Ever since I saw Neill Blomkamp’s short masterpiece, “Alive In Joburg,” I became obsessed with him. I googled the shit out of everything that even remotely sounded like “Blomkamp” and when I found out he was doing the Halo movie, it was a bit like I imagine heroin must feel like. Or your first Krispy Kreme donut. Well we all know how that fell apart and Bloomkamp seemed to disappear off the planet. I was so bummed because I felt like we were missing out on a unique new voice who was totally going to change the way Hollywood made movies. Then the announcement came that he was turning “Alive In Joburg” into a feature film called “District 9” and it was a little bit like I imagine crack must feel like. Or your first animal style double-double. Because these days trailers tell us the entire movie and since this was so low on the summer radar, I knew the marketing team would be forced to show every great shot in the film, I avoided it all. And today, I went into District 9 knowing absolutely nothing about what I was going to see other than that giant ship in the sky and a lot of South Africans.

Even after all that hype, I still walked away amazed. We’re looking at the next James Cameron here folks. Sci-fi like this has never been done before. Within two minutes I actually believed this was happening. That aliens had landed on our planet. — I’m not even going to get into all the unique choices Blomkamp and co-writer Terri Tatchell made. I’d just like to highlight a clever screenwriting move of theirs and how it affected the entire movie. Without it, the movie wouldn’t have been the same.

In the film, the very first shot we get of the aliens is in their ship, all huddled up, cowering away from the light, malnourished, sick, and terrified. It’s 3 seconds of screentime and yet it sets the tone for how you’ll perceive them for the entirety of the film. You feel sorry for them. In other words, you sympathize with these creatures. Without us sympathizing with the aliens, without us wanting their life to be better or wanting them to get back home, the movie doesn’t work. So that single shot has a huge impact on us.

This can be applied to any character in any screenplay. Introduce them in a terrible situation and we’ll want to root for them. Human nature is that we don’t want bad things to happen to people who don’t deserve it.

And oh yeah. If you’re even remotely interested in sci-fi, go see this movie!

A lot of people have asked me what screenwriting books I recommend. I’ve read about 30 of them and these are the five I like the most (all books are linked):

For the beginner:

After you’ve written a few screenplays:

Advanced (written 5 or 6 screenplays):

Once you’re ready for the market (business side of screenwriting):

As for other popular books, I’m not the biggest fan of Robert McKee and therefore don’t recommend “Story”. It’s very dense and too scientific. You can drive yourself nuts trying to write a screenplay under his rules. Although I don’t discourage people from buying “Screenplay” from Syd Field, I think it’s a bit outdated. A lot of people love “Making A Good Script Great” by Linda Seger but I just didn’t connect with her approach for some reason. There are a lot of middle-of-the-road books that I’d rather not take the time to mention, however, if there’s a book you really love and think people should know about, please leave it in the comments section.

Although nobody called for my head, there were definitely some heads being scratched after my extremely favorable review of Law-Abiding Citizen. I thought the script was one rip-roaring thriller that never slowed down and always kept you guessing. I loved it enough to put it in my Top 25. Well the trailer has finally hit over at Apple and I have to say, it looks just as good on-screen as it did on the page. My only beef with the script was the ending. If they took care of that, we could be looking at a great thriller this fall.

Genre: Comedy
Premise: Recent college grads are forced to lower their expectations as they enter the job market.
About: CBS Films picked up Get a Job last month. Writing duo Pennekamp and Turpel recently penned the drama “Crowley,” (Harrison Ford, Keri Russell) which is shooting right now, as well as having numerous projects in development. The two are repped at CAA.
Writers: Kyle Pennekamp and Scott Turpel.

Man, it’s been a tough week here at Scriptshadow. Four reviews and I haven’t read anything I liked. Although it’s easy to forget amongst the challenge of getting up five reviews a week, I really love reading screenplays. Every script is like a Christmas present to me. I can’t wait to open it up and see what’s inside. Getting a lot of shitty presents this week made for a pretty awful Christmas though. Luckily I had one gift left. The one all the way at the back. I wanted something that was going to make me forget every script before it. “Get A Job” seemed like just that present. A couple people already told me it was hilarious. And the premise is one of those premises you know is comedy gold. Recent college grads trying to find jobs in this economy?? That’s got Hangover potential. So no more machetes. No more Twihard fans. No more Gordon Gekko or scripts to remind me that one of my heroes passed away. All I wanted was a good solid funny screenplay.

Did I get it?

Ummmm…

Uhhhhhh…

What a weird screenplay “Get a Job” is. The script plays out like a documentary you might see on one of those obscure cable channels you didn’t know you had until you accidentally flipped onto it at three in the morning. As I just mentioned, we follow the lives of four recent college grads entering the big scary job world, and they quickly learn that nothing is as easy as they thought it would be. But it’s not really a story. It’s more like we have four subjects and we follow them into their new lives. Miles works as a “Genius” at the Apple Store. Charlie works as a 6th grade teacher in the inner city. Luke works on the trading floor. And our protagonist, Will, is supposed to have a job at a magazine company. Except on his very first day…he gets let go.

The script falls squarely into the observational category, as we witness the four endure the challenging and sometimes embarrassing world of working your first job. There’s no real centerpiece driving the story other than Will’s pursuit of employment which is why the documentary comparison kept popping up in my head. Once we get settled (which takes a good 60 pages) a subplot emerges where Will and his girlfriend, Jillian, try and figure out where they want their relationship to go. See Jillian dumped Will after college because Will didn’t take life seriously enough. He’s not prepared for the real world and his inability to find anyone to hire him pretty much validates Jillian’s decision to move on. When Will realizes that the real world (unlike college) actually requires you to *try*, he becomes a whole nother person, not only finding a job, but quickly working his way up the ladder. It’s through this dedication that Jillian allows Will back into her life, and then in the irony of all ironies, she loses her job. Everything is turned on its head as the two are now in the exact opposite positions from where they started.

There are some other things going on. Will runs a blog called “WhiteGuyBlackCock.com” which is his little social commentary on the world. The script occasionally drops in on Luke, Charlie, and Miles, but it feels more like a necessity than a choice, as the characters are never given that much to do (although Luke having a meltdown after losing a bunch of money at work is kinda funny). I also liked the subtle commentary on our generation being a bunch of entitled douchebags. Will feels that things should just fall into place for him when he leaves college, but of course that’s not the way it works. Looking back at my first job, I remember feeling the same way. I *deserved* to be there. I shouldn’t have to feel thankful for it.

I guess I’m disappointed in “Get A Job” because it didn’t take enough advantage of its premise. I wanted to feel the pain of these characters, feel their fear. But in the end I never bought that they were in any real danger – that if they lost their jobs, anything real terrible was going to happen to them. I guess I just wanted more to *happen*. But the seminal question with every comedy is simple: Was it funny? Well…to me it wasn’t. But to be honest I think that had more to do with my sense of humor than these guys not being funny. However there is one line I loved. When Luke has gone from the top trader in the office to the lowest rung on the ladder, he dejectedly laments about his bedroom: “Now the Bone Zone will become the Alone Zone.” That gave me a good chuckle.

There’s a chance this was an early draft because the script is a whopping 125 pages and I didn’t think it needed to be a line over 105. There’s a lot of unnecessary fluff in here. Anyway, this wasn’t for me. But it was purchased and I know two other people loved it so hopefully you can find it and form your own opinion.

[ ] What the hell did I just read?
[x] barely kept my interest
[ ] worth the read
[ ] impressive
[ ] genius

What I learned: Observational comedies light on story need to be SHORT. If we have a clear, strong goal for our protagonist, the audience is going to give you some leeway. But if we’re just watching people live their lives, nobody wants that to be a two hour experience.

In case you’re interested, I did a guest review for the guys at LatinoReview. The script is “Machete” by Robert Rodriquez. “Machete” was born out of a fake trailer Rodriquez made to play in front of “Grindhouse.” It was so widely loved, he decided to make an entire movie out of it. Robert DeNiro and Lindsey Lohan are in the film. Talk about nuts. Go check it out.