My DIY film/writing school

Good morning Monday!

It's just shy of 6am, and I'm feeling good about writing the script before I do anything else (except this blog, of course). It helps me feel like a screenwriter first and foremost, and all the other things (journalist, email answerer, and administration person for Simon Young Writers Ltd) second.

Great weekend. Saw Love Actually and Pretty Woman yesterday - pretty essential for someone writing a romantic comedy! Because I've actually bought the DVDs of those movies, I didn't go overboard on watching the extras, listening to commentaries etc. Plenty of time for that - just a basic familiarity with the story's what I need right now.

I gotta admit it, even though I haven't been a frequent rom-com viewer, I am a sucker for the medium. Love Actually brought a tear to my eye more than once; it was brilliantly done. Pretty Woman I didn't like at first, but it grew on me to the point where I really cared about these characters. Not an easy job, to make a hooker and a hard-nosed rich guy sympathetic characters. It deserves to be a classic, fairy tale that it is.

A skim-read of the weekend trades:

• Innovative! The BBC is launching "mobisodes" - prequel or teaser clips before each episode sent to your mobile. Wow.
• Casablanca's the best script, according to US writers. I agree, inasmuch as you can decide on something so subjective. BBC, Filmfodder, Cinematical.
  
• 48Hours has opened. Sigh. And I'm still not part of a crew. Next year maybe.
• Ice Age 2 keeps melting box offices around the world. Meanwhile here in NZ Sione's Wedding has broken box office records. That means $630,000 is the most any film has made in one weekend in New Zealand. Wow, we really are a small country. That news report has one thing wrong, though. John Barnett did not direct, he was one of the producers.
• Horror-comedy flick Slither has been a poor performer at the BO. Post-mortem analyses here and here and well that's all.
  
• Starbucks wants to make a movie - and this is not the story about "How Starbucks Saved My Life" either.
  
• Sometimes it's too much to keep track of Hollywood, plus the film festivals. But this caught my eye, because I'm familiar with the story of Burke and Wills. Pity the movie doesn't sound that great.
• And to round all that off, some advice. "The only way to learn how to write is to write."

I write now. Okay?

posted by Simon @ 5:59 am