29 March 2013

Loitering with intent

Haven't blogged in a while, haven't written in a while - been busy living life. From a casual observer's point of view it might have seemed like a writer doing everything BUT writing ... but writing is far more than the actual sitting down and typing. Have I been goofing off? Hell no.

"Loitering with intent" - the title of Peter O'Toole's autobiography ... love the sentiment. It may appear like loitering - but you bet there is intent. In the case of the writer, there's a variety of productive non-writing - lemme see what I've been up to:

1. Think-walking: This German dude named Friedrich Nietzsche used to say something like "I never trust a thought that didn't come by walking." Well - if you're a working writer, you know all about that. If you're a newbie, learn to trust the walks. Let your mind roam while you walk and things will happen - important things - things you'll be writing down once you're back home. Mind you - there's great dictation apps by now - I occasionally use them, too. But most often I just talk to the forest, to the wind, to the dog, as I walk through nature. And these walks are currently fuelling two of my current projects.

2. Percolating: Loitering with intent is also trusting yourself - trusting that your ideas are percolating. I used to worry - about story, about time, about deadlines - not anymore. I trust. I know that the percolator is switched on at all times. I can practically hear it like the sound of that classic Italian coffee machine, bubbling, slowly, as if lazily. But it's steady, it's happening, it's coming. And when you know your percolator, you know when it's time to put it all on paper.

3. Networking: You know what I mean - the other 50% of a professional writer. Been doing my bits, connecting with producers, reading offered material, following up on emails, highlighting and curating stuff in this blog and on Twitter as @DMEckhart. Sell yourself - not your art, but show your very existence! Let the film world know that you're here and once they notice you - make sure they don't forget you. Social media may seem like goofing off to some, but for writers it's essential in my view. Strut your stuff, be there, participate, matter, help, show your worth and it'll ripple out into the world and it'll come back to you.

So, while not yet crafting the next actual script, three projects are percolating, bubbling, building in my head and in my notes ... loitering with intent, indeed!




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03 March 2013

Kubrick's Napoleon ... the greatest movie never made?

Back in 1968, after completion of "2001: A Space Odyssey", Stanley Kubrick turned to the story of Napoleon with the intent of turning it into a monumental historical costume drama... well, it never happened - but the script exists and it's definitely worth reading.

Kubrick was a perfectionist, well known to immerse himself completely. In the case of Napoleon, he researched for years, visited locations, hired historians who built up a card catalogue detailing every day of Napoleon's life - who was with him and why, who he ate with, who he slept with and and and ... the extent of Kubrick's massive mounds of research is on display in a beautiful book that was published in 2011 (actually, I just may have to get it for myself - sounds like a special treat).

Here's a fascinating Telegraph article that details how Stanley Kubrick and Anthony Burgess (writer of A Clockwork Orange) tried to bring forward a unique telling of Napoleon's life by following the symphonic structure of Beethoven's Eroica (listen in)... alas, it wasn't meant to be. 

What Burgess eventually delivered wasn't what Kubrick wanted and what writer-Kubrick wrote in the form of the screenplay didn't really seem to satisfy director-Kubrick either. According to Wikipedia et al what really doomed the project was mostly that the costs of filming on locations with tens of thousands were expected to be prohibitive and that the risks of such a massive costume drama falling flat at the box office were too big.

Now - I've read the script and, especially if you're a fresh writer, I'd urge you to read it as well. As you read it, try and forget that Stanley Kubrick wrote it. It's just pages, just words, just a story - it should work on its own. Ask yourself, does it?

>>> Straight to the script! 

My reading experience was quite interesting. Yes, it is about the life of Napoleon and Kubrick depicts it as he had planned from beginning to end, boyhood to death. It definitely isn't the greatest movie never made. The script is well executed but linear and episodic, strung together with the traditional narrator's voice. A fairly uninspired choice. The scenes are properly executed, i.e. they have clarity of purpose, they exist for a solid reason... but there's nothing that remains in my mind as extraordinary, surprising beyond what I'd expect from a Napoleon story. 

Interesting for fresh writers is also to see that Kubrick breaks quite a few rules that you, as a beginning writer, are told to remember and follow at all times. Fact is, you need to know the rules - and you need to learn that sometimes breaking them can be the perfect thing to do to suck the reader into your script. Nuff said - read the damn thing - it's movie history (even if it was never made) - you'll have fun and you'll learn a thing or two.

>>> More great stuff with Kubrick's personal notes at Cinephilia and Beyond


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