Movie reviews

SCRIPT FIESTA

CO MUSI WIEDZIEC SCENARZYSTA, A CZEGO NIE UCZA W SZKOLACH...

Maciej Ślesicki started his lecture on what a writer needs to know but isn't taught at school introducing himself. So now I finally know who he is. I totally agree with him that all writing classes are a sham: they teach the craft and let network but talent is a separate thing. You can download a free program formatting a script. I personally learnt from this lecture what an establishing shot is. And I found out Tarantino had never been to film school. The whole lecture was entertaining even if most of the content obvious. But some hints were interesting, e.g. start the scene late, expose early - this leaves the viewer guessing; only indispensable scenes and lines stay; the best situation is when everyone in the movie has a problem and everyone is right. He summed up with a writer's tagline of his serial: "W pierwszym odcinku bohaterom grozi śmierć, w każdym następnym niebezpieczeństwo rośnie." ("In the first episode, the protagonists are in the danger of death and in each subsequent episode the danger increases.")

No English version.

JAK PRACUJA SCENARZYSCI 6 EP.

The 6 talks on how screenwriters work consist of remarks by authors and teachers - even those who haven't scripted anything themselves. 

Proces twórczy (Creative process). Switched off. That is or should be more individual than script doctors allow.

Narracja (Structure): Mateusz Pacewicz sticks to the 3-act formula religiously, even in series or short films. Agnieszka Kruk advises to use ready-made formulas but to choose one of several described already. Michał Oleszczyk remarks that all American Oscar-winning movies contained long speeches.

Temat (Topic). Switched off. Only obvious stuff.

Dialogi/Bohaterowie (Dialogues/Protagonists). 2 things to remember: don't take jokes from dowcipy.pl and maintain familiarity and surprise at the same time.

Współpraca (Co-operation): interfering in the script is bad for the movie, working together is good.

Rady dla scenarzystów (Advice for screenwriters): have a lawyer, multitask, don't be afraid of writer's block - comes naturally. Another piece of advice was to write about their own world - that makes it clear to me why too many Polish movies are personal dramas.

Tiny English subtitles.

BOZE CIALO HEJTERA. SCENARIUSZE POD LUPA

A brilliant comparison, by Bolesław Racięski and Karol Kubiak, of Mateusz Pacewicz's 2 heroes: they're virtually the same protagonist, just with different goals. And the editorial trick where they become the protagonist and anti-protagonist in the same movie is absolutely superb.

Subtitled in English.

SCENARZYSTKI

The female writers' panel didn't bring much info other than the advice to write at least 1 sentence per day or 1-3 pages per day or 15 minutes per day - depending on your situation, anyway to do it daily.

AKTOR KONTRA SCENARIUSZ

Actor Cezary Pazura talked about what an actor needs in a script. His opinion was that: "recenzje polegają na tym, że my się na siłę czegoś czepiamy" ("reviews are based on the fact that we find a fault by force"). His advice is not to repeat the same phrases in a sentence because then we automatically switch off, thinking we've heard it already. The meeting included a fragment of "Przypadki Cezarego P." - a series I didn't bother to watch in the past but unexpectedly an accumulation of issues at a check-out proved to be hilarious.

SCENARIUSZ A INSCENIZACJA

On staging a screenplay, I only found time to listen to the first 5 minutes 18 seconds before it was removed from the website. I learnt that everything which is in a frame is essential.

SCENARIUSZ AUDIOSERIALU

I only managed to hear the full podcast of Anna Kazejak. She highlighted how an audioserial differs from a film one, e.g. you may use 4 distinct voices max, e.g. 2 men and 2 women. Writing it is faster than writing a book, the audioserial was made within 2-3 months once she's finished writing, a movie typically takes a few years in the making.

Katarzyna Szczerba - I only heard it till 10:04. Nothing of value at the beginning.

Absolutely tiny English subtitles.

SCENARIUSZ NA EKRANIE: KONTROLA

I've seen some episodes, none of which delighted me but it was enacted well enough not to complain either. Found no time to see the event which probably consisted of a fragment of the film with the script rolling below simultaneously.