John August

QandA

Not great news at Blockbuster

Film Industry, Video

Last week in my post about Redbox, I reminded readers that video retailer Blockbuster is always rumored to be circling the drain, yet somehow always survives. So I wouldn’t count it out. However…

Yesterday, they filed with SEC, noting “substantial doubt” about their ability to continue:

The risk that we may not successfully complete this refinancing and obtain the related amendment of certain financial covenants included therein, and/or the risk that we may not have adequate liquidity to fund our operations as a result of not meeting our projected financial results, even if the refinancing is completed within the time and upon the terms contemplated, raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

That’s a very long sentence.

I’m not rooting against Blockbuster. If they’re going to fail, I’d rather they do it at a time when the economy was healthy and their many employees could find jobs. But I’m curious what happens if they do go under.

That’s a tremendous number of used DVDs suddenly flooding onto the market, and a huge DVD buyer that suddenly disappears.

Gender-specific douchery

Video, Words on the page

In this YouTube clip, Jonathan Coulton gives some backstory on the Portal videogame before performing “Still Alive.”

COULTON

This song is sung by one of the characters in the game. She’s an artificial intelligence, and she’s kind of an asshole.

That got a laugh, and for good reason: we so rarely refer to women as assholes.

And I don’t really know why. There are many gender-specific terms for hateful men and women, so it’s surprising that one which should be equally-applicable is almost always used for men only.

And yes, I got the sheet music to “Still Alive.”

On the present tense

Follow Up, Words on the page

One sentence in yesterday’s screencast drew a number of questions in the comments section:

Seated at a laptop computer, Phil is watching live video from a tiny camera in Mike’s headset.

First off, that’s not passive voice, as some readers suggested. Passive voice would reverse subject and object, so the clause would be…

...live video from a tiny camera in Mike’s headset is being watched by Phil.

…which is truly awful. Rather, “Phil is watching” is called present continuous, or present progressive. You can almost always substitute the simple present tense.

Seated at a laptop computer, Phil watches live video from a tiny camera in Mike’s headset.

And that’s fine.

But what I like about present progressive in this case is that it implies that he’s been doing this for a while, and that he’s not completing the action in this moment. Consider the difference between these two sentences:

Mary is cutting coupons.

Mary cuts coupons.

With the second one, you get the sense she might have put the scissors back in the drawer and moved on to something else. Or that her coupon-cutting is something she routinely does, perhaps as a character trait. (“Well, you know Mary. She cuts coupons.”)

Remember, screenwriting is about what is happening at exactly this moment. Traditional fiction is rarely written in this super-present tense, which may be why some readers find screenplays weird. ((Also worth noting: Many languages don’t have the same plethora of pseudo-tenses as English, or use them differently. A non-native speaker will find they don’t match up particularly well. Q: “Did she have dinner?” A: “She does.”))

For screenwriting, the most useful thing about the present progressive is that it’s interruptible:

Bob is scrubbing the ketchup out of his hair when he hears a SCREAM.

That’s handy.

Here’s the thing: No screenwriter is ever going to talk about the present progressive tense. It’s not a movie thing; it’s grammar esoterica. In fact, I had to look it up to make sure I was using the right term.

Rather, writers use the words and forms that best suit what they’re trying to do. In screenwriting, you’re always looking for the shortest, most elegant way to get the point across — which is usually the simplest. Focus on getting the words to flow together naturally, rather than proscriptive rules.

Writing better scene description

How-To, Scriptcast, Video, Words on the page, Writing Process

My occasional “How To” articles tend to get a good response, but it’s hard for me to show the difference between the process of writing and the product of writing. No matter how long the article, I can’t go through word-by-word, explaining my decisions. Scrippets only go so far.

So today, something new. I work through a scene on video with the goal of improving the scene description. This is still very much an experiment, so let me know what you think.

As usual on YouTube, buttons in the bottom-right corner let you go full-screen and/or HD.