Script Progress
I forget to post. I mean this blog completely slipped my mind. Good job no one reads it anyway!
So I'm pretty much done with the 10 minute script and I've written maybe 12 minutes of my 30 minute script. I really want to get them both to the point where I'm just editing and considering the finer points before the end of this weekend. That'll give me a week to tweak them and make them half-decent. I'm fairly sure my plots are okay but I need to be careful of on-the-nose dialogue in my expositions.
Ugh. So tired. Anyway this is all going be a non-issue a week on Monday when I meet my final deadline. Yayness.
Making Progress
Time it be ticking away. We're now less than three weeks from our big script deadline and also the end of term. I've just booked three extra days off work to get my stuff done (one this week, one next week and one the week after). That means one three day week, another three day week and then one four day week, followed by yet another four day week! Yay! Of course all these days off are going to be spent working on writerly thing but still yay!
As far script progress goes I've been pretty much ignoring the 30 minute script for now. I know I need to throw myself into it and get the damned thing written but I'm also much more confident that I can make my 10 minute script good. I really want to get that one into a better position and focus on one thing at a time. That's what a little positive feedback will do for you. I've got all my on paper edits done now. I'm now in the progress of copying them up into my CeltX project and then go through the comments and feedback from other people. After that it needs a big old proof read and we'll see how the dialogue works out. Dialogue is hard, much harder than I expected. But still... three day week! Yay! Onward!
Also Hay this weekend! Big yay!
Script Feedback
We haven't written a script since the winter. In just over three weeks I have to hand in a 10 minute script and a 30 minute script. I've spent the last few months working on an outline for the 30 minute but have had rather a lot of problems getting my story good enough to move onto the script writing stage. We wrote the 10 minute scripts back at christmas time and haven't looked at them since. I'd been sd lacking in confidence and focused on the 30 minute that I'd almost blocked out the possibility of improving it. That was then.
Yesterday I had a tutorial with Michael Eaton. I'd sent him the 10 minute film since it was the only script I'd completed and he'd asked to see up to 10 pages of script. It was awesome. He's a great bloke and his enthusiasm for writing really blew away my negativity and totally energised me. Not only did he give me some great ideas on how to improve the 10 minute script, he also gave me some positive feedback on my writing. So now I've got a plan I just need to get my arse in gear and get it done. Onward!
Starting Over
The sound of an oncoming storm. The dense, cardiac beat of the double kick. The epic chords. The music crashes over me. It soothes. But it doesn't dampen. I need this, this freak out. I need it to work, to rant to get my goddamned arse in gear. And the music helps. I ride with it.
Okay. Melodrama done. I've got six weeks till my script deadline. My idea is dead. I've not had any passion for it for at least a month and it really shows. The characters are empty and we've only now been shown what a good treatment should actually look like... So. Starting over. A new idea, that isn't really new. It's been bubbling away in my mind for a while now. But the thing is it isn't a story. It's a character, which is where all good stories really need to start.
Six weeks. 30 minutes. One resurrected undead overlord with a sharp suit. Let's do this thing.
Character/Script
I still feel as I'm still stuck on this whole script thing. I've got an idea of what I want to achieve but my story idea has changed to the point that my main character may no longer be my main character. He seems to be the only one who doesn't grow or change in my head any more. I guess that may be because I never really liked him very much... and if I don't like him then there's no reason for anyone else to. I'm tempted to steal personalities from my friend's at work. I think cue cards may be the answer... We shall see tomorrow. I need to take a break from being sociable and get my head down... Ugh... /ends.
Script – Draft One
I just finished the first draft of the script. The outline was very useful and should compress down into a treatment without too much trouble. The script itself is currently thirteen and a half pages. I've got a fair few scenes so I'm thinking more action and description is needed to try and pad it out to my fifteen page target. When I acted out the outline the timings were pretty much spot on. That can be a job for tomorrow. I also need to go through a bunch of notes I made during training today, read through Michael Eaton's class notes again and go through and make sure the whole thing reads well.
I've learned a lot about script formatting while doing this. I'm not confident I've got it entirely right but I don't think it's going to get me marked down much. Scrivener has been an awesome help in getting it looking right as has my script tutor, the examples he sent and the myriad of helpful stuff found online. The other thing I need to do is make sure all the action is written in a consistent voice and that I refer to the characters in a consistent manner (eg. he, Danny, it, stuff, thing etc). Again, those are jobs for tomorrow.
Right now, I'm going to give the script a break and edit Derek some more. I'm sending it off again! You know... Because I like polite rejection letters...
Adaptation
My adaptation project is due in on the 7th April. That's less than three weeks. I started it this weekend. More time would probably have been useful but I had script stuff to work on and, before that, my anthology submission. I shouldn't really have spent so much time on the anthology piece, since there's no marks in it, but it was important to me.
Anyway. My adaptation has now been started. I'm taking a short story from Christopher Coakes excellent We're In Trouble and turning it into a screenplay. I read the story again last night. It's amazing what a difference intent makes. Since beginning the MA, I've become more aware of how things need to be represented on script and on the screen. As I read there's another layer of thought on top of the one that's just reading. It's more active. It sits there examining each sentence, scene and event and imagines how they could be shown on screen (or perhaps re-ordered). So on the one hand you have my worry that I can't possibly do such a great story justice, but at the same time there's this great sense of fun and playfulness. I think it comes from the story and characters already having been written...
Wrong Things
Long lost update. The script saga goes on. I have now clearly defined what I'm doing wrong: My story is informing my characters and not the other way around. I need to go deeper. I need to know more. I need to live with them in my head. Then I need to crash them into one another. Then hopefully people will laugh. Haha. Funny. Haha.
Sugarfix
It began with a box of M&S cranberry and yoghurt oat crunchies. Well. It didn't begin right there. I did eat some savouries earlier in the day, nice vegetables and stuff at the Alley Cafe. But yes. M&S sweets. I'd bought them to take out in the evening. Except that didn't really work. I sat at home watching Primeval (Lucy Brown ftw!) when my hand just crept across the settee and flipped open the tub. Before I know it half of them are gone and I'm figuring I may as well just finish them off. So aside from the resulting bloatines there was also a bit of a sugar rush. I figure I'd better lay off for the rest of the evening.
That just didn't happen. My friend was hosting a poker night, complete with tins of chocolates and awesome brownies. So I snack some more. My sugar levels rise. I crash. Hard. I'm sitting pretty much comatose. I lose badly. But on the way home... Goodness! I'm sitting in the back of the car muttering to myself. Thoughts turn to script. I don't know what it is about sugar but for some reason I was able to keep a lot more plot threads in my head than normal. I made them fit. Sort of. I spent the next twenties minutes trying to keep those thoughts straight and another twenty minutes after I got home writing in a notebook. Looking at it now it sort of makes sense.
So yeah. Sugar + exhaustion = good thoughts and probably awful writing.
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The Home Straight
My scripts are all but written. The only thing left to do is make them good. I've got three full days and one evening. I'm confident I can make them at least semi-tolerable though! So this is it. Monday is my final deadline. After that it's four months of freedom and working on stuff that I can enjoy.