writing - Neal Romanek – words/worlds

Interview at Innsmouth Free Press

August 3rd, 2009

I’ve been interviewed at the fine, H.P. Lovecraft-inspired horror site, “Innsmouth Free Press” (www.innsmouthfreepress.com).

I yawp about writing & sci-fi & The Cyclopedia Of Worlds & the new novel.

Read it now.

Video – Watch A Writer Sulk For An Hour!

May 27th, 2009

You see, the thing is: I hate writing. Always have. I find it tedious and exhausting and very difficult. But it seems to be something I’m good at.

So, yes, there is a Devil, and he gets you in the most cunning ways.

I would much rather show off than write. If…If only I could find a way to mix showing off – shameless exhibitionism – with writing, well then, my life would be almost worth living, wouldn’t it?

I know! I’ll broadcast a LIVE video feed of me at work! And make it available to anyone and everyone in the world! And then…then I’ll be happy.

So check on Monday, 1st June, 12 noon GMT, go to my LiveStream feed at:

http://www.livestream.com/nealromanek

At noon (GMT), for an hour each day, you’ll get to see inside the monkey house. And live chat will be operating, so you can throw me peanuts. And maybe I’ll throw back some poo.

As Peachy Carnehan said in “The Man Who Would Be King” (1975): “Keep looking at me. It helps to keep my soul from flying off.”

Writing For Pictures Workshop – London, 7 March, 2009

February 22nd, 2009

For you who are in London – or England – or anywhere in the UK – anywhere in Europe, for that matter – I’m conducting a workshop for writers, the first week in March…

Writing For Pictures

honing skills for writers of film, tv, games, comics

a workshop by Neal Romanek

Date: Saturday, March 7, 2009

Time: 7:00pm – 9:00pm

Location:

Price: £30 in advance (£50 at the door if spaces are available)

Ealing Friends Meeting House

17 Woodville Road

Ealing, London

W5 2SE

United Kingdom

Phone: 0754 508 7629
Email: workshops [at] nealromanek.com

Description:

A 2 hour workshop designed to help writers of all skill levels practice and improve their skills for writing scripts for image-based media – film, tv, comics/graphic novels, games.The workshop is open to anyone interested in writing for film, tv, games or comics – from veterans trying to perfect their skills to people who have never written fiction before.

The workshop will emphasize practice over theory, doing over observing. You will get out of it exactly what you put into it. It’s like an intense session at the gym – for media writing.

Price: £30 (payable via cash or check – PayPal link will be available within the next few days)

We are offering this low introductory rate for this first workshop only. Those who attend for this first night will receive a discount on later courses, starting up at the end of March. Spaces are limited. Sign up early.

The facilitator Neal Romanek is a graduate of University of Southern California’s renowned Cinema-TV Production school. Neal has written for the screen, games, and motion picture industry magazines and websites. He has had intensive training from some of the world’s best teachers in writing and creative process.

To reserve a place, or for further questions

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Great Movie Monologues 5 – "Jaws"

October 30th, 2008

Watching “Jaws” (1975) again, I am reminded – again – of how perfect a film it is. Performances, music & sound design, editing, and writing come together to make a masterpiece. In truth, none of these elements, by itself, is perfect in the film – close, but not quite. But somehow they were brought together, on a production where everyone was convinced they had a disaster on their hands, to produce one of the greatest horror movies and adventure movies ever.?

At night, aboard the fishing boat, Orca, our three heroes – Brody, a police chief afraid of water; Matt Hooper, a young marine biologist; and Quint, a seasoned shark fisherman – exchange comical stories about their scars.

When Hooper asks about the scar of a removed tattoo on Quint’s arm, actor Robert Shaw launches into one of his best scenes as an actor and one of the best monologues in movies:

QUINT: (pointing to the tattoo) That’s the U.S.S. Indianapolis.

HOOPER: (breathless) You were on the Indianapolis?

BRODY: What happened?

QUINT: Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin’ back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We’d just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in twelve minutes. Didn’t see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. thirteen-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin’ from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn’t know … was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn’t even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin’ by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin’ and hollerin’ and sometimes that shark he go away … but sometimes he wouldn’t go away. Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he’s got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn’t even seem to be livin’ … until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then … ah, then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin’. The ocean turns red. And despite all your poundin’ and your hollerin’ those sharks come in and … they rip you to pieces You know, by the end of that first dawn, we lost a hundred men. I don’t know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin’, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boson’s mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Up-ended. Well … he’d been bitten in half below the waist. At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot – a lot younger than Mr. Hooper here – anyway, he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol’ fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know, that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin’ for my turn. I’ll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway …
(with a smile – or a sneer?)
… we delivered the bomb.

—

go to Great Movie Monologues 4 – “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp”

Short Film "Unto Dust" Wraps

September 28th, 2008

I’m happy as a sandboy to announce that our short film, “Unto Dust” is in the can. I wrote the movie, based on the short story by Herman Charles Bosman – South Africa’s Mark Twain. The indefatigable Mendy Groner produced and directed for Memetic Films.

Cast, crew, and technical support from all over South Africa have united to put Bosman’s biting, ironic glimpse of Voortrekker life on film – yes, film – including Gatehouse Commercials, Media Film Services, NFVF, and Waterfront Post. And the additional support of Qualified Health, which is not a film company but instead does some useless thing or other like providing health care.

My deep thanks to everyone involved, but especially to Mendy Groner and Memetic.

How Now Low Crow

May 21st, 2008

I’ve finished a first draft of the script and have handed it in to The Producers.

It’s pretty good. But not great. It’s a first draft. The fact that I can note that parts of it are downright crummy and other parts fat and lazy, and other parts some of the better work I’ve written, and not get too glum or too excited about any of it, is a sign that I’m actually growing up into an adult – an adult writer – which is something very few people ever get to do. It’s a privilege, an honor, a blessing, to not be so narcissistically wrapped up in the outcome and quality of work as I used to be. The work is the work, and the quality is none of my business. I’ve said that to myself a lot over the years, but I’ve been unconvinced most of the time. It usually sounds like I’m whistling through the graveyard, trying not to be frightened, becoming increasingly frightened with the increasing effort applied to avoid being frightened.

To be great is no great thing. To be right-sized is very, very rare.

White Hunter, Black Heart 3

May 3rd, 2008

Clint Eastwood’s “White Hunter, Black Heart” (1990) – in which director Eastwood plays director John Huston on the shoot of Huston’s “The African Queen” – is one of the great unsung movies about filmmaking and filmmakers.

Before Eastwood/Huston shoots his movie, he feels compelled to hunt down and shoot an African elephant. This obsessive desire to bag the biggest of game animals endangers the life of the motion picture he’s been hired to make.

In what I would call the film’s key scene, screenwriter, Pete Verrill (a fictionalized Peter Viertel - who died last fall a few days shy of age 87), confronts director, John Wilson (Eastwood doing an unapologetic John Huston impression) on his reprehensible quest to hunt down and make a trophy of an African bull elephant.

VERRILL: You’re either crazy, or the most egocentric, irresponsible son-of-a-bitch that I have ever met. You’re about to blow this whole picture out of your nose, John. And for what? To commit a crime. To kill one of the rarest, most noble creatures that roams the face of this crummy earth. And in order to commit this crime, you’re willing to forget about all of us and let this whole god damn thing go down the drain.

WILSON: You’re wrong, kid. It’s not a crime to kill an elephant. It’s bigger than all that. It’s a sin to kill an elephant. Do you understand? It’s a sin. The only sin that you can buy a license and go out to commit. That’s why I want to do it before I do anything else in this world. Do you understand me? Of course you don’t. How could you? I don’t understand it myself.

White Hunter, Black Heart 2

April 25th, 2008

Clint Eastwood’s “White Hunter, Black Heart” (1990), based on the book by Peter Viertel, is the thinly fictionalized account of the production of John Huston’s “The African Queen” (1951), with Eastwood playing John Huston in the character of “John Wilson” and Jeff Fahey as “Pete Verrill”. Below is an exchange between Pete and a British Bush Pilot, Hodkins, played by Timothy Spall:

PETE: (looking at elephants through binoculars) Oh. I’ve never seen one before, outside the circus or the zoo. They’re so majestic. So indestructible. They’re part of the earth. They make us feel like perverse little creatures from another planet. Without any dignity. Makes one believe in God. In the miracle of creation. Fantastic. They’re part of a world that no longer exists, Hod. Feeling of unconquerable time.

HODKINS: You certainly have a way with words, Pete. No wonder you’re a writer.

White Hunter, Black Heart 1

April 24th, 2008

Clint Eastwood’s “White Hunter, Black Heart” (1990), a fictionalized account of John Huston’s making of “The African Queen” (1951) – with Eastwood playing Huston – is a superb and underrated film about moviemaking and moviemakers.

WILSON: You know something, Pete? You’re never gonna be a good screenwriter, and you know why?

VERRILL: No, John. Why don’t you tell me why?

WILSON: ‘Cause you let eighty-five million popcorn eaters pull you this way and that way. To write a movie, you must forget that anyone’s ever gonna see it.