Still Climbing That Mountain

So.

We had our meeting this morning and it wasn't quite as expected.

To be honest, we were kinda hoping that our producers would side with the readers who were in favour of the way things are.

So, if Reader One says "Don't touch the first act" even though Reader Two felt that we needed to rearrange a few beats, then we'd just agree with Reader One and leave it as is.

And if Reader Two seemed to like the overall tone, but Reader One felt that the conflict needed to be heightened even further, then we'd just stick with pleasing Reader Two. (BTW, we're not using Reader Three's report. TC is pretty pissed that he even has to pay her for it. Told ya it was bad...)

Anyhoo... as you can imagine it was sort of an "ugh" moment when we learned that our producers want to incorporate pretty much all feedback provided. Therefore, instead of siding with whoever likes things as they are, we're going to be switching around act one and adding greater conflict everywhere possible.

Their concern is that when you go out to a casting agent or an actor, you only get one shot. No one will ever read the same script twice, so we gotta be sure to get it right the first time.

On the positive side, both readers feel that we're very close. Everything we need is already on the page - it just needs to be rearranged/heightened a bit.

Of course when you start talking about "rearranging", ultimately it means writing yet another draft. Because as soon as you swap one scene for another, it totally messes with the order of everything else. So this won't exactly be the three days of tweaks we were hoping for. It might actually mean another round of meetings in Vancouver.

Sigh.

Personally, I don't mind... much. But I'm a writer and I kinda enjoy the process and love the challenge. I'm sick, I know....

However, to quote poor Jim, "I just want to move forward already."

No doubt.

Oh well, it is what it is. As long as it doesn't affect the overall integrity of the story, of course.

I suppose there's some comfort in knowing that this ongoing process is completely normal. It's just because we have the self-imposed deadline to shoot this year, that it makes us all the more anxious.

However, les producers did said that Jim n' I are moving through the process faster than they're use to. (Since attaching our producers, we've had a very ambitious 5 months. Normally the development process can take years.) So, I guess that's a good thing... They've also said on numerous occasions that we've really proven that we have what it takes with our quick turn around time and quality of writing.

It's just too bad we have to turn things around again. ;)

Actually, Jim is currently reading a huge book he got for Christmas on the step-by-step making of all four Indiana Jones movies, and it provides in-depth details on how even the great Steven Speilberg and George Lucas struggled with the same thing.  Countless scenes in the original Indy scripts were gradually removed over consecutive drafts, making the end result completely different than the story they began with.

Boy, I'm certainly demystifying the whole movie-making process for you all, aren't I? Ha. It's tons of hard work followed by frustration and compromise. Nothing glamourous about it.

Speaking of nothing glamourous, our only other concern is that money is getting tight because our development funding is about to end shortly, and technically another rewrite would classify us as still "in development". Therefore, the forecast for our pre-production financing will be slightly delayed.

Again, it is what it is. Money always has a way of finding us, and I'm sure we'll get by just fine during the "in-between" time. The reality is we haven't had to sacrifice much at all up until this point. So I'm willing to reduce my weekly bauble allowance for a month or two in order to pay the rent. After all, it could be much worse! George Lucas spent up to two years sleeping on other people's couches. So did Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone.