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Show 8 y Thursday, March 7, 4996 twitch Xi Medoff: Mark WRITING IT RIGHT by Gloria Quick Award-winnin- g Tbny author and screenplay Mark Medoff visited the University of Utah campus last weekend. He spoke with film students, giv- : v "&iJ 1 m? sop c son-in-la- experiment with dialogue until it screenplay students, adding there are some people in this world for whom writing is a bit like breathing. If you fall into that category, "You must not wait for inspiration," he said. "You must write every day for at least 10 Medoff has practiced what he head- ed the theatre department and is Professor Emeritus at New Mexico ing, Medoff wrote, directed, and acted in numerous plays before breaking into the film business with a bang. In the late 1970s, Medoff's screenplay, Children of a Lesser God, was nominated for an Academy Medoff's Nevertheless, it's only fair to mention that their friendship was sealed with a mutual attraction to basketball long before Marks married Medoff's daughter. Before becoming a film student, basketMarks was a ball player. Medoff had been a weekend basketball player for many years. Medoff says he has always loved sports, that he exercises dairy and is a firm believer in the adage, "Sound don't have to do it," he advised good literature. State University. In addition to teach- Whatever the medium, "You have to be able to write the way people talk," he said. Theatre is the best arena to see whether dialogue sounds realistic. Sometimes the dialogue may fail to work simply because the actor or director doesn't understand the part But a play is written to be performed by many different actors and directors and your dialogue must work for more thin one of them. A play can give the writer the opportunity to "talent will find its way." You need to keep sound in every way if you're going to make it as a writer, according to Medoff, who claims writing is die most frustrating experience in life. "Don't write if you throughout his talks to aspiring screenplay writers and filmmakers, Medoff reiterated his belief that in addition to attending film school, every aspiring screenplay writer should also should take a class or two in theatrical acting and directing and should acquaint himself with preaches. He taught literature, actors helps you learn to write. human being do," he said, complimenting Marks' ability. Marks is body, sound mind. With those ingredients, Medoff believes that ing critiques of sections of their screenplays and sitting in with a panel of theater critics after a matinee performance of his award winning play, When You Comin'Back Red Ryderl Medoff complimented the Babcock Theatre set and the actors who performed in the play which he wrote nearly 30 years ago. And tive process with the director and hardest job I've ever watched a TeJMcKinlcy Award. Since those days, Medoff has writ- ten many screenplays, including Clara's Heart which starred Whoopi Goldberg and City of Joy with Patrick Swayze. He recently helped an aspiring "MFW G filmmaker complete his first feature-lengt- h film. Medoff collaborated with Ross Marks who directed Homage, an independent film which screened at the Sundance film festival two years ago. "A film director has the single lb 15301 HAPPY GILMORE Director: Dennis Dugan Rated PG-1- 3 fe years to get the crap out of your writing so that someone other than your parents care about it" He insists that "Writing is rewriting," saying those who disagree should go into another field. "I've never met anyone who vomited it out and later discovered it had turned to gold when it hardened." He says we all vomit out our first drafts. And then we must rewrite until it works. "Start by writing for theatre," he advised, saying he loves the intimacy of the theatre. He said the collabora . works. That can happen with film ,too. But dialogue is theatre's primary ingredient, whereas film can tell much of the story with camera shots, using far less dialogue. "Novel writing gives you the most personal control," Medoff said. But even though novel writing is not the collaborative process that theatre and film are, he insists, that even with a novel, a writer must be willing to listen to others if he wants to have his work published. He said a publisher or agent might very well send back your first draft (which might actually be your fifth or sixth revision) with pages of deletions. Medoff is a veritable encyclopedia of information about every kind of writing. And it is unlikely he will ever stop "needing to write." Nevertheless, he said his greatest desire in recent years has been to be a better husband, father and person. If his willingness to share valuable time to inspire and encourage U. film students is any indication of his progress toward that end, Medoff is probably on the right track. JC est mm km Fy 5 Believe it or not, Happy Gilinore is actually a fairly.' decent comedy. It's nothing new, but nothing stale, either. Many projects that former Saturday Night Live veterans d cook up simply fall flat. gimmicks and recycled characters usually spoil their films; even the funniest SNL people can't carry a weak premise for 90 minutes. When I first learned Adam Sandler himself was helping to write Happy Cilmore, the story of a Half-bake- loud-mouth- ed hockey player-turne- d golf sensation, I dreaded the thought of sitting through a predictable dork off featuring sloppy repeats of Sandler's routines we all thought were funny at first on SNL. Anyone who sat through CB-Cotteheads, or Black Sheep knows how pathetic and uno- If' " ffj m&yM 4, il 'i ' riginal Chris Rock, Dan Akroyd and Chris Farley appeared in their latest attempts. Sandler manfailure his the first same on aged movie, too. Granted, Happy Gilinore has a pretty standard comedic formula. But surprisingly, Sandler refrains from the same, old crap. He doesn't sing once; nor does he break into his , lame-as"whipped puppy" little boy. voice. He brings totally new jokes to his blaring, bizarre sense of humor, and he delivers them loudly when they .make the least sense. The result is powerful, hilarity that doesn't just quit. . Not a whole lot of the humor is clever or witty, Sandler will never outshine Noel Coward. The gags are big-scre- en s, fart-knocki- mostly nonsensical emotional tirades that seemingly have no place in their context; no place in the situation or anywhere else but Sandler's own demented world. Pretty goofy stuff. One precious scene in Happy Gilmore is well worth the entire show. Game show host Bob Barker makes a guest for a celebrity golf team-u- p with Sandler. fJt appearance When Sandler blows their chances of winning, a violendy funny fist fight ensues. The sequence shows off Barker's and daytime charisma, v talent for not only spokesmanship but.hand-to-han- d well. combat as Prepare to pee when Sandler shouts taunts like, "The price is wrong, bitch!" Unfortunately, music was poorly incorporated into Joseph Happy Gilmore. For no relevant reason, the whole show was set against a bunch of '70s schlock rock from the likes of Lynrd Skynrd. This didn't compliment a particular theme or setting, but the songs were noticeably nostalgic; drawing attention to themselves. It seemed like some metal head was trying to relive his youth in the background or something. In addition, one or two cliche., tunes were recycled for this movie. Didn't the film makers know we already Tuesday's Gone" in Dazed re-liv- ed Ltdtrtr and Confused, and "Doctor and the Tartis" remixes have been in everything from Reality Bites to Shallow Gravel The tunes in Happy Gilmore were supposed to make you think Sandler and friends have cool taste, but their selections were hardly original. Ultimately, Happy Gilmore worked well and provided some nice laughs.-There- 's nothing ground breaking here, but the jokes and diversion are nice. ' BretAngell |