Darth Venal said:
I really do want to read that book! I didn't realise I'd gotten so far out of the loop.c
You can read some great articles from the book on the official website, right here.
Darth Venal said:
I know all about working at night and then spoiling the day, it's a habit I've thankfully just about gotten out of. Can I ask what it is you're working on?
Sure. As I said I'm trying to do some screenwriting. My love for movies and the art of cinema has led me to many places (including here) and I really hope that I can do something in the industry. I know it's wishful thinking and an impossible thing to do. But one must start somewhere right?
Originally I was far more interested in telling the story (directing) than coming up with it (screenwriting) and I never thought I would've had so much fun doing this. Don't get me wrong, the process of writing is not an easy one. When I'm tired - like I am now - it's impossible to put something of some value on paper. I'm very demanding of myself so when I come up with something I have to really really like it before I even consider putting it into my draft.
I've found someone who expressed interest in one of my projects, so I wrote down a treatment for him. But the problem I keep facing is, that when I get into writing the final product it always differs from my treatment. For example, I'm writing an action comedy, which quickly turned into a mind bender action comedy with some horror in it. I was quite pleased with what I wrote, and showed it some of my friends. They loved the hell out of it, but of course, there is not much interest in these types of movies, since they don't appeal to a very large audience. It's just that I don't want to sacrifice good story telling for ... money. To quote Simon Pegg: "Studio's will always encourage you to write something that appeals to everyone, but if you do that you'll quickly learn that you usually end up with something that appeals to no one." I think he said it in one of the interview for Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz (brilliant stuff btw!)
Since I'm also not a native English speaker (as you probably already noticed, from Belgium) I have to really watch out for grammatical errors. I was afraid that writing dialogue would be hard, but that seems to be my strength. Which of course, is a good thing. If my dialogue descriptions suck no one will notice in the final product, right?
Anyway, to make a long story short. I'm currently working on a SW fan film. Quite ambitious. I wrote down a story, I'm working on the fourth and last draft now. I had plans to shoot this summer, but due to problems with our shooting location this was delayed. Which is a pitty, since we planned on releasing a teaser trailer today.
But anyway, I'm really happy with the story. It's set ten years before PM, and although not meant as a retcon explains a lot of things that weren't explained in the prequels and it originated as a simple story idea but quickly turned into an attempt to not only give more depth to the prequels but ultimately update the definition of fan film and as an attempt to show Georgey that there is still hope for SW.
The technical and monetary aspect will be the most challenging, although I don't think money will be much of a problem. And technically I know exactly how to do it. The shooting that is. I've been working for a long time on acheiving the 35mm look in After FX, spent time deciding on which camera to use, etc... It will be challenging, though. I'm also planning to introduce well known characters, such as Yoda (I know, CG, it's a shame but a puppet will be much harder) Mace and some others. I was afraid that this wouldn't be possible, but after seeing what Zbrush artists and riggers could pull off today I think I won't have to alter my screenplay after all. (I write without restrain, if I come up with something good I don't care if it cannot be done, it's the only way to get to a good story, just let go and write) I think actually the result will be quite awesome, ultimately because of the talented people I'll be working with. Although I'm searching for a lot more help for post production. But since we still have to shoot everything that'll still be a while.
And it just occured to me that I'm totally going off topic... Damn. So sorry! Venal, if you want to talk , just PM me, okay? You seem like a very talented guy and it's always nice to discuss ideas with a creative mind.
Oh, and the reason why I had to work so much is because I'm doing some animated storyboards for one of my actors and I'm figuring out which cut of the scene I'm going to use... But again, this is REALLY off topic.
Don't worry about typos; the only one I really noticed was, ironically, "typo's". :-)
ROFL. Silly me.
Hope you get something out of your nap. Being tired sucks.
Agreed. But I was afraid that I wouldn't get to taking a nap and... since it's thirty years since the teaser for Empire was released I did get some "rest" by watching some of the movie. Great stuff... great stuff...
I really need to go feed the cat now... I hope I answered some of your questions.
~Darth