Me, a writer of movie scripts - mini

Jack Sparrow is a Hans Wurst

Ingmar Bergman once made a movie out of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute. In the convolute of the CD he tells us a little about the opera.

The Magic Flute was written for the common people. While the upper class wanted everything stiff and proper with great virtues in center, the common people wanted to be entertained. When the story tended to be pompous a character called Hans Wurst ("Johnny Hot Dog") entered the scene.

Hans Wurst was a clown who added humor to an otherwise high-flown story.

In the case of The Magic Flute Papageno is this story's Hans Wurst. The director of the theater Emanuel Schikaneder decided to play the part of Papageno himself. Since it was he who had written the libretto and also commissioned the opera from Mozart, he made sure that his character got the best songs.

This also meant that Hans Wurst no longer was a secondary character but challenged the main character, which disturbed the balance in the story.

In The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl the use of Hans Wurst has returned on the form of Johnny Depp's character Jack Sparrow. Without Jack Sparrow we would have a rather pompous story with Will Turner as a classic, old-fashioned hero like Errol Flynn's characters once was. That is not what we want today. We, the common people, want to be entertained, hence the entrance of Hans Wurst as Jack Sparrow.

While this was a stroke of genius the sequels made the same mistake as in The Magic Flute: Hans Wurst cannot be the main character. Then the story looses in balance and in credibility.

So little makes the scale to tip over.

From my blog Me, a writer of movie scripts

Nov 28, 2008 3:58 AM | Link | Comments (0) | Add Comment | Report Content

Invite inspiration

Planning scenes is major boring.

No, it isn't once I've started. But thinking about it and consider whether or not to bring the notebook up...

I use my blog to help me (Me, a writer of movie scripts). I know that most of the World has other things to do than following my blog, but still it feels a little like the whole World is watching. So a progress bar has to be dynamic and moving otherwise I look bad.

And to make it dynamic and moving I have to write.

Some people might say that I'll have to wait until I have inspiration.

Then I'll probably have to wait.

Inspiration that just comes to you with a desire to write happens from time to time. And yes, those moments are terrific. But, if I want to produce material in a tempo needed to be a professional writer some day I can't sit on my butt and wait.

I need to learn to know how to get the inspiration to come to me. I need to be able to write when needed, not when I need it.

Other blog posts on the theme:
To start the creative flow

Creative flow among nappies

From my blog Me, a writer of movie scripts

Oct 21, 2008 11:03 PM | Link | Comments (0) | Add Comment | Report Content

The social life of two cats

Once upon a time there was a woman whose only family was her two cats.

One day she felt sorry for her cats. They lived so much indoors and never got a chance to meet others. So one Sunday afternoon she took them to a park and let them loose so they could go and play with other animals.

They disappeared among the trees and when she called for them in the evening they didn't come. She thought they wanted to play a little longer and went home.

Next morning at work she told everybody about her noble-minded and unselfish act and by lunch she went back to the park and called again for her cats. Her colleagues had whispered among themselves that she would never see those cats again, and they where all surprised when she returned with her cats.

They had both come running to her when she had called for them. Of course they did, she said, now when they were done with playing with the other animals.

From by blog: Me, a writer of movie scripts

Oct 5, 2008 10:27 PM | Link | Comments (0) | Add Comment | Report Content

To write long dialogs

When I write dialog each character has a goal, I've written about this earlier. For me that is the main key.

I also try to keep the dialog short. If a character's line starts to run of for more than three rows I watch out and rethink the situation.

Sometimes there is not enough substance in the dialogue and then it is easy to cut, but lets say that the character really needs to deliver a lot of information, how do I still keep the dialog interesting and moving the story forward?

First of all, I make sure it is a dialog and not a monologue. The others in the scene can make comments or questions, at least.

Then I keep in mind that it is a movie, not a radio-show. There is an image to take care of as well. The characters must do something while they are talking.

What they can do is always limited to the situation, but there is always something that can be added. Sometimes something funny.

In my script The Recreators, Simmiolas and Mannestam have a serious talk (page 48), sitting down, inside in a room. They drink tea, and which I took advantage of. Mannestam gulps cup after cup with steaming hot tea, while Simmiolas wants it cooler. But every time that he has the cup half full Mannestam serves him a new brimful cup, again hot. It is not much, but serves as a little amusement to lighten up a scene that easily gets cluttered with talk.

In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers in the extended version there is a scene with Eowyn and Aragorn on their way to Helm's Deep. Eowyn serves Aragorn a stew that is - by Aragorn's reaction - not tasting very well. The food is not the issue, but it serves as movement and amusement in the scene. It gives Eowyn opportunity to ask a question that will reveal information about Aragron.

From my blog at Me, a writer of movie scripts

Sep 22, 2008 10:17 PM | Link | Comments (0) | Add Comment | Report Content

Krull-alert

We have an expression in our family for a phenomenon that sometimes appears in a movie. It is "Krull-alert".

Krull is a fantasy movie from 1983. "A prince and a fellowship of companions set out to rescue his bride from a fortress of alien invaders who have arrived on their home planet" says the plotline on Internet Movie Database and it pretty much says it all. It's a mix of traditional Fairytale and Sci-Fi.

We rented this movie because of the score by James Horner. We had it on CD and really liked it.

Now, if you haven't seen Krull (which you probably haven't) I must warn you that there will be spoilers from here on.

One of the problems the Prince faced to get to the fortress with the aliens was that the fortress (their spaceship) moved every night. So their only chance to be able to get there in time before they moved again was to know where they would land next time.

So the Prince and his companions go to a seer who uses an emerald for his foresight. The emerald is destroyed by the enemy. They go with the seer to the emerald cave instead and on the way there the seer gets killed. The Prince gives up all hope but his faithful friend Ynyr says that there is still hope, there is one more person that might help them.

Then he goes to see a lady that turns out to be his former wife who know lives in a room in a giant spiderweb. The spider in the web is halted when she turns the hourglass, but obviously she can turn the hourglass only once because when Ynyr is about to go back she breaks the hourglass and gives him the sand and says that when he has dropped the last grain of sand his life has ended.

There were three places they could go to find out where the spaceship would appear next - the seer, the emerald cave and the spiderlady. None was set up in advanced but appears when needed.

There is no obvious connection between the hourglass and the spider. Neither is there established any connection between the broken hourglass and Ynyr's life.

The rules of the world are not set. They are built up as we go along.

This is what we have come to call Krull-alert.

From my blog at Me, a writer of moviescripts

Sep 14, 2008 9:05 PM | Link | Comments (0) | Add Comment | Report Content

Sons become hackers, daughters get rescued

I have just watched the movie Live Free or Die Hard or Die Hard 4.0 as it is called in Europe.

I liked the first, don't remember much from the second and missed that there was a number three. But Bruce Willis is cool.

I had a great time watching Die Hard #4. Lots and lots of action, bullets, broken windows and smashed cars. But from a screenwriters point of view I don't give much for the story.

There is a hacker that our hero Detective John McClane is supposed to pick up and deliver to the FBI for questioning when someone has hacked into their system. The hacker is not the guy they are looking for. He has only been used by the bad guy and the bad guy wants him dead to eliminate witnesses. With bullets, broken windows and smashed cars as a result.

I read at Internet Movie Database that the hacker was the hero's son from the beginning, but the guy supposed to play him backed out. So they added the hero's daughter instead to give the hero something personal to fight for.

But the daughter didn't become the hacker. She is just a girl stuck in an elevator and she was introduced with a clumsy setup that has nothing to do with the rest of the story.

The hacker is now no more than a guy that is John McClane's contrast in everything. A guy that is supposed to be a perfect partner for the hero according to the book, but when the story lacks in many aspects there is not even a relationship to work with.

If they had allowed the hacker to be the hero's daughter it would have been much more interesting.

From my blog at: http://writerofmoviescripts.blogspot.com/

Sep 8, 2008 8:08 PM | Link | Comments (0) | Add Comment | Report Content

The happy ending

When I started to write movie scripts I was afraid of change.

I knew my characters were supposed to change and I thought they did, but it was only the conflicts that were solved. The characters stayed the same.

My characters were perfect from the start. They were bright and brilliant, good and kind in every way. In the real world it is nice to be surrounded by kind people, but in a movie a little rudeness does not hurt. And why stay at a little? Why not be very rude? That makes it even more provocative and obvious that the person has an attitude problem.

We need characters to relate to in a movie. But it is interesting that these characters are more extreme than most people.

Why is that?

Do we need to relate to them, but don't want them to be ourselves? So we make the clumsy guy very, very, very clumsy to make sure he is obviously clumsy, funny and too far from real world for anybody to feel hurt?

Or is it simply because contrasts work best and the contrasts are not big enough in a group of ordinary people?

Then the character must change, because we must feel that this story means something more than a passing train.

The main character must find his or hers peace of mind.

So in the end the character is more or less a normal person that finds a normal, happy life. Then we too are content. Then we have found our peace of mind for a while. And for a moment we feel that this movie really meant something and changed us too.

From my blog at: http://writerofmoviescripts.blogspot.com/

Sep 3, 2008 11:39 PM | Link | Comments (0) | Add Comment | Report Content

Criminal heroes

When I look back at things I have written I am amazed by how many times a thief or a killer has the leading role. And this lead is always a woman, but that can easily be explained by the fact that I am a woman myself. But I am no thief and definitely not a killer.

Why do criminal heroes fascinates me so?

One thing I am certain of is that I do not believe in good or evil people. There are no such things. Humans are humans. Some things that are easily considered as evil are simply different points of view, different cultures and such things.

Some people make mistakes that take them to on journeys that are difficult to stop.

A killer is not a monster. I might not like the person in question or agree with his or hers actions, but the person is still a human being.

James Bond kills all the time and he is a leading character.

For me it is important to show the human. And a criminal human with maybe even murder in the past is as complex and challenging as it can be.

In the world of today I think it is important to listen, learn and understand our differences. There is no peace without understanding. That does not mean that we have to agree with each other, but accepting that we are different and knowing why.

From my blog at: http://writerofmoviescripts.blogspot.com/

Aug 31, 2008 11:39 PM | Link | Comments (0) | Add Comment | Report Content

Walker meets pram

I met a guy on the bus. I had my youngest with me in the pram and he had his walker so we shared the space in the bus for prams and wheel chairs.

He was the kind of disheveled man that gives me suspicions that he has had a life with too much alcohol.

He was nice and friendly and we talked about nappies when he had little babies (he had three children and four grandchildren) and nappies of today and other baby stuff. And such a happy and carefree life my little fellow still had.

He said that his neighbor next door was a sweet lady that lent him cigarettes in the middle of the night if needed. The man was not even sixty, lived in an elderly home and looked like seventy. I wondered about the "sweet lady". Who was she? I couldn't imagine my mother (a little older than this man) appreciating a next door neighbor asking for cigarettes in the middle of the night.

When he showed me all the cigarettes he had bought to make it until the next day I said that if he smoked that much he should consider to smoke less. He gave me a look that might have meant that smoking was the smallest of his problems or that I should mind my own business.

He brought out a can of beer from his pocket and gave it a longing look. He put it back, sighed and said that there was still some time left on the bus before his stop.

I wonder about his life and his family. Even if he claimed to have had a good life after all, I don't believe that all had been roses. What stories were hidden in him?

From my blog at: http://writerofmoviescripts.blogspot.com/

Aug 27, 2008 9:24 PM | Link | Comments (0) | Add Comment | Report Content

A set-up for Lipizzaner-horses

I am not American and had vague knowledge about the American Civil War (1861-1865). I knew that it was the south and the north and that it was about the slavery's be or not to be.

When I started to read a Swedish book written by Ulf Zander about American movie, history and identity I learned - among other things - that the mentality of north and south is still there.

Suddenly I watched the movie Crimson Tide with new eyes.

In Crimson Tide there is a submarine captain played by Gene Hackman that has been driving submarines for twenty years and his new, much less experienced but well educated Executive Officer (the second-in-command) played by Denzel Washington.

Not one word is mentioned about the fact that the Executive Officer is black, until close to the finale when Gene Hackman's character talks about Lipizzaner-horses that are all white.

During my previous views of the movie I reacted to the fact that the captain's opinion about his Executive Officer's color is not properly set up.

Now I know how wrong I was. The set up is done and well done indeed. If you just know a little about the United States.

The submarine's name is Alabama. Alabama is a state in the southern. Alabama wanted to keep the slavery and discriminated its black population long after the civil war.

During the captain's pep-talk to his crew he says that the submarine has a proud name and that the outstanding state has fine people.

The Executive Officer is also the only black officer on board. There is one more but he is slightly colored, not black.

Suddenly I felt a completely different tension in the movie. And it was for the better. That is what I call a set-up.

From my blog at: http://writerofmoviescripts.blogspot.com/

Aug 26, 2008 11:12 PM | Link | Comments (2) | Add Comment | Report Content