| Author | Message | ||
     Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
As an interesting counterpoint to the ever popular What are you reading threads... I'm currently tryingt o write another one act play at the moment. First time I've written for the stage in years. This time I'm trying to tell two separate stories side by side - both using exactly the same dialogue, and using the stage directions, props and emotions from the actors to drive the stories in their different directions.The basic format - starts with 5 lines of story A, then the actors in story A freeze and on the other side of the stage The actors in story B do 10 lines, starting with the first 5 that we've just heard. once they've done their 10, switch back to story A for 10 lines and so on and so forth until the very last lines which I'm wondering if the actors should do in unison... It's a bit of a challenge to say the least. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.26.193.128 |
You seen Ayckbourn's stuff, Weber? He uses similar tricks. Very ingenious. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 194.66.23.11 |
Damn! he's not done this trick himself has he? I don't want people to think I'm copying. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.26.193.128 |
No, but he does similar stuff, like having three plays running concurrently, so that when a character works out of one, s/he walks into another. Mind-bogglingly clever. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 82.26.193.128 |
Woody Allen's MELINDA AND MELINDA explores similar territory. The same story told once as comedy, and, side by side, again as tragedy. | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.174.112.141 |
Ah yes, The Norman Conquests... Sounds interesting, Marc - keep us informed. | ||
| Hubert (Hubert) Username: Hubert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 178.116.60.39 |
I'm currently writing my Bachelor endpaper on the Pirate Party. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
Now? This. | ||
| Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey) Username: Ramsey Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.8.28.22 |
Go for it, Marc! Me, I'm in that limbo between stuff. | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 99.126.164.88 |
And me, in all seriousness, I'm putting the polish on a new spec—called DON'T LOOK AWAY, sort of a Rear Window meets "found-footage" meets contained-thriller... sort of.  All done, just giving it that final dusting, and then it's off my manager—who really wants me developing super-uber high-concept loglines (preferably scifi and/or horror) that I can then develop into a screenplay. This is how it works in Hollywood now, it seems: come up with a great sentence, THEN worry about the story, the movie, the characters, etc.... Nothing's as important as that pithy concept. So it goes. | ||
| Weber (Weber_gregston) Username: Weber_gregston Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.212.231.237 |
My god I can be stupid sometimes. Just because I'm giving the characters the same words to say, in the same order, they don't need to be the same sentences. It's amazing how a well placed comma or full stop can reverse the meaning entirely. 'it's not that I want to hurt you'. 'It's not that. I want to hurt you'. Same words - opposite meaning. |