definition of quiet.

I'm sitting in a coffee shop right now, and an old, Indian couple are sitting at my table.

And they are sitting in complete silence. They're both looking out into the distance, thinking about things. They haven't said a single thing to each other in probably 10 minutes. It's weird.

I mean they're sitting right next to each other, which usually prompts social pressure to have some sort of conversation. I mean it would for me, and I doubt that's a cultural thing.

Maybe they enjoy the silence. And I don't mean quietness. It's a coffee shop, there's plenty of noise. There's a barista grinding coffee. A little girl talking loudly about how her face paint makes her look like a cheetah. A college aged couple is doing that weird thing where they have a conversation they know needs to be comprised of only small talk because they're standing waiting for their coffee, and they know in the back of their minds anything they say is just pre-conversation before the real one when they sit down with their drinks.

But I think that's why I love writing in coffee shops. They're filled with people doing things.

People walking around me. Coffee cups getting coffee poured into them. Old, Indian couples quietly experiencing Starbucks' atmosphere. These things, to me, are quiet.

Actual quietness is distracting. It feels empty. Like there's supposed to be something there, and it's absence is felt by everything around me.

-Ryan

headphones look like earmuffs.

Writing conversations is easy.

-------------------

"King Kunta"

------------------

On paper, script writing is comprised of two things: talking and action.

-------------------

"King Kunta"

------------------

No complexity. No linguistic acrobats. Just conversations and actions.

-------------------

"King Kunta"

------------------

But there's a flow to it.

-------------------

"King Kunta"

------------------

A rhythm.

-------------------

"King Kunta"

------------------

A cadence that flows in the script.

-------------------

"King Kunta"

------------------

The beauty of screenwriting is found entirely within the script. What story is the story really telling? What story does this story remind you of? 

------------------

"Oh yeah!"

------------------

-Ryan

writing that down for later.

I woke up this morning to some good news. I am a quarter finalist for the 2015 Screencraft Short Screenplay Competition. I don't really know what that means, but I'm assuming it's a good thing.

Scripts for this year's NYC Midnight Short Screenplay Competition are due tonight at midnight. The assignments were given out last Friday, and we had 1 week to write a 12 page script. My heat had the following:

Genre: Suspense
Item: A Missing Library Book
Character: An 8-year-old boy or girl

Your script has to include these three things, and in meaningful ways.

This was definitely one of the harder competitions I have been in.  It took me about 5 days to come up with an idea for a decent script. 1 day to write, 1 day for re-writes, and I think I've ended with something decent. It wasn't the genre that was difficult. My most recent Suspense script was produced by a production company out in LA. That was only a 5 page script, but it helped me understand the nature of these films.

Apart from that, I have 3 other scripts being produced by production companies, and a TV pilot that I'm submitting for review.

Hey, and I'm graduating or something in like 2 weeks. With a monster in Cancelling Psychiatry. I think that's right.

--------------------

"Sorry. Sometimes I don't fit in booths"

-------------------

-Ryan