It makes things feel official.

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.

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

Price: $0.01
130 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.

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.

Genre: Science Fiction Action Drama.

Setting: Modern times, so we don’t have to deal with castles and spaceships.

Planned Length: Feature, so at least 90 minutes.

Summary: Joshua is a teenager who has run away to another dimension, where he goes to work for an agency trying to catch a gang leader. Back in our world, three kids discover Joshua’s portal and accidentally interfere with his mission, causing an adventure nobody was expecting.

Working Title: None yet, leave a comment if you have ideas!

Last week, we finished the first draft on our treatment, which will be expanded into a script later on. There’s not much else we can say at this point, but stay tuned for more!

Will you believe me when I say that practically the only thing about the original General Public that made it to film was his hat? I’m not kidding. The scripted General Public was much less funny. The whole comedy of the situation was supposed to be his name, because Fonsuger had to convince “the General Public” that the wielders had to be kicked out. There were no yellow pages, no eye-patch, no paper scraps, and no messing about with ink bottles. General Public is a perfect example of changing the script on the fly.

It all started when I asked my dad to play General Public. The only other person we had free was me, and even though I had done his lines during the script read-throughs, I didn’t feel up to playing the part, even though it was originally an easier role. In the script we cut directly from the Shuffle Aftermath to Fonsuger telling a gullible, pompous General that the wielders were dangerous. The General agrees, and that’s that. Can you say . . . boring? We weren’t aware of how much better we could make it until Dad started playing around with the General Concept. (Who is first cousin to the General Public.)

Dad came up with the cranky, shell-shocked Captain Crunch that you see on film. We then had to modify the script to “display” that character to best advantage. The whole section with Fonsuger and Kitty Cone had to be added to set the audience up for the General’s entrance. And we had to add it only a few minutes before we started filming. Talk about racking your brain! There we were in the living room, frantically writing what we hoped would be good dialogue so we could get a move on. Can you picure it? General Madness. (And you don’t want to meet him; he’s really weird.)

After we filmed that part, we had to modify the original section in which Fonsuger persuades/orders General Public to kick the wielders out. Have you ever tried coming up with a “grand speech” in ten minutes, maximum? With pressure? I don’t advise it if you want to relax. Oh, one tip: read the whole scene out loud before you film. That’ll help you catch any inconsistencies that might have happened while you were modifiying.

After all that editing it was so nice to film the scene when General Public kicks them out. All the dialogue is original; we just had to switch the camera angles around so we could film General Public without the other actors being there, otherwise General Hilarity reigned. (And he kept showing up un-invited.)

And generally speaking, with the modifications we made we were able to get the general idea across with the new General Public while adding plenty of comedy, which, generally, is a good thing.

And I hope General Confusion didn’t show up while you were reading this article. He can be so irritating.

Here’s a video of some of our goof-offs and mistakes from filming General Public.

Behind the Scenes of General Public from Phantom Moose Films on Vimeo.

iSundae II in “Final Tweak” Stage!

First, before we get into this article, I have to tell you the exciting news that iSundae II is almost ready to be released! As I mentioned in my introduction, we had a prescreening earlier this week, which brought to light several little things that needed to be tweaked before release. Luckily, most of these were minor and got finished up on Monday. There are just a few things left to do, and we hope to be done in early March.

Okay, you most likely have had enough of my excited ramblings. All the pre-screening of iSundae II has me stuck thinking about getting other people to give input on my movie, so that’s what I’ll write about for this week.

Collaborate on the Script

I can’t stress this one enough. Find a friend who likes to write, maybe somebody who writes better than you, and then let them at least read your script. Even better, write the script together. You may have to compromise at times, but the final script will be better than anything you could have done by yourself.

Now, when we at Phantom Moose write a script, we have a lot of shortcuts and silliness that ends up into the descriptions of events. Because of this, our scripts generally don’t make sense to “outsiders.” So if you write like us, the best thing to do is…

Storyboard for Better Understanding

A storyboard is basically a comic strip of your script. I’m hoping that our staff storyboard person (that’d be Rebekah) has a post on storyboarding in the works, because I don’t really do storyboards very well.

Anyway, once you have a storyboard, show it to somebody whose opinion you trust. Ask for their input, write down what they say, and then make changes accordingly. This is quite crucial, as you can catch confusing parts of your story at this point.

Do a Pre-Screening

Once you have the movie edited to the point that you think it’s done, get a trusted opinion person or two (or more, if you like) to watch the movie with a pad of paper. Make sure they see it on a TV screen, not your computer screen. Tell them to write down what strikes them as confusing, what effects could be improved, what dialog was too quiet, etc. You should be watching with your own pad of paper, noting things that you see, and also watching your pre-screeners’ reactions to the film.

Take their list to your collaborator and discuss it. Make changes accordingly, and then you can either call it done, or have another pre-screening, just to be extra sure.

Once you’ve done all of these steps and the movie is declared done, it’s time to celebrate. When you finish dancing and shouting, pop some popcorn, invite some friends, and have fun watching them watch your movie.