SCREENWRITING AND SCRIPT EDITING FOR FILMS AND COMPUTER GAMES
Big stories and compelling characters
I have worked on just about every genre of entertainment- feature films, interactive film, TV series, documentaries and computer games. I have a particular interest in “genre” film – thriller, horror, black comedy, mystery, fantasy and sci fi. Some would say I am a high concept writer. (High concept being a strong film story that can be described in one sentence.) Whatever the medium, I like to tell a compelling story, using or reworking strong structure and compelling characters to drive the action forward.
FEATURE FILMS
One of my current film projects is DOORWAY, a hip and sexy psychological thriller/ horror film written by myself and Joe Velikovsky. It is about a group of young people who, after an all night drug-fuelled dance party, go to an old house to chill. They wake up trapped in the house with amnesia. One of them has been murdered. Who did? Why? And who's next? DOORWAY is currently optioned for production.
Read a Scene from DOORWAY (PDF).
SEXY MONEY is a black comedy about two children who want to murder their obnoxious, pretentious parents who are slaves to the the social disease of “affluenza” . The script is currently not optioned.
Read the Opening scene from SEXY MONEY (PDF).
COMPUTER GAME AND INTERACTIVE MOVIES
I have a long standing interest in the application of film 3 act structure to different types of computer game structure. I wrote the interactive movie MEETINGS WITH LUMINOUS DOGS which seamlessly integrated narrative throughout 1st person game play. DOGS was about a group of children on an excursion into the outback who get enslaved by a shamaness and have to use her magic weapons and powers to escape.
Read a Scene from MEETINGS WITH LUMINOUS DOGS (PDF).
When working for Sega Australia New Developments I wrote the multipath movie CYBERSWINE based on the comic of the same name. CYBERSWINE was a real-time 3D animated sci-fi/action/comedy about how a half pig, half human cop must save the world after the human population is wiped out by a computer spread virus. Players constantly controlled the “mood” of CYBERSWINE which changed the way he behaved and subsequently sent the story down different paths to different endings.
Read the Opening scene of CYBERSWINE. (PDF).
Later for Brilliant Digital Entertainment, I was Story Designer and Script Editor for other multipath movie, SUPERMAN, as well as the POPEYE series. (I was also Director on these projects.)
Read a Scene flow chart for SUPERMAN (PDF).
SCRIPT EDITING & ASSESSMENT
Script Editors in Australia are obligatory if you acquire script development funds from government funding bodies. Such is their power they can exert enormous influence over a script and push a script in the direction they think is best. That direction may not be where the writer wants to go. The only person who may, (but not necessarily), have that creative authority is the producer or director.
While my script editing embraces all considerations for script writing and development, (see Screenwriting Checklist below), it focuses on:
- Finding a statement for the premise and theme in a story and never losing that statement.
- Finding the drama and dramatic questions in a script, never losing that drama and those questions, and in time, answering those questions.
The means by which I achieve this is with questions. There is never a “you should…” but, “what if…, or do you think…”. By never telling a writer what they should do, the responsibility of the development is still with the writer. The content is still his or hers, not mine. My role is to improve the script, not change it.
Script Assessment is a different process for which the client receives a 5-10 page assessment of story, drama, character, point of view, theme, structure, tone, dialogue and commercial viability.
Read part of the Screenwriting checklist (PDF), one of the tools used for script editing and script assessment.
ACADEMIC
SM.F.A. (Film Narrative) by Research 2003-2005 (Full time)
College of Fine Arts, UNSW
Research Topic: Film Narrative
Title of thesis: THE COMEDIC BASE OF BLACK COMEDY: an analysis of black comedy as a unique
contemporary film genre
Title of exercise component: SEXY MONEY. First draft of a feature film
Black comedy screenplay.
Completion: 1st May 2005.
Additional Lecturer/ Tutor
Dept of Media Arts, COFA , UNSW
Writing for Digital Media 2004
B.A. Drama
FLINDERS UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Major: Film
Diploma in Marketing Studies
SOUTH AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Major: Advertising Copywriting
AUSTRALIAN FILM, TELEVISION & RADIO SCHOOL
Script Editing for Film
Writing for Interactive Multimedia
Scriptwriting for Film & Television
THE HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITING COURSE, Sydney
THE 2ND ACT SCREENWRITING COURSE, Sydney
ROBERT MCKEE SCREEN STORY COURSE, Sydney