Donald L. Vasicek

Tag: writing

  • “Writing Movies and Documentaries, 101”

    The Sand Creek Massacre Movie Poster

    Writing of any form requires
    study and research. The strength
    of any type of writing resides in
    the application of what one learns
    and research, and then, applies it
    by writing, writing, and more writing.
    Each time one writes something, they
    become a better writer.

    It is rare a writer is hired to write a
    documentary film. Many documentary films
    do not have a script. Those that do, are
    usually written by the director/producer
    of the film. If a documentary script is written,
    then you must write a double column script.

    In a double column script you write the
    visuals/images in the left column and the
    audio/sound in the right column. While
    the double-column script can help nail
    down the exact shots blended with the
    sound, the downside is that it places the
    filmmaker in a corner. This corner is
    a place that can limit the filmmaker’s
    creativity, and virtually eliminate a cinema
    verite approach to making documentaries.

    As for feature films, short films, etc., one
    can learn how to write screenplays through a
    variety of ways. No approach to learning how
    to write screenplays is inscribed in marble. It
    is dependent upon the individual writer. Some take
    screenwriting classes. Others study screenwriting
    books. Some work with a script consultant until
    they have their screenplay market ready. And others
    wing it. And still others, utilize a combination of all
    of the above.

    You can determine what works best for you by knowing
    who you are, how you best learn, why you want to write
    documentaries, features, etc., and what audience you
    want to attract with your work, and why. Answering
    these questions will give you insight into what to
    write and the approach to take in order how to learn
    to write. That is the Zen of Writing.

    The fine point of it is if you want to write movies
    and/or documentaries, be sure you utilize more
    than your passion for the subject matter unless
    you are writing, simply, for the joy of writing.
    Study and research Hollywood box hits. Study
    and research successful documentary films.
    Make certain you know, before you begin
    writing, what you need to do in order to
    write a successful script. Otherwise, you
    will enter the world of writer who jumps
    in with both feet without being aware of
    what the reality of the business. In turn, this
    can cause you to go on a journey into
    insanity.

    Donald L. Vasicek
    Writer/Filmmaker/Consultant
    Olympus Films+, LLC
    http://michaelc.nextmp.net/wordpress
    dvasicek@earthlink.net

  • “How to Write Theme”

    If you eat a tortilla with cannabis butter, within 15 minutes, your body will feel an electrical-like blitzkrieg coursing your body. This charge is a dichotomy. It reverberates throughout your organs, muscles, nerves, etc. Your body is charged. Yet, your mind, which is part of your body for those of you who failed Biology 101, relaxes. And you are fine for the time.

    Can you name the theme for this story? What defines the story? One word? Cannabis.

    With theme, whether you’re writing a t.v. commercial, an online ad, a short story, a poem, a book about engineering, a novel, an article for a legal journal, a screenplay, etc., theme is what holds everything together that you are writing. Just like the cannabis theme for the above story, without cannabis in the story, it would be anyone’s guess as to what the theme is.

    In my Disney-type screenplay, “The Real Ghost”, a boy is racing his bicycle in the dark night to sneak a meet with his girlfriend. It is a small town. As he whizzes past the corner convenience store, one end of a sign advertising Marlboro cigarettes, drops. The sign swings and clangs in a quiet breeze. Frightened by the silence in the street and his not supposed to be doing this attitude, with no one present, the boy glances over his shoulder at it. What is the theme here?

    “The Real Ghost” is about a teen boy who tells stories that aren’t true. At the meeting place, his girlfriend yet to arrive in the yard of an abandoned house, he suddenly sees Babe Ruth appear. When he tells everyone in town of this sighting, they accuse him of lying, like he did last summer when he told everyone he saw Sammy Mango walking in Butch Carlisle’s yard at 1 a.m. Seems Sammy had been dead for several years, the victim of a falling pallet of landscaping rocks while sneaking a toke of a joint at the local lumber yard.

    Has anyone guessed the theme of this movie yet? Lying is the theme of the movie. The Marlboro sign dropping and swinging reflects the theme of lying. The boy has lied to his parents. He told them he was going over to the gym to shoot baskets. They had forbidden him from seeing his girlfriend, because her father is the mayor, and the mayor does nothing in the town but blow smoke. They don’t want him influencing their boy in anyway, particularly since their boy already blows smoke himself, just to get attention. The clanging sign is a warning to the boy that what he is doing is wrong because he lied to his parents, and the boy doesn’t heed the warning.

    By telling everyone that he saw Babe Ruth, the boy’s problems about lying escalate.

    The fine point of theme is that it should be reflected in some form, physical, or mental,
    in every change of location or time regarding what you’re writing. Every time! It matters not what you are writing. It matters yes that you paste your theme on your and in your characters, their surroundings, and their time in what your are writing. This approach to writing theme will have the same effect that the roots of a tree has. Without the roots, there would be no tree. Without theme, there is no story. Without story, there is just a blob of words.  Without a tree, there is no shade.

    Warning: Watch out for falling pallets of landscaping rock.

    Donald L. Vasicek at Wrigley Field in Chicago

  • “How to Write Beautifully”

    Remember this: When you are writing, there is a voice
    inside of you that tells you when what you are writing
    is not working. Listen to it. Usually, it is saying, you
    have to change the verb. By changing the verb, this
    will transform what you are writing into something
    beautiful, and this voice will then whisper to you
    that you have written it correctly. Just listen to it.
    Don’t resist it. I call it your inner voice. Hear it
    and follow it. It works miracles for not only
    writers, but for even those of you who write only because
    you have to.


    Peregrine Falcon by Pamela Cuming