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Tag: scriptwriting

Feb282017

Memorable Lines from Movies – Intended and Not

rocktRemember these lines?

“Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!”

or

“I can’t believe you had THAT in your purse!”

If you’ve seen either movie, chances are you remember not only the lines, but the performer’s delivery even as you read the text now.

But I don’t want to talk about these types of intended memorable lines today. I want to talk about:

“Push it, buddy!”

Remember it? You probably don’t. I remember it because I was there at the recording session at the time, but honestly, I probably would have forgotten the line myself over time. It’s just not that memorable. Now there’s nothing wrong with the line. It was used in LucasFilm’s animated series “Droids” and it was perfectly suitable for the action of the scene: one character was encouraging the driver of the spaceship to floor it so they could escape danger. Here’s how it became memorable in my life:

A friend of the family and her young son moved to Canada from Hungary and stayed with my family for a spell. The boy didn’t speak much English when they arrived. Soon enough he discovered “Droids” (naturally, I have the whole set) and he totally got into it. All that action with C3P0 and R2 at the centre… who wouldn’t? Silently, he’d sit and watch the episodes over and over again. And what was the first and only line he quoted from the entire series? You got it:

“Push it, buddy!” (in a lovely, Hungarian accent)

Now, I don’t know if he knew what the phrase meant, but he took joy in the sound of the words and repeated the phrase over and over and over again – more frequently than I’d heard it during the making of the series (which is quite a lot when you consider auditions, recording sessions, rough cuts, etc.).

So, it goes to show that you can write a script, thinking certain lines are destined to linger in people’s thoughts… but those memorable lines may just end up being different ones that you intend!

So, what do you think? It all comes back to “just write a good script with good characters” (instead of stressing over creating memorable lines), doesn’t it?

Cheers & and great script to you,
Deb

P.S. Can you identify the movies associated with the memorable lines up top?

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Deb Patz is the author of “Film Production Management 101” and the upcoming “Write! Shoot! Edit! A Complete Guide to Filmmaking for Teens” both published by MWP Books. She uses a Canadian accent to say “Push it, buddy!”

WHERE IS DEB? (upcoming events and appearances)
Jun.3-7 – Guest instructor – PEI Screenwriter’s Bootcamp, Charlottetown, PEI
Jul.30-Aug.3 – UFVA Conference, Los Angeles, CA

May142015

How Writing a Budget is Like Writing a Script: Revisions (and a wee Spring contest)

You may have seen my PM101 budgeting pencil:
wrt-pmpncl
… or you may even have one (and laugh each time the eraser wiggles while you write). It tangibly demonstrates the proportion of time you spend writing a budget vs the time you spend revising it. Recently, it got me to thinking about script or story writing too.

Revisions, Revisions, Revisions
Both budgets and stories are sooo not done after the first draft! Actually, the “draft” you are ready to show publicly as the “first draft” is sooo not the first pass you penned – you’ve already revised it privately however many times you’ve needed to for you.

Then after the first draft, your creative team contributes, pointing out strengths and weaknesses. You evaluate feedback. You restructure. You revise. You tweak.
Limits and prerequisites are imposed as the revision process continues. How you thought you could shoot the movie cannot be done that way. Script is revised, the budget undergoes re-allocations.

One thing is for sure… both writer and PM spend a lot of time reviewing, evaluating, revising, and tweaking to make the script/story or budget the best it can be.

Wee Spring Contest: Win a PM101 Budgeting Pencil
dp-pnclHow about owning your own PM101 budgeting pencil? Whimsically remind yourself with each wiggle of the eraser as you write that you don’t have to write the “perfect” first pass or “perfect” first draft. It’s ok (and expected) to revise, revise, revise.

To celebrate this parallel of art and business through revisions, let’s have a wee Spring contest. Like and/or write a comment on this post (on WordPress, Facebook or LinkedIn) and I’ll draw a random winner at the end of Spring (June 21). 1 entry for a like, 2 for a comment, 3 for a more thoughtful comment.

Cheers, good luck, and good revisions to you,
Deb

P.S. “PM101” is short for my book’s title “Film Production Management 101” and though there’s a lot inside about the business side of the industry, I’ll bet you know now that because of parallels like this one on revisions, you’ll learn about the art side of the industry too in its pages, too.