The Slough of Despond...

Well, the 1st major revision of the screenplay is finished, and as soon as I finished it, I started blocking scenes. It just sort of started by itself... Almost every scene plays out in great detail in my mental theater, with very specific blocking and framing. I realize how much camera direction I had written into the body of the script, and am trying to trim it out and use note cards. A few who read the script said it was confusing to read around.

...and so it goes.

I have been watching the films of George Méliès, and find myself thinking about Point Of View and what it suggests to the audience. While his films were a direct extension of his [and Houdin's old] magical theater, the audience was constrained by artifice to narrow point of view. I am excited about what can be done in terms of perspective, with light cameras and fast lenses.

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Wow... I hate this movie!

I am having an experience that I have heard described in expectant mothers in their last trimester. I just want this thing out! Things are progressing slowly, and I am having horrible fits of procrastination. I need these plot lines and characters to get out of my head! I am so sick and bored of everything and everyone in this story.

...except Colleen. She is all innocence and purity, and also the Point Of View for much of the film, especially for scenes of violence. I feel like watching violence from a child's perspective intensifies the terror of it. It's kind of a dirty subliminal trick, but I think it will be effective.

I have been listening to my computer read the script to me, and either tweaking [the horrible] dialog or moving whole scenes around. But I am only 1/3 done. I just want the story to be done and then polished by more capable hands. Bob and Tristessa, hopefully working in some collaborative fashion, will do a dramatic overhaul and dialog writing.

But so far, I am happier with the flow of the story now that there is an extra day in the story. I got some time issues fixed, and used the extra day to establish a sense of place, set up plot devices and introduce characters and their dynamic with Todd.

Since I am writing for myself to direct, I have written a lot of camera direction and back-story into the script. In some instances, I have shot by shot direction if it's a scene I have clearly in my head. I am up to 164 pages, and I'm sure it will gain another 20-30 more with this revision. When the second draft is done, I will have to pare it down to a regular 90-110 word screen play, so we can shop it around for money. I have find a production assistant...

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More Connects!

Gordon, a mutual acquaintance, is associated with a local special effects company. I am hoping that I can get him to help on some practical effects. He is also a puppeteer... and a damn good one. He introduced me to Crist Ballass from http://www.metamorphosismakeup.com/

Crist does some amazing work and shows examples on his website that match anything I had imagined for the movie! In fact, he shows three specific things I need: A fake chin, a whithered female corpse, and really good hair appliances! And... he is local!

The Lost are Found

I found Bob! My playwright friend moved out of state but is back on board. I tracked him down and surprised him with a call. I gots his address, and am back to rewriting the middle act of the screenplay. I will send him a draft and he will tear it apart and magically glue it back together again in a way that is actually dramatic and interesting.

My writing skills do not seem to have improved, but I am having better ideas about the story. I also took a continuity problem and turned it into a dramatic element. I was pleased with that.

With that said, i also managed to track down Tristessa, who had also moved out of state. She is an actually and for real educated film student like Dan [who still hasn't called me]. She has a penchant for dialog, which is my weakest point.

I also got a hold of my friend Bambi, who has agreed to play the main character's G/F "if I turn out not to suck too much." Awesome! There is my goal... my standard... to just make the whole movie "not suck too much."

I was reading a review for a recent movie and thought about how happy I would be to even get a "C" rating. The notion that it will ever get done to be reviewed is getting stronger. It definitely will not be ready for 2008, but it probably will get done. By hook or by crook.

The first sign of $$$ ?

Wednesday night at work, I talked with a friend of a friend who had produced a short film that debuted at the River Theater. After a couple Long Islands, he was saying "we should do something together." Even under the influence of alcohol, people see the brilliance of the idea!

It's the first serious outside interest I have seen since talking to Jeff Johnson at Spunk Design.

Sometimes, a rope is just a rope...

Had lunch with Wes today [yesterday] and looked at some new stuff for the ORTHICON logo. He made a rope for the stage curtain out of a snake. An elegant solution to an artistic problem, and lends more symbolism to the red-curtained stage. Too bad nobody will ever know unless they look way back here in the past. That's OK, we can indulge in that smug inside-joke feeling every time we see it.

It was a good morale booster, but the only part of the project that is progressing.

Where, oh where, has my little script gone?

Well, it seems I am stuck.

My playwright friend, who was going to help revise the first draft of the screenplay, has disappeared. I have no way to get ahold of him, and my director of photography is not returning my calls.

At this rate, I will wrap production in about 2013, just in time for the 10th anniversary of my first story notes for the film. Anybody want to make a movie? Better yet, anybody have $$$ to make a movie?

[sigh]

Eternal Little Miss Sunshine of the... huh?

I saw Danny Boyle's Sunshine last Tuesday at the Lagoon Cinema. I had no expectation of what a Boyle Sci-Fi film would look like. The first surprise was the movie is pretty HARD SCI-FI.. meaning it's very conscious of the SCIENCE in its FICTION.

The story is driven by the premise that the Sun's degeneration has accelerated and it will cool to the point of human extinction in X number of years. I'll buy that for a dollar. From there out, it's a race against time and circumstance to hit a precise trajectory in the Sun's core with a manned star-igniting device. OK, I will pitch in another buck for that too.

That being said, the film was spectacular in its visuals of space, the ship and the Sun, reminding me of seeing 2001 A Space Odyssey for the first time. For somebody who actually watches the NASA channel for space videos, this movie was tremendously satisfying on a visual level. The sound palette was also rich and well applied.

The story had solid moral fiber with some Lifeboat dilemmas and technical challenges. The characters are complex enough to be interesting and dynamic, as is their struggle to balance their present crisis against their Earth-saving mission.

It was great to see my [other] girlfriend Michelle Yeoh in a role outside her type casting as that Asian woman. They gave her a dense and credible role as the ship's botanist and Life Support tech. Same with seeing Cliff Curtis as something other than that threatening foreign guy. The cast got a lot of meat to work with and turned in some... ahem... stellar [cough] performances.

I was impressed at Boyle's flexibility in directing. There are few traces of his earlier work to be recognized in this film. It seemed more like the work of a Russian Sci-Fi auteur. The movie ranges from homages to John Carpenter's Dark Star and some genuinely emotional moments. I was very happy to see Boyle avoided the obligatory romance subplot! Kudos. Like Ang Lee, he is bound to no genre, which puts him is a rare class of directors. I am already excited to see Slumdog Millionaire, not due out til 2009.

My favorite part of the movie is a moral dilemma regarding the ship's ability to sustain all the crew members to the point of payload delivery. The scene was handled deftly and packed a subtle gut punch, followed by an unexpectedly quiet and tragic moment.

For a movie that could have gotten away with just its CGI splendor and Indie star power, Sunshine works very hard for your $8.50. In fact, I will use this movie as a benchmark to develop my film rating system.

I rate films based on their worth to see.

0. Two hours of your life regretfully wasted
1. FREE at somebody's house
2. Rent the DVD
3. See it at the second-run theater
4. See it at the first-run theater - matinée
5. See it at the first-run theater - full price
6. See it opening night
7. Drive to another town to see it.

Sunshine was eminently worthy of a 5. See it at the first-run theater - full price. In fact, I will go again to see it with somebody.

First Epistle from the Inferno - The "B" Word

So let it be known in the Kingdom that that author of the Habeas Corpus web.log does not use the "B" word. The one that rhymes with "flog".

I have been online since 1977. I have had an email address since 1981. I posted on BBSs and chatted in MUDs before most of you [statistical internet users1] were even born. We didn't call them the "B" word then, and I won't now. It makes all of Rich Hall's Sniglets seem clever by comparison.

But, in concession to those of you too young to know better, I will call it a web.log so you at least know what I am talking about. I am old and hard of hearing... be patient with me.

1. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0NEW/is_1995_Oct_3/ai_17550505