Donald L. Vasicek

Year: 2008

  • “Hollywood Openings”

    by

    Donald L. Vasicek
    Olympus Films+, LLC
    Writing/Filmmaking/Consulting
    http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
    dvasicek@earthlink.net

    In order to write, sell, and get your screenplays produced
    in Hollywood, you need to write openings that Hollywood
    utilizes to attract audiences. When you watch movies
    produced by studios and mainstream production companies
    and producers, what do you usually see in the opening?
    If you’re stumped, the first thing you usually see is
    movement.

    This could be movement across a body of water with the
    POV of the camera aimed at a skyline of a city, or someone
    walking, someone running, a moving vehicle, etc. Images of
    movement help pull the audience into the movie in order to
    get them into the movie, like they’re really in the movie, to
    make them feel like they’re part of what is going on in the
    movie.

    Openings also include a metaphor that defines what
    the main theme of the movie is going to be, introduces the
    main character, defines the character’s main problem to solve
    in the movie, of his/her goal, and the setting. And this should
    all be accomplished on page one of the screenplay.

    In my produced screenplay, “Born to Win”, the opening shows
    a butterfly fluttering away from a headstone. A boy cleans
    the headstone. He weeps. He rubs the headstone with a cloth
    beyond that of cleaning it. The movement is the butterfly
    moving away. It shows the defining theme of the movie, which
    is “letting go.” The main character, the boy, is holding onto his
    dead mother. The setting of scene, a cemetery, exacerbates the
    theme of letting go. This movement also shows the metaphor
    for the movie of letting go.

    The boy must let go before he can move on with his life
    regarding his mother’s untimely death and he does
    it by driving his mother’s race car in a race to win $25,000 for
    an operation to save his Gramps’ life. In the end, it’s either
    let go of his Gramps, or continuing his fatal flaw of holding
    onto to something that he should no longer hold onto.

    When you write screenplays that you want to sell and get
    produced, study openings of movies that Hollywood produces.
    You will see that the most successful of these movies (box
    office, DVD and rental sales, Internet streaming, etc.) contain
    elements which include movement, metaphor, defining theme,
    main character, and setting. Craft these elements into your
    screenplays, and you’re off to a great start with writing
    screenplays that you sell and get produced.

    Donald L. Vasicek
    Olympus Films+, LLC
    Writing/Filmmaking/Consulting
    http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
    dvasicek@earthlink.net

  • Obama-Biden; McCain-Palin, The Zen of Writing and Education”

    Educational Background:
    >
    > Barack Obama:
    > Columbia University – B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
    > Harvard – Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
    >
    > Joseph Biden:
    > University of Delaware – B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
    > Syracuse University College of Law – Juris Doctor (J.D.)
    >
    > vs.
    >
    > John McCain:
    > United States Naval Academy – Class rank: 894 of 899
    >
    > Sarah Palin:
    > Hawaii Pacific University – 1 semester
    > North Idaho College – 2 semesters – general study University of Idaho – 2 semesters – journalism Matanuska-Susitna College – 1 semester University of Idaho – 3 semesters – B.A. in Journalism
    >
    > Education isn’t everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world. You make the call.
    >
    >

  • “Screenwriting, Making Movies and Hollywood”

    by
    Donald L. Vasicek
    Olympus Films+, LLC
    Writing/Filmmaking/Consulting
    http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
    dvasicek@earthlink.net

    Award-Winning Writer/Filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek – Summit of Chief Mountain – Colorado

    It is practical to get into screenwriting if you are offered a contract that pays Writer’s Guild of America rates, including, at the least, two rewrites. And even then, it might not be practical. Otherwise, it is practical to work at a regular job that pays you a regular paycheck, and work on your screenplays on the side.

    Although screenwriting pays good (better than decent) money, a select few screenwriters earn good pay, let alone decent pay. The majority of screenwriters earn little, if any money.

    Skills that you learn in a screenwriting course will be transferable to other jobs, most of which will be entry level, or below, not including journalism. If you want to go into journalism, go to school and study for a journalism degree.

    The reality of becoming a successful screenwriter is extremely difficult. Adapting the skill and craft of screenwriting are extremely difficult. This includes marketing yourself and your screenplays.

    I apologize if this sounds discouraging. I am unwilling to be responsible for contributing to those who run head first into the brick wall that Hollywood has up, and which can ultimately result in financial ruin, drug, alcohol, sexual abuse, and suicide. Hollywood can be a seductress. It can cause others to become star struck, and blinded to the harsh realities of trying to break into a profession that is extremely difficult to enter. Talent alone does not create a successful screenwriting career. Wisdom and a good business head are vitally important, as well as talent.

    I’ve acted in movies. I’ve directed movies. I’ve written scripts for movies and television. I’ve produced movies. And just for the experience so that I could learn everything possible about moving making, I’ve also done some work as a gaffer, a camera operator, a photographer, and an editor. The fine point of saying this is that each time I do something related to making movies, I am struck with this fanaticism about it. I love it. It is like an addiction. I want to run headlong into it without thinking anything through. What I have learned is that to do this translates to near insanity. One must develop the ability to use moderation in all things. One must think clearly. One must have the awareness that there is an end to every job with respect to making movies. Once that end comes, one must take time out to contemplate, to gear down, and to make sharply thought out plans for the next movie job.

    Donald L. Vasicek
    The Zen of Writing
    http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
    dvasicek@earthlink.net
    303-903-2103