The writing process, or lack of.

I finally sat down and attempted to begin the process of writing my short film, the one that as been quietly and insistently nagging me for the last year.
For some reason I though it would be an easy thing to do, but I've very quickly discovered I'm outside of my comfort zone with the project. This isn't to say it's an impossible task but it does give me pause for thought.
I don't want to give anything away, I'm superstitious about these things, but I'm already struggling to find the heart of the characters I'm intending to write about.
Usually my writing comes about by "hearing" dialogue haracters appear through the things they say and I like writing dialogue.
In this case the film is very visually led and finding ways to describe a character visually for me is proving quite a challenge.
Not that I rely simply on Dialogue, I see things first and always have, but Gingerbread is really a story that I think explains itself through visuals. It also uses Images as visual metaphor's and is less linear than the usual rubbish I tend to write.
So it's not going to be easy.....but then anything worth doing right ever is!

Gingerbread.

Christmas is nearly upon us and I'm going to use the time by finishing the script for a project, I've had tickling my subconscious for the past year.
Now that the pilot script for "The Half Hour, Half Hour" is ostensibly finished I want to get on with it.
I feel slightly emancipated from the script, certainly not in any negative way, its simply nice to feel like I can actually start a fresh project.
The film is based on a failed pitch for a music video and for some inexplicable reason it stuck.
Every so often I have the urge to write something. Disappointingly I lost a note book that I was using to keep track of the film and my thoughts on it.
It's not the end of the world though, for some reason some sections of the film are so clear in my head that I can see them scene for scene which is a rarity for me.
I generally have so many gaps and its like pulling teeth to fill them.
I've already made a start on the script, but the comedy show has demanded my attention.
The few people I've told the story to have all said the same thing, that I should make it and I want to.
Everything I've made for myself has been on shoestring budgets, in fact less than shoestrings.
If I get the opportunity to make this film it will have to have a budget or it simply can't be done and I won't do it unless it can be the thing I see so clearly in my head.
I'm looking forward to getting started....

A nudge in the write direction....

Things are hard at the minute, I can't pretend they're not and I'm often my own worst enemy in this regard.
I've managed to nudge the show a little closer to being finished, but problems have occurred on the way.
The script is finished, all that remains to do now is to do a final read through and see if it's at all possible to improve on the work we have already.
Last night I reread the script and I felt it lacked something, but its so easy to rewrite endlessy. I think for the most part we've improved the gags in the show.
I've had to be hard on myself, I cut out a gag I desperately wanted to do, but felt as though it didn't fit within the framework of the work we'd written.
Very soon it will be sent off for people to read and I'm curious to see what the feedback is, this script and the sketches are very close to my creative sensibilities.
I'll just have to wait and and see I guess.

The worst laid plans....

Every now and then you come up against technology, quite often in fact. Today I was supposed to be mixing the sound on the sketches at Tamborine in soho, only fate, or more precisely Premiere has conspired against me.
I'm currently having to re edit over half of my sketches in avid so I can create handles for the guys at Tamborine, I've tried everything else. I can't get AVID to read the edl's or AAF files from Premiere for some inexplicable reason, it's damn frustrating especially as we were so close to getting the timeline ready and the sound mixed.......DAMN DAMN DAMN.

The power of hindsight!

Today we reedited a sketch, that one I directed over a year ago. The sketch is better for the edit; with hindsight we could have improved it tenfold.
This is a sketch that we ad libbed on the day based on a loose idea. Today we came up with a new ending which was much more satisfactory, but unfortunately would be impossible to recreate without reshooting the entire sketch.
The sketch gets some laughs and though it could be better, considering when I made it, its a big plus.
I take heart from it, I noticed in an interview I saw with Armando Ianucchi that he would often work this way.
Film the sketch, then transcribe everything and start writing from there. At this moment I don't have that luxury, but it's a method I was interesting in using, even before I watched the interview.
I also received an encouraging reply from the BBC, I won't divulge the contents of the email, it's not important.
I did give me hope though, that I'm not wasting my time on this and this is something I can and should be doing.

Back to work.