Recent content by maralyn

Honesty is an artists greatest tool. Fiction isn't a lie, it's an imagining. There's a difference. If you don't have the ability to be honest, then you don't have the ability to connect with the underpinnings of a story. Because to connect with those, you have to be able to draw on universal...

I'd ring the British Film Institute and see which ones they think. And try to get it into the Berlinale.

Maybe one of them should kill the other, or something. I guess I'm wanting something to happen. A bit of drama. Two brothers separated in childhood, meet up again .... then what? I like the idea of structuring it around a meeting at a certain place. It gives it a focus. But maybe there can be...

Hmm .... ok, firstly, just pretend there is no such thing as zooming. They used it back in the 70's a lot, and now nothing from the 70's is watchable. Never zoom. It looks like roughly what's happening here, is, you're reading a book, you get up and go outside, you walk for a bit, you look at...

Everyone reading your script is experiencing it the way the audience will be experiencing it. Including directors. Everybody is audience on first read.

There was a South American movie, sorry, I can't remember the title or the filmmaker, or even which country, but it started with a scene of a driver of a small van or truck, running over a child. Then it develops as he stops and gets out to help, villagers gather around, and then violence...

Before writing your script, talk to people about your story. See if their eyes glaze over, and if they change the topic of conversation as soon as they get a chance.

There is no terminology for anything. You need to describe your scene in a way that carries the audience, and captivates them. And it's all in the context of what's happening, technical terminology is dry, just use a little license... they all speak at once, words jumble into incoherent...

guys, guys, please, please don't say slasher doesn't have a plot. Alien was a slasher movie. So was Jurassic Park. There are no "rules" about slasher not having a plot.

bla bla bla there's nothing wrong with being a bit immature, in fact it's an essential requirement for a balanced writing life. I wish I still had summa dat immaturity. I miss it. It's ..... anarchy. And anarchy is the seat of creativity, so ponder to your hearts content.

Look, I'm not a big believer in pinning anything down at the beginning of a story. Especially not 3 act structure. Think about who you're telling the story to, and what is it about the story that has got you so interested in it. I'm also not a believer in "breaking" stories. Horrible term...

You can turn a single image into a feature, if you care about it enough. You can give the existing story a bigger past, or a bigger future, or both. Or, you can make more things happen within the existing story, or weave another story through it.

It costs a lot of money if ..... It's got a lot of people in it It's got a lot of location changes If it's got a natural disaster in it. Explosions, car chases, anything you wouldn't normally see on the street. Gun fights. If you wouldn't normally see it on your way to work, it costs a lot...

You can call it: Sni-atch But just because I'm not excited, doesn't mean I should be mean. What could make the story more unique, more original?

gawd, that's what you call tortured. But you can't be afraid of making mistakes either. Look, if you haven't got a script finished in the next 18 mths, go and shoot a documentary instead. Or just make a short.