Category Archives: Creating

Daily assignment and bonus

05 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Creating, Writing

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Hello All, dear fellow oddjobbers and readers,

Just a quick reminder for us all (and me particularly) : do not quit, tackle the task with renewed energy and trust that completion is just there, within reach.

(I know it, I just finished another short story yesterday,  I just need to CLING to the idea that I can do MORE).

I have to write more, edit faster, and harness this reflex of sitting at my desk no matter what with an increased will power.

Discipline, I love you, come visit me more often.

Because I am  a                      Image

(image : Pinterest)

(For the bonus, see at the bottom : it’s a poem I wrote a while back)

So here’s the deal I made with myself : write 5 pages a day. In English,  in French, in German, in gibberish. I have segmented it : ideally it should be like that  : one page for a short story, one page for this novel I begun a while, one page for poetry, and the two remaining pages to whatever feels good or easy to write. Because sometimes, when you are engulfed in one project, an idea belonging to another project is nagging, and won’t let you be in peace until you have acknowledged it, and taken time to do something about it.

I have become more abstemious about the time I allow to writing. I do much preparation while driving, or shower (how cliché is that?), at the doctor’s or while at the grocer’s (this is a screenwriter’s tips : take your characters with you, it gives good insight an indications about their psychology).Thus leading to higher efficiency, probably. Anyway.

Image

           (source Pinterest &Katy Jeffords)

All that to say that this assignment to produce 5 pages a day is harder than I thought, yet I will not give in.

Mind you, 5 p/day x 360 ( I allow 5 days to call in sick and to be exempted) =1.800 p/ year.

Average pages/ fiction book : 200.

So 5 p/day equals 9 books per year,  Or 15 scripts of 120 p (= 120 min), or 32 TV screenplays of 55 min. Or 300 short stories of 6 pages each. (Whoah, I wish I can produce 300 short stories within  a year!)

Makes a girl think.

And write.

Well, I think I need a secretary to type all that, now…..;-D

Flo, not caffeinated enough this morning.

PS : What have you been writing lately?

BONUS 

It’s been a long time since I said I write many things, if you are interested, please find below a poem written in English.

Let me know if you liked it! (If not, then, please keep it for you, thank you) . And do not worry, I’m deeply in love with life.

Life’s a bitch  ©FloreVaVF

Sometimes, I don’t like Life

And need to think of an exit

Surely from an obliging knife

I could borrow a way to quit.

But I guess I love you too much, bitch

So I’ll just grab you by the throat

To get it steady when you twitch

And change the chapters you ghostwrote.

Many times, I’ve carried my fate

Heavy as a burden, whereas your stupid minions

Display disgusting luck like a cheap bait

For others to feed on like ravens.

I guess we love you too much, bitch

So we grab you by the throat,

To get satisfaction before we ditch

In their mouth a symbolic banknote

All this time, I wanted you, Life

To explain how you chose my path

Why you throw at me constant strife

As you demand respect instead of wrath.

Let me guess, you’ve loved me, bitch

And you’ve grabbed me by the throat

At birth, so in my poor heart you would stitch

This endless hope that I will stay afloat

This endless hope gets me to think we’ll stay afloat

This endless hope gets me to think we’ll stay afloat

 

Santa Fe Film Festival 2012 DREAM AWAKE

12 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by in Creating, Entertainemt, Movies, Places, Writing

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Last Friday, I flew to New Mexico with a friend to the SANTA FE Film Festival (SFFF).

The theme was : Dream awake. What a good motto, what a wonderful idea.

Santa Fe and the SFFF : Such a marvelously energetic city, such a great event. Films, shorts, Q&A with directors, actors, producers, composers. Meeting passionate people, sharing their work and their art and their thoughts about it  with a genuine simplicity. It sounds obvious, of course. And yet, the authenticity feels so unspoilt in a festival like that one,  that you leave the event boosted, and fulfilled, especially if you are  an oddjobber like those who flocked in there.

SFFFpass

Being in Santa Fe again, in (almost) Winter time, with cold air filling the bright blue sky saturated with sun beams, it felt so good.

This city has really something about itself and in itself that you just can’t miss to experiment. The air seems to be rustling with extra positive vibrations.

The nearby mountains (visible from nearly every corner, unlike Houston, flat as my palm) anchor your looks into that beautiful Nature. You can’t escape beauty : architecture, settings, landscapes, buildings, the most creative human activity (painters, writers, potters, craftsmen, filmmakers, even  festivals to celebrate all that!!), a true osmosis between our natural environment and our humanity.

Georgia O’Keeffe sensed that earthy energy and savage beauty as she transcripted on the canvas or on the paper those vibes. Her paintings are as peaceful and quietness inducing as the vision of the surrounding scenery.

No wonder a film festival set in this city would attract talented and tactful professionals.

Our stay was blessed and punctuated with the most exquisite and nice encounters, some probable, others completely impromtu, absolutely unexpected. Saturday early morning, we came in the CCA to retrieve my friend’s ticket, and we ended up in the nearby venue, chatting with the person in charge that day, and visiting the Military Museum of the NM National Guard. very interesting.

 

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Then we went downtown Old Santa Fe, for a visit before the screening of the film that lay at the core of this trip. We visited the Georgia O’Keeffe museum.  We chatted with I can’t remember how many persons. (It is me or it this city is triggering people into conversations?).

And then, the FILM. “NOTHING WITHOUT YOU”. Just as it was about to begin, we met the director, Xackery Irving whom we greeted and he was so kind as to take some time to talk to us, and thanked us for coming from so far, Houston.

The film deserves the prize it won at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year.

Emily Fradenburgh is a lovely actress, impossibly talented and natural in her way of playing,  and her character is so appealing. We adhere to her motivation without the slightest reluctance. And we are thrilled, of course, because her life is at stake.

The script is well balanced, with drama and humour, thrilling moments and suspense.

And it has what most of us revere  : a twist end. But not a sloppy one, a well constructed, well defined and precisely chiseled one.

All in all the film is extremely good, finely crafted and structured. And the music is a pure moment of happiness.

The Q&A was a great moment, with The score composer, the producer, the director, the actress and another actor. The Qs showed that the audience is mainly composed of professional (talking about angles in shooting and stuff of the kind). And it was pleasant to learn as much by listening carefully to the As as we did for the Qs.

We went to the party held for the fest. And it was a blast, again, because you meet there all the people who make the fest! I talked with some of the crew of NWY, and they were forgiving to the enthusiast that I am. It felt like I was a child with a sugar tooth locked in a candy store! I also talked with the producer and the scriptwriter of the short we would watch the next day, “Brightwood”, winner of several prizes too. Amazing short, gorgeous sets, lovely child actress, the director of photography did an amazing job and it deserves its awards.

I feel so blessed and lucky to have been able to go to Santa Fe. And I wish all those talented people success, luck, and more creativity and extremely good connections to craft other good works and masterpieces for their audience to enjoy.

Thanks Emily, Victoria, Dorie, Xackery, Gabriel, Rick, Jacob, Keith, Ruth, Nani, Scott, and all of you who make all that possible.

I came back in Texas full of energy, a will to quickly achieve my writing projects – and particularly this road movie script. I am boosted, energized, more balanced, and I know that even ZERO budget films get shot. So, all is possible, you see.

It took a decade for the director Xackery Irving to achieve his script (it went through many re-writings and editings, as he told the audience), but at last, he made it. It must have been though, and depressing maybe sometimes, but it has a shape, a name and a prize to acknowledge its quality. Think hard and confidently enough that you can do it, and you’ll do it, and even better that you originally thought.

SO….

more caffeine and ….

FADE IN….

Good night, fellow oddjobbers.

Floreva, still enjoying  the light of Santa Fe….

 

“Nothing without you”, written & directed  by Xackery Irving, 95 min, genre : Psychological Thriller, Narrative feature

nothingwithoutyoufilm.com

facebook.com/nothingwithoutyoufilm

“Brightwood”, written by LaDora Sella, directed by L.Gabriel Gonda, 18min.

Brightwoodmovie.com

 

 

Sherlock and me

03 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by in Creating, TV Series, Writing

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Sherlock.

 What? (now, really…)

It’s obvious. Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock and you. Sherlock and us. Sherlock and the industry. Sherlock and me. We like Sherlock & the industry LOVES him.

As for me, I confess, I am a fan. I am a great fan, though I never enrolled in any Holmesian club (maybe one day?).

In 2010 BBC produced a new theme on an old classic. The modern take on the  TV series,  conceived by Steven  Moffat and Mark Gatiss on a train while en route to a filming location in Cardiff, was bound to gain the affection of fans as well as neophytes. Sherlock, the much beloved sleuth that popped out of Sir Arthur Connan Doyle’s industrious mind got a dab of freshness and a makeover that left the audience astounded by the quality achieved.

The narrative is not news, of course (I refer to Moffat’s 2007 previous piece of art, “Jekyll” which I recommend you watch), the construction is rigorous, the script is perfectly written (I read one, it’s just what we oddjobbers dream to write), and the style is as immortal as Conan Doyle’s. Narrative finds please the modern watcher who has already experienced high photography quality, graphic novelties and inlays of modernity in the screen (remember, for instance, how Matrix had opened the path to perfectly trimmed slow motioned scenes). And the actors’ performances please our sense of comparison as they are as equally good/perfect/wonderful/impossibly amazing (choose) as Jeremy Brett and David Burke & later Edward Hardwicke. Benedict Cumberbatch is a unique & definitive Modern Sherlock, just as Brett was the ultimate period Sherlock. And Martin Freeman is just above all the Dr Watsons we’ve seen . Rupert Graves is this admiring Lestrade Sir Arthur described  in the books and Andrew Scott is good news as Moriarty, pleasantly mad.

Netflix uploaded the Sherlock Season 2 recently, and last week I indulged in watching the 3 episodes in a single row. You think I am addicted? Well, ahem…

You see the show and you tell me if the whole thing isn’t anything but brilliant.

(Who else can say : “Uh. Breathing. Breathing’s boring.”, and makes you feel he really thinks it? Sherlock cum – Berbatch)

I’m hooked, I’ve turned the last scene in my mind hundred of times (in my sleep, thank whoever is to be thanked, because I have no time in daytime for such amusement, pages need to be inked and written, job must get done , contests participated in and publisher provided publishing with material!). I WANT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!!!

The script writers have fulfilled their duties. The cliffhanger is teasing, audience skyrocketed, and we crave for more episodes.

This is currently one of the best shows to learn from, when you are a screenwriter, a director of the photography, a credits designer, and SFX creator (unless you care for BIG, BOLD, UNNECESSARY, or UNSUBTLE SFX). Not in order to duplicate, of course. To fuel creation and align to such excellency standards.

I had to divert my attention from Sherlock to reinvest my own projects and current works.

Sunday evening, I discovered Miranda Hart’s show ( I had a good laugh), and I liked it so much I ordered the DVD on the spot. (now, talk of a British TV series addiction). Very visual and known slapsticks, but who cares? Old tricks, you know… etc…etc…Have a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTf17cmPl0I

Pleasant day to you, dear readers. The 1st page of that short-film script awaits me…

Floreva

How to feel guilty for the way you treat your characters and what to do about it

12 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by in Creating, Writing

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Today’s subject may be a little unusual, but still, it makes sense to reflect upon when one is involved in the subject of writing, be it novel, drama, short-story, poetry, thriller (especially thriller!).

I’m writing about guilt. Author’s guilt. The experience of guilt about how the characters are lead through or thrown into various ventures by their author.  I mean, when the events are unpleasant or morally ticklish, of course.  If it was pleasant or virtuous,  there would be no sense of guilt afterwards. Nor during the writing itself, as the story unfolds and develops.

 

It sounds probably strange.

I remember when I was engulfed in this thriller, and a character had to die, because otherwise the story could not evolve. As the nice young policeman went on with his duty, he had to meet his fate. Because the sending of those Interpol agents depended on his being killed, and his murder being disguised as a car accident.  The visit of the Interpol agents in that seemingly falling-apart Russian plant would not take place and the whole story would just vanish into a non-existing world, a world where policemen never die, corruption never takes place, and everyone is playing by the rules, a world where pollution is just a word on a paper and not a palpable, quantifiable, ugly reality, a world where guns are not invented yet, where kids are never abandoned or cancer-stricken, a world where virtue is the golden rule governing every relationship, and where love is not a rogue reality but still a concept worth hoping for.

Such a world, alas, does not exist.

So the nice friendly policeman Sergueï had to go. I felt so bad about that. I considered : he might be just wounded… maybe? Although only a fictional character, I took interest in him, his shyness, his quietness, his willing to be more audacious to ask the bold Katrina out, his care to carry out his duty clean and sharp.

And I knew (synopsis, thank you), that his mate the Interpol agent had to disappear too. And the second Interpol agent had to remain prisoner until he got rescued.

And…I lost my sleep. Yep, for fictional characters I knew nothing about 3 month prior.

Why was that?

I tell you  what : it was guilt. I felt guilty to create characters only to trap them in a story they could never escape from. Mr Synopsis told me so : “Crush their hopes, weaken their fighting spirit, and throw them into the iron clad of an untouchable villain with high connections and protections.”

I talked about this feeling around me, with close persons. Turned out, I was too virtuous, I cared a great deal too much about non-existent things. And it’s right.

So, I stopped making knots in my brain and proceeded with further creation. And the development held a good surprise with the members of the forensics team sent to examine the shambled apartment of the hero (yes, a bomb exploded there).

So, for that guilt feeling, you know what to do? Here’s an advice.

Take it with you for a drink…

 

Listen to its plea carefully…

Then, drown it into a nice Irish coffee and confess your sin. Your absolution lies in your writing something worth reading.

 

Don’t feel guilty about the author’s guilt. You know the best part ?

Guilt, like sorrow, can swim, and therefore, never drowns. Never. You’re built with the feature or not. But more likely, with. (And it gets stickier with age).

 

 

Hey Guilt!

Yeah… you, Nasty  Guilt of the Author…

….Get lost.

 

The process of creation

27 Sunday May 2012

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What makes us humans want to create things? Why do we create? And how does the process grow in the mind and spirit, to be later translated into piece of work, art, music, film, poetry, sculpture, architecture, DIY, crafts, theater, and so forth?

These questions are not news, naturally, and still, have we got an answer?

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As for why? It may be to find an aim to life on earth, provided one  has  not founhd it yet (maybe). Or is it the eternal desire for eternity. (or, at its worst, desire for immortality, perhaps?).

How? can be split into to parts: the how on a materialistic P.O.V., an how on a more spiritual, disembodied P.O.V.

Whereas the latter is tricky to give an answer to, the former is easily stated : we no longer each day have to get in our gardens (or a field, to harvest it) to crop our veggies for food.

How? on a spiritual P.O.V : Remember Henri-Georges Clouzot (“Les diaboliques”, among other master pieces)  filming Picasso in 1955 in Nice?  The painter was “drown” into intense concentration developed by the  inspiration, painting on a glass, as the camera rolled on on the other side and completely focused on the right gesture.The film was called “The Picasso Mystery”. Picasso was so focused, he ended tired and tensed. Many agree that Clouzot demonstrated the creative process of the artist in that film. Yet one cannnot show the electrical impulses in the brain, from the idea to create something, until its final completion through the hands  (drawing, engraving, writing, sculpting, constructing, painting, playing, screenwriting, shaping, manufacture -meaning “fait à la main”, made by the hand, literally translated from Latin-…) or the body (choreography, dance, acting, singing…).

What is the motivation? The desire to surround ourselves with beauty? To leave an immortal chef-d’oeuvre to our fellow inhabitants of the earth? Deliver a message? Induce other to reflect on the civilization and the contemporary society? Find one’s true self through creation, to be shared by other people with a similar sensibility or inclination?

Or just to have fun while doing what one loves and is breathing for? Could it be for the only sake of the beauty of the gesture? The perfect mastery of an art, put into the inner self (as a gift from above) to educate and bring joy to others, as another gift (to be passed on or taught)?

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Better still, it’s always nice to think that we, humans, are the result of the  process of creation of Mother Nature…

Creatively processed… not bad, as a starter in life…

Keep calm and create, my fellow bloggers or readers, friends and you people I do not know, on the other side of the laptop screen,  and the world will be a better place.

Creatively yours,

Floreva

PS : P.O.V. : Point of view.