Many Lifetimes: Attempting Cinematic Greatness

My name is Johnathon O. Lyon. The following is every step I take on my way to becoming a professional filmmaker. @JohnathonOscar

[johnathonolyon]

Hey. How goes it. Welcome to my new blog. Which is just a continuation of my old blogs, but… I don’t know. Newer.

I was stupid. I admit that. I thought, “Hey! I can have one blog for my film stuff, and one for my comic stuff, and one I can secretly reblog all those kitten pictures with, and it’ll...

[jolyon22]

Stumbled upon an old NY Times article about Raiders of the Lost Ark from the week before its release.

Pretty fascinating.

Especially Spielberg talking about the lack of effort he put into the film.

[jolyon22]

Hi, you mentioned 73% of Phil grads end up on sidewalks...where is this source of info? Why not study philosophy independently, why get a degree in it?

That, my friend, is called hyperbole for comedic effect. If that wasn't... like... obvious.

And there's some perks to getting a degree in philosophy over doing independent study. Mostly social advantages. Discussing different theories and issues with others is a huge, huge part of philosophy, so having other philo majors and professors to talk to is indispensable. Also, philosophy is a fairly decent major to get a bachelor's in if you plan on going to graduate school for something not too far off from it (history, law, etc.). Plus, it's sort of essential if you want to write professionally about/teach philosophy. Obviously. And then there's all the other advantages to studying philosophy, but these three are really the reasons for actually majoring in it. 

Although, you might want to keep in mind that exactly 94% of philosophy majors end up in a managerial position at either a McDonald's or a CVS Pharmacy. 

Source: http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/japanese-show-door-knob-2.gif 

[brianmichaelbendis]

Let's Talk Comics podcast starring ME!

[brianmichaelbendis]

Let’s Talk Comics ‏@LetsTalkComics 

MONDAY! MONDAY! MONDAY! A new episode of @letstalkcomics with @brianmbendis is here! http://bit.ly/LTC06BB pic.twitter.com/XsSoJuoZtT

the secret origin of my nerdness

for those of you with loooong car rides this week!

[letstalkcomicspodcast-blog]

People seem to really enjoy this one! Bumping it up once more via

brianmichaelbendis

[jolyon22]

Doing my part to bump my favorite podcast at the moment.

And every moment since it started.

To all seven of you.

Brace those servers for the tidal wave of listeners, Jim.

YOU'RE WELCOME.

[jolyon22]

Today... I am a man.

[jolyon22]

New tumblr bloggggggg

Guys. New blog about my endeavors in comic book writing:

http://johnathonolyon.tumblr.com

You know. 'Cause filmmaking has gone so well for me, thought I would branch out a bit.

Not done with filmmaking though. Just thought I'd toy around with something that doesn't take 6 months to write just to maybe sell it and let it sit on a shelf forever.

BUT YEAH. Check dat shit. I swear it's not as preachy as this one.

[jolyon22]

It's rare to come up with a truly great idea for a story. It's rarer to come up with a truly great idea for a story that hasn't been done. And it's the fucking lottery if you come up with a truly great idea for a story that hasn't been done and you're the right person to tell it. So maybe don't waste it.

[jolyon22]

A bird flies, a snake crawls, I change typewriter ribbons.

Charles Bukowski

[jolyon22]

Sitting down and actually doing it is half the battle. And, like, 90% of the other half, too.

[jolyon22]

Don’t make your characters you. Then they can’t be them.

[jolyon22]

I don't know if how much I obsess over every detail of a character or moment is a bad thing. But I'm convinced sometimes all it takes is one tiny, little attribute to make something really work. I mean, if the Golden Gate Bridge had just been some boring-ass grey instead of red, no one would give a shit about it, right?

[jolyon22]

It's one of those dialogue writing days where I'm starting to become convinced that I've never had a conversation in my entire life.

[jolyon22]

Best part of screenwriting.

Teaching my Final Draft new curse words.

[jolyon22]

FINALLYYYYYY DONE writing and revising my giant ass final outline for "Hitters." I'd say I should blow through writing the actual screenplay now, but that's what I said about every other step in this writing process, which I'm pretty sure began sometime in the mid to late seventies. But yay, nonetheless.

[jolyon22]

That moment when...

...you turn on 8 1/2 just to watch the first five minutes of it, then get held hostage by its perfection and end up staying up till two in the morning to finish it. Side note: Too many times I've heard this film be called "self indulgent". Why? Because it's deeply personal and entirely (one would assume) about Fellini? So what? What do you think an autobiography is? It's inherently self indulgent. Why is that negative? Why can't people learn or appreciate things from other people's lives? I mean, it's not like he's making himself out to be a hero or something. Are those people making that same "critique" against biopics? Because the only difference between a biopic and a "self indulgent" film that I can spot is that the maker of the latter is the only one that knows the whole story. So, just stop. K? Okay, I guess that wasn't as much a side note as it was a rant, but I thought it was worth venting about. Go about your day now.

[jolyon22]

A blank piece of paper is God’s way of telling us how hard it is to be God.

Sidney Sheldon

[jolyon22]

My Writing Process

While laboring away at my ridiculously complex and multi-tiered ritual of writing, I usually find myself wondering if there's an easier way. What do other people do while writing a screenplay/novel/thingy with lots of words? Am I the only one that submits myself to what I can only assume is the most ridiculously redundant and time consuming approach humanly possible?

So, I thought I'd make a deal. I'll show you mine if you show me yours. I'll (attempt to) explain my process, and anyone else interested in the art/masochism that is writing something from scratch can post their process. Just curious, is all.

1) The Idea. I have an idea for something, I write it down. Simple stuff. I usually write it in my notes on my phone, or the handy, not-so-little notepad I keep in my back pocket.

2) Brainstorm. If I think an idea is worth expanding a bit, I just grab a legal pad, put the working title at the top of the page, and just start jotting down every idea that comes to mind, good or bad. Character attributes, themes, potential scenes, etc. By the end of a project, I usually have about 20 of these "brainstorming" pages filled out, front and back. Anytime a random idea comes to mind having anything to do with the project, but not specifically the scene I'm working on at the moment, it goes on legal pad. I also have a note on my phone for the same purpose for when I'm out and about.

3) Outline #1 (Extremely Rough. "Course", Even). Once I have enough places to go with the story to make what could almost be considered a "coherent plot," I type up the first outline. It's usually only a couple pages. No descriptions of characters or anything too specific. Just a numbered list of all the major sequences and plot points. One or two sentences each.

I usually end up with a ton of drafts of this outline. I try to get most of the "let's throw this out" out of the way here.

4) Individual Scenes. I devote a page for each numbered sequence from the first outline, and just dump every thought relating to those particular scenes onto their respective pages.

I use the cheapest one subject notebooks I can find for this. My individual scene notebook for Hitters (my current project) has Mario fighting Bowser on it. Which, by far, makes me the coolest kid in the coffee shop. 

5) Outline #2 (Fairly Rough). Now all those sequences get a whole paragraph to go with them, fleshing them out a bit. Still at a point where no one other than myself can decipher it. And I barely manage that. These generally end up under ten pages.

6) Beat-by-Beat Scene Rundowns/Individual Scenes V.2.0. This is where it starts getting a tad more complicated. I go through each scene and make a sequential list of every action in it. It's still a little vague; I might say "______ says something about ______" instead of having actual dialogue, etc. These can be anywhere between 2-10 pages.

This is accompanied by a whole new Individual Scene page so I can jot down any ideas while I'm working through the list of beats.

7) Outline #3 (Whatever the Opposite of "Rough" Is. "Tender"?). Once I'm done with a scene's rundown, I polish it a bit and add it to the inevitably gargantuan third outline. The gap between completing outlines two and three is generally about half of the writing process for me. This thing is everything but about 9/10 of the dialogue and the proper formatting. I'm lucky if it ends up being under 60 pages. But nothing is more satisfying and invigorating halfway through a project than holding that big stack of paper in your hands as proof that you weren't just on Facebook the whole time. 

8) Read Everything. This is when I go back through everything I've written so far for the project. Just making sure I pursued everything I wanted to pursue and tried everything I wanted to try before diving into the actual screenplay.

9) Actual Screenplay/Individual Scenes V.3.0. I start at page one, with the all the individual scene pages and the outline as references. I also make a new individual scene page for any ideas that spring up for later in the scene. All I really need to focus on at this point is dialogue and economically effective description. The outline does most of the work for me here, though.

10) Take a Goddamn Break. Step back for a week. Work on some other stuff. Recover. Celebrate. Try not to think about all that work I have left. Go back to it a week later with a fresh-ish look at it. Realize how terrible it is. Jump back in.

11) Rewrite #1. This is where I use every blank space on the page to tell myself how awful the thing I just spent three months writing is. Then I make it better. Then I take another week off.

12) Rewrite #2. Come back to it again after another week. End up with a little more unused bitching-about-how-terrible-it-is space on the page. Fix it more.

13) Rewrites #3-72. Take a week. Come back with fresher look. Work on it. Stop. Week. Fresh pair of peepers. Work. Stop. Week. Peepers. Work. Stop. Continue until I A) am satisfied (Ha!), B) accept the loss, or C) am dead or indefinitely unconscious. I usually end up pulling for C.

And then I start it all over. 

This approach to writing always makes me feel like I'm moving at a crippled snail's pace, constantly rewriting and fleshing out. But, opposed to just starting on page one, or doing little to no outlining, there's the occasional reward of getting an outline done. That's usually enough to keep me going.

And when it comes to the age-old debate of "Outline V. No Outline", I obviously pitch my tent in the former camp. I'm not saying it's superior. I just like to know where I'm going. I think the key is being able to throw everything out when it's not working. I've spent weeks on outlining a single scene, then realizing while I'm writing the screenplay that it isn't working how I'd like, and then start from scratch. You have to stay open.

Okay. You're turn.