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TV writer who eats danger for breakfast

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Adventures in 24 Hour Filmmaking

February 24, 2014 by Amy Suto 3 Comments

Every year, USC hosts a 24 hour film contest called the Ed Wood Film Festival. It sets out to prove that students can make a better film in 24 hours than Ed Wood could in his career. Quality aside, 24 hour filmmaking competitions are a great chance to test run ideas, experiment with special effects, and learn how much coffee it takes to pull a productive all-nighter. (Answer: four cups MINIMUM.)

24hourfilmfestivaluscedwoodThis year, I worked with Jen Enfield-Kane, Conner Sorensen, Bryce Sorensen, and Rahne Avant to create a film called TRIGGER about a schizophrenic facing his past. Bryce was our DP and also did spectacular special effects makeup on Rahne — you can see her in full burn makeup below. We also had other advanced special effects that were difficult to pull off but we managed to fit everything into twenty four hours. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Adventures, All Posts, Musings

Tips and Tricks for Novel Writing

June 6, 2013 by Amy Suto Leave a Comment

amy suto screenwriting

So yeah this is Maui guys

What did I learn from a week of writing over 13,000 words worth of my novel?

That if you’re going to rent a surfboard and try and surf, you should have some instruction of some kind. Don’t be a lone wolf like me, eager to show the world that the premise of if-I-can-longboard-I-can-surf is a valid one.

Anyways, after finishing a few short scripts up for an upcoming competition, I turned my focus completely on the time sensitive project of my novel that I need to finish by the end of this month!

Now, as you can imagine, writing a novel is not all sunshine and roses. This is my fifth and I can tell you for certain that instead it’s more like you suddenly lose all ability to function and/or write anything good and it’s like help I’ve fallen and I can’t get up as suddenly the walls close in on you and there’s a boulder and snakes and fire.

I don’t know when my novel went all Indiana-Jones-death-trap on me, but it did. My beta readers kept finding glaring inconsistencies in my protagonist’s motivation and flaws, and I also definitely screwed some small picture things up that took my readers out of the story. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Adventures, All Posts, Who is Amy Suto? Tagged With: novel writing, secrets to novel writing, writing

Dispatches from Mexico

July 31, 2012 by Amy Suto

Me: “That’s one way to keep people from swimming in the bay.”

Sailboat Captain: “No, we actually have a crocodile infestation problem here. Mi amigo Hernandez? He slipped and fell off the dock, and lost his left leg to one of them. Right over there.”

He points a few feet away from the sailboat I’ll be boarding in a minute, which is across from a narrow, slippery stretch of wood I’d hesitate to call a dock.

There’s nothing like international travel to remind you how much you value your limbs.

Filed Under: Adventures, All Posts

Writing Research & Adventures: Amy Fires a Nuclear Missile

June 5, 2012 by Amy Suto

Today was like any other day: I woke up, descended thirty-five feet underground, and turned the key that launched a Titan nuclear missile in Tucson, Arizona. Y’know, Monday morning. Daily grind and all. Don’t know how I do it sometimes.

Does this look like a deactivated missile to you? Hmm?

MY ADVENTURE SERIES

For those of you who don’t know, the “screenwriter” job title is an official excuse for me to plan spontaneous adventures around the globe in the name of research. Last Monday, I fired 500 rounds at the largest indoor shooting range in the country and sat down with an expert who taught me everything I know about guns and how to accurately incorporate them into my movies.

This week, I descended underground to visit a decommissioned missile silo, was dubbed commander, and got to participate in a mock missile firing. So if this whole writing gig doesn’t work out, I’ll always have a job firing deadly missiles at America’s enemies.

Red buttons are meant to be pushed. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Adventures, All Posts, Screenwriting

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