For the last ten minutes I've been sitting on my swing, watching this really dark smoke cloud expand above the mountain. At first the clouds were all thin n' dusty, dressed in hues of orange and pink caught from the setting sun... But with time they've grown thicker, more intense. From the corner of the soft cloudy sunset, this dark spot just started curling up, eating into the blue evening sky.
This is what it looks like now...
Okay, I think I'll finish writing this post inside...
Actually, before this smoke cloud, it was pretty nice out today. It felt like the first time in a while that the sky wasn't all grey.
But enough small talk about the weather! I came here to write about our first official conference call with our producers yesterday. I think it went really well. They were very complimentary, but also had a ton of insightful suggestions. We managed to get through most of the script scene-by-scene, and I think I took about 8 pages of notes... or maybe 6. I can't remember and it doesn't matter...
I'm so excited to write! Jim is... well, not tres excited like moi, but he's looking forward to shaping things up too. One thing he can agree on is that with each subsequent draft, we always see the story get better. I can't wait to see how this next version will turn out!
As you may or may not know, for the 6th Sense M. Night Shyamalan didn't decide to make Bruce Willis a ghost until had written his 10th draft. (Oops... sorry I didn't give a spoiler alert. But if you don't know the ending to that movie by now, then you've been living under a rock.)
Of course we both know that this writing process will mean some hard cuts... but I'm totally up to the challenge.
As the director-to-be, Jim has a slightly harder time letting go of things. As we wrote each scene, he'd visualize how he'd shoot it. So since he can already see the whole movie shot-for-shot in his head, he sometimes gets a little more precious about saying goodbye to certain scenes and characters. Fortunately he eventually gets over it. :)
Actually, a mutual decision Jim n' I made tonight was that we should cut out Jason – no, not Jim's brother ;) -- but Maggie's husband. He wasn't much of a significant character anyway, until the third act... we can probably live without him. Why not just make Maggie recently widowed instead?
Basically, we're sending the script to phat camp -- cutting the fat n' tighening it up. I love this sort of stuff. Jim, I think, just wants to get it over with. He's more excited for actual production.
Okay, just so you know... there are four phases to getting a film made:
Development – The first step in making a movie - what we're in now. So, it's basically reworking the structure of the story, and doing lots of editing n' rewrites, some more editing n' rewrites, and maybe just a little bit more editing n' rewrites. Okay, and then you attach some distributors and s'more producers to the project, and then some other stuff happens that I honestly know nothing about....
Packaging – Okay, I guess this is when a bunch of stuff happens... like the producers figure out how they're going to market it, maybe? And I think they also begin casting during this time too. They say if all goes smoothly *fingers crossed* we should start casting in January or February. But really, who knows? We currently have a one year plan to get this movie to production, but something might happen and then it'll takes three... you never know.
This brings me to...
Production – This is when the movie gets made. Shooting n' all that stuff that is far more interesting to directors.
Post-Production – Editing the movie together, adding music n' whatnot, etc. Our producer says that you always make three films: The one you write. The one you shoot. And the one you cut. Post-production is when you cut.
So, remember that stuff I was saying earlier about directors getting sensitive when people edit their artistic vision? Well, this is why you sometimes have the "director's cut" for a movie.... someone obviously hacked their vision to pieces, leaving it to shrivel n' die on the cutting room floor.
Ooh... how melodramatic does that sound?! Ha.
Alright, so anyway... this is where we're at. Nothing too exciting as of yet... but y'know, I never said it would be.
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