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Sep 23, 2013, 3:10:46 PM9/23/13
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HOLLYWOODSCRIPT.COM NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the latest edition of the Hollyscript.com Newsletter, which
is published by script consultants Craig Kellem, Judy Kellem
http://www.hollywoodscript.com. If you do not wish to receive this
newsletter, please reply to this E-Mail and put the word "UNSUBSCRIBE"
in the subject line.

The purpose of this newsletter is to share information, ideas etc.
concerning the fascinating (and elusive) world of screenwriting.

______________________________________________



CHARACTERIZATION AND THE CRITICAL EMOTIONAL CONNECTION

By Judy Kellem and Craig Kellem


There are many "techniques" for creating and developing characters,
some of which can be quite effective. However, the single most
important thing you can do is to have a STRONG EMOTIONAL CONNECTION
with your character. Intellectual platitudes and techniques are OK,
but audiences want characters that are ALIVE!

A fully realized, layered character - no matter how big or small a
part enriches a script (and film) like no other component. It is the
essential fuel for your story engine, since we can relate to your
story and fully feel your movie through our vicarious identification
with the people in it. We get wonderfully lost in their sensibilities,
their pain and joy, their hard choices and giant mistakes along the
way. Even if you have a solid story idea in place and a viable
plotline laid out, the veracity of the dialogue and electricity of the
narrative will all hinge on how successfully developed your characters
are.

In the classic film “Casino” Joe Pesci’s character Nicky is
delightfully unambiguous. He’s ruthless, tough as hell, in-your-face
bold, funny and ultimately, outrageously miscalculating. He’s so well
developed by the writer that from the moment he is introduced, we are
made to feel as if we already “know” him. As viewers, we can sit back
and simply enjoy his crazy antics. So too with the character Mud
played by Matthew McConaughey in the like named film. Though he’s
mysterious and a real independent loner who’s hiding out from
something, he’s seemingly knowable and familiar. He has an easy way
about him as he befriends two youngsters and gives them work. He’s low
key and old school in his approach – we are made to “get him” him
completely, despite the secrets he keeps.

Now just imagine if you were called to write material wherein Walter
from the “Big Lebowski” had to appear or Carrie from “Homeland”? The
dialogue and visuals for these characters would probably come fast and
easy, because they are so distinctive and relatable that you feel as
if you KNOW THEM and can hear them, see them, smell them.

In developing your own material, you want to go for characters that
have this kind of natural creative accessibility rather than
struggling with convoluted human inventions and stick figures.

As an initial exercise, just to warm up, it’s worth meditating on the
top ten characters you’ve loved over the years – the characters who
stayed with you long after the film ended, the characters you love to
quote, the characters you could write all day were you required to do
so. Think long and hard about what makes them so vivid, so defined, so
completely full of reality and life. Make notes if you must or just
use the energy of having those high quality characters in mind as a
launch pad and standard to then start conjuring your own unique
voices. The very experience of focusing on characters that you love
and feel because they are so clear, appealing and real that you can
easily imagine writing them yourself, will act as a bridge to being
able to identify and fully realize your own players.

As new voices start to emerge, keep looking for the inspiration INSIDE
YOURSELF!

Find your most visceral emotional connections. Who touches you? Who
cracks you up just imagining their face? Who made an impression on
your recently wherein you felt that click of “I get you” – be it a
stranger on the street or someone you’ve known for years.

Now, can they fit into your storyline?

Don’t be afraid of using the most potent people in your life as key
kernels of your characters! That kernel, that spark of reality along
with the feeling you have about that person will immediately infuse
your potential character with life. It will be the heartbeat that gets
the lump of formless clay breathing.

Then, through the development process, you will eventually fill out
your characters and in so doing, fictionalize away from the specific
people who provided the inspiration.

Here is an approach that can be effective:

To start, think about your film and the key characters that you will
need to carry the story you want to tell. What are their bottom line
sensibilities? What drives them to act or not act? How do they deal
with hard situations, with stress, with questions of morality?

If necessary, allow the real person in your life that pops into your
mind to temporarily stand in for your character. Act as a casting
director using a live person as a place-holder for your character to
read the lines, so to speak. Assign a temporary name to that character
that is similar to the real person – it is code language to remind you
of that temporary basis of reality.

Now as you start to imagine that real person moving through the story
and plotline, you will find that the fiction starts to take over.
Things will happen in your movie that allow the real person to start
morphing into an original character.

Take one character at a time. We suggest that you begin to compile
ideas for scenes, moments, sequences and the like, for each character
(check out our articles on “Sandboxing” for more on this).

As you build scenes and moments, you will see that a story will start
to unveil itself. As the characters grow and evolve in your
imagination, the stories and characterizations will grow in tandem.

Once brimming with solid ideas, you can then evolve into putting
together individual “beat sheets” for each character to arc out each
of their story trajectories from the start of the movie to the end.
Again, do one character at a time, organizing your scene ideas for a
particular character, and working your way from the first moment we
meet them, to the last time we see them in your film. Do this for
every single character no matter how big or small a role they play.

Now take this test: PUT YOUR CHARACTER UP A TREE SO TO SPEAK, HAVE
HIM/HER TRY TO GET DOWN BUT KEEP THROWING THINGS HIS/HER WAY. Your
character isn’t fully realized until you are certain of how they will
react every step of the way.

As you start writing the actual script and get deep into the dialogue,
try taking the names of your characters off a page in the middle of
the script, leaving just their lines. See if folks know who they are
(from their dialogue alone) despite the lack of specific
identification.

Well-developed characters make writing the script much easier than you
can imagine. For you will start to write a scene and the character
will show you how she or he enters a room, lights a cigarette, leans
into another character for a moment of shared secrets. He or she will
tell you what they want to say and how they plan to say it.

A properly developed character will only ask that you listen and take dictation.



Copyright Hollywoodscript.com LLC 2013, all rights reserved.



____________________________________

THANX FOR THE KIND WORDS!



Judy,

Got it, came in last night, they gave it to me this morning. Just
went through it. Can't tell you how much I appreciate your close and
wonderfully helpful read, including what we talked about on the phone.
Such a delight, as you know from your own writing, to feel like the
story, the writing, etc. got through to someone. The comments, small
and large, were invaluable, and your macro suggestion is, I think,
going to help the book quite a bit.

So, again, thank you. And it was great speaking with you again, just
in general. Hope all is well





___________________________________

FEEDBACK FROM LATEST CONTEST WINNER (coverage about to be posted on site)



Hello Craig,



I'm putting those last few polishing touches on THE MICK that we
discussed and working on THE AURA, but I just wanted to send you a
note of feedback and thanks.



First off, our sessions were extremely instructive, with lessons that
go beyond simply the work at hand. I'm constantly amazed at how you
hone in on exactly the elements that I knew in the back of my mind
were weak, I'm appreciative of your thorough dedication and attention,
but most of all your help has made my screenplays dramatically better
- and I think that has to be the highest evaluation of all! Cheers! :
D



Geoffrey

____________________________________

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES ARE WORTHY AND VALUABLE. PROVIDED BY AN L.A.
BUDDY AND WRITER MARK MILLER. MOST GRATEFUL TO HIM FOR HIS DEFT EYE
FOR THESE THINGS!



How to Make a Hollywood Hit

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/how-to-make-a-hollywood-hit/308955/



FYI

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/business/media/online-only-tv-shows-join-fight-for-attention.html?emc=eta1



WANT TO WRITE FOR TV? – Here’s an excellent site containing PILOT
SCRIPTS AND SHOW BIBLES:
http://sites.google.com/site/tvwriting/us-drama/pilot-scripts/09-10-season

ARE YOU A DAVID MAMET FAN? THEN CHECK THIS OUT
http://www.movieline.com/2010/03/david-mamets-memo-to-the-writers-of-the-unit.php

WHICH CRAZY WRITER ARE YOU?
" Writers tend to be an eccentric bunch.
They drink too much, act out in public, have substance-abuse problems,
have unique personal lives, and often expire before their prime. They
also have very distinct personalities. Take this quiz to find out
which writer you are most like!"
http://roflquiz.com/which-crazy-writer-are-you/q/59/?src=1038391

Elmore Leonard: The Beloved Author's 10 Rules of Writing

http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=13eb080d8a315477042e0d5b1&id=58e9b274db&e=18bface909



My humor essay for CreativeScreenwriting.com, titled, "I Love Being a
Writer--Except for the Writing."

http://creativescreenwriting.com/i-love-being-a-writer/



Amazon Studios now accepting short video bids for feature films

http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/28/amazon-studios-now-accepting-short-video-bids/



31 Valuable Pieces of Writing Advice from Famous Authors



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/writing-tips-_n_3319260.html?ir=Books&utm_campaign=052213&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-books&utm_content=FullStory#slide=2484103



The following is pretty damn wonderful:



2013 Jefferson Lecture with Martin Scorsese

http://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jeff...re-live-stream



WANT TO WRITE FOR TV? – Here’s an excellent site containing PILOT
SCRIPTS AND SHOW BIBLES:

http://sites.google.com/site/tvwriting/us-drama/pilot-scripts/09-10-season

ARE YOU A DAVID MAMET FAN? THEN CHECK THIS OUT

http://www.movieline.com/2010/03/david-mamets-memo-to-the-writers-of-the-unit.php

Martin Scorsese is a legend of a director — and he's also a great film
teacher, a man who balances a passion for the medium with a deep
knowledge of its history. Delivering this year's installment of the
National Endowment for the Humanities' prestigious Jefferson Lecture —
a talk he titled "Persistence of Vision: Reading the Language of
Cinema" — Scorsese demonstrated his speaking chops as well.

View Clips From Films Scorsese Discusses



The Impossible Voyage, 1904, Georges Melies

http://archive.org/details/The_Impossible_Voyage



First Motion Picture Horse, by Eadweard Muybridge

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrRUDS1xbNs



Thomas Edison - 1894 Boxing cats

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k52pLvVmmkU



________________________________

A FEW WORDS FROM MARK MILLER

I know what you’re thinking: “Mark, before your own book of humor
essays about dating and romance is published, how about giving us a
little preview by having, say, 7 of your essays published in an
anthology of 14 Hollywood writers sharing stories about love?”

Hey, can I anticipate your thoughts or what? Because it just so happens that…

I’m one of 14 contributors to an anthology of love-themed short
stories, which just recently went up on Amazon.com.

All the contributors are Writers Guild members who’ve sold TV and/or
movie scripts.

Seven of my essays appear in it. They’re the only essays in the book;
the rest are short stories.

Here’s the Amazon link to it:

Love and Other Distractions: An Anthology by 14 Hollywood Writers (paperback)

http://amzn.to/11oIuac



Kindle edition:

http://amzn.to/1aRnP1w

On that page, it describes my contribution thusly:

“Humor: VARIOUS ESSAYS by Mark Miller: Mark’s humor essays in this
anthology are from his upcoming book, 500 Coffee Dates: Dispatches
From The Front Lines Of The Online Dating Wars, in which he talks the
dating talk after having walked the dating walk through over 500
post-divorce coffee dates. He’s endured several lifetimes of
first-date jitters, anguish, caffeine and crushing disappointment, all
for your amusement and enlightenment. Join him as he shamelessly
shares his safari through today's dating jungle.”

And here’s my Amazon.com Author Page:

http://amzn.to/1cf58GJ



This is being done as a charity project, with 100% of the proceeds to
benefit the charity Kids Need to Read
(http://www.kidsneedtoread.org/).



I think you’ll enjoy the book, thank you for your attention and return
you now to your own life.



Mark

_____________________

HOLLYWOODSCRIPT.COM is a boutique script consultation service run by
former Universal and Fox development exec Craig Kellem. Craig and his
studio analyst associate, Judy Kellem, (who has a Masters in English
and Creative Writing) operate this two person company.

Motto: The #1 Secret for Selling a Script...MATERIAL THAT’S READY!

SERVICES: Script consultation, Coverage, Developmental Help (ie Works
in Progress), Book manuscripts, Free query letter analysis, Free mini
consultation

HOLLYWOODSCRIPT.COM CONTEST-Free MONTHLY contest for clients. Prize:
free coverage--guaranteed big industry exposure.

Craig – craig....@valley.net

craig....@gmail.com

201-918-6993

Judy – judy....@earthlink.net

917-647-8782

___________________________________________________

SCRIPTBLASTER E-QUERY SERVICE has an incredibly vast database of
producers, agents, managers and the like. They can zap your coverage
or query directly into the hands of many viable Hollywood producers,
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If you'd like assistance writing your query letter, their experienced
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include a tight logline and a compelling synopsis.

For more information about their services visit: http://www.scriptblaster.com

Or, if you have any questions you can email them at:
http://www....@scriptblaster.com

___________________________

INKTIP.COM is a screenplay facilitation company that helps Industry
Professionals find good scripts & writers.

www.inktip.com.

COPYRIGHT HOLLYWOODSCRIPT.COM 2013, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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