(Español) Día del Libro

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Coppola

This man has just earned a lot of points in my admiration scale thanks to this interview.

On art: You try to go to a producer today and say you want to make a film that hasn’t been made before; they will throw you out because they want the same film that works, that makes money. An essential element of any art is risk. If you don’t take a risk then how are you going to make something really beautiful, that hasn’t been seen before?

On screenwriting: A screenplay has to be like a haiku. It has to be very concise and very clear, minimal. When you go to make it as a film, you’re going to listen to the actors and the photographer because they have great ideas, and then you make the decision that you feel is best. Cinema is collaboration.

On money: I have another job. I make films, but I make the money in the wine industry. You work another job and get up at five in the morning and write your script. 200 years ago, if you were a composer, the only way you could make money was to travel with the orchestra and be the conductor, because then you’d be paid as a musician. There was no recording. There were no record royalties. This idea of some rock n’ roll singer being rich, that’s not necessarily going to happen anymore. Because, as we enter into a new age, maybe art will be free. Maybe the students are right. They should be able to download music and movies. I’m going to be shot for saying this. But who said art has to cost money? And therefore, who says artists have to make money? So I would say, “Try to disconnect the idea of cinema with the idea of making a living and money.”

On this last topic, Neil Gaiman has something important to say:

The times they are a-changin’. The debate goes on.

Sexual diversity in videogames

I’ve already recommended the Extra Credits videos at The Escapist magazine, where many aspects of videogame writing are dealt with week after week. Yesterday’s issue discusses a rather forgotten theme in videogames: sexual diversity.

Your life in a flash

Today’s links appeal to writers looking for new approaches to videogame narration, but also for all those nanowriters in need of word-count detox for five minutes.

Spectre (Mac/PC)
But That Was Yesterday (Flash)

How’s your nano going?

I’ve been quiet lately, busy fine-tuning a novel, writing the second season of Mrs. Carrington and wondering -as if I didn’t have enough- what to write for my friends at Teatro Por Dinero, a new cultural venue in Madrid that I heartily recommend.

My personal NaNoWriMo challenge this year has been, instead of the 50,000 words, to write the whole second season of Mrs. Carrington in these 30 days -perhaps not in a ready-to-shoot, finalised script, but at least with a draft for every one of the 12 episodes. So far I’m still battling the treatment, but at least it’s a long treatment with some fundamental dialogue and action sequences already rolled out to a level of detail that should make things very easy when the time comes to expand each of those pages onto a 5-6 page draft.

We’re approaching the end of the first half now, so tell me, how are things going? Which topic are you writing about? And how is your word count? Are those 25,000 getting any closer?

The writer, taking a break, wonders whether to order pizza or Chinese.

(Español) Español al día

Tous Ecrans

The international film festival Cinema Tous Ecrans takes place this week in Geneva. With its section New Screen, and entering competition, several episodes of Mrs. Carrington will be shown.

for those int he area, projections will take place on Wednesday 3rd at 4:30 pm and on thursday 4th at 9 pm.

More info and tickets at the website of the festival.