Friday, July 3, 2009

New Blogroll Addition, and A Word About Wes Anderson

I think it's pretty apparent that I'm very particular about what goes on my blogroll, considering up to this point there are only three links on there (so, particular or just ignorant of all the blog-like resources out there to script writers... I'll go with particular). But today I am going to induct a fourth. ScriptShadow is brilliant. Thank you to my Manager for sharing. Just as my life was spiralling downward under the weight of increasing expectations of keeping up with all that is screenwritery, here is a website that will make available to me the newest scripts, ready to read, along with insight into who is playing what part and who is making it. Brilliant! I love it. Thank you Carson Reeves, whoever you are. And the very first screenplay I read off this blog was Leap Year, a romantic comedy written by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (I know, I never heard of them either). Seek it out. It's wonderful, and I mean that exactly as it sounds, very light and pleasant and feel-good. Wonderful. As Carson says, the first act tries too hard, but push past the first fifteen pages and I promise you will not be able to walk away. You are going to have actual and for real emotional responses to this (dare I say it?) gem. But more important than the short-term good feeling this movie evokes is the long-term benefits of reading such a well presented story. I learned some things, some things I didn't know how to do before. Looks I didn't know how to write into a movie before, gestures, little tricks for your action lines that make them less perfunctory but at the same time not stepping on any other creative toes. I'm going to admit something that I may wish I hadn't later on, but I can probably count the number of screenplays I have ever read on one hand and one finger. Quite literally. Including Leap Year. And then I wonder, "why can't I write good?" I realize more now than ever the importance of reading what you wish to write. And not just things that represent how you want to write, but if you want to write romantic comedies, you may want to bend your focus that-a-way. Some might read Leap Year and think it formulaic, and it is. That's why it works. Formulas work. Patterns work. You don't criticize a seamstress because they followed a pattern, you rather expect them to. You want your shirt to look like a shirt, not a pair of house slippers. The brilliance comes when you can take that same old shirt pattern, add a few buttons here, ruffles there, maybe a lighter fabric (this is obviously a lady's blouse), and there you go. Something old, but new. Something familiar, but different. It's a shirt, but it's... okay, you get it, you get it. It's metaphor. Check.

And now for something completely different...
Wes Anderson. This guy I don't get. I watched The Darjeeling Limited last night (yesterday was a very good day for me, cinematically speaking), and for the first twenty minutes I thought, "here we go again. This guy is just being an 'artist.' He's trying to be 'different,'" and I'm not too big on different where my movies are concerned. I like the shirt pattern (oh yeah, I'm gonna drive that shirt pattern thing into the ground). And then, somewhere in like the tenth slow motion sequence, I realized what was going on here. This guy is just on another level. Maybe it's not a higher level, maybe there's no hierarchy to be had here, but somehow he's a little further down the road than I am. And it's captivating in a way, after you accept the fact that maybe the turning point and the "raising the stakes" moment aren't going to be that easy to see. But they're there, in some form, or maybe I just imagine them to help me relate. But it's taken me years of Wes Anderson to realize how good he is. He really is good. I don't know him personally, I don't know what he's really like, whether or not he has a good reputation with the Who's Who of the Where It's At, but he does something that makes me watch what would otherwise be gibberish in the hands of anyone else. I may be a bit tardy with this epiphany, but there it is. Now I've admitted two embarrassing things in one blog: the fact that I haven't read that many screenplays, and that it's taken me until now to appreciate Wes Anderson. I am quite ashamed at myself. Horribly, horribly ashamed.

1 comment:

ditty said...

I think The Darjeeling Limited is probably my favorite Wes Anderson film. I haven't seen all of his filmography, but it's by far the most beautifully shot and the most compelling of the ones I've seen. I think Anderson is one of those filmmakers whom you appreciate more the more familiar you become with their work, like Woody Allen.

I felt the same way generally speaking about Leap Year. The thing that irked me most was the scene where the guy comes to her rescue. I'm so tired of seeing that! I want to see a girl take care of herself for once, or at least offer more than a weak-but-lucky shot (like the suitcase maneuver)! That's one of the reasons I love Ever After so much. When the prince shows up to rescue Danielle, she's already walking out. It's awesome. But that's just the feminist in me. :-) I think Leap Year is a script that's made or broken on its cast, and with Amy Adams and Ozymandias attached, I think it'll do well. I'll certainly be in line to see it anyway. :-)