[The Limit] Trying to Understand Trace

Reading The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer today. Researching into Trace's personality. First question, from reading this and watching In the Cut a couple of nights ago, is "Why doesn't Trace feel more fear?"

"Female fearfulness may be, like the timorousness of rabbits or dear, adaptive. [snip] The truth is rather that female fearfulness is a cultural construct, instituted and maintained by both men and women in interest of the dominant, male group."

Here's something that validates an aspect of the script. "Daughters will develop more self-confidence if their fathers are encouraging and appreciative of their efforts." And the quote goes on, "but fathers seldom get such matters much tension and, if they do, usually demand objective verification of the daughters merit for giving encouragement."

There's quite a bit of information about being a woman in the police force here:

"Equality is cruel to women because it requires them to duplicate behaviours that they find profoundly alien and disturbing."

"As soon as a woman enters a male preserve [such as the police], she finds herself in an alien and repellent world which changes her fundamentally even as she is struggling to exert the smallest influence on it."

"Women who are inducted into masculinist hierarchies are exported tissue, in constant danger of provoking an inflammatory response and summary rejection."

"... the attempted integration of women in the police force was met by more or less covert insult, harassment and humiliation."

"'Either you try to be one of the boys, or you're on your own and you become a target.'"

QUESTION: what is the ratio of women to men in the New Zealand police force? At all levels?

And a couple of other bits I found interesting:

"The conversations between males; when women make a contribution the men ignore it and respond to the last utterance by a male." I've noticed this many times and really dislike it.

"A few men hate all women all of the time, some men hate some women all of the time, and all men hate some women some of the time." I know I've hated some people who happened to be women but I don't think I've hated anyone because they were a woman.

[TV] More stuff I've watched

Wednesday

The Simpsons
I've been an occasional watcher of the season but this Wednesday's episode is the most consistently funny I think The Simpsons have produced since Bart and Lisa ran afoul of the Patriot act. Homer believes the Rapture is coming. Homer goes to heaven.

Lost
The finale. I've written about this elsewhere but I'm pretty happy with what Lost is doing. I think it's setting itself up well for at least two more seasons of ideas.

Friday

Friends
Last episode ever. The Joey/Chandler plot is pants but the Ross/Rachel resolution is pretty much golden.

America's Next Top Supermodel
Eva gets smacked down by the sisterhood. Tyra teaches the models how to pose. There’s humourous music to hammer home the editorial points.

House
See, I gave up on this show 6 eps in because I thought it was just doing the same ol’ thing every week. However, came back to it about 3 jumps back and am just … entertained every time I watch it. That’s all. House doesn’t do anything special –just delivers an entertaining medical mystery with a good cast and 2 extra dollops of cynicism.

And tonight: Evil Nina Myers screaming in pain! A guest appearance by CHI MCBRIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A change to the basic situation – venture capitalist basically buys the hospital in order to engage in medical experimentations using unproven treatments. House, seeming to take an ethical stand. Oh yeah, the VC is in a real position to stand up to House, finally a credible threat.

And here’s where it gets interesting – although previous eps have pretty much run variations on the “we think we know what it is, oh no we’re wrong” act breaks, halfway through this one swerves off into an ethical dilemma, House deciding to lie just when the stakes are highest for his career. So, if the medical problem is identified by the halfway point, that means character stories have to come to the fore. That led to some doozies: the young female doctor expressing a romantic interest in House for instance.

(And BAM! Insight. A couple of days ago I posted about liking characters who were 'normal' not soap opera figures. I'm starting to realise that shows like CSI and early episodes of House are illustrations of what I mean. But the thing is I don't really respond to those shows. This is interesting because my theory doesn't fit my experience.)

And that’s 4 ‘ands’ starting paragraphs in a row so I’ll finish with the finish – House and the VC facing off, each immune from being fired by the other – but now with the VC implicitly threatening to remove all of House’s friends until he leaves the hospital. It’s was actually pretty well handled and it’ll be interesting to see how the show handles an ongoing dramatic subplot.

[How to: TV] Characters have Principles

Over at anyway, Vincent's making some good points about RPG settings and what we do when we're playing in a game like Buffy, which is based on someone else's creation and we are all familiar with and like.

Anyway, he has some comments about a game run by ... *cough*Ninja Hunter J*cough* ... that I think of such a lot of potential for writing a TV series Bible.

Last summer sometime Ninja J and I spent a whole afternoon walking all the heck over Northampton. Among many other things, we talked about a beloved old game he'd GMed; particularly, we talked about how rich and alive its setting was, how detailed. His players ate it up, he said, they'd go on and on about how compelling, complete, fully realized the setting was.

Then he told me how he'd done it. He'd taken three principles - I wish I could remember them in particular, J please step in here, but they were like "nobody thinks that they themselves are evil," "the Grand Galactic Empire is procedurally conservative," and "nobody really enjoys their job" - three principles something like those, and whenever any of his players asked him about anything in the setting, he'd simply apply those principles to create the answer.

"I duck into a broom closet." "Okay. There are a bunch of reg-77f portbrushes in there, but someone hasn't bothered to replace them yet, they're all slimy and they smell." All the details you'd need to bring the setting home, give it weight and momentum, and yet J didn't precreate the contents of a single broom closet.

There's lots more in the Comments section, but the basic idea I'd rip from this is to define characters via a series basic principles which you can communicate to your writers. For instance, Xander off Buffy would be ... let's say the one who makes pop culture jokes, the heart of the group and the one who no-one listens to but who always knows what's really going on.

[TV] Lost 1.5

****1/2 (out of 5)

After a disorientating opening (small boy in a schoolyard fight with a bully), it becomes obvious that this is Jack's episode. It's about building pressure on Jack to assume the role of leader - an episode I've wanted to see for a while. Aside from that, there is the growing pressure to find water and the appearance of the ghost/hallucination of Jack's dad.

Watching this, I noticed three distinct plots. The Real (Jack becomes leader), The Flashback (Jack as a young boy is told he doesn't have what it takes by his dad + Jack recovers his Dad's body from Australia) and The Island (Jack pursues the ghost of his Dad, dealing with unresolved issues that are stopping him from becoming leader).

What's neat is that they're using back story not only to answer questions about who these characters are, but each bit of information is also setting up new questions. It is also providing linear character development fire non-linear means. For instance, Charlie appears to be a playa in these early episodes (and the flashbacks reinforce this), even though on his journey to becoming committed to Claire the incident with the rich girl in England has already happened.

Act breaks:
1. "Dad?"
2. Dad causes Jack to take a fall. ¶
3. "A leader can't lead till he knows where he is going."
4. Jack smashes the coffin.

By the end of the episode when Jake gives his speech that it is time to organise, it feels right. In Series Design terms, we have established the premise. Now it's time to move on.

Cool stuff:
The first time we see Jack's dad, he's drinking.
Jack's last name is Shepherd. B'oh.
I'm looking forward to Charlie's withdrawal.
Locke saves Jack. "Okay, so it's an hallucination. But what it isn't?"
Kate as sheriff!
I was touched, concerned and interested by the end of this episode. At the moment the series is very good at making me think "What would I do?"

Just checking

Does the blog look all right in everyone's browsers? I'm getting some weird formatting issues between Explorer and Firefox.

[The Limit] Gone Public

Spent Wednesday procrastinating about writing the script. Spent yesterday finishing this draft of the script. The difference was that on Wednesday I felt like I had to do two things at once: come up with cool new stuff AND rigorously proof read the script.

I felt stressed out about it, so I had to take things back to basics. First I wrote Wednesday off and just used it to set up the new computer that Lee built me (Props, man! It's fantastic). Then I told myself to get a good night's sleep and try and settle back to my daily routine of exercise, writing and everything else. That took a lot of the pressure off and at some point I was able to just say to myself, "Don't proof read. Just write."

From there, finishing the script - which had seemed such a huge deal the day before - was over in a matter of three hours. My goal became to create something that was readable for others as opposed to getting it perfect right now. That took a lot of the pressure off and that meant I could do more constructive things than just stare at the screen and worry. So, the script's come in at 89 pages (dead on what I wanted). It's being read by four people at the moment - and while they are doing that, I'm going to talk to an actor and do send detective work on Trace's character, try and get more excited by her.

For the record, this was Draft 2B. A B-draft seems to be a quick hack-and-slash to tidy up any inconsistencies and make the story flow so you can get it out to other people. I'm now scheduled to finish on 24 July. 17 days left, 14 days in my safety buffer.

[TV] Lost, Episode 4

**** (out of 5)

I’m starting to get a taste for the flavour of Lost. Can’t articulate it yet, but I’m beginning to know what I expect to see when I sit down and watch an episode.

Watching this fresh, I can imagine viewers starting to get excited, realising that all the characters are going to get flashbacks, waiting and wondering which one will be next.
And then a few episodes time the second level of anticipation – that there are subtle connections between some of the passengers.

Coupled with that is the growing understanding that each character has a reason to get off the island.

Act Breaks for this episode:
1. “Don’t tell me what I can’t do.”
2. The thing in the woods gets Locke.
3. Locke returns with the boar.

The episode export Locke’s back story plot – and firmly hammered home the conclusion that he has a destiny. This ties in to his conversation in the finale with Jack – destiny vs. rationalism – presumably leading to a big conflict between them in Season 2. In a way it’s red vs. blue state. Locke is the man of faith, certain in himself, competent. Jack, intellectual, rational, doubting himself but willing to lead. And the show isn't afraid to paint them as both heroes (although Locke is certainly cast in a sinister light).

There are other leadership dualities in the group of survivors:
Jack-Kate
Jack-Sayid.
Jack-Sawyer
Jack-Locke

Watching this episode, I had another thought on how I would have structured the season. I would have written a timeline on the whiteboard and said “Each ep is a day. How many days before they have to hunt for food? 4? Okay, then an episode 4 they have to hunt. How many before there’s a fight that needs justice? How many before factions form?” Then you have your metaplot which is about human society. However, I'm not sure what I can generalise from this about series design.

Other random thoughts:
Wow. Setting up a Michael-Sun affair. That’s nice.
I like Boone and Shannon. Didn’t think that would happen.
The Michael-Walt tension is great – and completely justified by what we saw happened in the airport in the finale.
Shannon’s fishing plot allows us to see her M.O - – fishing for men to help her.
Jack, being asked to do things, starting to be considered a leader.
The reveal of Locke’s condition – even though I knew it was coming – fantastic. Shivers.
The thing in the woods is a constant presence in these first 4 eps.
The appearance of the man in the suit – awesome scary image. Could be Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

[TV] Speculating on Lost Season 2

After watching the finale last night, I think Lost is in a good position for Season 2. Here are my speculations - some of them based off the Internet - so beware spoilers.

I have increasing confidence that Lost’s writers know exactly what they are doing.

That they’ve developed a secret for every element they introduce to the island, whether it be character or location. They certainly worked out the chronology of all the characters before they boarded the plane – before writing Episode 1.

:: SPOILERS :: (and speculation)

Michael seems to be the pro-active guy – he built the raft. I pick him to be the first of the crash survivors to really explore the island now his son’s missing. Meanwhile Charlie will have to confront his heroin addiction – which will bounce his relationship with Claire in interesting directions.

“They’re not the survivors they thought they were.”

There is another group of survivors on the island. The people from the tail section. That gives Jack a potential second love interest in the form of Michelle Rodriguez, Anna Lucia – the woman who comforted him at the airport bar. And with a second group of survivors comes the opportunity to introduce new characters, tensions, relationships, back stories and mystical links to the island. The second group will know information our main characters don’t – so that makes them a great source of (reasonably) trust-worthy information.

I've also developed my theory of what's going on which I shall acronymise here: ITTTCOFIBIAFITGR. Gino also has a theory which he's solid about ... so it should be fun to trade notes.

[TV] Lost, Episode 3

***1/2

Obviously this episode ("Tabula Rasa") is about fresh starts. It's the first ep to use extensive flashbacks from before the crash focusing on just one person (Kate); hence bringing up the baggage of her past. Meanwhile, on the island, the seriously injured Marshall represents someone who has a present day tie to Kate's past.

Act Breaks
1. Kate doesn't tell Jack about her past.
2. Jack confronts Kate with the fact he knows what she did. // Kate is caught (in backstory).
3. The Marshall wants to talk to Kate, thinks Jack has been compromised.
4. The Marshall leaves the A-plot of Lost.

Cool stuff: the way all the Kate-Jack UST is vapourised by her early lack of honesty. The focus of the episode is very much on their relationshipand about playing what seems to be a low-key but major twist in it. The way there's no clear leadership amongst the survivors.

Later eps of Lost feel like a TV show. This feels like just watching interesting stuff happening. It's not doling out too many plots twists or starting to over-dramatise more than a few characters by involving them in soap-opera issues. The show's just letting people be people.

[RPG] Last night's weirdness

Check out Jenni's write-up of last night's game. Three words: My Little Ponies.

[TV] Lost, Episode 2

***1/2 (out of 5)

I found this much more entertaining. Again, the back stories are very solid. Humour and dramatic subplots are starting to emerge.
"It's a polar bear."
"Bear village."
"It's been repeating for 16 years."
"Guys, ... where are we?"

For some reason the act breaks seem much more interesting here in the early part of the series than in the later eps that I've seen. Perhaps that's because the island (and the characters stranded on it) are even more of an unknown in the beginning. So even the tiniest piece of information seems huge. Also, they are dealing with the immediate aftermath of a crisis so there are lots of natural and dangerous steps they have to take - find shelter, explore the island. In contrast, by the middle of the season the survivors have almost settled into a routine.

[TV] Lost, Episode 1

*** (out of 5)

Just watched the pilot episode. Seems weirdly appropriate given that the finale is playing tonight. What impresses me most is that the key elements of the main characters' back stories were obviously firmly in place by the end of series design. However, watching it from this end, with the knowledge I already have, means that the mysteries of the crash and the characters ... aren't that mysterious.

Given that the pilot lacks that suspense for me - and that I've seen the one-hour summary of the first 20 episodes - I'm giving this ep a slightly lower grade than it deserves. Great first meeting between Kate and Jack though.

[TV] A little bit of viewing

I actually watched some shows over the last couple of days:

Gilmore Girls:
I'm enjoying how GG is taking its time dealing with each character's subplots. This is one of the few shows I trust completely to be internally consistent. Highlight this week: Lane's reaction to an offer of sex. Lowlight: I'm not sure Luke would've reacted like that to Emily's apology. It feels a little forced. Still, I'll trust the Sherman-Pallindos. ... Oh yeah, other favourite: "You're loving this aren't you. You're the favourite."

Jamie Oliver's School Dinners:
It's got swearing, great characters, a social conscience and at least 3 levels of conflict. Jamie vs. the kids' taste for junk food, Jamie vs. Nora (wildkind vs. the Establishment) and Jamie vs. himself. It's great to see by the end of Episode 1, Jamie has utterly failed. The kids hate his stuff and he hasn't come up with an underbudget meal yet.

In the Wake of the Rainbow Warrior:
Things are clearer now.

[The Limit] Finished!

Just finished ... the gruntwork. Man, I almost lost it (tears) while working on the finale. And that was while editing, moving back and forward, working on it out of sequence. I hope hope hope it's as tear-jerking as I imagine it once it's out in the wild.

Not really thinking about what's next. I mean there's polishing and a little bit of new material to write for A1 but I think Draft 2B should be ready for the public tomorrow.

Now I'm gunna head back into town, hopefully watch War of the Worlds, roleplaying round at Jenni's tonight ... generally cut myself some slack.

[The Limit] Terrified

Re-working the climax - the section I thought I'd gotten right only two weeks ago - and there was much procrastination this morning. "IT'S TOO IMPORTANT!" screamed the editorial static in my head. "I'm scared of getting it wrong."

Eventually I plunged in (after working up bits and and pieces of ideas in layers over a couple of hours). Now I'm through 'the worst' and hopefully into the final stretch. Have a feeling that this is going to be like the argument scene in hopeless. Rewritten over and over. Good thing here is that there is a specific effect that needs to be accomplished - unlike the argument scene which could wander all over the place - and that should act like a map, helping me home in on an effective way of hitting all the emotions and beats I need to.

But, yeah, a very scary section this morning.

[The Limit] Bought it

It's critical that we really buy* the moment where Trace reaches her limit. It's all about the power of anger - an emotion I've been feeling (for personal reasons) today. After 6 hours, I think I buy what Trace does.

6 pages to go.

*believe, empathise with, don't challenge.

[Script] When is it finished?

Let's leave aside that I still re-edit hopeless and episodes of lovebites in my head 5+ years later. Eventually you have to send something you've written out into the wild. I guess I have three measures that let me know the time is right:

1) I can visualise how a scene needs to be shot.
2) I really want to film it.

And most importantly

3) When I read it from start to finish, I'm absorbed - taking hardly any notes.

What about you? Any rules of thumb for when something you've done is finished?

[Film] George Romero interview

Ook. Forgot to link to this yesterday. It's an interview over at alternet.org about Land of the Dead, which really hammers home the thematic-sociological-satirical basis this one's operating on.

"As for the imagery, I don't know if people will pick up on all of it, but some of it is obvious to me -- the financial center being a high-rise, and a tank riding through a little village and mowing people down while we wonder why [the zombies] are pissed off at us." -- George Romero

[The Limit] Sculpting

Currently working on the end of Act 2, making it more human and emotionally connected between the two leads. There's a big flip between triumph to despair at this point of the script, and to get it working right I feel it needs to be less 'WAAAAH! PLOT!' in-your-face than it was in my first draft. So I'm layering the scene, going back over it a few times and making sure it builds in a way that feels natural to me.

I mentioned the "doing it right vs. getting it done fast" dilemma a few days ago. When I was first writing this draft, I laboured over each sequence until I felt it was working as good as I could get it. At the moment, my writing is nowhere that intensive.

However, I think it's like sculpting*. My first draft was like taking a lot of care to get the general shape correct. Now I've stepped back, assessed what it looks like and am making some of the quick, obvious hacks and cuts to get everything in proportion. It means my concern is I'll cut too much or that I'll stray from the heart of the piece, but - unlike sculpting - I can put material back into the script. I guess it's like sculpting with play-doh ... and I think I'll end the metaphor there cos I can sense it starting to collapse.

*I've never sculpted anything, so this is what I imagine it's like.

Anyway, enough writing about writing. Back to it. The update boils down to this: 1) the work's going slower than I thought, and 2) regardless of the final quality of this draft, I won't put it on the market till I'm happy with it. (This may lead to another post about why 'happy' and 'finished' are two completely different - and achievable - measures from 'good enough' and 'perfect'; the benchmarks I used to aim for.)

[The Limit] Unhatched Chickens

Read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, played nine holes of golf with Dad yesterday. Watched Gilmore Girls and had roast chicken tonight. Sandwiched between that I've managed to slug through two action sequences and am nearly at the end of Act 2.

Haven't got my chart with me, but I budgeted 4 days for this rewrite and this is day 5. There's probably a day and a half of writing left, so that takes my safety down to 17 days. Biggest concern is that although I'm editing to address my biggest concerns with the script, I'm wondering whether the material I'm writing has enough quality in it.

Guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks after the readers have gone through it and I've re-read it too.

[Film] War of the Worlds

Share your thoughts about Spielberg's latest!

[The Limit] Stress Level 90% and falling

I'm tense - and figuring to take the next day or so off (or at least easier). However, I've been making good progress. The big rewrites have been straightforward

Comments and Revamp

Just overhauling the blog at the moment and thanks to bloggerhacks (via No Right Turn) I've added a 'Recent Comments' section at the bottom of the sidebar.

[Film] Batman Begins

What did you think of the movie?

[The Limit] Realisations

These are all simple things, but ...

Trying to cut 10% of the script (down to about 90 pages) is fun.

The longer I write a scene, the more chance I have of fucking up what the scene’s about.

Action obeys Harold Ramis’ rule for writing comedy: it should take as long to read it as it would to see it.

The Limit has 5 acts.

At the moment, I’m back on schedule.

[The Limit] Stay! Calm!

Feeling stressed out at the thought of trying to finish all of Act 1 today. So I've set myself a couple of small goals. First, I'd like to quickly rough out the new introduction to the movie (over several passes) and bat that off to Andrew. Then I'll do all the macro restructuring of the rest of Act 1, after which I can start to fine-tuning.

Probably going to end up half a day behind schedule at the mo'.

[RPG] Last Night's Game

While central.rpg.net continues to go crazy, I thought I'd post about the play test last night. I had a lot of fun, was pleased Wayne grasped the rules better than I did and have made a lot of notes for rules changes. What about you? What did you think?

*Jenni, I just saw your comment in the post below. Rock!

[The Limit] Overusing declarative sentences

The script analysis is completed. Halving my time estimates really has resulted in me doing the work faster. So much so that my Safety Buffer is back up to 20 days. Conclusion: if I want to get work done fast I should focus on it until it’s freakin’ done.

Now I’m going to start on the edit. 4 days seems even more ridiculous now I’ve seen what needs to be done on the script. I’m going to take it as a challenge … to see if I can get back up to ‘TV writing’ speed.

For future business reference: That was a full script analysis in 2.5 days.

[RPG] My first playtest

Hopefully tonight we’ll be playtesting my game Luck of the Joneses. However, I’ve just figured out that it’s a 5 player game and there are 6 people in our group. Looks like I’ll be sitting out and watching – which actually sounds fun to me, I’m exhausted!

Spear Tackle = Iraq?

A little off-topic, but all the footage I've seen of O'Driscoll's injury in Saturday night's game clearly shows Tana Umaga and Kevin Mealamu tipping the guy over onto his face. Yet the MSM seems reluctant to discuss that directly.

"Tana Umaga's such a nice guy. He'd never do that."

"Perhaps someone took offense to the Lions' reaction to the haka. Except all the experts we've just interviewed say that wouldn't happen."

I think it's weird. Obviously the story is the anti-climactic nature of the first game in the series, but the more interesting story is an apparent cultural blindspot where we can't examine the potential misdeeds of our sporting heroes with any objectivity.

[The Limit] I Cheat!

So, yesterday I analysed the script - what I felt while reading it (highly instructive!), the questions it raised, and the negatives. Today, instead of continuing the process ... I'm going to cheat and pull together my 1 page summary sheet of the script. My logic is that I already know the positives, I'll brainstorm ideas while I'm redoing scenes and I'll be overviewing the structure in the process of writing the summary.

Hopefully I can save myself half a day and increase my safety buffer.*

Anyway, project management geek-out aside, the main plot concern is 'have I made the solution to the mystery too obvious?'. I think so - and I think it's an easy fix.

[*36 days to go. Safety buffer of 19.5 days.]

[The Limit] First Read

Interesting. Lots of really good stuff in the script. Be interesting to hear what Andrew thinks about it. (BTW: His pages have elegantly solved a major problem.)

Overall: the plot's almost there and the heart of the script - what I feel while reading it - needs a lot of work. The rhythm of the script feels wrong. If the script were a pop song, there'd be too many repetitions of the chorus, the verse going on for too long and not hitting the notes you want to hear, and the mood being not quite right. All fixable stuff, but a bit of work to get it 'just so'.

I can see ways through the problems but they involve a moderate amount of work, ranging from simply shifting material around to writing completely new scenes. I may soon face the screenwriter's dilemma: "Get it done on time or get it done right?"

Started half a day later than I thought, so my safety is now down to 19.5 days. Now on to a 6 Hat Analysis for the next couple of days.

[Script] Next feature

On my days off, I'm brainstorming the next movie I want to write. Based on a short story by Sean Molloy, I've wanted to make this film since 1997 - and it's had various incarnations: horror, thriller, even romantic comedy.

Anyway, I think the central question of the script is "Will Gene and Becs save their marriage?" Just recently I realised that the main character has always been Gene, who wants to have an affair - and that I didn't like him. So my first recent breakthrough decision was to show the situation from both their sides. I think this provides a decent conflict for the central question and it also probably sets up Becs as the more sympathetic of the main characters

So now I know what the married couple want ... and I've come up with a few nasty surprises in the motivations of their circle of friends. The pieces I need to set up the film all seem to be there. Plus I have an idea about the midpoint I want to use to complicate the situation. And in the shower tonight I came up with a deeper, secret want for Gene that has me reeling with its potential.

Darth Tom kills Oprah

Here.

[The Limit] Big effort coming up

My goal’s to have a second draft of The Limit on the market by August 7. Doing that requires a massive amount of focus and time-management. Since applying the concepts from Critical Chain (a book on project management) worked for finishing off Draft 1, I’m going to use them again.

Some of the relevant ideas are:

1. Assume all work gets done at the last minute.
2. With that in mind, halve my time estimates for how long it’ll take to do things.
3. Put the 50% of time I’ve saved into a safety buffer at the end of the project. That time can get fed into the project if any particular step starts running behind.

Here’s my plan.

A. Edit Draft 1 [finished by 3 July]
B. Send script out to readers. [12 July]
C. Polish Draft 2 [17 July]
D. Send script out to producers. [18 July]

A. Edit Draft 1

26 July
Read it. [0.25 days]
Emotional Engagement Chart. [0.25 days]
6 Hat review. [1.5 days]

28 July
Boil 6 Hat notes down to 1 page. [0.25]
Write up a ‘Gut’ report of what I feel about the script. [0.25]
Compare 1 page note and Gut report. [0.25]

29 July
Consult with Andrew (depending on his availability). [0.5]
Distill core problems. [0.25]

30 July
Re-edit. [4 days]

So, assuming everything goes according to plan … which it won’t … there will be a leaner draft to send out to a select few readers on July 3. It’s a totally insane schedule and I’m feeling slightly stressed even writing about writing it … but I have a couple of aces up my sleeve.

First, I’ve done this sort of thing, under these constraints, many times before – on the TV series and on at least a couple of feature films. Second, I have that safety buffer. Say the re-edit gets bogged down. I have days I can draw out of the buffer and spend on the rewrite.

Third, once I’ve finished that rewrite and handed it off to our readers, I can relax again for at least a couple of days. So it’s not like this is persistent pressure through to the first week of August. There actually will be ebbs and flows. It’ll be tough, but I think it’ll be achievable.

[The Limit] More things I do (that might alienate Billy)

So what did I learn from Draft 1 of this script?

To outline thoroughly, then write. Maybe not four years of outlining (like with this project), but analysing the script pays off.

Don't settle. Try and make each sequence as good as I can without pressuring myself to get it right first time out. In fact, each pass can be crappy and unformed - but the idea is to build the sequence into something I'm happy to sign off on.

How do I do that?

First, ask myself what is the question I want the scene to raise in the audience's mind. Hopefully that question follows logically from what they just seen (I've just written). This question is what I interpret others mean when they ask "What are the stakes?"

The conflict: I suspect that works best when the conflict centres around two different answers to the question. That way, the answer to the question is uncertain and keeps you in suspense.

"What is the emotion I want to produce?" I kind of forgot about this as I got further into the script.

Brainstorming conflicts, beats and lines of dialogue until I'm happy. Come up with at least 20 ideas, and then add 10 more until I'm satisfied.

Make sure that at least every 10 pages there are moments reflect your genre and unique moments that could only appear in your movie.

That’s all I can think of right now. Any questions? Anything you’d like me to expand on?

[RPG] Who's your audience?

Lightbulb moment. Brand Robins is talking about one-on-one gaming and sexuality in RPGs over at his blog. Towards the end of the comments, he says this:

... [make] games for people that are already friends (or more than friends), who already like each other, and exploit their social context in order to build the game from that healthy point rather than trying to do the inverse.

That feels like one of those principles of game design Vincent's talking about over at anyway.

Makes me think that a great paragraph on the first page of Luck of the Joneses would be: "Who do you play this with? Grab 3 or 4 of your friends, maybe people that you play board-games with already, and invite them over. Make a night of it - put the stereo on, have some drinks. Simply hang out and play this game."

[The Limit] It’s over

Sort of.

In Which Lie Die I Tell, William Goldman talks about scenes in screenplays where – after you’ve read them – all the work is done. The audience has bought into the story and they’re just going to be taken along. In The Limit, I think that scene comes 3 pages from the end. And I just wrote it.

It’s a weird emotion: relief, triumph … and a little bit of fear. I’m disturbed at how little craft I applied to Act 3. Basically I burned through it today, wanting to write from the heart and follow my old outline rather than re-break the scenes by Stakes and Conflicts.

It made me believe that a well-worked out outline really would create speedy fun writing for me. That’s the goal for next time. I feel I got distracted by the pitch … put it at the wrong stage of the process. Oral should be 1st or 2nd – and then last.

Anyway.

Couple more pages and a re-edit but for the first time in months I can think beyond the immediate task of ‘finish the script’.

• TO DO

Finish the script.
See Revenge of the Sith.
Writer’s Summary. What have I learned? What will I do differently next time?
Describe how I managed my time.
Days off.
Celebrate!
Planning next couple of months.
Assemble 1st 10 pages from Andrew.
Print out script.
Read … Take the whole day to do it.
Should I take notes on that first pass through?
Build a Whammo Chart.
6 Hat the script on six passes.
Polish with Andrew.
Send to Sean and Ainsley.
ID main problems.
Correct.
Send out 2nd Draft.
Sell.
Celebrate.

There’s also Directors’ Notes, the Pitch and Marketing to start thinking about.

[How To: TV] What’s your Inspiration?

Can you articulate the bundle of images and associations that have you jazzed about working on your project?

Try writing a paragraph or a list or a manifesto or whatever of why you really want to write this thing – and then try and stay true to it over the next 3 years.

[The Limit] Onto Act 3

I have more to write but:

a) I'm loving the Armed Offender's sequence.
b) must add another beat to it - and re-edit a previous scene
c) it's 20 pages, about 8 pages longer than I thought.
d) it's an action sequence with character development.

A couple of cool things happened during the writing:

e) I started hearing the voices of actors I want to cast saying the dialogue.
f) I got scared and moved and righteously angry along side the main character.
g) I cast a friend in the movie who I've been trying to find a part for, for ages.

Finally:

h) Maybe the conflicts in the first half of the film are off. Need to check.

Happy with progress. Want to move faster. I'm going all out for the next 3 weeks.

[Script] Kung Fu Monkey

Couple a quick updates today. First, I am really really grooving on John Roger's blog, Kung Fu Monkey. He's the script writer behind The Core and Global Frequency (TV pilot). I'll probably add his blog to the sidebar soon.

For an example of what I mean, check out the Writing articles in his Index post (another neat idea I'll probably yoink). What I find so great about these posts is that I've been coming to similar conclusions as him - and where we differ, I can see the differences offer up some exciting possibilities.

[TV] Funny sh!t

I'm probably WAAAAY behind the 8-ball on this one, but this is a damn funny spoiler-ridden script about why the survivors in Lost deserve their fate.

(Oh, and this script review about Jurassic Park 4 is the funniest thing I read last year.)

[RPG] The Sabers of Paradise

Finished designing my second role-playing game last night. I even play tested it twice - found it was gripping and fun. The game is supposed to be intense and action heavy, inspired by 24 and Global Frequency and especially by an unproduced TV show idea from a friend of mine, Brian. Here's the intro copy:

The world is three minutes away from destruction.

You are the guardians of Creation. And Creation is constantly on the verge of being destroyed.

There's only one team who can save it. That's why they send for you. The Sabers of Paradise.

The threat is here.
The world is ending.

Can you save it?

[How To: TV] The Question

Proposal: There will be a fundamental question your story will (or seeks to) answer. This can apply to both an episode and a series. It definitely applies to The Limit, the feature film I am writing. The question for The Limit is "Will Peter find out who killed his son?"

A typical question in lovebites would have been "Will Ben get this girl?"

Knowing the question seems to help focus on telling the story.

[How To: TV] The Worst

To write drama, ask yourself what's the worst that can happen? Right now?

[How To: TV] Open vs. Closed Episodes

Open episodes are used when you are telling an ongoing story. When you start watching an open episode, you have no idea or guarantee where it will end up. The Sopranos and Everwood are good examples of series that use open episodes.

Closed episodes follow a predictable formula. The end point of an episode is almost certain to maintain the status quo of a series. CSI and Law & Order provide good examples of closed episodes structure.

Now, there is a give and take between these two - mostly to do with series and season continuity and character growth. Lost, for instance, seems to have a closed structure when you think about its backstories but a reasonably open structure when you look at the overall story it's telling. It would be fascinating to see a Closed Series (such as a police procedural) with strong character growth... so that revisiting the same type of story gave no guarantee of the same outcome.

Of course there are advantages and disadvantages to both types of episode structures (which I'll expand on later).

[TV] Freaks & Geeks - Index

Here are links to all my posts on Freaks & Geeks, an 18 episode comedy disguised as a drama series about what it was really like at high school.

Intro.
Genius.
Hitting its stride.
Is it flawed?
Make or break.
Continuity appears.
Humour.
Stalker humour.
Testing the limits.
Darkness.
The End.

[TV] Writing for Facelift

While reading this transcript of the Don Brash / Simon Dallow interview on Agenda, I figured out how to write for Facelift. Just spend those 7 weeks up at Mum & Dad’s watching as much TV as possible, with a notepad beside me … bouncing ideas off what’s actually happening.

That interview is basically a comedy sketch in and of itself.

Reminds me of what John Clarke said about satire, that it’s just hitting the ball back to the politicians with a bit of spin. No wonder I was having trouble. It’s very tough to write comedy in a vacuum.

[The Limit] Trying to move on

Going through the AOS Callout sequence, putting it into a rough structure and now I want to read through it and finetune the emotional flow.

As full of enthusiasm as I was about doing this last night, I seem to be putting it off today.

[RPG] Better Actual Play reports

This is a thread over at rpg.net that goes into why Actual Play threads are important, and how to write better ones.

[The Limit] @ss-kicking approaches

I’m nearing the point where Trace puts the whomp on Forster – and I’m really looking forward to writing it.

[TV] Freaks & Geeks, The End

It’s over. And what am I left with? That Freaks and Geeks was a good series seems obvious. It was fearless in the way it induced flashbacks to all those moments that made me cringe during college.

But it was doing more than just the comedy of social dysfunction. Despite my early frustrations about the lack of continuity – specifically that significant changes in characters’ lives tended to be ignored in the episodes immediately following – F&G is essential viewing if you’re interested in seeing how a love of character translates to the screen.

The creators said they weren’t interested in building the series to a plot-driven cliffhanger but rather in developing an understanding of these people’s interior lives. So, the other way of looking at my continuity complaint is that the writers appreciated the essences of the characters … and made sure they fully explored them in one state before moving them on to the next.

That’s pretty much what the 2 final episodes are about. Moving on. In the penultimate episode (involving VP George HW Bush’s visit to the high school), Ken and Sam both deal with new relationships – leading to a scene where they share their problems with each other; a scene that is simultaneously a little contrived and exactly what I wanted to see.

Discos & Dragons is the finale for everyone else. Daniel learns to use his imagination through roleplaying, Nick might just pull his damnfool life together and Lindsey makes a choice after being confronted with her future.

These 18 eps form a perfect little portrait of these people’s lives. I guess the injustice is that Freaks & Geeks heralded the rebirth of the current era of good TV, with its deepening focus on character. If it’d come out a couple of years later, or screened on a more supportive network, we might all be loving it even now. Or talking about how jumped the shark after they graduated from high school.

We’ll never know (so I’ll just enjoy what we’ve got and try to get my hands on the DVD set again one day).

[TV] Analysing Firefly and Buffy

Steve Darlington has written some articles on Firefly and Buffy. Check them out.

[TV] Global Frequency

This post about Global Frequency made me tear up. Not only was it a show I really wanted to see but it sounds like they nailed what I felt was the heart of the idea: at any time, any one of us could be called up to save the world.

[The Limit] Progress, again!

I was finding the mis-direction scene a bit difficult. Coupled with my now consuming desire to FINISH something, I spent Thursday through to Saturday morning writing a playtest draft of my new RPG, The Luck of the Joneses.

After that, I came back to the scene I’m been blocked on and finished it in a couple of hours.

[The 48] Getting ready for next year

So, I started these posts talking about the Disney vibe, the sense of well-being-happiness-community I felt after finishing the movie. I was not alone in feeling this way. For me, the best quote was Debz': "It is now my firm belief that there would be fewer wars in this world if leaders and politicians were forced to make Disney family movies in 48 hours."

It lasted a full day and a half, and first started to wear off after visiting Pak n’ Save (nothing like a trip to a supermarket to bring idealism and warm fuzzies sinking down to earth). But a big advantage I discovered was that I was also running on the vapours of decisiveness – and I was able to use that to make a lot of calls I’d been putting off – including interviewing the head of the Armed Offenders Squad.

In that spirit of decisiveness, the HODs all got together for a debrief of what we’d learned during the production. I thought I’d built up enough credit to give some honest feedback (and receive some in return), but instead what I did was hurt someone’s feelings. Fortunately later discussion made it (I think) all better.

Finally, the screening … which eliminated the last of my Disney high. We were up first, excited and then discovered that for some as yet untraced reason the sound was dropping out of the tape we’d submitted. This rendered a good 50% of our movie silent – but even so we still managed to elicit one “Oh, that’s cool!” from an audience member when we revealed the price to leave the Fairy Kingdom was a story.

Afterwards, dinner … and I was in good spirits, but after that, while walking home, I threw a HUGE tantie/hissy-fit which basically boiled down to not believing a group of 12 year olds could have produced a more technically proficient film than us. There were tennis rackets involved. In fact, most of my 5-yearly temper tantrums involve tennis rackets, which I speculate stems from too much childhood exposure to John Macenroe.

But that passed … and now the work continues. I do want to make more short films with my new friends and enter the 48 next year and deliver on time (and even hopefully go through from our group – a goal which is, of course, totally outside our control).

[The Limit] The end is in sight!

I’ve just been through 2 big rewrites and one cruisy action sequence. Now I’m into the final strand of Act 2 and working on a scene that (for the first time) requires a lot of thought about how much to mis-direct the audience.

What’s frustrating is that I’m so close to the end of the script. I’d like to just zoom through and finish this thing.

Of course, by ‘the end’ I mean the end of this draft. There’s more work beyond that. Like taking my new understanding of the characters and the plot - and feeding it back into the start of the script, refining the story. All I’m hoping is that the amount of intense thought I’ve been putting into the writing this time round is going to remove my standard errors from the script. Of course there will be mistakes – that’s what a first draft is :) - but I’d like to be dealing with a higher level of mistakes.

[TV] Watch Gilmore Girls this Sunday

It's a defining episode in the 5 year run of this great series about a very complicated mother-daughter-grandmother relationship. If you're a casual viewer, then this is one you won't want to miss.

[TV] The Smile Time Comic

For those of you who've been watching Angel S5, this unofficial web-comic is a sequel to an episode that'll air in about 4 weeks (Smile Time). I reckon it's in the top 3 of best Angel eps ever, but beware of the click: massive spoilers lie beyond.

The Smile Time Comic

[TV] No more ads ...

As I speculated way back when, product placement inside TV shows is taking a big step forward.

[Script] A Quote about writing passionately.

“In my screenwriting class we set out to discover what would happen if you treated your screenplay-in-progress like someone you had recently fallen in love with. What if you courted your story, wooed it, gave it your very best, and loved it madly?

"The results were extremely promising. Our conclusion was that if we were willing to throw ourselves into falling in love with our work, risking heartache, holding nothing back, the inner muses responded in kind."

Cynthia Whitcomb
‘Writer’s Guide to Writing Your Screenplay’

[TV] F&G does drugs, gets dark.

Ken finally gets a sub-plot and it involves an equally sarcastic tuba-player. Neil finds out some truths about his cool dad – and the show reaches its darkest ever point. All of which is brushed over in the next episode when Bill nearly dies of a peanut allergy (also the show’s darkest point) and a heavy handed anti-dope message is saved by a bunch of heavy-handed anti-dope comedic setpieces.

Interesting reveals including a backstory for the school bully that ties him closer to the geeks, a change of romantic focus for Sam and growing evidence of class differences between Sam and Neil.

[VW] Another way to waste time

This one's a massive on-line riddle called NotPr0n. It's been around for about a year.

[VW] Ways to waste time

A couple of on-line SF worldbuilding communities for you:

Orion's Arm - explores 10,000 years of transhuman culture.
The Lattice - is a communal story being told among massive interstellar artifacts left by a previous civilisation.

[TV] Next Season ...

Kristin at eonline has some inside information on developments next season for shows like Veronica Mars and Alias, and ...

... a way to find out what the creators of Lost could be planning for a second season. Here's what she says you should do:

1. Go to the "official" Oceanic Airlines Website.
2. At the bottom, where it says "Travellers," enter Hurley's unlucky lottery numbers: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42.
3. Click the "Find" button.
4. Click on the row numbers on the flight's seating chart that match Hurley's numbers.
5. Don't blink.
6. Change shorts.
7. Figure out what the hell it all means.
8. Keep digging. The site has much more to spill.

[Film] Mean Girls

***½ (out of 5)

Definitely not perfect but definitely fun. A teen movie, social satire, Wiseguy parody, revenge movie, date flick, therapeutic life lesson black comedy with a heart of gold.

Great beginning and end. Highly variable second act. And just like Primer, crams an awful lot into its relatively short running time.

[Film] Primer

****½ (out of 5)

Very satisfying. Validates my idea that low-budget SF movies are going to be the next big thing. A group of inventors build a time-machine in their garage. Things go bad.

It’s not a perfect movie because a crucial plot point involving a girl, a shotgun and a party isn’t developed. In fact it's so undeveloped that it’s hard to care about the major reason the movie exists at all: the twist.

Yes, there’s a twist. But the way the film is presented (with gaps in the narrative and oblique hints) makes it impossible to develop a definitive timeline of what went (or will go) on. However, I trust the film-makers that it all makes sense and look forward to watching it a second and a third and a fourth time.

[Film] In Good Company

*** (out of 5)

Slow, very mechanical set-up that creates a drama more than a comedy. Obviously Paul Weitz has been influenced by working on About a Boy, because this is a very simple story: Topher Grace becomes Dennis Quaid’s boss. Play up the age difference.

What saves it is an amazing cast: Grace, Quaid and Scarlett Johannsen. I didn’t understand what the fuss was about her until I saw this movie. Now I agree, this woman is a star.

[Script] How Neil Gaimen gets ideas

I really like this essay - it's practical and terrifying, which describes about 50% of the time I spend writing.

[RPG] Changeling via TSoY

We’re playing a Changeling game set in Wellington using The Shadow of Yesterday. This is our third session out of (probably) four – and it was the first that I felt really rocked.

Reasons:

1) We aggressively pursued and unraveled the central mystery of the situation. Remember the jawbone Maui used to fish out the North Island? Now some Sidhe of the Native Court want to use that jawbone to rip the North Island out of our reality and fully into the Fae one.
2) The players all started grokking the system and loving both the idea of simple conflict resolution and using non-standard abilities in combat (Sway, Dancing).
3) Our GM is very clever and at least twice I out-thought him to our group’s advantage.
4) I can see a way to use my character’s abilities in conjunction with the Bringing Down the Pain system (which has so far been unused) to really hammer the Big Bad of the setting into the ground.
5) All the players got several moments in the spotlight.

Plus it was fun. We didn’t really find a groove until this session – a lot of mucking around wondering what to do. But after an OOC conversation , I think it helped me find my place.

[Cross-posted to The Forge.]

[Script] Editing.

Some new thoughts on how I could edit a script:

Read through the script.
Mark off how ‘engaged’ I am with it, on a scale of 1-10.
That’s in order to create a Whammo Chart. A graph of the script’s highs and lows.
Read through with a blue pen and circle any bits where the story seems to be off.
Then go through each character’s journey. Use a red pen to mark any points where they don’t seem to be acting true to themselves.
If they go significantly off-beam, go back to the start and red-pen every other character’s journey up to that point. Try to understand at the level of Motivation what’s going on.
If that doesn’t clear things up, look at the conflict in the scene. Is it being expressed clearly.
What about sub-text? Is the scene about more than it appears to be about? Does it have layers to it?

[Film] War of the Worlds

This is a great article about Spielberg's new film, from Wired. Some talk about the script, insights into pre-visualisation for movies and the film vs. digital debate.

Carrie wins American Idol, slays audience in telekinetic bloodbath

[VW] I spread Evil

It's back. The second level of Hapland is here.

[The 48] The Post post

I had one of those sleeps where you close your eyes at 1 in the morning and then open them a second later and it’s 7am. A 5 minute shower and then a nice half hour stroll to Jenni’s. Can you tell that time was starting to become a factor today?

We had an extremely efficient production meeting where we decided to film at the Botanic Gardens and I apologised in advance for my strategy of being really blunt with everybody to keep us filming at a steady pace. My aim for the day was: Protect Norman. He was cutting the film while on set, so I instructed everyone to make his life easy by shifting all of his and Mark’s gear out of the van first and then to leave him alone while he sewed our footage together.

We shot the Duel between Gino and an incredibly smug Lee, then moved to some nearby stairs to film Regan and Matt consoling Gino. In terms of directing, this was my favourite moment on the shoot.

It was a one-er – the whole scene in one take, featuring the three actors and a cute brown bear puppeteered by Lee. We did multiple run throughs to rehearse the scene and each time it wasn’t quite right – but each time, Jenni and I and Mark suggested tiny adjustments to each actor and gradually we honed in on a version of the scene that played. And then two perfect takes and we could safely say, “Principal photography has been completed!” (A shout-out to all you Cecil B. Demented fans out there (I know I’m not alone).)

A quick packout, a substantial reduction in crew numbers and Luke and Sam drove me back to Norman’s where we stayed upstairs and ate, planned and listened to music for the soundtrack while he edited with Stephanie and Mark. Then Jenni and I were called downstairs to help him out.

The three of us made an awesome team – Norman’s smooth cutting, my grasp of the big to do list of edits and Jenni’s unerring grip on the heart of the film. As we worked, music and ADR were being recorded above us – couple that with memory sticks and the home network and it was all an unbelievable advance from the last time I was involved in no-budget post-production.

Unfortunately time slipped out from under us, the stupid Loop logo wouldn’t load into our end credits, and the tape was chucked to Lee, Luke and Sam at 6.56 for a high-speed ride to the Paramount.

We knew they wouldn’t make it in time, but we had a fantastic group hug anyway and got ready for the wrap party that night.

The best … and worst, was yet to come.

[TV] Some Writing Tips from Joss

"I like to fall in love with my characters," says Joss Whedon in this interview and the commentary track to "A Hole in the World" (Angel, Season 5).

He also talks about his desire to punish characters - what I call 'finding their vulnerabilities'. The theory is that characters who are in control of their lives are boring; you only get to find out what's interesting about them when you destabilise either them, their lives or something they care about.

[The Limit] Minus & Plus

A. Disappointed because I've wasted a lot of time today.

B. Satisfied because I've kept asking myself what this scene is about until I realised it's about 'Peter facing the consequences of becoming a vigilante'. I think I'm ready to write and finish this thing.

[The Limit] Halfway there

Reached the 50% mark on Saturday. Took a couple of days off and now I’m back working on the scene where we turn Michelle into the hero. It’s good; it’s action again, so all I need to do to write a good scene is a) keep coming up with ways to block her from escaping and b) figure out how to make the situation worse.

Also deepened the script’s basic conflict. Up till now it’s been vigilantism versus the law. Now we introduce criminality and vigilantes who are worse than the criminals. This all fits naturally into Robert McKee’s description of conflicts in Story.

As ever, I know the scene is good when I can see it playing like a film in my head.

[The 48] Sleep Dep

As we hit the library (where we made Gino repeatedly do faceplants for the good of the movie AND tried to work with children), my tiredness started catching me, throwing me to the ground and forcing my brain to shut down for a few seconds at a time.

I began to not push the crew along as efficiently as before (although, to be fair, we were also attempting much more ambitious shots – dollies, day for night and stuntwork).

During all this I had a great micro-argument with Norman – which I believe ended with us hugging and gaining respect for each other. Although I could have hallucinated that.

Then back to Jenni & Lee’s where my inability to think achieved a whole new level. It started with not being able to list the night’s scenes in order of shooting priority and extended to not being able to figure out how to lock their shower door – so I ended up holding the door shut with my foot while stretching one hand to adjust the nozzle and the other hand in a third entirely separate direction to get at the soap. Ah, physical comedy and potential death-traps. Really, there’s no difference.

After a nap and pizza I felt more able to process. We planned out a shotlist for the LARP, loaded gear into Turnbull House and ran through how we’d shoot the scene. The LARP didn’t finish till late so we were forced to drop some scenes till the morning but on the plus side we got 20 or so extras dressed up in amazing costumes.

Several rapid takes later (including one fantastic moment where the fairies sat down to listen to Gino’s story and we saved ourselves an extra setup), we wrapped and I slept. Blessed sleep.

[The 48] Getting it together

At 6.20am I panicked, realising that I still had to send a copyp of the script (and therefore the props list) out to the crew. Originally, the idea was for them to read the script at home, gather up anything around their homes that matched our requirements and then bring it in to the production meeting. Nice and ordered.

Instead, after insisting Gino wake up, I stumbled into Jenni & Lee's where they fed me instant porridge and Beroccas. As our crew tricked in, I simultaneously pretended I wasn't tired, tried to keep my seat from being stolen, planned for the upcoming briefing and wondered if I should get angry that people hadn't all arrived at 7am like we'd said they should.

By the end of the meeting, people had a rough-to-good idea of what they'd be doing. And I was starting to freak out about the upcoming Jungle shoot. There were many reasons for that:

Our Wilton-Otari location had 2 entrances and we were making on-the-fly arrangements about where to meet.
We were starting much later than we should have been due to the need to assemble props and costumes.
The location was bad for sound: close to a road and with a working bee going on nearby.
Parking was so bad we had crew standing in spots - but we were too polite to block people who insisted on arriving.
We couldn't go off the paths into deeper bush.
The location didn't really look like jungle.
The light was fading.

And most importantly, this was the most complicated scene in the script - an action scene with 20+ setups. It was our first scene to shoot, our team hadn't jelled yet and we had to be out of the location by 2pm to meet parents at Jenni's library. In my estimation, we wouldn't be finished till at least 3pm.

I thought we were screwed.

But something amazing happened. We worked hard, we pulled together. People quickly learned what they were doing. I don't know how we managed it, but we finished the Jungle scene with an hour or more to spare and managed to sneak up to a nearby waterfall location to quickly sneak in the Training Montage - a scene I believed we'd have to drop until Sunday.

The Montage was fast and fun. I was yelling directions at the actors off-screen while Jenni checked the shot ... and then we were off, to eat the great lunch that Luke & Sam had bought (as well as a few of the 200 bananas that they'd managed to find to bury Gino in).

[The 48] Cutting the Script

So, we needed (roughly) a six and a half minute long script. By 1am we had a 22 minute long one; by 4am, it was 15 minutes long.

Everyone left Svend's at 4.30 in the morning after a gruelling cut session. It was my responsibility to deliver a workable script to the production meeting. I knew I wasn't going to get any sleep before I took up being Assistant Director at 7am.

On the car ride home with Gino (he crashed out on my couch for an hour and a quarter before becoming the lead actor in the film), I tried to control my panic as he suggested what to cut. In fact, most people on the team made really good suggestions - and they all seemed pretty relaxed when I assured them that stuff they loved would be gone when they read Draft 3 in the morning.

But there was no defensiveness. I guess another good thing about the 48 is there's no time to grow attached to what you've written. Proof of that is that the first cut I made was to eliminate the 5 pages of set-up that I'd spent most of the night labouring over.

What takes that sting away is the sense of satisfaction I get from excising things that don't need to be in the script. It's the same pleasure in the editing room: each time you cut, you're getting a little closer to the true story. And each cut also changes the story; it's a weird, gripping feedback loop.

As Gino slept, I cut and cut and cut.

[How to: TV] The Demo script

OK, Phase 1 probably continues with these steps:

Write the quintessential scene and a 1 pager description (which includes title, metaphor, 4 main elements and commentary on the quintessential scene). You might want to write this up before taking the idea to your first audience.

Choose an idea to turn into a script (some people advise that you don't write the pilot first).
Brainstorm the act breaks.
Write a script (as a group) in 48 hours.

Refine the quintessential scene and a 1 pager description (which includes title, metaphor, 4 main elements and commentary on the quintessential scene).

Extra thoughts:
Have actors involved as writers.
Keep the number of writers small and trusted. If someone doesn’t ‘get’ how to write the idea, they don’t belong on the team. No matter how experienced they are.
[For Pre-production] The hiring of directors is vital.

[The Limit] Mr van Beynen

I interviewed Ray van Beynen today, head of the Armed Offenders Squad. We had a great talk, he was just as personable as I'd hoped and - just as with talking with DI Graeme Resima - his description of how an AOS operation works has fundamentally changed the direction I think a big chunk of the script will go in.

[The 48] Intro

Warning: These 48 Hour posts are going to have way more emotions in them than normal multi-dimensional posts.

I'm wearing Bodil de Rezeney's Red Scarf of Imagination right now. I hope to wear it every time I write from now on.

I am feeling emotionally washed out and vulnerable right now; same as I do every time I finish a big creative project. Watching the last third of Angel Season 5 today, I think I cried for about two hours in total. And because we did a Disney movie, I have been walking around so happy I almost felt stoned for the last two days, thinking about all the new friends I made over the weekend.

This was a big project for me. In terms of the storytelling, I think it's the thing I've helped right that I am most proud of. Lately feel like I have climbed up off the plateau of writing I have been on and discovered a whole new level that will take me a couple of years to explore. 'It's a Wonderful Library' is a big part of that exploration. It has a clear story, clear conflict, it was created in collaboration and it's honest to itself.

So here am, three days later, finally having had an afternoon nap that has gotten rid of the last of my sleep deprivation and I think it's time to start talking about what happened from my point of view.

Friday night, Gino was later than I expected picking me up. I was already nervous, and even more so after the details of our project were delivered while I was in the toilet. 'Disney Family Movie'. To start with I had no idea what we would do. And then my assumption that we would all collaboratively know the essentials of any genre was born out. We quickly established that our movie would involve children, and adventure, and as we worked through our locations it became clear that Jenni's library and the fairytale LARP would be involved.

Our first draft took ages and it was during this that I first began to feel the situation slipping out of my control. We had not set a firm deadline as in our run through. Telling the story had it's stops and starts, as I've written about elsewhere.

However I was pleased that Jenni accepted our idea so quickly. I think we all knew we were telling the right story, immediately. It was just going to be a matter of grinding it out...

[The Limit] Relief

So, last week’s work on The Limit came to a crashing halt on Thursday. I woke up with a headache, kept trying to work, felt worse and worse and finally realised I was stressed about … well lots of things but at that point it was about trying to make the scene work.

I took 4 days off (which was actually long overdue) and today things seem to be flowing much more smoothly. The big rebuild of this mid-point scene with Trace, I can finally see a way through it now.

Other cool stuff: I think the movie is starting to work on 2 thematic levels – the obvious one of whether it’s better to follow the law or be a vigilante, and the true (or at least deeper) one. On the redraft, I’ll have to make sure that 2nd level is in there enough (at least every 10 pages or so) to reward attentive viewers.

Is Gravity weird?

NASA is testing whether Einstein's theory of relativity is correct.

[Script] Universalis

I am (sort of) on holiday at the moment - hence the light posting - but thought I should point out the use of Universalis as a script-writing tool.

There are 2 threads about it:
Wellington Roleplayers.
The Forge.

Svend also has a description of the game of Uni we played on Tuesday night, here.

"... a surprisingly complicated political thriller, as well as the musical romantic comedy we were aiming for. Basically, a plot by a sleeper cell of the Otago Farmers association to trigger a civil war by assassinating the President of the North Island with a small child trained in ninjitsu ... . Except it was a little more complicated than that... "

[TV] F&G tests its limits

Watched 2 more episodes of Freak & Geeks last night. First, the Freaks rejected Lindsey and then the following episode has Lindsey rejects the Freaks. That second episode gave us a sense of the status quo in Lindsey’s life before the show started (something I felt was missing from the pilot). Both plots pushed F&G’s Situation to extremes, testing its vulnerabilities.

The double-bill had an epic feature film sense to it – with Lindsey as the solid dramatic plot and Sam very definitely as the sidelined comic relief.

Now it'll be interesting to see how the show handles its continuity here: the parents have forbidden Lindsey to hang with the Freaks and she seems to be defying them.

[TV] Kindred spirit

Oh dear lord, such goodness. Tightrope Walker Girl is the first blog / LJ I've found dealing with stuff close to what I'm doing. She's a writer / show-runner, currently working on Smallville but also had stuff to do with Tru Calling and Angel.

Click here for Tru Calling spoilers (spoilers? They cancelled the series before it got to this point) about why it might have actually turned into a cool show.
Click here for an picture of the Angel S5 overview.