MARAUDING FILMS

Was it really? I care for it. For one, it seemed to long.

The Joker was great. He liked chaos and he went at with a passion. The fact they told us how much he liked chaos was a little irritating but over all I thought his character was a very bright spot in a overwhelming dark film.

The bank heist was great. I loved it. It really set the tone for what I thought would be a fun movie. All the bad guys looked and acted like comic book bad guys worried about their cash. It really felt right. Then the Joker came out and didn’t overplay it like I thought he might after all the hype. He kept his cards tight to his vest, leaving us to wonder can he back this up. BTW, I’ve always heard said, “Close to the vest”, yet they said, “Close the chest” repeatedly. I’ll have to look that up.

When I met Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes I didn’t figure them for a couple and was surprised to see them as couple later on which really made it hard to accept the loss of his woman as a catalyst to him becoming Two Face. Throughout the picture I didn’t care for Mr. Dent, but when he became Two Face well….Flipping a coin for every fricking person got irritating. I remember meeting Two Face when Tommy Lee Jones played him and the character was interesting, and the make up Geez, that seemed way over the top. I would’ve made it more sinister since that is the nature of one side of the character.

Christian Bale….I love him, but either he is being under used or he isn’t right for Batman. And why is Batman a whiny baby that has lost his compass. I don’t like this Batman. And if you’re gonna make Batman torn between upright morals then don’t put him in an interrogation room with the Joker in front of a bunch corrupt cops and have him beat the man for information. This part felt wrong. Is Batman Good is Batman Bad? Do he like being Batman? The movie posed these questions and didn’t answer them. Batman actually became a martyr in the end. How the hell did we arrive there?

Under used Actors. How about Gary Oldman….I want to see this guy play a bad guy or how about a conflicted cop or DA. Now we’re talking. Having him play Gordon is like having him step in for background work. Extra………Gary Oldman. And I have to say my faith has been restored in Eric Roberts. He can be a very fine actor in the right part and this was a very good part for him.

The movie left me leaving confused. It seemed like it wanted be more complex, it wanted to be smarter and it just came out convoluted despite it’s brightest light the Joker. See the Joker was old school bad guy. He even said it, “I don’t scheme”. He just likes to watch the world burn, it’s what bad guys in comic books do. And I think we can all remember what hero’s do……

“$90.00 for 10 pitches anytime, PLUS ScriptCoach will edit one query letter of your choosing”. That’s the claim, but what I received back could hardly be called a query letter. I received a email stating that he didn’t understand my query letter and  a form letter that was a, ” fill in the blanks”, sort of thing. Disappointed is an under statement. I worked long and hard on my pitch and I was really looking forward to see what a “Pro” would do with it. Looks like I will have to keep waiting. I am going to write back and let you all know how they respond because I was really looking forward to this service but now I am getting a little skeptical.

Well I just finished a rewrite on the first draft yesterday and I’ve already found a new place to try it out on, www.your-insider.com. I read about it in the new “Creative Screenwriting” magazine I picked up at Borders last night.

Why did I choose to spend $77(it’s actually $87 up from $57 at premiere but if you mention “creative screenwriting” you get a ten dollar discount.) on this new outlet? First if he likes the script, he’ll try to front it through his connections. Yeah, we’ve all heard this, but there has got to be some people who can do this right? Or else we’d all walk around with negative thoughts and not show or promote our scripts. What I really like though is he said he will give notes depending on what the script needs. If it needs 2 pages or if it needs 10 pages it will receive it. I will keep you posted and look forward to reviewing this new service.

That’s right and I just finished a rewrite of my script “Death rides shotgun”. It was a tough ride. I found a couple books on the subject but they really only contained a first chapter on the subject and the rest was dedicated to screenwriting basics. Something that did catch my eye though was that you should look at rewriting as a chance to get it right. Like a armchair quarterback or having twenty twenty hindsight. What’s tough to get past is moving on. I just want to move on to the next project. I think in some ways I maybe afraid to look at it again.for fear of finding writing that is subpar and not as good as I remember writing.it.

The biggest problem I found was reading the script. Let me explain. While reading it I have a tendency to make corrections as I read. As long as they are grammer and spelling they don’t seem to hamper the read,(currently I am in the process of relearning grammer). The problem comes up when you find dialogue or Action that you don’t care for or maybe you don’t understand it, (this has happened). I start to find myself bogged down in these details and I lose my place when I leave the keyboard to think it over and quickly forget about it.

So I have developed a technique that works for me. I read through quickly just making grammer and spelling corrections. While reading I have a stack of index card which I number according to scenes. On the top I will put a brief description and number. If I don’t like the scene I put why in the body of the card. I also put a star next to the scene number and then I put back in the stack. This way when I am done reading I can pull a card and think the scene over, leaving it on my keyboard so I don’t forget and can constantly have it near the top of my thoughts. It works good.

I’ve been gone for awhile mainly cause I don’t see the life of a filmmaker that interesting but I guess it’s not supposed to super exciting and it will help flesh out my thoughts so stick with me. So now that my script is finished I am going to try to send it out into the world. This will involve coverage, consulting, cold calling, contests and pitchfest and lots more. I will keep you up to date with the ups and the downs as I learn to take a script from my desk to sale or production. I think I will try a service called Virtualpitchfest. com first as it seems very easy and targeted. I could be wrong but at ninety bucks I won’t be out that much and it’s a start. They say you’ll get a reply in five days. I’ll let you know.