Tuesday, January 4, 2011

On Writing Pt1

As I've already done it, I'll just put in a quick comment on my writing process. First off, the process itself is really inconsequential and of no importance. What is of importance, is that it gets done. It is work, and it takes time to get things out of your head and on to the page.

First up, I imagine what kind of story I want, in terms of tone and length, and how I want the audience to feel watching it. The idea I've had since childhood was a horror with Australian Magpies. And before I wrote anything down, I needed two ideas: the set up for the creatures (the adversaries, if you will, the villains of the piece), and the human characters that we were to follow. Not so much who they were at this point, but what they were doing there. Once I got both those ideas, the explanations for both things; why they're there, and I was happy with them, the film concept went from being something to consider, to a project I wanted to pursue.

From there I got the images in my head, and wrote down random notes, no matter what they are or where they occur, down into a notebook. I didn't have a plot at this point, no story.
In this case, I knew it was a horror and that characters were going to die. All of them, except one, in fact. So as soon as it occurred to me what the characters were going to be (kids in their late teens/early twenties, some students, some not) I immediately listed each character, their names, short bios, at least describing their personalities, and what their relationships/dynamics are. I needed that to be clear.
I couldn't write a character without know what they were like, and what they would do in a situation that confronts them, if I didn't have who they were nailed down. Now, I didn't need all the complete aspects of them, the characters won't truly live until an actor gives the performance, and then the performance is edited into the movie. But I needed enough of them, so that they made sense as people. I knew that they were going to be like me and my friends, while not based on anyone, still distinct individuals, and I'd know the way they talked.
On top of that, despite having flaws and different personalities, I wanted these people to be likable, I wanted the audience to want to spend time with them. I hate the mantra of modern horror movies having unlikable leads you want dead, because what impact that used to have has dried up, and no one spends their free time in real life with people they hate, or at least, if they do, I don't want to know them, and I don't want to make a movie about them. So the whole "prick boyfriend" and other shit like that was out the window.
I even did the same thing for the creatures, even though they're all the same animal, I gave them different personalities, and hopefully slightly differing looks, so that they weren't just lifeless drones, they have their own motivations...
Then basically, because it was a horror movie involving deaths, I wanted to make the deaths surprising, so I basically picked them at random. That way, I knew then that all bets were off, and it would be more surprising, a fresher experience for the audience. Of course in writing the story, I'd weave it in to make it smoother, but at least I wasn't making up anyone just to kill them

Once I had that, I took what notes I had on gags (not jokes, but things that happen like stunts, events, deaths, etc) and other random bits and pieces, and I fashioned a story, in mostly dot point form, though the dot points were pretty detailed. I drew out a map of the main setting, since most of the plot/movie take place in the one area, moving geographically as the story moves forward.
Once I had that (it went for a few pages), I actually wrote it all out into a film treatment (still by hand), giving more detail, adding more ideas and shifting, deleting others. I tried to focus a page for each sequence, adding sketches and tidbits to help me figure out the details I'd need for a script. Who is sitting here or over there, references, ideas on shooting styles, and other random tidbits.

This I did all chronologically. It makes most sense to me this way. If I recall correctly, the initial story points I finished in less than two days, doing other things in between. I still try to give myself breathing space at this point, let ideas come.
Then with the treatment, I took the time to labour over each sequence, spending an entire day or more on what scenes I'd need, what ideas I wanted to incorporate. A lot of little sketches, storyboards and things just in there to help visualise particular points.
My working style too, changed in figuring these out, the beginning was very loose, and open (this will be reflected in the final movie, I believe), but the end became very specific, almost a script without the dialogue or formatting.

Once I had got to the end, I knew exactly what I had. Now it was time to work.
Once

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