be something interesting. Let’s say it’s a flash drive and on said flash drive is something incriminating about our drug dealing baseball player. Incriminating enough the baseball player could get his scholarship taken away and possibly expelled. But the audience does not know this. Only the college student knows about the flash drive he keeps in his pocket as he…waits for the baseball player. The flash drive in our hero’s pocket may be the one thing keeping him in the room. Perhaps it gives him confidence or possibly something to bargain with should this nefarious drug deal go bad. Or perhaps it is an object which is painful for him to have. Maybe what is on the drive personally affects him or someone he cares about. Whatever it is, it affects the motivation for the college student to be in that fraternity foyer.

And that is the…waiting exercise.

I post every Thursday. That is the schedule. While you are waiting for my next blog post you can check out my novel Chicane on Amazon. Just as an update I am going to be publishing my book series on Amazon this summer. Look for information on my blog in the coming weeks for the release of the first book.

This week’s ScreenwritingU Friday Free Class (tomorrow) is Writing Scary As Hell Horror Scenes. You can sign up for it here.

 

SCREEN OF THE WEEK-UNCONVENTIONAL LOVE STORIES-BLUE VELVET & BUFFALO ’66-Amazon Prime

Blue Velvet (1986) is one of my favorite films and as a writer one of the most influential. Maybe because I grew up in the same area as David Lynch. Maybe because it accurately depicts the way it really is here in the northwest or at least how it was, even if the story is set in North Carolina. Since it is going off Amazon Prime on June 30, which is this coming Tuesday, I thought I had better feature it this week. It is the story of a college student named Jeffrey who has returned home after his father has a heart attack and finds a human ear in a field. Thus, begins Jeffrey’s odyssey through the strange underworld of his seemingly normal hometown. It would be sacrilege for me to tell you anything more.

Buffalo ’66 is a fantastic indie film. I remember seeing another movie written and directed by Vincent Gallo The Brown Bunny in the theatre and thinking it was is a superb meditation on its subject matter and I still do. Buffalo ’66 was his first full length feature as a writer/director and it is wonderfully funny, strange and tender. It is the story of Billy Brown who after serving five years in prison, not for a crime he committed but to pay off a bet he lost betting on the Buffalo Bills to a bookie (Mickey Rouke) is compelled to visit his parents (Ben Gazzara and Anjelica Houston). Along the way he wonders into a dance studio where he “meets” a girl named Layla. That is where things start to get wonderfully out of hand. Christina Ricci is magical as a powder blue tap dancer. Jan-Michael Vincent makes an appearance in a bowling alley. The film is uniquely shot in order to fill the audience in on some additional information and it works great. An absolute must see.

SMART FILMS FOR SMART KIDS-BENJI (Original 1974)-Amazon Prime

Benji is also an unconventional love story. In fact, there is a lot of love to go around in this heart warmer. Benji is a homeless mutt who goes about a small-town charming its inhabitants and surviving on both his wits and their hospitality. Along the way he meets a young brother and sister who want to adopt him. But their single father refuses to let them adopt the little guy. Benji however is not easily deterred. And when things turn dark it is up to the plucky pint-sized cocker spaniel/poodle/schnauzer to risk life and paw to set things right.

 

Good afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle. Things are amiss you see because my novelist has given me another bath. And this mind you after I saw her coming and hid under the bed and refused to come out. Some novelists cannot take a hint. Making me take a bath this soon after suffering through the last one means she is planning to give me a haircut with that retched trimmer she attacked the malty with last week. Apparently, one must have a bath before one is groomed. I am not going to stand by and be attacked by that vulgar machine. You should have seen the pile of perfectly good hair my novelist shaved off the malty. Dreadful I tell you. Absolutely dreadful. I simply do not understand what she has against fluffiness. Oh, dear. My novelist is coming so you must excuse me so I can go hide. Haircut indeed!

Another acting exercise that can be beneficial to writers is the prop exercise. Props can be a great way to push a story along when used effectively. The way to make a prop effective is to give it a history. The prop exercise for actors works like this. The actor goes home and picks out an object, any object. Preferably something they can bring into class so probably not a refrigerator. The actor’s job then is to come up with a story about what the object is, how they came to acquire it and what has happened to the object since it became theirs. The story should be fictional.

Let us say I look through my things and choose a pair of sunglasses. And I decide in my story that I purchased the sunglasses at a brick and mortar store as opposed to online. And I decide I purchased them at a deep discount. And I decide I bought them with cash I earned working at a store where I did not make much money and a good chunk of my income went to pay for food and rent. And because they were normally pricey glasses, I treasured them so much I locked them up in my footlocker so no one would know I had them. Now I am starting to get a history of how the sunglasses were acquired.

After I complete my story which would essentially be a monologue, I would practice performing it while holding the prop in order to get an idea of the feel of the object and its subtle tactile characteristics as I spoke. When I go to class I head onstage with my prop and perform my monologue. Holding the prop and how I hold the prop gives me sense memory. The monologue might theoretically go something like this:

“Every day after work I would stop at this discount sporting store where they sold Ray-ban sunglasses. I was especially fond of a pair of Wayfarers that had frosty clear frames. The glasses were in a locked case on top of a glass counter at the back of the store and I would always check to see that the one and only pair of frosty framed Wayfarers was still there. They were a bit rich for my budget because I had just graduated from college, I did not yet have a decent paying job and my reserves were tapped dry. Most of my money went to paying for the rent and food and a bus pass to get to and from my job. Whatever I little I had left I squirreled away in savings. But I really wanted the glasses because I had never had a pair of Ray-bans before. When I was in college, I saw people in my classes set them on their head or put them on when they walked outside into the sunshine. I thought I would like to get rid of these beaten up Foster Grants that looked strange on me and get myself something with a fashionable durable frame. But I could never afford them. I did not want charge them on my credit card because I wanted to be able to pay the balance in full every month and not accrue debt.

“One day I went into the sporting store, walked back to the sunglasses case as usual and found there was a sale sign on top of the case: Clearance. I rushed to see if my glasses were still there and they were. But I had one more day till my credit card flipped for the month to the next statement. Tomorrow, I thought. I will come back and buy them tomorrow.

“The next day after work I hurried into the sporting store to buy the Ray-bans. As I drew near the case, I saw another customer there…holding the frosty framed glasses. I overheard the customer tell the clerk they were buying them for a gift. My heart broke as I watched the clerk ring up the sale, put the glasses in their case, the case into a bag and hand the bag to the customer. I watched helplessly as the customer went whistling out the door with the glasses I had waited so long to buy. Slowly, I turned away from the counter and slogged out to the bus stop to go home.

“As I stood there in the rain waiting for my bus, I thought about all the times I waited too long to make a decision. And here was another time I had failed to go after what I wanted. As I bemoaned my plight under my weathered umbrella, it occurred to me perhaps it would be wise to return to the store, hat in hand, and see if there was a different pair of Ray-bans in that sale case. They would not be the frosty clear framed ones, but they might be a good price anyway.

“So, I walked back into the store and headed towards the case, my wet umbrella dripping behind me. I began perusing the glasses but there were very few Ray-bans inside. After a moment I asked the clerk if there were any more Ray-bans besides the ones in the case. The clerk said no but there might be something in the stock room. I waited and the clerk returned with one pair of glasses: a wayfarer style in tortoise shell. I asked how much they were, and the clerk told me the price which happened to be lower than the price of the frosted crystal framed ones. I purchased the glasses immediately and the clerk put them in a case and put the case in a bag and handed it to me. I had to wait for the next bus to come along and was an hour late getting back to my apartment. But as you can see, I now have a pair of Ray-bans Wayfarers of my own.”

And that is the prop exercise. While you are waiting for my next post here you can check out my novel Chicane on Amazon.

You can sign up for week’s free class Creating an Income from Screenwriting from ScreenwritingU here.

STREAM OF THE WEEK-MOVIES FEATURING PROPS-THE RED VIOLIN & THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER-Amazon
Here are a couple of films where a prop plays a large part in the telling of the story.

The Night of the Hunter from 1955 is one of the finest films ever made. It is based on the book by Davis Grub (published in 1953) screenplay by James Agee and was the only film ever directed by actor great Charles Laughton. Shot in glorious black and white it is the story of a psychopathic would-be preacher named Harry Powell (based on real-life serial killer Harry F. Powers) played by Robert Mitchum who during the depression hunts for young widows, charms them, marries them, kills them and steals their money. But one day he makes the mistake of steeling one of his victim’s cars which gets him thrown in prison for grand theft auto. While he is in the clink, he happens to share a cell with another murderer who killed a couple of people and stole a fortune in the form of American currency. The cell mate who is a clever guy, happens to have two children and a young wife (Shelly Winters). Knowing his wife is a sweet but stupid woman he enlists his young son John to handle the stolen goods instead. Taking the ragdoll of John’s younger sister Pearl, the cell mate stuffs the doll with the bills and swears both John and Pearl to secrecy also telling John he must absolutely protect his sister. After the cell mate is executed the would-be preacher sets out on a quest to marry his cell mate’s widow and figure out where the money is hidden. Silent film star Lillian Gish is outstanding in the roll one of my all-time favorite characters Rachel Cooper.

The Red Violin is five stories in one. The movie won the Oscar for Best Original Score and the Genie for Best Picture. It is a gorgeous film which revolves around an acoustically perfect violin painted with an unusual varnish applied by its creator Nicolò Bussotti in 1681. The violin travels through the centuries from its origin in Cremona to a prodigy orphan in Vienna in 1793 to premier violinist and composer Lord Frederick Pope in Oxford around 1890 ending up in the hands of Pope’s Chinese servant who brings it to Shanghai where it ends up in the possession of political officer Xiang Pei in the 1960’s and finally arriving in Montreal in 1997 where it is put up for auction. Each of the five places provides an unusual part of the violin’s history. It is one of those rare movies where the prop takes center stage. The film is interestingly told and well worth the watch.

SMART MOVIES FOR SMART KIDS: WILLIE WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY (1971)-Netflix

The original film Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory from 1971 is an absolute must see for children and adults alike is the whimsical film from the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by legendary writer Roald Dahl who also penned the script. The prop here, of course, is the much sought-after golden ticket of which there are only five hidden in the mysterious Wille Wonka’s chocolate bars. Mr. Wonka (perfectly played by Gene Wilder) who was based on an eccentric well to do chocolate maker from Dahl’s childhood has shut up his factory for years and though chocolate bars and other confections goes out for sale no one is allowed in. Charlie is a likeable idealistic child from a poor family who can barely afford a bar of chocolate as it is much less have a chance at one of those precious golden tickets. But sometimes serendipity slips in and so begins the tale of one of the greatest children’s movies of all time.

 

Hello. I am Tucker and I am a Maltese. The poodle known as Gigi is taking a nap, so I have snuck on the computer. This week our novelist got rechargeable pet clippers in the mail and gave me a haircut. My haircut took two days. I had to stand on a chair while my novelist shaved off most of my hair and then she got out the scissors and cut off more. I do not feel as warm now, because I do not have most of my hair. My novelist says she is going to do the same thing to the poodle known as Gigi and to keep it a secret. She told me in order to pull it off she might have to give the poodle the funny pills she has for Fourth of July fireworks. Anyway, here is our novelist.

When I was taking screenwriting classes at the university, we had a project where we brought in a scene from a film and played it for the class. It could be any scene from any part of any movie. What I started to notice was a lot of students put their film in and played their movie but did not seem to know where their scene began and where it ended. Some of these celluloid moments would go on with no end in sight. We would see the student’s favorite section of a film but not necessarily a scene.

When I think of a story, I think of it as a war. And every scene is a battle. Sometimes the protagonist wins the battle and sometimes the antagonist wins the battle. How the war ends which is often shown in the final scene supports the author’s premise. The origin of the word actor comes from the 14th century and it means an accuser who pleads a case or a plaintiff at law. In other words, the origin of the word actor essentially means a lawyer. The problem with the movies the students brought into class was they did not start with someone entering the scene with an argument, putting that argument in conflict with another character and have that battle finish with a resolve thus ending the scene.

One of the best acting exercises I learned was called The Letter Exercise and it shows how a scene begins changes course and ends. Here is how it works. An actor is given an assignment to come up with a scenario, write a letter to their character and seal it in an envelope. When the student comes into class to perform their scene they place their envelope somewhere on stage. The actor could use whatever costume, props or even minimal scenery they wanted in order create the setting where the scene takes place.

When they perform the exercise, the actor walks into the scene with a plan and motivation. As they are the only the actor in the scene there is little if any dialogue. The actor goes about carrying out their plan until about halfway through their scene. That is when they  find the envelope. They then open the envelope and read the letter. Whatever the letter says changes the actor’s motivation. The actor is then forced to pursue a different motivation due to the new information the letter provides. In order to carry out their new motivation, their character must exit the stage. It does not matter if the actor chooses the letter to be good news or bad as long as it alters their characters motivation.

Here is how I did my scene. I chose the setting to be a hotel room where my character was having a tryst. I brought in a bag carrying various items you might see in an adult toy store: handcuffs, lotion, feathers, a riding crop, provocative lingerie, etc. I used what set pieces the school had on hand to create a bed and nightstands. When my character walks in her motivation is to gleefully lay out the items and prepare for her boyfriend to arrive. When she finds the letter sitting somewhat hidden on the nightstand and opens it, she finds out it is from her boyfriend. He arrived ahead of her and left it for her. In the letter he has written he can no longer carry on their affair because…he has found out he is her brother. My character’s motivation to prepare a room to have sex with her boyfriend is sharply changed. There is no longer a reason for her to stay in the room. She must now leave with the motivation to either find her boyfriend/brother and discuss the situation and their future or leave to grieve over the loss of their love affair.

The letter exercise provides an arc. The character has a motivation when they enter the room, the motivation is altered by the information in the letter from an antagonist we never see, and the scene ends with the character being forced to leave.

While you are waiting for my next post you can check out my novel Chicane available at Amazon.

Tomorrow’s Free Friday ScreenwritingU class is Selling Scripts During a Pandemic. You can sign up for it here.

STREAM OF THE WEEK: THREE LITTLE FILMS ABOUT DECEPTION:
PROOF-Amazon Prime, THE CONVERSATION-Amazon Prime & THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE-HBO

Proof is a 1991 Australian movie starring Hugo Weaving, Geneviève Picot and a young Russell Crowe. Weaving plays Martin (which means warlike) a man who has been blind since youth. In his youth his mother gave him a camera to take pictures of things even though he cannot see them. His mother died young and left him some money and he has employed for the past three years an attractive housekeeper named Celia (which means heavenly). Martin despises Celia who does everything in her power to torture him. She moves the furniture around so he will trip. She throws his keys into the dishwater in the sink. She sits on a bench at the park where he walks his dog, waits for the dog to come over so she can grab it by the collar while Martin wanders around looking for his pet. Celia is a photographer in her own right and takes a compromising picture of Martin and threatens to circulate it if he does not go out on a date with her for her thirtieth birthday. Then one night as Martin is leaving a restaurant, he accidentally injures an alley cat who hangs around the restaurant. This is brought to his attention by Andy (which means masculine). He and Andy take the cat to a vet and strike up a friendship. Martin decides to trust Andy to look at the photos he takes and describe them to him, a turn of events which Celia does not take kindly to.

The Conversation from 1974 written, directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola is the story of a highly skilled but introverted and socially inept surveillance expert named Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) who on his birthday is hired to tape a conversation between a young couple in Union Square in San Francisco (Frederic Forrest and Cindy Williams). Take note of the irony of the famous mime Robert Shields performing in the opening shot. Harry is obsessed with privacy having several locks on his apartment door…which does not prevent him from getting a birthday gift from his landlady. Harry immediately calls her to ask that he have the only key to the apartment and changes his mail to be delivered to a post office box with a dial and no keys. Harry’s one pleasure in life is playing the saxophone but only by himself. When Harry begins looking over the photos his crew took and the audio tape he made of the couple’s conversation, he begins to realize something is amiss. What did Harry tape actually? What is the conversation he is listening to? As Harry tries to put the pieces together, the audience must decide if anyone, even an expert, can trust what they record.

The Manchurian Candidate from 1962. If I were to make a list of my ten favorite films of all time this one would be on it. Major Bennett Marco is going nuts. He has a reoccurring nightmare where while he was a captain in the Korean War his Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw killed two of his men. But that just cannot be true. Because Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest warmest most wonderful human being he’s ever known in his life…right? Unable to stop the dream from haunting him Marco tries to hunt down  Raymond and investigate if his dream is just a nightmare or if something more sinister is afoot. Beautifully shot in black and white and skillfully directed by John Frankenheimer this wildly original film penned by Richard Condon (who wrote the novel) and George Axelrod sports one of the best adapted screenplays of all time. An absolute must see classic. Look for Angela Lansbury in her brilliant Oscar nominated performance as Raymond Shaw’s ambitious mother.

SMART FILMS FOR SMART KIDS: WALLACE AND GROMIT: CURSE OF THE WERE-RABBIT-HBO
Aardman puts out great kids’ content and this one is a true delight. Based on the award-winning Wallace and Gromit shorts Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit finds Wallace and his whip smart dog Gromit running a pest control service as the prestigious annual biggest vegetable competition nears. The two fast friends believe in treating the bunnies they catch humanely and provide them a place to live where they cannot harm the locals’ gardens. But alas Wallace must try out his newest invention the Mind Manipulation-O-Matic which theoretically brainwashes the rabbits into no longer wanting to eat vegetables. Things go horrifically wrong and before you know it there is a giant cottontail on the loose demolishing gardens.

 

 

 

 

Good Afternoon. Gigi the parti poodle here. Today my novelist has decided to write about the importance of research. Even if the book you are penning is fiction it is important to  understand the subject you are writing about as best as you possibly can so you can tell a more convincing tale. I myself have been looking up information on ducks. We saw a mother duck and her ten ducklings cross in front of us not long ago and since I had not seen many ducks before I thought I would take the time to learn about them. So while I’m doing that, here is my novelist.

The worst advice I was ever given as a writer was “don’t write what you know”. The second worst advice was “make something up”. The third was “you can write a good book in a month”. None of these are true in fact they are quite misguiding.

There was an quite an uproar when Anthony Bourdain wrote Kitchen Confidential, a non-fiction autobiographical book about the world of restaurants. And it was a world he knew very well. I worked in restaurants for six years on and off and if you believe there is not drug use, alcoholism and sex going on in every single restaurant out there you are an idiot.

I have never been a drinker so when I worked at this one establishment where they would hand me a couple of old poker chips at the end of a shift, each one for a free drink in the bar, I always gave them away to a cook or another waitress who would have also been given a couple of chips. They never turned the extra chips down. I remember walking in one morning to find a cook and a waitress had huffed all the gas out of the only case of whipping cream. I remember one cook carried around a portable illegal pharmacy with him. I remember a waitress walking in with a black eye because her boyfriend beat the crap out of her. I remember one cook suddenly bolting out the back door to avoid jail. I had one chef who tried to get me to stand up against a wall so he could throw knives at me. At a fast food restaurant I worked with a guy who sold drugs through the drive thru window. And I saw all sorts of restaurant workers hook up. Point is you need to intimately know the subject you are writing about or you will not know the truth about it.

There is a world of difference between the movie Outsourced and Mike Judge’s Office Space and Silicon Valley. One insightful hint to how badly researched Outsourced is, is the writers do not make it a technical call center. That way they don’t have to rely on actual computer knowledge to write the script. This indicates they knew nothing or extraordinarily little about computer science. Instead they set the story in a call center where people call up and buy useless garbage. I do not know if it was laziness on the part of the writers or plain stupidity but because of inane scenes like moving the computers to the roof the film comes off as painfully amateur.

Office Space by contrast was a huge favorite in the computer world when the film first came out. This was because the characters in the movie were accurately drawn and experienced the same myriad of frustrating situations computer techs did. Silicon Valley also does a solid job of weaving savvy technology and the stupidity of management together. I worked on different technical helpdesks for five years. I also had to earn an MCSE and an A+ certification for my jobs. I was surrounded by these guys all the time and they are exactly like the characters in both of Mike Judge’s efforts. Not to mention Mike Judge has a degree in physics. So, yeah, at some point or another he has been around guys like this.

Another great show about help desk and deskside techs is the British television series The IT Crowd. Brilliantly created and penned by Graham Linehan this hilarious show does a phenomenal job depicting a couple of brilliant but socially inept techs and the abysmal situations they tolerate while working for a crackpot corporation. Just as in Office Space and Silicon Valley computer techs Roy and Moss are accurately depicted as is Jen their manager who often must act as a buffer between the two eggheads and the bizarre lunatics who run the company.

Now then, what do you do if you want to write a book where you are fascinated with a subject you know nothing about. Well, you get to work researching. You read a lot of books on the subject. You watch documentaries on the subject. You read research papers on the subject written by legitimate professors. You interview people who are knowledgeable in that field and work in the field. And you do it because you want to write a great book.

I have another book I am going to publish after I finish releasing my book series and it required months research. There were times I would be writing along and came to a point where I had to stop for a couple of weeks just to study one small element of the story in depth. So, when someone tells you it is possible to crank out a book in a month, sure you could do that. And it will probably be a disappointment to both you and your readers. But if you want to write a quality piece of work you have to put in the time to build the best most accurate story you possibly can.

That is why I keep repeating you need to write what you love. Because if you are going to be spending a lot of time immersing yourself in a story you better be willing to immerse yourself in twice as much research. The book series I am releasing this summer required me watching hours and hours and hours of footage to get the feel of the characters and the world they inhabit. It is only after knowing your subject well that you can write a solid book.

While you are waiting for my next post you can check out my book Chicane on Amazon.

If you are interested in taking ScreenwritingU’s free class on profound movies and television this Friday you can click here.
STREAM OF THE WEEK: HOUSE OF GAMES-Amazon Prime & THE SPANISH PRISONER-Showtime

David Mamet is a smart writer who puts a great deal of thinking into his plays and film scripts. This week I thought I would feature two of his films which focus on con artists made ten years apart: House of Games from 1987 and The Spanish Prisoner from 1997.

House of Games stars Lindsey Crouse as a psychiatrist and published author who leads a strait-laced life. She has a young patient named Billy Hahn who confides in her he owes twenty-five thousand to a charismatic bookie named Mike played by Joe Mantegna. Billy also tells her he is going to kill himself before Mike does for not paying his debt. The psychiatrist whose name is Margret, goes to a seedy bar called House of Games and confronts Mike who is in the middle of a poker game. Mike tells Margret Billy only owes him eight hundred dollars and makes a deal with her: if she pretends to be his girlfriend and lets him know if one of the guys at the table plays with his gold ring while he steps out for a moment. Thus, begins the clever path of twists and turns through this excellent crime thriller shot in Seattle, Washington.

The Spanish Prisoner stars Campbell Scott as Joe Ross an engineer who has developed a sophisticated and lucrative formula for a company run by a man named Mr. Klein played by Ben Gazzara. The formula is written in a large red book on uncopiable paper and stored in a safe for which only both men have a key. The movie starts out on the island of St. Estèphe where the engineer and other members of his company including new company secretary Susan played by Rebecca Pidgeon are taking a retreat. There Joe meets a wealthy man named Jimmy Dell played by Steve Martin. Dell asks Joe to do him a favor when he gets back to New York: give his sister a package. Shot primarily in New York, City the movie keeps the audience wonderfully paranoid as Joe attempts to protect his complex formula while he struggles to figure out who he can trust and who he cannot.

SMART MOVIES FOR SMART KIDS: CHARLOTTE’S WEB (1973)-Amazon Prime
E.B. White’s heartbreaking classic Charlotte’s Web is beautifully brought to life in this animated gem from 1973. Lending to the magic are the voices of Debbie Reynolds as Charlotte, Henry Gibson as Wilber, Paul Lynd as Templeton, Pamelyn Ferdin as Fern, Danny Bonaduce as Avery and Agnes Moorhead as The Goose. A gentler looking film than most 3-D films the movie captures the wonderful story of a friendship between a would-be doomed pig and the selfless spider who saves him.

 

Good Afternoon. It is I Gigi the parti poodle…
And me Tucker the Maltese. I am here too…
Sit, mongrel and stay! Can you believe this? Anyway, I Gigi, parti poodle extraordinaire…
Tell them about the coffee! Tell them about the coffee….
You insipid…okay! Yes, I will tell them about the coffee. Lap dogs! Can’t live with them can’t…anyway, my novelist who likes tea also occasionally partakes of coffee and came across an interesting recipe on how to make ice coffee. Not being a drinker, she had to buy a martini shaker in order to create this concoction. So, what she does is she brews the espresso a little stronger than usual using a little more coffee and a less water. She puts ice, syrup, milk and the coffee all together in the shaker. Then she shakes the whole thing up till it is cold. Then she pours the contents over in a glass over ice. She likes to add a little whip cream to finish it off and a ring of caramel or chocolate sauce on the top.
It is nummy nummy!
The word is scrumptious you inane…oh, here is my novelist!

One of the most frustrating films I have watched (or rather re-watched) lately is Enemy. Everything about this film should work. It is an intriguing concept. It is well acted (especially by Jake Gyllenhaal). It is cerebral. It has great mood. And I wanted very much to like and recommend it. But the problem is it starts and ends oddly.

Now to be fair I have not read the novel it was it was based on called The Double by Jose’ Saramongo which might be outstanding. From what I have researched the film is rather loosely based on said book as opposed to say No Country for Old Men (based on a novel I did read) in which the Coen brothers stuck to the story well with excellent results.

One major issue in the film Enemy is the use of spiders and what they are supposed to represent. Spiders, from what I understand, are not used in the novel at all. It is something the screenwriter and director decided to incorporate. The problem is they do not really incorporate them well and when they do use them it creates puzzling results thus making the film polarizing. Some people like it and some people do not. I like the middle of the film immensely and was riveted by it more so than many other thrillers. But the ends, especially the ending are a mess.

Not to give too much away the film is about a history professor in Toronto, Canada who is depressed and bored. He has a winsome girlfriend but does not seem to be interested in her. She is merely a diversion from his repetitious doldrums. He is not interested in anything really. He gives his lectures on totalitarianism; he goes home and hooks up with his girlfriend. He gives his lectures on totalitarianism he goes home and hooks up with his girlfriend. He gives his lectures on totalitarianism he goes home and hooks up with his girlfriend…until one day. On that day he sits in a university break room with only one other person occupying the space, a man who, through dialogue finds out our professor does not like movies. Just the same he suggests a film called Where There’s A Will There’s A Way. The professor takes the man’s advice and rents the film and watches it. He does not think much of it until he wakes up in the middle of the night and realizes thanks to his subconscious one of the lesser characters in the film a bellhop is his doppelganger. And from here starts the journey of the professor attempting to hunt down his twin.

From what I read the director wanted to use the image of spiders to represent femininity. Okay, I can run with that. The spiders represent danger and entrapment. And I am sure the idea that some female spiders like the Hogna Helluo wolf spider eat the male after mating is to be considered here. But if you are going to do that you have to make that a lot clearer when you show the female characters from the beginning. Perhaps I missed it, but I did not see anywhere where the female characters represented spiders…except the bizarre ending. Yes, the film starts out with a phone message from the professor’s mother who has seen his apartment and found it wanting. And that’s all good and well. But when we do see the mother there is not an obvious allusion to spiders. There is not an obvious allusion to spiders concerning his girlfriend either nor the wife of his doppelganger.

In contrast if you watch the film Vertigo (based on the French novel Vertigo by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac which is an excellent read), for example, in one earlier scene the lead Scottie sees the other lead Madeline sitting on a bench observing a piece of art after he has followed her there. When Scottie looks at her, Hitchcock closes the camera in on Madeline’s hair which is swept up in a swirl that appears to be spiraling downwards. We realize that the swirl has two meanings: female sexuality and entrapment. Scottie is a confirmed bachelor and so his vertigo is not just one of heights it is one of falling prey to love. But in Enemy we do not get those clear motifs. If the enemy in Enemy is women (mother, wife, girlfriend) as opposed to his doppelganger, it needed to be much clearer both in the writing and the costumes, the set pieces etc. Then his ending (which I will not give away) would make sense and have a stronger impact.

I took a class once on how to write an ending to a film and these are the four things they said were crucial to a good ending:

1. The ending must be surprising, but inevitable.

2. The ending must be filled with meaning that has been well setup.

3. The ending must express and resolve the main conflict in some way.

4. The ending must be organic to the story.

The defect in Enemy is number two and because of number two number three as well. Had they written those two parts better the film could have been a home run.

While you’re waiting for my next post check out my novel Chicane on Amazon.

STREAM OF THE WEEK: THE INTERVIEW and THE GIFT-Netflix

Now here are a couple of suspense films which start strong and end strong. The first one is from Australia and the second was written, directed and co-stars an Australian. Both films are superb. One of the reasons I was hoping to tout Enemy is what it has in common with these two films: more substance less blood. It is difficult to find a modern suspense these days that is not bloody. Suspense should more about the tension than the explosion. But I think a lot of films like to use gore to mask over the blasé storytelling. Neither of these films does that and they are more riveting because of it.

The Interview is a smart cerebral film from 1998 that essentially takes place almost entirely in a police station. The film was co-written by the director Craig Monahan and Gordon Davie who also served as the films technical consultant as he was a police officer with the Victoria Crime Squad for sixteen years. The film starts out with a broke man living in a sparse apartment after his wife has abandoned him. Suddenly, his apartment is broken into by the police. They handcuff him and drag him off to the police station without much information as to why. After arriving there he is put into a room where his is interrogated by a Detective Sargent and his assistant, a younger detective. The detectives tell the man a car has been stolen and they are looking for the thief…or is that really what they are after? The movie keeps you guessing what is really going on and who the real puppet master is all the way up until the end. The DVD provides an alternate ending.

Australian actor Joel Edgerton wrote, directed and co-stars in The Gift, one of the best suspense films I have seen in a long time. Edgerton is superb in all three arenas here. I must warn you, however, this is a controversial plot so some viewers may take pause with it. But it is brilliantly executed just the same and an absolute must see. The film starts out with a young couple, Simon and Robyn (played dazzlingly by Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall respectively) buying a house with lots of glass windows. (Now there’s foreshadowing). Something has gone wrong in their lives recently and they have moved from Chicago to California to start their life anew. As they are purchasing housewares to adorn their new abode Simon runs into Gordon better known as “Gordo” an old classmate of his from high school. Robyn does not know Gordo or his relationship with her husband…but she is definitely about to. Unlike Enemy, The Gift uses all its motifs and clues clearly and to full effect twisting and turning and then twisting again until its brilliant climax. I highly recommend this film. Do not miss it!

SMART MOVIES FOR SMART KIDS-A SILENT VOICE-Netflix
A Silent Voice is a beautiful and languid animated film that has something directly in common with one of the other movies I am recommending this week but handles the subject matter a little differently. It is for older children; I’d say about 12 and up and contains one harrowing scene. The film is in Japanese with subtitles. Shoya is a twelve-year son of a hairdresser. He and his buddies do not have a care in the world until a new girl named Shoko enters their class. But Shoko is different because Shoko is deaf. Shoya finds Shoko’s disability mildly annoying at first. But his annoyance turns into viciousness and cruelty until Shoko is finally forced to move away, an act which forces Shoya to rethink and change his entire way of living.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Afternoon. I have escaped my bedroom prison and believe me I have put that hijacking Maltese in his place. How dare he take over my blog?! It’s bad enough he dares to sleep in my novelist’s lap when clearly, I should be the one on the throne of honor. Moving forwards, my novelist is continuing to polish up the sixth book in her series and decided this week to focus on one of the films we watched on the “big shiny rectangle” as that boorish Maltese would put it. Without further ado, here is my novelist.

Some people are gifted, passionate and driven…and others go to business school. You could replace business school with law school too. Believe me. I grew up with a lot of people who became lawyers. And it is the premise of the fantastic underappreciated film Ford v Ferrari.

My novel Chicane is about a race car driver afflicted by unfinished business. And although it is a vastly different story, after interviewing with professionals and researching for my book I could appreciate the great care and technical knowledge writers Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and Jason Keller put into this screenplay. Especially Ken Mile’s dialogue where a lot of the science of race car driving comes to light.

The best scene in the film for me is not actually one of the racing sequences (although they are nothing short of spectacular). It is the moment where Ken Miles explains to Carroll Shelby the difference between Shelby (and himself) and the employees who work at the Ford Motor Company. It is one of the most truthful moments I have heard on film in a long time. Plainly put people hate people who can think differently than they do. Because those are the individuals who change the world. And not might I add just in the racing circuits and auto industries.

Ford v Ferrari was nominated for four Academy Awards and thankfully won for its outstanding editing (it also won the Bafta in this category) as it was clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. It also won the Oscar for sound editing which it also resoundingly deserved. It should have been nominated for a few more categories as well most notably Christian Bale’s outstanding performance as the insightful and talented but underappreciated Ken Miles.

And to further support the film’s premise Ford v Ferrari is one of those movies where the audience rated it higher than the critics. If you do not believe me go and look at the tomatometer at Rotten Tomatoes for Ford v Ferrari. And while you are at it look at another film the critics rated lower than the audience, a little-known nineties flick called The Shawshank Redemption. The audience is right on both accounts. In fact, look at a lot of films that have come out over the past decade, especially some of the award winners that received critical acclaim and compare the audiences score to the critics score. You will start to see a disappointing pattern. I certainly did.

Unfortunately, Ford v Ferrari is not available to stream on Netflix or Amazon currently. But if you can rent Ford v Ferrari on DVD, I highly recommend it. I wish I had seen it in the theatres because all the racing scenes must look incredible on the big screen. And the feel and look of the movie is gorgeous. You genuinely believe you are in the world of race car driving.

While you are waiting for my next post you can check out my novel Chicane on Amazon.

There is a Free Class Friday 5/22/2020 @ Noon with ScreenwritingU. It is called 15 Ways To Rewrite Your Script. You can go here to reserve a spot and join the class.

STREAM OF THE WEEK: A MAN WITH A MISSION MOVIES: THE FURY OF A PATIENT MAN and BLUE RUIN-Netflix

The Fury of a Patient Man is about a mild mannered average middle-class gentleman who strikes up a relationship with a beautiful café owner. The café owner has a boyfriend she shares a young child with, but the boyfriend runs with a dangerous crowd. In fact, he has been spending a lot of time in prison because he and his buddies get their kicks robbing jewelry stores. And why does this mild mannered average middle-class man get involved with these nefarious characters? Because HE’S VERY TICKED OFF!!! The Fury of a Patient Man is a tense driven revenge story about a respectable man who is determined, and I mean determined to deal with those who crossed his path. Yes, this movie is in Spanish so you may have to use subtitles. But if you don’t watch movies with subtitles sometimes, you’re going to miss out on a plethora of great stories. So, buck it up, turn on the subtitles and go for this fantastic ride.

Blue Ruin is one of my favorite films of the past decade. Serendipitously cast with the wonderful Macon Blair in the lead, this is one you do not want to miss. Now this ironically is one of those films where the critics got it right giving it a whopping 96% positive and the audience got it wrong. It is also a revenge movie though it plays out a little differently than my other recommendation. Homeless and living out of his car Dwight gets the news his arch enemy has just been released from prison. Terrified and furious at the same time Dwight sets out on a journey to set things right…if you know what I mean. Although not an expensively made movie this film is gorgeous looking, and the use of blue throughout is reminiscent of the look of the film Bleu from the masterpiece Trois Colors by legendary filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski. Look for Eve Plumb…yes, that’s right Jan from The Brady Bunch in a tour de force role.

SMART FILMS FOR SMART KIDS: BOLT-Netflix

We’ll call this one the dog on a mission movie. Some of you may have caught this one and some of you may have passed. Either way, this is a terrific dog on a mission/road picture film for kids and adults alike. A dog named Bolt (voiced by John Travolta) is the star of an spy action television show which he believes is real. On the show Bolt has superhero powers he believes are real too. His owner is the co-star of the show, a girl named Penny (voiced by Miley Cyrus). When Bolt crosses paths with some mean spirited cats who act in minor roles on the show, Bolt ends up being accidentally shipped in a box from Los Angeles to New York city where he meets another feline, the world weary alley cat Mittens who the delusional Bolt employs to help him get back to the make believe world of television.

 

Hello. My name is Tucker and I am a Maltese. I have short legs and soft white fur and I am sweet. The poodle who is locked in the bedroom right now is not sweet. She bit my ear once and it hurt. She tries to herd me around and snaps at me. I do not like her. I am not sure if she is German or French but either way, I am scared. She is barking a lot right now and it is very loud. I want to be the dog to introduce our novelist for once. Most of the time if I get near the computer, the poodle charges at me and I do not like that. It makes me nervous. I do not like being nervous. I like being calm like when I lie next to my novelist and watch the big shiny rectangle. My novelist tells me I am an ISFJ. I am going to introduce my novelist now. Are you ready? Okay…what was I going to say…?

I am nearing the end of rewriting and polishing the fifth book of my series for publication and will soon be moving on to book six. I am still on schedule to publish the first book of the series this summer. In the meantime, I thought I would talk a bit more about personality types for characters and focus on totem animals for each temperament.

Towards the beginning of chapters 3, 4, 5 and 6 in David Keirsey’s book Please Understand Me Two he has assigned each of the four temperaments a totem animal. I like to think of them as mascots. What is great about this for a writer is it gives you ways to describe your character both externally and internally. Let’s look at all four.

Artisans or Dionysians (ESTP, ISTP, ESFP and ISFP) are represented by the fox. The fox is a predator and an intelligent one. They do not often spend time on prey they cannot catch. I cannot emphasize this point enough: they do not often spend time on prey they cannot catch. And in future posts I will go into deeper analysis about this salient point. They themselves are difficult to capture like the Roadrunner or maybe someone like Tom Sawyer or Bart Simpson. A lot of them are athletic. In fact, ISTP personalities are the most likely to receive a sports scholarship. This would be a hint on how your SP character moves. They would not be clumsy. They may be graceful dancers or wily magicians.

Artisans live in the now and rely on their senses: touch, taste, smell, sight and hearing. If you are looking to create a villain like say Hopper from A Bug’s Life, or Stanley Kowalski from A Streetcar Named Desire you would be wise to create an extroverted thinking artisan. Another couple of great examples are Lalo Salamanca from Better Call Saul and Tuco Salamanca from Breaking Bad. If you are looking for a more discretely clever character like say a musician or songwriter or artist, you might look to creating an introverted SP such as Schroder from Peanuts Pip from Great Expectations.

Guardians or Melancholics (ESTJ, ISTJ, ESFJ and ISFJ) are represented by the Beaver or the Squirrel. They tend to be hoarders so if you see a Got Junk truck backing up to someone’s house with a film crew in tow you can bet you have got an SJ on your hands. They have two great traits. First, they are extremely hard workers. And second, they are assiduous about saving up for a rainy day, a famine or say a pandemic. They tend to do things for their community so if say a predator (see Artisans) is on the loose they will send out a warning to the other beavers or squirrels.

If you are going to write a story with an SJ character you want to think of that character as always serving the institution whatever that may be. It could be a school, club, corporation, whatever. They will always put the institution first. Think of Richard Vernon from The Breakfast Club. And they are nuts about their money. Life is about working for and saving money like Mr. Banks from Mary Poppins. And they like to embrace doom. Think of Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh.

They too are like the Artisans in that they rely on their senses. If they cannot detect something from sight, sound, touch, taste or smell it is hard to convince them it is real. However, unlike the Artisans who live in the present Guardians live in the past constantly embracing tradition. Because of their sensory nature both Guardians and Artisans alike may have strange fixations on food or spas or massage parlors or getting their hair done because they are sensory driven.

Idealist or Cholerics (ENFJ, INFJ, ENFP and INFP) are represented by the Dolphin. The dolphin is highly intelligent, friendly, and collaborative. Idealists like to have tight knit groups of friends and family they associate with. They are people-people. They understand people and like to be around people like Cher Horowitz (aka Emma Woodhouse) from Clueless (and Emma from the novel)and Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. And they look towards the future like Atticus Finch Luke Skywalker and Captain America. They love to be told the same story repeatedly and tend to have large imaginations. They are whimsical people who make excellent counselors and great writers. And most importantly they understand and have a love for the abstract. Idealists are popular choices for lead characters will physically lead with their hearts when they walk. They may also lead from the top of their head if you are looking to create an ethereal type of character.

One major drawback to Idealists is their tendency to often be attracted to narcissists like Benjamin Braddock (The Graduate from the novel) or Rapunzel (Tangled from the fairytale). This makes them excellent as both heroes and victims to put in your stories. For best results you will want to put an extroverted NF with an introverted NT narcissist and an introverted NF with an extroverted NT narcissist.

Rationals or Phlegmatics (ENTJ, INTJ, ENTP and INTP) are represented by the Owl. Keirsey noted that owls are amongst the most competent winged predators. They can see in the dark and have great big oversized talons which allows them to seize their target adroitly due to their keenness of sight, speediness, and timing. Like the owl, Rationals dive into the darkness of nature to retrieve its answers. They excel at grasping the abstract with their keen intellect. And they are exceedingly rare. Especially the introverted ones. Collectively they take up only 5-6% of the population. So, if you are one of those gleefully naïve women like Elizabeth Bennett determined to find your Mr. Darcy, hah! Good luck.

Rationals can be great villains. But be careful here. If you are thinking of making your villain a psychopath, you better to make them an ENTJ (Evil Overlord) like The Master from Doctor Who or an ENTP (Mad Scientist) like Doctor Strangelove. The three best personality types for psychopaths are in order: ENTP, ESTP (Con Artist) and ENTJ. If you are planning on making your psychopath an INTP or worse yet an INTJ you might rethink your choice. INTPs and INTJs do make great villains they just cannot be that type of evil. Making introverted Rationals villains is tricky. I will explain why in a later post. Rationals also make intriguing heroes and antiheroes like Beatrix Kiddo (ENTJ) (Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and Kill Bill: Vol. 2) and Jean-Luc Picard (ENTJ) (Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Picard) Tyler Durden (ENTP) (Fight Club from the novel), and Doofenshmirtz (ENTP) (Phineas and Ferb), Walter White (INTJ) (Breaking Bad) and Clarice Starling (INTJ) (The Silence of the Lambs) or Kylo Ren (INTP) (Star Wars), and Doctor Who (Doctor Who)(INTP).

While you’re waiting for my next post you can check out my novel Chicane available on Amazon.

STREAM OF THE WEEK: MOVIES THAT ARE ACTUALLY FUNNY PART QUATRE: THE WILL FERRELL TRIPPLE THREAT: STEP BROTHERS & THE OTHER GUYS-Netflix and STRANGER THAN FICTION-Showtime

For my last installment for movies that are actually funny, I thought I would focus on some of Will Ferrell’s work. I have never understood why Step Brothers gets a 55% at Rotten Tomatoes. This film is hysterical. And not only is it hysterical everyone in it is hysterical. These are some seasoned actors here: Mary Steenburgen, Richard Jenkins, Adam Scott, and John C. Reilly. Reilly I might add did True West on Broadway; a Sam Shepard play also about dysfunctional brothers (blood brothers in this one) with Philip Seymour Hoffman. They alternated their roles every night. What is not to like here? Step Brothers is supposed to be ridiculous and shocking! That’s part of its charm. I have laugh out loud every time I’ve seen it. Some critics have a cricket bat up their bum. Screw them and watch it anyway.

The Other Guys is a master class in droll. The tomato critics seem to embrace it better giving it a 78%. I think it deserves higher. I re-watched it recently and it holds up great. Will Ferrell and Mark Walberg have terrific buddy chemistry as two detectives who are desk jockeys (one by choice and one by unfortunate circumstances) who choose brains over brawn to crack a case involving a scummy businessman played by Steve Coogan. The deadpan jokes are laugh out loud roll on the floor funny and the dialogue throughout is sharp and smart. A comic sleeper.

When I saw Stranger Than Fiction in the theatre, I honestly thought this smart comedy/drama was going to get a writing nomination. Instead they decided to nominate and give the Oscar to Little Miss Sunshine. Just the same Stranger Than Fiction is a wonderful change of pace for Will Ferrell who does a great job here. And he is surrounded by an outstanding cast consisting of the wonderful Maggie Gyllenhaal, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifa and Emma Thompson. Stranger Than Fiction the story of an IRS accountant named Harold Crick who one day begins hearing an anonymous woman’s voice narrating his life as he lives it and that’s all I am going to tell you.

SMART FILMS FOR SMART KIDS: CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG (1962)-Netflix

Ian Fleming best known for his James Bond books wrote one and only one children’s book and it was a home run called Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He penned it for his only son Casper. It is the story of the eccentric Pott family and their wonderful adventures with their magical car which, because of its unusual sounds they name Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The movie is somewhat different from the book, but both are outstanding. The wonderful Dick Van Dyke plays Mr. Pott and Sally Ann Howes sparkles as his love interest Truly Scrumptious (in the book her character would be the mother). They and the two Pott children take the car for a wonderful whimsical journey. It is an absolute must see for all ages and the book is a classic must read.

 

 

 

Good afternoon. It is I, Gigi the parti poodle introducing my novelist who, by the way, was not happy about with me ripping up her robe a bit this week. I don’t know why she’s so upset about it. She left it on the bed where I sleep and as far as I’m concerned whatever garment is left on the bed is my playground. In fact, I must say my expert touch made it better. Now it’s one of a kind. No one else has their robe ripped the exact same way. My novelist also wanted me to tell you she is going to add a section at the bottom called Smart Films for Smart Kids in which in addition to her Stream of the Week she is going to recommend one kids film on streaming right now. Anyway, without further ado, here is my novelist.

It has been interesting observing human behavior during the Covid-19 outbreak. And might I add useful knowledge to use for character study. Especially how the idiosyncrasies of personality traits have come to life during this strange time. Since sensory people take up 75-80% of the population, the way most human beings view the world is by touch, taste, hearing, sight, and smell. If a danger or for that matter a remedy cannot be detected by the senses it must not exist. This would account for some of the protests going on right now. Or more specifically the citizens who want the country reopened. Some of them do not believe the virus is deadly. Others do not believe it is real and apparently like to push forest rangers into lakes.

Intuitive personality types both the thinkers and the feelers on the other hand are used to using their imagination and view the world from a standpoint of possibilities as opposed to the concrete. Many times, I have heard scientists talk about the value of imagination and how without it is difficult, maybe impossible, to be a scientist. Intuitive individuals can see things in their mind’s eye and can postulate possibilities. By that rational, intuitivists are naturally more likely to believe the virus is real and deadly. But they only take up 20-25% of the population.

Now, this is not to say there are not sensory personalities who do not comprehend the danger of the virus. In fact, 60% of people polled support the staying home restrictions. Also, many people in the medical industry are SJ (sensory judgement). In fact, it is quite common amongst doctors, nurses, technicians and so forth. Surgeons are more likely to be SP (sensory perceptive) due to the visceral nature of the job. But then there is the other 40%. 32% of people polled are worried more about the financial state of the country than the virus.

Also, extroverts both the sensory version and the intuitive version are having an especially difficult time right now. In fact, I saw a big sign on someone’s lawn this week which said, “I Am Bored”. This is because extroverts physically gain energy being around other people. The distance is making them bored, tired, cranky, wrestles and in some cases careless. They may be going to the grocery store a little too often or thinking six feet is the maximum rather than the minimum, meeting people online who are toxic or setting up ski jumps on their roofs hoping they hit the swimming pool correctly. One of my biggest terrors is what is going to happen when extroverts emerge from their forced hibernation and start hitting the dating scene once again? What kind of madness is going to ensue from that? How steep are crime rates going to rise? I also wonder what kind of traffic the porn sites have been getting. Apparently, they have been running specials.

We introverted personalities on the other hand are enjoying the whole social distancing immensely though we are profoundly sad for people and their families who are suffering with Covid-19. In opposition to extroverts our energy is drained when we must spend time around people. We are immune to the misery extroverts are experiencing right now. Being able to cross the street and not talk to someone is presently considered a common courtesy. Avoiding sitting in a crowded room and engaging in stupid mindless chit-chat is valiant. Finding a project to do other than wasting your life socializing is productive. The world at present is our oyster.

A great movie and book that shows the clash of introverts and extroverts under pressure is The Flight of the Phoenix. It’s not streaming for free on Netflix or Prime right now, so I won’t put it in my Stream of the Week section. However, if you can get your hands on the original film with James Stewart on say…YouTube, I recommend it highly. Essentially a plane with several passengers on it crashes in the desert. They will all die if they cannot get out. In Susan Cane’s book Quiet, there is a simulated version of this concept done at an ivy league school. Let us just say the inability for society to listen to people who are introverted, not charismatic but knowledgeable is chilling…and timely.

While your waiting for my next post you can check out my book Chicane now available on Amazon.

Also, this week’s ScreenwritingU Friday noon free teleconference class is called Creating TV Series That Sell.  The link to join the class is here.

STREAM OF THE WEEK: MOVIES THAT ARE ACTUALLY FUNNY PART TROIS: THE KEVIN SMITH DOUBLE FEATURE EXTRAVAGANZA: CHASING AMY & ZAC AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO-Netflix

When Kevin Smith makes a good film, he makes a great one. If you have never seen Clerks, it is required viewing. Make sure you see the alternate ending. Unfortunately, Clerks is not streaming on Netflix or Prime right now. But luckily two of his best ones are…but they’re not for kids.

Chasing Amy: Thoughtful comedy just doesn’t get better than this. With it’s fantastic dialogue and heartfelt storyline Kevin Smith weaves and directs a love story for the ages. Comic book artist Holden McNeil (Ben Afleck) and his longtime buddy and co-artist Banky Edwards (Jason Lee) attend a comics convention and meet another artist, Alyssa Jones (deftly played by Joey Lauren Adams). Much to Banky’s vexation Holden is instantly smitten with Alyssa and the three of them go out for drinks. Most of the conversation is between Banky and Alyssa with Holden begrudgingly sitting on the sidelines. Then Holden discovers something unanticipated about Alyssa and the story takes a sharp turn which profoundly challenges all of them. An absolute must see.

Zac and Miri Make a Porno: Don’t let the title fool you (and it is a great title). This one is well worth the watch. Down and out Zac (Seth Rogan) and Miri (terrifically played by Elizabeth Banks) have been best friends for years and live together as roommates. They attend their high school ten-year reunion and meet up with former classmate Brandon and discover how lucrative the adult film business is. Zac concocts a desperate idea: what if he and Miri made a porno movie? And what if they film it in the coffee house he works at? And what if they did a sex scene together? Rounded out by an engaging motley crew Zac and Miri Make a Porno is a wonderfully raunchy romp.

STREAM OF THE WEEK EXTRA-CHRISTINE-Netflix

I am going to recommend one last film which is not a comedy, but it is leaving Netflix Streaming on May 16th and I wanted to give it a mention because it is probably one that gets overlooked. It’s a 2016 film called Christine and no it’s not about a car. It’s a true story about a woman named Christine Chubbuck who worked as a news reporter for Sarasota, Florida in the 1970’s. She is highly intelligent, ahead of her time and very misunderstood. When she finds out some of the team from the station is being promoted to a station in Baltimore, she does everything in her power to get the job. Christine is brilliantly played by Rebecca Hall and when I first saw the film, I was certain she was going to get an Oscar nomination. But alas the Academy passed her over. This film much like the one about the car is not for the squeamish. But it is well worth the watch if you can catch it before May 16th.

SMART FILMS FOR SMART KIDS-HUGO-Netflix

Hugo is a gorgeous looking and highly engaging film based on the children’s book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. It is beautifully directed by Martin Scorsese and tells the tale of an orphan boy named Hugo who lives in a train station in Paris in the 1930’s. His father left him a mechanical man, but he does not have the key with which to make it work. Hugo gets himself in dire straits when he meets a stern shopkeeper named George. Hugo finds out George has a plucky goddaughter named Isabella he takes care of who joins forces with Hugo on their search for the missing key. Rarely do we get a kid’s film these days that has as smart a story so vividly brought to life that both adults and children can enjoy. Sacha Baron Cohen also terns in a terrific performance as a bitter station inspector.