Film School requirements

Sorry I've been absent for a while. The teachers are really strict about the required attendance at all Handsome Men's Club meetings, and they meet daily.




Should you so desire, an entire meeting is available for viewing on Youtube. Don't worry, at least YOU won't have to write a paper on it.

Families

I've been thinking today about the television programmes which I loved when I was young, and they all seem to have one thing in common - families. They also have musical themes which instantly come back to me even after several decades.

The Brady Bunch, of course, but then also The Waltons, Eight Is Enough and...Bewitched too. I quickly googled them and I found myself physically reacting to the photos, I sighed out loud and laughed and clapped my hands. I even surprised myself by remembering the names of most of the kids from Eight is Enough, and by feeling as if I had actually known them, in real life, in my childhood.

I'm trying to come up with a logline for a television series, it's simply a group exercise my class will be doing next week, nothing huge. Yet, Eleanor being Eleanor (ugh, she does annoy me sometimes), she must insist on taking the task far too seriously. She must begin to wonder if any idea she comes up with can ever be high art enough for the discerning television viewer. She must worry that her fellow student writers will roll their eyes as she nervously mumbles through her pitch, stumbling over the words, blushing.

So thank goodness for my happy childhood and my wonderful memories of the television worlds I lived in.

Also, thank goodness for my real family which gathers around me at times like these and teases me and makes me laugh at the unhealthy and impossible standards I so often set myself.

I'm going to have some fun with this instead. I just have to tell Eleanor about it first. Wish me luck.

Solo

The last photo in this Journeymama post necessitated the writing of a poem. So here it is:

A POEM FOR A KING IN THE MAKING

(For Journeymama’s Solo, with love)

In fairytales
The kings and queens
Rule kingdoms
Far and wide,
With land long owned
And silver stowed
And knights who do
And die.

In battles long
The kingdom won
In castle
Made of stone,
The royal couple
Side by side
Are served a feast
Alone.

Beyond the walls,
Beyond the moat
Of water deep
And dark,
And further down
The tree-lined path
Which leads to woods
And grass,
Keep walking now
And there you’ll see
The subjects
One and all,
They wake and bake
And clean and make.
They’ll never
Rule the world.

Someone is king
And someone not,
All this you know
I’m sure.
Yet I’ll tell you
A different rule,
Which is not taught
At school.

A king’s true throne
And golden crown
Are never in
Full view,
They hide in letters,
Pictured poems,
They hide in psalms
And you.

For waking, baking,
Cleaning, making
Need not be done
Alone.
Just take your time
To look straight down
And notice
Golden curls,
And tiny hands
And dimpled elbows
Chubby, sunkissed
Feet
Which firmly stand
Upon the throne
Which helps him
Reach the treats.

The Oscars

I could go on and on about the Oscars, but my eyes are killing me and I'm tired, so I'll give you a quick list:

How cool is it that Kathryn Bigelow is the star of the day? How cool is it that a small film about the Iraq war should be so loved and so respected? Very. That's how.

Go read bb for a red carpet snark.

Go read this for a film industry insider snark too.

I LOVE Precious and Blind Side, but I really didn't think they'd be appreciated by the Academy. I was wrong! Woot!!!

I'm crushed that Best Costume didn't go to the Aussie who worked on Bright Star. Totally unfair.

I have a new favourite film. I only went to see it yesterday, and only because I had a feeling Jeff Bridges would win the Oscar and I wanted to be in the know. I was surprised people!!! AMAZED!!!! "Crazy Heart" is my new favourite film of the year!!!!!





And this is my new favourite jogging song:

List

Miss CB got her Ps today, which means she can now drive a car all by herself, alone.

I spent the morning watching "Alien" and compiling a beat sheet, which means that I wrote down every major change in plot as it occurred.

I have had blepharitis for many years and it has been under control until this past week. Major flare-up is sending me back to the ophthalmologist. It's a problem. May be connected to stress and watching endless hours of TV and film.

Anybody watching "The Good Wife"? I'm surprised at how compelling it is, I think I'm hooked.

I am completely and utterly addicted to "In Treatment". Five 20 minute episodes (which were apparently shown on cable Monday through Friday) following a psychologist and 4 different patients' sessions, with the 5th being his own session with a psychologist. Then they continue with those same patients for the entire season! Gabriel Byrne, I heart you (although Mr. CB is still my one and only true love. Ahem.).

I also have to do a beat sheet for "Finding Nemo." It's so beautifully structured.

A guy in one of my classes once said "I dare any one of you tell your friends that you're doing a beat sheet for Basic Instinct." Most paused film moment ever?! You know...Sharon Stone...OK...change of topic....

There's a guy in my class who's ambition is to be the youngest person to write a TV series, ever, in the world. I found that to be really sweet and funny.

I found the nanny next door sitting in her car and having a tiny little cry the other day. Both her charges have started going to preschool twice a week and she was missing them terribly. The nanny next door is a very special woman.

It is raining on my laundry. I can't be bothered reacting.

If you ever watch "The Queen" and see the screen saver on the menu think of my dog Blue....Helen Mirren is shown staring straight ahead with a very stern look in her eyes, and Blue totally freaked out and started whining and cowering. I swear he really did!

I'm attending a seminar with Jane Campion tomorrow morning and I'm trying to pretend that it's perfectly normal when inside I'm jumping up and down and running around like a maniac and whooping with excitement.

Rush

Ever since my screenwriting course started I've been in a rush, and I keep sitting down at my desk and starting a post only to find myself suddenly doing something quite different in a completely different location.

So I have decided this Friday morning to write a post in a rush, without reading through it and pondering anything whatsoever. Stream of consciousness. Sort of.

My course is great, but I'm completely out of my comfort zone because it's been quite a while since I spent so much time with people, talking. Sure, I have my part-time work, but a lot of it involves reading and writing by myself. If I have the choice between writing an essay or meeting someone in person for a chat I will always lean towards writing.

So there I was, spending three full days with 4 women, 5 men and our 2 teachers discussing the theory and practice of screenwriting. To cut a long story short (hehe, no pun intended) our first assignment is writing a tv pilot to a brief. After spending the last 10 years trying to eradicate the evil time-sucking, life-sucking television from my family life I am now embracing it with a passion.

My favourite show so far is Mad Men, especially the 1st season. Anybody else here love it? How about In Treatment? My guilty pleasure is actually Medium, anybody else out there like it?

I'm the oldest in the class, and the youngest members of the group (in their 20s) had a bit of a bet on how old I was! Their final guess was 32, SCORE!!!!!!!!!! (I'm 41).

Rhyme or reason?

Did you know that scenes in screenplays can rhyme?



I'll give you an example.



"Master and Commander" tells the story of two friends, Captain Jack Aubrey and Doctor Stephen Maturin, who enjoy playing music together (violin and cello) when they're not busy leading and healing the ship's crew. Aubrey is a wonderful leader, sailor and fighter, a man who thrives on danger and action. Maturin is a wonderful healer, botanist and poet, a man who thrives on peaceful musings and quiet learning.

Towards the end of the story Captain Aubrey finds himself standing in the Captain's quarters of the enemy ship he has successfully won in battle, and he notices a sheet of music on the floor. As he stands and stares at the sheet of music, he is suddenly attacked by a French sailor who had been lying in wait for him. After a struggle, Aubrey succeeds in fighting the sailor off and forcing him to tell him where the French Captain is hiding - in the infirmary. Upon arriving in the infirmary, Aubrey sees two men, one lying dead on a cot and the other a doctor who explains that the French Captain lies before him, having only just died from his battle wounds.


The twist which we discover several scenes later, is that the French Captain had in fact disguised himself as the doctor.


Captain or Doctor? Warrior or healer? Friend or foe? And music too, of course. This is in fact the theme of the film, and the very essence of the quite beautiful and complex friendship between these two men. All of which is portrayed via these rhyming scenes.