by Dennis O’Neil
Splat! Splibble! Ghosh!
Uh oh, here comes another one.
KLATLAM!
Tag: Spec Scriptacular Contest
Diana Vacc Sees AMERICAN CRIME STORY: THE PEOPLE vs. OJ SIMPSON
by Diana Vaccarelli
Twenty years later and the OJ Simpson trial still fascinates so many. Executive Producer Ryan Murphy, creator of Glee, Nip/Tuck, and American Horror Story, decided to produce a series based on Jeffrey Toobins book The Run of His Life. The show starts at the murder scene and continues through the trial.
THE GOOD:
- The best part of this series is the acting. Everyone fits their roles perfectly. John Travolta as Robert Shapiro, Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran, Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark, David Schwimmer as Robert Kardashian, and Cuba Gooding Jr. as OJ Simpson. Each actor gives the viewer the most poignant performance. It is almost like watching the trial all over again.
- The cinematography by Nelson Cragg is nothing short of brilliant. The colors and the scenery bring you into the scene.
- The writing makes the characters come alive. We experience the emotional toll that the case has on them all…and, man, is there ever a toll.
THE BAD:
The Week at TVWriter™ – March 21, 2016
In case you’ve missed what’s happening at TVWriter™, the most popular blog posts during the week ending yesterday were:
Larry Brody has yet more to say about characterization
The TV Writer on TV Writing
Characterization Part 3
by Larry Brody
F. Scott Fitzgerald, not exactly known as an action writer, said it best: “In movies, characters are what they do, not what they say.” This is the most important thing you can keep in mind when writing any script for film or TV, and believe me I know how hard it is to remember. After all, we’re writers, aren’t we? Eschewers of the deed who live and die by the word.
In a novel, we get into our protagonist’s mind. We know his or her thoughts. In a stageplay, the flow of spoken dialog is designed to both propel the story forward and illuminate the psyches of the speakers. But in a teleplay or screenplay the only way we can know what a character is thinking is by how he behaves. We never hear his thoughts, and the only time we hear him talking is when he’s in conversation with other people, to whom he could easily be lying.
Action, then, is what gives us our characters’ states of mind. An angry character throws a chair, breaks a mirror. A loving character holds a dear one tenderly. A character who can’t face life literally turns away. Whether the action is large or small, it has to come from within, driven by the needs of the character and therefore illuminating them at the same time.
The Week at TVWriter™ – March 14, 2016
In case you’ve missed what’s happening at TVWriter™, the most popular blog posts during the week ending yesterday were: