Time, sand and the gaps between my fingers

Where to start... Hmm...

Well, some of you may have began to think that I had fallen off the face of the earth, and in some ways I guess I had, so I thought it best to write something just in case you'd figured that I'd given up, ran away to Alaska to live in a bus or turned into jam. (That's UK-jam, not US-jelly.)

Luckily, none of the above have yet to happen. Which is good. Jam wouldn't be at all welcome in my current trying-not-to-eat-sugar-apart-from-cheesecake way of life.

The truth is, a few months ago (well, actually it was back in April 2011 which is a loooong time ago by now - especially if you're reading this in 2016) I started on a slow but steady downward spiral of depression. Not "started" like it was on purpose, like consciously being on a diet or anything, but that it started happening to me (I guess that's a better way to describe it) and like a slow-motion bull in a china shop, there was no stopping it and a lot of glass had to break before it finally reared its head and exited.

I won't go into the ins and outs of what caused it all, (you can't be *that* interested) but suffice to say that after many, many months of treatment (both mentally and physically through rest, relaxation, diet and acupuncture) I am now free of the proverbial black dog and back on my feet cleaning up the glass.

So what?

Good question. Well, some of you may have already put two and two together and figured out that there have been no updates to Movie Draft since March, that the website wasn't released as planned, and I didn't make $500,000 by selling a script to Warner Bros... Or did I? Dun dun duuuuuuun. No, no I didn't. But it'd be a good rumour to spread all the same.

So?: Yes, I am still here. Yes, I am back in the saddle developing Movie Draft. Yes, the website is actually nearly finished. Yes, it will be released in the new year. Yes, you will then be able to download a new beta and contribute to Movie Draft's development. (Finally.) Yes, I did also lose my job during my depression and yes that was the best thing that could ever have happened to me and Movie Draft's development. (Although yes, at the time it stank like a skunk full of bees.)

I'm sorry if you felt that I let you down in any way, but I am now completely developing Movie Draft full-time with no other job / time constraints to worry about and it feels like I'm finally breathing again.

I can't wait to show you all what I've been working on, what ideas I've got planned and for you to be able to share you ideas for what *you'd* like planned for Movie Draft's development through the website's community and bug tracking tool.

As is always the case when you feel you're taking your first steps into unknown lands, these are exciting times indeed.

Thanks for sticking with me. I appreciate it.

Keep writing.

Mark.
www.moviedraft.com

Dean, Gene and the magic machine. (Or being careful with character names)

So you've spent two weeks creating the structure and outline of your screenplay. You're happy with how the story flows from a high-level point of view and you're ready to start fleshing out your scenes.

Great!

Before you begin, you spend some time thinking of character names. It's a detective story so you feel that something like "Dean" is a good name. Yes, "Dean McCormick", great. Sorted. You then start thinking of your antagonist's name and for whatever reason "Gene Davis" pops into your head and it sticks.

Yeah!

Good guy: Dean McCormick

Bad guy: Gene Davis

As a whole name, and as read, they read completely different, but whilst Dean and Gene look sufficiently different in your screenplay, on screen they'll be very hard to distinguish in dialogue. It doesn't take a great leap of imagination to work out that if another character is referencing Dean or Gene in their dialogue, it could be confusing for the viewer.

However, after saying that... You may actually WANT this to happen as a device in your screenplay - to cause the very confusion it could cause, but be careful of this device. If done incorrectly it could just end up falling flat on its face.

Admittedly, there aren't many names that rhyme that look different but I have seen it done in spec screenplays online (Dean and Gene in fact) and by that time the writer has grown quite attached to his or her character names and finds it hard to change them.

So, as a rule of thumb avoid that trap by saying your character names out loud before you commit to naming your darlings.

Mark Spark.
www.moviedraft.com

To bold or not to bold, that is the emphatic question

With the advent of the modern word processor to replace the beloved chattery typewriter, pretty much anything is possible on a page. Images, colors, hyperlinks, different font sizes etc. You name it and more than likely it can be placed, formatted and printed.

Obviously, none of the above belong anywhere near a screenplay, (and if you're using any font other than a member of the Courier family then give yourself a good slap in the face) but on a far simpler scale, one of the age-old screenwriting debates is whether or not to use bold, italic or underline in your script, and I'm going to tell you why you shouldn't.

If you're new to screenwriting then you've more than likely started your script in Microsoft Word. Nearly everyone has Word installed and so it will come as no surprise that it's the most popular tool in the world for writing screenplays. Not the best by a long shot, but the most popular none the less.

As an established user of Word (or equivalent) you will be familiar with applying bold, italic and underline lavishly throughout the pages of things you write about without any consideration. You may then assume that you can do the same thing in a screenplay and no one will bat an eye lid, but you'd be wrong.

Emphasis is usually found in the Action element of a screenplay and goes something like this:

EXT. THE PARK - CONTINUOUS

Josh trips on a stone and falls to the ground with a splat! Right into a pile of doggy doo.

Now, remembering that this is a screenplay, how long would the above lines actually take on screen? Well, according to Movie Draft SE's SceneTime™, it's 5 seconds. That's a pretty short scene. We've emphasised the result of what happened to Josh tripping over the stone but not described it.

So here's a rule: Describe, not emphasise.

Let's rewrite the above without the use of emphasis and instead with the use of words describing what you would see on screen, or in real life if you actually did see Josh trip over that stone. Remember that the time it takes for Josh to fall must relay into screen time - you can even extend the actual time it would take for him to fall by this equation:

Gravity + Artistic Licence = Takes A Long time To Fall

EXT. THE PARK - CONTINUOUS

Josh trips on a stone.

IN SLOW MOTION

His arms reach out like a poor excuse for superman. The bottom of his long, thick-looking coat flutters upwards like a matching cape.

Josh sees that in front of him on the floor - where his face will eventually be - is a great big pile of doggy doo. It looks fresh.

His eyes widen. He inhales quickly. His mouth opens. He looks like he's about to say something. His face scrunches up as he lifts his hands up towards his face.

JOSH

Shhhhhhiiii...

The ground is close. Josh closes his eyes and turns his head.

NORMAL SPEED

Josh hits the ground, his head seemingly cushioned by the freshly left dog present.

He sighs.

He takes a long deep breath.

JOSH

...t.

All of a sudden, our 5 second emphasised scene is now 38 seconds when written as you'd see it on screen, and not a single bold, italic or underline to be seen anywhere.

Describe, not emphasise.

The other big no-no is emphasising dialog. When you emphasis dialog, what you're basically doing is putting in the pauses and beats of how you yourself hear them. For example:

JOSH

What does she want this time?

is different to:

JOSH

What does she want this time?

...and you may think that's ok to do. Most people would say it is, but you're not the actor and the actor has been paid a generous amount of money to get into the "head" of your character, to think like they think, react how they react, and most importantly of all, to talk how they talk.

Let the actor decide how to say their lines. If needed, as above, describe, not emphasise:

Josh sees Lauren through the window. His shoulders fall as he shakes his head gently from side to side.

JOSH

What does she want this time?

That way the mood is conveyed visually - as you would see it on screen, so once again: Describe, not emphasise.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, boldly going...

Mark
www.moviedraft.com