John August

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Changing horses mid-stream

QandA, Writing Process

questionmarkI am on page 75 of a screenplay that I am writing, and I was so excited about finally finishing a draft. Then today, I went to write and came up with a MUCH better first act — which would mean completely rewriting the first act and seriously reworking the second and third act. I pitched it to an exec I used to work for and he agrees that, while the old idea is viable, the new idea is much more organic and the characters are inherently more flawed, and thus, more likeable than the Kate Hudson-esque characters that preceded them.

If you were in this situation, would you proceed with the current draft, or immediately begin on the rewrite?

— Anna
Los Angeles

If your new first act embodies the movie you want to make, then grinding out the last 45 pages of the “old” movie will do you no favors. So write the new first act.

Yes, I generally caution that rewriting is the enemy of finishing — you can find yourself rewriting the first 20 pages a dozen times, and never complete the full script. And your new ideas will always seem more exciting than your old ideas, simply because they’re fresh and unimplemented.

But there’s nothing so dispiriting as finishing a script you know is fundamentally flawed. As a professional writer, you’re sometimes stuck in that situation, forced to implement notes that couldn’t conceivably work (c.f. Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle). But for your own scripts, you should never be printing out 120 pages of ambivalence.

Continuing this discussion of mixed emotions, what is “Kate Hudson-esque?” Is it a mathematical derivative of Goldie Hawn, approximating the slope of comedy without ever achieving intersection?

Because while I can sense the stereotype you’re wrestling with — pretty, manic, girl-next-door — there’s a fairly wide swath of actresses I’d put in that category: Jennifer Aniston, Mandy Moore, Katherine Heigl. Many actresses could play a “Kate Hudson-esque” role, more or less interchangeably. And that’s not good, particularly in a comedy. (I’m guessing you’re writing a comedy.)

So as you’re rewriting the first act, and introducing your characters, create situations and motivations that will keep the reader from ever thinking of Kate Hudson. If it helps, make the oddest mental casting choice you can and write the role that way. When your script sells, and Kate Hudson stars in it, she’ll have the opportunity to not be “Kate Hudson-esque.” And she’ll thank you profusely.

The Challenge of Writing in a Digital Age

General

Last week, I blogged about [my upcoming speech](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2007/writing-the-future) at Drake University (my alma mater), which was entitled “The Challenge of Writing in a Digital Age.” I posted my basic thesis statements, and invited comments. As expected, the hive mind was very helpful in reshaping (and renaming) many of my thoughts, so I’m very grateful to those who wrote in.

The speech went well. It was a nearly-full house, with a lot of first-year students in the crowd, and they seemed to keep pretty engaged.

In terms of content, I don’t think the talk was the equal of the [speech on professionalism](http://johnaugust.com/archives/2006/professional-writing-and-the-rise-of-the-amateur) I gave at Trinity University last year, which covered some of the same ground and used one of the same anecdotes. This one wasn’t as organized or persuasive. I think there’s a much better speech to be written on a single one of these topics (such as Authority), but I’d already committed to the sampler platter.

I promised several professors I’d hold off posting the text of the speech until after extra-credit assignments were turned in. Those deadlines should have now passed.

If you’d prefer a .pdf version (it’s 19 pages), you can find it [here](http://johnaugust.com/Assets/writing_in_digital_age.pdf).

It’s an honor–a pleasure–to be back on campus, standing on this stage where just a couple of weeks ago, actual presidential candidates were trying to seem electable.

I feel I should stress: I have absolutely no political ambitions. But I do have a bit of a platform tonight, a list of observations about the things I see looming on the horizon, and what’s to be done about it. I’m not going to ask for your vote, but I am going to ask for your attention. And most importantly, I’m going to ask you to turn off that part of your brain that automatically goes, “Yeah, well, but that doesn’t apply to me.”

(Actually, you don’t have to turn that part of your brain off. Just put it on vibrate. Let your objections go to voicemail.)
What I’m going to try to convince you tonight is that writing matters. That seems like a pretty easy sell at a university. After all, most of you are students. You’re getting grades. Of course writing matters.

But I’m going to be a little more ambitious tonight. I’m not talking about just academic writing. I’m talking about all writing. I’m talking about email. Memos. Your blog. I’m talking about what you wrote on your friend’s Facebook wall. All that writing you don’t think you’re getting graded on–well, you are.

Whether you want to or not, you’re being judged on it. And you’re being judged differently because of the era you’re living in.

So if I do my job right tonight, I’m going to send you out of here a little bit rattled, a little bit paranoid, but hopefully better prepared. [Read more…] about The Challenge of Writing in a Digital Age

Back from Venice

International, Projects, The Nines

I’m back from the Venice Film Festival, where The Nines had its international premiere.

The movie screened three times, but the main public debut was 2:30 p.m. on Monday. At lunch that day, both the sales agent and the publicist separately pulled me aside to say, “So, John, you should know that if the audience doesn’t like the film, they might boo. Or they could throw things.”

And somehow I’m supposed to be psyched about giving a Q & A? Yikes.

So I drank more champagne and looked for escape exits.

Fortunately, during the end credits we got nice, sustained applause (better than Sundance, in fact) and pretty good questions after that. I really love doing a Q & A, though it was challenging dealing with the real-time translation, trying to pay attention to both the person asking the question and the woman whispering in my ear.

One woman asked a question about the ending which was actually a revelation to me, a misassumption made clear only because of the awkwardness of translation. This is really not a spoiler, but I’ll put it in the footnotes so it’s more easily skipped if you want to go in blind.About the ending: Some viewers exit the movie believing it to be a hallucination on the part of one of the female characters, in the vein of Mulholland Drive or Swimming Pool. As the author, I can say that was never the intent, nor is it backed up by the evidence of the movie. But as someone who’s had to write college term papers, I would never claim that any interpretation is wrong. Just less defensible, perhaps. The Nines invites speculation and alternative interpretations, so I’m not about to say one version is “wrong.” But it’s helpful for me to finally understand why some viewers insist on re-contextualizing the entire film in a way I never intended.

veniceThe movie was shown in English, with Italian subtitles. It played differently, with a lot of comedy not making it through translation. Part Two, which is about American television, might as well have been about Martian sodomy. But the audience really responded to the bigger, religious-adjacent stuff in Part Three.

venice2We had a major storm on Tuesday, which knocked out power and made our press interviews challenging. Our main office was actually a temporary, tent-like structure, which held out the rain but kept flapping constantly.

Other observations:

* Ryan Reynolds is a apparently an action star in Italy. They have no idea he’s ever been in a comedy. Most of the journalists cited “Smokin’ Aces.”

* We stayed in Lido, the island where the screening themselves are held, which is a 60 euro water taxi ride from Venice proper.

* Our hotel was where [Death in Venice](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067445/) was shot. It hasn’t really been updated since then.

* If you’re going to not speak a language, Italian is a good language to not speak. Compared with many places I’ve traveled, it was a lot easier to wing it.

* We sold a bunch of territories: Argentina (Telexcel), Eastern Europe (Blue Sky), Greece (Village Roadshow), Israel (Forum Film), Middle East (Italia Film), Scandinavia (Non-Stop) and South Africa (Ster Kinekor). Optimum Releasing had already bought U.K. rights. As always, I’ll keep you posted about release dates. More will be announced at Toronto this week.

* The plan you pick for your iPhone makes a huge difference. Ryan was able to get (almost) full internet on his, while my partner’s iPhone was phone-only, and mine was basically just a pretty iPod. If you think you’re going to be using your iPhone overseas, consider getting the fancy plan.

Summer Sundance, part two

Follow Up, Sundance

questionmarkWhat exactly do you discuss at Sundance? They’re entering with completed scripts, which I assume are perfect to them at the beginning, so where to next? And if you participate in the Screenwriting Lab are you automatically given a Directors Lab spot, if that is what you so choose to do with your completed work?

— Christina Shaver

The scripts the Fellows are bringing to Sundance are completed drafts, but they’re still works in progress. The advisor meetings aren’t notes sessions, but rather a chance to talk through ideas with experienced writers, whose fresh eyes can identify problems and opportunities. It’s like therapy for your script.

Over the last two days, I met with Braden King and Dani Valent, whose script HERE is a road movie set in Armenia, and Sophie Bartes, whose COLD SOULS is an existential comedy.My final project is Richard Montoya’s WATER AND POWER, adapted from his acclaimed play. I lucked out this year in that all of my assigned projects feel like Actual Movies I Would Pay to See. Both projects went through the Directors Lab, so the filmmakers had a chance to see how the scenes worked when put up on their feet, which left them with new questions and ideas.

Over the course of the lab, each writer has five meetings with different advisors. In some meetings, I’ve gone page by page with the fellows, looking at how this line on page 19 is setting up an expectation that never really pays off. In other meetings, I’ve left the script in my backpack, instead talking in broad terms about character POV, balancing tones, and the rewriting process. It’s a conversation, and all based on what the Fellow needs. One of the smartest innovations in the Sundance Labs experience is that the advisors meet each morning to talk through the previous day’s sessions, thus building on each other’s work.

I screened THE NINES last night for the group. It was strange to see it in one of same theaters as January, but with a completely different crowd and set of expectations. (And a new, vastly better digital projector.) Atom Egoyan had screened THE SWEET HEREAFTER the second night, and it was terrific to finally be able to ask him questions about his movie and his process.

Sundance doesn’t change much year-to-year, but there have been a few adjustments this time:

* There’s a documentary lab running concurrently, so we’ve gotten to mingle with some editorially-oriented folks.
* There’s wireless, and thus blogging.
* In an effort to reduce waste, they handed out water bottles and coffee mugs upon arrival to use instead of paper cups and disposable bottles. It’s been remarkably effective. Because you’re at altitude, you have to drink a lot of water, and having a container with your name on it makes it simple.We recently banned bottled water at home. Our water cooler was using $145 worth of electricity each year, and that’s not counting all the energy wasted packaging and delivering the giant bottles. It’s surprisingly easy to adjust.
* They got rid of wine at dinner, but added receptions to (partially) make up for it. Again, you’re at altitude, so it doesn’t take much.