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CSI:Miami
2007-04-25 01:03:00
So then...I know! Where the hell have I been!I've been up to my eye balls! A complete restructuring of WTDC has been done and now the project requires a new finale but it is in two formats for two different organizations. Artwork is going to be done in the UK hopefully and we'll see where that goes.I have been also working on CSI:Miami coverage for CBS Paramount Television Network which was interesting and a nice break from the norm.Then there's the Corvette! She's had a lot of surgery lately, new shiny shoes a bit of a nose job and a nip/tuck here and there. Her curves now slink a lot faster and with the engine tuned better she's a good old planet killer with her V8 causing small mammals to suffer toxic shock as she passes by!Posted by Iain Hamilton McLean at http://werdwurka.blogspot.com
More About: Writing

Rules of Adaptation
2007-04-11 00:09:00
So. You been busy? I have! Honest! I've been developing some show formats and have some solid leads to lean on as far as having the projects developed and a pilot shot. Should make the summer interesting! One other thing I have been doing is working with a complete re-write of one of my award winning scripts. It never won the top awards but was always right up there and seeing as the pre-edit version was a few years old I thought it time to air the beast out and see what we can do with fresh eyes. Here's the artwork that's been done for the project already:Which is when I picked up a book one morning while seated on the thinking throne taking care of business! I liked the cover, I liked the title, I liked to prologue and liked the first few pages; so without reading it i searched and there hasn't been a movie made of it that I could find, so with the good reviews the book had all read and digested I set myself a plan of adapting it for fun and seeing where it leads. This lead ...
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Cannes Film Festival
2007-04-05 18:41:00
Interesting news...Straight from the horse's mouth you might say, what with the amount of horses living in Burbank, but I just heard that Leonardo DiCaprio's two year documentary film project that's all about global warming has hit the skids!He's been given a show at Cann es in just a few weeks and the pressure is mounting. Earlier this week a little bird whispered to me on my sick bed that he ceased to pay the entire crew back in August as the budget had run into difficulties; and now I hear that the way the stock has been digitized has been dramatically flawed, so that within the one movie there are massive errors with sequences running at different speeds to each other!Basically the team involved have to rework the entire movie and get it ready for what is the largest 'pat on the back' parade in the world within a matter of weeks.I'm gonna keep one eye on this one for sure!Posted by Iain Hamilton McLean at http://werdwurka.blogspot.com
More About: Film , Festival , Fest

Good News... Bad News...
2007-04-05 03:04:00
So. What do you want first?The good news?The bad news?Hmm...I'll give you the bad news and save the sweaty climax for the end where it should be!I've just about gotten over a really bad flu virus. Sideswiped me for about a week so far and I think tomorrow I'll be back on track. That's not the bad news - the bad news is that while I was sweating in bed today I watched a movie 'The Truth About Charlie' a Jonathon Demme film from his screenplay based round the Peter Stone screenplay from 1963 which was a black comedy with Cary Grant and AudreyHepburn.The original was probably a good movie. I'm taking a flyer on that one. I haven't seen it so I could be wrong.The remake. Well. I don't think we should really use the word 'remake' as it seems to me it still needs a fair amount of work doing to it! I have this film pegged as one of the worst I've seen for a very long time.Notwithstanding the loose script which didn't give me any dark humor and neither did it give me confidence...
More About: News , Good News , Bad News , Good

Thought Of The Day
2007-03-30 23:56:00
When was the last time this happened?You were walking down the street, sat in Starbucks or just mooching round someplace and someone got all hyped and did the whole Jerry McGuire routine, yelling:"Show me the money!"Do any of your characters have a line as good as that? If the answer is 'no' then you're not ready to show the script to anyone yet.You need a hook to catch a fish.Posted by Iain Hamilton McLean at http://werdwurka.blogspot.com
More About: Thought , The D

Playing God
2007-03-30 20:27:00
Had an interesting few days.I once wrote a screenplay that got requested by executives from the East coast to the West coast. Like most others it did the rounds but back then I wasn't really pushing it as I was involved in some other projects back in the UK.And so time roll on...Fast forward five or six years and someone asks about that story again. Wow! It's been ages since I even thought about it so here's the deal. I spent so much bloody time reading and researching the background of the imagery and tools used within the story that I could almost drive the listener through the narrative without thinking about the story for over five years! The pitch worked and now the story has been edited.. and rewritten.. more on that later... I have to go get into something right now but think on... who is in control of your story? You or the characters?If it's you then someone else may struggle to adapt to your story but if the world is driven by your characters then anyone who knows the...
More About: God , Play

Here's Johnny!
2007-03-28 20:42:00
Johnny come lately that is. So I was going to be pushing out another two week wonder right now or so I thought. Funny how things change. I'm in the middle of a huge re-structure of one of my favorite stories; a high concept thriller that has the following log line: “The final battle between good and evil has begun.”The script now serves as a tool for a series pilot and is also being transposed into a manuscript for a graphic novel. I know HBO are developing a series right now that is based round a graphic novel and they do seem to be such a soup du jour right now so I'm gonna ride on the back of that wagon! Besides, a great story is a great story in any medium. The work originally dealt with, amongst other things, schizophrenia pushing the viewer into the actions and processes of someone having a breakdown and dealing with alternate realities within their view of the world. That one tool took me fucking ages to research, develop and authenticate and now it's been d...
More About: John , Here , Johnny

Sony ... and ILM
2007-03-26 21:28:00
So. I didn't get to finish the Final Draft Template.I really wanted to have the template done over the weekend but it never happened. What did happen was that the corvette's engine got partially stripped, put back together and tuned before we set to working under the back end where we found all manner of gremlins.So she's off the road for a while until parts are shipped in and swapped out!But what did put me off kilter was the fact I should have been meeting some folk at BLD on Beverly but didn't make it. Instead I met up with them at the house in Silver Lake... when also turns up their new neighbors. One works for Sony and the other works at Warner Brothers. Apparently the gossip is that the new Michael Bay / Spielberg movie "Transformers" is being delayed as the guys on the Pirates latest film have gotten their stuff on the desks at ILM quicker and are holding the boat up! Sounded almost like some folk over at Paramount have a hard time ahead...But from what I've seen so far...

Final Draft
2007-03-24 00:23:00
So. Software huh?Now I know why they didn't call it hardware and the tangible products realware. Calling something that is inherently difficult to manipulate hard would be a massive marketing misnomer. Trust me:I got some good research done on the good ol' graphic novel idiom... seems interesting. I found a couple of websites that had examples of manuscripts by budding writers for the genre. They were set out much like a screenplay would be with the exception of a couple of elements. Thus began the headache for today.I have spent bloody ages trying to get Fina l Draft to let me build a template how I want, not how it thinks I want! I have all my elements in there for the graphic novel and the damn software will not let me remove the historic screenplay elements that are, in the new template, very much redundant. To make it worse, you can't even rename these elements!I do love using the software but if I can't have this template exactly as I wish then I'm looking at Movie Magic...

Graphic Novels
2007-03-21 18:06:00
Had an interesting proposition recently. My editor was running over one of my early scripts, one that did well in competitions, and told me that in her view it is not a film. It is either a graphic novel that may be made into a movie or its the feature length pilot for an original SciFi series. So. Hmm. Fuck me sideways! I spent about four months trying to figure out one of the devices used in that project and now I'm told 'yup it's good; but it's go so much going on in backstory that it deserves to be told in a more suited format.' So I spent a while researching the graphic novel forum. I know of a few guys who do that type of thing but I seem to have heard of the writers, not the artists! So now I found who I hope is my guy, Alex Ross. I spent a while surfing his website (click here) and was amazed at some of the examples. Is he they guy who can bring Nate to life? Absofuckinglutely! I used the contact page and left a short polite letter. I hope he gets back to me, bu...
More About: Novels , Novel , Graphic Novels , Graphic , Graph

On It Rolls
2007-03-21 05:12:00
...and meanwhile back at Dusty's... Brunch. Brunch with a producer from Laserboy Productions to discuss amongst other things my new pet project that we still shall refer to as QFAD. You might say it was pitched but I find the word 'pitch' a dirty word. I much prefer terms like 'sold' or 'whored' depending on who you went. I think I shall be using the first of the two options. Sold. We sat, we ate, we drank, we laughed and we progressed. Things went well. So later this week I am being lined up to sit before a VIP from Viacom over dinner once more to sell the story to him also and see if we can't get this ship sailing on the seven seas. I have a few back-up plans to try and sell also but I'm interested in selling my pet before I put pen to paper. That way the race I set myself earlier tis week I think it was will be a race to a golden finishing line. So it's late and I have reading to do. I'll be saying night night then folks. See you in the morning and just remember:...
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Pirates Of The Caribbean
2007-03-19 05:55:00
So yesterday was Saint Patrick's Day. I had previously said I'd pop into Timmy Nolan's bar on Alameda and play my bagpipes for the guys in there but in the middle of last week I was invited to a barbecue out at Thousand Oaks with some of the stunt crew who have been working on the Disney's Pirate s Of The Caribbean franchise movies. Hugh the host is a first generation Irish American hardnut-nice-guy originally born in the Bronx and moves out west years ago to further his career as a stunt man. What a host! The food was supreme and there was piles of it and the beer flowed like wine! One of the other guests was an interesting guy who went by the name of Joebstl. He owns a company that was the first organization in the industry to use remote controlled aircraft for filming. His company Airstar, is championed by Mel Gibson and a whole bunch of other guys, and is well worth checking out. Nothing much else happened this weekend other than more discussions on the pilot shoot, b...
More About: Bean , Pirates of the Caribbean

Screenplay Structure
2007-03-16 19:24:00
So.I got to thinking last night. I do that quite often; think. I thunked to myself that I should put my new screenplay structure idiom to the test. Use it to the max and inside two weeks have a draft of a screenplay ready for submission. I'll let you know how it goes. I started on the structure Wednesday of this week ... So I'll find a competition and see how we fare...Watch this space. Posted by Iain Hamilton McLean at http://werdwurka.blogspot.com
More About: Screen , Play , Structure , Cree , Screenplay

Syd Field and Bob McKee Vs. Aristotle
2007-03-15 18:03:00
Funny thing happened the other day. I've been hard at work developing a few ideas recently and had one 'pitched'. It went well and a crew is being put together to go shoot a pilot. One of the guys was astonished at how much work I'd spun into just one sentence he had spoken the week before. But something interesting happened as a result. I was working on a spec. feature called simply QFAD (my working title). It was going really well. I showed the first chapter to my editor and after some avid reading I got the response: “Urgh! I like it and I hate it! It's so Mammet! Brett [hero] is so fucking pathetic! I don't want to read about how bad his life is! I have a hard life, I want to read about funny commercial things. I want to see a movie on the page not art. Don't get me wrong, this is absolutely amazing work but it's just so mundane!” I loved the response. I aimed for mundane. That was the whole point of the hero's plight. He was stuck in a life he didn't want or k...
More About: Aristotle , Field

Writing A Novel !?!
2007-03-12 19:58:00
I'm not one for writing long things. In fact I much prefer short things.Period.So when I showed my script editor the first ever thing I wrote recently I was amazed at the initial reaction! The way this works is usually I work on a project and give parts I think need more work to my editor in order they may be scrutinized. This has been working pretty well so far. So then we get in a conversation on how my work has developed throughout my writing career and we get onto the topic of the first thing I wrote. What was it? I was going to to do what everyone wants to do initially: Become Roddy Doyle! I sat down on evening and began typing. I figured I'd read enough books in my time and knew that I liked Roddy's style so that's what I'd emulate. I had a story and I had some time. So I typed. One finger typing... Back then I didn't know what a prologue was really for but I wrote one anyway. Then the book got beyond me. My first chapter was over thirty pages long. I knew I'd ...
More About: Writing , Novel , Portage

THX 1138
2007-03-08 01:06:00
The George Lucas masterpiece. So I've got this raging bloody headache ripping through my temples and it's been there all morning. Not nice. But what is nice... if that word can be used here is THX 1138. Call me a heathen or a pleb or whatever but this movie is one of those that everyone should see before the age of what, twenty? Well okay I didn't see it until very recently but wow what a movie. It kinda left my mind empty; too in awe of what it had just experienced. This is a movie that's three decades old don't forget. What did interest me was the subtleties Lucas involved. Things like the mainframe's use of buzz words to motivate the populous (“remember, pretty thinkers are always under budget.”) and the mirrored faces of the android police force tat are controlled by humans. This one in particular got me. Was it meant to portray that when a criminal is apprehended they see their face on the body of their captors? Some kind of forced mental masochism? Then there's ...

While You Were Sleeping
2007-03-06 00:22:00
I'm back.Sorry it took so long. What with having a couple of weeks of dealing with the 'state system' and my lawyers here in California then buying one of my lifelong dreams, a 1975 corvette and making it run properly again, editing TWO screenplays at once, negotiating to re-write a feature, analyzing a well known TV format by breaking it down to make it into a template anyone can use and beginning development work on two network pitches I've been so busy lately. I still haven't finished writing the first draft of the QFAD script- something that usually takes me merely three weeks and then the edit / re-editing process begins. But now I feel like my life is back on track and I can get down to business once more.I hope you guys can forgive me and are still out there reading... but I guess on that one I'll see the results in a few days on my site stats.I do have some really good news however; I'm entering a competition for the first time in a couple of years. One of the projec...
More About: Sleeping , Sleep , While You Were Sleeping , While , Ping

The Lives Of Others
2007-02-26 18:38:00
Best Foreign Language Film. Hmm. This interests me. I should look it up really as I do know that BBC Films passed this one up when it was being touted round for finance. Makes me wonder why those guys pass up all the good stuff and stay themselves with mediocre work when they have some amazing talent to develop. I'm working on Shanti which is for the most part in Hindi but does have some English spoken word. Currently the version I have been given by the director is draft 4.19 (draft 2 being my first subtle restructuring) yet it still lacks some kick but after one weekend of abstract thought I have a few devices to put into the project that will really make it come alive. My problem is that the script is written by a director for a director (himself in this case) and as such it's basically a loose map of what is in his head. Taking this course without any substantial alterations how on earth during the production of this movie will his team build his vision? Every single step o...
More About: Other , Others , Live , Lives , Hers

Words Are Thicker Than Water
2007-02-24 08:23:00
Just got back in from a night out.Just had to share something with you guys. We were in a nice little sushi restaurant in Toluca Lake for dinner having some great food and relaxing when we struck up a conversation with a woman sat beside us.Priscilla is her name, acting is her game.What a wonderful woman. A really good person to chat to and that's not easy to find in this town. We chatted about this and that... how women do business and how men do business and how they should learn from each other... then she got onto when she shot a movie with Ron Howard and he was telling her how much a nice guy Tom Hanks was on the Apollo movie. Yup. She was a cool chick.But I think she busted me. I know Holly did.See I'm shite with numbers unless they have letters in them in some form of algebraic formula. This situation means when I'm faced with a check and have to work out the tip I go green and have a hot flush. This time I managed to hide my number dyslexia thing for the most part but not...
More About: Word , Words , Water

The Wheel Keeps Turning
2007-02-23 22:05:00
Phew! What a bloody hectic two weeks that was! Loads shite to deal with; some of it good some not so good but yesterday I was reminded of a golden rule someone once told me many years ago when I first began my writing career. He said if everyday you wake up and you're still a writer and you produce something new each day you will be successful one day because each day you keep slugging away someone else drops out of the race and lets you slide one step closer to your goal. Two years ago an independent auteur found out about my work and approached me to work on the screenplay for his third feature. Hari Mahesh of Smera Productions has previously released two movies the first titled Cult and his second titled Love. Love was awarded a range of festival awards on it's initial release. We met in Mountain View, California and had a coffee while he pitched "Shanti" to me. I had been working on a few spec scripts that dealt with the subcontinent and all the myriad of cultures and co...
More About: Keep , Wheel , Turn , Heel

The Reason I've Been Busy
2007-02-21 19:55:00
Thought I'd show you why I've had my time taken up recently and haven't been on here as much as I'd like. Here she is, my new old 1975 Corvette Stingray and it's numbers matching!I went back down to Sunset to see if Harris was working in Haitian Creeks last night for some more of his wisdom but he wasn't on. Apparently he does a thing in Griffith Park some nights where he holds impromptu poetry readings or something. Kinda cool guy if that's true!Posted by Iain Hamilton McLean at http://werdwurka.blogspot.com
More About: Reason , Been , Busy

I'm Still Alive!
2007-02-21 01:25:00
I made it through the wilderness.... Isn't there a song in there somewhere? I've had a hectic week for the last seven days. I bought a new old car - a 1975 silver Corvette Stingray to cruise round in and soak up all my cash and been doing battle with the system trying to get things done ... and I won.I fought the law and law lost!No song in there then.Played with the band in Long Beach over the weekend and had a rare old time. Bagpipes are going well again and the music's flowing like wine in a place with too much wine. We should be on course for a fine showing at the World Pipe Band Championships in Scotland this August if the work rate keeps up. In fact I have to go and lie down now in a dark place as my kidneys still haven't quite settled yet... What a combination:Bagpipes beer and blondes. Posted by Iain Hamilton McLean at http://werdwurka.blogspot.com
More About: Live , Stil , Still , Alive

Writing Styles.
2007-02-16 17:55:00
Just been looking through an old script. Isn't it funny how things change. Like your view point. The script I'm examining at the moment is a few years old and one of those that had a whole lot of restructuring go on as it deals with two very different time lines at the same time. One thing I recall was I got the thing drafted, then made a quick edit; then changed the emphasis completely. Then I had a lot of work on making to two times fit snug together without too much harsh cutting back and forth. Seemed to work. It got some rave reviews when I had the opportunity to show an early draft to some big names under the proviso that it wasn't ready at that point. No I look back to edit it I feel myself thinking 'did I actually write this?'! Some of the phrases are still in there from the early draft outline, things like 'we see' and adverbs like seemingly -ly what other way is there of taking a word that otherwise may be very useful and putting it with a suffix that instantly f...
More About: Writing , Style , Styles , Portage

Writing Competitions
2007-02-14 19:06:00
I think I'll enter one or two of these beasts soon. But I've always thought the competition forum was an interesting notion. I haven't entered any for a couple of years. Maybe it's time the world of the writing competition saw the great work of Iain Hamilton McLean once more. We need to rock some foundations. We need to open some eyes and take control of where the great hollywood screenplay is headed with Borat up as a nominee this year! What would Samuel Goldwyn think? Does Borat indeed explore a screenplay as a true living piece of art within a whole piece of art, a motion picture, by simply giving sparse directions thus allowing real people to act in a real world? Is Borat a true piece of art? I think so.There is a saying: "The power of an idea is weighed by the ammount of opposition it causes"But...Some folk are of the opinion that in order to enter a artistic competition and be successful you have to basically format your entry to the style that suits the judge thus turnin...
More About: Writing , Competition , Comp , Competitions , Petitions

Nancy Meyers.
2007-02-13 08:55:00
Sometimes people need a boot up the ass. The Writers Boot Camp which based in Santa Monica needs one. The guest, Nancy Meyers was very gacious and professional but under valued on the night. I went along to one of their 'open house' style forums for the first time. I see many similarities to The Script Factory in London from years back.I felt they squandered some potential tonight. They did provide a good service but one that could have been amazing if they had just gone that extra mile. No one is going to hand anything out for free, you have to work for it, and I don't think the team really worked for it hard enough. The facilities were excellent and all staff members were friendly but as for making the most from the raw product they had on offer? I don't think they worked the situation to maximize the full potential that they could have.Holly and I just came from an audience with Nancy Meyers (What Women Want, Holiday) at their headquarters. Holly had tough day at CBS and I w...

Santa Monica Meetings.
2007-02-12 19:59:00
I think I have an affinity with Sant a Monica . Things always go well when they begin there. Maybe the city looks out for me. It seems me as a lost creative soul who hasn't really found their place in the world and she's calling out to my subconscious. An echo through time. Maybe once I was a proud landowner there in the last century. Maybe I was once a famous street entertainer. Who knows. All I know is good things happen inside those walls. My attorney's office is there. They do great things for me. The first date with the lovely Holly was there. She does great things to me. Tonight I'm meeting up with a big bunch of producer folk to discuss how I can expand my career and show them some of my work. Hopefully they'll do great things with me. I shall be armed with notepad, pens, pencils, business cards, laptop, satchel... basically my mobile office. I think I'll print an excerpt from something to take as back up munitions. I also don't quite know where to begin when the ine...
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