Romy Sommer's Blog, page 7

Behind the Scenes 2: Who's the Boss?

Who’s the head honcho on a movie?

I’m pretty sure you answered ‘director’ and in most cases you’d be ... wrong.

Because the most important person on any movie is the one with the money. Usually this person gets the title of ‘Executive Producer’ and often they’re not even involved in the actual making of the film.

The director calls the shots on the film set, but behind the scenes the person with the power is whoever arranged the finance, did the initial deals, and hired the crew (and that includes the director).

Once the movie goes into production the deal-maker(s) usually step back and leave the real work to the director and a team of producers, but the deal-maker will still have the final say in all the big decisions. Because we all know that he who has the money rules the world.


Unless you're Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott or Peter Jackson. Because then no matter who the deal-maker is, they're lucky to have you and have to do whatever you say!

Next week we'll look at the Call Sheet, those bits of paper that hold an entire film unit together.

Review: The Family Stone

This movie was billed on the back of the DVD box as a ‘feel good comedy’ about a family reunited for Christmas, featuring a large cast of well known, bankable actors.

So on Christmas Day we grabbed the popcorn and cooldrinks and settled down for a rip roaring evening of laughter and Christmas spirit.
What we got was nearly two hours of melodrama in a movie that would have been far more accurately billed as a “study of middle class prejudice”.

Basic premise: Everett (Dermot Mulroney), the serious older brother of the Stone family, brings his new girlfriend Meredith (Sarah Jessica Parker) home to meet the family at Christmas time. Before she even walks in the door, most of the family have already decided they don’t like her. So they set out to make her feel as uncomfortable as a stranger can possibly feel at a big family gathering.

Everett asks Mom (Diane Keaton) for the family ring [the family stone of the title] as he intends to propose to Meredith. He then spends the rest of the movie being a spineless wimp who turns his back on her and proceeds to fall in love with her goody two shoes sister (Claire Danes). The only support Meredith gets is from Everett’s endearing but goofball brother (Luke Wilson).

Do we feel sorry for this abused heroine? No, because she just comes across as an uptight racist bigot. She tries to defend her opinions, and in an outburst accuses the family of pigeon-holing her as an uptight racist bigot. Well yeah, because that’s how you’ve behaved throughout the movie so far!

Apart from the obviously misleading billing of this movie as a romantic comedy, the biggest failure of this movie, in my opinion, is that none of the characters are given any meaningful reason for their actions. It’s all back to that motivation thing again.

Why are Everett’s sisters so bitchy? Why does Mom dislike Meredith so much? Why is Everett such a spineless waste of space? Why does the heroine keep spouting idiotic sentiments that make her completely unlikeable? And what the hell does sweet Brad the paramedic see in little sister Amy?
We never find out the answers to any of the above, so unless you enjoy angst-ridden drama in which people are nasty to each other for an hour and a half for no good reason, don’t bother watching this movie.

Oh ... there is a two-minute slapstick sequence when Everett chases little brother Ben around the house which might be classed as comedy. Why are they fighting? Because after the big scene in which the heroine offended everyone and the family effectively ran her out, little brother took her out drinking. And when she was blind drunk, he didn’t take advantage of her. Yeah, you read that right.

Have you seen this movie? What did you think? Do you agree with me, or do you think I completely missed the point? And what do you think of some of the comments on the movie left by IMDB users?

Behind the Scenes 1: Introduction

This year I'm going to take heed of that valuable advice to 'write what you know' and I'll be running a series of blog posts on the film industry.

Once a fortnight, I'll post a new Behind the Scenes, starting with a who's who of jobs within the film industry, as well as some of the funnier terms used by film makers. Later in the year I'll follow the process it takes to make a feature film, from the script right through to the premiere.

Film making is a hugely collaborative business, with literally hundreds of people involved in making even the simplest of movies (hence those lengthy credits lists at the end of every film). The TV adverts I work on these days employ on average anywhere from 50 to 80 people - and that's just for a 30 second ad!

So if you've ever had a question about how films are made, or who does what on a movie set, ask away and I'll answer your questions here.
Image courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net

Six Sentence Sunday: Blaze

This year I'm trying something a little different, by taking part in Six Sentence Sunday, that Twitter and Facebook sharing of excerpts.
I'll kick off the year with an excerpt from The Fire Inside, my contribution to Blaze , the anthology of eight stories by the Minxes of Romance.

SIX SENTENCES:
He was tired beyond belief of the endless events he attended. More and more all he wanted was a real conversation over dinner. A real flirtation with some real chemistry.
“You can always take Sam. She doesn’t have a date.”
Yeah. That kind of chemistry.

THE FIRE INSIDE
Fire fighter Sam Redfern is used to being seen as just one of the boys. Until TV talent scout and celebrity Ryan Morgan shows up in Coombethwaite and starts to make her feel very much like a woman. A woman with needs.

Available from Amazon and Amazon UK.

Happy new year!!

I can't remember when last I started a new year so full of energy, hope and excitement!

2013 has got off to a wonderful start. On January 1st I began my new contemporary novel, Time Heals, managing 1,304 words. According to my spreadsheet (thanks Minxes!) I've already completed 4%.

I've also started using my treadmill again. It needed a good dust off, but I've now used it every day for a week. My new motto is "begin as you plan to continue".

What am I hoping for this year? Aside from keeping up the writing pace I established during Nano, I'm hoping for feedback from the two publishers I currently have submissions with, and I'm hoping to get the way overdue feedback on my query for When September Ends so I can start shopping that to agents ... oh, and a big lottery win would be real nice.

Finally, I'm hoping for lots of reasons to pop open champagne this year, and happiness, health and posperity for everyone I know. And yes, that's you too.

How have you started the new year, and what are you hoping for from 2013?

Image courtesy of www.freedigitalphotos.net

The leaders we want to be led by

My heart goes out to the community of Newtown, Connecticut, and especially to the families affected by last week's tragedy.

Like many others around the world I spent Friday night glued to the news channels until the thousandth repeat of Barack Obama in tears drove me away. Flippant as that may sound, that news conference moved me, and made me realise that for me the most important quality of leadership is the ability to connect to the people one is leading.

That news clip of a nation's president moved to tears reminded me of an excellent (and very long) article on work-life balance that I recently stumbled across. The article, titled Why Women Still Can't Have It All, by Anne-Marie Slaughter, formerly Director of Policy Planning in Obama's administration, really struck a chord for me. Take the time to read the full article. It's worth it.

In that article, the writer shares her opinion that our leaders should also be our role models. She cites an example that I found very sad - a son giving a eulogy for his dad saying he understood that his father was never around for him because he was busy helping other people.
Is that the kind of person we want leading our society - someone who chose their job over their family?

Personally, I want the society I live in to be led by someone who thinks family is pretty important, because it's important to me. I want someone who thinks that health and safety are important issues, because they're important to me.

So what are your thoughts - would you rather be led by someone who devotes every spare moment to the job of running the country, or someone who feels as a parent first and a public servant after?

A prequel and naming help needed

Right before I started #Nanowrimo, just as Super Storm Sandy wreaked its havoc on the eastern seaboard of the US, I realised that Once Upon a Time was in fact not the first in a trilogy but the middle story.

With my Nano story now submitted and awaiting feedback, I'm preparing to throw myself into another Nano of my own to write the prequel to OUAT, and I need your help.

Tentatively titled Time Heals, this is the story of Eva (left), step-sister to Katie, the heroine of Once Upon a Time. Eva was a shy, geeky kid in high school (think Gabriella in High School Musical) who has re-made herself into Eva Arroyo, glamorous TV star.

Eva returns from evacuation after a super storm to find her beautiful beach front home destroyed. As she sits amid the devastation that was her life, the hero rides in to her rescue.

He's the boy she adored in high school, the most popular boy in school, the jock (think Troy in High School Musical). He's also the only man she can never ever have - because he's her step-brother.

Accepting his offer to stay with him while she rebuilds is the worst idea ever. But since she's homeless, and their parents have their own problems, she doesn't  have much choice. And of course all that chemistry in forced proximity is going to lead to a whole different kind of storm...

So what help do I need?

This hero needs a name. And perhaps a face. At the moment I'm leaning towards casting Chris Hemsworth in the role. What do you think?

Here's my shortlist of names. All votes will be very gratefully received.
BradleyBrandonCameron (Cam)Cole JoshuaJustin MatthewNathan
Please visit the Minxes blog on Monday when we'll be make a special, ultra big announcement.

Making Mr Right

The blurb for this 2008 Lifetime TV movie sounded really interesting, a fresh spin on a make-over story,with all the makings of a flirty Riva/Kiss novel. Instead, it was dull, dull, dull.

I can't blame the actors, since Dean Cain and Christina Cox have proved themselves quite capable in other roles. The blame, I believe, lies very firmly with the writers, who really should know better. The story was so predictable that I kept waiting for the moment when they'd add the twist that would make this story unique ... I waited right to the very end. In vain.

Basic idea: a magazine editor makes a bet she can take any guy and turn him into 'Mr Right'. The chosen guy is a scruffy homeless man. She makes him over into Mr Right and they end up falling in love. He finds out about the bet, gets upset, then they make up.
Really. That's it.

Where was the conflict? What were the characters stakes? I kept shouting at the TV "dig deeper!"
The writers really should read Debra Dixon's Goal, Motivation, Conflict, or Blake Snyder's Save the Cat.

Making Mr Right had so much potential, but it was as though the writers just couldn't be bothered to make the effort. (Or the producers or director, for that matter). This was clearly a case of everyone taking their pay check and running.

Maybe I'll give the idea my own fresh twist sometime soon. Once I finish gouging out my eyes to clear the image of Dean Cain transforming from scruffy to gentleman by the simple elimination of a beard and long hair.

Yeah, this is what scruffy homeless dudes look like
So take my advice. Even if there's nothing better on TV, don't waste an hour and a half of your life watching this movie. If you're looking for a great make-over story with a fresh twist, then rather read Leah Ashton's A Girl Less Ordinary, which I reviewed here.

Are there any other make-over stories you recommend?

Final #NaNoWriMo update

Waking up in Vegas is complete!

I collected my official winner's certificate on 27th November, which was just as well since this last weekend was manic and not another word got written.

The best thing of all about this NaNo is that, though I wrote fairly slowly and didn't achieve the lofty word counts of some of my friends and team-mates, this first draft is quite a clean draft.

Since I did a fair amount of planning in October, and then broke the cardinal rule of Nano by editing a little as I went along, the first 30k words are in good shape, and the task of editing that last 20k is not nearly as daunting as it could be.

I cannot thank my Team Khara team mates and all the lovely people at Savvy Authors enough. They not only inspired me to keep going, but they made this NaNo the most fun I've had writing in a long time.

Well done to all of you who finished NaNoWriMo 2012, and for those who didn't, I hope you at least have more words than you started the month with!