Tron: It Sucked

I don’t even want to talk about it. Here’s a picture of Olivia Wilde. And that other gorgeous woman.

The Crazies

Watching the “Crazies.” The opening visual is a flash forward, showing a town destroyed and on fire. Then a caption, “Two Days Earlier.” I like this. It immediately connects the visual with the rest of the story, and build anticipation. I don’t think this technique should be used all the time, which would dilute its impact.

The moment after the flash forward is of the community when everything is okay. The camera follows the sheriff’s car.

Predators

I’m watching the new “Predators.” It uses the same opening as my script, “Forever War.” Disturbing, since I wrote “Forever War” some months ago, and I’m just watching “Predators” today.

Welcome to the Scriptease Blog

Tarantino started out in a video store. Kevin Smith shot “Clerks” in the same convenience store where he once worked. I followed my friend and sometime co-screenwriter to the badlands of Hollywood, landing in the shallow end of the movie-making pond, where the most dangerous, hungry, and ruthless fish are found. My official job title was Assistant Development Executive. My work duties included making coffee, picking up dry-cleaning, but also reading the hundreds of scripts dropped off every week, and providing coverage for each one. It was here I learned the true power and import of the “reader,” the gatekeeper of every script.

Readers gather in herds like wildebeests to talk about work, butt heads, and protect themselves. Everyone talks about what makes a great script, what makes a poor script, and what makes for a marketable script.  I spent a lot of time in these creative klatches. Using what I’d learned, I wrote scripts of my own. I have had three scripts optioned, and have also been hired to write adaptations, a feature-length film and another for an animated series. I’ve consulted on individual screenplays, and for three production companies. I’ve read thousands of scripts for screenwriting competitions and have spoken about screenwriting at conferences across the US.

Everything I’ve learned, both the easy way and the hard, I’ve put into “Scriptease.”

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For professional reasons, I’m not naming names.