Wednesday 22 April 2009

Script competition update...

So last night, evening 2 of 3, I had a bit of a panic about writing a 15 page script in 3 evenings. Which was a a bit different to my attitude at the weekend when I was all '15 pages? No problem!' By the way, 15 pages is the limit, not the requirement and that's become part of the problem - my idea is a bit over-ambitious and perhaps more suited to a feature than a short.

Anyway, Monday I wrote a two page treatment then tried to re-work it a bit, but that took me until 2 in the morning and it wasn't in a position to be turned into an actual script. My plan for last night was to rework the treatment and get a first draft finished. I'm busy tonight, so that leaves Thursday for a second draft.

Reworking the treatment took a bit longer than I thought. It was basically about simplifying it and getting it to the point where I felt it was good enough to work from. It was about 10pm when I started the first draft script, and it was then that I realised setting the film on Coney Island in the 1950s required an awful lot of research that I hadn't really done. So I spent about an hour collecting photos and confirming that the parts of Coney I saw last year and wanted to use would've been there in 1955. I then started putting this into the script and quickly realised that most of it didn't need to be in there. But after a rather slow start I got into the flow of it and managed 10 pages by 1.30am.

And it's kind of going okay. I'm starting to doubt my premise a bit - i'm not sure my macguffin is being used to full effect. But even if it's not good enough to get through to the next round, I'm enjoying working on something different and I'm happy with the characters I've created for it - they may well live on in something else further down the line.

3 comments:

Millionaire@age20 said...

Elow! I'm a scriptwriter too! And I've like a hundred scripts yet I'm still 16! Hahaha. Anyway, enough of me. Nice to meet you here in the blog world! I'll be following your blog and to see what's the progress of your scripts!

Christopher said...

I hate when real life gets in the way of what I really want to do. I like working under the pressure of goals and deadlines though.

I set a goal to have my novel done by June 1. I have been setting aside a little money over the last year to buy myself a new laptop. I gave the money to my wife and told her not to give it back until I can hand her the first draft of the manuscript.

That whole going to work everyday is really interfering with my progress. I am pretty sure I will make it but I long for a time when I can set my own schedule.

Chris Regan said...

M - It's not the quantity but...

C - I really can't cope without deadlines - I'm too lazy. And you're right - the day job really is a massive interference sometimes. I'm sure you'll get there - that sounds like a good plan with the laptop. Good luck with it!