I'm the movie watcher who often has no idea what's happening, but loves the action. I'll be re-reading from the start once we arrive at the final scene. And I'm going to make post-its for every character (like I was taught to when reading Dickens in high school), annotated to indicate ring/no ring.
Scripts are not usually broken up into "episodes." I'm doing it here because a) Substack wouldn't have the space to publish the whole thing at once, and b) an extended something not directly associated with the bullshit and baloney every day seemed like a nice escape.
Screenplays are broken up into three acts, which a good writer once described thus: "In act one, put your hero in a tree; in act two, throw rocks at him; in act three, bring him out of the tree." There are more involved discussions of structure but that gets to the essence.
As to how many are left, I have been breaking it up by major scene/sequence. There are five or six left. I forget. :-)
jeez, Karen...I was all set to tell a story about the stumbling drunk guy I've had in my apartment for two days. actually, stumbling would have been good. this guy's been TALKING. he loves DeSantis...
as a one-time stumbling and exceedingly obnoxious drunk, I have, like, NO patience with the phenomenon. the other night, we (both of us and my oldest friend, who was taking a break from his eighteen-hour days of orchestrating Disney stuff) were watching "The Maltese Falcon" (my possibly hundredth time), and about an hour through, he decided to get upset at the DISHONESTY of all the characters and what it meant for the survival of western man, or Christianity or whatever and it got impossible to shut him up, even during the incredibly important last Sam Spade monologues. finally, I wanted to thrash him.
I certainly will. but the whole thing was like a joke, since the whole plot revolves around the fact that everybody's lying to everybody else. especially Sam Spade. but if we'd been watching "The Big Sleep," he would have started fulminating about how terrible it is that so many people are getting MURDERED...these are what happens in hardboiled detective fiction. I finally said something like "they used to say 'if you want to send a message, try Western Union.' " I don't remember who said that...Harry Cohn? Sam Goldwyn? that miserable reactionary prick Louis B. Mayer?...I'm looking it up.
turns out that opinions are divided, but most people say Goldwyn. a Goldwynism I really like (which might have been fake) is "...but we've passed a lot of water since then."
Me too. And I have to admit I didn’t even know that printers had fallen out of favor. I suppose I’m in denial. Now that I think about it I’m the only one with a hard copy and taking notes with pen and paper in a meeting. Everyone else has their laptop.
but isn't there also a five-act structure thing as well? I actually think that (at least in my fairly limited understanding) the five-act thing might be just a slightly more detailed version of the three-act thing. I'm not sure which source features what structural breakdown. I suppose I'm asking.
It's a division of the second act to "the twist on page 40," "the twist on page 65" and "the twist on page 80" (predicated on a 120-page script where the end of Act One is page 30 and the end of Act Two is Page 90).
I'm the movie watcher who often has no idea what's happening, but loves the action. I'll be re-reading from the start once we arrive at the final scene. And I'm going to make post-its for every character (like I was taught to when reading Dickens in high school), annotated to indicate ring/no ring.
And thanks for killing off some bad guys.
Gotta ask. How many episodes are there? Ok. I'll know when you are done. Never read a script before. Don't answer. Keep writing.
Scripts are not usually broken up into "episodes." I'm doing it here because a) Substack wouldn't have the space to publish the whole thing at once, and b) an extended something not directly associated with the bullshit and baloney every day seemed like a nice escape.
Screenplays are broken up into three acts, which a good writer once described thus: "In act one, put your hero in a tree; in act two, throw rocks at him; in act three, bring him out of the tree." There are more involved discussions of structure but that gets to the essence.
As to how many are left, I have been breaking it up by major scene/sequence. There are five or six left. I forget. :-)
We are, however, at the end of Act Two.
Thanks TC. This is great! I do appreciate the escape from the daily bullshit. And I am going to be very careful around stumbling drunk guys.
I Laughed Out Loud.
jeez, Karen...I was all set to tell a story about the stumbling drunk guy I've had in my apartment for two days. actually, stumbling would have been good. this guy's been TALKING. he loves DeSantis...
don't ask.
Oh no! That is much worse. I’d rather have a stumbling drunk than a de Santis fan
yeah, well I got BOTH at the same time. fortunately, he only VISITS.
Oh dear! Nothing worse than a stumbling drunk de satan lover. Hope it’s a short visit David.
as a one-time stumbling and exceedingly obnoxious drunk, I have, like, NO patience with the phenomenon. the other night, we (both of us and my oldest friend, who was taking a break from his eighteen-hour days of orchestrating Disney stuff) were watching "The Maltese Falcon" (my possibly hundredth time), and about an hour through, he decided to get upset at the DISHONESTY of all the characters and what it meant for the survival of western man, or Christianity or whatever and it got impossible to shut him up, even during the incredibly important last Sam Spade monologues. finally, I wanted to thrash him.
Yikes! Sounds like a rather grueling evening. That’s a great movie. I hope you get to watch it in peace next time.
I certainly will. but the whole thing was like a joke, since the whole plot revolves around the fact that everybody's lying to everybody else. especially Sam Spade. but if we'd been watching "The Big Sleep," he would have started fulminating about how terrible it is that so many people are getting MURDERED...these are what happens in hardboiled detective fiction. I finally said something like "they used to say 'if you want to send a message, try Western Union.' " I don't remember who said that...Harry Cohn? Sam Goldwyn? that miserable reactionary prick Louis B. Mayer?...I'm looking it up.
turns out that opinions are divided, but most people say Goldwyn. a Goldwynism I really like (which might have been fake) is "...but we've passed a lot of water since then."
That’s a good one.
suggestion: the best idea for me is to print them all out in sequence when it's over.
of course, I'm the only one I know who still has a printer...it's this old-fashioned dependence on hard copies...
So old school I probably have a box of continuous form printing paper. White, not the two-toned green.
I still have a printer. I would be lost without it.
I'd go crazy. I don't understand why printers fell out of favor.
but there's a lot about the Digital Domain I don't think I'll ever get, which is fine because there's plenty I don't wanna get. which is also fine.
Me too. And I have to admit I didn’t even know that printers had fallen out of favor. I suppose I’m in denial. Now that I think about it I’m the only one with a hard copy and taking notes with pen and paper in a meeting. Everyone else has their laptop.
Me, three! I can’t live without my printer. And I’ll probably wait and print out the screenplay all at once.
but isn't there also a five-act structure thing as well? I actually think that (at least in my fairly limited understanding) the five-act thing might be just a slightly more detailed version of the three-act thing. I'm not sure which source features what structural breakdown. I suppose I'm asking.
It's a division of the second act to "the twist on page 40," "the twist on page 65" and "the twist on page 80" (predicated on a 120-page script where the end of Act One is page 30 and the end of Act Two is Page 90).
gotcha. that makes sense.
Ah. Thanks. Tree to the right, exit left. Enjoying the escape.
Enjoying this - pure pleasure!
Who are these ring people? There are a lot of them.
Preflight checklist is complete. Moving toward takeoff.