[The Limit] The final rewrite has begun!

At about 4pm.

Basically, I got sick of taking notes and preparing to do it - so I've just launched straight in. Posting may resume its recent quietness, or it may keep on being done every couple of days. I'm not sure. I've got a holiday coming up, which will probably be devoted to the script but it'll also give me some free time to jot some stuff down.

Also, this be Post 650.

What does a script-writer do?

In "Writing screenplays that sell", Robert Hauge describes the script-writer's primary job as "eliciting emotion from the person reading the screenplay."

My take on the script-writer's primary job: to construct a question that's interesting enough that the audience will keep watching to find out the answer.

How to apply that structurally is to introduce the question as early as possible, and answer it as late as possible.

The Limit - The polishing begins

Yesterday.

9.25 am: I'm about to read The Limit. I'm nervous. Fair enough; this draft is supposed to be the last one, and this read will determine whether I'm finished.

So, I want it to be good. But I know it can't match the ideal in my head, and it isn't perfect.

10.51 am: Finished the read.

Well, it's good. Not great. But I do think this is the final polish of the script.

Acts One and Two move pretty damn well (after a couple of year of rewriting). Act Three is puffy, and now it needs to be lifted. It's got a repetitive start; the logic behind what's happened to Peter isn't clear; the climax isn't sharp or moving enough.

Now to do up my notes, and hear back from Andrew.

Filed in: script limit