It’s all about the dialogue.
“Next week you need to bring in some ideas for a screenplay. When looking at movies pay attention to the dialogue. Screenplays have very little description. They are mostly dialogue. Last week, we talked about what a person would really say. How do we talk? Think a lot about the dialogue because if written well, you don’t need to say how the character feels. Something like, ‘He said angrily.’ shouldn’t be necessary.
“Get an idea and follow that image. How does the story begin? How does it end? Some writers start at the end. Some start in the middle. I’m one who starts in the middle. There are certain rules for writing screenplays and then there are no rules.”
Now you’d think this advice was being given at a screenwriter’s seminar at the University of Pennsylvania, which by the way, some of us participated in one weekend eons ago.
But no – these words were delivered by our very own Ron Rollet on the third floor of the City Centre Mall in Cape May. The beneficiaries of the advice were students from Richard M. Teitelman School and Lower Cape May Regional High School (LCMR), both located in Lower Township.
These students meet once a week and are members of the Young Filmmakers’ Workshop. Ron, a former NYU professor, is also the Artistic Director for the Cape May New Jersey State Film Festival. He is very reserved and judicial with his advice and criticism. He pretty much lets the students run their own workshop. As the hour progresses, the group grows. By 4:30 we are a group of ten – seven students, Ron, Gail Schmidtchen, Teitelman School Advisor, and myself.
I listen as each student “pitches” his idea. The one girl – 8th grader Kelli Barron – is new to the group and hasn’t had time to come up with an idea. But 8th grader Chaz Antinori is positively bursting with a storyline he came up. We don’t want to reveal too much but it is a ghost story inspired by his father’s house on Beach Avenue – it is in fact the house in which the NJSFF held its Oscar Night Gala. In Chaz’s storyline, there’s a third floor in the house that’s a little creepy and a room on that floor with a door that won’t open. That’s all I’m sayin’ (except for that fact that there’s murder afoot) but that’s all I’m sayin’. Keep an eye out for the final version at the upcoming Film Festival in November when the CMNJSFF Young Filmmaker’s Workshop entries are premiered– I wouldn’t be surprised if this selection ends up on the marquis.
Ron says that LCMR student Robert Post has “an amazing screenplay” and already has equity actors lined up to play the necessary parts. He’ll be ready to start filming soon. The message of his film? “Everyone’s the same in a dehumanizing corporate work place.” Time travel is also involved. The person keeps going back in time to change what’s happened in the past but the person can’t change it.
Rollet says if he were to “pitch it,” he would liken the script to a modern day “Waiting for Godot” meets Charlie Chaplin. Rollet points out that the final script is nothing like the one Bob started out with. The final version is an evolution of revision after revision. “One day it was completed with a revision that worked.” Emphasis, we might add, on the work part.
And that’s all I’m sayin’. See you in November Bob.
Luke Anderson has, according to Rollet “one of the best screenplays we’ve ever had. He worked on it week by week” and apparently it too has no resemblance to his initial screenplay. The story takes place in a suburban home and is about two brothers playing a video game called I think “Die,Die.” I don’t want to ask questions because Luke is about to start reading the dialogue and it’ll ruin the mood. Anyway, an electrical storm hits with lightening and all the things that come with the “bump in the night” scary stuff. One of the brothers gets stuck in another reality and that’s all I’m sayin’. OK?
Matt Carino comes up to bat with a “semi-storyboard of random pictures” of animated characters inspired by the Merrie Melodies cartoons. Now the Merrie Melodies were designed to showcase songs from Warner Bros’ vast music library. The title of each cartoon was also the title of the song featured in it. In Matt’s film a real character walks into an animated scene. “Each scene is bucolic but every time he (the hero) leaves the scene something gets messed up.” In one scene, for example, rats end up taking over the hot dog cart. Hey! Before you start wincing, just remember who the most famous rat of all is. Just a clue, his initials are MM.
Meanwhile back in the bucolic land of ‘toons, each scene is played to music which Matt has written. “I put the soundtrack down first, frame by frame but the script still needs to be written.”
Rollet reminds everyone that for the first time ever an animated film received an Oscar nomination this year. The Incredibles received a nomination in the Best Original Screenplay category.
Will Revok is writing a horror movie script along the lines of the movie Bogeyman. “It follows all the tradition,” he promises, “It’s fast-paced, suspenseful and does not have a happy ending. Next meeting I’ll have a better summary.”
David Iaconangelo has revised a screenplay he is ready to read for the group. Iaconangelo presented a film last year at the festival called Amaleta, a 13-minute documentary about the life of a West Cape May woman. So, David is an old hand at filmmaking and his script shows a more traditional storyline about a group of construction workers about to go on strike who are not averse to ripping their bosses off once in a while. The dilemma centers around one particular character and whether or not he will betray his friends. The dialogue reads smoothly. Rollet points out that the characters are more differentiated in their dialogue than they were in previous scripts and the group gives him quite a few helpful tips as well as encouragement.
And that’s all I’m sayin.’ Except to say this – It’s exciting to see such young talent being nurtured. We are, after all, a small town. Year-round population under 5,000 and yet, the arts flourish in Cape May because we have people who live here who care enough to put themselves out.
And, ah, that’s all I’m sayin’.
Look for these and other films to come your way in November.
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