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John Carpenter – the early years

By Cindy on November 7, 2011

So to make my quota of movies for the year, the boyfriend picks movies for us to watch. He’s introduced me to a lot of new movies I might never have tried on my own. Some of them quite good. Some are just plain weird.

We had a John Carpenter weekend this past weekend. Now, I like John Carpenter. I’ve seen a number of his movies and liked most. The first Carpenter flick up was They Live. Not a bad little movie. The acting could have been better. But overall I thought it was entertaining. I called the contacts in it before they happened. I found some of the actions of the characters to be ridiculous. If you could see something no one else could because you were wearing special glasses would you announce it in a crowded store that was filled with thing things you weren’t supposed to able to see?

Next movie up was Dark Star. At the beginning of the movie there was an apparently new intro that explained that the movie was a comedy. It also said one of the actors was on LSD while filming. Um, yeah, makes perfect sense to me. It was one very weird movie. I’m surprised they weren’t all on some sort of drug at the time. The best was the alien on board that was basically a beach ball. And the crew’s ability to talk to a dead crew member who is in cryogenic freeze.

I’m glad his movies improved over the years. Both ones that he wrote and ones he directed.

At the very least it’s two more movies for the year. Now, I’m off to work. Hoping to leave a little early to get more words in for NaNoWriMo.

Until next time…

Cindy

Terra Nova plot holes

By Cindy on October 21, 2011

Don’t get me wrong. I do like Terra Nova but I think it can do better. I’m talking about the most recent episode from Monday, October 17. To talk about all the plot holes I’d have to watch all the episodes over again but I have a lot of other things to watch and pages to write.

So, where to begin? Let’s talk about how they knew the little girl was even out there. The thermal imaging scan. It can pick up a little girl but not a militia?

Okay, fine, they found the girl. She gave a sob story about being lost. They took her in. The leader of the Sixers arrived with a team of men to get the girl back. How lame was Commander Nathaniel Taylor’s threat? I hope the dialogue gets better. Fast forward to the girl saying she wants to stay and the Sixers leaving. Why didn’t anyone follow them? There would have been tracks. At least there should have been tracks.

The little girl said they moved around a lot but they’re living in trees and looked pretty settled to me. Of course she could have been lying. But let’s talk about the trees. No one noticed trees that look different? They would have looked different if they had homes built into them. And that’s another thing. Wouldn’t some of the leaves be dying in places?

The top two contenders for the spy are still (in my opinion) the scientist (the wife’s ex) and the guy courting Maddy. Please, writers, don’t make it either of those two. They’re so obvious.

With such potential it’s disappointing the writers haven’t done more. I know a lot of sci fi shows have plots that are similar. It would be nice though if the writers gave us some twists we’re not expecting. And some dialogue I can’t recite before the characters even speak it. I’d love to see some fresh writing in future episodes.

What do you think of the show? Do you love it? Hate it?

I’m testing a new Twitter app with this blog post so I hope it shows up!

Until next time…

Cindy

Terra Nova is nothing new

By Cindy on October 10, 2011

I had been eagerly awaiting the premier of Terra Nova since I first heard about it in 2010. I was a little disappointed that instead of airing it in January 2011 as first indicated they waited for the 2011 – 2012 season. The complaint I have with Terra Nova is the same complaint I have with most shows theses days. There’s nothing new. As a writer and an avid TV watcher I beg the writers to please come up with new twists, better dialogue, dump the cliches.

Terra Nova was a bit too predictable for me in the first few episodes. I know you need archetypal characters but I found the characters to be stereotypical. And don’t get me started on the cliches. Speaking of predictable, the boyfriend could recite most of the lines before they were actually spoken. How’s that for predictable?

I hope I’m wrong but to me it’s obvious that the inside man the Sixers have is the guy who likes the teenage daughter. If it’s not him, then bravo to the writers for that mislead. If it is him then shame on the writers for making it so obvious. I guess only time will tell. I also think it might be the wife’s doctor friend.

I will keep watching to see if it gets less predictable. So far though it’s Earth 2 but on earth instead of a different planet. I was extremely happy that the drawings weren’t done by aliens at least.

I’d like to see some twists and turns. Some good dialogue. The possibilities are almost endless, especially because this is a different time stream. Writers, go ahead, surprise us.

Until next time…

Cindy

Zookeeper not a keeper

By Cindy on August 3, 2011

I was lucky enough to read the Zookeeper script three years ago. It was dated April 18, 2007. I really enjoyed it. Back then I wrote:

Story: I have to say I really like this story. It was funny, cute, with likable characters. I thought it was a good family movie.

Characters: Andrew is very likable. He was a lot more distinct than Kate and Trent. The animals have distinct voices, more so than some of the people. Good job with making Trent unlikable but not in an obvious way.

Dialogue: The dialogue was good. Some parts were laugh out loud funny, mostly dialogue from the animals. I didn’t see anything really distinct in Kate’s dialogue.

Overall thoughts:

This was a really engaging story. I was able to overlook the flaws and continue to enjoy the story. Loved the ending. Very nice way to tie it all up. Great symmetry.

This past weekend I saw the movie at the drive-in. I couldn’t wait to see it because I enjoyed the script so much. You know how you should always read the book first before you watch the movie based on the book because the book is usually better? The script was WAY better. The original script was written by Jay Scherick & David Ronn. The end of the movie had five people with writing credits. I didn’t really care that some of the names had been changed. His name was Andrew in the original script. There was no Stephanie. Gale was Trent. Gale was unlikeable in a really obvious way. Over the top way. Seriously, what happened to subtle?

I understand some of the changes made to the script. For example:

It’s not really showing us the down side of being a zookeeper. The scene added to the movie did show that, though I thought it was over the top. I wasn’t thrilled with the ending of the movie. I thought the script’s ending was much stronger. Had much better symmetry.

So, maybe I should start watching the movies first before reading the scripts. Especially if there are more than two writers with writing credits for the movie. That way I might avoid disappointment. If this were a book it wouldn’t end up on my keeper shelf. The DVD will not be sitting on my DVD shelf when it comes out.

Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the dish. The proof is in the movie.

Until next time…

Cindy

So you want to write for TV

By Cindy on June 8, 2011

If you read my blog regularly it’s no secret I love TV. Really love it. I think I loved it more though before I became a writer. I could just watch and get lost in the story. I didn’t pay attention to the structure, the character development, the foreshadowing, the clues. I was still in my teens. When I started writing books it was almost impossible to read books for fun. But it also affected my TV watching. I wasn’t buying story points as easily anymore. When I decided I wanted to write TV scripts I started paying more attention to my favourite television shows. I started keeping track of how many acts were in each episode. I paid attention to the structure, especially the procedurals.

The best part about wanting to write for TV is that when I watch TV it’s not goofing off. It’s work. It’s study. The study part was easy. The first teleplay I wrote was for my favourite show. I watched Supernatural from the very beginning. I mean, it debuted in my birthday month. How could I not watch it? I loved the characters. I loved the stories. I’m a huge fan of horror movies so the show was a great fix every week. The hard part was finding scripts from the show to study. I wanted to see how they did it. I found the pilot online but that wasn’t enough. I ended up buying two other scripts on eBay. I photocopied the scripts then started highlighting like crazy. Each character got a different colour so I could make sure I had the balance right. My first teleplay turned out pretty good. I wrote two more for the show then started writing movies.

Now, I’m back to wanting to write television shows again. I want it all basically. I have so many ideas, they need an outlet. Not all of them are novel ideas. So now I’ve got movies, TV shows, novels and short story ideas vying for attention. I’ve been participating in TV writer chats on Twitter. When my feature screenplay is finished and polished I will pull out one of my spec pilot ideas and start writing.

If you want to write for television (or movies) I highly recommend the following sites/groups/podcasts.

Screenwriting U – They offer classes on screenwriting that are simply amazing.

Scriptchat – They have a Twitter chat every Sunday on screenwriting.

TVWriterChat – Also has a Twitter chat on Sundays about writing for TV.

TVWriterPodCast – I just started listening to this podcast. Awesome! Lots of great information about writing for TV.

TV writers to follow – A database of TV writers on Twitter and their handles. Follow them!

Sources for TV scripts to study – TV Writing, More TV scripts, My PDF Scripts

The advice most writers who want to write for TV hear is that they need to move to LA. Well, that’s not really possible for me. But that doesn’t mean I can’t travel there for meetings. And a lot of shows actually film in Toronto. I would love to write for one of those. For that kind of job I would gladly brave the TTC. Well, the GO train, actually.

Now, I’m off to the day job. Then tonight working on the feature script. I’m loving the characters and the story as the script progresses.

Until next time…

Cindy

The 2011 – 2012 TV season

By Cindy on May 23, 2011

I’m looking forward to some of the shows for the new season. Of course I love the idea of some of the supernatural/paranormal shows. Grimm looks great. Alcatraz looks interesting. I watched some of the trailers for the upcoming shows at the Upfronts 2011 Galleries – The Daily Beast.

I think this year I might be avoiding anything on CBS and ABC. Shame on them for not allowing their videos to be viewed in any other country except their own. The titles sound good and the blurbs sounded interesting but sadly I couldn’t actually check any of them out because they aren’t available in my country. I will be avoiding those shows, even the ones that appealed to me.

Loved some of the CW trailers. Ditto for NBC and Fox.

So, what am I really looking forward to and will most likely (definitely) watch?

Ringer
Grimm
Alcatraz
Terra Nova
The New Girl

Possible shows to watch:

Secret Circle
Awake

I hope they live up to the premise. I guess we’ll see once the new TV season starts.

What will you be watching?

Until next time…

Cindy

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Archive for the ‘TV and Movies’ Category

John Carpenter – the early years

Terra Nova plot holes

Terra Nova is nothing new

Zookeeper not a keeper

So you want to write for TV

The 2011 – 2012 TV season

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