In the beginning, there was script...
Eight straight hours locked in a small room with Rick working on script revisions. We didn't quite get all the way through the first half but we made excellent progress. Our goal is to get the show down from 2 hours running time to ninety minutes. No small task. It requires cutting whole scenes and shaving the remaining ones down to just the bare essentials.
There are a couple of writers whose influences have been tremendous on this project, and whose advice we return to again and again when making tough choices and comforting one other after hacking up scenes we love or otherwise 'killing our darlings.'
One of our biggest role models is Cameron Crowe, who in the commentary for "Almost Famous" talks about the scenes he cut at the beginning of the movie which, while interesting and insightful, kept the story off the path. Crowe says that, though he loved the scenes, he knew he had to "just get the kid on the road." Rick throws that line at me often when I start getting all arty-farty and try to inject yet even more backstory or unimportant character developments into the script. "Just get the kid on the road!" he hollers. And then I silently curse Cameron Crowe for ever filling Rick's head with such sensible crap. Stupid boys tryinna kill my art...
Another writer whose influence looms large is Stephen King. Not because we're horror or suspense writers, but because King's book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is an excellent reference for any writer of any genre. I bought it on CD -- read by King himself -- and I've listened to it at least a dozen times. It's such a fucking fantastic book of entertaining anecdotes and practical writing tips. Wil Wheaton said, at his Powell's reading this past summer, that he keeps only three books on his desk: On Writing, The Elements of Style and the AP Stylebook. I would add The Screenwriter's Bible and a good, hearty thesaurus to that list, and you're ready to take on the world!
By the way, did you know that Wil Wheaton was recently cast in a guest role on CSI? He talks all about it in his blog, describing the audition process all the way through to shooting. He's even got photos of himself in character as a crazy drug addict homeless guy named Walter.
Mmm.... Wil Wheaton....
There are a couple of writers whose influences have been tremendous on this project, and whose advice we return to again and again when making tough choices and comforting one other after hacking up scenes we love or otherwise 'killing our darlings.'
One of our biggest role models is Cameron Crowe, who in the commentary for "Almost Famous" talks about the scenes he cut at the beginning of the movie which, while interesting and insightful, kept the story off the path. Crowe says that, though he loved the scenes, he knew he had to "just get the kid on the road." Rick throws that line at me often when I start getting all arty-farty and try to inject yet even more backstory or unimportant character developments into the script. "Just get the kid on the road!" he hollers. And then I silently curse Cameron Crowe for ever filling Rick's head with such sensible crap. Stupid boys tryinna kill my art...
Another writer whose influence looms large is Stephen King. Not because we're horror or suspense writers, but because King's book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is an excellent reference for any writer of any genre. I bought it on CD -- read by King himself -- and I've listened to it at least a dozen times. It's such a fucking fantastic book of entertaining anecdotes and practical writing tips. Wil Wheaton said, at his Powell's reading this past summer, that he keeps only three books on his desk: On Writing, The Elements of Style and the AP Stylebook. I would add The Screenwriter's Bible and a good, hearty thesaurus to that list, and you're ready to take on the world!
By the way, did you know that Wil Wheaton was recently cast in a guest role on CSI? He talks all about it in his blog, describing the audition process all the way through to shooting. He's even got photos of himself in character as a crazy drug addict homeless guy named Walter.
Mmm.... Wil Wheaton....
2 Comments:
Oops, I thought this was the Bigger than Jesus blog, not the Wil-o-phile blog.
You say that like it's a bad thing...
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