A certain cache has just been linked to by a certain screenwriter. Go. Enjoy. And give thanks.
Point & Click
I managed to get the number of Unread posts down to less than 200 when I add a few new feeds – and phwappp as the Unread posts leap gaily to 315. Fine. I can keep up with my essential daily reading out of the way. If I don’t sleep.
- There is life after How To Write Screenplays – Badly – scribe Jeremy Slater has himself a new blog: Hi My Name is Jeremy Slater. The blogging scriptwriter field may be pretty crowded but few – very few – blogs are as deliciously laugh out loud as Mr Slater’s.
- For a hands-on approach to TV-writing, Jill Golick‘s Running With My Eyes Closed is a fantastic resource complete with case studies. (Look! A breakdown of The Wire pilot!)
- TV writer and producer (Millenium, Medical Investigation, and Killer Instinct) Kay Reindl has a badass blog called seriocity. Her honesty about her travails are searing and refreshing – and a reminder that you mess with writers at your peril. (Fedora-tip to the once quiet Lee Thomson for Mesdames Golick and Reindl.)
- Check out ammani over at filthy, funny, flawed, gorgeous for bite-sized prose that resonates. Personal favourites so far are this and this. (Fedora-tip to The Goddess who I’ve recently gotten addicted to blog-reading.)
- And finally, thanks to National Radio, I discovered that the mercilessly acerbic and clinically hysterical comedian Mike Loder has a website. Sweeet. No blog but it has some brilliant pieces on jury service and the annual Erotica expo.
Enjoy.
Something Old, Something New
Jed Mercurio, creator of the excellent, visceral, Bodies, wrote this about adapting novels for the screen. What I found most interesting was –
Cynics argue that drama adaptations for television demonstrate a lack of enthusiasm for original material or, worse, a lack of quality in original scripts. I disagree with both propositions. Commissioners crave original drama, and many (if not most) writers prefer to create their own material, and most (if not all) of them feel more attached to their original script than an adaptation. But marketing original drama isn’t easy. … The audience doesn’t know the story or the characters. That’s hard to explain in a trailer or a billboard poster.
As an audience member, I must confess to a double standard: I want more of the same – but different.
I work hard at trying something completely new though. How else could I have found and sworn by Bodies or The Wire – or even Green Wing or The Insiders Guides to Love and Happiness?
What I admire most about these series is the sheer depth, and complexity of story and character that’s packed into each forty-five minute episode. It didn’t matter if it was a procedural or soap. The writing, directing and acting is so good that the underlying structure is barely noticed.
Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman are my poster boys for giving more of the same… but different. They showed that even the tired superhero, horror and fantasy genres of comicdom – and their audiences – could be treated just as seriously as any other form of ‘real’ literature – with maturity and intelligence.
I returned to comic-reading in the last few years – one could hazard that it was a precursor to my true return to reading. And upon my return I’ve found the pleasures of Warren Ellis and Darick Robertson‘s blistering Transmetropolitan, Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon‘s heart- and gut-wrenching Preacher, and David Lapham‘s mindblowing Stray Bullets. These – and more – are just proof-positive that, just as the good doctor purred,
It is important to always try new things.
(Heads-up courtesy Lee Thomson.)
Point and Click
- Mr T over at Unkreative has finished – well, 98% finished – principal photography on 5. Onwards with post it is. Don’t forget to cruise some nice pics here.
- Writer and director of Narc and the Ticker segment of BMW’s uber-cool The Hire ad series, Joe Carnahan, has a feature coming out: Smokin’ Aces. He’s pluggin’ it aplenty at Smokin’ Joe Carnahan. Looks fun – it’s my first must-see film of 2007.
- The boys at How to Write Screenplays… Badly have given notice. Goddamnit. They were merciless. They were hilarious. I’ll miss the bastards.
- After some period of silence Josh Friedman has a heartfelt post at I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing.
- And I’ve tripped over a couple of UK blogs to recommend: Lee Thomson‘s The Light, It Hurts is a humorous and very personable blog about screenwriting around a full-time job; and Danny Stack‘s Scriptwriting & Script Reading in the UK is a resource rich site on the nuts and bolts of screenwriting.