Script Frenzy Script

I have finished my film noir screenplay and have been announced a winner (over 20,000 words - aout 100 pages) of the Script Frenzy frenzy. Someday I plan to put most of the script up here on a related page. If I figure out how to do it.
I believe, if memory serves, only five people get killed in my screenplay, the good guy gets the money but not the girl, and ach... six people get killed. Maybe I'd better read the damn thing to find out what happens. This is one of the special results of writing in a frenzy and not really paying attention to what you're doing: writer's alzheimer's - makes reading it a new and fresh experience!

Film Noir Script Part One

Greetings all.
Here is a short snippet of a scene from the film noir script: Die Me A Genealogist which I'm sure is eagerly awaited by one and all. Let me set the scene... or better yet, no. Read the snippet and figure the scene out on your own. Hopefully, it will be clear. Or I've failed miserably as a film noir screenwriter. We shall see. If you have any comments.... er, I'd be glad to hear from you. No, seriously, I would.

Be forewarned all ye who enter: Here lie Dirty words.

SCENE: Grunge-driven back alley littered with graffiti and broken bottles. An ALLEY CAT scavenges over the garbage for breakfast.

MAINWARING (V.O.)

It isn't everyday a stranger offers you two billion dollars.

The Cat spits at something. JERRY, 55, alcoholic Chinese-American, staggers down the alley.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
It isn't everyday you murder a stranger.

The cat spits and runs off. Jerry turns around.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
It isn't everyday you meet a woman who drives you to murder.

JERRY
What the fuck are you doing here?

SCENE: A park bench. Early morning.

MAINWARING, 40, sips from a bottle in a paper bag. He has a scar from his left ear to his mouth. Jerry sits next to him, still a little tipsy from last night. Mainwaring pulls a cigarette out and lights it.

JERRY
Those things'll kill ya.

MAINWARING
I hadn't planned on living this long.

A STRAY CAT strolls by. Mainwaring picks her up.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
If it wasn't for Jerry, I'd probably have a John Doe tag on my toe down at the Seattle City morgue. He found me right after the Florida job.

SCENE: Florida Coast
Mainwaring, no scar, 30, slouches into the lobby of a flea bag hotel. USTINOV, 20, follows carrying a large worn-out bag.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
I didn't know it was my last job when I checked into that whore's paradise but I should have guessed. There were enough clues: we missed a connection, our hotel was booked solid, and I had to deal with a three-fingered hotel clerk.

Mainwaring holds up two fingers and the clerk shoves two registration cards across the counter. Mainwaring tosses $300 on top of the cards. The clerk pockets the money and hands Mainwaring two keys.

SCENE: Seedy Hotel Room.

Mainwaring looks out the drab window at the yacht harbor. He picks up a rifle scope and finds the yacht he's looking for. Ustinov cleans a high-powered rifle.

USTINOV
Bradley says you're a genius with this.

MAINWARING (V.O.)
Ustinov is a little shit. He thought he was a tough guy because he spent a weekend in jail sobering up. I've never been in jail and hope never to be. Bradley wanted me to train the little shit. I have better ways to waste my time.

Ustinov dry fires the rifle while pointing it at the window. Too close to Mainwaring for comfort. Mainwaring moves slowly at first. Then, in one quick move he slaps Ustinov hard across the face. Before Ustinov can react, Mainwaring has a knife to Ustinov's right eye.

MAINWARING
You point that thing at me again...

USTINOV
It's, it's not loaded.

MAINWARING pushes the knife closer.

USTINOV
Okay, okay.

Mainwaring sheafs his knife.

USTINOV
I was pointing it at...

Mainwaring glares at Ustinov.

USTINOV
Okay, okay.

Mainwaring grabs his coat, fedora, and heads for the door.

USTINOV
Where ya headed?

MAINWARING (V.O.)
I suppose I could have told him, but I didn't feel like handing out any peace of mind. I didn't have any, why should the little shit?

He slams the door behind him and heads for the lobby.

That's it for today. I'll be here all week and hey, let's tip our waitresses, shall we?

Film noir script Part 2: the fun.

The script, which I'm sure you're all really, really waiting to read on baited breath, is going swimmingly - whatever that means - well?. Let's recap, shall we? I have to write a 110-page film noir in one month. I have the good guys, the bad guys, and the woman. I need some plot twists but I'm already on page 65 and moving fast. In fact I should actually be doing the script instead of playing on Tedorigawa but I can't pound out the words that long without running around looking for something else to do. No! It's not attention deficit disorder, it's because I want to think about what my characters want to do, what they are pulling me toward.

Main good guy - Mainwaring (named after the man who wrote one of the first film noir films - Daniel Mainwaring and the movie was Out of the Past starring Robert Mitchum and pretty soon all the nouns will be in wikipedia blue.). A former hitman who now operates a crummy little used bookstore in Seattle.

Main bad guy - Eely Moran (named after nobody, just a name I thought sounded greasy and slimey and ne'er do wellish.) A genealogist, the deadliest of bad-guy occupations, yes? Hmmm. Hence the tagling:

When this genealogist checks your lifeline- run!

The Woman (commonly known in the film noir world as the femme fatale; her name is legion. She is known by different names by different people: Eely knows her as Diane. Mainwaring knows her as Gertrude; the cops know her as Special Agent Freytag. But everyone knows her as Nancy - please sing along with the Beatles... ) She's known throughout the movie as....

The Hair

(a mispronunciation by Moran as The Heir - he thinks she's about to inherit a ton of money from her dead husband, who Mainwaring killed for a couple thousand dollars.)

I should say no more. I should get back to work. I should type something useful. I should say no more.

Create Peace wherever you are.

Film Noir (black film?) Screenplay

I have decided to join the ranks of the chosen millions (especially in Los Angeles) who have decided that they, too, can be the next Shane Black (a man who has gotten way too much cash for his scripts - unless someone buys mine, then we're both underpaid) and write a movie. Or, as we say in the biz, a script.
Not an ordinary script, though, (I wish) but a film noir script. A dark, twisted script with three basic characters: the hero, an ex-hitman turned bookstore owner, the femme fatale that makes the ex-hitman jump through the hoops, and the bad guy who tries to manipulate the femme fatale and the bookstore owner. This is all because of Script Frenzy in which we unwashed of the world pretend to be on deadline for a script.

• One month. June.
• One script. Die Me a Genealogist
  
• One film noir ready for sale. Ha.

So, naturlich, I looked up film noir ala wikipedia to make sure I've got all the ingredients for this particular caldron of soup. According to that we need the following pieces:

1. cigarettes - what genre comes after film noir, film cancer?
   
2. flashbacks - love it. All the screenplay gurus (Syd, Robert)say never use flashbacks.
3. a dame
4. a flawed hero
5. a flawed bad guy
6. voiceovers, of course - and, hey, didn't I write about this very thing not too long ago? Am I repeating myself? Do I have blog-alzheimer's? Yes I did! May 23 of this year. Look below! - Who am I shouting at? Myself? Probably. Who's in charge of this blog anyway!?

Today's recommended film noir movie (redundant, or what?) is "Touch of Evil" (released the same year as "No Time for Sargeants" with Don Knotts.) directed by Orson Welles, starring Orson, Charleton Heston, Janet Leigh, and, in a pre-Psycho crazy role as a motel clerk (can you say Norman 'Hi, Mom' Bates), Dennis Weaver (no, Weaver isn't in Psycho, I know that. That was Anthony Perkins. It's just that Weaver's hotel clerk in Touch of Evil is an over-the-top weirdo two years before Psycho was released.)

A bit over-acted in parts, the main reason for watching this flick is to watch Welles' directing - his camera positioning, his angles; his, what, ten-minute first tracking shot. And to watch Welles' character fall into the abyss as Heston watches and may have pushed a little bit, Janet Leigh gets gang-scared, and Dennis Weaver freaks out about marijuana.

If you're interested in film noir scripts, I've got one for you. Let me know. Contact me. Hit comment. Smile. Enjoy your life and hey, let's be careful out there.

"Die Me A Genealogist"
If this genealogist checks your lifeline, you'd better run.

YouNoir? TubeNoir?

A tribute to film noir I found on YouTube.com, one of many, many tributes and whatnots to film noir. Please let me know what you think of this and, no, I didn't make it, write it, direct it or have anything else to do with it except watch it.

"South Korean breakdancing squad" google hit update: THREE! (up from one a few days ago.) Stay Tuned for more Stupid Google Tricks!

Tapdancing South Korean Militant Breakdancing Funda-Squads

There's no reason for this other than to increase the number of google hits for it: "South Korean breakdancing squads" which Zay N. Smith (Quick Takes at the Chicago Sun-Times) coined and is trying to see how many google hits it gets vs how many yahoo hits it gets along with "tap-dancing militant Islamic fundamentalists" which, you have to admit, is a pretty amazing visual image.
On the other hand, Quick Takes is a good read for a quirky take on the news (i.e. printing contradictory quotes from the same person... read: Bush.) Currently, there is only One hit for "South Korean breakdancing squads" on Google.

And, for no particular reason, okay - because of the soothing music, the nice pictures, and the chance to read some Japanese - this video of the Kanazawa Yosui (water ways of Kanazawa, Japan):