AHHHHHHHHHHHH....

Sweet Relief.

Look to the right.

AN UPDATE...

Hey. Hey. Since the anonymous commenter from the previous post asked so nicely...

As you can see from the PROGRESS BAR to the right, I am almost finished with the second draft of ADVENTURES IN MILK. This draft has been quite a challenge. One of the notes I got was to remove one of the characters. I thought it might be an easy task, but I must have woven him into the story more than I thought. I miss the character but, it really does help simplify the script and I actually was thinking he didn't fit while I was writing the first draft, but by the end I found a way to integrate him and give him an important role in the climax. When they say 'kill your babies' it's not only ideas, it's characters too.

On a slightly side note... I realize that my posting here is few are far between. The reason (excuse?) is that legally I cannot say too much about the project. Yeah, I know, awesome to have a blog about a project you can't really talk about or show art from. Ha. So, what I've decided to do is start another Blog! Yeah!

I have been working on getting a short live-action film going. I want to shoot it this summer so hopefully the posts will come faster and more frequently. Plus, it's MY project and I can blab about it as much as I want. So there. Anyway, if you're interested you can find the new blog HERE. I hope you find it entertaining and informative.

Meanwhile, I will keep updating this blog as long as the law allows!

Thanks for sticking around!
Chris

"SPEC-CETERA"

With the writers strike going well into its third month, I wonder what most of you are doing in between the picketing. Might I suggest taking a course at the UCLA EXTENSION WRITER'S PROGRAM. I took the CRAFTING THE COMEDY SCREENPLAY with STEPHEN MAZUR a few years back. He also teaches the 8 SEQUENCE APPROACH. Not only is the class informative, but it is also very fun. Stephen, who is not only smart, but funny, helps every student in the class develop their idea (which you supply) into a great STEP OUTLINE that you get to turn into a hilarious screenplay and awesome spec to shop around when the strike is over. I am going to (finally) start writing the script for the idea i brought to the class. I think that the Winter semester has already begun, but check to see if he is teaching in the spring. It is well worth the time and the money!

Chris

FINALLY!!!

Well, as you can see in the color bars to the right, I finished my first draft. Yes, I muscled through the below mentioned FUNK and finally wrote FADE OUT. Although I only had 8 weeks to write it (in my spare time) I wish that I had about 4 more weeks to "sweeten" it before turning it in. I am 30% happy with it. I figure if I gain a small percentage of happiness with each draft (3 drafts that I have to do), I should be about 65% - 70% happy by the time I get to the punch-up phase, when I get to hang out with my funny friends and come up with better jokes and dialogue than the ones I have written now.

I guess I feel pretty proud of the achievement of putting 94 pages of script to paper. And I am also happy to have solved all of the outline issues that I was having. I should feel relieved but I think the terror is just starting. This whole time it's just been me reading it. Now, there are people who are going to read it and give notes and opinions etc. It's not that I don't expect to have notes on a first draft, but as most of you writers know, the script is the like the stripping away of the flesh and the notes sting like salt.

If I really think about it, it's a good thing. It'll be nice to have notes from a new perspective. I am just too close to it now. I am hoping the notes don't really come in for a few weeks. That way I can get the distance I need from the first draft to start the second draft in earnest. Fingers crossed! I'm going to have a drink.

Until then!
Chris

FUNK

You ever get to that point in your writing where you feel like everything you've done so far sucks? Yeah, me too. That's where I am now. Typically I can surf the web or read a book or watch a movie to find some inspiration, but currently all of these things just depress me. I start to question my own ability (I always do... but now it's magnified) as well as my goals and where I am with them and why I haven't achieved them yet. It is an ugly downward spiral. I know that this a normal stage of writing (much like the 5 stages of grieving) and that I just have to muscle through this first draft but, I gotta say it is no fun.

Do you ever get this way? How do you rise above?

Ugh.

CREATING COMIC CHARACTERS

Okay, so you've got your story and you think it's pretty darn good. (I'm speaking in third person about myself) Now is the time to develop your characters in such a way that will render your story obsolete. (still speaking about myself) Okay, it's not that drastic, but it can be.

Creating characters, or should I say comic characters is both fun and difficult at the same time. We all want our characters to be multi-faceted and have depth, but I think that you cannot know your character that well until you start writing or boarding for him/her and start putting them into situations. Dexter from Dexter's Lab was a pretty well figured out character right from the start, but all of the nuances that we know and love about Dexter only came after many season's of fine tuning and experimenting. It's a good place to get to with your character but you need a solid foundation to start from. How? Well I found a great way to create comic characters that is not only fun, but easy enough to generate many comic characters and see which one fits best with your story without expelling to much time and energy.

There are many books on creating characters and I am sure there are one or two that are the most popular. I, on the other hand, use a book called THE COMIC TOOLBOX by John Vorhaus. It's a book on "how to be funny even if you're not." There are a lot of useful tips in there on writing jokes and comedy in general. There are even a few chapters on the basic steps of story telling in a screen play. The chapter I really love is the one on creating comic characters and it is the one I will be quoting and referencing here.

There are four basic elements that make up your comic character. They are:
1. Comic Perspective
2. Exaggeration
3. Flaws
4. Humanity

COMIC PERSPECTIVE is simply the unique and quirky way your character looks at the world. Every thought, every idea and every reaction you character has needs to "filter" through their perspective. I like to call it looking at the world through your characters glasses. For example, Gracie Allen (of Burns and Allen fame) was INNOCENT. Everything she said and did was INNOCENT. One of the best examples of this is Jack Benny. His comic perspective (among others) is cheap. There is a skit where Jack is being held up at gunpoint by a robber. When the robber says "Your money or your life" Jack Benny answers "I'm thinking." It's Jack's cheap comic perspective that tells us that he might just value his money over his life and what makes it funny.

EXAGGERATION is taking your characters comic perspective and stretching it and pushing it so far out there that it far enough from our own perspectives in life that it starts to be funny. Recalling Gracie Allen, she was not only innocent she was the ultimate innocent. Dudley Moore as Arthur was not only a drunk he was the drunkest drunk. Jerry Lewis (used to be) the biggest bumbler the world ever knew. He not only acted bumblng he thought it. Don't be afraid to push your character to the extremes of their comic perspective.

FLAWS are a failing or negative quality in your comic character that opens up an emotional distance between them and the audience so that the audience can comfortably laugh at them with out feeling as though their pain is too close to home and therefore not funny. Sam Malone's flaw is egomania. Diane Chamber's flaw is snobbishness.Scrooge's flaw is greed. Dean Martin's flaw is drunkeness. Murphy Brown's flaw is stubborness. Flaws don't have to always be bad traits but taken to the exaggerated level can make them abnormal and thus distance them from the audience. Vorhaus' example of this is Charlie Brown's flaw is his trusting nature. Huh? How is that a flaw? The flaw is that he trusts TOO MUCH (more than you or I might) and thus let's us laugh every time Lucy pulls that football away.

HUMANITY, unlike flaws which separates the audience from the charcter, builds a bridge between us and the character so that we can care about them. The sure fire way to engage your audience and make them want to go on your hero's adventure is to get them to care about your character. You must arouse symapthy and empathy in your audience toward your hero. You are supposed to like the hero and the hero is supposed to be like you. If that happen, you engage emotionally and will gladly undertake his/her journey with them. If you want your character to have the legs to be consistantly funny through the life of your story, your audience must feel a part of the experience.

Building your chracter off of these basic elements will give you a great starting place. In some instances this might be enough. But don't be afraid to continue molding and fine tuning your character. I only touched the surface of the basic ideas brought forth in The Comic Toolbox. If you are interested in reading about this technique (or tool) further, I really recommend going out and buying this book.

See you next time!
Chris

MARY BLAIR

Hi! I wanted to share this. Anyone who is interested or a fan of the great MARY BLAIR please click the title of this post. Some nice stuff.

Chris