Horrorphile on SCREENWRITING LEAVE

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Horrorphile - October 2008

Horrorphile on SCREENWRITING LEAVE

October 31st 2008 05:37

My fellow horrorphiles and True Believers, I am talking a hiatus from my blog for a couple of weeks to delve deep into the dark and wicked pool of my imagination to conjure an exciting and provocative new draft to a feature screenplay I started four years ago.

Actually the concept was born back in the early 90s when I was at university doing film and drama studies. It was only a paragraph or two, a loose premise – an erotic nightmare - that concerned a male artist and a female demon. I had a title, imagery, and narrative ideas.

Over the years I’d jot down on a bit of paper a visual or character idea, but it was really just a premise that existed for more than ten years. Then one September four years ago I decided to put pen to paper proper. In the space of a week I had written the treatment, and in another couple of weeks I’d completed a 100-page first draft. It just poured out of me.

I had a talented and learned writer friend of mine read the script. A couple of days later he sat me down, said he liked it, and then proceeded to tear it to shreds. That was fun. So I retreated back to my writer’s bubble and tweaked the draft. I tweaked it something nasty and found myself with a revised first draft that was considerably better than the one I’d let my friend read.

And then I shelved it. I knew I’d come back to it, but I needed some distance, time out to let the story brood and fester. I watched movies that seemed to lift ideas straight from my screenplay, movies that dabbled with the same adult, boundary-pushing concepts I’d formed all those years ago. It was frustrating.

The Seduction of Lilith by Boris Vallejo

Earlier this year I took a thoroughly enlightening and creatively invigorating two-day course in screenplay story structuring that re-inspired me and taught me some valuable lessons in the so-called rules for writing a screenplay that sells (ie following the much-touted three act hero’s journey structure). I thought that if I can master the rules, then I can break them.

The class, which was tutored through Metro Screen by the wonderful Karel Segers, studied several commercially successful movies that use these rules and formula and have applied them to their stories, creating narrative arcs that have been used time and time again, yet each of these movies remain characteristically individualistic and uniquely stylish.

I was very impressed with Karel’s approach. We discussed how there are certain movies we adore, that have fundamentally flawed screenplays (Blade Runner), while there are other “children’s” movies that slip under the radar whose screenplays are brilliantly engineered, such as the Pixar animated movies i.e. The Incredibles (and more recently the amazing WALL-E).

Karel kept reminding the class that when it comes to writing the first (or next) draft procrastination is a virtue. The longer you can tweak the story ideas in your head before committing them to paper the better the screenplay will be. And so I have been procrastinating something chronic, and loving it. The best time for me is in the steam room at the gym. My body sweats and sweats and sweats, as my mind tweaks and tweaks and tweaks.

Now I am ready to begin work on a second draft of my screenplay.

Which brings me to the real point of this post; in order to commit to a high level of concentration I am taking leave of my blog for a couple of weeks as of this weekend. I will still be checking comments every few days, but I won’t be posting anything new.

I trust you understand. I will be back with a vengeance. Happy Halloween! Ciao for now.

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: bait

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Comments

10 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by David O'Connell

October 31st 2008 06:14

Screen Fanatic

All the very best of luck with it Bryn, hope to see it transformed onto the big screen in the near future!

Comment by Bryn

October 31st 2008 06:28

Horrorphile

Muchos gracias David!! I'll probably need a wealthy, cinema-loving European benefactor to get this beast funded! It's far from being "the great Australian story", if you get my drift. Fingers crossed!

Comment by Anonymous

October 31st 2008 12:10

I'm sure it'll be perfectly horrifying....

Good luck Bryn! Knock 'em DEAD!!

-lilith/Kemi

Comment by Damo

November 1st 2008 09:43

For the Sake of Argument
My Apologetics

Cool Bryn

Now go scare the crap out of everyone

Comment by Bryn

November 2nd 2008 22:50

Horrorphile

Lilith, thank you! Did you like the pic of you I used?

Damo, cheers dude ... will do.

Comment by KylieW

November 6th 2008 01:04

Celebrity Obsession

Good luck. I'm very impressed with your efforts!!!

Comment by Michaelie

November 13th 2008 22:54

Flick Wit

May the forces of darkness guide your pen!

Mich

Comment by Michaelie

November 13th 2008 22:57

Flick Wit

May the forces of darkness guide your pen!

Mich

Comment by Michaelie

November 13th 2008 23:01

Flick Wit

I meant it so much I had to repeat myself.

Comment by Bryn

November 15th 2008 01:31

Horrorphile

Thanks Mich!!

So nice to hear it twice!

[ Previous - Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! ]

[ Next - Halloween III: Season of the Witch ]

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