Review of The Kingdom

Hello, welcome to the Screen Writer Inc story blog.

Sometimes I have articles about writing a screenplay or how certain elements of a story are created and sometimes I even use a movie to review and highlight to show what works in a film (and what doesn't ).

Today I would like to talk about the new film The Kingdom, which will arrive in theaters September 28th. I was fortunate enough to attend a sneak preview of the film last night.

The title of the film refers to the "The Kingdom" of Saudi Arabia . The Kingdom serves as a backdrop for the story of a FBI investigative team, Special Agent Ronald Fleury (Jamie Foxx) and his elite team ( Chris Cooper, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman). Who secretly travel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to investigate the terrorist attack of a Western housing compound that resulted in many American civilians and an FBI agent on assignment in Riyadh being killed.

Fleury is only given five days to investigate to crime with no support form the State Department. To make matter worst; Fleury and his team come face to face with Saudi authorities suspicious and unwelcoming of American interlopers into what they consider a local matter. The team's only allies are Saudi Colonel Al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhoum) and Sgt. Fadi (Hrach Titizian) who want to catch the terrorist as much as the American team.

The film is directed by Peter Berg and written by Mathew Carnahan. I think Berg did a very good job of balancing the action scenes with the interaction of the actors.

Caranahan's script attempted to put a balance between American and Arab view points. In fact, two of the most sympathic characters are the Saudi Colonel Al-Ghazi and Sgt. Fadi who bring a human face to the Arabs who balance loyalty to Islam and their homeland, with the pursuit for justice.

Still it is the American FBI agents that we follow and through their eyes we witness the suspiciousness and mistrust of Americans by the Saudi people. The FBI team members are literally strangers in a strange land.

The film is violent , but not gratuitously so. At it's heart this is an action movie, but a thought provoking action movie. You leaving the theater thinking about the politics of our nation and those countries who may or may not truly be our friends.

Go see The Kingdom, an action film that you just might learn something from.

This is the Screen Writer until next time.

Sorry I've been away .

This summer has been very busy. Teaching the Advanced Screenwriting Class, Story consulting ,working on a website and several of my own stories hasn't left much time for blogging. I hope to change that. I'm still just as busy, but I want to make a concerted effort to write here as well.

My goal is to add a new article each Friday and will begin tomorrow. Thanks for looking in and hope you are writing something special.

Why are todays movies so long?

Sorry for the long quite spell. Between teaching the screenwriting class, working with my writing clients and life in general ( not to mention Blogger not letting me into my Blog!), it has been a busy spring.

But, really no excuse is a good excuse for not writing. Being a talented writer isn't much good if you don't sit down and write. So quit reading this and go write your story and then come back on your break (short break).

Took my son to see Spiderman 3 over the weekend and enjoyed it. I know some people are saying it's not as good as the last one and I could debate that, but I still think it was an entertaining movie. The film served it's purpose; entertain the audience and sell lots of tickets. Spiderman 3 did both very well.

My one minor quibble, is that the film ran longer than it needed to be and this may be why many people thought the second film was better (though it seemed long too, in my opinion). If the film had been cut a little tighter, I believe the story would have flowed much better, but as I said, the film was enjoyable and paves the way for Spiderman 4 in 2010.

Speaking of films that seem too long. Why does this happen? Usually this happens when the film makers try to cover too many characters or too many big action set pieces or just loose track of the central story.

I'm not putting all the blame on the screenwriter, but the writer must shoulder some of the blame. It is easy to say the producer, or director or the studio pressured the writer to pack the script with as much action and characters as possible. It happens and usually happens in big summer block buster movies. More is better, right? Not always, and usually not in a film that will be remember years later as a classic.

The writer has a responsibly to write an engaging story in a clear and concise way. Every act, scene, beat or word must either move the plot forward or reveal character and hopefully do both at the same time. If your scene doesn't do that, then is it necessary ? More than likely not.

But that A List actor wants a new scene and the script is perfect the way it is. You want to make the actor happy and the director and producer and studio. Write the scene, but create a scene that is revealing and moving. Write a scene that makes you wonder why you hadn't written that gem before. You can write a saleable script without being a sellout. But be economical in your writing. Short effective scenes are much better than longer scenes that lack focus.

The writers job is to be creative. Creative in your story and creative in how you handle story problems or on the set problems. You can have larger than life characters and epic stories without having two plus hour running times that have the audience looking at their watches instead of the movie screen.

And keeping with not writing bloated stories (or Blogs) I will end for the day. Hope you return soon. Thanks and keep writing.

Introduction to Screenwriting

Hello again,
The first class of the new section of Intro to Screenwiting went really well. A lot of really bright, motivated students. I believe this will one the best classes yet. The first class is always the hardest one for me. Not only do you need to present the materials, but you need to establish a good relationship with the students. Much like a writer must present his story , but also establish a trust or relationship with the reader or audience.

With many movies the writers and director start out very well. They have interesting opening scene, likable characters and the plot flows along at a good pace. But some where near the end of the second act or into the third act something happens that makes the viewer feel a little cheated.

The problem can be a character suddenly acts totally out of character. Someone who through out the film acted intelligent, suddenly does something stupid. why did they act that way, because the writer couldn't figured out how to move the story forward unless the character did something stupid. I think that is laziness on the writers part.

Or when some one or some thing is introduced to solve the problem that was never set up in the begining of the story. Or when something is introduced early on in the story, but is never seen again in the rest of the story.

My point is don't get lazy in you story. Make your characters as smart as the people who pay to see that movie. Don't cut corners to make your story work. Plan the story out in advance and you will run into less problems later on. You will see the places in your story where you may need to come up with a clever way to move the plot along and not have to cheat to make your story work.

Keep writing!

Until next time...

Begining of new new season of classes

Hello, and welcome once again to the Screenwriter Inc Blog. Been busy with breaking bones (mine), watching some movies (good ones and not so good ones) , trying to learn how to use Poser 7 , Script analysis and preparing for a new section of Intro to Screenwriting, which will begin March 1st.

Doing everything it seems , but working on the stories I need to be working on. I think that is the hardest part of writing, Finding the time and the motivation to get your ass in the chair, turn on the screenwriting program and work on the stories you need to tell.

I know the craft of screenwriting, Hell I teach the craft, but the one thing I can't teach is how to get you to sit down and write. I fall into the the trap of not enough time in the day. But you have to kick yourself in the ass once in awhile and get the words on the page. Make the time to write, stop surfing the web, day dreaming, watching TV or all of the other time wasters we love to do.

Once you see your story forming on the page, you'll fall in love with this new way to spend your time, and guess what; your not wasting your time, your investing it.

Now stop reading this blog ( at least until next time) , get off line and write a page or two of your story. You'll feel better and instead of dreaming about being a writer, you will be a writer.

Until next time....