TheBanyanTree: And so it begins...

[Stew Young]

So it begins.

I'm new here. Some of you may know of me through the writings of one of your
frequent contributors. Some of you don't know me at all. That works, cause I
don't know much about y'all either.

So I feel on I'm on the verge of a break through. Or maybe a break down.
Nah, definitely a break through. (I've been through breakdowns before, they
are messy and it's hard to reassemble all he pieces while crying.)

I was 50 pages in my movie script when I realized I didn't have a main
character. If you've ever written a movie script, you know this is bad form.
(And, while we all like to complain about how formulaic Hollywood has
become, it's a fact that if scripts don't follow a particular form, they
don't get sold and made into movies.) In your traditional "Dude With a
Problem" type script, the main character is introduced by page 10 – and it's
better if he/she is introduced by page 5. I was on page 50. You see the
problem.

So I'm starting off from square one.

See, the big problem is, I really only have one scene in mind in this movie.
But it's a scene I've had in mind for 5 or 6 years now. And trying to get to
that scene has been a bugaboo. Maybe the problem is one scene just isn't
good enough for a fully story. Maybe I should go and try some other story.
But then I feel that the overall story I have developed for this scene is in
fact a good one.

I purchased a book a month or so ago titled, "Save the Cat: The Last Book on
Scriptwriting You'll Ever Need." After I started reading the book, I found
that there's a companion software piece available. This software helps you
break your movie down into the three act structure, and then breaks those
acts down into 40 different "beats". And voila, instant movie – just add
words.

It ain't that simple.

For one thing, this is version 1.00 of the software. Anybody with software
experience will tell you to avoid version x.00 of any piece of software. I'm
not saying that this program is buggy, but, well, if architects built
buildings the way programmers wrote software; civilization would be doomed
by the site of the first woodpecker. It's not that it's that buggy…it's just
cumbersome and non standard. For the first time since using a GUI, the
"print" command isn't under file. It's under… hell, I don't remember, but
it's not where it should be.

So, here I begin – again. And we'll see if the fates smile on this attempt
at creating this story.


Stew


--