From Issue 8, January 2003:

Making Your Own Ticket To The Stars

When should a scriptwriter make their own film? Sooner than you might think says Skip Press

I recently acquired a cable-modem connection that seems light-years faster than my old dial-up. It came at a good time because I was loathing a novel I was patching up for someone else. I was also suffering writer's block on a couple of scripts, which only seems to happen when I'm writing the wrong thing. So I took a creative diversion that resuscitated my creativity.

While noodling around my now faster Internet, I discovered mp3 newsgroups and what seemed to be every song ever recorded, all available for downloading. Listening to songs I hadn't heard in years conjured up pleasant memories but then something interesting happened. I started to think about the various scripts for which I was building research and idea files, and the songs sparked soundtrack ideas.

Better still, songs I'd never heard that I downloaded on a whim sparked new, previously undreamed of scenes. Using tools like Audacity (audacity.sourceforge.net) and the free version of ProTools (www.protools.com - scroll to the bottom of the page and click on ProTools FREE), I was able to generate even more ideas by getting into editing audio tracks.

After my wife asked me about all the CDs piled up on my desk, I went back to writing. I was back on the book (which suddenly seemed much better) and I touched up an old script for a director to see. In short, the aesthetic process was jump-started by doing something creative, even if it was nothing more than compiling CDs around a subject like ‘Crazy Christmas’.

Many successful screenwriters whom I know have music playing in the background as they work. Dave Ayer, a friend who wrote Training Day, listens a great deal to The Doors. I'm to blame for that, having introduced him to their music as we drove to a convention in Reno, Nevada, long before he was a screenwriter, I might add.

In the United States, with endless talk radio and news programs, we become a little mind-numbed as writers with endless ramblings droning in the background of our lonely, professional lives. This is somewhat odd when we live at a time when physical tools for the creation of entertainment products are affordable by almost anyone with a decent income or access to schools. Doesn't it make more sense to create your own product to watch and listen to and hopefully improve?

I often give lectures and appear on or moderate many Hollywood panels. More often than not I find that people who make their mark as screenwriters, make their own movies. Even short films can have a major impact. I hadn't spoken to an actress friend, Lisa Blount, for years and then I saw that she, her husband and their business partner received an Oscar in 2002 for best short film. (See www.ginnymule.com for details).

Wow, I thought, I really should make my own movie. After all, I had been preparing. In the Joining the Digital Revolution chapter of my latest Writer's Guide to Hollywood, I mention books like Digital Guerrilla Video by Avi Hoffer and the three-CD interactive film school package by Rajko Grlic (www.interactivefilmschool.com). There's much more in the chapter but books can't keep up with the electronic revolution, certainly not in Hollywood. I'm sure you know about Apple's latest computers with their SuperDrive that burns CDs and DVDs, but did you know that you can probably edit a digital feature with their iMovie programme that comes free with those Macs?

That's the opinion of David Pogue, author of iMovie2: The Missing Manual, who is also and the New York Times’ computer and electronics columnist (see www.pogueman.com). You would be further convinced if you digested Erica Sadun's iMovie 2 Solutions: Tips, Tricks and Special Effects (also with accompanying CD, see www.ericasadun.com for more). In Erica's book you can also become apprised of the hidden power in Apple's inexpensive QuickTime Pro software (www.apple.com/quicktime - it's a cross-platform tool).

Lately, I've been turning back into a film-maker. I say ‘turning back’ because I abandoned movies after I had two features ‘going into production’ that didn't actually see the first day of principal photography. You don't want the sordid details but that's why I turned to writing.

I began my new evolution with old home movies converted to video, several of which were then edited to make short films that were ported to QuickTime, burned to a CD, and sent off to grandparents for playing on a computer.

On my drawing board are original short movies, some of them excerpts from feature scripts. And why not? Producers and studio executives will readily look at original short films or a QuickTime movie ported to them over the Net.

CONT. in Issue 8.