april 15th unplugged | no new nukes
March 24, 2011
What: You Are Cordially Invited to Unplug Your Electrical Items
When: April 15th
What Time: 9 PM Eastern Standard Time
How Long: 15 Minutes
Where: World Wide
Why: You Don’t Want to See Little Kids Fried By Nuclear Plant Radioactive Fallout
*Your time zone Eastern Standard Time: :::world clock:::
everything’s rad in the golden state
March 19, 2011
go, kucinich, go!
March 15, 2011
high concept writing: the crichton model
March 12, 2011
If there is —
One writer who regularly nailed high concept [and did it over and over again] it was Michael Chrichton. He was one of the first writers to write a story about a scientific and military response to a plague hitting the U.S. [Andromeda Strain]. Not to mention the only guy talking about space probes bringing back plagues. One of the first writers to address how organ harvesting could go really REALLY wrong [Coma]. Was the writer who took the concept of cloning and said, Forget cloning sheep and humans, let’s clone dinosaurs [Jurassic Park]. He took on the Japanese/American business clash [Rising Sun]. Looked at sexual harassment from the perspective of a man being sexually harassed in the workplace instead of from the [much more common] perspective of a woman [Disclosure]. If there is one thing Chrichton was continually capable of doing, it was looking at current trends and issues before anyone else did and not only nailing them before anyone else did, but taking them to their extremes —
friday in japan
March 11, 2011
that adams girl cheat sheet l.a. election frenzy
March 8, 2011
Still wondering who or what to vote for? Figure your voting tendencies match mine you just cannot sort through the fine print? Never fear, That Adams Girl is here:
THAT ADAMS GIRL CHEAT SHEET:
City of Los Angeles Member of the Council, 4th District:
Tomas O’Grady
L.A. Community College District:
Member of Board of Trustees:Seat No.1 Mona Field
Seat No.3 Steven Veres
Seat No.5 Scott Svonkin
Seat No.7 Miguel SantiagoBallot Measures:
G: No (this should have been a cap, this is weak legislation)
H: Yes (this is muddy but bottom line, let’s rein in the dirty contributions now)
I: Yes (what does your dwp bill look like?, yeah, rein those ponies in)
J: Yes (more dwp, see above)
L; Yes (that is libraries, dammit, save them)
M: No (if it’s a legal sale, you can tax it, if not, you can’t, make up your minds ya greedy bastards)
N: No (stop it, reining in bad campaign tricks should not be overturned)
O: Yes (tax those damn oil companies already)
P: Yes (should the city set aside cash for emergencies?, gee, I dunno, does l.a. have fires/floods/earthquakes?)
Q: Yes (this was tricky but i am going with scada on this one, let’s fix some of those employment provisions, sorry democratic party)There. Easy. And remember, libraries are riding on this and so is your utility bill and hello? Those oil drilling bastards need to start paying taxes. Print this baby out and hustle out that door. You have till 8 o’clock.
Smooches,
That Adams Girl
•check back to see how we did
news from max
March 8, 2011
TALES FROM THE MAX SIDE
The newsletter is new. The plan is to send it out monthly(ish) — or bimonthly(ish) — depending on general frenzy here. Go check it out, the first newletter just hit the stands:
•if you are overwhelmed with desire to join the cool kids you can :::join the mailing list::: too
It’s the Concept, Stupid
March 2, 2011
“Most aspiring screenwriters simply don’t spend enough time choosing their concept. It’s by far the most common mistake I see in spec scripts. The writer has lost the race right from the gate. Months — sometimes years — are lost trying to elevate a film idea that by its nature probably had no hope of ever becoming a movie.” ~Terry Rossio [Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Mask of Zorro]
The first week of —
Screenwriting 101, students turn in their story ideas. Ironically, students with the most mundane ideas tend to be the ones most worried about ideas being stolen. “I have this great idea about a woman going home for Thanksgiving, what if other students steal it?”
Hmm. Okay. Three things:
•One, other students in a screenwriting 101 class don’t have the connections or chops to steal an idea.
•Two, the only person who could steal an idea in a screenwriting 101 class is probably me the teacher — I do have the connections and chops to walk a concept into a studio.
•Three, there is no way I would do that –– first because it is unethical, but more importantly? The concept sucks and no one at a studio is going to get excited about it.
Yeah, I know, you’re laughing at the poor bastard who thought a story about Thanksgiving dinner is an exciting and novel concept. But ––
Take a hard look at your concept. I’m willing to bet 90% of the concepts out there would make the Jeopardy category “Most Done Screenplay Concepts.” [That's a safe bet, I read a few hundred scripts a year so have a pretty good idea of what is out there.] Think yours wouldn’t make that list? Consider some of its components. How expected is the setting? How expected is the genre? How expected is the character in the lead role? How expected is the opposition? How many other scripts have the exact same villains — in a damn similar scenario? [Hint, Middle Eastern terrorists with bombs are not new and exotic bad guys.]
Also, before you sass me about scripts about characters going home for Thanksgiving getting made and working –– take a look at the screenwriters’ names attached to those films. Those names are usually not “beginner” names. And when they are? Not beginners who sold to a studio. Beginners who had to go indy and are probably still working the bookstore job because indies rarely pay rent. Even the A listers usually have a damn hard time convincing suits “Going home for Thanksgiving” is a project to throw millions of dollars at.
If you’re new? If you’re breaking in? If you’re somewhere in the middle just trying to make that next sale and nothing is sticking? Maybe what you’ve got there is a Thanksgiving script.
Studios might be more inclined to take a look at a Thanksgiving script if something about the story concept stood out. Like, location and genre. Maybe it’s not just Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe it’s Thanksgiving dinner on Mars. That is a start. Or maybe there is some mental real estate thrown in there –– maybe it’s the president having Thanksgiving dinner on Mars. Or the creator of the biggest social networking site on the planet. Maybe the stakes could be higher. Maybe it’s the president AND the creator of the biggest social networking site on the planet having Thanksgiving dinner on Mars and the fate of Planet Earth hangs in the balance ––
I am making that up on the fly and it’s not a story I would recommend you write. But it is a mindset I would recommend you adopt. How do you make the concept bigger? Think genre. Think location. Think mental real estate. [If you are on Facebook or just recognize the name, maybe you get why studio peeps were willing to throw millions of dollars into making a film about a computer nerd facing a lawsuit --- that would not have flown if the computer nerd hadn't created the most recognized social platform on the planet. "Facebook" is the definition of mental real estate.] Think stakes –– how could they be raised?
There’s something you can up — always — in a simple story concept. And if you are trying to break in, trying to get read and sold, trying to get attention ahead of the A list writers already in every studio rolodex? You had better be thinking about ways to “more up” in the concept department.
•More up in High Concept Writing. Seating is limited. Register today.
