John August

QandA

Hope springs eternal

Film Industry

I don’t know who “BigSugar” is, but he or she has been meeting some of the same development execs:

A few years back, I did an [April Fool’s post](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2007/aprilfirst) about signing on the feature version of Goodnight, Moon. This year, I got pitched it. And died a little inside.

As I wrote about in [Why must we have board-game movies?](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2010/boardgame-movies), it’s not that Hollywood is out of ideas. It’s that the industry is terrified of failure, and clings to the safety of recognizable titles. In difficult times, it’s comfort food.

Writing off the page

How-To, Writing Process

If you’re having a hard time finding a character’s voice, get him talking about something unrelated to the scene at hand.

Let your hero knock back a beer with his college roommate. Have your corporate spy meet-cute a potential suitor at a ski lodge. Pick situations that couldn’t possibly fit in your actual movie. You just want to get your character talking so that you can eavesdrop.

Open a new document and start typing.

It can be a monologue or a discussion between several characters, but go for pure dialogue, no scene description. Let it ramble on for one page or twenty. Again: you’ll never use this, so there’s no pressure to get it right or tight.

Just like a painter will often do sketches and studies before embarking on a major portrait, writing “off the page” lets you figure out what’s interesting about your character before you burden her with plot. It’s also fun. It’s the easy part of screenwriting you imagined before you actually sat down to do it.

Is machinima worthwhile?

Geek Alert, Genres, QandA

questionmarkI’ve been frustrated with not being able to get a project together to direct this year, and have a couple unproduced short scripts sitting around that I kind of like.

I’m considering getting into machinima to animate my films, using software like Moviestorm or iClone. Have you ever considered using machinima as a method of telling stories? I wonder what would happen if an awesome writer got involved in a burgeoning storytelling medium like machinima.

— John
San Diego

Machinima — using videogame engines to create animation — sits smack in the middle of a very geeky Venn diagram. It’s easy to do, but tricky to do well. It’s extremely limited and wildly liberating. And it hasn’t broken out of its niche yet.

So do it. Full speed ahead. But don’t do it because it’s simple. Do it because you want to make something cool.

In considering which projects to do, I’d urge you to think along two axes:

1. **Suitability for machinima.** On one extreme, you have [Red vs. Blue](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NtBX0XEHT0), which uses Halo to make a comedy about characters in Halo. On the other extreme, projects that seem particularly ill-suited for machinima — say, Hamlet — might be especially awesome simply for their outside-the-boxness.

2. **Production values.** Do you want it to look amazing, rivaling something Pixar could make? Or should it be endearingly crappy? Consider a machinima version of Clerks. Just as that movie wouldn’t have worked if it were shot in IMAX, your little project might benefit from some rough pixels.

Readers, feel free to link your favorite machinima examples.

The dark tyranny of crickets

Psych 101, QandA

questionmarkLong story, short. Me and a very small group of people spent years working on an animated show for the web.

Funny thing was, once we unveiled it, the reactions, were, well… odd.

We received a few kudos, but the typical reaction was either, a) silence or b) pure unadulterated hate.

It’s hard to tell which was more bizarre. Granted, it was a web show, financed out of our own pockets, but some people seemed to expect Pixar quality animation or something, which was well, kind of weird. Not too many people rip on a video shot on a webcam because it’s not on Hollywood 35mm.

But the general silence and lack of enthusiasm, from even friends and family ranging in age and demographics, is probably stranger. Many people didn’t even bother to give us a polite ‘congrats’ or patronized us with a mere ‘cool’. It’s hard to tell if they even watched it.

I don’t get it. The show doesn’t suck. It’s based on an original concept, yes, but it’s not like some abstract, experimental, avant guard production. Maybe not for everyone, but nothing offensive or inflammatory.

Honestly, it almost feels like people really need to be told what to like, and then it’s ok.

As an industry vet, does any of this sound familiar? I truly believe we have a good show with a great concept.

— Peck
NY, NY

First, let me offer you sympathy and commiseration. I’ve been there. I’ve killed myself writing things that were met with indifference. It sucks.

Over the years, my skin has gotten thick enough to handle most criticism, but there’s no way to prepare yourself for crickets. Creating something is like a pitching a ball. You expect someone to catch it. So when they stand there with their arms crossed, letting it roll on the grass, your frustration is justified.

But where do you focus it?

Do you blame yourself? If I’d just worked a little harder, they would have loved it.

Do you blame your friends? If they’d just been more enthusiastic, and forwarded it to their friends, it could have gone viral.

Do you blame the audience? They’re sheep who won’t embrace anything unless someone else tells them it’s cool.

If you’re like me, you probably cycle through all these blame targets repeatedly.

I don’t have any great advice for what to do with your web show. Switch mediums? Change a major element? Hope it becomes big in Japan? Maybe you made the next Hello Kitty, and just don’t realize it yet.

A few suggestions might point the way going forward on new projects:

1. **Let yourself fall in love again.** Once burned, you may be reluctant to fully commit to the next idea. Don’t be. Let yourself get obsessed and passionate. Caution rarely leads to awesome.

2. **Given the choice, fail quickly.** This animated project took years, so the emotional cost was very high. If you had been able to make a version of the idea faster, you would have learned whether it was likely to work.

3. **Preselect your superfans.** I have a few people who tend to like everything I do. And while I value their insights, I mostly value their praise. Yes Men are fine as long as they’re not the only voices you hear.

4. **Plan your launch as carefully as you plan everything else.** As I’ve written about with the struggles of indie films, you have to think about the end of the project right at inception.

Keep in mind, you could take every word of this advice and still face crickets. That’s simply the risk of trying anything creative.