Thursday, December 3, 2009

'Bout time too...


So I've started (and I do mean JUST started) writing another movie.

I'm working with a friend of mine who's a great DP/Director/Producer.  My hope is that we'll end up co-directing this thing.

It'll be a small-ish drama, probably set in the mid 1970's dealing in subject matter that is connected to both of our family histories.  

Yesterday we spent two hours at Starbucks outlining the story using Syd Field's classic 'paradigm'.  I realize that--for those of you with more experience--the paradigm might seem a little juvenile or 'paint by numbers' but I've found it to be very helpful as a first step to structuring your story.

Today, I'll do a very simple scene breakdown and then we're going to meet--around 12:30pm--to start doing cards.  We'll take 50-60 3 X 5 'cue cards' and write a scene on each card.  My friend has a real big kitchen table so we'll lay the cards out on the table one by one until we've got the whole movie there.  We'll look at it, change it some, throw some cards out, add some news ones, rearrange things a dozen times or so until we end up with a structure that we like.

From there, we'll sit on it for a few days, talk about it with our wives, with our executive producer, with our parents (both sets are quite story-savvy) with some friends then we'll get back together to make some adjustments.

After that, I'll chain myself to my desk for a week and spit out a VERY ROUGH first draft.

That's my December.

1st draft done before Christmas.

How's that sound?

Lemme' see if I can do it.

Keep you posted.

T

No comments: