I just had the urge, as we reach the final straight of this awards season, to just talk about screenwriting. For those of you that don’t know, I am a screenwriter before I am a blogger. And ahead of those I am, in the real world, a husband and father too. But let’s keep this professional (insert your own winking smiley here). And that urge is present with me every day. In fact, it is no secret I have neglected the screenwriting a little bit. So I need to get it back on track.
What you may see, then, in forthcoming weeks, months, is more of a predominately screenplay-driven blog. Write-ups on my progress, the movies I have written before, the movies I have not yet written – and may never. I’ll still be covering all manner of movie stuff (so don’t panic my avid fans), as and when it takes my fancy. No doubt I will write enviously about how I am not in Cannes in May for example. You might say a lot of what I write on the site may indeed have a diary entry feel to them. As Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman once famously said – come what may.
What you may see, then, in forthcoming weeks, months, is more of a predominately screenplay-driven blog. Write-ups on my progress, the movies I have written before, the movies I have not yet written – and may never. I’ll still be covering all manner of movie stuff (so don’t panic my avid fans), as and when it takes my fancy. No doubt I will write enviously about how I am not in Cannes in May for example. You might say a lot of what I write on the site may indeed have a diary entry feel to them. As Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman once famously said – come what may.
I hope those who have been reading (and enjoying I hope) will continue to follow what I have to say. Also, as I gradually get around to it I will be adding a biography (about me), a list of the screenplays I have written / am writing / need redrafting / need completing, as well as a list of links to movie coverage sites I myself follow regularly. Having followed Hollywood Elsewhere sporadically for years, I might add there is no way I want to be associated with further endorsing that website and it’s maker. The other sites on the list I could not recommend enough. In fact, the moves and awards coverage is so fricking prolific these days, it makes me proud that I can be if only a very tiny part of that. In fact, with all the reading I do from said sources, and many others, it is a wonder I get any writing done at all.
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| from ‘Monsters and Angels’ |
I am currently trying to polish up or redraft as best I can two movies. Monsters and Angels is set in London, and centres on a rough-around-the-edges woman trying to rebuild a simple life following a discharge from the army. The other, A Gentle Rise and Fall, is a platonic love story amidst a Boston snow storm – how very current affairs. Two of my favorite movies in fact, of those I have written. Am I allowed to say that?
When I have a break from those I will delve deep back into American Sinners, an ensemble movie (also set in New England), which I regrettably cut down from what would have been a three hour movie to a two hour movie. Why? So I could enter it into a screenwriting contest. The feedback I (well) received, though not wholly applicable, suggested heavily that the huge edit was a big fucking mistake. Lesson learned. Sometimes as much as you really ought to pander to those that may feed you, it can be best to stick to your guns. It is knowing when, I guess. American Sinners needs some damage control now, and will throw myself into restoring the full-length, original version. A writer’s cut if you like.
No doubt more on that, and other screenwriting shenanigans, to come.