Spilling Creative Pixels
I’m 2/3rds of the way through my first original screenplay. I’m at the end of Act II. I’ve beaten and bruised the spirit/body of my main characters and they anxiously await to see how it all shakes out (as am I).
I’ll have a summary of how it’s going in the next few days. Wish me luck.
The ideas aren’t the hard bit. They’re a small component of the whole. Creating believable people who do more or less what you tell them to is much harder. And hardest by far is the process of simply sitting down and putting one word after another to construct whatever it is you’re trying to build: making it interesting, making it new.
There’s a mac virus making the rounds this week. Yes, I just said “mac” and “virus” in the same sentence. These things happen.
First off, run Software Update to get all the spiffy Java updates waiting for you.
Second, go to Safari :: Preferences :: Security, and disable Java. Not Javascript, just Java.
Anyhow, the method for checking if you’re infected can be a little cumbersome. It involves using the Terminal app, which not many are comfortable with. So instead, I’ve just wrapped that stuff up into a clickable application.
[box type=”download”]FlashCheck[/box]It’s a simple Automator app that runs the following:
set +e
defaults read ~/.MacOSX/environment DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES
sleep 2
defaults read /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment
sleep 2
defaults read /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/Info LSEnvironment
set -e
A file on your desktop will have your results. If it’s empty, you’re good to go. If it has something in it, then it’s time to download something to help you get rid of the virus. ClamAV & Sophos are both free and pretty straightforward. F-Secure has also released a tool specifically designed to get rid of this virus. It’s over here.
I’ll try to keep this up-to-date if I can. Good luck. Let me know if you have any questions.
[box type=”note” style=”rounded” border=”full”]Apple’s latest Java update now removes the virus as well. So an update should cure what ails you. Tho an anti-virus app couldn’t hurt going forward.[/box]120 pages. Dated August, 1988
These “reviews” are coming from the perspective of a beginning screenwriter. The stories and characters are still important, but I will mostly be focusing on the flow and the structure. Spoilers will be marked as such.
The Queen of modern romantic comedies. New York, quick dialogue, faked orgasms. It has everything. When Harry Met Sally was written by Nora Ephron. Nora penned another great comedy close to my heart: My Blue Heaven two years later in 1990. She’s probably better known for rounding out the Meg Ryan trilogy with Sleepless In Seattle & You’ve Got Mail (which she also directed).
The version of the script I am reviewing was dated form August of 1988. Since the movie was released the next Summer, this is almost certainly a production draft. Especially since, if IMDB is to be believed, several of the lines that are in this script were suggested by stars Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan. Also, director Rob Reiner and producer Andrew Scheinman are credited on this version. That’s another dead giveaway. Let’s dig in.