Oscar Nominated Screenplays

Raindance, the Independent Filmmakers organisation have a number of the 2010 Oscar-winning/nominated screenplays available to download on their site here. They include Up In The Air, Precious, A Serious Man, In The Loop and Up amongst others.

Congratulations to Geoffrey Fletcher for Best Adapted Screenplay for Precious. Like Bigelow another first.

John August’s Blogsite

Just added a link to John August’s Blogsite in the Links section of this site. August wrote Go, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Charlie’s Angels Movies. His ‘ton of useful information about screenwriting’ site is full of a ton of useful info. About screenwriting.  Check the post about Professionalism and the Rise of the Amateur.

Hurt Locker

Congratulations on the Win! Obviously Bigelow’s historic win but also Boal’s win. I know there was the usual ‘rubbishing’ of the story as the awards approached but the film has consistently been well-reviewed as a well-executed film that looks at the prism of Iraq through the main Bomb Unit characters. I wonder if in years to come it’ll be viewed how Platoon is viewed. Presumably the combination of these Iraq films ( Lions for Lambs, In The Valley of Elah, The Kingdom, etc) will eventually add up to the effect that one film, Pontecorvo’s Battle Of Algiers  does as an examination of colonialism, the blindness and arrogance of power and it’s human effect.

The ‘verbatim’-ness of Hurt Locker and Battle of Algiers are the connections. Hurt Locker still to make the big cultural connection of films like Platoon, and other Vietnam films such as Full Metal Jacket but it has certainly made a critical connection that will keep it talked about for a while one would imagine.

Mesrine:Public Enemy Number 1

Watched second of the Mesrine (May-reen, my name is may-reen not Mezz-rine) Public Enemy Number 1. thought it was alot worse than the first one Killer Instinct. Felt much more like a compliataion of greatest bank jobs, kidnapping and robberies. The first one I really enjoyed and felt was well edited so disappointed with the second one. i’ll watch it again in a few months and see if my opinion changes.

Film Editing

Watched Mesrine:Killer Instinct recently and thought it was a really well edited film. Compared it to Syriana which I’d seen for the first time the day before.

Syriana was a multi-character piece with lots of stories being intercut and layered between each other. It was also small ‘P’  political film. This sometimes led to confusion and I needed to make leaps of understanding to make some scenes work, especially with the George Clooney character and his awareness that his culpability was something that he couldn’t repress any longer. For me this incredibly significant moment wasn’t rescued by the edit.

Mesrine was a biopic with Killer Instinct being part one of the two film story. I think they might have been originally played together in France.

This film had two fantastic examples of ’showing not telling’ that spoke to the really good editing. The first one involved a bank robbery involving the main character. The next shot after the agreement by Mesrine to take part in his first bank robbery was the character carrying his bedding in prison.  With this one shot you knew failed robbery, capture, trial and imprisonment.

Another similar time transition involved a relationship, denoted as important earlier, being shown to be settled. Again this was done with one shot.

Of course some of this is writing but the rhythmn and pace of the film up also made the shots/moments work.

The Lives of Others is on BBC4 tonight and this is also a really well edited film. Fantastic acting but a really well-controlled film. Catch it if you haven’t seen it, watch it again if you have.

Syriana- review films this week

It appears to be a good week for films on TV this week. Syriana was on last night. Hadn’t seen it before so was looking forward to it. Stephen Gaghan wrote and directed. Good film.

Ghagan is clearly interested in geopolitics what with Syriana and Traffic and manages to introduce complexity yet still tell a strong story with narrative drive. Good performance by Jeffrey Wright so is very good, very low profile brilliant actor.

Another good film, German- oscar winning film The Lives of Others is on BBC4 Tuesday night. I would really recommend that you see this. I presume it will be on iPlayer afterwards so try and see it. A really well shot film and fantastic performances.

David Freeman writing course

Raindance have David Freeman back to do his two day writing course Beyond Structure.  I took it about the last time he was in the UK I think. I was a little sceptical about it as it talks about 45 ways to do this and 27 ways to deepen character etc, etc but I really enjoyed it and thought it really useful. You should check it out. Really long days but really worth the expense I found.

Bafta’s

Bafta Hurt Locker- Yay

Bafta – Bigelow- yay

Bafta- Boal- Yay

Apocalyto/ Jerusalem- reviews

Saw Apocalyto a couple of nights ago.

Good film. The film wasn’t as graphic as I remember it being reviews. Well put together movie. Really enjoyed it. Simple script but well put together. I think the simplicity of the story structure hides alot of effort. It all ‘had’ to (for me) lead to the money shot at the end. So I wasn’t surprised by the end shot has it had to be that shot but for me to write it in this way took alot of skill with clues and threads being scattered, planted earlier in the film.

Jerusalem- Saw this yesterday at the Apollo Theatre. Good play. Nice level of mysticism in the piece. Very strong performances. Never quite sure how a cast of sixteen can be made to pay when one actor has one scene and three others only have two. One is a kid so that makes sense but the others are presumably on full equity minimum. The link is from a report in 2006 so this will no doubt be adjusted for inflation (?) The minimium fee is very small. I like the fact that actors are working and I get the idea that this is a/the way to build experience for the actor but I am always conscious of the cost when I write a play. In film the actor can be employed for a day but not on the stage. I imagine the playwright says this is the play I have written and the Producer bites the bullet and raises the cash or doesn’t.

Jerusalem

Off to Apollo Theatre in the West End this week to see Jerusalem. It has been nominated for a number of writing and acting awards. A recent article makes the case for the play being a treatise on Englishness.I really wanted to see it at the Royal Court but couldn’t make it.

Writer Jez Butterworth’s had an interesting career so far with his mixture of stageplays, screenplays and Directing. There’s an interview from 2009 here with Journalist Mark Lawson.

All in all I’m really looking forward to the day.