La Bohème

So... You'll never guess what happened!

I went to Romania for those two weeks, necessary in order to get some paperwork done (don't ask!) and I ended up staying for a month -- and loving every second of it!

Bohemian life? Alive and kicking! Woo-hoo! I stayed up all night, almost every night.  My resistance to alcohol has increased dramatically as a result, but why do I talk about myself again, I'm not important; those terrific filmmakers & friends are!

Only I can't talk about them, not the way I would have wanted to.

Of course I ended up putting on my producer's hat (again!) as an OUTSTANDING script was thrown in my lap, but nobody's perfect. I hope I can convince its author to write more in that vein, and to... nope, I can't talk about it here.

I came back with so much energy! And desire to write and to help others write and produce and whatever has to do with this industry, nay, ART!

The scariest part? The unseen, unspeakable pressure of a school... There is no Romanian school, you're going to argue! Enh... I dunno about that. How come after a month of talking to the people there I began to think in terms of minimalist movies? I have never, ever had any desire to write thusly, and now I am doing just that, thank you very much, and with a feeling that I (eeek!) BELONG?

I need to go to the States and counteract that cultural immersion before I start dreaming of being in Cannes myself! Geez! No way!

Cannes

WOW!

Romania has scored big time in Cannes!

I still can't get used to the idea. This is way cool and will have consequences for many of my friends over there, as things are sure to kick into high gear in the industry!

I hear bohemian life over in Bucharest has become extremely intense. The economy is booming, the arts follow, or vice versa? Anyway, I will soon closely inspect the phenomenon and will keep you posted.

These are intriguing and highly inspiring times. There is something in the air, I can sense it, on both sides of the Atlantic. History is being forged in bold, broad moves.

Speaking of which... How cool is that: Cristi Mungiu didn't have anything a year ago, he didn't have the money for his project six months ago, and as we speak he won both the FIPRESCI and the Palme d'Or. He wrote, directed, produced "Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days" in about as much time, on a 600k budget!

There are so many ways to get movies done, that's excellent news! All we need are fantastic stories!

I just discovered Cristi maintains a blog on his movie's site; some of his comments are in English. Lots of links to 432's reviews are posted there as well.

EuRomerican

I've been writing a great deal lately, in many formats, in several languages.

And... I kinda of loved the results!

That has never happened before.

A funny and less expected side effect of that was to realize that the marketing of my scripts is truly secondary to me. First and foremost, I wanted my screenplays to please... my own ridiculously pretentious self. And these days I have been considerably appeased by my own writing. As in: MADE HAPPY!

"Ew, pointless and narcissistic!" some of you are sure to comment.

Well, you know what? I embrace that attitude! And it's more common than you think.

I've been reading a bunch of interviews with famous directors and they are all like, "Hey, make the movies YOU are going to like, forget everything else!". If directors can spend millions to indulge that streak, why can't I write scripts for my own egotistical pleasure? Why should I bend over backwards trying to turn my script into some credible "business plan" the studios are going to buy into? And then turn that over to directors who think, "Hey, why don't I seriously twist this screenplay, make sure I'm making a movie I am going to like, forget the pesky scribe!" Why should I select ideas that are sure to open doors? That I'm positive will be bought? Hell, no! Maybe I'll HAPPEN to work on one of those, if the interests of millions of viewers as perceived by a bunch of executives in Hollywood/elsewhere ever coincided with my own. There! I'm very European these days.

No, I'm not. Actually, I build the stories RIGHT. As if Hollywood wanted them. See? European content, American form.

That's who I am, after all.

So... I MIGHT decide to share my scripts if I find the right director(s).

But the pleasure of turning stories and characters out of one's mind, the pleasure of writing lines that make sense (as in "create" sense, or at least build it anew), that cohere into a separate, credible, illuminating world of one's own creation, that has been mine for a while. It is exquisite and I hope I'll go on enjoying it.

And if it somehow disappears again... by some twist of my whimsical psyche... no big deal. You know what I consider a big deal? For instance, the cherries ripening right outside my window as I type this. Or the roses that have crept up the wall and now try to peek inside, luring the self-absorbed scribe. All that red color, all that perfume and all that sweetness were seeped out of the earth in a few spectacular days by a relentless sun!

Were you paying attention? I hope you do avert your eyes often from those monitors, at least now that spring is committing magic everywhere!

What else...

The Japan/China combo: ditched in favor of a yet unknown destination, something closer and more relaxing, as vacation time got shortened by another emergency. On the upside: next week I'll be in Prague. And I must be in Bucharest for two weeks in June.

Christopher Lockhart has given up on blogging... I have this hunch that he's going to write a book instead. But that's just me (trying to remotely control his mind, shamelessly and anonymously...)

Actually, everybody seems to be blogging less, living more. Great!

Five Things You Didn't Know About Me

TJ tagged me with this one.

It's not that difficult, because well, you know almost nothing about me. I'll try to keep this short and irrelevant, just to resist the natural temptation of building a character here.

So...

The Top... or should I say, The Bottom Five Things You Didn't Know About Me are:

1. I could spend days listening to old people's stories.
2. Nowadays, I mutter "Vive la France!" after (almost) every meal.
3. I quit smoking two years ago.
4. Riding mountain bikes and snorkeling are the only forms of solitary exercise that I can stand, all the rest seem insanely boring to me.
5. I take Viennese Waltz lessons.

Actually, why is it so difficult to dissimulate behind things "people don't know about you"? I tried several things before finally having to settle on something. Each time there was a different "Me", always more... personal than I was trying to come across.

Intriguing device. This could probably be used in building characters. "What are the five things your Protagonist would write if tagged thusly?"

Thanks, TJ! :)

(I won't pass this one along because I haven't "networked" sufficiently within the blogosphere.)

"Complications Ensue" ;)

Scripts On A Plane

Just a quick update here.

I'm stuck in Rewriteland for now, on somebody else's thriller.

It looks like vacation is coming sooner this year, with Tokyo and Shanghai, possibly a little Romania thrown in for good measure. Then it's LA for July and August. Yay! Will my script be ready until then? That is the question.

I doub... Undoubtedly, I meant! Damn! I'll do it even if I have to work on the plane, while crisscrossing the skies*. And I'll do that even if there are snakes on the damn plane!

"The snakes in Spain stay mainly on the plane." -- thank you, Eliza.

I put aside about 60 books for a quick review and listing on this blog. Which is a daunting task, no wonder I'm in no rush to do it. Plus, there is this temptation to re-read a chapter here, a chapter there, and days just vanish...

I keep finding cool blogs and enjoying others' universes. I recently loved reading Koepp's interview on Media Bistro. And was intrigued by the severe review Darwin Mayflower (over at Screenwriter's Utopia) wrote for the famous "Steinbeck's Point of View" by Brandon Camp and Mike Thompson (for which the scribes will apparently get in excess of 6 mil.) So what if that's old news and you had all read it? It was very fresh to me. Six years is not that old in this industry. The movie is still not made, so...

I have to admit that I would have never guessed what it was about. I had assumed some heavy duty biopic winking compulsively at the Oscars. But... Oh, well, that means planes are definitely in. "LOL!" (gotta love Unk's hearty and contagious virtual laughter! BTW, his site is awesome, and everyone who's anyone says so. Check out his forum as well; I can't quite comprehend why it hasn't taken off with more gusto... Unk may seem forbidding when he's wired, but he's actually... really NICE!)

*I know, I'm showing little to no consideration for the planet when travelling so frequently, but it's not my fault if my family found it fit to establish themselves in all those remote parts of the world. We're all nuts. Let it however be noted in my favor that I recently gave up on buying the car of my dreams, because it is a shameless gas-guzzler extraordinaire. :(

My Script Bumps Auspiciously Into "Two Adverbs"

So, I started that treatment. It simply took off. Strange things happened. After having carefully chosen the name of my protagonist, the moment I started to fill in the first Final Draft index card, another name landed on the screen, a name I had never even considered, but which felt perfectly right!

Under that spell, everything started to unravel. Moments, events, even dialogue were popping in my mind with urgency; I was typing as fast as I could under the imperiousness of ideas and of the dramatic moments created. Like I was taking dictation. Another character I had never envisaged was just "requested" by circumstances and soon enough I was foreshadowing and connecting dots in a new world of my own.

After eleven scenes I stopped and wrote about the experience. And that's when the flow broke, but I let it go, I wasn't upset, for some reason... (I wish I hadn't taken that ESP test. Now I'm haunted by my own "precognition" powers... I can't start believing in THAT now! Although it explains so much of my behavior and yes, moments of clarity in advance of many situations, but that's cheap, nah... I'd much rather think of those as moments of... empathy, or life-as-a-story type wishful thinking...)

So I embarked on a web cruise, did some tests, and then... I went to Joshua's blog-within-website (martially named The Daily Dojo) and checked out his latest posts, where I discovered a link that was to change my life.

Maybe yours, too?

Drum roll! (What?!? :))))

Introducing the Two Adverbs initiative, and most of all, Quintessential Blog "The Inside Pitch", which Christopher Lockhart, my new guru in screenwriting, has been maintaining for two years. (Where was I? Huh? What the hell was I looking at on this world wide web?).

I still haven't finished reading it. I'm savoring it properly. Of course, the script that I've been reading hundreds of books for, the very script I had just started writing so magically, became a secondary thing.

I am now re-thinking it, as I'm doing the logline exercise.

What a cool device! THE DEVICE!!!

I had once noticed, when in film school, that I worked best when I chose a THEME for a script, in advance of anything else. So I've always been trying to tell myself what exactly I wanted to convey with anything I wrote -- well, not so much these blog posts where unfortunately I just experiment and free-flow/fall, which is a dumb attitude, come to think about it, but in tune with the times. However, this theme-first approach is a very European way of doing things and it allows for so many internal flaws it's not funny. If you don't believe me, go to a European Film Festival. I almost never make it to the movies, I only socialize. Yes, they are THAT BAD! And oh, all those funky AUTEURS have bloody THEMES behind their movies, which they will freely discuss at length. That's when they don't put on the "I'm just an artist, you should do all the talk around my masterpiece" cloak.

If I had magic powers, I'd force all of these sinful "auteurs" into the logline sobering exercise. Post fact. Then make them give back all the money the state funds lavished upon them! That is, unless they're able to come up with good loglines for their productions and the reason why these failed to turn in the slightest profit is thus proven to lie elsewhere. Like, in the American überdominance of the market. Sheesh!

Christopher Lockhart's blog reads like a good book, and his insight is invaluable. We're talking someone who's seen tens of thousands of film concepts and scripts and who takes the time to convey his experience, to build an effective bridge between scribes and the industry!

Sure there are other books, (honestly, his blog is to be judged on a par with the most successful books in the genre), like "The Mailroom", "You'll Never Have Lunch in This Town Again", combined with the McKee "bible" and the Linda Palmer offering or other revealing looks into the biz. I'm not saying you shouldn't read those -- by all means, read everything -- but if you want to then narrow things down into the here and now of it, the realities writers need to consider when sitting down and telling a story for Hollywood -- go to Lockhart's blog and aspire it all.

Christopher is engaging into a serious dialogue with his blog readers. He's been doing all sorts of cool things for them, including logline lotteries (he went as far as to invite other story execs to his house to discuss the winning entries!) Most importantly, he b l o g g e d about all of these things convincingly and powerfully, in an almost incredible attempt to help everyone trying to break into the industry -- not to mention the industry itself, according to a simple equation: less crap landing on those desks = a better world.

This is THE BLOG! I tell ya! Go there NOW! If only for this link, it was worth putting up with the self-indulging stuff dumped within my blog's entries -- for which, curiously enough, I won't apologize.

And also go to Joshua's blog, for his own writing and for a very carefully selected set of links. I feel like ripping them off and posting them here, but hey, he did all the work so that wouldn't be fair.

(On a side note, I also happen to agree with Joshua's enthusiasm for Stephen King's "On Writing".)

Oh, Wait, I Take That Back !

Intrigued, I went ahead and did a more extensive MBTI assessment at Humanmetrics.

It turns out I'm even more of a rarity: I'm not an INTP (Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving) but an INFJ (Introverted iNtuitive Feeling Judging), aka "The Counselor Idealist" aka "The Protector". (Could I also be known as "The Godfather", please? I'd like that very much... "Corleone With Wings"... :))

Did I mention that this puts me into the rarest type, only around one percent of the population (most sources indicate between 0.5 and 1.5%)? No? That's because I don't like to blow (or blog) my own horn.

(You betcha!)

I'm glad that this also explains my psychic streak while definitely establishing my prophetic abilities... :P

I Was Just Passing By...

...and I thought I might post this...

Probably 90% of the people score thusly, but anyway, my narcissism was so indulged that I could not resist sharing...:

Your Personality is Very Rare (INTP)

Your personality type is goofy, imaginative, relaxed, and brilliant. Only about 4% of all people have your personality, including 2% of all women and 6% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

The Unsuspecting Psychic & the Barefoot Pilot

Q: So, how are you doing?

WW: I'm moving along.

Q: Not too excited, are you? It's not going as fast as you'd like it to.

WW: No.

Q: Why not?

WW: Because I keep stumbling upon juicy research.

Q: Uh-oh. I thought your new found mantra for this project was "Fuck research?"

WW: Yeah, but... It turns out that some of the things I wanted my character to feel and do were already felt and done by somebody who really existed back then!

Q: Wow. What's that supposed to mean, that you dreamed up stuff that has already happened? You are like one of those psychics?

WW: I scored high on precognition, not retrocognition when I took the test.

Q: You took a test to see whether you were a psychic?!?

WW: Yep. It said:

"WW, when it comes to psychic abilities, you have an unusually strong talent in the area of Precognition"

Q: And gullibility, they forgot to mention that. Anyway, what does this retrocognition affair mean for your project?

WW: It probably means I will have to change some things, because I'm not writing anyone's biography here.

Q: But you should be proud! It means good intuition and knowledge of the period if you imagined things that were proved right by... history!

WW: Yeah, well, I don't see it that way.

Q: That's because you're upset. How's your writing partner?

WW: She's doing great. Reading some background materials.

Q: Please don't push her down this research slope!

WW: I won't. But this bit was rather essential. Yeah, her life is too interesting to mess up with all these dead people's legacies.

Q: And you call a 300 pages philosophy book a "bit"? Hmm... Anyway, you sound intrigued by your partner's lifestyle. Nay, maybe even envious, are we?

WW: Yeah, my imagination has been under heavy fire from reality lately. As if history weren't enough!

Q: This is what happens when you welcome new people into your life.

WW: I know. And I'm grateful. It's just different.

Q: You're just too lazy to adjust your... "story" accordingly.

WW: You think? What if they don't fit in?

Q: People of a certain caliber and gamut should always fit in.

WW: See, that's where you're wrong! There are so many wonderful people in this world...

Q: "...sometimes I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is going to cave in". Alan Ball, "American Beauty". Cut it out and get back to work... Oh, did you find me a name and a character skin yet?

WW: Umm... How's "The Barefoot Pilot"?

BP: Better than "Q". I'll take it.

WW: "Q" in Star Trek was cool!

But the Barefoot Pilot had already taken off, flying one of those übercool Twin Otter seaplanes.

The Story of My Life

Everything I do must follow the rules of a good story. Everything about me, every project, every relationship, everything!

Why is that? I don't know. Maybe because I started reading (spontaneously, I suspect that I got it all from packaging and TV subtitles) when I was four and then entered a rhythm of three (children's) books a day, until I was, I don't know, twelve? Then I discovered big novels and non-fiction, and kept at it, underlining and copying quotes in my many notebooks. Then there was a combo of fiction and non-fiction ever since, but still, I remained a steady reader, doggedly turning pages and extracting a maximum of pleasure from it.

I don't even watch many movies. Nope. Sorry. I find books way more entertaining. Last night I struggled through "Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire" (da movie) like mad, despite HD and a sound cranked up to the max... Over two hours of boredom. I managed, of course, to identify with Harry, Harry and his moral fiber... Oui. That's exactly who I am. Crossing spells with Valdemacallit. Happily, no friends or allies have succumbed in the process. But I was hurt.

I'll get over it. Life as a story, what can you expect!

Even this blog is conceived as several stories. Once it's done, one will just have to read its major "labels" chronologically. Or not, I don't really care. But, although this is just the beginning, the key one, "Core", already is taking shape. Plus, I sprinkled foreshadowing devices elsewhere. Sick? Who cares? Entertaining... Me, at least...

If you ever entered a real or virtual relationship with me, you should already know that I live and die when it comes to "us" by story rules. Read chronologically, analyzed, all of our communications made up a story that led somewhere. If you were really paying attention, you saw where I was planting the seeds for the next movement. I sometimes plant several clues, I foresee several potential outcomes, and I'm open to them. The next act. I "act" for the ACT, so to speak.

If I ever disappeared from your radar under no ambiguous terms, look behind you! The answers are always there, even clues are lined up properly.

I do drop the ball on some stories, though, I admit it. Like, friends whom I don't keep in close contact with, just as many "stories" that I don't unravel properly for lack of time. So, unless I said something to the effect of "The End", our story is ongoing...

Do I fake anything? Hell, no! I feel everything, and then some! Total drama! I'm not ACTING in the sense of FAKING it. I am ACTING emotionally according to embedded rules of the story. There is a story chip in my head/heart, OK? Myths and stories gobbled insatiably from an early age placed it there. And don't kid yourselves, you have one too. Be it from your computer games, or movies, or soaps...

Story rules our lives.

I'm more proactive about it than most people. I've had an interesting life, as a result. Sure, when I start telling the story of it, people watch sometimes in disbelief, it sounds so damn much like a movie! Like I MADE IT ALL UP! Only, yes, I did MAKE IT ALL UP, as in "built it so", not as in "invented/fabulated". I am aware and slightly embarrassed, I say, "Hey, I just happen to be in the right place, at the right time, "happy go lucky" kinda Beagle. Forrest Gump? That's me, folks!" But I know I built every damn "plot point" to perfection.

So... what happens when my story intersects others' stories? We, of course, battle. Like Harry and Voldemort, we cross our energies, our sense of self, sense of composition, all the arsenal, and we struggle. May the best storyteller win! That's what happens. Hence, an interesting life, a "work of art" of a life.

It may get annoying when others don't really play up to your potential, or willingly try to diminish you, when they cast you as a secondary character in their puny plots. That calls for immediate termination. End of story. "Short stories" often have these surprise endings, so that's appropriate, too.

See, it doesn't matter WHOSE story wins. I'm not desperately trying to fit others into my stories. Nope. Should the OTHER(S) come up with a better solution, one that fits who I really am, I'll be all there, playing that part just as willingly! Even more so, I can always respect a better storyteller and I love a good challenge!

May the best story win! Life stays interesting that way. And characters change in the process. Of course you won't recognize me from one year to the next...

Well, OK, I'd like to think that I do keep the moral fiber. That's the perfect floating device on the sea of any life... story...

Getting Serious

OK, this blog was fun for a while. But I'll quit posting silly rants and pieces on it, because Dostoevsky HERself is emailing me, so my brain is on fire now.

I am totally getting serious and starting to outline and summarize and pitch and see if we can write this together.

We'll be in a separate, neighboring blog.

I might keep you posted on our progress.

Don't try this at home unless you really, really must tell the world something important...

Women of the World, Enjoy!

...these flower images, courtesy of a freakishly early spring in our area. Taken in our garden, by yours truly (I know, I won't try photography as a day job), today, March 8, 2007, wishing all women the best! (Yes, why not take today seriously? I prefer it to Valentine's Day and other commercial contraptions. This is about half the humanity, just like that, out of nowhere, because... "they're worth it".)

Doh!

You Should Be a Film Writer

You don't just create compelling stories, you see them as clearly as a movie in your mind. You have a knack for details and dialogue. You can really make a character come to life. Chances are, you enjoy creating all types of stories. The joy is in the storytelling. And nothing would please you more than millions of people seeing your story on the big screen!

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

"WW"

In case you were wondering what's with my new blog subtitle: from now on, I'll be "WW". "Dubya Dubya". "With Wings". :) I like the look, the symmetry, and I'm a Gemini, so this should work.

They are able wings, too! They immediately shot me into Mach 3 when I read HER reply today.

I am beyond happy, I'm ecstatic! She agreed to talk about my project, people! And she was amazingly nice to me.

And I also love the way I want to approach this writing together gig. I think it's pretty innovative, but so many people write and collaborate and apply different techniques nowadays, that I can't be sure. But it wouldn't make a bit of a difference, either, whether I created this technique or not. It's the result that counts.

No, wait, it's even better! It's the PROCESS that will encapsulate all the fun and excitement! As opposed to the drudgery of writing alone, I'll get to connect mentally and have hot verbal action with a brilliant, spectacular mind! All while role-playing. Does it get any better than this? Not in my book.

But I'll describe the whole thing later.

There are, of course, a million ways in which all this can still go either wrong, or nowhere, but hey, when the process is so cool and it gets you in contact with such people, really, the rest becomes, in her words, "just writing". Also, I want her to get something new out of this, some excitement and energy that in my turn I took from elsewhere, all in a circle of creation and sharing.

She is very much into "weird experiences" so I might have to nurture my inner weirdo for her sake, somehow. I think I'll remember how to do that...

To fold my wings and come back to the ground and the matter at hand: this will also force me to pitch her the whole thing. Very soon! Imagine that! Too intense!

Wow!

WW

"Canudo", Because...

You Are a Beagle Puppy With Wings (not shown in this picture)

Cheerful, energetic, and happy go lucky. And your sense of smell is absolutely amazing! You can immediately sense a great movie, or a flaw in a story... You sniff others' bullshit right away and are quick to bark at it. However, this doesn't make you less endearing to really intelligent folks, so go ahead and do your thing, tear into pieces that stupid bandana! You can also fly if you want to, as you are endowed with invisible wings, a very special and rare feature for a Beagle. However, you need serious discipline for that, and you might find it hard to stick to the daily regimen required for feature length flights. But nothing is impossible to you, and you know it!

What Breed of Puppy Are You?

OK, OK, I "doctored" the result a little, but kept within its spirit. No biggie. And I HAD TO add those wings, otherwise nothing else made sense here ;)

Did I Just Do That?

Wow! I really reached out this time.

This is for the record, I'm not sure my action will amount to any results, but if it does, then it's the experience of a lifetime!

I'm friggin' glad I did it. I had it in me. Moreover, I SENSED that it was the right thing to do. That and nothing else. I'm courting some superior achievement if all this comes to fruition. This is so exciting.

You know, how sometimes you watch someone from afar and admire that person but wouldn't dare knock on the door of their universe? How you think they are wasting their talent and you wish you could motivate them?

Well, this person was, is the most talented wordsmith I've ever seen on the net. I've watched her from afar for years now. Furious to see her spend all her insight and her outstanding way with words in inconsequential conversations on different virtual hangouts. Yeah, I was some kind of a non-compulsive stalker & lurker. I never interfered, although sometimes my fingers were aching to do so.

I was scared out of my mind by her brilliance, man!

And today, I knocked on her awesome door in no ambiguous terms. With a proposition.

She might brush me off, of course. Like, who am I? But then again, maybe we were meant to write together, so then...

Why else would I circle around her various personas and be fascinated for so long? These are encounters that one needs to find out about, one can't just let them pass one by.

So what if she says no? At least I know I've tried.

Proud to be me.

As always.

Ave & Yay!

"Who Gives a Damn, It's a Movie!"

I needed to hear or read this somewhere. It hypnotized me. It's from David Anaxagoras' blog, section called "The Secrets of UCLA MFA Screenwriters: Writing Under Pressure"

I hope he won't mind my quoting it here. I however encourage you to read his entire post, it's really good, synthetic and motivating. But I need to have this particular piece of advice glowing at me during these days. Here goes:

Gloss
Fuck research. If you think it’ll only take a minute to Google the Answer, you are deluding yourself. Don’t sweat the details. How many bullets can a Walther PPK hold? Who gives a damn, it’s a movie. You can massage the details later if you must, but for now, do what writers do best — fudge the numbers. Fake it. Make it up. Apply this rule to character names as well. Until you are certain she’s going to be a major character, HOOKER #3 doesn’t need a name.

Thank you, David!

Fabula Rasa

...But Ricciotto wasn't in a mood for flying much tonight. He had already flown to the airport in the morning and had enjoyed the early spring scenery in the French countryside.

So he quickly landed in front of a bar called "Gay Lureed". A friend had told him that they had a new bartender, Gavin, and the guy was ready to wow his clients and give the place a fresh name in town. Re-brand it, as it were.

He instantly disliked the fellow. His plucked eyebrows had been replaced by two exaggerated arches drawn in heavy black liner, which gave him an owlish air. His eyes were scornfully scanning the scarce attendance, with visible dislike. His clients were all smiles and gentleness, for some unfathomable reason, though. And then Ricciotto remembered: they were all French and they had their own rules.

In France many people are working in positions they have been forced to accept by dire economic circumstances and high unemployment rates. Millions feel that they should be much higher on the social ladder, and if they are supposed to provide services to the public, then... Hell! They'll do it, but only because they HAVE TO! Otherwise, they'd all be famous artists and shit.

Ricciotto had to remind himself of all this before he picked up and looked at the redesigned drinks menu. Featured in prime position was what looked to be Gavin's speciality. The laminated photo showed a cocktail glass the murky content of which came in red, yellow and blue, in rather gaudy shades that didn't suggest natural ingredients. Some strange shapes seemed to float inside and instead of your typically kitschy paper and wood umbrella, there was
a really bizarre little object, like someone had gathered a bunch of wires in one's hand, given them a cabbage roll shape and then somehow attached them to the side of the glass.

"That's intriguing. After all, maybe this guy IS some frustrated artist", thought Ricciotto.

He sat down at the bar. A highly mimetic being, Ricciotto had to try his damnedest not to frown back at Gavin.

"Bonjour! Une "Fabulous Spirit", s'il vous plaît!"

And then he waited, and waited... The scornful bartender who hated his job kept busy for a really long time. Ricciotto looked on the back of the bar menu. There was an extensive presentation, much like an essay, really, for the "Fabulous Spirit" concoction! The way some châteaux place those gushy paragraphs on their wine labels, only Gavin's was considerably lengthier and even more intent on telling consumers what their taste buds should experience, if at all educated and aware of the chance of coming in contact with the topic of their branding. Ricciotto suspected Gavin of having dabbled in advertising at some point in his career. There was a deeper story behind that apparently innocent, endless piece of... copy.

""Fabulous Spirit" n'est pas une boisson. C'est une "template de communication"".

"C'est vrai, ça? On ne boit pas votre..."

"Do you speak English?"

"Yeah", lightened up Ricciotto.

"It's way more. It's not just spirit... Just... alcohol! It is pure spirit! L'essence! C'est du Brancusi! De l'esprit!"

"Oh." Ricciotto became slightly suspicious. What was up with that shamanic talk in a gay bar? What if some of the ingredients were less kosher? Like, drugs? He had to fly back, he couldn't afford to get entangled in some high voltage wiring, he had stuff to write back home tonight.

"Totally new across Europe! I'm gonna conquer the world with this thing!" Then, getting his face closer to Ricciotto's, Gavin whispered ominously: "And it's PERENNIAL!"

Ricciotto nodded, transfixed. "I hope he's not violent, at least", he thought to himself, and carefully looked around for a place where he could safely dump the "Fabulous Spirit" menace. Uncomfortably, he was now watching Gavin meddle with a bunch of wires that looked like those in the picture.

"Why did you choose wires instead of an umbrella?" he asked mildly, trying not to annoy the artist.

"They are the symbol of the undying DIY spirit, greatly revered in France, under the name of "Bricolage"... But you should see what they do in Eastern Europe if you only gave them a snippet of wire! "

"Oh, I'm familiar with the role of wire in Eastern European environments... But I'm not doing anything myself, I'm not good at bricolage, and it's just a drink..."

Even more disgusted than Ricciotto thought a human could ever look, Gavin's reply ensued warily.

"Yes, it's true, but I have DONE IT MYSELF! You're just a stupid consumer."

Nonplussed, Ricciotto just stared as Gavin was arranging the wire ends just so, preparing to hand him the "Fabulous Spirit" elixir.

"It's now or never", thought Ricciotto, and without warning, zoomed by the tables towards the door, burst out in the street, where he quickly unfolded his wings and shot up towards the evening sky. His coat got caught in the sign of the "Gay Lureed" bar, but he gladly left it behind, figuring that it was a small sacrifice. And besides, he had neither paid for his elaborate drink, nor left a tip for Gavin's spiteful conversation.

He had no means of knowing it yet, but this was to be just his first close encounter with the FaBuloSpirit...

SAQ

Surprise, surprise! I enjoyed writing the FAQ which I placed, for now, at the bottom of this blog. I had never written an FAQ before and it's, in fact, quite a bit like writing dialogue. Doh!

Actually, umm, well, let's say it CAN be.

However, I decided instantly to invent a new genre here, since I'm playing Ricciotto Canudo and I already predicted that blogging will soon become the Eighth Art. Any art deserves its own techniques and stuff, and for now there is ample space for us to experiment and try to create new Blog features and genres.

So, starting from an old device used in website design (having fun yet?), the "FAQ", or the "Frequently Asked Questions", I am going to now discover before your widened eyes a new way of writing shit on a blog. I'll coin the term (drumroll, please!) "SAQ", short for "Suddenly Asked Questions", or for "Self Asked Questions", if you prefer. In which the author asks himself various questions and answers them.

I don't need to remind you how much more fun reading dialogue is, as opposed to toiling through descriptions (unless these are sickeningly masterful, such as Tom Robbins', or dead-on, such as Tom Wolfe's).

What is the point of all this, you ask? (or I pretend you do, if you get my drift)

Dialogue makes text flow easily and airily on the computer screen, causing the eye to pleasantly glide about, allowing time for the mind to rhythmically switch perspectives, in that kind of interior dance that we all know and like. At the same time, its author is...

No, wait, this is all wrong. Lemme test drive this SAQ concept.

Q: "SAQ's? You're trippin'!"

A: "No, I'm not. It's all about your EYES and your MIND, and it forces the AUTHOR to simplify his thoughts!"

Q:"How are the reader's eyes involved?"

A:"They glide easier between dialogue lines, everything flows better, and tiny breaks in both time and space are created: rhythm."

Q:"Why do you need rhythm and breaks?"

A:"To give the reader's mind a cue to switch perspectives. To jump from one partner's shoes into the other's, while dancing!"

Q:"One's mind clones itself and dances about in one's head?"

A:"Yeah, as the author... plays the tune. "

Q:"Told ya, you're trippin'... And how is writing dialogue helping the author?"

A:"By forcing him to keep everything entertaining and dynamic. To pace information, to give it away in human doses. To fully clarify and simplify ideas in his own head, first."

Q:"Mmmh..."

A:"Plus... As he writes dialogue, the author is himself forced to switch perspectives!"

Q:"I see, he examines the issues closely from different angles, at odds with each other. Some kind of maieutical masturbation?"

A:"I thought I was the only one who listened to that song too many times! Anyway: when writing description, the author gets sidetracked... Because he can! The mind of the poor reader has no choice but to follow... or to put the book down."

Q:"The author gets sidetracked, of course, by his own verbal fireworks and desire to elaborate, use fancy words, long sentences, figures of speech, he doesn't have to limit himself to how real people talk. And all that risks of putting off the reader..."

A:"Yeah."

Q:"But on a blog, usually an author writes what you call "description", while the "dialogue" follows the post, in the "comments" section."

A:"That's the interactive side of a blog, a different story. That's more like reviews for books or people talking about a movie, or interacting with the author in press conferences, only more easily accessible. And that's why blogs are successful, in part.

But all I'm saying is that blog POSTS themselves could be in a DIALOGUE format! More exciting, why not? Hence, (drum roll, please!) the SAQ!"

Q:"OK, OK, just cut it out with that drum roll!"

A:"Didn't you notice how fun it is when people post tidbits of YM logs? You swallow those up, don't you?"

Q:"Yeah, but that's voyeurism."

A:"Still, a designed dialogue works better, don't you think?"

Q:"Hey, you switched, now you're doing the asking and I'm answering!"

A: "That's OK, I'm not lecturing you, we're having a dialogue".

Q:"So, your SAQs would be pieces designed as dialogues, like this one?"

A:"Only much better, hopefully. And shorter."

Q:"Hmm. Shouldn't you at least give me a name? "

A:"..."

Q:"And create an entire persona for me?"

A:"Turn you into a character?"

Q:"You are one, why couldn't I be, I'm entertaining you here!"

A:"So many people come out on blogs displaying who they are in real life! Why do you think I could get away with being several personas at once, on the same blog?"

Q:"Matt Weatherford became "the Filthy Critic" and he created a nephew to write film criticism when he didn't feel like it. Why can't I be Someone, too?"

A:"Matt isn't chatting with his imaginary nephew!.. But then again, so what! Only... I'm worried that once I start this, who knows where it will end up. Next thing you know, the moment I stop liking you, I'll kill you. Or I'll create yet another character, or several, to use at my whim, and so on."

Q:"Until this whole blog becomes a friggin' script in and by itself, you mean?!"

A:"Right. "

Q:"So, what's wrong with that? Innovate! But think me over first. Make me a nice arc. "

A: "I'll see. Don't push your luck, fella! Gotta go now."

Ricciotto spreads his wings and flies out the window, watched in awe by the little birds in the pinetree outside.

Strategic Thinking Feat. Pinetree & Metropolis

Well, at least I'm not alone. Everyone else procrastinates and gets involved in cool side projects.

This article, "50 Strategies For Making Yourself Work" by Jerry Oltion, is so copyrighted it scares me. So I let you access it there and I'll just comment on those strategies below.

I'll start with the first five.

No, I have never set a quota of pages to be written per day. Sometimes my hands fly over the keyboard, sometimes I stare at the pinetree in front of my window for... hours? I guess. Still, should I try it? I'm gonna give each strategy a rating, from "1" to "10", "10" meaning that I must absolutely go for it ASAP. This one's a "6".

Setting a quota of hours worked per day or week... Nah! I could never time my writing. A famous image from Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", the 1927 movie, comes to mind, and that's not even a clock, but it masquerades as one in my whimsical memory files.

So... Given the staring into the pinetree habit, how would this strategy work? I am not aware of the moment when I START staring, to stop the clock... And just measuring the time I sit down in front of the computer, heh, that's really saying nothing! I can do so many things while apparently WRITING. Like, what I'm doin' right about NOW... I'll give this strategy a "1".

Write a story or a chapter a week? This one sounds more interesting. Only how would it translate it into screenplay units? An act a week? Yeah, but once you're into writing the damned acts, it doesn't even matter anymore! That's cruising! The hardest, yuckiest part is nailing the structure, each and every scene, writing that darn extended outline (or treatment, if you prefer), while intimately understanding every character and their environment and their motivations, the situations and the why's and wherefore's. The rest, adding some meat to the bones, is just fun. So I'm afraid this strategy can't really work for screenwriters, this is for the lucky people who do novels, stories, essays, whatever. Even blogs, if you will -- yeah, this is yet another art form, I predict it now, in passing. So, about the strategy at hand: another "1" bites the dust.

Promising my sweetie a steady supply of bedtime stories doesn't even register as a strategy!What's that supposed to mean? That I should talk to my sweetie about what I've been writing/thinking during the day... at bedtime? You've gotta be kidding me! That's worse than talking about work during dinner! Sweetie time is sacred, and besides... What is the sweetie in question supposed to do? Shut up and be gorgeous while I go on and on about my character arches and turning points and... Nooo, this particular sweetie will answer right back with an educated opinion, offer solutions... And what if sweetie doesn't appreciate what I'm doing? I'd definitely lose a massive dose of interest in the project. So, yeah, I can discuss my work in progress with just about anyone else but the aforementioned sweetie. And it's mutual, been there, done that, wish we hadn't.

Huh! "Bedtime stories"! That's poisonous advice in my case! I'll give this a "-10"!

Now, to be paying myself an hourly wage for the time during which I wrote and not go out and do fun stuff unless I can pay for it with the money I thus "earned" (from my own bank account) would be... intriguing. However, since I have an issue measuring the time spent writing, as described, what with the damn pinetree getting in the way and all, that might not work out. But maybe I could combine something here -- maybe I could pay myself for the outline, then for each completed act, and finally for the completed first draft?

But who prevents me from cheating? I can feel it, I'm gonna pay myself so lavishly for the outline, that there'll be no suffering for the rest.

All joke aside, I don't respond to money as a motivation, unfortunately. Plus, I'm like Duchamp, I loathe the idea of living off of art, so I'll always find a nice techy job to insure my lifestyle and just sacrifice writing if I ever find myself in dire straits

Otherwise, if I can't afford something, I put it out of my mind, that's all. I don't covet more luxury.

And no, I'm never gonna refuse myself fun stuff I can afford just because I haven't "earned" it through writing.

I only have one life to live, and screw you, Seventh Art, if you try to steal it away from me! We invented you in order to enjoy life more, not to slave around your overblown significance!

On this seminal note, I leave you with a subliminal "Metropolis" image, worth 10,000 words this time.

Shane + Shane's Hand + ...Star Trek?

I can't stop laughing.

See, there are many other bloggin' screenwriters out there, trying to help each other out. I was trying to compile a list of my favorite people and post it here. Only I got startrekked... erm, sidetracked.

Too bad we just missed the deadline for "the First Ever John August Scene Challenge", but you can witness the results here.

And yes: Shane is right!

I say, let's keep an eye on “John August, screenwriter of ‘Go’ and ‘Big Fish,’ whose blog has been a featured screenwriting resource in the New York Times", maybe we can catch the Second John August Scene Challenge?

I'm sure that, if we keep it simple, the guys won't mind our English :)

Lens

It made me think of myself, obviously. I immediately spotted my poor self, "me and my writing hand", having climbed all the way up there, through hundreds of books, on top of history's rubble and rubbish, trying to capture its core vibration and translate it, indeed distill it into the clearest essence of a cinematic STORY, for the benefit of THE OTHERS, standing behind me. You know, those people you cherish who usually watch real history unravel on the Discovery Channel?

Actually... In my exaggerated ambition for this particular project, I overreached. I selected two souls to guard the outer edges of my target audience, I can only tell you their nicknames -- TVGirl and Surfindude. But I'm not sure I'll rise to that challenge, I might still fall back into the more generous and patient arms of the Discovery crowd. We'll see.

Anyway, that's how I interpreted that pic (from a 1919's "L'Illustration"). And as if it wasn't amazingly symbolic by itself, please learn that it was taken in a town called "Lens"...

But that pic is so versatile it's unbelievable! It is suggestive of a number of other situations, including really trivial bullshit. The funniest of all: that's me turning my back on Cinemagiah, and opening my own blog. People on top are the few that remained, they contemplate the disaster, standing on top of the ruins of what had once been, for a year or so, a superior place of virtual encounter. Then, gradually, the bombs of vulgarity started to drop and soon enough they brought down the entire virtual edifice. The people who had fun shredding it to pieces are also those who then defected to a brand new forum, top right.

Yeah, a picture is worth a thousand words indeed.

This Pic Is Worth a Thousand Words. Which?

A blitz exercise. Exorcise.

Before I tell you anything about this picture and why it captured my imagination, what does it suggest to you?

In a thousand words or less, of course... :)

Writer's Log. Supplemental

OK.

I have one main character.

I know her well.

I have the setting.

I know what I want to capture in the background.

I have the three secondary characters lined up.

I have written many pages on all those "people", however, I have still to get it "together".

I have a cool chronology as an Excel spreadsheet, with tons of info for each year, with each character's own column in a canvas of many others -- friends, acquaintances, etc.

I need an outline.

I need 100 scenes.

I need to simmer those 100 scenes down to 52.

Why exactly have I then decided to read another 200 articles concerning what was going on in the respective timeframe, both in the States and in Europe?

I have read extensively on the period! I already know what was going on, I filled that spreadsheet cell by cell, I selected every friggin' event!

However, I want it! Badly.

I feel like it's gonna give me confidence. Somehow. Immersion.

Oh. Right. I think I also want the vocabulary, the way they phrased things.

I think I actually want to travel back in time. And fuckin' stay there! (Must not forget iPod, still need Pink's "U+Ur Hand")

This is torture...

Oh, No, You're Not Gonna Make Me a Believer!

I totally don't read horoscopes! I swear! Listen, I have a life. I don't know how I came upon this one, but well, I just read it.

And then again.

And again.

It wouldn't go away, dammit!

It said (pardon my French):

"Certains événements vous poussent à replonger dans un passé que vous n'avez pas totalement assumé. Heureusement, votre positivisme vous aide à considérer avec philosophie vos erreurs passées et à soulever à bras-le-corps les problèmes actuels qui en découlent. Vous négocierez ainsi des virages capitaux pour l'avenir".

Yeah, I must be the only one to understand this one.

Never mind! :)

This Item Has Been Discontinued

Sorry...

Challenge No. 1

"WINDOWS"

So... try to write a treatment for a short film starting from this news item in the Albuquerque Journal (March 22, 1937).

This is an old game we used to play on a forum...

Hello!

:)