10/04/2019
Laurels and Hardly Working
I try and write these things weekly for the sake of giving me something to do, but I’ve had to break things up due to commitments and lack of commitments. This one I wanted to write last Saturday, during a weekend where I was home with nothing to do, nobody to hang out with, and an intention of clearing up my other threads so I could focus on making Encampment. Of course this didn’t happen, and mostly due to procrastination.
I’ve been working on something stupid and huge for most of the past year (He says in a blog about another stupid and huge unnecessity) and I wanted to get that done this past weekend, I was staring down at writing a third act full of action and knocking down all the set-up, it’s all written in outline of course, but to put it to visualisable script is something so insane I struggled to build up to it. So I’m writing this post later, and late at night, as I’ve managed to do 30 pages this day, taking the page count from 123 to 153, and I’m…. phew, I’m done, I’ve done it, and it’ll be on this site in a few weeks time.
There’s always other projects hanging over my head, something I’ve been building with a friend over the last few years, three trips to Norway have turned it from one thing into another and finally into something tangible, so that’ll have to come up at some point. I have an epic piece of script that’s about ⅓ done at the moment, and the outlining is only 3/4ers done, so I’m chasing my own tail on that one, and so many other pieces wanting my brilliant mind to work on it.
And I can be that rare thing, immodest, as I had an email arrive during a low ebb this weekend.
Back in September, hanging out with friends, I got a buzz on my phone. I had reached the quarter finals of a script contest. Sure there’s a lot of finalists at that point, and it’s not exactly The Blacklist, but still, somebody dared to read my words, nodded along to it and said ‘this should be put forth for further scrutiny’. And that script was Encampment. This email was a kindly message reminding me this happened during a good time, and they even sent me some laurels to add should I want to. Nothing says official more than two arching images of leaves and some words.
That same day I received some early reads from a cast member, it was already strong, somebody got their role in the story, their place, their tone, their purpose, and played with it. I love watching performers sink into something I’ve given them and see a second pair of eyes, a second creativity shine amidst the piece. It makes it feel real, more real than writing something on a computer, to be locked away forever. I start recording the protagonist’s voice this week, I’m hoping my actor embraces their creativity, and I find my footing as a director. A laurelled writer turned director.
Oh, Reel Original 