Author: Donald L. Vasicek

Award-winning writer/filmmaker Donald L. Vasicek studied producing, directing and line producing at the Hollywood Film Institute under the acclaimed Dov Simens and at Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. He studied screenwriting at The Complete Screenplay, Inc., with Sally Merlin, daughter of the famed Hollywood Merlin family of screenwriters and writers, as his mentor. Don has taught, mentored, and is a script consultant for over 300 writers, directors, producers, actors and production companies. He has also acted in NBC’s “Mystery of Flight 1501”, ABC’s Father Dowling starring Thomas Bosley, and Red-Handed Productions’ “Summer Reunion.” These activities have resulted in his involvement in over 100 movies during the past 23 years, from major studios to independent films including MGM’s $56 million “Warriors of Virtue”, Paramount Classic’s “Racing Lucifer”, American Picture’s “The Lost Heart” and “Born To Kill” starring the Charles Bronson of Korea, Bobby Kim, and his internationally-known brother, Richard, who directed, Incline Productions, Inc.’s “Born To Win”, 20th Century Fox’s “Die Hard II” starring Bruce Willis with Rennie Harlan as director, and Joel Silver as producer, Olympus Films+, LLC’s “Haunted World” with Emmy-nominated PBS Producer Alison Hill, and Olympus Films+, LLC’s “Faces”, “Oh, The Places You Can Go” and the award-winning “The Sand Creek Massacre” documentary film. Don also has written and published over 500 books, short stories and articles. His books include “How To Write, Sell, And Get Your Screenplays Produced” and “The Write Focus.” He has been a guest screenwriting and filmmaking columnist for Hollywood Lit. Sales, Moondance International Film Festival’s e-zine, Screenwriter’s Forum, Screenplace, Screenplayers.Net, Screenwriters.Net, Screenwriters Utopia, Spraka & Kinsla (Swedish), Inkwell Watch, and Ink On the Brain. Writing recognition includes Houston’s WorldFest International Film Festival, Chesterfield’s Writer’s Film Project, Writer’s Digest, The Sundance Institute, The Writer’s Network, and the Rocky Mountain Writer’s Guild, Inc. Don completed producing “The Sand Creek Massacre”, a documentary film project that includes the completed and award-winning documentary short, a book, a classroom video, Interactive Media, a study guide, and a lesson plans. The film is being distributed by Films Media Group. Don is on the board of directors of the American Indian Genocide Museum in Houston. He is the founder and owner of Olympus Films+, LLC, a global writing and filmmaking company and a screenwriting volunteer on AllExperts.com. Don’s screenwriting agent is Robin Kaver of the Robert Freedman Dramatic Agency, Inc., 1501 Broadway, Suite 2301 New York, NY 10036, 212-840-5751.
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The Naked Writer on Writing Montages in Screenplays

by
Donald L. Vasicek

Montage’s are usually created by directors when
working with a screenwriter on the shooting script.
Writers should shy away from using montages while
writing spec scripts. Adding music to montages only
complicates things for the screenwriter writing a
spec script. Directors and producers make decisions
on montages and music, not screenwriters.

Writing on spec, if that is what you are doing, then, you
might want to rethink writing the montage. Montages
by new screenwriters are usually looked
upon as laziness with respect to the screenwriter.

Montages require a keen sense of a director’s eye.
Many times directors and producers who see montages
in spec scripts see amateurism in the screenwriter.
They do not believe that an aspiring screenwriter
has the capability of understanding the full impact
of montages simply because they aren’t experienced
enough.

If you are writing a shooting script, then, here is
how you should handle your montage.

MONTAGE (Enya’s “Only Time” plays in the background)

A) Brad Pitt and his mother dine.

B) Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep sit on swings.

And so on…

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

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Donald L. Vasicek’s The Zen of Writing

by
Donald L. Vasicek
http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
dvasicek@earthlink.net

Writing requires creative effort. Creative effort translated means that regardless of what you are writing, it must be put together in a fashion that grabs readers and keeps them reading. How is this accomplished?

Writing articles, blogs, personal letters, web site pages, books, poems, e-books, screenplays, radio scripts, video scripts, etc. requires a beginning, a middle, and an end without regard to linear or non-linear writing. A defining or main theme must be utilized to hold these elements of writing together. Like roots of a tree, a defining theme causes all elements of what one is writing to grow and blend together to be partial to the trunk and branches of a tree, as you write.

How is this accomplished?

The first step, and this is vital, is to use a pen and a piece of paper. It is advisable to sit down. Write down who caused you to come up with the idea about writing what you are about to write, what your situation was at the time, where you were, when was it, and why this particular writing idea surfaced. By writing down these answers with a pen and a piece of paper, it will cause the information that you impart to register in your subconscious mind. This, in turn, will give you the information you need to identify the main or defining theme for what you are about to write.

By following this approach to writing, creative effort will turn what one is writing into an effective piece of writing.

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Zen & the Art of Screenwriting

By Donald L. Vasicek

What is your definition of zen? Think it might differ a bit from your neighbor’s? Possibly. How do you define art? The same here? What about your definition of screenwriting? Do you feel any differently about defining this term than the other two?

The fine point of defining these words is the same as how each one of us interpret life. Because we are unique, each made up of contrasted bones, muscles, nerves, organs, background and etcetera, we can’t help but have distinct ideas about what these words mean.

“Zen & the Art of Screenwriting” is about how to write screenplays. The reason for this approach to screenwriting is because how to write screenplays is about as elusive as the leopard. If you can find the definition of screenwriting in a dictionary, please let me know what dictionary you found it in. I want to read the definition. I’ve checked seven uppermost dictionaries. There were no definitions available in any of those dictionaries. What does that tell you about screenwriting?

In order to understand screenwriting, the screenwriter needs to understand that each one of us is unique. Therefore, our interpretation of how to write screenplays is just as valid as the snippy producer in Hollywood who thinks he has a copyright on how to write screenplays.

There are certain industry rules to follow when writing a screenplay. Most of them are not inscribed in stone. They aren’t imprinted anywhere because no one knows for certain what works and what doesn’t work when writing screenplays. This is one reason why how to write screenplays has become a multi-million dollar business.

Books, seminars, classes, workshops, film festivals, lectures, audio tapes, video tapes, web sites and etcetera lobby that their approach is the unbending way to write screenplays. It works for some screenwriters. It does not work for others. Do you know why?

Zen and art. According to “Merriam-Webster”, zen, in part, “…emphasizes enlightenment by means of meditation and direct, intuitive insights…” Does this definition tell you anything about how designated you are compared to others? How many other people do you think have the direct, intuitive insights that you have? If I were asked that question about myself, I would say, no one.

And art, again thanks to “Merriam-Webster”, art, in part, is “…the quality, production, expression, or realm of what is beautiful or of more than ordinary significance…” Can you tell me what is beautiful? I think a hippopotamus is beautiful. Do you? What do you think is of more than ordinary significance? I believe Panther, our 17 year-old tomcat with shiny, black hair and moss green irises that change to an ellipitical form depending upon how the light strikes them, is of more than ordinary significance? Do you?

The fine point of zen, art and screenwriting is that the ambiguity of these words is deceptive because of their subjectivity. What you perceive zen, art and screenwriting to be might be totally opposite of what I interpret them to be. That does not mean you are right and I am wrong anymore than it means I am right and you are wrong. It is the same activity as watching a movie.

You walk out of the theater blown away by what you just saw. You tell others about it. Many of them, perhaps, some of them, or possibly, a few of them, disagree with you. They think the movie stunk. What it means is that writing screenplays requires the screenwriter to have supreme confidence when they are writing their screenplays.

It is important to keep your mind open, but what you are writing when you write a screenplay, is coming from inside of you. It belongs to you. You own it. You do not give any of it up to anyone else. Let others disagree. Listen to them. Hear what they are saying to you about your screenplays. Then, you decide what to incorporate into your screenplays based on what others have said, and what not to incorporate. You be the final judge. Never allow anyone else to be.

How do we write screenplays with this kind of conviction? The answer is to ask yourself, why do you write screenplays? For fame and fortune? For a deep inner experience? For amusement? For diversion? To see if you can? Because it’s a challenge? Do you know why you write screenplays?

If you have an idea, but are not sure; or if you’re confused; or if you have no idea, then take a moment to look inside of yourself. Those of you who know why you write screenplays might want to read on anyway. You might pick up something that you dropped or need to supplement what you do know. The approach to take to get a solid answer to this question is to understand that the human being is driven to execute because of passion(the emotions as distinguished from reason, thanks again, Merriam-Webster).

By understanding passion, you will be able to write screenplays that everyone will want to read, regardless of your reason for writing screenplays. There are a couple, or for that reason, other gadgets that you can attach to passion that you might want to learn about. “Zen & the Art of Screenwriting” will provide them for you. Check Moondance’s e-zine for my regular column. It’ll begin with passion and move you forward to other mouth-watering sweetmeats about how to write screenplays.

Donald L. Vasicek - Keebler Pass in Colorado