So, the last week has proved to be a bit tricky. I was back at work this week, kinda unofficially (ie, I'm trying to get ahead before we officially open, when I conveniently head away for a wedding one day after we start up for the year), and I'm trying not to do to much of my personal stuff at the office. Plus I had quite a bit to do, largely because we're nearing the end of this massive project and I'm desperate not to miss anything. We've put over a year's worth of work into this film and I can't afford to mess anything up at the eleventh hour.
However, today I made up for it. I sat down and did a whopping FOUR HOURS of writing! Not just on my feature, but I also did a few passes on a short film that I'm writing and that I hope to do as a co-pro with these awesome people later in the year.
I've produced a LOT of films over the past few years, but nothing that I have written purely by myself and that I've put out into the world. So one of my goals this year is to shoot something that I've written and that I'm really proud of. Because I'm a total smartarse, I've come up with something that I want to shoot in two countries. Simultaneously. Just leave the Oscar on my doorstep, please.
Anyway, I sat down to do a pass on this particular script, fixed a few bits and pieces (which added a few pages - good god, this is a long short film!), and then jumped onto the feature.
I'm also about to head up the coast on a road trip for a friend's wedding, and I know I'm going to find it a bit hard to write over the next week, so I wanted to get my page count up. I've got Final Draft on my ipad now, and I've got a whooooole lot of driving to do, so who knows, maybe I'll have some time to write in the car when we're on this epic journey:
Now I'm at 26 pages (here comes 'Break into Two!') and I'm pretty happy with how it's tracking so far. Yes, the intro is too long, and I'm hitting some of my key markers a bit late (the theme is stated on page 9 not 5, the debate isn't until page 15, etc) but I'm not wildly off... which is reassuring. Who would have thought, that research I did into structure actually helped.
It's still early days, sure, but so far I'm really happy with how the story is unfolding too... there were a few story points that I really wasn't quite sure would work when I was plotting this out, but as soon as I started to write them - BAM! Solutions presented themselves. The scene took on a life of its own.
The characters, with the risk of sounding like a total dick, are starting to develop their own personalities and taking the scenes in slightly different directions...and that is one of my most favourite, FAVOURITE parts of screenwriting. I love it when stuff starts happening that you didn't expect, relationships start building and scenes start unfolding in ways that you had never (and could never!) have planned. It's some kind of intoxicating magic when that happens and I got a whiff of it today.
I really hope I can get some work in on the road. Or at least spend the 17 hour drive brainstorming stuff with my fellow road-trippers (whether they like it or not). I feel like I'm onto something good at the moment...
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