This week I've read a few movie scripts to help develop better pacing abilities. Scott Myers has one of the best websites I've come across so far. GoIntoTheStory has a challenge of reading 14 movie scripts in 14 days to get a feel for how other screenwriters have written/succeeded in the movie industry. I must say that after reading 5 scripts yesterday I have a new appreciation for sparsity of dialogue. I've seen in a few books I've read lately that when a character waxes lyrical the author rabbits on and on and on. But in screenwriting you only have so much space/time you can use and so the words you use must count. Many of the screenwriters mention that they go back through their 2nd draft and change the verbs they've used to something stronger. There's always a stronger verb you can pick, one that doesn't need to be supported by adverbs or adjectives. If it can't support itself then the verb's not the one you should use.
I'd also like to give a shout out to Kirsty Eagar for winning the Victorian Premier's Literacy Award for Young Adult fiction with her debut novel Raw Blue. Very well deserved win, great book.
The school holidays are over and the household is getting back into normalcy (well for a degree of normalcy that is our house).
My favourite movie script I've read this week, just for sheer technical detail has to be Aliens by James Cameron. Say what you might about the guy, he's a genius at getting the details down on paper.
Oh and I watched the movie The Outsiders. I so loved that movie when I was a teen and had forgotten the shower scene featuring Sodapop. How on earth could I forget Sodapop in a towel? It should have etched its way into my neural cortex, but didn't. The main thing I loved about the movie and the book was the relationship between Johnny and Ponyboy, they expressed honesty that really touched the heartstrings. Must go get the book and read it all over again, and I'm searching for a copy of Rumblefish.
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