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A couple of weeks ago I was listening to Stephen Gaghan talk about Syriana, a film which he wrote and directed back in 2006.

The best advice Gaghan got on writing was from reading a biography by Henri Troyat on Tolstoy. Tolstoy famously wrote in his journal that to write a great novel there are four techniques which one has to master. For Tolstoy, the most important thing to master was not story, but rather, transitions.

How and when to start and end a scene. In film, transitions are everything. They keep a film moving and the audience interested. Transitions don’t just come into play in the editing room though. As Michael Brandt points out in a recent interview for Wanted, mastering the technique of transitions is what elevated him from amateur to professional screenwriter.

Here are Tolstoy’s four techniques (which according to him must be mastered in this particular order).

1. Transitions
2. Context
3. Character
4. Story

As Gaghan points out, following these four steps strips away formula and allows you to stay in the inspired brain (vs. the editorial brain).

For those interested, you can listen to the full interview with Gaghan here.

Berlin is home to many things: pastries, graffiti, electronic music just to name a few, but its staple (and number one snack food) are their sausages. Not just any sausage though - the currywürst. You can’t walk five meters without hitting a sausage stand that sells currywürst. The currywürst (pronounced verst) is mixture of ketchup, curry powder and sausage which was discovered accidentally by Herta Heuwer.

Konnopke’s, which is the oldest stand in the city (about 75 years old), is legendary for making the best currywürst in town. It’s situated right under the U2 U-Bahn station (and three blocks from where I live!)

The secret is in their sauce. Apparently the ketchup is home made and has been kept a secret by the Ziervogel family for generations.

Here’s a fun video on Konnopke’s and the currywürst.

The cineplex is dominated by male protagonists. Films are mostly geared towards male audiences and men make up a large number of the writers, directors, producers etc., working in the industry. According to the Celluloid Ceiling report, Martha M. Lauzen writes that “women comprised a scant 15% of all directors, writers, producers, editors, and cinematographers working on the top 250 films of 2007.”

So it comes as no surprise that her recent study reveals the lack of female film critics in the top 100 U.S. Daily Newspapers. A discouraging but evident statistic:

Films with women filmmakers (directors and writers) and films with female protagonists and ensemble casts comprise a larger proportion of films reviewed by women than men. Thus, the under-representation of women film critics, writers and freelancers may cause films featuring females or with women filmmakers to receive less coverage.

Anne Thompson (one of my favorite industry bloggers) has a look at the study and a few comments of her own.

Let’s put it this way. Some men are better able to adopt the female POV, and tap into their femme side, than others. Many men are not trained to see things from the perspective of the opposite sex. All women are. That’s one reason why today’s movies are so geared toward men, while women starve for material aimed at them. Women are accustomed to going along and accepting slim pickings in pictures by and about men.

To add to Thompson’s statement. Women, from an early age, are raised to see things from a male perspective. Not just from cinema, but from all forms of mass media. Unfortunately, because of this, women tend to look at one another from a male perspective as well, which gives rise to the cattiness, competitiveness and dislike for one another that we are constantly hearing about, seeing and propagating (which is a whole different can of worms). It drives me mad and the way the industry is heading is certainly not helping matters.

On the iPod: Nina Simone: Feeling Good.

It’s one thing to watch Obama speak on youtube and quite something else to attend a live rally of a groundbreaking politician on Unter den Linden.

Over 200,000 people turned up for the event.

Some photos I took of Obama’s big day in Berlin.

Watch the speech.

The city is abuzz over Obama’s visit tomorrow. His impending speech has caused quite a stir here and abroad. Talks of him speaking at the Brandenburg Gate have left some with a bad taste in their mouth but leave it to those who know what they’re talking about to put things in perspective.

Obama will be speaking at the Siegessäule monument (Victory Column) tomorrow evening. As if the debate over his address at the Gate wasn’t enough, politicians are criticizing this new location as being one full of Nazi-related symbolism. On the contrary. The debate continues.

One city official anticipates a turnout between 10,000 and a million people. (How are these numbers remotely helpful?)

I’ll be sure to take some photos of the event.

I was back in Montreal for a few days last week, hence the lack of blogging. I’m back in Berlin and suffering from two doses of jet lag. (I don’t think I recovered from the first bout of jet lag before I was back on plane heading across the ocean again.)

Anyway…. thought I would post a couple of items that I stumbled upon during the week.

Film: Matt Dentler (former SWSX Film Fest program director) now at Cinetic Media Rights discusses the future of online film distribution. The video is an hour long but well worth the watch.

Writing: Kurt Vonnegut talks writing with style. (via Kottke)

Entertainment: Spike Jonze’s adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are gets shelved with no official release date. It was scheduled for release this fall, then pushed to 2009 and now it’s no longer on Warner Brother’s release schedule. Patrick Goldstein goes into more detail about the situation. Quite unfortunate because this video got me very excited to see the film.

I’d like to start talking about the film I’m currently working on. I’ve been living in Berlin for the past several months working on a script that’s being funded by SODEC and Telefilm (we’re waiting to hear back from The Harold Greenberg Fund to see if they’re interested in climbing on board as well). Couzin Films is producing. We had a great relationship on Birthday Girl, so I have no doubt the chemistry will continue.

In short, the film that I am writing is a psychological thriller. It involves four main characters: a young woman, her husband, their next door neighbour and J.S. Bach (Schumann, Beethoven, Liszt and others). Music, or classical music for that matter, factors heavily in the film, so much so that I consider it the fourth character.

Since I consider music to be a character, I’ve already started researching the various pieces that I’m considering using for the film; pieces that have a history, that have a story and that will add depth to the scenes.

The music scene in Berlin is wonderful, not to mention the city is rich in music history (Germany being the home country for many of the masters - Bach, Schumann, beethoven etc). It’s not every day you can attend an organ concert at the church Bach used to play at.

One of the challenges in filming a movie that requires music to be played by the actors in the film is casting for the roles.

Sometimes, directors will find a professional musician who looks right for the role (a non actor) and coach them for the film (which is what I did on Birthday Girl).

Other times, directors will cast professional actors who will learn an instrument as best they can so that they can at least appear to know what they are doing while filming. After filming is done, the actor’s performance is matched with that of a professional recording. When the latter is done properly, the transition is seamless and the effect is wonderful. When it’s done poorly, the audience is taken right out of the film.

The other issue with being dependent on music for a film is getting the rights to the music. Classical pieces are no longer under copyright protection, but the recordings of the music are. Often, orchestras or musicians are hired for the sole purpose of recording various pieces for a film.

In the case of my film, one of the main characters is a concert pianist. She also happens to listen to a lot of classical music.

A few months ago I met Anyssa Neumann, a remarkable pianist living in Berlin. We’ve been talking about my film for quite a while and I’m thrilled to say she’s coming on board to record the classical pieces for the film. (In case I hire a professional actress who is not a pianist, Anyssa will do the master recordings as well.)

I’ve also hired her as a research consultant. She has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the history of classical music and talking to her is incredibly helpful just in terms of getting into the mind of a professional pianist. It’s so important to have a consultant around to make sure what you’re doing is as authentic as possible.

Over the next while I will be posting some of the pieces I will be considering for the film.

Since Anyssa is on board (and my first official behind the scenes cast member), I thought I would post a piece from one of her concerts (a piece I am considering using for the film).

Beethoven Sonata Op. 109 mvmt 2.

Enjoy.

I’m very happy to say that Birthday Girl will have its European premiere at this year’s 31st LUCAS International Children’s Film Festival!

The festival takes place for a week, from September 7th - 14th in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Good thing I’ll still be in Berlin. Can’t wait to present the film!