The Process of Translating my Own Book into a Screenplay

I have held for years that my nonfiction book The Great Heist would make a great movie.  I originally tried to do so when I first learned of the story, but unfortunately I couldn't get it made.  Thus the reason it became a book.

I became re-inspired to try when someone came to me and optioned it for a year for the purpose of making a movie or limited series.  When he couldn't get it made, I decided to give it another try.  So I wrote my own version of a limited series pilot along with a series Bible.  There were some interesting things to note about the translation from written work to screenplay.

First, I had to let go of the inner historian; at least a large part of him.  It's not that I was willing to give up all historical accuracy, but I had to put the emotion of the story first.  In fact,t hat leads to the second, and most important task in translating a book to a screenplay.

The emotion of what happened and why it's relevant to the audience has to come first.  It's important to note that this does not run counter to historical accuracy.  In fact, it should run in tandem with it.  A common misconception is that entertainment value and historical accuracy are at odds with one another.  Some will say you need to drop historical accuracy for entertainment, others say you have to sacrifice entertainment in favor of accuracy, while others will say you need to balance the two.

All three of those are the wrong point of view to take.  If a filmmaker likes a true story well enough that they want to make it into a film, there must be something that drew them to the story in the first place.  Why make a movie about something for which there is no attraction?  What needs to happen is to translate it from written word to screen in the same way one translates from one language to another.  The words don't translate exactly, so you have to take the meaning of the sentence in one language and reword it in a sentence of the other language.  In no way would a good translator throw out the meaning of the original sentence.

With that in mind, one needs to look at the structure of a historical book, and the structure of a screenplay.  A historical book tells about the background of the characters involved, what brought them to the present, and dwells on individual moments to give details about each one.  A book can also jump around in time to give information about a person or a place.  A film is much more linear, and the story needs to keep moving with no time to stop and dwell on anything.  Yet we still want to know more about the characters so we care about them.  So it's important to find ways to slip in information about them as it's going along through organic actions we see on screen.

As an example of how I did this in The Great Heist, when I introduced Max Towle I combined several times he was in a courtroom performing his wild antics.  These incidents had taken place over many years, some of which happened after the incidents in the story.  But we're not going to jump through all those time periods and the audience needs to know in a couple minutes what this guy is all about.  So, those elements get combined.

As I wrote the script, I kept the book open, writing what was happening, but then translating it to the language of film; combining events or altering them to give the emotional impression of what happened rather than trying to portray the exact thing.

I recently saw this in a movie called The Death of Stalin.  The events of the story are very accurate, but many of the specifics are exaggerated to emphasize the absurdity of what occurred.  A story about decades of tragedy is thus transformed into an absurdist comedy while the historical accuracy of it all is kept intact.

This week is the last webisode of Outbreak Undead for my RPG Storytime series for this season.  Star Wars will begin in December, and I'm heavily in the process of finishing that up so it'll be ready.  I find myself strangely more excited about working on these than any of my books.

RPG Storytime is my Youtube show where I take the stories from role playing games I've been running and turn them into narrative stories complete with sound effects, music, etc. and visually told with images and miniatures.

I feel a bit guilty for being so much more excited about doing videos using toys to tell stories about games rather than writing books.  After all, I'm in my 40s and should be striving for something more adult, shouldn't I?

But in thinking through why I enjoy it so much, I've come to realize just why I enjoy it so much.  RPG Storytime is a combination of my three favorite things to do,writing, filmmaking,and gaming.  I get to create a cooperative story with a group of people playing a game.  I then get to write it up into story format.  And finally I have to figure out how to  tell that story visually.

I do wish more people would see them.  I've been discouraged by the small number of viewers, and it sometimes makes me wonder why I'm spending time on this.  But I can't help myself.  Even now, I'm wanting to get through this blog posting so I can continue to work on Star Wars.  It's a thrill I get like no other; probably because it combines everything I enjoy doing.

You can find all of the RPG Storytime webisodes on my channel Bandwagon Games.

Tales of a Failed Filmmaker - The First Time I Learned About Star Wars

My first movie experience was almost Star Wars.  I was six years old and my father wanted to take me to this new science fiction film.  But my mother, being a responsible parent, stopped him and said that he should watch it first to see if it would be appropriate for someone at my age.  So my dad took my brother to see it while my mom took me to see Benji.  Yep, my mother’s sense of responsibility made Benji my first movie rather than Star Wars.  Damn you good parenting!

My mom, sister and I got home first and we were in the kitchen when the door opened and my brother rushed in with his eyes wide.  My father was right behind him, his own eyes wide as well.  It was as though he had just seen a ghost doing gymnastics.  He told her that I had to go see this movie.  Not should, had.  Still being the responsible parent, my mother asked if it was age appropriate, and he vigorously nodded his head.

Soon after, we went to see it at the Stuart theater in downtown Lincoln.  It was a former stage theater from the days of grand productions.  It looked more like an opera house, complete with deep cushioned, plush, red seats, and etched mirrors in the lobby; and it played only the biggest movies.  I remember only bits and pieces of watching it.  In particular, I remember that I didn’t know what “terminate” meant, and when my mom explained that it meant to kill, I couldn’t believe they were thinking about killing Princess Leia.  It was the first time I remember feeling fear.  I didn’t understand yet that the good guys general win these movies; my exposure to television thus far had often been football, and in that, either side could win.  So I truly didn’t know that the rebels would win.  (Oh, spoiler alert.)

I also remember going to the bathroom during the scene when Obiwan Kenobi turned off the tractor beam, so I didn’t understand why the characters were able to leave.  For some reason I remember another older black kid in the bathroom with me.  I think I remember this because it was one of the first times I was using a bathroom alone, and I didn’t know how I was supposed to react to a stranger in a bathroom.  I wasn’t nervous with fear, I was nervous about my manners.  Am I supposed to look?  Am I not?  I think men and women react differently to bathrooms; we never get over our fear of looking at one another while in them.

After the movie, I remember going to the apartment buildings my dad owned and jumping in the pool.  We had taken a family friend, Jon, and he and my brother Trevor were reenacting scenes, especially the one in the trash compactor as though the walls were going to smash them in the pool, and the snake creature was underneath.  I remember one point when Trevor said, “we’re all going to be a lot thinner” and Jon responded, “At least I won’t have to iron my clothes anymore!”

In the years to come, it would prove to have an impact on me as strong as my dad predicted; especially with the toys.  My best friend Ryan and I collected as many figures as we could and created stories with them.  This became my first efforts at storytelling.

And then my father purchased making of documentaries on laserdisc.  I began watching them over and over and over.  I was obsessed with how people made images that went on the screen; how storytelling could be visually explained, and how those images stirred the emotions.

Tales of a Failed Filmmaker: Stranded in Park City

I was traipsing through the fresh snow of Park City, heading through the darkness and drifting snowflakes toward my car in the parking lot.  It was the middle of the night, and the snow had been falling since 10.

I had seen it when it started.  From outside a club along the main street of town, the tiny white dots dancing toward the ground highlighted in the glow of the old fashioned lamp posts.  The white sheen of the streets got trapped by the walls of the quaint buildings, creating an all-too-perfect glow, like a painting of small town America.  Next to me, someone posted the results of the winners of the festival.  At the top was someone named Morgan Spurlock for a documentary called Supersize Me.  It didn't seem important at the time in January, 2004, but in retrospect I realize I was the first person in the world to learn that this groundbreaking film had been the winner at the festival.

I had been invited to the club by two women with whom I had shared a shuttle bus.  I shouldn't have been surprised that they didn't show up, though I later found that I had probably gone to the wrong club.  It was just as well.  I needed to head back to LA, and I had only enough money to pay for the gas to get me there.  I had a check waiting for me at home, but my ex-girlfriend, who had not yet left my apartment even after more than two months after breaking up with me, refused to help out by depositing it.

I had risked everything to go to Sundance.  I didn't have a film in the festival, but I did have a movie being developed.  We had met with a bunch of well-known actors, and Martin Sheen had offered to be a part of it.  I just needed investors, and Sundance was a way to get to these investors and production companies without being blocked by what I called the red velvet rope.

I had made some important connections, and now I just needed to get back to Burbank with them.  The snow was starting to come down hard now, and I needed to get off the mountain before I got blocked in.

That's why I was so horrified to see a tow truck with a small white lump on its back, my car, driving out of the parking lot.  I screamed in panic as I chased after, cutting across a nearby lawn to try to cut it off.  Much to my surprise, there was a hidden dip into which I suddenly sank up to my chest.  Stuck, I tried to push forward anyway.  But I could do nothing but helplessly watch my car be carried away into the darkness.

I was helpless, alone, more than half buried in the snow in the darkness of the middle of the night.  I was lower than the lowest point.  This is where a lifetime of trying to make it in the entertainment industry had led me.  Hundreds of miles from home without a car, no way to get to it, and not enough money to get it out and drive it home even if I did.

As I floated there in the snow in shock and hopelessness, my mind began to wonder how I had gotten there.  What choices had I made that brought me to this point that was lower than I expected life could ever get?

I will be exploring these choices, and my experiences, in this blog.  Whenever the title begins with "Tales of a Failed Filmmaker" I will be telling these stories from a journey of 25  years of trying to make it in the film industry, and failing.

I'm beginning this story now because this month, (in fact, this day,) marks the 20th anniversary of my arrival in Los Angeles.  I will not be telling this story in order; it would take too long to get to more recent tales, and I know I'll be remembering things out of order along the way.  So each story will be from a different point in time, and I'll do my best to explain the dates where I remember them.

My Varying Interests

Perhaps my biggest benefit is also my biggest drawback, my varying interests.  I've always had a wide array of likes and hobbies.  I can never settle on just one thing; it makes me restless.  This is also one of the main reasons I'm a storyteller; I always want to jump to another world.  Had I chosen a different profession I would be stuck in one world.  Speaking of telling stories, I've never understood the concept of always writing in one genre.  It feels like when one does that, they're taking away the greatest benefit of writing.  I know it's better for building a platform and making more money, but I would feel so trapped if I did that.

But I digress.  I was speaking of my interests, and I have recently narrowed them down to three basic categories:

Writing
Filmmaking
Game design

Thanks to the wonders of self-publishing, Youtube, and print on demand, I'm able to do all three.  This has, in a way, caused a problem for me.  You see, for years, I was trying to pitch projects in all three of these categories to those who could make them a reality.  I got turned down so much that I have a huge backlog of projects.  Ever since self-publishing in all three categories came out, I've been doing them myself.  And the floodgates have flown wide open, overwhelming me with the ability to make whatever I want and get it to the public.

The problem is the irritating finite of time... and the fact that I need to sleep, and do a job that brings in enough money to live.  Plus, and this is a big one, I need to promote the projects so I'm not just whistling in the dark.

And so I have had to organize these into specific projects set for specific times.

Writing includes the two books I'm putting together this year along with the short stories for Relic Worlds, plus the promotions for the past titles.  The books I'm making this year are coming out at the beginning of the year and end of the year, while the promotions will be scattered throughout.

Filmmaking has become the gaming channel I have on Youtube called Command Combat Battle Reports, as well as a show I have that supports Relic Worlds that centers around geocaching.  These are fitting in during the middle of the year.

Games would include a wide host of games I've invented, but since I'm short on time and this is the lowest priority, it's centered around finishing Command Combat: Civil War, which I started years ago, and games that support the promotion of Relic Worlds.  These are being done sort of around the center and end of the year.