THE FAMOUS FIRST FIVE PAGES

Is very common to read/hear that the agencies and producers usually reads the first five pages of your script and if they're not hooked... to their always full waste basket.
This is a bit frustrating if you want to "build" a story, in particular a suspense one. In suspense, you can't reveal everything from the beginning. Suspense is built.
So, I use some tricks that I believe I'm not the only one doing them.
Take one of the bloodiest or more action-charged scenes of your script and put it on the start. It doesn't matter if it will be shown again 50 pages after. You must start with a big bang!
Then, some months ago, I was watching in some theaters movies like "Blood Diamond", "The Constant Gardener" and most recently, "Apocalypto."
What catch more my attention, even more than the films, was the response of the young audience to some "action" but dramatic moments of the films.
They were laughing! They didn't care if the scene was loaded with drama, if it was showing a genocide or else. Bang, bang, blood splitting, brains exploding: they laugh and enjoy.
So I did a trial: to write the first 5 pages of a script loaded from the beginning with that stuff. Even more, I decided that every minute the script must had no less than one kill, average 2 or 3 better. Car chases, subway trains crashing, even helicopters falling to the Hudson river... everything in five minutes.
The script is very politically loaded, is an action-political one, contemporary.
I showed the pages to a friend in the industry. His response: Gee man, this is promising!
So, hum, I'm going to finish the script, I have all the story line plotted, the characters defined.
But what about my ethics? Is that what I want to tell with my stories?
If optioned and produced, I think I'm going to drop by the theaters to check those young guys laughing because... they will be actually my guinea pigs in this film experiment.
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CORDOBA FOR NEXT YEAR... LUCKILY

Sadly, I had to postpone my trip to Cordoba, Spain.
The old bureaucratic curse of this world. The Spanish consulate in NYC takes too long to process a visa and honestly, I hate to deal with behind the counter suits, no matter from what nation they are.
But, next year... we'll see.
As a Buddhist I believe that things happens for a reason, and in that case it was.
Three scripts requests came while I was in the Spain go-not go.
If I should have traveled, then I would have lost those opportunities.
Life is always speaking to us, we must keep our senses open to hear what it says.
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TO CORDOBA AND OLE!

Again, I've been away many moons from this blog.
Trips to my home country, writing some scripts per request (and no delays allowed!)... excuses, excuses.
And then, when the pond looked getting calmly again, and invitation to an screenwriters convention-class in Cordoba, Spain.
Nice! An opportunity to check how the guys in our craft are doing there as also chance to do some networking se habla espanol.
There's this guy, Altunaga, a Cuban big shot of screenwriting who will give the class. Let's see what we get.
So, again, I'm running getting visas, air tickets and all that stuff.
Where's the time for writing? Well, let's do it on planes, airports and who knows.
Just keep writing, just keep writing...
So, my next post will be from London, Copenhagen or Cordoba (yeah, a long trip.)
Anyway, hope I'll have August to finish one script that looks goood as September is San Diego's ASA Convention and Film Festival and October Los Angeles's huge convention (and sales?)
Do VISA gives you additional miles for traveling-writing so much?
We'll see.
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