Last year, in the same situation, I resolved to write a movie script based on an idea that I was throwing around with Ray towards the end of the semester. The plan was that I would write it, and then when it was done, we would film it (badly) using camcorders. Except, as normally happens with my projects (novels #1-4, screenplays #1-3) I began the work, and fleshed out roughly the structure of it, and then abruptly lost drive. In this case it was mostly because I was unsure of who would play the main characters, and I didn't feel as though I would have enough friends involved to fill the roles. So I lost a reason to work on it constantly, since it probably wouldn't be filmed even if I did finish it, and without a good reason to work on it, it quickly started to gather dust. The problem is that while I love the creative process, I usually get completely frozen trying to work my way through what I see as irreconcilable flaws in how it is unfolding. I'm very aware that I should just get it written and then agonise over the editing later on, but it doesnt make it any easier to move onto a new section when I feel as though what I've already written is awful. More to the point I feel like what I wrote hasn't really done the idea itself justice. I am fond of some of the dialogue, though. I'm trying to continue it, I wrote a new scene a few days ago that I quite like. Here is part of it.
JEREMY (V.O.)
(as he writes)
Dear diary. Today, I decided that I would start a diary.
Jeremy scowls at what he’s written so far. He waits a little. He tears out the first page and screws it up.
JEREMY (V.O., cont.)
Today, at work, I-
JEREMY
NYAARGH!!
FEMALE VOICE
You actually wrote “Nyaargh”?
Jeremy looks around and finds Herpsma looking over his shoulder.
HERPSMA
Yes! Me!
JEREMY
Uh… what?
HERPSMA
Oh.
JEREMY
Oh?
HERPSMA
Hmm!
JEREMY
What?
HERPSMA
I thought you were going to say “YOU?!”
It's a silly sort of movie, mostly about taking things lightly and making life decisions that are relevant to yourself, not ones that are based on other people's concepts. It's also just a fun sort of thing with (hopefully) lovely characters who are fun. I want to blend a profound sort of love of the life experience with a recognition of the complete absurdity of it all. If you've seen Garden State, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, and Amelie, you have some idea of where it's aimed. Not that I am putting this on the same level as those, just that I think I'm dealing with similar themes.
Incidentally, if anything resembling the script excerpt I quoted shows up anywhere else, there will be hunting, this hunting will involve blood, and that blood will be yours, dear anonymous reader. I am extremely possessive of my writing. Just so you know.
Hmm, it is Christmas. Paganism meets commercialism and they have a party together. Not that I have anything against paganism, mind you. I don't know - despite my cynicism about the ceremonial sort of side of it and the crass consumer ethic which gets rubbed in everyone's faces in the days beforehand, I do still like it. Anything which has people being decent to eachother can't be all bad and it is good to have things in the world that keep it beautiful. The thing I like about Christmas is the together-ness, the feeling of community or of unity. I just wish that it didn't take a yearly holiday to bring out that side of us. Share the love all the time, not just when it is deemed culturally significant!
Anyway that will be all for now. I shall try to write more often because I do enjoy it.
