Thursday, August 31, 2006

More drafts...

Watched an astounding film last night, The consequences of love by Paolo Sorrentino. Full of very long, very slow shots it was one of the most beautiful films I've seen in years. Very, very slow indeed, long silences and philosophical narration. Oh yes, and it's a mob crime film as well. Most excellent.

But what it did was remind me it's about time to do that draft. you know the one, the draft where you get a big red pen out and go through the script crossing out lines of dialogue and replacing them with shots that say it instead. Show not tell. In the film yesterday there's a scene where a husband lets his wife down. the next shot, rather than a big shouty row, is just her bushing their bed apart into two singles. Perfect, said it all.

It's quite enjoyable doing this draft, thanking up images to tell story, but the depressing thing is usually that it cuts a lot of pages out and makes me worry I don't have enough story. Well, not this time as I'm already worrying I don't have enough story. Decided Stevie needs to be more abject about his condition. He should be something of a depressive, hence the fact he's desperate to escape this situation. So I can work on some scenes for that at the same time I cut scenes out to be replaced by shots of a woman pushing two beds apart.

Watch this feature turn into a short.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

The rest of the world may be on the brink of war

but the film world is going great, which obviously is all that matters. Draft 5 of 1234 is finished, and the plot actually makes sense now. The characters are well enough defined so that actions come from them and the whole thing comes to a logical conclusion. Well, at least that's how it seems today. Give it another couple of days and I'll be spotting plot holes all over the place I'm sure.

Want to do another couple of passes tightening up dialogue, and adding a couple of scenes to expand on some of the characters traits which get lost in the plot (such as Gemma's other life as a struggling artist). Kearney sent me a link to a New York film which is very indie, and also has a character being in a band, but luckily doesn't seem to be set in a rehearsal room. What it did have was a good look and feel to it, indie but not too self conciously so. Helped remind me that I really need to make sure the characters are grounded in their reality, and don't become too middle aged or middle class for the sake of a one liner.

The other good news came from the Raindance film festival, who have accepted Home to show in competition. Trebles all round, as they say. Next week it's showing in Sofia, though I can't afford to go, so showing at a festival in London is just what I wanted to hear. Have fingers crossed for Leuven too, as that's always a nice festival, though it's got a bnew director this year so not sure what sort of films they will be looking for.

Anyway, everything appears to be going in the right direction, so if the world could just avoid descending into all out war we might actually get something done.