Well, The Fades didn't really do a lot for me. The script, however, did. I went through a phase of reading movie scripts a while back. Not all the way through, just dipping in and out, here and there, always feature films I'd seen. I was following Screenwriter John August's blog at the time, which I should probably get back into if he's still updating, and it made sense to read what he was writing about. I don't remember them being quite so... informal. I think that's probably the word I'm looking for. In The Fades we have this description: "We cut to behind HELEN's back. She's tucking a small gun into the back of her trousers. Yeah. A gun." I love that "Yeah." It's all "Yeah, you read that right. Weren't expecting that were you? This shit just got real." See now this is writing I can get behind. I prefer an informal writing style; it gives me room to make it mine and means I won't have to learn a whole new language, just the formatting and style.
The Blind Banker is really specific with its descriptions of action. It's clear that Mark Gatiss had every shot mapped out in his head. Between that and the times when The Fades looked so different from how I pictured it in the text, it's become clear how important storyboarding is going to be.
I'm downloading the trial version of Final Draft, a scriptwriting program. I'll spend a little time playing with that tonight before I head out, so when I sit down to write this thing, I'm not distracted with "ooh, what does this button do?" thoughts. Well, I would be downloading it if my internet connection was a little more stable. Curse you wireless, someday I'll finish drilling holes in the walls of this house, then you'll be sorry.
Wait hold on, now it's half an hour later and I wrote a short scene involving a conversation between two characters, FRANK and TOM about how they were both dudes. A party was planned. It was, in their words, rad. Now this isn't going to be winning any Oscars, but that wasn't the point. Final Draft seems easy to use, the Trial version lets me write and save scripts of up to 15 pages, which suits my needs just fine. I'm understanding most of the formatting. Just need to figure out how I'm going to print this off when it's done. Now I should go get some food before I head out to see if The Descendents is worthy of all those nominations. That's me done for the night.
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