I’m currently at work on two comedic pieces, and so I’ve been quizzing my comedy and sketch friends to see what kind of “book learning” they’d been taught that I could cannibalize.
Most of the stuff I’ve found helpful, but nothing so much as a simple idea that you find a character’s weakness or source of insecurity and hammer it every chance you get. An example: a guy who believes he’s underqualified for his job, and you keep putting him in situations where he’s in danger of everyone else coming to the same conclusion. He twists in the wind and makes implausible excuses, or cleverly bullshits his way out of the trouble… either way, that can elicit the kind of tension that’s funny.
Stuff I’ve found less helpful, but interesting, I picked up second-hand from some of the more respected sketch writing classes. A number of these classes seem to heavily stress a concept called “The Game” of a scene. You find the central “game” of a scene early… let’s say, for example, a girl wants to impress a guy. She does something that deviates from normal behavior to get his attention. Now the game is on, and the goal for the writer is to “heighten” the game. Usually that means having the girl’s behavior (and/or, I suppose, the guy’s reaction) get bigger, wilder, and weirder.
My complaint is that I don’t understand how, if you’re closely following this method, you’re going to avoid writing stuff that becomes absurdist. If the “game” progresses by going bigger, or odder… well, aren’t you just going to wind up with characters that are giant cartoons, every time?
And to answer myself, I just sort of take a look at most of the sketch comedy I see, and a lot of the comedy programs getting made… And it seems like the answer is yes, that’s what you wind up with. Hey, I like some of them… It’s not necessarily a bad thing… but it’s only one type of humor…
Anyway, the two comedy things I’m writing… One’s under wraps, the other’s an animated short film that, with luck, I’ll be able to announce here soon. I always feel like I should keep the details under wraps… this quite probably means blogging about my ongoing/upcoming projects is an ill fit. Yikes. What the hell else do I care enough to talk about?
A feature film I wrote recently (in story collaboration with the producers) is now going into financing and pre-production.
The film’s called RIDE THE NINE. Taking it on was interesting, to be sure… A prime reason (why it was interesting, that is) was because the main character’s a long time pool hustler. We’re talking decades. So I get to play with a lot of fun ideas: noirish dark corners and dangerous men… But then there’s also this game, right? Pool.
Then on top of the game, there’s the very fact of the game, which is to say: if there’s a game in a movie, there’s an assumption that the game’s going to be played on film… unless of course you’re so timid as to totally cop out and, for example, make a movie about a football player that has no football in it.
So there’s a game, and the game’s definitely going to be in the movie… How much?
A lot, actually. We’re not using pool (nine ball, specifically) as a prop or “colorful backdrop” for this story. It’s pretty integral… So let me be the first to say that there’s a whole lot of pool in the film. There are so many long games, ugly opponents, tables and halls, cue sticks, chalky blue cubes, wooden triangles, smoky lights, and bankrolls of greasy dollar bills that you could be as intimate with them as if you’d spent decades standing around the table yourself… disturbed yet?
Anyway, we’ve just put together a site at ride-the-nine.com to be a home for news and updates about the picture.
In the past week, we’ve gotten word that TEXAS 1960 has been accepted in three great festivals:
1. The Lone Star International Film Festival is held in Fort Worth, Texas. I can’t tell you how excited I am to screen in the state after using it as my fictional setting. We’d come close with the Dallas Video Fest, but there was some confusion, as you can read about here. The cool thing is: it’s the Lone Star organizers who had recommended us to the Dallas fest, and now have invited us to screen in Fort Worth.
2. The Zero Film Festival is designed to support “authentically” independent movies. If you’re wondering “authentic” means in this context, it’s really no puzzle: the key is that all films are self-financed by the filmmakers. Based in Brooklyn, but they’re putting together tours of the fest’s films to other cities.
3.NewFilmmakers NY doesn’t have a typical “fest” structure—rather, they put on ongoing film programs at the Anthology Film Archives in Manhattan. TEXAS 1960 was chosen for the winter series and will screen in February.
You might have noticed last week we had a notice up about Texas 1960 being selected for the Dallas Video Fest.
We were recommended for inclusion to the fest organizers on short notice… Unfortunately, it turned out we were selected as part of their “Texas Show” showcase on the final night of the fest, which is reserved for Texan filmmakers. Though it pained me to do it, I had to come clean that we weren’t from Texas. Our cast includes folks from Lousiana, New Mexico, Georgia, even Hawaii… I’m from Missouri… but no Texans.
Of course the film was de facto disqualified, but the organizers were very gracious about the mix-up… they even told us their jurors took an extra bit of time looking for a way to include the film, which was great for us to hear.
But anyway, you heard it here first, and now, if you will, you can un-hear it. Congratulations to our little crew anyway, especially the actors! If a Texas-based festival liked the film enough to include it on short notice, that’s quite a kudos to their performances with regard to dialect and accent. Jessie Birschbach, one of our actresses, took the time to prepare and share a digital package including MP3s of West Texas dialect which we sent around to all the cast before shooting, and I think her work paid off.
This might be a situation where I created work for myself. I’d seen friends place their films into festivals without bothering about rights clearance, and a lot of festivals have a “not my problem” attitude towards rights, so they keep mum… But I wanted to have my bases covered…
The steps involved are pretty simple, and they’re summed up nicely here: “Getting Clearance, DIY”.
There are two types of clearance you’ll need, synch rights and master rights… The first pertains to the rights of the song’s author, the second to the actual recording being used.
(Just so you know, once you’ve asked to negotiate a price for a song, the rights owner probably won’t forget about you. I decided to wait on final negotiation and payment of music rights on TEXAS 1960 (which uses two period songs, one by Marty Robbins and one by Chet Atkins) and was surprised when the rights owners (a mighty music conglomerate) contacted me (relatively speaking, a fly speck) again recently to find out when I was going to pay. Don’t get me wrong, they were totally friendly, and agreeable when I told them I planned to finalize only after the film was accepted into a festival… but once on their radar, well, you’re on their radar.)
I wouldn’t bother trying to make a special plea for cheaper rates on your song use, at least not initially. I’d had guidance from a friend who used to work in rights clearance, and most of the time, things are pretty rote… They look at how long you plan to use the song, what your budget is, how popular the song is… Don’t bother with a lengthy explanation of how you can’t afford much, that you’re on a shoestring… Later on, if you do get sticker shock, then maybe try to ask for leniency… Ultimately, though, I thought the figures I was quoted were fair.
Next time though, we’ll record all the music ourselves. Just to be extra safe. And cheap.
Starring Milly Sanders, Shawn Petersen, Dixie Perkinson, and Jessie Birschbach.
From a synopsis: In West Texas circa 1960, two men stumble into the hills after a robbery gone wrong. Witnesses recount details of the crime, but the more the Sheriff hears, the less he really gets.
Taking the opportunity to share some screen grabs from the TEXAS 1960 short. They were captured willy-nilly from inside the work environment during editing, so they’re low-res and not color-corrected.
And there’s a photo of me working with Milly that Elana snapped.
In the past week, we’ve gotten word that 
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