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Magic Time

I’ve pre-ordered this little beauty. It’s a Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera and shoots 1080p video but has a dynamic range that is much higher than ordinary DSLR cameras, so the image quality is better and easier to manipulate in post-production.  The reason I’ve pre-ordered it is because a) The company are still struggling to supply orders of their last model which came out over a year ago now – the Black Magic Cinema Camera (which shoots 2.5k video instead of 1080p), so I have a feeling I’ll be lucky to get this camera this year, but you never know, and b) because I’m thinking about making another short film.

I’ve owned a few cameras in my time, but don’t have one at hand at the moment, so it would be nice to get hold of some new technology to have a play around with. My focus this time round will be on cinematography, something I’ve wanted to learn for a while. Maybe I’ll just mess around with lighting tests and the likes and not actually shoot another short, because I need a script first, and while I’ve got 2 already written which are ready to go, I just think their scope is perhaps just too big for me to manage for my second short. One of them especially would need a pretty big SFX budget.

The camera itself is £800 and that’s the body only. I’m going to need to buy a lens, probably at least two, if I’m going to film anything worthwhile and that will add another £1k onto the lot, but the way I see it is I’m only renting the equipment, because in my experience this equipment is all very niche and sought after and I’ve been able to sell old equipment for nearly the same price as I’ve bought it. At least owning this camera will allow me to play around and see what it’s capable of without any time restrictions that rented equipment has. I contemplated getting it’s bigger brother, the 2.5k model shown here:

 

… but this is just over £2000 for the body alone. There’s also a 4k model being released, but that’s just not practical because not only is it around £3000, the hardware required to edit 4k video would be higher than what I currently have, and my desktop has been newly upgraded to some of the top consumer hardware you can buy. Also, 4k video is MASSIVE in storage size.

So, the pocket camera seemed the best bet and by pre-ordering it I’m just kicking off a process that will hopefully build through the year (or whenever I get it) that should see my shoot another short film soon.

Apart from that I’m still writing my novel and I’ve just been given the part of Benvolio in my drama group’s summer production of Romeo and Juliet. So, keeping busy.

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Finding My Voice

I just surpassed 80,000 words on my novel yesterday, which seems like a bit of a milestone to me as it’s pretty much novel length. It’s just a shame it’s not actually a novel. Yet. There’s a lot of changes still to make and I haven’t written the ending (or the 3rd act, which is what, coming from a screenwriting background, I’d refer to it as). It’s getting there.

The only problem I’m finding now is maintaining focus. I know that I want to finish this book, regardless of whether it’s any good or not, but there are other things I want to write and the novel has been very creatively consuming for the last 11 months (I started writing this thing in May 2012!!!). Whenever I’ve wanted to sit down and write, it’s always been on my novel really, as I felt guilty doing anything else. “Why start working on something else, when you’ve got a book to finish?”. But I’ve had the desire in the past few weeks to start work on something new, something fresh, and something different. I guess, because I’m nearing the end of this (kind of) first draft, I’m coming back to the realisation that I had in the early days, and that’s the idea that maybe this story just isn’t me. The story is serious. It’s about police work and computer crime. It’s about loss and redemption. It’s a book that came from an idea I had which made me think “hey, that’s quite clever.” But that was in 2010 when I wrote the screenplay and the idea was fresh enough for me to ride the wave with excitement.

That excitement has gone now and I’m just battling away with grit, determination and stubbornness. Maybe this is what all writers go through. But what’s exciting me now? Comedy. Science Fiction. Adventure. Something FUN. That’s what this process should be, shouldn’t it? Fun? When I was growing up I was a very lively kid (just ask my poor mum). In school I wrote and performed plays that made people laugh. With friends I made short films about time travelling robots (hmm, where did I get that idea?) and episodes of Doctor Who. The TV shows and films that I loved took you on a fantastical journey. That’s what’s exciting me now, the idea that I can stretch my imagination as far as it will go.

With writing my crime thriller/mystery, I’ve felt confined; trapped, like I’ve been trying write in someone else’s voice. Imitating writers I admire like Thomas Harris or Stieg Larrson, because I read their books and were blown away and then thought “hey, I can do that.” Well no, I can’t. Because I’m not Thomas Harris or Stieg Larrson. They wrote those books because of who they are. Maybe they tried different genres and failed and came back to what they felt most comfortable with. Writing should be an organic and natural process. The second you start forcing it, you’re going to churn out crap. A good friend of mine told me once in regards to my writing to ‘try and stick to the truth’. Well, I can’t say that I have.

It might still take a good few years before I find my actual voice, it’s not something that will happen over night, but this journey has pushed me in the right direction. I’ll continue with this novel with my eye on a few other projects as I come into the final furlong. Once it’s finished, I want to jump into something straight away whilst the book rests in a drawer for a couple of months, readying itself for fresh eyes. There are lots of other things I want to pursue: I want to act again and will hopefully be auditioning for my drama group’s summer production of Romeo & Juliet. I’d quite like to direct another play. I’d like to write a play. I’d like to shoot another short film. I’d like to shoot a sitcom pilot. There I go again, struggling to maintain focus.

At least I’ve got something I should be happy about. Desire.

 

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The Night is Darkest Before the Dawn

Well, well, well… what d’ya know? Touch wood, but I THINK I’ve got a full story to tell with a beginning, middle and end. After my last post when I was ready to throw in the towel, I took a few days off and did other things. I couldn’t tell you how I managed to work out how to fix the problem I had with how to end the story, but I did it. It just goes to show that spending too long staring at something and a lot of it disappears. So, I like what I’ve got now and I’m just getting back into actual writing, not outlining. Oh writing, how I’ve missed thee.

Additionally to this, my friend and I have been meeting up on a weekly basis, trying to flesh out an idea for a play that we want to write, produce, direct and perform. That’s going well also, and we’ve got a good plot template laid down, so now comes the hard part of writing. A friend asked if I was trying to do too much, but it’s striking a balance. I think it’s a good idea of have other projects on the go at the same time, because as I’ve proven in the first part of this post, taking time away from something gives you a fresh perspective. The play is in its infancy at the moment, but it’s a comedy, which is a good counter to my serious novel.

Also, I attended a writing workshop a couple of weeks ago by the crime novelist David Jackson, who has had 3 novels published. The workshop focussed mainly on generating ideas, which has never been a problem of mine, but it was definitely worthwhile going along and David presenting, as you might expect from a university professor.

To check out David’s books, go here: http://davidjacksonbooks.com/

And you can follow him on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/Author_Dave

He might be putting on future workshops, so stay tuned!

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Neverending

Well, I wrote a good 10,000 words of my new book I’d started, but there was this niggling feeling in the back of my mind that I actually cared more about my previous book, the one I just couldn’t work out how to write. So I went back, and I bought more books on the subject and researched more and read more and plotted more. Every now and then having some inspiration to actually write a paragraph or two, or a small scene that would be pivotal in the story. I started to feel good about it and actually worked out a better motivation for my antagonist. One hole plugged, another opened. I just can’t get my head around the story. It’s the story I want to tell in a novel format, but I just can’t seem to make it tangible in my head. It’s a complex thriller and I’m making it more complex as the weeks go by. It’s a clever idea, but sometimes I think I’m trying to write it because I’m trying to prove to people that I’m a clever person. A smart arse. Obviously I’m not that clever if I can’t finish a bloody story.

So now I don’t know what to do. I’m at a bit of a low point with my creativity and have other things to think about in life too, so it’s all just getting a bit too much. I think I’m missing ‘fun’. I used to have that, sometimes. Still do but it’s few and far between and it’s like this novel is taking up most of my daily thoughts. Maybe I’m just not cut out to be a novelist. Screenwriting was much easier than this.

 

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New Year, New Book

Last year, around April/May time, I started writing a novel based on a screenplay I’d written 2 years prior. It was a great learning experience as a writer, not just for novels but for scripts too. Around October time, and 65,000 words into my novel, I realised that I didn’t like the reason the antagonist was doing what he was doing. His motivation was flawed. It had always been weak, but I guess I kind of ignored it and just got stuck into the writing, but as I wanted this book to be actually GOOD, and not just something I wrote as a hobby and sent to friends as a PDF, I really wanted to strengthen the antagonistic force of the story. So, I stopped writing my book and went back to the outline. And for 2 months I battled that outline, until the Christmas holidays hit and I realised I hadn’t moved from the same spot in 2 months.

It’s not like I did no work, oh, I worked… but I ended up going round in circles. There was no conceivable way I could think of that would make this story work the way I had written it. I was making myself crazy. And after some time to reflect, and talking to friends and family, they all gave me the same advice; take a break. So, that book has been officially SHELVED. For now.

In the meantime, I’m writing a new book. Again, this is based on a screenplay I wrote, but actually wrote it in 2006. It’s a sci-fi/crime/psychological drama and one of the best ideas that I had come up with if I had to say so myself. The last novel I was writing was complicated, almost too complicated, but this is more of a character story wrapped up a science fiction concept. It’ll be easier to write technically, but it’s a much, MUCH darker story… so will be more difficult to write emotionally. I’m only a week or so into writing it and already have 5k done. It’s going well.

We shall see.

I don’t make resolutions, but as it’s the new year I might aswell say mine is to complete a novel. Last year was to direct a play, which I did. The year before was to make a short film, which I did. See if I can go for a hat trick.

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Broken Mirror

Well, after receiving a rejection from the final film festival I entered, I’m now releasing Broken Mirror into cyberspace to sit on top of the wardrobe and gather dust. I entered it into 6 festivals here in the UK, five of which cost me about £20-30 a piece to enter and it got as far as being short listed for the free one. I wonder why ;)  Anyway, here it is. It was hard work yet rewarding, but I’ve been reconsidering if making short films is a route I want to continue down. I change my mind like the wind though, so we shall see.

 

For info, the screenplay was written in 2008, the film was shot in August of 2011 and the final cut was finished Jan 2012.

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Coffee Fix

This past month has been hard. I’d decided I needed some heavy changes with my novel and went back to the beginning to go through it with a fine tooth comb. It’s not just a simple task of going through the book and making amendments, because that’s like trying to rebuild a house with people living in it. I had to go back to the outline. That’s where the root of the problem was; there’s no point trimming leaves when you’ve got an oak tree instead of a birch (I liked both those analogies and decided to leave them both in).

So I re-outlined, and did some more, and then focussed on certain areas of the story and fleshed those out, and focussed on characters, and found I was having problems with other areas. It was a mess, really. And quite depressing. But then nobody said writing a book was easy.

So after about a month of doing that, mixing things around, I finally clumped together some sort of a solution that I like. It was just a matter of writing it. Now, I write mostly at around 7:30am every morning for an hour before work. I used to do this with a cup of coffee on my desk, but I gave up coffee 2 months ago because it made me feel anxious and I wasn’t sleeping as well as I wanted to. I felt the benefit after about a week of drinking only 1 cup of tea and 1 green tea a day, and my anxiety had certainly subsided quite dramatically. I was also sleeping soundly for a solid 7-8 hours every night without waking up through the night, something that I used to always do.

But my productivity has been shit.

I initially put this down to the fact I didn’t KNOW what I was going to write, I was still outlining and trying to fix problems, but after all that I’d sit down and stare at a blank screen and just not know how to start again. I’d maybe bash out 100 words before work thinking “at least it was better than nothing”. Anyway, last week I stumbled on a thought about coffee and I remember reading somewhere that coffee boosts creativity. So, Thursday morning I decided to have a cup of your basic, instant crap Nescafe. Perhaps it was a placebo effect, but I wrote some damn good stuff that morning and felt great walking into work, knowing I’d left the scene open for me to come back to and continue at a healthy pace. The same thing happened this morning with another cup of instant crap.

Is coffee the solution? I mean, we’re a nation of coffee drinkers. People can’t function in work without a cup or ten of the black stuff. But is it the secret to being creative? It’s a well known fact that Starbucks and Costas all over the world are a haven for writers. Maybe they know something the rest of us don’t.

I’m only sticking to one coffee for the time being, every morning while I write. I’ll see how things go, but as it’s helped me these past 2 days, placebo or not, I can’t thank it enough.

Put the kettle on.

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Know Your Ending

I saw this picture today and it resonated with me. When writing, in my opinion, the number 1 rule is to know your ending before you start. Some people don’t work like that, they just like to sit and write and hope that the journey takes them somewhere, but you’re more likely to come to a deadend and the desire to track back and try again will diminish with each attempt. Know your ending. Trust me, it saves a hell of a lot of time.

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Skyfall: Quick Review (Spoiler Free)

Skyfall
Saw Skyfall last night in IMAX. I thought it was a vast improvement on (the terrible) Quantum of Solace, but Casino Royale edges it in my opinion as the best of the Craig Bonds.

Skyfall is a beautifully shot film and some great acting (for a Bond movie), but the plot was a bit thin/drawn out and felt every one of the 142 minutes long that it is. Also, the action sequences have the typical embellishing nonsensical stuff thrown in (train crane?), which would work in a tongue-in-cheek Moore or Brosnan Bond film, but in these new gritty Bonds? Not so much. There is also a huge amount of influence from writer/director Christoper Nolan’s films, such as The Dark Knight and Inception; not that Sam Mendes has hidden that fact, he’s admitted it in many press interviews. The villain, Javier Bardem, is very Joker-esque in certain scenes.

The music was great, with a blend of new stuff mixed in with old, and the cinematography from Roger Deakins was stunning (check out the high-rise fist fight in Shanghai).

I was a bit annoyed at the high percentage of green screen, but then I guess you can’t get away from that in movies these days. Almost all shots of Craig running down a street looked CG for some reason, like his face was too well lit.

It felt very traditional and very British. A great homage to the classical Bonds that came before. Check it out.

8/10

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Writing is rewriting

Just a quick update. I’ve completed 80% of the first draft of my novel and have hit the point where all the loose strands suddenly come together for the great climax, the beginning of Act 3 if this were a film. Only there’s a problem; the antagonistic backbone to the story is weak. I’ve known it was weak for months, thinking that along the way I’d magically conjure up a way to strengthen it. But I hadn’t.

The story I’m writing, I’d already written as a screenplay over a year ago. It worked then because the good thing about screenplays is that a lot of the story can remain ambiguous or left out, as there’s just not enough time to fit it all in. But  writing it as a novel I’ve realised that you just can’t skip over the cracks, everything is on show, and those cracks unfortunately raised their ugly heads at a pivotal moment, the home stretch. So, after the typical week of depression thinking my book was a piece of shit, I got brainstorming to figure out a way to fix the issues; lo and behold, a few days later, I’ve figured it out. But It means changes.

Implementing the stronger elements means rewriting maybe 30-50% worth of what I’ve already got. But this is writing. Nobody knocks out a perfect draft on their first go. You just have to knuckle down, get to work and be honest with yourself; if something doesn’t work, don’t just put it on the shelf and hope that nobody notices. Because they will.