Episode 3 of my podcast in which I talk about how I write action scenes in scripts and learn to love my local arthouse cinema.
Saturday, 30 August 2008
Writer by Night Screenwriting Podcast Episode 3
Episode 3 of my podcast in which I talk about how I write action scenes in scripts and learn to love my local arthouse cinema.
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
On the verge of a week off...
So August was supposed to be one last push to clear my slate before my two weeks of holiday next month (during which I'll be visiting Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent, Bristol and New York, in that order). It didn't really work out that way. One of the points of doing the blog was that it would encourage me to write so I'd have things to put on here. Instead I'm aware that I now have no reservations about blogging about doing nothing. If you, dear reader, could perhaps leave me the occasional comment telling me off for not working hard enough that might help. Maybe for like a week, then I'd probably start blogging about that too.
I feel I have achieved something with my two podcast episodes and will try for a third to make it a trilogy. My aim was always to do three first off just to establish it then look back and decide whether it's a worthwhile pursuit. It certainly kills time, but actually it's time I'd usually spend staring at a blank page or browsing the internet so I don't think it's really had an effect on how much (or how little) writing I've done this month. Anyway, in true Lucas style if I make it to the trilogy I'll consider not doing another for 20 years or so, release a few special editions of the 3 current episodes, then finally get around to doing new ones that will be better produced but with terrible scripts. Or something.
Speaking of which, the second episode is available to download in the previous post. I'd suggest getting it direct from the blog as people seem to be having problems downloading it from iTunes, me included. Although my PC says it doesn't like it when the episode has downloaded in iTunes but then it plays fine. Who knows what's going on - I certainly don't have the time or the technical knowledge to work out the whole iTunes podcasting thing right now, but if I do continue the podcast I may try and work out the kinks at a later date.
There is some news - it's not all about doing nothing! There's an excellent write-up of the Phantasmagoria festival (which includes a rather complimentary paragraph about Ten Dead Men) in Impact magazine written by Andrew Skeates (who also writes the Cool Target: Action Movie Reviews blog which you can get to via the link on this site). Impact is usually available in Borders.
So I'm away next week doing the rounds of the various families up north, then back for two weeks when I really will have to try and get some writing done before heading off again.
I feel I have achieved something with my two podcast episodes and will try for a third to make it a trilogy. My aim was always to do three first off just to establish it then look back and decide whether it's a worthwhile pursuit. It certainly kills time, but actually it's time I'd usually spend staring at a blank page or browsing the internet so I don't think it's really had an effect on how much (or how little) writing I've done this month. Anyway, in true Lucas style if I make it to the trilogy I'll consider not doing another for 20 years or so, release a few special editions of the 3 current episodes, then finally get around to doing new ones that will be better produced but with terrible scripts. Or something.
Speaking of which, the second episode is available to download in the previous post. I'd suggest getting it direct from the blog as people seem to be having problems downloading it from iTunes, me included. Although my PC says it doesn't like it when the episode has downloaded in iTunes but then it plays fine. Who knows what's going on - I certainly don't have the time or the technical knowledge to work out the whole iTunes podcasting thing right now, but if I do continue the podcast I may try and work out the kinks at a later date.
There is some news - it's not all about doing nothing! There's an excellent write-up of the Phantasmagoria festival (which includes a rather complimentary paragraph about Ten Dead Men) in Impact magazine written by Andrew Skeates (who also writes the Cool Target: Action Movie Reviews blog which you can get to via the link on this site). Impact is usually available in Borders.
So I'm away next week doing the rounds of the various families up north, then back for two weeks when I really will have to try and get some writing done before heading off again.
Monday, 25 August 2008
Writer by Night Screenwriting Podcast Episode 2
Episode 2 of my podcast in which I talk about rewrites and torture, or the torture of rewrites, or some combination of the two.
Saturday, 23 August 2008
Mail Order Zombie...
The excellent zombie podcast Mail Order Zombie read out my rather lengthy rant about the genius of I, Zombie in Episode 30 so I feel they deserve a recommendation here - especially since I threw in a cheeky plug for Ten Dead Men. It's a very well produced show and Brother D has a nice approach to reviewing low-budget films, being honest about the negative aspects but always making sure to draw attention to the positives. Definitely worth a listen, and it's entertaining whether you're a zombie fan or not.
Speaking of podcasts, iTunes put mine up on the store despite only having one episode, no episode information and bad sound quality. Now I feel under pressure to do another one!
It's been a busy week - Wednesday I went to see Brighton Wok at Hove Cinema Club. It was cool seeing another low-budget Brighton-based martial arts action film, and this one definitely made more of the Brighton location than we did. It also had fantastic production values - amazing what fitting a zoom lens to a DV camera and an hour in a helicopter can do for the look of a film. As a film it could've done with a tighter script but it's amazing achievement considering how young the filmmakers are. You can find out more here:
http://www.brighton-wok.com/
Thursday I met up with a director/producer I know to exchange feedback on scripts - really productive although one of my scripts I thought was near final draft quality may be a bit further off completion than I want it to be.
Am in the process of getting feedback on a number of scripts I wrote this year which has been an interesting process. Usually I just give them to one person at a time, but this time I've send the scripts out to a fair few people in the hope of getting an overall picture of what I need to work on. The results so far have been really interesting, but once again I seem to be dividing my audience - a problem I've had ever since I started writing. There's a lot more feedback to come in so more on that later.
There will also be another Ten Dead Men screening in Brighton soon, probably in October. More on that when I get the dates.
Speaking of podcasts, iTunes put mine up on the store despite only having one episode, no episode information and bad sound quality. Now I feel under pressure to do another one!
It's been a busy week - Wednesday I went to see Brighton Wok at Hove Cinema Club. It was cool seeing another low-budget Brighton-based martial arts action film, and this one definitely made more of the Brighton location than we did. It also had fantastic production values - amazing what fitting a zoom lens to a DV camera and an hour in a helicopter can do for the look of a film. As a film it could've done with a tighter script but it's amazing achievement considering how young the filmmakers are. You can find out more here:
http://www.brighton-wok.com/
Thursday I met up with a director/producer I know to exchange feedback on scripts - really productive although one of my scripts I thought was near final draft quality may be a bit further off completion than I want it to be.
Am in the process of getting feedback on a number of scripts I wrote this year which has been an interesting process. Usually I just give them to one person at a time, but this time I've send the scripts out to a fair few people in the hope of getting an overall picture of what I need to work on. The results so far have been really interesting, but once again I seem to be dividing my audience - a problem I've had ever since I started writing. There's a lot more feedback to come in so more on that later.
There will also be another Ten Dead Men screening in Brighton soon, probably in October. More on that when I get the dates.
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Quiet, I'm can't hear myself talk!
As you can see below I finally got around to recording my first podcast. You can download the mp3 by clicking the title of the post, or you can subscribe to it manually in iTunes by clicking 'Subscribe to Podcast' in the dropdown menu and pasting in the following URL:
http://www.whatwritesatmidnight.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
It's also on Google Reader and I'll try get it linked to a few more places.
Just a warning first of all - it is really quiet. It's fine on a home PC but if you're listening to it while on the move it's pretty much impossible to hear. I'm working on that - it is partly because I speak quietly (I realise now that most of the other podcasts I listen to are done by shouty Americans), but also I need to get some proper audio editing software really. If I figure out a way to make the next episode louder I'll amend this one too and upload it again.
I also realise I could do with more upbeat music at the opening. I wanted to put something there but fearful of copyright violations I used the only piece of music I have permission to use, which is a piece my brother composed for a short horror film I directed. The only copyright-free music I've managed to find so far is 1920s Ragtime music, which may or may not work out better.
What I thought would be the hardest part, actually recording the thing, was fairly easy. I ended up talking for way longer than I thought I would and I mumbled a lot, but otherwise it was fun to do. The problem is it took forever. Recording it took about an hour and a half (yes, there were out-takes, but not very interesting ones). Editing it took another hour. Then figuring out how to a) post it on the web, b) link it to my blog and c) get it to show up on iTunes took hours. I am quite tired having gone to bed in the early hours of the morning. And I still haven't figured out c) yet. I've submitted it to iTunes but I think it may get rejected as it's not really of a listenable standard yet, and there's only the one episode. So you can subscribe to it manually as mentioned above but I might not be able to get an official listing for a while.
Anyway, it took ages, meaning my one free night of the week I spent talking about writing rather than actually writing anything. Which is fine at the moment, I just hope it gets quicker and easier otherwise it will be a writing podcast about doing a podcast, because that's all I'll be doing...if that makes any sense. Just like this is a writing blog about recording a writing podcast.
So please do download the episode, I apologise for the length and the volume but hopefully I get that right next time, and feel free to leave me feedback in the comments.
http://www.whatwritesatmidnight.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
It's also on Google Reader and I'll try get it linked to a few more places.
Just a warning first of all - it is really quiet. It's fine on a home PC but if you're listening to it while on the move it's pretty much impossible to hear. I'm working on that - it is partly because I speak quietly (I realise now that most of the other podcasts I listen to are done by shouty Americans), but also I need to get some proper audio editing software really. If I figure out a way to make the next episode louder I'll amend this one too and upload it again.
I also realise I could do with more upbeat music at the opening. I wanted to put something there but fearful of copyright violations I used the only piece of music I have permission to use, which is a piece my brother composed for a short horror film I directed. The only copyright-free music I've managed to find so far is 1920s Ragtime music, which may or may not work out better.
What I thought would be the hardest part, actually recording the thing, was fairly easy. I ended up talking for way longer than I thought I would and I mumbled a lot, but otherwise it was fun to do. The problem is it took forever. Recording it took about an hour and a half (yes, there were out-takes, but not very interesting ones). Editing it took another hour. Then figuring out how to a) post it on the web, b) link it to my blog and c) get it to show up on iTunes took hours. I am quite tired having gone to bed in the early hours of the morning. And I still haven't figured out c) yet. I've submitted it to iTunes but I think it may get rejected as it's not really of a listenable standard yet, and there's only the one episode. So you can subscribe to it manually as mentioned above but I might not be able to get an official listing for a while.
Anyway, it took ages, meaning my one free night of the week I spent talking about writing rather than actually writing anything. Which is fine at the moment, I just hope it gets quicker and easier otherwise it will be a writing podcast about doing a podcast, because that's all I'll be doing...if that makes any sense. Just like this is a writing blog about recording a writing podcast.
So please do download the episode, I apologise for the length and the volume but hopefully I get that right next time, and feel free to leave me feedback in the comments.
Writer by Night Screenwriting Podcast Episode 1
Episode 1 of my podcast in which I explain myself and accidentally go into great detail about my life story.
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