Russell Edwards    Screenwriter
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screenwriting - Crack the script

29/4/2019

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Once you crack the script, everything else follows.
Ridley Scott

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Star Wars: The rise of Skywalker

18/4/2019

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IMDb
John Williams
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Screenwriting - rewriting

10/4/2019

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I rewrote the ending of 'Farewell to Arms' 39 times before I was satisfied.
- Ernest Hemingway

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screenwriting - get rid of the fat.

13/3/2019

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Story taking too long to get going.

Get rid of pointless characters.
Get rid of meandering scenes.
Get rid of everything that's muddling and slowing down the story.

If the 1st ACT isn't working.

Get rid of it.
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Screenwriting - Get rid of every ounce of fat.

1/3/2019

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When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.
— Stephen King
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crouching tiger, hidden dragon - tan dun

6/2/2019

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the terminator (1984)

31/1/2019

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KYLE REESE 
Come with me if you want to live.
IMDb
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Good Will Hunting (1997)

30/1/2019

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Some people can’t believe in themselves until someone else believes in them first.
– Sean Maguire, from Good Will Hunting

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Arrived at a brick wall. This will help.

26/1/2019

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Around this time  last year I bought the following items.
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Please do not annoy the writer...
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Writer Emergency Pack
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Keep Calm I'm A Writer

The mug was a birthday present for a nice girl. 
I do hope she didn't put me in a story and kill me, although I wouldn't blame her.
I do hope she's still writing her novel.

The Writer Emergency Pack and the coaster were bought to inspire me to start writing. My creative well had dried up at this point. Unfortunately, that didn't happen. They've been collecting dust on my desk for the last twelve months. With that said, I've just opened the Writer Emergency Pack and taken a quick look through the cards.

Impressive.

If you've come to a brick wall, and can't find a way over it, this deck of cards will go a long way to help. Obviously, it won't do the work for you, but the ideas will definitely get you thinking.

Definitely recommend to all writers. Not just screenwriters.
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movies that I enjoyed -- 2019

26/1/2019

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Colette - Haven't seen Keira Knightley since The Imitation Game (2014). This is one of those movies that small cinemas will generally show, which is a shame. The story revolves around the real life character of  Colette, a french author, and for the most part, based on this, led a very colorful life. Despite her husband screwing her over. The two main actors put in great performances.  Dominic West's character is rather pompous and self-indulgent. Locking her in her room until she produced pages. Very Good.

Green Book – This is a simple story that doesn't overcomplicate things. Both the main actors do justice to the characters they're playing. Viggo Mortensen puts in a good performance as Tony Lip. Either he's been letting himself go, or he purposely put on some weight. I'd say he put on weight just for this. As for Mahershala Ali, he's doing pretty good. New season of True Detective. Not bad if you can get it. Hope it stands up to the previous seasons. Very Good.

A Star Is Born - This will be short and sweet. Bradley Cooper needs to find some more projects to direct. Lady Gaga needs to do more acting. Lots to like here. Performances all round are great. And Sam (Wade Garrett) Elliott is in it. Thumbs up there. Excellent.

Bohemian Rhapsody
- Let's get this out of the way first. Mike Myers? I think the writers got a little creative there. While the story only offers a small insight into Freddy Mercury's life, what stands out is Rami Malek's performance. If gold stars were being handed out, he'd be at the top of the list. Very Good!

Captain Marvel – 1995 – interesting. It's a little confusing to start, but settles down. And when Carol Danvers starts kicking butt, this is when the story kicks into full-throttle. Thanos might well find himself in trouble. Or there could be a new villain. Very Good.

Avengers: Endgame - Back to the Future and Alan Silvestri. What more could you want? The writing, the music, the characters. It all works. It's all on point. How everything is brought together in this is just awesome. Was there a post credits scene? Didn't make it to the end. Looking forward to what Marvel are going to bring to the table in the future. Most Excellent!

Godzilla: King of the Monsters
- Trying to avoid anything about any movie or TV show these days is pretty difficult to do. Internet and all. Word of mouth. Media. SPOILERS may or may not occur. Five years. That's a long time to wait for a sequel. The first one had issues. Not enough Godzilla. Fight scenes taking place in the dark. Let's start with the good. Far more monsters. Godzilla's had what looks like a bit of a revamp. He appears faster, and he looks a little different. Spikes on his back look different. Actual Godzilla music. I have this music, so I recognized it straight away. More fight scenes. Let's head into the story choices. One of the main characters instigates what happens because of a loss in the family. Causing hundreds of thousands to die because of a death?!!! And she's working with the villain to a certain degree. And his reasoning behind his actions is never really gone into great depth. Humans are bad. Let's wipe them out. What? Let's talk about the fight scenes. Still difficult to see what the heck's going on. King Ghidorah's from space. Why not show him coming from space, like the originals? Not just talking and explaining. Despite all this. It has its moments. I do hope the third one isn't just going to be Godzilla vs King Kong which sounds ridiculous. Hopefully they'll team up because of a new threat. Good!

Toy Story 4
- Okay, this movie is one o f those that's definitely going to have its haters and lovers. I mean, how long's it been since Toy Story 3 came out? Quite a while ago. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, what's going on with all these sequels, Pixar? I get it, I really do, the bigwigs sitting at the desk, doing the numbers, and saying one word. PROFIT. I know, it's a business. But even so, where is the originality, the ceativity, the storytelling that you guys were (are) famous for? Where's it all gone? Dried up? Can't be bothered? Now that I've got that out of the way, this is good for the most part. It has its moments. It's nice seeing all the characters back together. And I do like the story, maybe, possibly even more than the third one. To a certain degree. Due to how this story plays out, certain characters are left out, mainly the original bunch, which is fine, to some extent, this is all about Woody, and the others get a backseat. Where's Buzz? Now, I do hope this is the last one. And that this brings closure to these characters. However, that shouldn't stop Pixar from doing more shorts. It's definitely worth watching. The animation is amazing, together with the music, and Duke Caboom should get his own show. Very Good!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
- No spoilers here. I didn't enjoy The Last Jedi. Couldn't wait for it to finish. It just felt wrong on a lot of levels. But opinions vary. So I was hesitant to watch this, but since JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio were in charge, thought I'd give it a spin. While some will argue that there are a lack of character arcs here, and not a lot of character growth, I think they did a pretty good job, considering what they had to follow on from. As someone who grew up with the original trilogy. That's the original trilogy without all the added nonsense. When are you guys going to release them unchanged on blu-ray? This was a fitting conclusion to the overall story. On a side note, I haven't watched The Mandalorian, but Disney should consider doing more live action TV series. There are a lot of novels, comics, videogames to pull from. Then you have all the characters in the movies. Stormtroopers. X-wing pilots. What about a series about an X-Wing squadron? What about a series about a tie-fighter pilot? What about a series that takes place on Tatooine? Very Good!
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Is there a story here?

26/1/2019

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Can you use these pictures to create a story?
Let's see.
What do we have here?

A treasure map.
A red dinghy.
A gold key.
A lighthouse.
A hermit that hides away in a cave on the beach.
A chunk of cobalt aura quartz.
A red moon.
An antique trunk.

Let's throw in a mother and kids, or maybe a dad and his two teenage kids that have moved to the seaside for various (mysterious) reasons. Reasons that will be revealed to us as the story unfolds.

What if the kids come across the hermit while on the beach?
What if the hermit is somehow related to the kids or the parents?
What if the single parent warns the kids to stay away from the hermit?
What if the hermit is a relative or even one of the parents?

What if the town sheriff isn't too keen on the new arrivals and tries to get them to leave the town?
What if the town sheriff has their own agenda?
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Treasure Map
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Gold Key
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A hermit
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Red Dinghy
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Lighthouse
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A chunk of cobalt aura quartz
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A Blood Moon
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An antique trunk
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Goals - Writing goals for the year.

25/1/2019

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 Give yourself a goal.

1. One rewrite. Almost Done.
Just needs a few adjustments. Setups and payoffs make sense.
A little tinkering here and there.

2. New script.
3. Possibly a pilot script.

And that's it.

My goal for the year.
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You can't edit a blank page.

25/1/2019

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You can always edit a bad page. You can’t edit a blank page.
― Jodi Picoult
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The Stainless Steel Rat Omnibus - Harry Harrison

24/1/2019

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Crocodile Dundee (1986) - Peter Best

7/2/2018

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Movies That I Enjoyed -- 2018

6/2/2018

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Batman: Gotham by Gaslight - An odd one to kick off the year. A DC animated movie! When it comes to their animated movies, Warner Bros. Animation generally know what they're doing. Most of the time. Shame they can't put this much effort into the live action ones. That's not to say they're bad, but they're not exactly hitting home runs with them. Very good.

The Shape of Water - A fairy tale of sorts! For some bizarre reason, this reminded me of Splash (1984). Not entirely sure why. It just did. If I was handing out awards, one would definitely go to Sally Hawkins. She steals the show as the lonely janitor. Very Good!
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Favorite TV Shows Of  2017

20/12/2017

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Negan. He's not very nice! Still one of the best shows on TV.
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This is quite honestly one of the coolest shows that's ever been created. A modern day Goonies. While it borrows heavily from others, it has so much going for it. From the opening scenes to the cool opening theme at the start. It's just awesome.
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What's not to like here? Paul Giamatti going toe-to-toe with Damian Lewis. The dialogue. Performances. Direction. This is one to watch. The last two episodes of this season makes it all worthwhile.
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While it's still not at the same level as The Walking Dead, this is slowly improving and getting better as it progresses. The fact that the story is taking place somewhere other than the U.S. helps. What would be great is if they decided to expand this world a little more and take it to a completely different continent. No doubt there are other survivors in other countries trying to navigate this zombie apocalypse.
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This keeps getting better and better. Based on the book series by Michael Connelly. If you like intense crime drama, then you should like this. Hopefully, Amazon will renew this.
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Wasn't keen on Jessica Jones, too much relationship nonsense. Haven't watched Iron Fist or Luke Cage, so had no idea what to expect from this. Although, they have used it as a vehicle for the return of Daredevil which is good. That's a good series. Hopefully, they'll bring back Elektra in some capacity.
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Really like this. Characters dealing with their own demons as they progress through the story. How content is being delivered to the viewer is definitely changing. Hopefully, Amazon will keep changing the goal posts, and pushing for original and new material.
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Do like this one. Probably having a female lead helps. Lots of potential here to explore this universe. Plenty of characters to introduce into the fold. Good seeing Dean Cain, Teri Hatcher and Helen Slater make regular appearances. Looking forward to what the writers bring to the table in the future.
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Wow! I haven't read the novel, but going on how this plays out, must be one heck of a ride. Maybe a Twin Peaks feel to it? I'm still trying to fathom and comprehend what it's all about. Good vs Evil. But it's definitely worth watching. A stella cast. Crispin Glover (Back to the Future), and Gillian Anderson (The X-Files), amongst others makes this a must see.
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A docu-drama. This is good on so many levels. The writing, performances, direction. Pretty much has it all. Not entirely sure how accurate it is, but there has to be some artistic license and distortion of facts. What's really good is how they mixed live footage and photos of the characters into the show. Definitely worth watching. Gets a gold star.
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Off topic. But why did Disney (Marvel) pull the plug on their partnership with Netflix? Seems like a no-brainer. Not so much a docu-drama, but a straight drama based on the toils and troubles of being a member of the British royal family. This is about as stella as they come. Writing, direction, performances are so far ahead of most TV shows of this genre. Hopefully, the writers will keep this high standard as the series continues into the future. What especially makes this good is how they involve the characters that are working in and around the royal family. SPOILER: Like Churchill's secretary. That was some excellent writing there.
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Screenwriting - Engage the reader!

18/9/2017

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Entertain


the


Audience!

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Screenwriting - Dialogue.

7/7/2017

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A unique phrase.
A word.

Do your characters say things that set them apart from the others?
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IMDb
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Wonder Woman (2017)

31/5/2017

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IMDb
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Screenwriting - Too many characters!

31/5/2017

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Got characters doing the same thing.


Combine them into one character.

If they're taking up too much screentime, and not adding much to the story.


Get rid of them!

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Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

18/3/2017

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AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER
TWA 517 do you want to report a UFO, over?
TWA 517 do you want to report a UFO, over?

TWA PILOT (over radio)
Negative, we don't want to report.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER
Air East 31, do you wish to report a UFO, over?

AIR EAST (over radio)
Negative, we don't want to report one of those either.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER
Air East 31, do you wish to file a report of any kind to us?

AIR EAST PILOT (over radio)
I wouldn't know what kind of report to file, Center.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER
Uh, Air East 31, uh, me neither.

IMDb
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Screenwriting - A film should be more like music than like fiction.

16/3/2017

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A film is – or should be – more like music than like fiction. It should be a progression of moods and feelings. The theme, what`s behind the emotion, the meaning, all that comes later.  
- Stanley Kubrick
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Doctor Who: The Drosten's Curse - A.L. Kennedy

19/2/2017

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Condorman (1982) - Henry Mancini

16/2/2017

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  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • RUSSELL'S FEATURE SPECS
    • THE STATUE IN THE PARK
    • SANTA'S WISH LIST
    • THE MAGIC CANVAS
  • CONTACT
    • EXTRA