It’s a short that we wrote a couple years ago and then shelved. We haven’t looked at it since, but several months ago I got some feedback on it from some great folks over on ChristianFilmmakers.org. That gave me a direction for improvement. A few days ago, I started to rework the story a little, and now I have a finished treatment. Hopefully, I’ll get going on actually writing the screenplay very soon.

By the way, here’s a Celtx tip. I discovered the other day that you can add a Novel to any Celtx project. So I added a Novel to write my treatment in. Handy to have everything in one project.

So that’s what’s up with us. More later!

Okay, bad news first. We’ve pretty much decided that reshooting our DragonSpell trailer and Rebekah’s neat idea are going to be put on hold for a future time. We’re not abandoning them by any means. We just needed to focus on other projects.

But wait! There’s good news! Ruth and I have finished the Books & Things seminar for Simply Charlotte Mason. We’re excited and very relieved.

Speaking of Simply Charlotte Mason, we’re mostly planning to shoot another video for them in the coming week.

And the Incredibooks Read-a-Thon video is still on the list of things to do. We just need to sit down and figure it all out.

Best news (in my opinion): Rebekah is hard at work on a script we’ve been working on since November. She stunned me yesterday with a page (filled in small handwriting) of backstory research. I’ve been told that there’s more to come.

I’m getting pretty excited about this one. Once we have a better working title, I might do a post with a little more info. For now, I’ll leave you wondering.

But! On Friday we found time to sit down over the Internet and discuss an idea we had in November. I came away from the meeting extremely encouraged with the direction of the project. One thing that came up was all the other ideas we had to play with. We counted at least five story ideas that we might work on later.

Don’t worry, by the way… We’re still planning on doing the DragonSpell teaser. Just gotta get this seminar done first.

Crafty Screenwriting: Writing Movies That Get Made (Paperback)
by Alex Epstein
ISBN: 0805069925

Price: USD 12.74
65 used & new available from USD 4.39

Summary

A book on how to write crafty screenplays. Crafty as in “screenwriting is my craft.”

The Good

Lots of examples. The only screenwriting book I’ve read that covers the why of proper formatting, as well as how to write adaptations of books. Good stuff.

The first screenwriting book I’ve read that doesn’t assume you’ve seen all the films in the examples.

Includes advice on how to sell your screenplay, if you’re so inclined.

The Bad

Mild language throughout, with a few spots where some saltier words show up.

Cynicism about Hollywood is funny the first two times, but gets annoying as the book goes on.

Overall

Worth a read for the formatting section. Also, the author disagrees which much of the arguments concerning the importance of structure that were so prominent in Save the Cat.

Read this book to get an alternate angle or theory and become a more well-rounded screenwriter. Or just get more confused as you seek to reconcile the two methods.

We have a new idea that reworks our current script. It’s somewhat different and somewhat new. Some of the biggest problems with the old draft have been solved, but new ones have been added (of course).

We’ll see how it ends up working out. I’m optimistic!

(And keep an eye out for a book review post. I just need to find time to do it.)

We’re trying something different. Rebekah and I are each writing a separate draft. No idea how this will work out, but we thought it might be beneficial.

Nothing much to report besides that. Rewriting on my end has been slow. But I did have a brainwave about half an hour ago. We’ll see how it pans out.

However, we’re currently taking about two weeks off to take a breath and work on a couple of other things. So things aren’t too bad.

Making a Good Script Great (Paperback)
by Linda Seger
ISBN: 0573699216

Price: $0.01
125 used & new available from USD 0.10

Summary

Dr. Linda Seger, a professional script consultant, breaks down the three act structure. She tells you how to rewrite your good script and make it great. The first few chapters help you write the first draft.

The Good

Making a Good Script Great is very clear. There are lots of examples from real scripts, including large quotes from major blockbusters. If you haven’t seen them, you’ve probably heard of them.

Reading about rewriting your script gives you a good idea of what to watch for when writing to begin with. It was extremely helpful to me to know what problems I could avoid now with a little extra thought.

The Bad

Some of the scripts and movie story-lines quoted are not the cleanest in the world. Just be aware that you will encounter some language and a few non-graphic, non-detailed references to inappropriate “romance” scenes.

Overall

After I finished Making a Good Script Great, I looked at the story I’ve been working with and saw all sorts of new possibilities. Highly recommended.

There are good sequels on occasion, but generally these come from well-developed stories to begin with. If the original film was lacking in development, the second (or third) installment suffers from the poor beginnings.

This was brought home to me while sitting across the table from Rebekah and Ruth. We were chatting about nothing in particular and iSundae III came to mind. Within fifteen minutes of goofing around, we had the semblance of a plot that, at an earlier time, would have had us scurrying off to write a script.The plot was somewhat of a Lord of the Rings spoof. Just to show how easy this is, here’s what we came up with:

As the power of Chocolate begins corrupting him, Stelen discovers that he can escape Reyshar’s fate if he and his fellow wielders destroy the iSundae swords in a microwave. Enlisting the help of Gwenanda the so-called enchantress to build a microwave, and hindered by power-obsessive Kitty Cone, the wielders embark on a quest to destroy the powers before it is too late.

You can see that the story is already rather weak. All we’ve done is take some of our existing characters, make them mirror characters from Lord of the Rings, and add a dash of silliness.

And that was where we stopped. In our minds, we stopped there because we have matured as writers to the point where such a story is no longer appealing. Not only that, but the iSundae series has a lot of random baggage in the root story that prevents us from handling it the way we would like. iSundae II is a testament to that fact. It could have been so much better if we’d gotten iSundae right to begin with.

Not only that, but iSundae doesn’t really need another sequel. Many films are this way. While reading release dates on Box Office Mojo, I was surprised to discover how many lame first films were receiving the sequel treatment this year. Seriously, do you (and we) want to be in that camp?

So this is my encouragement to you to leave those sequel ideas behind. Start something new, something that doesn’t need to be attached to the old work with its flaws. Come up with a new idea, which will hopefully have fewer flaws than your previous story. And then repeat the cycle.

There are exceptions, of course. Sometimes a good sequel idea shows up. When that happens, I’d recommend sitting on it for some time before going ahead with writing. Then, if it still seems good, be very careful to make it new and fresh. Don’t be tempted to ride on past success for the sake of making a movie. Instead, make sure the story is worthwhile.

As a result of all this, we ended up with the impression that our story is good, but we need to sit down and work on our characters before we start scripting. That’s where the project stands at this point.

One last mysterious note on the project: We tossed around some title ideas, and though nothing positive has materialized yet, we may have a potential working title.

One last note from me: I’ve just requested from the library a few good-looking books on various aspects of filmmaking. Perhaps there will be some reviews soon.