And again

Well, I'll be honest. I figured this class would be more about simply defining the project, with the actual doing being in the second semester. Of course, that was before I switched my project. What I'm trying to get at is that it is tough to find time to do this. I've started a few different sketches and side-stories, like I mentioned, but they are not the main story yet. Not only that, but they feel terrible. I'm really going to have to go over these with a pretty fine editing brush. Hopefully, they're at least a little funny before their prettied up.

It doesn't look like Christmas, yet, but writing needs to be done. We'll work out the cohesion better. This is how I'm designing characters and figuring out other elements of the story. It's a round-about process, but here we are.

DREAM SEQUENCE

SIDE STORY

Ok

Alright. I've taken enough writing classes that I should know something about myself as a story teller. I'm not well prepared enough to just write a story from beginning to end and expect it to be perfect. Of course not. It needs to be sculpted properly, with each vignette in the right place and with a purpose, etc, etc. So, I've decided that, with the goal of one movie, I'm going to have to write several things at once. If I have a gag that I want to fit it, I'll go ahead and write it, hoping it fits in later. If I have a side story, that'll have its own place, too. That way I only have o focus on one thing at a time as I go.

I've decided that this is going to be a kind of romantic tragedy nerd movie. Hopefully with enough side story that the romance does get over bearing, but it's not going to be a necessarily happy ending. The relationship shouldn't work in the end, but I want the guy and the girl to be happy with each other and the experience, so it's still up beat. If anyone saw PS I LOVE YOU, I want a similar kind of conclusion, but a very different movie.

So, nerd fest. That's a big thing. I have a solid gag for that I'll try to flesh out. I also have another side story that I think I can work on, so that's what's doing. I'll include links to those as I do them.

Feb. 4-11,2011

I've gotten a lot of feed back on favorite movies, and one piece of advice to ignore all of those suggestions as anything but information on what not to write. I'll admit, thinking about all of this makes me kind of sick to my stomach, since I don't feel like a creative machine.

Honestly, I have very little to do with holidays and traditions. I haven't seen half of those movies, so I'd be a poor candidate to try to replicate the experience. What I do have is a personal history that is probably under represented in movies, so maybe that'll be good enough. Does that mean multi-ethnic? Probably not, unless I can swing a "lost in translation" sort of culture clash.

I kind of want to write a Wes Anderson style Christmas. A little draggy, nothing too unrealistic. You know, kinda of dull but quirky. As is, I'm a little worried it will look more like a Michael Cera sort of pity party, so that'll be something to watch out for.

Here's a link to my drafts. I figure that's a good way to track some progress...scripped.com

I guess the next step would be to outline or draft more. Or watch more movies in the style I'm trying to evoke.

My Furthered Consideration

Again, I am majoring in English and Cinema. My original choices were either to write a script or do a research paper and project on subtitling. While I enjoy the idea of subtitling research, the script was receiving more attention from the class, which I did not expect. Also, Prof. Jeffries gave me some great advice on what to do with that interest outside of this assignment.

After our discussion last class period, I am more heartened on the prospect of a professional script. Some of the class questions were about how I would rate my project completion, on either submission, acceptance to whom I submitted to, or what. I will of course want to complete writing, but I will probably consider my project complete on the response from whom I submit it to. If I submit to a contest, I will await contest results. If I submit to a person or company I will want to go through at least a second stage of communication (ie. Hear what they have to say about it).

I was once doing odd jobs for a very wealthy man who was interested to hear that I was a potential script writer. He told me that if I ever write a Christmas script, to let him know. Apparently, there are too few Christmas scripts but they are always money-makers, so favorable to producers. With that being said, I will attempt to write a Christmas script of some sort and attempt to contact this man as well as look into other options of submission.