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.

Challenge within a challenge: Getting back on the radar

For any regular readers, you would have noticed I’ve gone a bit quiet recently. I checked and the last time I blogged about any new challenges was back in April! Now when I go off the radar, usually my family thinks it’s because I’ve got a new boyfriend, which isn’t the case here. At the moment dating wise I seem to be going on dates with lots of frogs, but have yet to find a prince yet. But for some reason life seems to have got in the way of my challenges.

I’m still on the never ending job hunt, and then I got a secondment at work, which has meant for the short term I am doing 2 full time jobs at the same time until they find a new me for my old job. Speaking to other colleagues who have been in a similar boat, this arrangement could last for up to 4 months! As a result I come home shattered without much energy for anything else.

With the new role and me being a social butterfly, it seems that the challenges have taken a back seat, and ultimately I haven’t completed them, meaning I’ve failed them.

I think from memory there are 3 challenges I started but haven’t completed: Health awareness, bible reading and writing a book in a month. Not completing these challenges is a good thing, it shows I’m human for one. Nobody is perfect and not every goal you reach for is met. I remember my cousin Miriam asking where do I find the time for all these things and over the past few months time has escaped me.

I will go back and try and complete these challenges as I feel I will get something out of them, but for now with my current work situation I’m going to downsize the challenges I set for the time being.

The next few weeks I’ll use as a catch up to reflect on some challenges I’ve done in previous months that I haven’t shown the outcome of. With July and August I’ll be setting myself one (yes ONE) challenge for each month, both which will be beneficial for my screenwriting.

Now from the outset, these challenges I set myself aren’t life defining in the grand scheme of things. The failure of these haven’t had an impact on my life; I haven’t lost any money, my health hasn’t been effected and it hasn’t impacted any of my friends or family. But I haven’t achieved what I set out to do.

As you may know I love a good quote and I was trying to find ones about failure, but they all seem a bit grand. I did find one which I don’t seem to high and mighty. ‘No human ever became interesting by not failing. The more you fail and recover and improve, the better you are as a person. Ever meet someone who’s always had everything work out for them with zero struggle? They usually have the depth of a puddle. Or they don’t exist.’ Chris Hardwick.

So onto the next challenges!

Screenwriting: First lot of feedback!

This evening my friend Coops came round with feedback on my film ‘If We Aren’t Married.’ I was pretty nervous about it and even managed to muck up making mug cakes in the process (I forgot to add the flour.)

But once he started giving feedback it wasn’t that bad and there were even some positives that came from it.

So what are the main areas that I need to improve on? Well for one I need to brush up on writing a synopsis. I gave a paragraph explaining what the screenplay was about and that was it. When I did Journalism at uni I was so used to writing the basic details in as few words as possible, then writing in more detail takes some practice.   

The other area is parenthetical description and it’s an area I was pretty clueless about to begin with, so I still need practice.

With regards to the plot itself there were a few points that were covered. The first one being that the whole idea of the plan of if a couple of friends aren’t married by a certain age then they should marry each other doesn’t really get covered, and Coops points out it’s a concept that hasn’t really been covered before. So I need to explore that in more detail and I’ve got an idea of how already.

I knew from the get go that having three strands of narrative would be tough to write, and ultimately one would be weaker than the rest. And so it was suggested that the Halla and Olly plot would be lifted. I can see where Coops is coming from on that front as the character of Olly, although developed in character development, on the page it just doesn’t show through.

There are pros and cons with dropping a narrative strand, it means that it free’s up more time to develop the other characters and create scenes where you can start to like the characters and see their personalities. I think when you reading screenwriting books, there’s so much focus on the plot and moving it forward with every line that you forget that you need time to grow to actually like the characters.

But then I do like the character of Halla and her backstory. The point was made that she could still be in the screenplay, just as a soundboard character instead of one of the main characters. And although Coops said one of factors as to how the film ends was a bit convenient, I do like how emotional I got writing it, so I’ll take that as a positive even if I go with changing it slightly.

So what happens now? Well Coops really wants to read a second draft and with doing 2 jobs at the moment at work it doesn’t leave me much time for much else at the moment. So he’s given me a deadline of his birthday which is the 8^th September for a second draft to be completed by.

In the meantime I want to get one more viewpoint on the screenplay before starting the rewrite. Any takers?

Challenge within a challenge: Nice day for a white wedding

As I said in my previous post the weekend was a busy one, and on Saturday I went to my friends Kate and Dan’s wedding!

I have to say it was one of the best weddings I’ve ever been to and I think that’s due to the people. Quite a few weddings I’d know maybe 2 or 3 people other than the bride and groom. But this wedding I knew way more, so there were lots of people to hang around with.

I’ve known Kate and Dan for many years as myself, my friend Rachel, Alice and Kate and Dan used to go for nights out together. We also went on a great camping trip together last year as well.

With no boyfriend at the moment I took my friend Ro as my +1 and we had a great time. I can’t remember the last time I danced nonstop. I’d finally found the perfect footwear for a wedding; some nice navy blue wedges that didn’t make my feet achy and I could dance freely in.

But add to the dancing an evening buffet which I ate very quickly meant I was dancing with a food baby. By the time I got back home, after an epic Disney singalong in the car, I was shattered with an achy belly.

When it came to my dress, I got it from Dave’s (as always) for the grand price of £3. The jacket I got on the morning of the wedding!

I asked Kate which charity is hers and Dan’s favourite and they said Cancer Research and RSPCA, so I’ve made small donations to both charities as I wore a dress.

Challenge within a challenge: Reuniting over a good book

With the summer months upon us, and hopefully normal summer temperatures, this means I’ll get to wear some nice dresses. And this means that it will count towards my dress challenge and I’ll donate some more money to charity in the process.

This weekend has been a very busy one, I’m shattered! I went to a wedding which I’ll blog about tomorrow. Today I went to a book signing to meet the great Giovanna Fletcher!

I’m a big fan of her books, well the ones I’ve read. I’ve read Dream a Little Dream, which I thought she wrote about me as the main character Sarah had lots in common with me. Her book You’re The One That I Want I read while queuing up for rides at Disneyland. And on the last few pages my sisters were chanting; ‘Read it, read it’ as I finished the book.

Upon hearing about the book signing on one of Giovanna’s (or Gi as she’s known) YouTube videos I immediately thought of an old school friend called Carly. We follow each other on Instagram and when I posted about reading Gi’s books, Carly commented saying she was a fan of Gi as well because of the YouTube videos.

I sent a message to Carly asking if she wanted to go and we hadn’t seen each other since school, so well over 10 years. And she thought it was a great idea. So we went to Milton Keynes today and had a lovely catch up.

When we met Gi she asked if we were sisters and we explained that we were old school friends and hadn’t seen each since then and that her book signing was our little reunion and she loved that. I also gave her a recipe as she’s a big Nutella fan and I have a great recipe for oaty banana and Nutella muffins.

I wore a little pink dress today, which I bought from New Look years ago, no doubt in the sale. Gi recently did a video about Wrigley’s Extra’s ‘Extra Smile Back Project and the money raised from that will go their chosen charity partner; Action for Children. So I’ve made a little donation to that.