Writing film scripts.
Here's how it goes: At 14, I co-wrote a couple of daft, silly stories with a school friend, essentially dissing all our teachers in various scenarios influenced by our surroundings i.e. Die Hard in a school, Aliens with killer carrots... needless to say, we laughed. Nobody else was going to. After creative differences drove us apart (I didn't agree with some of the story points, he owned the PC...) I went my own way and wrote my own 'proper' script. Again, it was another Die Hard riff, as was my love at that time, but from there I progressed into much more serious ripping-offsies.
Reservoir Dogs. When this movie came out in '92, it was a cold bucket of water in the face that made me beg for more. I loved it. Not the violence, not the swearing, but the dialogue. It made me realise there was more to movies than blowing stuff up (I still sometime revert on this theory). Looking back now, I see Res Dogs for what it is (A City On Fire/Taking Of Pelham 123 re-write, but he got away with it and kudos to QT for that!). But it was a huge inspiration. So much that, like many writers at that time, I wrote my own 'British' Reservoir Dogs. Sure, again, mostly appalling, but a few neat ideas/scenes etc...
But it was all enough to motivate me into writing more and more. I even turned my hand to adapting H.G. Well's The War Of The Worlds in 1995. I love the book, and as much as Spielberg did a good job on his version, I feel that he missed the point of the book - which is to keep it set in an era without nuclear bombs and other hi-tec weapons. Its about mankind being over a barrel and there's nothing they can do to stop the onslaught. I love the way the book is about mankind's self-centeredness. Brilliant.
From here I wrote tons. Literally 10 features in one year, all of varying quality, I'll add. Some had great ideas but were poorly executed, some were just fanboy nonsense. But I kept on... After a long period of (warranted) rejection, I had matured and my movie tastes had changed. So I turned over a new leaf, ditched all the old stuff, and wrote my first 'real' script. The change was light years away from my previous efforts. Finally, things began to click. (Go to my website for the scripts I'm most proud of!)
During this time there were lots of highs and lows (Highs being making films, the Quentin Tarantino phone call, Terry Gilliam financing my student film, getting an agent, lows being no money, inner turmoil and self-doubt and squillions of rejections), but I'm at least comfortable with the type of things I want to write about.
And yes, I hear that voice accusing me of B-S whenever I'm writing stuff which I suspect is B-S. And I listen to it and try to think of something better.
Here's how it goes: At 14, I co-wrote a couple of daft, silly stories with a school friend, essentially dissing all our teachers in various scenarios influenced by our surroundings i.e. Die Hard in a school, Aliens with killer carrots... needless to say, we laughed. Nobody else was going to. After creative differences drove us apart (I didn't agree with some of the story points, he owned the PC...) I went my own way and wrote my own 'proper' script. Again, it was another Die Hard riff, as was my love at that time, but from there I progressed into much more serious ripping-offsies.
Reservoir Dogs. When this movie came out in '92, it was a cold bucket of water in the face that made me beg for more. I loved it. Not the violence, not the swearing, but the dialogue. It made me realise there was more to movies than blowing stuff up (I still sometime revert on this theory). Looking back now, I see Res Dogs for what it is (A City On Fire/Taking Of Pelham 123 re-write, but he got away with it and kudos to QT for that!). But it was a huge inspiration. So much that, like many writers at that time, I wrote my own 'British' Reservoir Dogs. Sure, again, mostly appalling, but a few neat ideas/scenes etc...
But it was all enough to motivate me into writing more and more. I even turned my hand to adapting H.G. Well's The War Of The Worlds in 1995. I love the book, and as much as Spielberg did a good job on his version, I feel that he missed the point of the book - which is to keep it set in an era without nuclear bombs and other hi-tec weapons. Its about mankind being over a barrel and there's nothing they can do to stop the onslaught. I love the way the book is about mankind's self-centeredness. Brilliant.
From here I wrote tons. Literally 10 features in one year, all of varying quality, I'll add. Some had great ideas but were poorly executed, some were just fanboy nonsense. But I kept on... After a long period of (warranted) rejection, I had matured and my movie tastes had changed. So I turned over a new leaf, ditched all the old stuff, and wrote my first 'real' script. The change was light years away from my previous efforts. Finally, things began to click. (Go to my website for the scripts I'm most proud of!)
During this time there were lots of highs and lows (Highs being making films, the Quentin Tarantino phone call, Terry Gilliam financing my student film, getting an agent, lows being no money, inner turmoil and self-doubt and squillions of rejections), but I'm at least comfortable with the type of things I want to write about.
And yes, I hear that voice accusing me of B-S whenever I'm writing stuff which I suspect is B-S. And I listen to it and try to think of something better.
