Month: June 2008

Screenwriting in the Bay Area: Terrel Seltzer’s Class for Screenwriters at the Writing Salon in San Francisco

Posted by J Roland Kelly – June 30, 2008

It was late January when I ran across an ad for a one-day workshop for screenwriters on craigslist. I attended.

The class was taught by Terrel Seltzer and sponsored by the Writing Salon. I was unfamiliar with the organization at the time, but it only cost something like $90 so I thought it was worth checking out.

Maybe I could fall in with the right group of people, you never know.

The class was capped in size, something like a maximum of 20 people; we all sat in a circle. It was inspiring.

The class had a sort of advanced title or topic something having to do with character development, but as I suspect with most of these types of classes most of the people were beginners and we ended up covering mostly basics (three act structure, etc.).

Which is fine, I would totally recommend a class by Terrel Seltzer if you are looking for inspiration. She knows her stuff, and there’s something about a group of people with day jobs learning the basics and thinking that maybe they ARE screenwriters after all, that is uplifting and contagious. 

Screenwriting is simple and straightforward after all, right.

I did learn a few new concepts in the class, and she recommend some books which I have since read. I might review them in a future blog post, so stay tuned for that.

It was fun to read a few scenes aloud with other people, something I seldom get to do. Overall, a good time, and like I said the positive energy is totally worth the cost of the ride.

Terrel Seltzer worked on the screenplays for Chan is Missing and Dim Sum with long time collaborator and San Francisco filmmaker Wayne Wang. In the big time she wrote How I Got into College and One Fine Day.

She apparently has two scripts currently in development with Dreamworks and Warner Brother Classics. Her next one-day workshop at the Writing Salon is in early August.

 

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Awesome Traveling Service Provided by the South American Explorers

Posted by J Roland Kelly – June 26, 2008

 

I found this thing called the South American Explorers. Sure, I joined. I don’t know what I think about the name, and definitely their website is from another time. And that time was not a simpler time, but hey, they offer a totally worthwhile service.  

They will store your sh*t. No sh*t! Backpack. Mail. Whatever.

So, get this. If you are relocating to South America you can mail yourself a package and it will be there in South America when you arrive.

I’m going to use this service to mail myself a crate of books (screenwriting, etc.) and maybe my guitar. I don’t want any hassles on the plane, books are heavy, and I don’t want go looking for a place to stay the first night with 40 pounds of printed matter.

The basic fee to join is $50 bucks. They maintain “clubhouses” in Quito, Cusco, Lima, and Buenos Aires with the main headquarters in Ithaca, New York.

Their clubhouses have wireless Internet. Boo-yeah. Apparently members are welcome to hangout at the clubhouse all day everyday until they close.

They offer travelers information on useful topics and try to create “greater awareness of this continent through the diffusion of information and cross cultural interaction,” all that good stuff… but man, I hope they can store some sh*t.

Totally worth the fifty bucks right there.

The South American Explorers Clubhouse in Quito, Ecuador.

The clubhouses look pretty cool, like old colonial. Like you might go in and someone might be smoking a sugary sweet tobacco out of a cherrywood pipe, and you might hear them say “it’s good to own land, Stevens, I tell you it’s good to own land.”

I’ll be there using the high-speed Internet, away from all the kids playing Doom 57 in the Internet cafes.

Yes, sir. And they give d*scounts to bloggers who blog about them.

-J Roland Kelly

 

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The Great American Paranoia Story: Night of the Living Dead – in the Public Domain. WTF?

Posted by J Roland Kelly – June 25, 2008

When researching my very first blog post ever (it was my first, from now on I’m shooting from the hip) I found out Night of the Living Dead was in the public domain.

The film is only from 1968 but it’s true, apparently there was some strange copyright law and the distributor of the film f’ed over George Romero.

I find this really sad, and kind of great at the same time. Sad for a great film; good that I can watch it again for free on the Internet.

If you haven’t seen it, you won’t be disappointed. It’s not all zombies and killing, and that is what makes it great.

 

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Great Screenwriting – M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening – Reviewed

Posted by J Roland Kelly – June 25, 2008

So, this is my first real blog post. I thought I might create some way to enter with a bang, but I think I’m just going to get into this. And with a movie review no less, something I didn’t even think to optim*ze the site for, but boom: The Happening.

I saw this last night in the theater near my office. And this film was great. I expected to be disappointed because I read the reviews first, which by all accounts are terrible.

Really, people went out of their way to give this film a bad review, one said it was a turkey, the acting sucked, the interaction between the characters was childish and without point.

I went to see it because I’ll see anything from a single writer/director/producer, a rare thing in Hollywood filmmaking. The guy of course is M. Night Shyamalan of Sixth Sense fame.

Here is what I think of this guy. I dig the writer/director/producer thing. Second, I dig that he is an all-American guy of Indian decent who refuses to change his name to something that I can pronounce. Exactly the kind of filmmakers America needs (and more of).

This is what I don’t like. He made a killing off the Sixth Sense – which is a bad film. Everyone liked it but me. Every screenwriter was like “yeah, did you see that classic use of misdirection… ‘two years later’ genius.” 

Please do not put me in the same town as those people.

It terms of writing that was a common lie, and the classic pitfall of writing for the suspense genre. I concede that it gave him money to make other good films including The Happening.

Enough with my jealously.

The thing I liked about The Happening is that the suspension of disbelief was very low. I mean, it could happen (you know if plants started killing people and all that). But not since Unbreakable, has he set a film in the real world, I thought.

What I liked about Unbreakable is that it could be viewed two ways, the story could be about people with super hero powers, or about normal people in normal real life. But it’s the same story, and that is awesome and meaningful.

The storytelling in The Happening was consistent and true, you don’t have to believe in any religious dogma going into the film, and you don’t find out that it really takes place in the future. No cheap dates.

It references Night of the Living Dead, with which I’m a big fan. It feels very similar to that film.

Anyway no big budget, just good storytelling, it is well grounded in the long history of horror films, and I dug it. It was really the best story I had seen in a long time. I recommend it.

If I had any parting words for M. Night Shyamalan it would be: people really didn’t like this film, I saw people that for myself in the theater. Live by the Sixth Sense audience die by the Sixth Sense audience. And also, dude, M. Night Shyamalan, sir, please make another film because this one rocked.

I don’t know why an audience doesn’t always recognize a good story when they see one.

I rank The Happening as Shyamalan’s second best film under Unbreakable as number one. Go see it.

-J Roland Kelly

P.S. I think it was the Night of the Living Dead (1968) style pacing that the audience didn’t like.

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