State of Play and Ongoing Misadventures

On Monday I return to the corporate world full-time. Unavoidable. Desperately needed. In the nick of time. As of yesterday* I had something like $24 credit left on my credit card and $74 in my bank account. If my life was a movie I’d be debating whether to cut the blue wire… no, the green wire… NO, the RED wire… with three seconds left before the big explosion. As long as the bomb doesn’t go off, right?

Deep breath.

Snip.

Blessed calm.

Some facts: I last worked full-time in an office job back in July 1998 in Sydney. Last time I worked part-time in an office job – 27 August 2010.

808 days later I am returning to a world (telecommunications) that I am really comfortable with but thought I had put behind me. But harsh economic realities cannot be ignored and here’s another scary figure: after taking out rent and my private health insurance, Centrelink payments left me approximately $10 a fortnight to live on. Simply impossible. So the last couple of months have been pretty hard. I posted about that here which, for those of you who know me well, is totally out of character. The one big irony – I will be working out of the very same building from back in 2010!

Yesterday felt a little like “Back to School” as I took the battered remains of my credit card and bought work clothes and the like. I joked to a friend that I should laminate some old high school text books to continue the analogy. I am actually excited about this next phase of my misadventures even though I know it is a massive change to my formerly carefree writer lifestyle.

In that context, a big shout out to my writing home over many years – the Millpoint Caffe Bookshop to use its formal name or simply the bookshop café as it is known by all who know it. Adam and his staff have been very good to me as the usual level of banter can attest to. Thank you to those staff past and present who have provided the coffees, the laughs, and the level of comfort to let me do my thing. I will miss my lazy week days wandering along the foreshore and finding a spot in the courtyard.

But that isn’t to say I’ll be deserting writing, far from it.

My latest feature script, a low budget thriller formerly known as “Untitled Briefcase Thriller” and now “The Script Formerly Known As Turbulence”, did not get chosen for a couple of funding initiatives but it is a first draft and, while a good start, needs work. To that end I have had excellent notes from the ScreenWest Development Manager and my director which will allow me to focus on the rewrite, my primary writing focus moving forward. The briefcase reference comes from the setup – our guy opens a briefcase in which is a gun and a hit list with only one name not crossed out… what do you do?

There are three short films that should see the light of day shortly – “Coffee To Go” and “Darkness” with Filmbites and “For Better Or Worse” for the Central Institute of Technology. I have the usual mix of excitement and apprehension re the finished product but very much looking forward to see how they turned out.

I have recently attached directors to two other short film scripts, “Lucky Bamboo” and my out-of-character zombie effort “UZS-2017”. Waiting on notes before doing new drafts in preparation for next year’s funding rounds.

Then there are the longer shots. Two feature projects waiting on private investors. One a big conspiracy thriller called “The Pilbara Imperative”; the other an action-adventure for an international client tailor made around a specific product they want to promote. Sounds unusual but I was really pleased with how the one pager turned out and the Sydney based director and venture capitalist really like it and the client has made positive noises so far… but these things always take time.

Other than that, I discussed my slate of feature projects with ScreenWest but, as always for a writer, it will be a matter of time and prioritising what to work on. This means I’m less likely to take on even paid reading assignments or writing monologues/scenes for actors… though that can still be by negotiation once I’ve settled into my new routine.

So things are about to change dramatically. But isn’t that what we crave as screenwriters – drama? Maybe it was the green wire…

Yep, I'd call that decadent!

*Addendum: I wrote the above Friday afternoon while sitting in the café courtyard and spoiling myself with lunch, a decadent dessert and farewell banter with the staff. That evening I went to industry drinks in town which seemed fitting, surrounded by peers and agency staff. It was a room full of screenwriting and filmmaking talent. It was good to discuss projects, catch up with people, and generally schmooze. Word of my impending return to the corporate world was common knowledge (thanks to social media) so congratulations and commiserations were the order of the day. I enjoyed it a lot and served as a nice transition point from one phase to the next…

Another Form of Rewriting - The Edit

It’s an interesting process being involved in the making of a film. As a screenwriter you’re usually the first person on board – the one with an idea that eventually becomes a screenplay. All that work, the hours upon hours of writing and rewriting. If you’re lucky enough a whole bunch of people will turn your script into moving images. Your involvement then is largely reduced to standing around on set (if you’re invited) and staying out of the way.

Then there’s this mysterious thing called post-production where the film takes shape in darkened editing suites somewhere. Why mysterious? I suspect screenwriters are contractually forbidden to set foot in such places but this is where the final “rewrite” occurs totally out of your hands. So you wait to see what it is that your words have wrought. And wait… and wait.

It’s not unusual then that this has been the case with the two short films I have written for Filmbites. A flurry of activity in the early-to-mid stages of the process (which started back in May 2011) – improvisations, drafts, workshopping, rewrites, eventually auditions, read throughs, rehearsals then more rewrites; until the shoots this year where I was an interested bystander; to the inevitable waiting as the film is assembled.

The first of the two, Coffee To Go, was shot back in February. I visited the set on both shooting days for a few hours and had some very minor input. Afterwards, when I asked how the editing was going, I was told it looked great! To which my standard reply was, “Yes, but does the story work?” You see, as a writer I’d rather have an average looking film with a story that works rather than a fantastic looking film where the story doesn’t play. So I was a little nervous.

The months went by. No word other than it looks really good. Hmmmm, okay. I decide not to worry about it as I have no idea what the location of the secret, underground editing bunker is nor have the military skills to neutralise all the anti-screenwriter security measures.

Then the director who knows how much I loathe, detest, hate, despise (I don’t want to undersell this point) Voiceovers where the words tell us exactly what we can see onscreen (yes, I’m looking at you Underbelly franchise), decides to play a little prank on me. Posts on my facebook timeline that he has a cut of the film but could I write a 30 second voiceover to tell us what the main character is feeling or some such nonsense. Let’s just say he knew his target well as I bit and bit hard, my head exploding as I declined to do any such hackery. Well played, Sir!

Fast forward to a few days ago and I have now seen a couple of cuts courtesy of the producer. Firstly, what a marvellous device iPads are. Secondly, cafes that play loud music suck. Couldn’t hear a lick of dialogue but then, I didn’t need to, I wrote it!

The thing is it does look good. The performances are good. The producer was happy with how the themes played out, particularly with the ending. All good stuff. But here’s where we get to editing as a form of rewriting. In the preferred cut scenes were out of sequence compared to the script. It took me a couple of views to get my head around this – mainly due to the fact that I had a bad head cold but also because it was a pretty tightly constructed script.

I was asked what I thought (for which I was grateful) and suddenly I’m into problem solving mode on something that looks like my script… but isn’t quite. It was an odd sensation but I made my suggestions including dropping lines (ye gads!) and adding a small scene I knew had been shot but wasn’t in the script. I’m deliberately not going into specifics other than to say it was like doing a polish but off the cut rather than tweaking the script. Usual things though – establishment of the main character, whose story is it and making sure the narrative is thematically consistent. The adjustment of scene order had, for me, muddled some of these things a little.

Whether my suggested changes are incorporated is not up to me but notes were taken so I’m hopeful. At least I was asked which may be unusual for the screenwriter to be involved at this late stage. Ultimately it’s about making the best possible film. I discussed with the producer what the strategy would be once the film is completed and was heartened to hear of a possible crowdfunding initiative to support festival submissions (for all three of the Professional Partnership Programme shorts) and the sort of festivals that would be targeted for this specific short.

Now we wait some more until the edit is finalised, all the other components like music, grading etc are done and the film is locked. Speed on the premiere screening!