Cameron Chapman's Blog, page 3

January 9, 2016

2016: The Year of Forced Creativity

That title is something my good friend Carrie came up with. We’re both screenwriters and met during Stowe Story Labs in 2014. We’re about to embark on a co-written screenplay (murder mystery, but that’s all I’ll say). And so we talk a lot about writing and filmmaking and creativity.


I was telling her about my goals of finishing all of my in-progress screenplays this year, and publishing a blog post every day in 2016, and somehow the whole “Year of Forced Creativity” came about.


And so that’s my motto for this year! I have goals. I know I’m capable of meeting them. But it means keeping the pressure on myself and forcing myself to be proactive about things. I can’t sit back and think  “I’ll get to that later” if I want to get everything done before December 31, 2016. I have to plan and organize and keep myself motivated.


Hence the forced creativity thing.


The thing about it is that we’re all capable of achieving things if we’re willing to put in the work. Set goals that you have control over. Saying “I’m going to make a movie that makes $1 million this year,” isn’t necessarily realistic. Sure, it might happen. But you don’t have total control over how much a movie makes. Even if you do everything right, it could still flop. But setting a goal of “I’m going to make a movie this year,” is something you can control. You can figure out how to do it. One way or another.


Set goals that are within your control. And then put your nose to the grindstone and get that shit done!


Who out ther wants to join me in the Year of Forced Creativity? We need a hashtag…how about #FC2016? #ForcedCreativity16? Chime in in the comments!

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Published on January 09, 2016 07:10

January 8, 2016

What I Learned From Watching 600+ Films Last Year

If you saw Wednesday’s blog post here, you’ll know that I watched 645 films in 2015. Yep, that was a lot of films. I don’t plan on doing the same in 2016 (less watching, more filming is the idea).


Here are a few things that I learned from watching that many films:



I am not good at watching horror movies by myself. I get freaked out easily, particularly by monster movies. Movies with human villains scare me much less.
I can make it through virtually any film. But even I have my limits (Looking at you, Icetastrophe).
I can watch the same movie multiple times, even in the same week or month.
I have really varied taste in films. Which explains why I have screenplays in a number of genres.
I prefer smart comedy to slapstick but can enjoy both.
There are a ton of really great indie films out there if you’re willing to go looking.
There are a lot of really crappy indie films out there, too.
I can watch films that have low visual quality (either because of my internet connection or because of the streaming format), but bad sound kills it every time.
I love rom-coms. Particularly smart ones.
I love strong female characters, but I also love strong male characters. I think I just like strong characters in general.
I want to write and make films more than ever.
Watching movies while working means you miss a lot. But it also means you can watch things more than once and pick up new things each time.

So those are the most prominent lessons I learned this year. I’m sure there were others. I’ll update this list periodically to add more as I think of them!

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Published on January 08, 2016 07:25

January 6, 2016

I Watched 645 Films in 2015!

Yep, that’s right: 645! I was going to create an infographic with all the info, but I’m finding time is not on my side in that endeavor. So instead, I’m just going to share the stats here.


Most-watched films (3 times each): Dorfman in Love, He’s Just Not That Into You, and Labyrinth.


Other films I watched more than once (twice each): Ask Me Anything, Better Living Through Chemistry, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Catching Fire, Chef, Chocolat, Courage Mountain, Divergent, Frida, Hector and the Search for Happiness, I Hate Valentine’s Day, I Frankenstein, In Your Eyes, Labor Day, Legend, Life Partners, Love Actually, Mad Max: Fury Road, Mean Girls, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Not Another Happy Ending, Peace, Love & Misunderstanding, Practical Magic, Something Anything, Star Trek Into Darkness, Teen Witch, The Best of Me, The Craft, The Dark Crystal, The Good Guy, The Maze Runner


Number of Films I Didn’t Finish Watching: 30 – One of those, The Babadook, I’m hoping to finish at some point. But I’m just not good at watching scary movies when I’m home alone! Another one of these was Labor Day, which I tried watching again and absolutely LOVED the second time.


Films I Loved (this list isn’t necessarily complete, as I didn’t always mark films that I’d seen before and loved) NOTE: I’ve bolded a few real standouts:Breakfast


Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Chef

Chocolat

Courage Mountain

Dorfman In Love

Frida

Labor Day

Labyrinth

Love Actually

Mad Max: Fury Road

The Craft

A League of Their Own

Amelie

Barefoot

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Benny & Joon

Big Eyes

Big Fish

Clueless

Comet

Dallas Buyers Club

Dirty Dancing

Goodbye World

Hackers

Hank and Asha

Harriet the Spy

How to Marry a Millionaire

Inside Out

Interstellar

Jackie and Ryan

Jenny’s Wedding

Little Women

Miss Potter

Mystic Pizza

Obvious Child

Pride & Prejudice

Roman Holiday

Sabrina

See You In Valhalla

Small Apartments

St. Elmo’s Fire

Star Wars Episode 6: Return of the Jedi

Tank Girl

The Breakfast Club

The Homesman

The Journey of Natty Gann

The Neverending Story

The Prize Winner of Defiance, OH

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Tracks

What Maisie Knew

While We’re Young

Willow

Words and Pictures


I also watched 85 films by female directors. Not exactly a huge number (especially since a handful of those were multiples). But higher than the percentage of films made by women overall, so not a terrible number, either.


The thing this doesn’t include is TV shows I watched. There were a lot. I wish I had tracked them, but since I didn’t, I can only estimate that I probably watched well over 1,000 episodes of TV during the year.


Now, in 2016 I have a different goal. I don’t want to watch any more than 500 movies. Mostly because I want to spend more time doing and less time observing. So 500 films comes out to about 1.4 films per day. I’m sure some days I’ll watch two or three films, and some days I’ll watch no films.


I plan on filling some of the time I was watching films (while working) with watching TED Talks and listening to podcasts. I’ll keep y’all posted on any standouts!

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Published on January 06, 2016 07:01

January 4, 2016

Bogged Down in the Depths of Screenplay Rewrites

On my New Year’s Resolutions list this year is getting my first feature into pre-production (at least). I’m talking serious pre-production, as in fundraising and casting and location scouting, not just “here’s the budget…now what?” pre-production.


But the thing about making a movie is that you kind of need a script that’s in producible shape. I wrote a screenplay this fall that I have very high hopes for. But the first draft is in AWFUL shape.


And I’m not just saying that. It’s bad. Like, bad enough that I won’t even show it to other people to get notes bad.


So now I need to rewrite it and whip it into something presentable. Not just presentable, something I’ll be proud to show others and put out there to potential financiers, cast, crew, and the like.


The thing about this script is that it’s kind of complicated. It takes place 80% in one location. It has a limited cast. And it turns a lot of commonly-known mythology on its head. I want it to be smart and funny, but also tense and thrilling. Kind of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the TV show, not the movie) or Angel.


Hmm…maybe I need to see if Joss Whedon is looking for a pro-bono rewrite project…


But in all seriousness, this has been my process so far in rewriting the script:


1. I broke down all the issues with the script. They looked a little something like this:



Boring middle
No tension
What the hell are the stakes???
I know the mythology in my head…but it’s so not coming through in the story…
I think maybe they need to not stay in one place for the entire film

Some of those are big, and some aren’t.


2. I went through 40 Plot Points for A Feature Film and did my best to fill it in. I didn’t get everything filled in, but it did make me think a lot about the elements that my script was missing.


3. I started rewriting the screenplay in the format of a children’s book after reading an article about how that can be helpful, because it breaks the story down into its most basic elements. I didn’t get past the first act with this one, because I still wasn’t sure where I was going.


4. I went through and re-outlined, following the outline structure that Chris Millis talks about every year at Stowe Story Labs. This was the most helpful part of the process, but I think I needed to do the other things first so I could get everything straight in my head. The outline in this format is about 4 pages long.


5. I started writing out a detailed scene-by-scene outline following John August’s “How to Write a Scene.”


Honestly, though, this kind of detailed outlining gets tedious for me really quickly. I think I’m going to dive in and start writing instead. I can always come back to outlining in more detail as I need to. And I may do this on some scenes, just to get an idea of where they’re going before I get bogged down in action and dialogue.


I’m hoping to get the rewrite finished this month, so I at least have a draft that’s ready to show others for notes. My goal is to get the script in producible shape by summer, so I have six or so months for pre-production this year.

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Published on January 04, 2016 07:19

January 2, 2016

5 Most Popular Posts on CameronChapman.com!

Despite not posting much in 2015, I had over 28,000 page views from over 17,000 unique visitors. My goal is to reach that traffic level per month in 2016! So chances are, some of you are new to this blog. Awesome! WELCOME!


If you caught my post yesterday, you saw that one of my big goals for 2016 is to have a blog post published every day! Woah! Ambitious, I know. But hey, why not? When I first started blogging almost a decade ago, I published multiple posts every day, while holding down a full-time job! So theoretically this whole one post per day, 7 days a week, should be simple. Right?!?


Anyway, if you’re new here you might be interested in checking out my most popular posts from the past. These are the posts that people come back to day after day, because they find them to be uber useful. Hopefully you will, too!


#1: Ebook Formatting the Easy Way

A little warning on this one, it’s pretty deprecated at this point. Sometime this year I’ll try to update it, but a lot of the basic formatting info and process is pretty similar. Just be warned that the software has been updated since the post was originally released.


#2: No More Times New Roman! Font Combinations for Book Design

This is one of my favorite posts for anyone who’s putting together a book or other typographical layout. I get so sick of seeing Times New Roman as the default for things other than, say, academic papers. There are so many other great fonts out there that you should be using!


#3: The Rules of Writing: Switching POV, or “Head-Hopping”

The Rules of Writing series that I did is still proving to be popular, even after a few years. This one deals with the dreaded “head-hopping” we hear so much about, what it is, and when it’s okay to do. Hint: the answer isn’t “never”.


#4: The Rules of Writing: Use Perfect Grammar

We all heard this one drilled into our heads. If you wanted to come across as intelligent, you had to follow the rules of English grammar to the letter. Except a lot of the “rules” we were taught in school aren’t really rules at all, and were just borrowed from Latin. And particularly in creative writing, it’s important to feel free to break them when necessary.


#5: The Rules of Writing: Dialogue Tags

Dialogue tags can be one of the key indicators of a noob writer. Honestly, “said” or “asked” are going to work for you 99% of the time. Even better? Make it clear who’s speaking without having to add a dialogue tag.


So there they are: A bunch of oldies-but-goodies for you to enjoy at the start of 2016! I’ll be posting a LOT more in the coming year, both here and at my other blog, Step Three: Bliss, which will be re-launching soon.


And for even more exclusive content, sign up for my newsletter below!

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Published on January 02, 2016 07:05

January 1, 2016

New Year’s Resolutions for 2016

Am I the only one who’s kind of glad 2015 is over? Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of good times this year. But it also seemed like  everything was harder than it needed to be.  Like, even things that shoul d have been easy ended up way more complicated than they should have been.


But yay! 2016 is finally here! And I’m excited for this year. I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what I want to accomplish this year, and most of it has to do with creative projects.


Here’s the list:



Publish a blog post every day! I have some regular posts  that go up through my day job and freelancing. Like every Sunday I have a post published on Webdesigner Depot, and I should  have a post published every Thursday for Skillcrush (and sometimes on Tuesdays). But on the off days, I want to publish either here or on Step Three Bliss (when I relaunch it in January). That means tons of new content for all of you!
Finish the screenplays I have in progress. I created  a spreadsheet. I have sixteen scripts in progress. Some of those are still in the notes phase. Some are mid-draft. And some need revisions. But I want to finish  all of them this year.
Produce a couple more music videos. I have a handful of bands I’ve been talking to about videos. So hopefully at least one or two will come through this year.
Produce at least one short film. I have two scripts that are ready to go. One more that I’m working on. I’ve got one of them entered in a few contests, some of which could provide production funds. So hopefully something there will pan out. Otherwise, the other scripts I have could be done easily on the cheap.
Get one of my films into pre-production. I know which one it’ll be. I’m working on revisions to the script now, and should have that finished up by mid-January.  I have some casting ideas, with one person in particular I really want to get on board. I’ll make it happen one way or another.
Keep purging stuff. Moving made me get rid of a TON of stuff. But I still feel like I have way too much. So I want to keep getting rid of things and purging until the new house is the minimalist haven I want it to be.
Do yoga 6 days a week. I’ve really been slacking on my practice this winter. And I’m so not happy with myself for that. I plan on getting back to class twice a week, and then practicing at home on the other days, with one day a week off.
Get healthier in general. Again, I’ve been slacking. With moving and the new job and everything else the past six months or so, I kind of let stress and business get the best of me. Not something I’m okay with. So I’m getting back to healthy eating and getting more exercise. But as usual, I follow an 80/20 rule, which means I eat healthy 80% of the time and then don’t worry about it the other 20% of the time.
Read more. That means fiction, non-fiction, screenplays, and anything else that strikes my fancy. I’ll count long-form pieces online, but not short pieces.

So that’s what I’ve come up with so far. I’m sure I’ll come up with more goals during the year, but for now, this works for me! Stay tuned for updates!

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Published on January 01, 2016 07:00

December 31, 2015

The C Squared Newsletter!

I’ve been wanting to create a personal newsletter for a long time. But it’s one of those things that I never quite find the time to actually do it. So today I got as far as setting up the signup form for the newsletter! If you scroll down this page, you’ll see it appear in the lower right corner.


I’m hoping to send out newsletters on a  bi-weekly basis in 2016. I might increase that to weekly at some point, but for now, I feel like every two weeks is reasonable.


So sign up, and get exclusive content, articles, links, and more every couple of weeks!

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Published on December 31, 2015 07:49

December 15, 2015

FINALLY Write Your Non-Fiction Book! A new email course from yours truly!

I’m finally taking the plunge and launching the non-fiction writing course I’ve been working on since the summer of 2015!


The first email lessons will go out on January 11th, 2016!


Every week for six weeks, I’ll be breaking down exactly how to get your non-fiction book written. And, on top of the email lessons, you get an exclusive, course-only email address for any questions you have for me along the way. Plus other exclusive surprises that you’ll only get if you sign up for the course!


Until the class actually launches, I’m offering a $50 discount. But since I love my blog readers so much, I’m offering up an extra $50 off if you use the code “ccblog” when you order. So you get the whole thing for $149. I’ll be removing the code and raising the price on January 10th, so make sure you order early! And of course I’m backing it all up with a money-back guarantee! So if you don’t feel like you’ve gotten your money’s worth, I’ll give you a refund, no problem. (But I’m pretty sure you’ll love the course and the consulting that comes with it!)


Click on the button below to launch the Gumroad sales page and pre-order!




Pre-Order Now!


 

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Published on December 15, 2015 10:37

November 14, 2015

Life Never Goes As Planned

I posted back in August that I would be moving…and now it’s November, and while I’m writing this from the loft in my new house, I have not yet moved in. (Maybe next weekend? Maybe???)


I volunteered at Stowe Story Labs again in September. Labs is one of the best things in my life, and has been for a couple years now. I’ve met some amazing screenwriters and filmmakers, and forged what I hope will be some lifelong friendships. I’ll be collaborating on a screenplay with a fellow Labber this winter, which I’m SUPER excited about!


I’ve been working on a number of screenplays, including a feature I hope to produce sometime in 2016-2017, and a couple of shorts I hope to produce much sooner than that.


I’ve also been entering some screenwriting contests. I’ve got a short making the rounds right now, a feature entered in the Nashville Film Festival’s contest, and a TV pilot that I plan to enter in a couple other things. No real progress with anything yet, but it’s early days.


One bit of exciting news is that I’m now a staff writer for Skillcrush, an amazing company that teaches women (mostly) how to code and do awesome techy stuff! I’ve been there for around two months now and absolutely love it!


I’m hoping at some point this winter to start a regular newsletter (probably monthly, maybe bi-weekly if I’m feeling particularly ambitious). The plan is to send out the newsletter, and then a week or so later post the content from it here on the blog.Then again, life never goes as planned…

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Published on November 14, 2015 18:48

August 9, 2015

A Long-Overdue Update!

I’ve been neglecting this blog for way too long, and I’m hoping to change that this fall.


A few updates:


I’ve been doing a ton of screenwriting lately, which means some of my other projects have been neglected. I’m still working on the edits to the fourth and final book in The Steam and Steel Chronicles, which might actually be done before the end of the year. No promises though.


I’m moving! After nearly 12 years living in the same house (the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere, over a third of my lifetime!), I’m moving about 30 minutes away, to a much smaller, more manageable house with more land (2 acres rather than .13!). That move will be happening late this month and early next month, which means you likely won’t be hearing much from me during that time! But the new place should provide me with a lot more opportunities and inspiration to write. I may do a little photo tour of the place when I get all moved.


I have another blog that I started this summer, but that quickly fell by the wayside as other projects took over (including house-hunting). Once I’m moved, I’m definitely going to start that one back up (it’s more lifestyle, less writing-focused). I’ll post here when that happens.


I’m still actively involved with Stowe Story Labs, now helping out by volunteering and taking care of some of the logistics. It’s so rewarding, I’ve met such amazing people, and it’s always inspiring. If you’re a screenwriter, I highly recommend applying next year!


And the big update: I’m currently in the process fo creating a writing course! This one will be about writing a non-fiction book, aimed specifically at professionals who want to write to further their career or business (though it could also be useful to those who want to write about a hobby or passion). It’s a 6-week-long course that I’ll be doing via email, and will be open to a limited number of people (I’m thinking 20 per session, but it might be lower). I’ll post when that’s all up and running (it’s nearly done, I’m just working on some additional materials and then need to decide on the final format).


So that’s what’s been going on in my world! Hopefully everyone out there is having a great summer!

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Published on August 09, 2015 07:16