The Assassination of Jesse James

Last night I was watching a 2007 film called The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, directed by Andrew Dominik. Set in the 1880s the film told the story of the notorious outlaw Jesse James (played by Brad Pitt) and the younger outlaw Robert Ford (Casey Affleck). Ford worships James and is desperate to join his idol's gang. However as the gang disintegrates and James' behaviour becomes ever more paranoid and erratic, and Ford begins to feel increasingly isolated and overshadowed and begins to consider drastic measures to make a name for himself. The film is very well-made and well acted. It's also supposed to be fairly historically accurate. The film is long (at around two and a half hours) and kind of slow moving but it is also very powerful and quite mesmerising.

The big news last night also is that I have now completely finished the screenplay for Script frenzy. The finished work is 101 pages long.

It was a busy and very stressful day at work again. I left with a splitting headache. Tomorrow though I'm going to a 3D preview of Coraline tomorrow, which should be fun. Also I'm off on Friday, which should be really good.

Late Writing

Last night I was busy writing my screenplay for Script Frenzy until fairly late, before watching an episode of South Park on TV which I had seen a few times before, but was still pretty funny.

Today was a fairly average day at work, and pretty dull, although it was fairly busy. Apparently they are cracking down on people taking days off and leaving early on Mondays and Fridays. People can still take the days off they just need to give a couple of days notice now. I'm taking a day off week on Friday, by which time I should have got my script finished and would probably want to celebrate that fact.

I got home at about half past six today.

Average Day

Last night I was kind of back to late to do much except watch the most recent episode of The Wire. I didn't have time to do any of my Script Frenzy script, but I had expected that so I did a lot of it during my Easter break to make it up.

It was a fairly quiet day at work, although it was pretty busy. On my way back I got a few groceries. I got home at around half past six.

At the moment I'm half watching a show called Victorian Farm on TV. It involves a group of historians living and working on a farm in exactly the same way as people did in the Victorian era. It's quite interesting actually. It's intended to be a serious history show so there is none of the usual fights, arguements or general carry on that there is in most kind of reality shows.

On Script Writing

Last night was another quiet one, as it usually is. I watched The Wire.

Today was a busy day at work, and it passed fairly quickly so that was pretty good. There was no more cake related drama in the office.

My brother and his girlfriend are up from London this week and staying at my parents'. I think we're all going out tomorrow night.

Tonight however, it's more Script Frenzy and the latest episode of The Apprentice followed by more of The Wire.

Script writing is really different to writing a novel or a prose story and not just with the different format. It all has to be paced differently, because you don't really have as much time, and of course you have to think about what it will all look and sound like on the screen. It sounds obvious but it'a easy to forget.

Scripts and Cake

Last night was pretty quiet. I watched an episode of The Wire and listened to an episode of the original radio series of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy on tape, which was still really funny, even though I've read all the books, seen the TV series and the movie and heard the radio show many times.

It was another fairly quiet day at work. One amusing exchange was when the boss asked someone about a birthday cake and the answer was "Shut up, or you'll be wearing the bloody thing". The boss then asked the person about when she was going to be presenting the cake and the reply was "you'll get it when I feel like it." Sounds like someone is going to have a happy birthday at work.

I got home at around half past six and made myself some microwave spaghetti bolognese and a glass of orange juice. I've written about 23 pages of Script Frenzy now. I've been writing at the rate of four pages per day. The screenwriting rule of thumb is that one page of script equals one minute of screen time.

Watching the Bags

Before I went out last night I managed to get to page thirteen of my Script Frenzy screenplay. I went out at about four and got home at around half past midnight. There were quite a few people out and it was mostly pretty good. One thing that did annoy me though, was that I was the only one there who didn't smoke, and so while they were out having a cigarette I was stuck looking after the bags and coats!

Today has been fairly quiet so far. I went out and got my groceries for the coming week. The supermarket had been completely renovated during the week and is looking a lot better now. While I was there I got the latest issue of Total Film magazine. It was advertising a free 3D preview screening of the film Coraline, but when I went to get a ticket it turned out the screening was already full.

Script Frenzy Begins!

Last night I was watching the second episode of the first season of The Wire. It is interesting how each episode is like one installment in a much longer story that runs throughout the whole season. It's quite common now on TV, but I remember when it was quite new. I think with the popularity of DVD box-sets it's easier to watch the whole thing in a fairly short space of time which makes it much easier to follow the story.

It was a pretty busy day at work, and I didn't get out until nearly quarter past six. Of course today marks the first day of the Script Frenzy challenge, and I know I'm writing a movie script, but I'm not sure of all the details yet.

Screenplays

Last night I was watching The Simpsons Movie, directed by David Silverman, and based on the hugely popular TV show. In the movie Homer Simpson (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) gets a new pet pig, and accidentally causes an environmental disaster (by dumping a silo full of pig crap into the town's already polluted lake) which threatens to destroy the town of Springfield. On it's relelase the film was criticised for basically being an extended episode of the series, which it does feel like, but it works well, and most importantly it is very funny.

I also watched Omen IV: The Awakening, a 1991 TV movie directed by Jorge Montesi and Dominique Othenin-Girard. The film revolves around a young couple who adopt a baby girl. As the husband pursues his political ambitions, his wife becomes increasingly concerned about the strange and violent events that seem to surround the child as she gets older. Basically it's a virtual re-make of the original Omen except with a girl. Also, because it was made for television, there are very few real scares. A ludicrous highlight comes when the private detective hired to track down the girl's real parents is pursued down an alley by a choir of demons (who basically look like zombies from a heavy metal video) who scare him by singing the Omen theme tune to him.

I went to my parent's house today for lunch. The latest issue of Sight and Sound had arrived during the week and so had a selection of five free movie screenplays that my mum had ordered for me from The Times. The scripts were: The Queen by Peter Morgan, Billy Elliot by Lee Hall, Shakespeare in Love by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, Trainspotting by John Hodge and The Hours by David Hare. So that was really good!