90 minute thriller movie sailing on

The project I had mentioned earlier here is moving on slowly. After my initial treatment for the plot, there were lot of discusssions regarding the possibilities. My friend (who is supposed to direct the movie) has gone to the outhouse which is supposed to be the location of the film.
He sent me some pics of the place. Its then that I realised that many changes will have to be made to suit the location. For example lot of scenes have been planned to occur inside the outhouse- some major plot elements. But when I saw the pics, I realised that the outhouse is too small for this. But the same time there are lot of outdoor locations and elements that can be used which I had not figured earlier. For example a dam, a small pond, a small pump house, a forest etc. So now I will have to make some changes in the outline according to that. Some other suggestions also came up. Like use of voice over, to start the movie with a dream sequence etc which really helped me to increase the depth of the script. Hopefully I have been able to incorporate them in a meaningful way.
Now another issue is that an actor has shown some interest in the project. He may really play a role in securing good finances for the movie. So now the plan is to change the female protagonist to a male protagonist and make his role meatier. Now I am getting a hang of how really writers in film industry work. Logistics play a major role in determining your final draft.
Photo by Single Malt

The ‘character versus plot’ debate in scriptwriting

 

 

Originally published here at passion for cinema.com

(Warning: spoilers for Dev.D, Race, Swades)

A lot has been said about this. But I thought I should add some points.

Basically the debate is whether development of a story starts from a set of interesting characters or an interesting plot thread. The question may sound absurd or irrelevent. As long as one develops a story, what does it matter whether you start from a character or a plot twist? But it does matter to the final product. And I think that remembering from where you started will help to improve the script.

For example consider Dev.D. From where did it start? Creative process most probably started on imagining Dev and Paro and Chandra as contemporary individuals with the newer sensibilities. Then comes this notion of Devdas as this irritating, self serving, defiant character (As I said earlier in my blog, the creative turning point of the script). Every thing picks up from there, from the characters. And where does that end? Changing the plot of the source material. Because when the characters change, what they bring about to happen also should make sense. Even Devdas drinking just only because of Paro doesn’t make sense any more. Because the new Dev is too self absorbed to do that. He has better reasons to drink. For this generation dying by drinking is not heroic. And wallowing in self pity is not heroic. And understandably the latter half of the story shifts away from paro. Here is an example of characters directly influencing the plot. But I personally feel that the end didn’t do justice to the consistency of his character.

Hypomania and creativity

The link between creativity and mental illness has been well documented. It is said that Sylvia Plath, Earnest Hemingway, Vincent Vangogh and numerous others had suffered from Bipolar affective disorder (that is fluctuating episodes of (hypo)mania and depression).

Mania can be described as to be exactly opposite of what depression brings. Hypomania represents the lesser degree of mania. Hypomania is characterised by cheerfulness, increased confidence, increased goal directed activity, decreased need for sleep, overgrooming, disinhibition etc. Obviously with these features it is unlikely that a person’s family members would take him to a doctor. Because in their eyes, the person is more productive, happy and active than before.

With all the research relating mood disorders and creativity, the exact nature of the relation has remained speculative. One of these days we had a debate regarding this. The question was whether actually people with Bipolar affective disorder are (qualitatively) more creative or whether we get to see more of their works because they are (quantitatively) more productive?

Millions

Post ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ watching an earlier Danny Boyle movie is not going to be a neutral exercise. But let me tell you, this is a really original movie. Both in terms of screenplay and direction. I can imagine why despite being good, this movie failed to garner significant audience attention. The element of fantasy where Saints and other Godly people flit around the screen and hold man to man conversations with our protagonist may have put off some people. And Danny Boyle is sometimes more interested in story telling rather than the story itself.

Essentially the story is about what happens when a bag of money lands on the cardboard hideout of a 7 year old kid. He believes it is from God, to do good to the world.  This movie would have gone in an entirely different direction in typical Hollywood fanfare. Goons, cheap thrills, larger than life intelligent kids, too much sanity and uptightness…It would have ended up as a Home Alone sequel. The great thing about Frank Cottrell Boyce is that this story becomes much more than all this. It is about innocence, virtue and the love and longing of a boy for his dead mother. What makes this movie so endearing to me is that the 7 year old kid here has a real voice. And  the simplicity of his morality appears genuine. Its not easy to write stories with kids as central characters. In the hands of lesser writers, kids end up precocious.

Light: A short film review

This review of mine was originally published in Shortz.

The good thing about this short is the universality of the experience it is trying to talk about. The compart-’mental’ising power of technology and its effect on human relations has been conveyed through a simple story albeit one that happens in every home. Its really a good concept which I could easily identify with. But it is undermined by the lack of effective techniques so as to provide the necessary impact.

 ’Light’ does not take its lighting seriously. When there is supposedly only one light source in the whole house that is the candle, the shadows fall in all the wrong places. At times two shadows are visible, pointing towards two different light sources. When family members come into the room or when grandma lights the candle, the shadows betray the mistake. A simple thing that could have been done was to fix the camera position in an upper level in most of the shots so that the candle is not visible. Then one could have put the lighting source on the table itself.

Project ‘Game’ is on!

As I wrote a few days back, I was asked to write a treatment for a friend in Mumbai. It had to be based on a thread he had given me. He is planning to make a low budget 90 minutes movie. He had some theatre actors and technician friends with him. So the only cost will be that of the equipments. His plan is to go onto the festival circuit and then try to get some distributors based on the reception and the reactions.

But he was stalled because he could not decide on a final story. I had sent him three different treatments for the same thread 2 days back. The thread is about 6 strangers who go through some strange stuff together. Well, he has liked one of the treatments and wants to go on with it. It is going to be a thriller. He is going to discuss all the three versions with financing friends this week. After that we will start writing the script together most probably within 1 month. So if this actually gets made, this is going to be my first produced script. But there is a long way to go before things really materialise. Lets see what happens.

Photo by josh-n

Short film script ‘The search’ completed

Finished my first short film script today. Its about a person who is searching for his missing wife inside a library. It clocks around 9-10 minutes. Now I have to sent it to some writer friends for some valuable opinion.

Writing the short film script was fun. Because the process is more flexible. With a feature length script, midway into the 2nd act, you cannot suddenly decide that you want to change the character or plot. You will be undoing a lot of work. On the other hand with a short film script you can experiment. And you are not in a hurry to make the story go from point A to point B. You can savour the small small events. It was a good break for me from the ‘heist’ script which involved a lot of planning for the ‘heist’ set pieces.
This short is for an assistant director who wants to do a short as a part of CV or something. Now I move on to my next short which is about two political party hit men and a party intellectual who set off for a political assassination. Something about where the boundary between a gang war and a ideological war blurs. It will be also around the same length.

In the mean time I am also doing a treatment for an idea given by a friend. He is planning to do a low budget movie of over 90 minutes with it. And I have to finish writing notes for a screenplay scripted by a friend.
After completing all these, I have to read the 1st draft of my heist script. Right now I am trying to maintain a distance from it so that I can be more objective in assessing it. Then I will start working on the second draft. Hopefully by the third draft I will have something presentable in my hands.

Photo by ~aspidistra~

Internet- the enemy of ‘actual’ scriptwriting?

Does internet really harm the productivity of a writer rather than improve it? It’s a question with which I have been struggling for more than a year. Definitely it’s a time sucker- rather a time drinker. It takes away valuable time that can be used for writing. But the real question is whether for the writer the advantages of net are more than the disadvantages.

So what are the perceived advantages of the internet for the writer?

Inspiration and resources or  swimming on sand
But how much inspiration do you require? To write script for 1 hour do you need to read script articles for 3 hours? Some times search for inspiration is a ploy to procrastinate. Searching for resources is sometimes a bigger trap.

Writers especially scriptwriters have the tendency to become highly specialised swimmers who have never touched water. There is a whole lot of literature available out there. But when should one stop? When do we become knowledge-able enough to write the script? I think it should be when you have read one scriptwriting book completely. Your education need not end there. But your writing should definitely start there. After that, reading something scriptrelated in the net in the name of ‘education’ should be at least in the ratio of 1:20 in favour of writing. Because the greatest education is writing scripts. And believe me, there is no site or book or article that is going to give you the perfect key to write good screenplays.

Trap of immediate gratification
Writing a script takes around 3-6 months. That too there is no guarantee that some one relevant enough would even read your script. Naturally writing a blog or commenting on random posts is better. You get immediate feedback. Feedback, even negative feedback gives a feeling of fulfillment. A fulfillment of being paid attention to. That too without much effort. In that sense writers are delusional. They sit writing something sacrificing their Saturday nights, losing precious time to be with family, friends and jeopardising their work. All this, believing in something that could turn out to be utter crap. You never know what is going to come out.

Nainital

The lake was glistening in the afternoon sun like the belly of a water animal on land.

He walked through the pavement separating the lake from the road. Finally he sat on a bench.
The old tree with its feet soaking in the water stooped to look at him. ‘You don’t look happy,’ it said.
He smiled. ‘Its not that.’
The old tree passed fingers through its slowly shrivelling mane.
‘No one comes to Nainital unhappy,’ the tree said.
‘I didn’t come to Nainital unhappy.’
Tree didn’t say anything. A couple passed by. Wrapped around each other, giggling.

Tips to keep writing every day

I got some mails after my post on the first draft. People keep asking for tips to write everyday. To find time. To keep enthusiasm from waning. To finish off the task.

The problem with writing scripts (for that matter anything long) is that you have to hammer at it for months. Writers are notorious for their low self confidence. And assessment of one’s work is very objective. Some times you love it. Some times you hate it. So how to keep going?

These are some of the things that have helped me.

There is no ‘not enough time’
You have 15 minutes free? You should be writing. Never wait to get that major chunk of time to start writing. You will only be able to write a line of dialogue? Do that 10 times a day for two days and you almost have a scene. People become philosophical and talks about the need to get into the mood to write. But sometimes you may be just rationalising your procrastination. Getting into the zone fast is an habit that you can learn.

Writing does not need fingers
Writing does not mean that you should be in front of a laptop or a legal pad. One gets many breaks in plotting and character bits while travelling or walking or just sitting through a boring lecture. Actually I have done most of my outlining for the heist script while travelling to my workplace.