Mother of Marfa! A Film Festival
by Jaden
Marfa, Texas rose over the horizon into my view when my unconventional 
brother and his herd of exceptionally talented artist friends migrated there from San Francisco, California.
What everyone wonders is: Why on earth would you move out to Texas and why are you talking with a reversed-lisp? (Marfa is spelled with f and not th; it takes a long time to accept this.)
Marfa is said to be a microcosm of Manhattan in the way that 10% of the 2,000 town folk are art enthusiasts who open galleries, create art installations, and host performances.
Oscar winning films shot in Marfa are: There Will Be Blood (2007), No Country for Old Men (2007), and Giant (1956), a fantastic film starring James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson.
Do you love actors like Dennis Hopper and Daniel Day-Lewis? If so, go to marfafilmfestival.org to learn more about the Marfa Film Festival that gallops May 1 - 5, 2008 in Texas. If you are spontaneous and have some extra rope, jump on a plane and rent a horse to get yourself out to Marfa for a wild and weird filmophile adventure.
Screenings in the corral are: There Will Be Blood On the Set, Night of the Hunter, True Stories by David Byrne (from Talking Heads), plus 40 other feature, short and experimental films.
While you are out there, check out the Marfa Lights at night, it is some kind of alien-science-military-astronomical-electro-thermal-automobile-mountain-quartz mystery.
Sunday Picture Post 8 / Tip: Eat & Sleep
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: EAT & SLEEP
This is going to be one of those “do as I say, not as I do” advice bits.
Exhausted and starving at the time of writing this post, having eaten a bowl of pea soup and a fruit shake today, I can only muster enough brain power to tell you to eat 3 healthy meals a day and to get at least 6 hours of sleep so you don’t get stuck reading the same sentence 50 times, like I am write now. (Oops, I mean, right now.) Lack of food and rest will give you a scuttle brain, resulting in loss of productivity and creativity.
14-Ton Underwood Vintage Typewriter
by Jaden
Do you love old typewriters like I do?
Check out this giant 14-ton Underwood typewriter from 1930 that I found on Modern Mechanix. This giant typewriter actually functions like a regular sized typewriter.
Where did they get the paper? That’s what I want to know.
What is your favorite typewriter? Did you learn how to type on a typewriter?
Turning Bad Guys into Good Characters
by Jaden
The image is from the Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange, which was adapted from a novel by Anthony Burgess.
Researching Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, I discovered that he had a traumatic childhood and distressed adulthood. Born in England 1917, Burgess was an infant when his mother and sister died; his father was a drunken absentee. As a young adult, Burgess endured and served in World War II. For the rest of his life, Burgess blazed a rebellious path: a drinker, heavy smoker, and tax evader — just to skim the surface.
Alex, the anti-hero of A Clockwork Orange, divined by Burgess, and played by Malcolm McDowell, is one of the greatest bad guys of all time.
When it comes to creating bad guys or vixens, there is nothing like first hand experience to lend believability to characters.
Pulling from your own dark fantasies or unruly youth is one way to add truth to your fiction.
Another primal way to create an earnest villain is by fashioning him or her after some dastardly person you have known.
If you and everyone you know are goody-two-shoes, you can observe rude or deplorable behavior in public. Explore the imaginary reasons why these people developed as they did and what happened to them on that particular day.
If your entire town is wholesome, then you need to get out and travel. Come to Hollywood for an endless source of evil-doers to inspire you.
Basing fictitious characters on the traits of real people enhances credibility.
What little devils come to your mind?
Sunday Picture Post 7 / Tip: Value
For The Sunday Picture Post, we are going to flip upside-down the saying: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Thousands of words are great if you are writing a novel, but if you are writing a screenplay, you need to do the opposite and be as concise as possible.
Each Sunday I will post a picture. For your screenwriting practice in brevity, in the comments section, please post one or all of the following:
- 1 word describing the theme, mood, or scene
- 1 sentence to describe the scene
- A pitch to sell the entire movie
The more colorful and creative you are, the better! Use any genre.
A good screenwriter is laconic, using a few words to say a lot.
SCREENWRITING TIP OF THE DAY: VALUE
As they say, anything of great value does not come easy.
Imagine working three years to save up for something special that you want. Now imagine someone giving you that very same thing ten minutes after you had conjured the want. The same item would not have the same value to you. It matters how hard you work for it.
Think about dating, people always want the challenge or the person they can’t have.
Monumental structures are not built in a day, they cost enormous amounts of money and often, human life.
For your monumental career, you must have patience, deal with setbacks, and forge ahead to greatness.
When times get tough and you want to give up, just remember that once you succeed, the reward will be equivalent to how hard you have worked for it.
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