Screenwriting: Hanging out with your characters

At the start of August I’m going to start the second draft of my film ‘If We Aren’t Married’, which gives me just over a month till my deadline of the 8th September.

One of the comments that Coops made when giving feedback was that you need to give the audience a chance to get to know the characters and get some form of attachment to them.
So before I start the rewrite I thought it would be good to see how other films do this, and as my film is a chick flick, I’ve got a good resource of them.

However, after watching a few this evening; watching only the parts the female and male leads are hanging out together it seems that all they do in this time is talk relationships! Even the ones where the characters have been friends for a long time. All the conversations are as I thought to carry the plot forward.

I’ve got a big collection to work through, but at a glance I think the only film that does show the two leads just hanging out for the sake of hanging out are ‘When Harry Met Sally and One Day.’ (If you can think of anymore films that show female and male leads hanging out for the sake of hanging out, let me know.)

This got me thinking about my own friendships with guys. I think every time I hang out with my guy mates I would briefly mention relationship updates but not dwell on it. On Thursday I went bowling with a group of guys from work and I was the only girl. We went out for food and drink afterwards and chatted about a wide range of subjects; films, politics, even Pokemon!

Tom, Chris and John to name a few of my uni mates I’ve known for over 10 years. I’ve been to cricket matches with Chris, lots of nights out with all of them and many road trips to uni meet ups.
My mate Dan and I try to celebrate pancake day with each other each year. Ando and I try to meet up at Nandos because it rhymes!

When I was at uni my friend Tom whose mum worked with my mum was the friend that back in the day when I had a monthly pay as you go package and you had to use all your minutes or lose them, I’d call him at the end of every month to use all my minutes.

Audrey Hepburn once said; ‘Everything I learned, I learned from the movies.’ Well I’m afraid the icon that you are Audrey, you maybe wrong on this occasion. Time to look back on friendships old and new for inspiration.

Random Acts of Kindness: When ideas don’t work out

As you are probably aware I’m an ideas person, but just because I think of lots of ideas it doesn’t mean they’re always guaranteed to work. It would be great if they all did, but then it wouldn’t be real life if they all worked.

So last week I met a guy who was pretty nice, actually met him naturally for a change and we got on well. We’d already had each other’s numbers but hadn’t met until now. He mentioned that he liked chocolate brownies and obviously testing the waters and seeing if they could be potential for something more I made some, as a way of impressing him. I sent him a text message to say I had made some for a 'work colleague' and there were some spare if he wanted any. But alas, no reply at all, not even if he was to say he was busy to accept them. And that’s fine, a little disappointed but as I learnt at the age of 3, you can’t force people to like you.

But there was a dilemma…..I had made chocolate brownies, what was I to do with them? I was working in London, and most if not all my colleagues were out and I wasn’t going to be eating brownies all day. So I wanted to do something I always wanted to, give some food to the homeless. However with a heavy workload I couldn’t go out at lunch in the end and find someone to give them to. Some of my colleagues were in after all and had a few, and a couple of guys at volunteering had some, but I still had a layer of brownies in the box.

I was walking to the tube and just as you entered Piccadilly Circus tube station sat a homeless man with a sign simply saying he was very hungry. I walked past him and then decided to walk back and ask him if he liked chocolate brownies. He said they were his favourite and so I gave him the bottom layer of brownies in the box which totalled around 6-7. His eyes lit up and I could tell he really appreciated the gesture.

Who knows how long those brownies may last him. Could be one meal, he could graze on them all day. It made me really happy knowing that the little brownies I made which took 5 minutes to cook might have made a longer impact. I’m going to try and make more cakes in the future and give them to homeless people.

And as for the guy? Well life is too short to have people in your life that don’t appreciate a good chocolate brownie!

Challenge within a challenge: Short films

This year as you know I’ve been going to a screenwriting and creative networking events on a regular basis which are really beneficial. I really enjoy talking to other screenwriters and creative people in general as it you always leave feeling motivated and full of ideas.

There’s one thing that’s been suggested to me a couple of times in these events, which I was also thinking of as well that is the natural next step in my screenwriting, and that’s to write and eventually make a short film. The reason is firstly they are a great way of profiling your work and writing style, but it could perhaps be easier to be made on my own steam.

In terms of short film knowledge, mine is very limited. A few months ago with Coops and Fran we watched 4 short films as part of a film festival in a box set I got years ago from an old boyfriend. But I’d only just got round to watching them. The concept is simple with the set; you watch 4 films which all had the theme of love and be like a judge at a film festival and decide which one is the best. The films in the box were all completely different and made in different styles and they ranged in length; from 2 minutes to 12.

I’ve already got ideas for 2 short films and at first thought I think with short films you can be more expressive in completely different ways.

With a limited knowledge I definitely need to watch more short films to see exactly what can be done in 15 minutes or under. So for 30 days in July starting today I’m going to watch a short film a day.
Not knowing where to start I asked the creative group I go to for their suggestions. I put something on their Facebook group and within minutes I got quite a few recommendations, so I’m going to work through them and see what other ones come up.

I’m looking forward to seeing what short films I’ll see and what ideas I’ll come up with as a result. And if anyone has any suggestions for short films to watch let me know.