Every Great Journey Has A First Step...
So after a week of moping around campus. After a week of watching movie after movie, trying to find some inspiration absolutely anywhere, I finally wrote my treatment for what will eventually turn into my 120 graduate screenplay. It will either be the key to my future, or the harbinger of the failure that will, quite possibly, follow me for the rest of my life.
Yesterday, I watched "Blue Velvet," "Mulholland Drive," and "Boogie Nights." By the time I went to sleep, my idea was primarily centered around a family of pornographers living in a surrealistic dream world. Something told me this probably wasn't going to work out all that well. When I woke up this morning, my mind was just as blank as the Final Draft template in front of me. Frustration was begining to set in in a big way. Lots of pacing, cursing, smoking of American Spirits, drinking of caffeine.
Finally, out of frustration, I type out a title...just to have something on the fucking page...it simply said "The Angel's Graveyard" A Screenplay by Mark Wahl. Ok, I had a title. Thats a good place to start. I think. Right?
I typed out 2 different treatments. One about a father drinking himself away after the loss of his daughter. Another about a big heist. Neither were to my satisfaction, nor did either really seem to fit my original title. It's stupid, I know, coming up with a title before you've even written anything. But I had faith in my inspiration. It wouldn't lead me astray.
In a final act of desperation, I started sifting through the popular articles on Wikipedia for story ideas. I started reading about prostitution in China. Ok, that seems like something that I may write about. But the poor prostitutes of China got thrown out the window when I read the following article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack
I was instantly sucked in by the idea of this monster. What I could use him to represent. The treatment begin to fall out of my fingers, and I knew that inspiration had followed me well into the evening. The title even worked well towards what I hope to eventually accomplish with the screenplay.
England. 1837. A washed up Scotland Yard detective floats through life, drinking himself into semi-comas and trying to forget the mistakes of his past. One night, when things are all seemingly quiet in the building, a lowly laborer bursts in, with claims of being attacked by the most horrendous creature human eyes have ever laid eyes upon. The man, naturally, smells of alcohol. The rest of the detectives get a good chuckle, and send the man along to the disgraced detective. After that, well...his life will never be the same.
I'm excited...I'm geniunely excited about writing this screenplay. It would be absolutley grand. It would be unlike anything I've ever written before, or may write again. The muses, so far, seem to be on my side in this. And I'm going to use them for all they're worth.
Mark
Yesterday, I watched "Blue Velvet," "Mulholland Drive," and "Boogie Nights." By the time I went to sleep, my idea was primarily centered around a family of pornographers living in a surrealistic dream world. Something told me this probably wasn't going to work out all that well. When I woke up this morning, my mind was just as blank as the Final Draft template in front of me. Frustration was begining to set in in a big way. Lots of pacing, cursing, smoking of American Spirits, drinking of caffeine.
Finally, out of frustration, I type out a title...just to have something on the fucking page...it simply said "The Angel's Graveyard" A Screenplay by Mark Wahl. Ok, I had a title. Thats a good place to start. I think. Right?
I typed out 2 different treatments. One about a father drinking himself away after the loss of his daughter. Another about a big heist. Neither were to my satisfaction, nor did either really seem to fit my original title. It's stupid, I know, coming up with a title before you've even written anything. But I had faith in my inspiration. It wouldn't lead me astray.
In a final act of desperation, I started sifting through the popular articles on Wikipedia for story ideas. I started reading about prostitution in China. Ok, that seems like something that I may write about. But the poor prostitutes of China got thrown out the window when I read the following article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack
I was instantly sucked in by the idea of this monster. What I could use him to represent. The treatment begin to fall out of my fingers, and I knew that inspiration had followed me well into the evening. The title even worked well towards what I hope to eventually accomplish with the screenplay.
England. 1837. A washed up Scotland Yard detective floats through life, drinking himself into semi-comas and trying to forget the mistakes of his past. One night, when things are all seemingly quiet in the building, a lowly laborer bursts in, with claims of being attacked by the most horrendous creature human eyes have ever laid eyes upon. The man, naturally, smells of alcohol. The rest of the detectives get a good chuckle, and send the man along to the disgraced detective. After that, well...his life will never be the same.
I'm excited...I'm geniunely excited about writing this screenplay. It would be absolutley grand. It would be unlike anything I've ever written before, or may write again. The muses, so far, seem to be on my side in this. And I'm going to use them for all they're worth.
Mark