BLOCKING
AND I don’t mean the football type. I’m an author. It’s in my blood. I’ve had over 60 fiction and non-fiction articles and books published and enjoyed winning the usual accolades, positive reviews, contests and festivals. This year, I was offered the opportunity of trying something different but, I was to find, deeply touching on authoring: the lead role of “Will Gardner” in The STATIC Movie by K. Simmons Productions – https://kspllc.media/the-static-movie. Co-written by my friend and multi-award-winning author colleague, Mr. Richard Rose of THE LAZARUS CONSPIRACIES (Savant 2013) – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0988664089, THE GUMSHOE (Savant 2017) – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0997247223, and COMIC CRUSADERS (Aignos 2019) – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999463381 fame, and co-screenplay writer, director and producer Kenny Simmons.
Static is a family friendly, drama. The principal’s daughter struggles to find balance in her life as she deals with her practical-physician husband Donald and her father Will who’s showing symptoms of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Together Donald and Will force her to make a heartbreaking decision, which Will makes worse when he brings home a radio that only emits static but swears he is communicating with his late wife Ginny.
Reprising the role of Will Garner these last couple weeks has presented a panoply of insights into not only the character and acting, but also authoring. One unique aspect of acting, blocking, is proving of special interest to me. First, I’m good at acting, but I have to work hard to memorize lines. Especially for the reference master where the whole script for a particular location has to be done “from memory,” beginning to end. There’s no analog in authoring, at least of which I’m currently aware. In fact, however, most of the ACTUAL filming is done in “blocks” — short vignettes that reflect the different actor points-of-view. Memorization isn’t quite so difficult when approached in blocks. The “problem” is that a movie, even during final filming, is an ever-evolving beast, so there are not infrequent script changes, and likewise “blocking” changes. Again, I know of nothing analogous in authoring.
The whole acting experience is deepening my understanding of written literature, and, in fact, changed the way I write. Savant Books and Publications, one of my publishers, recently established an imprint, Aignos Publishing, dedicated to the avant garde, one being the “screenplay-novel.” Authoring, for me, has always been a mental, or, if you will, thought process. True, the best thoughts are tactile, olfactory, taste, auditory and, yes, intellectual, but with acting and the emergence of the screenplay-novel, I’m finding that I’m beginning to envision a story in increasing visual terms these days. Not just somewhat visually, but VERY visually. My characters, who’ve always “talked” to me, conveying their dialog and actions while challenging me to record what they’re “saying” as fast as I can, have begun sharing with me more of what they’re seeing and feeling from their distinct points-of-view. It sounds here like a semantic shift, but it’s really quite profound. When acting, I BECOME the character; when authoring now I am suddenly BECOMING my characters, including their unique gender and partner preferences, and it’s more than a little unsettling.
Take the sequel to the Amazon Genre Bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 – tentatively entitled “Prophecy.” Where before I “wrote about,” now I find myself actually “living” the story from each character’s point-of-view. Already half-written, “Prophecy” promises to be a whole other reading experience; one I hope my fans will both enjoy and appreciate in the same way as The STATIC Movie!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
Static is a family friendly, drama. The principal’s daughter struggles to find balance in her life as she deals with her practical-physician husband Donald and her father Will who’s showing symptoms of early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Together Donald and Will force her to make a heartbreaking decision, which Will makes worse when he brings home a radio that only emits static but swears he is communicating with his late wife Ginny.
Reprising the role of Will Garner these last couple weeks has presented a panoply of insights into not only the character and acting, but also authoring. One unique aspect of acting, blocking, is proving of special interest to me. First, I’m good at acting, but I have to work hard to memorize lines. Especially for the reference master where the whole script for a particular location has to be done “from memory,” beginning to end. There’s no analog in authoring, at least of which I’m currently aware. In fact, however, most of the ACTUAL filming is done in “blocks” — short vignettes that reflect the different actor points-of-view. Memorization isn’t quite so difficult when approached in blocks. The “problem” is that a movie, even during final filming, is an ever-evolving beast, so there are not infrequent script changes, and likewise “blocking” changes. Again, I know of nothing analogous in authoring.
The whole acting experience is deepening my understanding of written literature, and, in fact, changed the way I write. Savant Books and Publications, one of my publishers, recently established an imprint, Aignos Publishing, dedicated to the avant garde, one being the “screenplay-novel.” Authoring, for me, has always been a mental, or, if you will, thought process. True, the best thoughts are tactile, olfactory, taste, auditory and, yes, intellectual, but with acting and the emergence of the screenplay-novel, I’m finding that I’m beginning to envision a story in increasing visual terms these days. Not just somewhat visually, but VERY visually. My characters, who’ve always “talked” to me, conveying their dialog and actions while challenging me to record what they’re “saying” as fast as I can, have begun sharing with me more of what they’re seeing and feeling from their distinct points-of-view. It sounds here like a semantic shift, but it’s really quite profound. When acting, I BECOME the character; when authoring now I am suddenly BECOMING my characters, including their unique gender and partner preferences, and it’s more than a little unsettling.
Take the sequel to the Amazon Genre Bestseller, THE EDGE OF MADNESS (Aignos 2020) by Raymond Gaynor – https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999693859 – tentatively entitled “Prophecy.” Where before I “wrote about,” now I find myself actually “living” the story from each character’s point-of-view. Already half-written, “Prophecy” promises to be a whole other reading experience; one I hope my fans will both enjoy and appreciate in the same way as The STATIC Movie!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je6CC...
No comments have been added yet.
